Hsitory Final Exam Questions

Presidential vs Congressional reconstruction policies and motivations

Presidential Reconstruction (Andrew Johnson)

• To reenter the Union, states had to: swear allegiance to the Union and ratify the 13th amendment

• Was willing to pardon high-ranking Confederate officers

• Favored states’ rights on issues such as giving African Americans the right to vote

• Did not support the Freedman Bureau

• Took a conciliatory approach

• Restoration Plan 1865

• Southerners granted privileges

• Believed the wealthy tricked the South so governors were appointed to the South states to hold constitutional conventions

• Only whites who have sworn their loyalties could vote

Presidential Reconstruction (Abraham Lincoln)

• Accept Southerners back into the union (Dec. 1863)

• Lincoln announced a 10% plan (10% of voters announce loyalty to the union)

• States can form new Governments as long as slavery is banned

• Wanted southerners who supported the union to make change

Congressional Reconstruction (Radical Republican Plan)

• Supported the Freedman Bureau: Created ~ Schools, hospitals, Industrial Institutes, and teacher-training centers, and distributed food/clothing

• Supported the Civil Rights Act of 1866 - outlawed Black Code

• Passage of 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments required to reenter Union

• Divided the South into 5 military districts

• Supported the equal rights for African Americans

• Let freed slaves acquire land

• Free transportation to African Americans

• Helped Southerners who supported the Union - teachers from the North

• Helped freed slaves obtain fair wages in jobs

Important Terms/Dates

• Andrew Johnson: 1865-1869 (17th president) - impeached not convicted, Johnson's strong commitment to obstructing political and civil rights for blacks is principally responsible for the failure of Reconstruction to solve the race problem in the South and perhaps in America as well.

• Restoration Plan (May 1865): President Johnson's Reconstruction plan offered a general amnesty to southern white people who pledged a future loyalty to the U.S. government, except Confederate leaders who would later receive individual pardons.

• 13th Amendment: Ratified in 1865. Abolition of Slavery throughout the U.S. and all territories.

• Freedman Bureau: March 3, 1865

  The Freedman's Bureau provided food, housing, and medical aid to Freedmen. It also established schools and offered legal assistance to those in need.

• Civil Rights Act of 1866 (Outlawed Black Code)

• 14th Amendment: Ratified in 1868. Right of Citizens: defined who a citizen was either through naturalization or birth.

• 15 Amendment: Ratified in 1870. Black Suffrage: The right to vote cannot be denied regardless of previous conditions of servitude.

• Abraham Lincoln - 16th - Radical Republican

• 10 Percent Plan - He wanted the terms of re-admittance of the states to be lenient. The Government would pardon all Confederate who would swear allegiance to the Union. When 10% of these Confederates alleged, a new state could form, as well as a new state governement, and gain representation in Congress.

American Imperalism at the end of the 19th Century

Overthrow of Hawaiian Kingdom and Queen Liliuokani - 1893 - US annexed the Hawaiian islands - 1898

1898 - Spanish American War - cuba against spanish rule - yellow journalism - four months - US Victory - American gained possession of puerto rico, guam, and the philippines

Boxer Rebellion - 1899 (anti imperialist) - China lasted to 1901 - Boxer unhappy with foreign influence - China forced to pay reparations

Filipinos declared war against America - since they did not gain independence after the war - Emilio Aguinaldo (Filipino 1899 Battle of Manila) - American Victory (1902) - independence came later

1901 - Platt Amendment - US and Cuba - US would protect Cuba

Roosevelt Corollary 1904 - Warn Europe that American is protecting other countries that might require intervention - not favored by Latin American - Panama Canal 1904 - opening 10 years later

Progressive Era

1890-1920

Era of intense social and political reform aimed at making progress toward a better society

Reformers sought to harness the power of the federal government to eliminate unethical and unfair business practices, reduce corruption, and counteract the negative social effects of industrialization

During the Progressive Era, protections for workers and consumers were strengthened, and women finally achieved the right to vote.

Problems

• Robber barons - corporate bosses - pursued unethical and unfair business practices aimed at eliminating competition and increasing profits.

• Factory workers, many of them recent immigrants, were frequently subjected to brutal and perilous working and living conditions.

• Political corruption enriched politicians at the expense of the lower and working classes, who struggled to make ends meet.

Ideology and Politics

• Human nature could be improved through the enlightened application of regulations, incentives, and punishments

• the power of the federal government could be harnessed to improve the individual and transform society

Reformers

• Jane Addams, who founded Hull House in Chicago to help immigrants adapt to life in the United States

• Ida Tarbell, a “muckraker” who exposed the corrupt business practices of Standard Oil and became an early pioneer of investigative journalism

• Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, who both expanded the power of the federal government to impose regulations on private industry and implement protections for workers, consumers, and the natural environment.

Amendments

• 16th - Federal income tax

• 17th - prohibited sales of alcohol

• 19th - Women can vote

Legislation

• Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which created the Food and Drug Administration to guarantee the safety and purity of all food products and pharmaceuticals

• Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, which sought to curb business practices aimed at stifling competition

Dark Side

• The Wilson administration, for instance, despite its embrace of modernity and progress, pursued a racial agenda that culminated in the segregation of the federal government.

• The years of Wilson’s presidency (1913-1921) witnessed a revival of the Ku Klux Klan(Opens in a New Window) and a viciously racist backlash against the economic and political gains of African Americans in the post-Reconstruction period.

• Federal immigration policies in the Progressive Era, including the Immigration Act of 1917 and the National Quota Law of 1921, severely limited immigration based on nationality, and excluded virtually all Asian immigrants.

• Eugenics - considered “the science of better breeding” and aimed to improve the genetic quality of the human population through policies that would encourage the more “desirable” elements of society to have more children while preventing “undesirables” from reproducing. Eugenics was based on a racial and class hierarchy that placed white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants at the top.

• 1907 - Sterilization Law - forcibly sterilized to prevent them from having children. - Social Darwinism (White supremacist)

Cold War

Decolonization and the Cold War

• With decolonization in Asia and Africa, plus the already independent states in Latin America and elsewhere demanding sovereign

• U.S and Soviet Union were eager and competitive for the loose countries

• The US military intervened often with covert operations to protect American interests. They wanted to stop socialist or communist governments from reclaiming land in Latin America owned by American companies.

• It meant that right after these decolonized nations liberated themselves from European control, they had to face the intrusion of American and Soviet interests.

Cold War in Asia

• Mohandas Gandhi led a mostly peaceful independence movement against British control in South Asia.

• In an effort to end civil war, in 1947 British India was partitioned (divided) into Hindu-majority India, as well as East and West Pakistan, which were dominated by powerful Muslim majorities.

• Also in South Asia, Pakistan joined a trade alliance with the US and others in 1954 designed to contain the spread of communism. Meanwhile, India became a key player at the 1955 Bandung Conference in Indonesia, which encouraged new nations to avoid taking sides with the US or the USSR.

• A civil war between East and West Pakistan in the early 1970s also involved India, the US, and the USSR.

• The US supported West Pakistan, while India and the USSR supported East Pakistan.

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Fearing the loss of land and spread of communist ideas, powerful American businessmen convinced the US to work with opposition leaders in Guatemala to overthrow the socialist government.

• Guatemalan rebels overthrew the government in 1954

• That success emboldened US intervention in places like Costa Rica and Honduras, where it wanted to protect American-owned banana plantations.

• The USSR supported Fidel Castro's Communist government, which took power in 1959.

• US-backed rebels came to Cuban shores in what became a high-profile embarrassment for the US known as the "Bay of Pigs."

• The following year, under Castro, Cuba even briefly harbored Soviet nuclear missiles only 90 miles from Florida. Known as the "Cuban Missile Crisis" this was one of the tensest 13 days of the Cold War with both US and USSR leaders in a military standoff. Cooler heads prevailed, but many believe nuclear war was narrowly avoided.

• However, the state promotes education and health, with many residents of neighboring countries traveling to Cuba for medical care. It remains a communist country today.

Africa

• The anti-imperial and pan-African sentiment was fierce immediately following World War Two. European presence had accelerated ethnic conflicts and pillaged (robbed) Africa's vast natural resources.

• The Belgian Congo in central Africa witnessed some of the greatest Cold War competition. A charismatic young leader, Patrice Lumumba, led a movement against Belgian rule. A pan-Africanist with communist sympathies, Lumumba became independent Congo's first Prime Minister in 1960.

• Most European settlers fled, and out of the chaos of independence a strong military dictatorship emerged in 1965. This left a legacy of anti- communism, corruption, and authoritarian rule.

• Nationalists took control of British and French imperial interests like the Suez Canal, a vital waterway for trade. Egyptian leaders engaged in socialist projects without necessarily taking sides with either the US or the Soviet Union, but also accepted military aid from the Soviets.

America

Cold War:

1) the threat of nuclear war, 2) competition over the allegiance (loyalty) of newly independent nations, and 3) the military and economic support of each other's enemies around the world.

The United States showed its global military dominance when it dropped two atomic bombs on Japan to end the war.

The Cold War started in Europe. From 1945 to 1953, the USSR expanded its influence by creating the Eastern Bloc across states like Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary.

In 1953, Korea had been divided into two zones, with a communist government in the North and an American-leaning government in the South.

The Cold War finally ended in the 1990s. The USSR could no longer keep up with US military spending. Mikhael Gorbachev proposed reforms to stimulate communist economies.

In 1989, the most iconic symbol of the Iron Curtain, the Berlin Wall, which divided the German city, was torn down by Germans on both sides seeking to unify Germany'

1945 atomic bombings - avoid killing more Americans

Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement is an umbrella term for the many varieties of activism that sought to secure full political, social, and economic rights for African Americans in the period from 1946 to 1968.

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which was codified into law as the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment officially outlawed slavery and went into effect in 1865.

the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments established a legal foundation for the political equality of African Americans.

Jim Crow segregation meant that Southern blacks would continue to live in conditions of poverty and inequality, with white supremacists denying them their hard-won political rights and freedoms.

In 1896, the Supreme Court declared Jim Crow segregation legal in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision. The Court ruled that “separate but equal” accommodations African Americans were permitted under the Constitution.

The landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling held that separate facilities were inherently unequal and thereby declared segregation in public education to be unconstitutional.

Civil rights activists launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, after Rosa Parks refused to vacate her seat on the bus for a white person.

The March on Washington, which took place on August 28, 1963, was one of the largest civil rights rallies in US history, and one of the most famous examples of non-violent mass direct action.

Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panther Party were among the most vocal proponents of Black Power after the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965.

Women’s Rights Movements

First Wave

The women’s rights movement of the mid-1800s gained traction through abolitionist sentiment and religious fervor surrounding the Second Great Awakening.

The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, published at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, used constitutional language to underline the inconsistencies between national commitments to human equality and the treatment of women.

But it was work in antislavery efforts that served as a springboard for women to take action against gender inequality.

William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the famous abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator endorsed the Grimké sisters’ public lectures, but other abolitionists did not.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony lead the movement. The public considered Elizabeth Cady Stanton quite radical for suggesting that women should have the right to vote in the 1840s.

In 1848, about 300 male and female feminists, many of them veterans of the abolition campaign, gathered at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York for a conference on women’s rights that was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Declaration of Rights and Sentiments based on the Declaration of Independence. It declared, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Catherine Beecher, the daughter of Lyman Beecher and sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, pushed for women’s roles as educators. In her 1845 book, The Duty of American Women to Their Country, she argued that the United States had lost its moral compass due to democratic excess.

Second Wave

During the 1960s, influenced and inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, women of all ages began to fight to secure a stronger role in American society.

As members of groups like the National Organization for Women (NOW) asserted their rights and strove for equality for themselves and others, they upended many accepted norms and set groundbreaking social and legal changes in motion.

Title VII is the section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of gender.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, and religion, also prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in Title VII.

Many were older, married women who found the traditional roles of housewife and mother unfulfilling.

1963, writer and feminist Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, a nonfiction book in which she contested the post-World War II belief that it was women’s destiny to marry and bear children.

In 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW), formed and proceeded to set an agenda for the feminist movement. Framed by a statement of purpose written by Friedan, the agenda began by proclaiming NOW’s goal to make possible women’s participation in all aspects of American life and to gain for them all the rights enjoyed by men.

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), a proposed Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing equal rights for women. First introduced in Congress in 1923, the ERA was passed in 1972 but failed to receive the 38 state ratifications necessary to become part of the Constitution. It has yet to be adopted today.

Medical science also contributed a tool to assist women in their liberation. In 1960, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the birth control pill, freeing women from the restrictions of pregnancy and childbearing.