APUSH Final MCQ

The Atienza MCQ

Which of the following pieces of legislation was an example of the United States engaging in isolationism?

Neutrality Acts 1935/1937

Who was given authorization to give aid to certain countries under the Lend Lease Act?

President

In order to meet the massive demand for agricultural goods, the United States partnered with Mexico to contract 4.5 million migrant workers to fill in this demand. What was the name of this program?

The Bracero Program

Who are Issei and Nisei?

First and second generation Japanese-Americans

Who was the lead scientist on the Manhattan Project?

Robert Oppenheimer

What was the battle that proved to be the turning point for the Allies on the western front of the European theater?

D-Day

Which of the following was a violation of a group of citizen’s civil rights?

The internment of Japanese-Americans.

Why was their distrust amongst the Allies?

Roosevelt and Churchill were worried that Stalin would not relinquish his control of the countries that Russia liberated and Stalin was distrustful of Roosevelt and Churchill would undermine Soviet and communist influence across Europe.

What best describes the concept of total war?

A country diverts entire political organization and economic resources towards war.

How did the goals of the Marshall Plan and the end of World War II differ from the goals of the Treaty of Versaille and World War I?

The Treaty of Versaille sought punitive action against the losers of the war; whereas the Marshall Plan sought to rebuild the war torn nations of Europe. 

Which president authorized the use of nuclear weapons against Japan?

Harry S. Truman

For how long did America’s military occupation of Japan last?

There was a military occupation from 1945-1952 where one million troops occupied and helped rebuild Japan. Though there was resentment from this occupation, the United States would eventually become Japan's biggest ally.

Which president oversaw the Berlin Airlift, the Marshall Plan, the formation of NATO, and the defeat of communist insurrections in Greece and Turkey?

Harry Truman

What was the name of the speech in which president Woodrow Wilson outlined what America’s role should be in post-World War I and the role that the League of Nations would have for international affairs?

Fourteen Points Speech

During the 1920s, what was the name of the practice of people purchasing stocks by only putting 10-15% down on a purchase and financing the rest through a brokerage firm?

Buying on margin

In order to protect domestic sale of US manufactured goods during the early on-set of the Great Depression, what drastic step did president Hoover take?

Hoover promoted tariffs that were meant to protect manufacturing but instead started an international trade war.

What was not one of the characteristics of the Great Depression?

Increased international trade

What was the major criticism of Herbert Hoover during the early onset of the Great Depression?

He was largely blamed for claiming that there was no stock market bubble and that speculation on the stock market was a safe venture.

In the immediate years after the Great Depression, banks were plagued with chronic closures; made worse by the public lacking faith in banks from which a panic would take place and people would withdraw their deposits en masse. What was the name of this phenomenon?

Bank runs

What was the name of shanty towns that became commonplace amongst the major cities of the United States during the Great Depression?

Hoovervilles

Who won the presidential election of 1933?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Which part of the New Deal focused on providing temporary jobs for the unemployed through federal work programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps?

Relief

Which part of the New Deal focused on stimulating the economy; specifically in agriculture and manufacturing?

Recovery

During the Roosevelt administration, what happened to the laissez faire economic policies of decades past?

Laissez faire economics was largely dismantled through laws and regulations that regulated the financial sector of the economy.

The FDIC was created in 1934 to ensure trust in the banking system and still exists today. What is the role of the FDIC?

The FDIC stands for federal deposits insurance corporation that ensures people’s deposits in banks up to a certain amount.

Which act made banks separate their commercial activities from their investment activities?

Glass-Steagall

What part of the New Deal was focused on creating rules and regulations for the financial sector and for engaging in the social welfare of citizens of the United States; both relatively new roles for the federal government?

Reform

Which president oversaw the end of the Korean War, the open testing of nuclear weapons via Operation Teapot, and was concerned with the Domino Theory; which purported that if not stopped, communism would spread in Southeast Asia and Latin America?

Dwight Eisenhower

Which president delivered the “Ich Bin Berliner” speech and led the country through the Cuban Missile Crisis?

John F Kennedy

Which president sought to enact the “Great Society” and authorized a major escalation of troops in Vietnam?

Lyndon B Johnson

Which president led the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the creation of Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and ended America’s involvement in the Vietnam War?

Richard Nixon

The Korean War saw the incursion of what major communist nation directly into the conflict?

China

Which president pursued a lowering of hostilities known as detente and was the first president to visit communist China?

Richard Nixon

Who pardoned Richard Nixon?

Gerald Ford

Which president established the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) which was part of the “War on Drugs”?

Richard Nixon

What did the Kerner Commission research and investigate?

The race riots in midwest cities during the late 1960s.

Which president withdrew from his party’s presidential nomination primarily over his unpopular handling of the Vietnam War?

Lyndon B Johnson

What was the term used to describe the widening differences between how president Lyndon B Johnson’s narrative of the war differed from what reporters such as Walter Cronkite were reporting?

Credibility gap

What is stagflation?

High inflation coupled with high unemployment.

Which organization placed an oil embargo on the United States during the early 1970’s due to the country’s support of Israel?

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

Prior to being president, what kind of farmer was Jimmy Carter?

Peanut farmer

Which event served as a catalyst for the early Civil Rights Movement?

The lynching of Emmit Till and the subsequent trial.

What was a recurring theme throughout the desegregation of Southern schools during the 1950s and 1960s?

The Southern local and state government actively resisted desegregation which would result in whoever was president federal troops/agents to enforce integration.

According to Martin Luther King Jr., what was the “most segregated city” in America?

Birmingham, Alabama

Leading up to 2000, dot.com companies were the hottest investment in the stock market as more people began using personal computers. What happened in April 2000 to the dot.com market?

After nearly a decade of growth, largely driven by speculation, the dot.com bubble burst and several technology companies went out of business.

Which SCOTUS case ruled that miscegination laws (laws that outlawed interracial marriages) were unconstitutional?

Loving V. Virginia

While under investigation for improper land dealing at the Whitewater River in Arkansas, which president’s sexual history and string of sexual allegations led to an impeachment case?

Bill Clinton

Which one of the following was NOT a contributing factor to the economic boom under the Clinton administration?

The media’s fascination with Clinton’s extramarital affairs; which vastly increased viewership to cable news networks

Which state’s voter recount was at the center of the controversial 2000 presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush?

Florida

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs would go on to found Apple. Prior to this, they were part of a group of computer hobbyists who wished to “liberate” the computer and put its power into everyone’s hands. What was the name of this group?

The Homebrew Club

In summer of 1980 IBM, which was known for manufacturing computers for office work, began to develop a new product to go head-to-head with Apple. Its product went on sale in August, 1981 and it was a huge success. What was this product?

The personal computer

Developments from the military and the RAND Corporation in the 1970s, scientists working on CERN in the 1990s, and the advent of the personal computer contributed to the development of what information technology?

internet

The majority of the terrorists from the attack on September 11, 2001 were from which country?

Saudi Arabia

Which of the following was NOT a tenet of Reaganomics?

Increase spending on entitlement programs

What were the major causes of the Financial Crisis of 2008 and the Great Recession?

Collapse of the housing market because of predatory lending via subprime mortgages and the selling of those mortgages as toxic assets.

Why was the SCOTUS case, Obergefell v. Hodges, significant?

The court ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment.

Republicans wanted to make it easier for banks to give out mortgages. Democrats wanted more people to achieve a big part of the American dream: home ownership. Under this environment, banks were allowed to issue mortgages without down payments, or documentation of income or ability to make loan payments. These mortgages were then sold between financial institutions for profit. What was the name of this market?

Subprime mortgage market

What happened to the housing market between 2001 and 2006?

Housing prices kept rising, but interest rates stayed low, and banks made huge profits.

The Democratic primary of 2008 became a race between which two politicians?

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama

Under the Obama administration, the Democrat controlled Congress passed sweeping changes that required every American to have health insurance, prohibited insurance companies from excluding anyone including those with preexisting conditions, and provided government subsidies for those who had trouble buying insurance. What was the common name for this law?

Obamacare

What was the name of the movement that was a reaction to the increased role of the federal government under the Obama administration?

The Tea Party

Under the de-regulations of the Clinton and Bush administrations, investment banks such as Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs were free to speculate on the stock market and other investments but were not federally insured. The divide between investment banking and commercial banking, which had been separated from 1933 to 1999, was taken away. What was the name of the act that held that separation?

Glass-Steagall Act

In the immediate wake of the financial crisis from 2008 to 2011, the federal government bailed out the financial sector and the automotive industry. What criticism did many Americans have of this policy?

They wondered why the very institutions that were behind the financial crisis were being bailed out rather than the average American.

Who was the frontrunner throughout the 2012 Republican presidential primary?

Mitt Romney

What was the name of the movement that decried the growing wealth gap between the rich and poor and had the rallying cry “We are the 99%”?

Occupy Wall Street

In the 2016 presidential election, what two states, that had not been won by a Republican since the 1980s, were won by Donald Trump?

Pennsylvania and Wisconsin

Which news outlet claimed that Hillary Clinton had a 99% chance of winning the presidency on election day during the 2016 presidential election?

New York Times

What was the name of the U.S.’s strategy in the Pacific theater that involved not attacking every single fortified island position and territory but rather picking and choosing strategic positions that could be used to cut off supply chains?

Island Hopping

What kind of government was installed in Japan after the war was over?

The United States installed a pro-democratic parliamentary democracy, removed proponents who were complicit with the military junta, and further relegated the emperor to a socio-cultural position.

What was the political effort that was engaged after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 that saw the U.S. engage in military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq?

War on Terror

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, at President Bush’s request, Congress passed an act that greatly expanded the Justice Department’s authority to search telephone, email, medical, and financial records without a court order and increase the monitoring of the border. It also gave the Treasury the right to monitor financial records and bank transactions. What was the name of this act?

Patriot Act

From what war did the United States acquire Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines?

Spanish-American War

What was NOT one of the major concerns of the presidential election of 2012?

Critical Race Theory in public schools.

In the aftermath of the collapse of the housing market and the following financial crisis from 2006 to 2008, what happened to unemployment and housing?

Unemployment remained high and home foreclosures increased as almost all of the “bailout” money from the government was issued to financial institutions.

What event brought the United States into World War II?

Attack on Pearl Harbor