usa history final exam

  1. Ideologies of the US and USSR; The us was democratic and capitalist and wanted other countries to be democratic and make sure communism didn't spread

The USSR was communist and believed that countries should be communist and that they should spread their influence

  1. Berlin Blockade and Airlift

The Berlin blockade occurred when the Soviet Union blocked all land  and water transportation to western Berlin to starve the allies out of Berlin and hopefully take over Germany and then Europe

Airlift; The Berlin Airlift was the Allied nations sending aircraft almost every day to Berlin because the USSR could not shoot down the planes or control airspace allowing the Allies to give needed supplies to people in western Berlin for almost a whole year through-plane

  1. Marshall Plan 

The Marshall Plan was a plan to provide economic aid to Europe to help it reindustrialize and rebuild.

  1. Containment

Containment was created to contain communism and stop it from spreading to countries near an already communist country

  1. McCarthyism/Second Red Scare

    1. House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

HUAC was created to investigate rebel and disloyal activities by citizens, public employees, and organizations suspected of having communist ties. Citizens suspected of having communist ties were often tried in court

  1. Civil liberties violation

The lines of national security and civil liberties started to blur, causing US citizens to feel wary about expressing their beliefs, especially if they were a more socialist belief

  1. Blacklists

A list of people who were deemed untrustworthy or had views that might align with communist beliefs making it hard for them to get jobs and other things ex; people in Hollywood were blacklisted if they made films that criticized society in the USA or that didn't align with the perfect American family/ values.

  1. US International Policy

    1. UN

The United Nations was established in 1945 with representatives from 50 different nations. The Security Council was made up of France, Britain, the USSR, the USA, and China, all of which had veto power over decisions. The general assembly was comprised of smaller countries

  1. NATO

An alliance of 30 nations from Europe and North America whose goal is to safeguard their allies by political and military means. The most successful defense pact in history

  1. Germany

Germany was split up into 4 sectors after the war, the Western half was made up of Britain, France, and the US who would later combine to create the Federal Republic of Germany, and the eastern part was under soviet control and was called the German Democratic Republic, within the soviet controlled Germany the capital berlin was also split up into different sections with wst berlin being controlled by France, Britain, the US, and Eastern Berlin being controlled by the USSR

  1. Korea

Korea was divided up into 2 parts north and South north was communist and the South was capitalist though both were under dictatorships. Both wanted to unify the country but under their own rule instead of the others, North Korea invaded South Korea, and the US fearing a domino effect the USA got involved and sent troops over to support and help South Korea while China sent troops to North Korea. The Korean War was used as a proxy war in the Cold War

  1. Vietnam

The Vietnam war was started due to the Vietcong invading south Vietnam, because south vietnam was a none communist country, the usa sent troops over to help and monoter, but then the gulf of Tonkin incident happened, which made Congress give the president power to do what he saw fit to do in Vietnam causing a draft to happen which mostly affected people who were not in college, in Vietnam stuff like agent orange was used to destroy the forest but also had bad effects on the people. The Vietcong conducted the Tet Offensive wich really made the us military lose confidance in winning the war. Many anti-protests were headed by college students in the usa and the leaking of the Pentigon papers wic h revealed the true extent of the usa in vietnam made people lose support in the government and war. 

  1. President Reagan 

    1. Foreign; The Reagan Administration's focus was to reverse the spreading of communism in the Third World, regardless of whether the Soviet Union controlled the communist regimes. (not to sure abt this i have to look back at notes)

    2. Domestic ; Reaganomics, used trickle down theory, cut taxes for the rich in hopes they would invest more into the economy and that would trickle down, increased defense spending

    1. The End of the Cold War 

      1. Cause & Effect ; the berlin wall came down, free elections ousted communism, 1991 the societ union dissolved itself, cold war ended and iron curtain was lifted. This caused the usa to be foreign policy limbo, the slowing and stopping of nuclear arms testing, the usa became the worlds leading superpower (have to get more from notes)

  2. New World Order 

    1. The Gulf War; a war waged in coalition with 35 countries to get Iraqi influence and soldiers out of Kuwait after Saddam Hussien failed to leave Kuwait by the deadline he was given. It only took the coalition 100 hours on the ground to get Iraq to surrender.

    2. President Bush Senior, who focused more on foreign policy than domestic affairs, was influential to China and Eastern Europe since he opened relations with China. Under him, unemployment rose, and millions of Americans lost their jobs due to the Cold War ending. Taxes increased even though he promised there would be no new taxes (need to add more?).

    3. President Clinton; Clinton focused more on domestic rather than foreign policy, went through an affair scandal with Monica Lewinsky that got or almost got him impeached, tried to make it so gay people could join the millitary but had to settle with dont ask dont tell. NAFTA(north ameican fair trade association)

    4. President Bush Junior; passed the No Child Left Behind Bill completely changing the school system and making public school funding dependent on test scores, controversy over the election due to the recount in florida being stopped, supported oil drilling, after nine 11 focused on foreign policy, put in the bush doctrine,

      1. 9/11; terrorist affiliated with al Gaeda hijacked 4 planes, 2 hitting the world trade centers, 1 hitting the Pentagon, and one that was supposed to hit the white house but crashed due to passengers stopping the hijackers

      2. War on Terror;12 year war in Afghanistan against terrorism, mostly us soilders were fighting there, started after the attacks in 9/11




  1. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s 

    1. Brown V The Board of Education; ended segregation in public schools and deemed separation by race in school was unconstitutional

    2. Emmett Till; emmet till was a 14 old african american boy who was lynched and mutilated by two white men after he supposedly whistled at a white store owner's wife. At his funeral, his mother had an open casket funeral to show the world what had happened to her son, this sparked outrage and pushed many people to join and support the civil rights movement. The two men who murdered till were put on trial but were acquitted by the crime by an all-white jury, they later admitted to killing till in a newspaper.

    3. Bus Boycotts: bus boycotts took place in Montgomery, Alabama after Rosa Parks was imprisoned for not giving up her seat to a white man. The boycotts lasted for more than a year and led to the US Supreme Court rulling that segregation on public buses was illegal 

    4. Little Rock Nine; a group of 9 African American students who were chosen to integrate into Little Rock High School, a white high school. The day they went to integrate, they were stopped by state police and were harassed, yelled at, and spit on by a white mob who was against the integration.

  2. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s 

    1. Lunch Sit-ins; college students sat in white only lunch counters and asked for service and were denied, this lead to a 6 months long nonviolent protest through sit ins, picket signs outside stores, people boycotting, these protests drew national attention and caused stores that had segregated areas to lose customers, these protests help lead to the desegregation of lunch counters in 1960

    2. Freedom Ride; Freedom Rides were lead by black and white civil rights activities, they were testing the case that said interstate busses could not be segregated and their goal was to go from north to South and end up in New Orleans, as they get more south the buses start being attack for instance in Alabama a bus is set on fire, riders are beaten, as they continue to face violence fedral marshals arrive, they never reached their destination of new orleans.they did however bring public attention and outrage to the violence and put pressure on public officials

    3. Birmingham boycott; children from schools in birmingham participated in school walkouts the purpose was to desegregate pub lic facilities in birmingham, children were marching peacefully before cops and fireman started attacking and beating the children, put the children in jail, the nation became outraged for the way children were treated, led to the desegrigation of lunch counters, restrooms, drinking fountains and department stores

  3. Times are a Changing 

    1. Women’s movement; diverse social movement, largely based in the United States, that in the 1960s and '70s sought equal rights and opportunities and greater personal freedom for women. It coincided with and is recognized as part of the “second wave” of feminism.

    2. LGBTQ Movement; after the Stonewall in riot, more people brought there attention to the lgbtq movement, many people started protesting for gay rigths. 75,000 people marched on Washington for gay rights,

    3. Conservative movement; starts with gold water in the 60s and reagan is the final successful conservative, wanted the fed gove to be smaller, wanted policies closer to christian beliefs

  4. President Nixon 

    1. Foreign;Vietnamization → Invasion of Cambodia → Student protests (ex. Kent State) War Powers Act/Repeal of Gulf of Tonkin → US withdrawal → Fall of Saigon Detente: relaxing of tension → the “uncompromising anti-communist” visited Moscow & Beijing; signed ABM Treaty & SALT

    2. Domestic; new federalism, he shifted federal power to the states

    3. Watergate: people from nixons CREEP reelection broke into the watergate hotel to steel top secret document5s and wire tap phones, they were caught by a security guard, nixon originally dediend involvement bt

  5. 1970s Culture Time Capsule 



  1. Skills

    1. HAPPY document analysis

    2. Historical thinking

    3. Source credibility evaluation (the reliability of sources)

    4. Thesis statements

    5. How evidence supports claims (i.e. “this evidence best supports which claim…”



REVIEW

  1. Reconstruction

    1. What effects did it have in the South?

      1. Carpetbaggers: names given to northern republicans who moved south during reconstruction and were in support of reconstruction

      2. KKK; hate group created by former confederate soilders who killed and intimidated black people in the south, threatedn them into not voting, destroyed black owened  buiksnesses and towns, lynched african americans, were agaisnt reconstrution, still around today

      3. Increases in Black rights, voting, etc.; 13th amendment ends slavery, 14th amendments makes anyone who is born in the usa a citizen and intiled to rigths as a citizen, the 15th gives black men the right to vote. Black people start to be elected to offices and congress

  2. Post-reconstruction/ “New” South (1877-early 1900s)

    1. Black codes; strict laws and rules created to keep african americans in the south from being able to enter certain areas, vote, work, infringed on there constitutional rigths ect

    2. Sharecropping; a form of debt slavery, many formally enslaved people made to stay on there former owners' land, having to pay for materials and rent via crops, often got into debt and were forced to work of the debt.

  3. Industrialization and Labor v. Capital (Late 1800s)

    1. Rise of Industry

      1. “Robber Barons” or “Captains of Industry”; a name given to wealthy business owners. Robber barrons give to successful industrialists whose business practices were often considered ruthless or unethical, captains of the industry someone who owns or manages a large, successful business or company.

    2. Reaction of labor

      1. Unions, organization: unions created by workers who felt they were being taken advantage of and working conditions and pay were not good for the work they were doing

      2. Strikes; strikes happened when workers' concerns and needs were not being met and were done to impact the business so that maybe the owners of the factories and companies would implement changes that would help and meet what the workers wanted and needed



  1. Suffrage

    1. Voices of the Suffrage Movement Activity; picketing, protest, pamphlets, if arrested they would not eat.

    2. Goals; to get the vote and be seen as equals to men

  2. World War I

    1. Causes of the war; the assasination of arch duke ferdinand done by an assain of a extremist serbian group, this led to a chain of events leading to ww1

    2. The outcome of the War; Germany lost to the allied powers

      1. League of Nations; an international organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, created after the First World War to provide a forum for resolving international disputes.

      2. Successes and failures; success, an organized group of different nations, failures, usa was not in it, influence was more symbolic, no repercussions for members if they broke the rules ex Japan just left the league to do the stuff they were doing to china and werent reprimanded

  3. The New Deal 

    1. 3 R 

      1. Recovery;

CCC  - most popular agency - employes 3 million men in reforestation , fire fighting, swamp drainage, etc. 

FERA - led by Harry L. Hopkins created CWA for temporary employment

TVA - built dams to create hydroelectric power - seen as “radical” → publicly owned utility companies

WPA - provided jobs building infrastructure & for artists



  1. Relief; AAA - paid farmers to grow less to drive prices up 

PWA - Headed by Harold L. Ickes, it aimed at long-range recovery and spent $4 billion on thousands of projects that included public buildings & highways

  1. Reform;

Social Security Act - Old Age pensions & disability insurance

National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) - allowed unions to strike and use collective bargaining

CIO formed for unskilled workers - 4 million members by 1940



  1. WWII 

    1. Cause of the War; germany invaded poland and great britian and france declared war on germanybecause poland was a nutral country

      1. Atomic Bomb: dropped on japan 2 times ended the 2nd worl war, was alos used to intimidate other countries like russia and the atomic bomb was origanlly created because germany was creating an atomic bomb. A lot of critasim after the bomb was used espichally by secientist who built the bomb since they made it for defesne rather than offense.