United States History

United States History (for the US EOC Exam) 1) Federalists wanted a strong central government and were led by Alexander Hamilton; Anti-Federalists (aka Democratic Republicans) wanted strong state governments and were led by Thomas Jefferson 2) The Whiskey Rebellion demonstrated that the new Constitution gave the Fed. Government power to enforce* its laws 3) Jay’s Treaty with Britain enabled the US to avoid a war that it could not win, but angered the AntiFederalists 4) Pinckney’s Treaty with Spain gave the US right of deposit at New Orleans and opened Miss. Valley econ. development 5) Washington’s “Farewell Address” advised his country to avoid political parties and long-term foreign alliances 6) In the Kentucky/Virginia Resolutions Jefferson and Madison proposed states’ rights to nullify* federal laws 7) In the “Revolution of 1800” the Anti-Federalist Jefferson peacefully replaced the Federalist Adams as president 8) Jefferson almost did not purchase Louisiana from the French because he was not sure it was constitutional to do so 9) Jefferson passed the Embargo* Act to avoid war but ended up hurting the US economy and his own reputation 10) John Marshall was the Federalist Supreme Court chief justice whose decisions increased nat’l power and weakened the states 11) Marbury v. Madison established the principle of judicial review* and strengthened the federal government 12) The War of 1812 between the US and Britain was fought because of impressments, the Chesapeake Incident (freedom of the seas; neutrality rights), British aid to Indians in the Ohio Valley and the War Hawks’ desire to conquer Canada . 13) The Battle of New Orleans made Andrew Jackson a national hero and increased nationalism* even though it was fought after the War of 1812 had ended 14) Eli Whitney’s cotton gin mechanized the process of separating seeds from fibers and led to the western spread of slavery 15) Henry Clay’s “American System” strengthened the national economy with a higher tariff* to fund internal improvements 16) The Monroe Doctrine ordered European empires not to interfere with the democratic nations of Latin America* 17) The Missouri Compromise settled the slavery issue in the Louisiana Territory by establishing a boundary at 36-30 latitude 18) The Golden Age of American Literature (1815-1850) was when US authors (Cooper; Irving; Poe) wrote about the US (patriotism/nationalism) 19) The Hudson River School were nationalist US artists who painted scenes of the natural beauty of the American landscape 20) Transcendentalists (Thoreau; Emerson) believed in simplicity (individualism, nature, emotion and small government) 21) Worcester v. Georgia granted the Cherokee federal protection of their land but Jackson ignored the decision and forced the Indians on the “Trail of Tears” 22) Manifest Destiny was the belief that the US was entitled to all land as far west as the Pacific Ocean 23) “54-40 or Fight!” was the slogan of Polk and the expansionists (Manifest Destiny) who wanted the entire Oregon Territory 24) The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ended the Mexican War and gave the US the “Mexican Cession” (California; Southwest) . 25) Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott hosted the world’s first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, NY 26) Three Antebellum* sectional* issues (caused conflict between the North and South) were slavery, the tariff and the Trans. RR 27) The Compromise of 1850 allowed CA to join the Union as a “free state” but gave the South a stronger fugitive slave law 28) The Dred Scott v. Sandford decision declared the MO Compromise line (36-30) unconstitutional 29) Stephen Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act solved the slavery issue in the western territories with popular sovereignty* and led to the formation of the Republican Party* 30) William L. Garrison, Harriet B. Stowe and John Brown were famous abolitionists* prior to the Civil War (Lincoln was not) 31) The southern states seceded to form a confederacy* after Lincoln’s election (1860) because he was a Republican 32) The goal of Lincoln and the North at the beginning of the Civil War was to preserve the Union 33) The “Anaconda Plan”* was based on controlling the Mississippi R., capturing Richmond* and blockading southern ports 34) The Emancipation Proclamation transformed the Civil War into a moral struggle* over slavery but did not free any slaves 35) The key battles of the Civil war were Gettysburg (turning point), Vicksburg (Union control of the Mississippi) and Atlanta* 36) The Reconstruction Amendments were the 13th (abolition), 14th (civil rights) and 15th (suffrage*) 37) The Wade-Davis (Congressional) Reconstruction plan was much harsher on white southerners than Lincoln’s “10% Plan” 38) The Freedmen’s Bureau provided former slaves and poor whites with education and protection but no land or cash 39) Reconstruction ended with the Compromise of 1877 in which Republican Rutherford Hayes became president by promising to remove federal troops from the South (creating the “Solid South”*) . 40) The Dawes Severalty Act attempted to “Americanize” Plains Indians by forcing them to farm individual tracts of land 41) Homesteading* was made easier by Deere’s steel plow, Glidden’s barbed wire and McCormick’s mechanical reaper 42) Nativists wanted to restrict the number and influence of Catholic immigrants to the US 43) The Robber Barons (Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Morgan*) justified their wealth/power with Social Darwinism* 44) Vertical Integration results in a monopoly* by controlling all stages of the production of a commodity 45) The Pendleton Act introduced a civil service exam to weaken the negative effects of the “spoils system*” 46) The Sherman Antitrust* Act was intended to break up monopolies failed because Gilded Age courts supported big business 47) Progressives (Addams; LaFollette; TR) were inspired by the Social Gospel* to protect the poor from Social Darwinists 48) Settlement Houses (such as Jane Addams’s Hull House) were private, non-profit centers to provide urban immigrants with education and job training 49) The Populist Party represented poor western farmers who wanted inflation (silver) and gov’t regulation of the railroads 50) William Jennings Bryan’s Populist “Cross of Gold” speech urged the federal gov’t to adopt a bimetallic* monetary policy 51) Muckrakers were journalists who exposed the social injustices of the Gilded Age to inspire Progressive Era reforms 52) Booker T. Washington preached patience and economic cooperation with segregation; WEB Du Bois demanded immediate social, political and legal equality (14th Amendment) for African Americans 53) The Progressive Party was nicknamed the “Bull Moose Party” when it nominated TR for the presidency in 1912 54) The US annexation* of Hawaii led to complete control of the naval base at Pearl Harbor and increased trade in Asia 55) The Spanish-American War began when the Yellow Journalists* falsely accused the Spanish of blowing up the USS Maine 56) After the Spanish-American War, the US became an imperialist* power by conquering the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico and exerting political influence in Cuba (Platt Amendment) 57) The “Open-Door” Policy was US plan to establish free trade between imperialist powers in China . 58) At the beginning of WWI, the US attempted to remain neutral* but after the sinking of the Lusitania, the Zimmermann Telegram and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the US entered the war on the side of the Allies (Britain, France Russia*) 59) Wilson claimed the US was entering WWI “to make the world safe for democracy” 60) Wilson hoped to maintain peace in Europe through his “14 Points” which focused on selfdetermination (no imperialism) and collective security (League of Nations) 61) The Treaty of Versailles ended WWI but caused WWII because it punished Germany so harshly (war guilt; reparations*) 62) The US adopted an isolationist foreign policy during the 1920’s and did not join the League of Nations 63) During the 1920’s, American society was anti-communist (the “Red Scare”), anti-foreigner, anti-labor union and consumerist* 64) The Presidents of the 1920’s followed a laissez-faire* economic policy (minimal government economic regulation) 65) The authors of the “Lost Generation” (Fitzgerald; Hemmingway; Stein) rejected the materialistic values of the 1920s 66) The Great Depression began with the stock market crash of 1929 (“Black Tuesday”) and lasted through the 1930’s 67) FDR’s first action against the Depression was to declare a Bank Holiday to stabilize the nation’s banks 68) FDR’s bold and experimental New Deal focused on the “3 R’s”* and increased federal power (reduced state power) 69) Social Security, the SEC, the FDIC and the TVA are New Deal programs/agencies that still exist today 70) The FDR’s New Deal and “fireside chats” gave people hope but it did not end the Great Depression – WWII did 71) FDR attempted to control the judicial branch with his “court-packing” scheme but his plan failed because it threatened the American tradition of “checks and balances” . 72) The Great Depression caused some European countries to become totalitarian dictatorships* seeking military conquest 73) The US was officially neutral at the beginning of WWII but passed the Lend-Lease Act because Americans favored the Allies 74) The US joined the Allies (Britain, USSR) against the Axis (Japan, Germany and Italy) 75) The turning points of WWII were Midway (Pacific), El Alamein (N. Africa), Stalingrad (E. Europe) and D-Day (W. Europe) 76) Pearl Harbor, island-hopping*, kamikazes and atomic bombs* were unique to the Pacific Theater during WWII 77) The United Nations was formed to promote world peace and human rights following WWII and included the US membership 78) The Cold War was an ideological struggle between US capitalist democracy and Soviet communist* dictatorship 79) Senator Joseph McCarthy accused the government and military of harboring communists but had no evidence 80) The Taft-Hartley Act weakened the power of labor-unions because they were believed to promote communist ideals 81) The Marshall Plan was economic containment of communism through humanitarian aid to western Europe 82) The Truman Doctrine, NATO, SEATO and Eisenhower Doctrine were examples of military containment of communism 83) The Korean War was fought to prevent the spread of communism in Asia south of the 38th Parallel 84) The Baby Boom (population increase) began at the end of WWII (1945) and ended during the Vietnam War (1965) 85) The GI Bill provided housing education and job training for military veterans 86) Levittowns were neighborhoods of small, affordable, uniform houses 87) The Warren Court’s decisions* protected the rights of the accused but were considered by some to be too liberal 88) The Peace Corps was a Kennedy foreign policy program for the 3rd World* (“…ask what you can do for your country”) 89) The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world came to nuclear war (brinkmanship*) but MAD*/Balance of Terror ensured that nuclear war was avoided . 90) LBJ’s Great Society was for Civil Rights and a “war on poverty” but did not work because of spending on the Vietnam War 91) The Tet Offensive was a US victory but proved to most Americans that the US could not win the Vietnam War 92) Television hurt Nixon (Kennedy debates) but killed Lyndon B. Johnson (Vietnam – “the living room war”) 93) Nixon’s foreign policy focused on détente (improved US relations with the USSR) establishing relations with China 94) Nixon was forced to resign because the Watergate* Tapes proved that he was involved in the cover-up 95) Ford is the only unelected president in US history (25th Amendment) 96) Carter’s Camp David Accords were hoped to have achieved peace in the Middle East but failed to do so 97) Carter and Bush (Sr.) both failed to win reelection because of a bad economy . 98) Reagan was a very socially conservative president who was supported by the “Moral Majority*” (Christian conservatives) 99) Reagan cut taxes and government spending on social/welfare programs 100) Reagan increased military spending by borrowing which resulted in a huge deficit 101) Glasnost and Perestroika were Soviet democratic/capitalist reforms that proved Reagan had helped the US win the Cold War 102) Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman Supreme Court Justice; Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman VP candidate