American Cultures

What is culture?

Culture encompasses the beliefs, values, customs, and behaviors shared by a group of people, shaping their identity and influencing their interactions.

What are American’ values?

Freedom, equality, individualism, exceptionalism, capitalism, independence, etc.

How big is the United States in square kilometers

10 million

How many people live in the United States

330 million

What is the highest mountain in the Appalachian Mountains?

Mt. Mitchell

What are the five great lakes?

Superior, Michigan, Ontario, Erie, and Huron

What state is Mt. Rushmore in?

South Dakota

Which presidents are carved into Mt. Rushmore?

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

Where does the Rocky Mountains span?

From Canada to New Mexico.

What is the highest peak in the Rocky Mountains?

Mount Elbert

Which state is Yellowstone National Park located in?

Primarily in Wyoming, with parts in Montana and Idaho.

What year was Yellowstone National Park founded?

1872

Where is Death Valley?

California and Nevada

Where is the Grand Canyon located?

Arizona

Where are the Sierra Nevada Mountains?

California and Nevada

What are the time zones in the US?

Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific

What are the four-main regions in the US?

Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, and West

What are the 5 inhabited territories of the US?

Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands.

How many total territories does the US have?

16

What can the inhabited territories in the US NOT do?

Cannot vote in presidential elections and no senators

When was the US Constitution first in operation?

1789

What is the first line in the “Preamble” of the Constitution?

We the People of the United States

How many articles are in the Constitution?

7

How many amendments in the US Constitution?

27

What is the Bill of Rights?

the first 10 amendments

What are the two founding documents?

the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution

What do Articles 1-3 do?

Establish the three branches of government

What do Articles 4-6 do?

States rights

Which amendments are the reconstruction Amendments?

13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 22

What is the legislative branch?

Congress

How many members in the House of Representatives?

435 + 6 non-voting members

How long is a term in the HoR?

2 years

Which part of Congress decided the number of members based on population?

House of Representatives

What are the 3 main roles in the HoR?

1. House speaker

2. Majority leader

3. Minority leader

How many members are in the Senate?

100

How many members are in the Senate per state?

2

How long is a Senate term?

6 years

Who is the president of the Senate?

the Vice President

What are the other main roles in the Senate?

• President pro tempore

• Majority leader

• Minority leader

What courts does the Judicial Branch encompass?

Supreme Court (SCOTUS), Court of Appeals and District Courts

List some facts about the Supreme Court

• 9 justices (1 chief — 8 associates)

• Appointed by president

• confirmed by the Senate

• Appointed for life

Who comprises the executive branch?

• President (POTUS)

• Vice President

• Secretary of…

  • State

  • Defense

  • Treasury

• Attorney General

What role does the presidential primaries and caucuses have?

Political parties choose their candidates

What is the General Election?

People choose the president

How many electoral college votes does a candidate need to be elected as president?

270

How many electoral college votes do the states, Washington D.C., and the territories get?

• states get the same number of electoral votes as members in Congress

• Washington, D.C. gets 3 votes

• territories get NO votes

Where do the parties elect their presidential candidates?

democratic and republican national convention

Explain the general trends of religion in the US?

• decline in Christianity

• more Americans are atheist

• women are more religious than men

• republicans are more Christian

• the South and Midwest are the most Christian

How and when did the first people arrive in the Americas?

• 13,000 years ago

• came from Asia via the Bering Strait

How many people were in the Americas in 1500?

between 7-8 million

Who were the first settlers in the New World?

the Spanish

What was the first successful English colony in the Americas?

Jamestown in Virginia

What year was Jamestown founded?

1607

When was Plymouth colony founded, and what is it famous for?

• 1620

• Thanksgiving (4th Thursday of November)

Who is America named after?

Amerigo Vespucci

When was Boston founded and by whom?

1630 by the Puritans

How many Native Americans were left in the US in 1800?

600,000

What year was slavery brought to the US and where?

1619 in Jamestown

How many slaves were in the US by 1790?

700,000

In which years were the Seven Years’ war?

1756-1763

How did the Seven Years’ war end?

Treaty of Paris 1763

What was included in the Proclamation of 1763?

• No westward expansion

• the Appalachian Mt. — Mississippi is a Native American reserve

• French Catholics had religious freedom

• Taxes for war debt

Why did the colonists decide to host a revolution?

Taxation without representation

What was the Boston Massacre, and when did it occur?

A fight between colonists and British soldiers in 1770

What was the Boston Tea Party?

colonists got British ships and threw tea overboard

Who authored the Declaration of Independence?

Thomas Jefferson

What percentage of colonists did not want to become independent?

20

What ended the revolutionary war?

Treaty of Paris 1783

Who were the first three presidents of the US?

1. George Washington

2. John Adams

3. Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson’s political views?

• Against big government

• Democratic-Republican Party

Alexander Hamilton — who was he, and what were his political views?

• treasury; created bank system

• Strong federal government

• First national party: the Federalists

What are 3 major US holidays?

1. 4th of July

2. Thankgsgiving

3. Columbus/ Indigenous Peoples day

How many states and territories were there by 1850?

31 states and 4 territories

What happened to the Native Americans during the 1800s?

Pushed into reservations

What was the Indian Removal Act of 1830? What is the most famous relocation event that happened because of it?

• authorize the federal government to negotiate with Native American tribes in the Southern United States for their relocation to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their ancestral lands

• Trail of Tears

How many African-Americans were there by 1860 and what percentage of them were slaves?

• 4.4 million

• 90% were slaves

Which states abolished slavery?

the northern states

What was the Underground Railroad, and who is the most famous person involved in it?

• a network of secret routes and safe houses which helped enslaved African Americans escape from the South to free states in the North and Canada

• Harriet Tubman

Who was Harriet Tubman? What was her face going to be put on, but still hasn’t?

1. a former slave who escaped and helped save 70 families via the underground railroad; also a spy for the North

2. the 20 dollar bill

What supreme court case happened in 1857, and what was the outcome?

Dred Scott vs. Sandford: slave sued owner, but the owner won because slaves are not US citizens, therefore they cannot sue

Who became president in 1857 and what was his view on slavery?

James Buchanan and was pro slavery

Who won the 1860 presidential election, and how did he win?

1. Abraham Lincoln

2. Collapse of the Whig party because of two nominees

What did the Southern States do in 1861?

the southern states succeed from the US and form the Confederate United States of America

When did the Civil War start and what was the inciting incident?

April of 1861 because of an attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina

Which side had a better advantage and why?

the North because they had more money and people

What speech was given in January 1863, by whom and why was it significant?

Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared slaves free

What happened in November 1863, and what was the starting line?

Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address “four score and seven years ago”

What happened in April 1865?

the confederacy surrendered and president Lincoln was assassinated.

What years were the Reconstruction Era?

1865-1877; after the civil war/late 1800s

What laws were ratified in the South to continue racial segregation?

Jim Crow laws; separate but equal

When did Industrialization happen in the US?

1866-1900; second half of the 19th century

What was built in 1869?

the first transcontinental railway

What industries expanded during Industrialization?

steel, steam, electricity and oil

What was a negative aspect of industrialization?

bad working conditions

What was the era called which happened between 1890-1920?

Progressive era

What major things did President Theodore Roosevelt do?

1. created the food and drug act

2. gave miners more wages and fewer hours

3. created national parks

4. worked to break up trusts/monopolies; “trustbuster”

What stance did the US first have during WW1 and what year did it join the war?

it was neutral but joined in 1917

What act reinvolved the North in the issue of slavery? What did the act do?

the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which allowed mercenaries to bring runaway slaves back to the South from the North

Who was Frederick Douglass?

a former slave who became a great writer

Who was Susan B. Anthony?

one of the most famous figures of the women’s suffrage movement