US History Final Exam Study Guide Semester 2

100 questions - true/false and multiple choice (the questions that have stars next to them are the ones we didn't have in the notes, so I just searched up the answers online)

What is nativism?

overt favoritism toward native-born Americans

What is the 13th amendment?

abolished slavery

What is the 14th amendment?

made all persons born in the U.S. a citizen, and provided equal protection of the law with life, liberty, and property

What is the 15th amendment?

states no one can be kept from voting due to race, color, or previous condition of servitude (slavery)

What is the 18th amendment?

prohibited manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol

What is the 19th amendment?

granted women the right to vote

What is the 21st amendment?

brought an end to prohibition/18th amendment

In order to override a presidential veto, how much of a vote must Congress have?

2/3 vote

What is popular sovereignty?

belief that ultimate power resides in the people

During Reconstruction, what was done to try and prevent African Americans (freed slaves) from voting?

Southern states ignoring the 14th and 15th amendment/literary tests (Grandfather Clause)

What happened to the price of cotton following the Civil War and Reconstruction?

price dropped drastically due to other countries beginning to grow cotton so they were no longer dependant on the South for cotton

What Scottish immigrant made a fortune off the steel industry here in America?

Andrew Carnegie

What was the Sherman Antitrust Act?

made it illegal to form a trust that interfered with free trade and prohibited monopolies that hindered competition

What was the main goal of the Chinese Exclusion Act?

banned entry of Chinese except students, teachers, merchants, tourists, and government officials

What was the main goal of the Americanization Movement?

government program to assimilate people of wide-ranging cultures into American culture

What was the name of the main immigration processing station in San Francisco?

Angel Island

Who was the only president to serve 2 nonconsecutive terms as president?

Grover Cleveland

What was the primary goal of the NAACP?

full equality among the races

Who was one of the main founders of the NAACP that believed blacks should immediately join the mainstream society?

W. E. De Bois

Who expressed the belief that racism would end as blacks acquired practical work skills and provided their economic value to society?

Booker T. Washington

What was the Grandfather Clause used for in the South?

if somebody failed literacy test or couldn’t pay poll tax, if they, father or grandfather had voted prior to Jan. 1, 1867, they could vote

What were Jim Crow laws?

laws in southern states that promoted segregation

Why were Southern blacks being lynched in the early 1900s?

Because they were not following “racial etiquette” (that was used to humiliate and belittle them)

What did the Supreme Court decide in Plessy v. Fergusson?

Supreme Court ruled separation of races was legal and did not violate 14th amendment

What was the name of the watchdog group that is given the power to stop unfair business practices?

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

What did “Remember the Maine!” become a rallying cry for?

Ship USS Maine that was sunk in Cuba’s Havana harbor that led to Americans demanding war on Spain

What is progressivism?

reform efforts to restore economic opportunities and correct injustices in American life (4 goals: Social welfare, moral improvement, economic reform, fostering efficiency)

What was the name of the muckraking journalist that exposed the terrible conditions of the meatpacking industry in America?

Upton Sinclair

Whose assassination leads to Theodore Roosevelt becoming president?

William McKinley

What did prohibitionists want to accomplish?

Banning the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol

What countries and territories came under U.S. control after the Spanish-American War?

• Islands of Guam in Pacific

• Puerto Rico in West Indies 

• Cuba

• Philippines

What was the Open Door Policy and how did it benefit the U.S. ?

addressed to imperialist nations proposing the U.S. should have trading rights in China (this would prevent any country from getting a monopoly in China)

What are some of the causes of WWI?

• Nationalism - devotion to interest and culture of nation

• Imperialism and industrialization - building empires in foreign countries and needing raw materials as a result of industrialization

• Militarism - development of armed forces to use as a tool of diplomacy

• Pre-war alliances - alliances between countries that ended up bringing more countries into the war that weren’t directly involved 

• Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Why was daylight-savings time instituted for?

As a way to conserve fuel

In WWI, what resulted from the Selective Service Act?

led to more men registering and joining the military including 400,000 African Americans in non-combat, segregated forces

What are reparations?

war damages, in amount to $33 billion to be paid to Allies

Why did the U.S. Senate oppose U.S. membership in the League of Nations?

afraid League of Nations would drag U.S. into European conflict

What policy had the U.S. been following that had kept us out of WWI for 3 years?

isolationism/neutrality

What were the Espionage and Sedition Acts? What was their effect on free speech during WWI?

• laws passed by Congress that stated that anyone who interfered with war or said anything disloyal about the government or war effort, to be fined or imprisoned 

• used to prevent citizens from talking bad about the war and the government’s decision to join the war (after wanting to stay out of it previously)

What is a U-boat?

German submarines

Who was president of the United States throughout WWI?

Woodrow Wilson

What treaty ended WWI?

Treaty of Versailles

What was the Great Migration? Who was involved?

large-scale movement of Southern blacks to northern cities

What was the Teapot Dome Scandal?

secretary of the interior took bribes and secretly loaned government owned land rich in oil to oil companies in Teapot, Dome Wyoming (found guilty of bribery)

What is the difference between capitalism and communism?

Communism - economic/political system in which a single-party government is run by a dictator and government owns all factories, railroads, and businesses

Capitalism - economic system in which private businesses and individuals control the means of production (factories, machines, and land) and use them to earn profits

What did factory owners often accuse striking employees of being?

communists

What is an anarchist and what are their views?

people who opposed any form of government

What is a bigot?

person who is intolerant of any creed, race, religion, or political belief that differs from his own

What was an underground illegal establishment that sold alcohol during prohibition?

speakeasies

Which U.S. president died suddenly in 1923 during a presidency plagued with scandals?

Warren G. Harding

Why was it was so difficult to enforce the laws governing prohibition?

You couldn’t arrest people for drinking it, because only the manufacture, selling, and transportation were illegal

What did F. Scott Fitzgerald describe the 1920s as?

Jazz age

What was the economic situation in the U.S. from 1920-1929?

the U.S. economy expanded rapidly, and the nation's total wealth more than doubled

In what city did Al Capone run organized crime?

Chicago

What was the Harlem Renaissance?

literary and artistic movement celebrating African American culture

What was the “Red Scare”?

After call by Russian communists for worldwide communism, Americans move to stop its spread in U.S.

What were the causes of the Dust Bowl?

drought, overuse of the land, high winds

What does buying a stock on margin mean?

paying a small percentage of stock’s price and borrowing the rest from the bank

What was the unemployment rate in the U.S. during the Great Depression?

1 in 4

Where did the Great Depression spread?

worldwide

What group of people made up the Bonus Army that marched on Washington DC?

WWI veterans and families

What was the date of the stock market crash (Black Tuesday)?

October 29, 1929

Who was the Fascist leader of Italy during WWII?

Benito Mussolini

What country’s actions forced the U.S. to enter WWII?

Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor

What does blitzkrieg mean and what does it depend on to be successful?

Blitzkrieg means lightning war and depended on fast tanks, troops carried by trucks, and planes softening targets

Which nation signed a nonaggression pact with Germany before both countries invading and dividing up Poland?

Soviet Union

What was the Lend-Lease Act?

allowed U.S. to lend or lease war materials if that country’s defense was vital to U.S.

What is the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor?

December 7, 1941

How many Jews were killed during the Holocaust?

6 million

What were the Truman Doctrine and Eisenhower Doctrine?

Truman Doctrine: U.S. would provide economic and military aid to countries in need in order to keep out communism

Eisenhower Doctrine: U.S. would defend the Middle East against attack by any communist country

What is appeasement? How did the British and French use it leading up to WWII?

means giving up principles to satisfy an aggressor

it was used by Great Britain and France against Germany in an attempt to keep the peace and not result to war (Munich Agreement)

What 2 Japanese cities were atomic bombs dropped on during WWII?

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

What was Truman’s main purpose for dropping the atomic bombs on Japan?

It would save a lot of American lives

What was the GI Bill of Rights and how did it benefit veterans?

passed to help with easing the transition, provided education and training for veterans

How many Americans were estimated to be killed in an invasion of Japan?

1 million

What group is best known for investigating communism in the film industry?

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) - famous instance is Hollywood Ten

What did the U.S. develop after the Soviets created their first atomic bomb?

H-bomb (hydrogen bomb)

What did the Soviets blockade West Berlin in response to?

U.S., France, and Great Britain combining zones to make one country (hoped to take it over)

What results from the armistice in the Korean War?

both Koreas technically remain at war today

What U.S. Senator made a numerous accusations of communism in the government and military?

Joseph McCarthy

What was the policy of brinkmanship?

U.S. would go to the edge of all-out war to stop the spread of communism

What was the Marshall Plan?

$13 billion in aid given to Western Europe to help it rebuild (prevent countries from turning to Soviets for help)

What was the Berlin Airlift?

around the clock airdrops of food, medicine, and fuel dropped by Allies that lasts 327 days

What was the Warsaw Pact and which countries joined this alliance?

Military alliance between the Soviet Union and 7 eastern European countries

What was the U-2 incident?

involved U-2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers, being shot down over Soviet Union

What Civil Rights organization was MLK Jr. the founder and first president of?

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

What accomplishment did the Freedom riders bring to interstate travel?

Federal government banning segregation

What happens to the number of African Americans voting after the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

triples

What did the SNCC use in its protests to speed up the progress of the Civil Rights movement?

sit-ins

When was MLK Jr. assassinated?

April 4, 1968

What did the Civil Rights Act of 1968 ban?

discrimination in housing

Where did MLK Jr. give his “I have a Dream” speech?

In Washington DC, on the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial

Which presidential candidate in 1968 is assassinated?

Robert F. Kennedy

What was the Domino Theory?

one nation in SE Asia falls to communism, the rest will follow

**What event set off the first general student strike in U.S. history?

President Nixon's announcement on April 30, 1970, about the invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War

**On what college campus the National Guard fires on students killing several?

Kent State University

**What was the main purpose of the War Powers Act?

Restrict power of the president

**What is Agent Orange?

Chemical used by the US in the Vietnam War

**What country did the U.S. support after WWII in its efforts to keep control of Vietnam?

South Vietnam

**Which American president asked Congress for the Tonkin Gulf Resolution?

Lyndon B. Johnson