U.S History Final Exam review

What was the main significance of the Marshall Court under Chief Justice John Marshall?

A: It strengthened the federal government and established the power of judicial review.

What was the purpose and effect of the Louisiana Purchase?

A: To secure New Orleans and expand U.S. territory; it doubled the size of the U.S.

What were the three parts of Henry Clay’s American System?

A: Protective tariffs, a national bank, and internal improvements.

Q: What issue did the Missouri Compromise address and how?

A: It addressed the balance between free and slave states by admitting Missouri as slave, Maine as free, and banning slavery north of 36°30′.

Q: What was the Monroe Doctrine’s message to Europe?

A: No new European colonization or intervention in the Americas.

Q: How did Jacksonian Democracy change voting rights?

A: It expanded suffrage to all white men, not just property owners.

Q: What was the goal of the Indian Removal Act and what did it lead to?

A: To relocate Native tribes west of the Mississippi; it led to the Trail of Tears.

Q: What was the Second Great Awakening?

A: A religious revival that emphasized individual salvation and sparked social reform movements.

Q: What was the purpose of the Seneca Falls Convention (1848)?

A: To advocate for women’s rights, including suffrage; it issued the Declaration of Sentiments.

Q: What did Nat Turner’s Rebellion lead to in the South?

A: Harsher slave laws and increased fear among slaveholders.

Q: What is Transcendentalism and who were its key thinkers?

A: A philosophy emphasizing nature and individualism; Emerson and Thoreau.

Q: What was the idea of Manifest Destiny?

A: The belief that the U.S. was destined to expand across the continent.

Q: What triggered the California Gold Rush and what was its impact?

A: Discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill; led to rapid population growth and California statehood.

Q: What caused the Mexican-American War and what did the U.S. gain?

A: Border disputes after Texas annexation; U.S. gained the Mexican Cession (CA, NM, AZ, etc.).

Q: What were the key parts of the Compromise of 1850?

A: CA = free, stronger Fugitive Slave Law, UT/NM = popular sovereignty, ended slave trade in D.C.

Q: What did the Kansas-Nebraska Act do and what was its consequence?

A: Allowed popular sovereignty in KS/NE; led to "Bleeding Kansas" and rise of the Republican Party.

Q: What was the ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)?

A: Slaves are property, not citizens, and Congress can't ban slavery in territories.

Q: Why was the Election of 1860 significant?

A: Lincoln’s win led to the secession of Southern states and the start of the Civil War.

Q: What were the causes of the Civil War?

A: Slavery, states’ rights, sectionalism, and Lincoln’s election.

Q: What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?

A: Freed slaves in Confederate-held territories and shifted war aims toward abolition.

Q: What did the 13th Amendment accomplish?

God rid of slavery

Q: What rights did the 14th Amendment guarantee?

A: Citizenship and equal protection under the law.

Q: What did the 15th Amendment do?

A: Guaranteed voting rights regardless of race.

Q: What was the goal of Radical Reconstruction?

A: To protect the rights of freedmen and punish the former Confederacy.

Q: What ended Reconstruction?

A: The Compromise of 1877, which removed federal troops from the South.