DCUSH STUDY GUIDE

Unit 10 — Turn-of-the-Century America

Big Business & Industry

  • Laissez-faire = government stays out of business.

  • Robber Barons = wealthy industrialists accused of exploiting workers.

  • Monopoly = one company dominates an industry.

  • Trusts = companies working together to reduce competition.

  • Vertical Integration = company controls every step of production.

    • Example: Andrew Carnegie in steel.

  • Horizontal Integration = buying out competitors.

    • Example: John D. Rockefeller in oil.

Major Business Leaders

  • John D. Rockefeller → oil monopoly.

  • Andrew Carnegie → steel.

  • J. P. Morgan → banking/finance.

Labor Unions & Strikes

  • AFL = skilled workers union.

  • IWW = wanted all workers united.

  • Closed shop = must join union before getting hired.

  • Homestead Strike and Pullman Strike = violent labor conflicts.

Immigration & Urbanization

  • Immigrants came for jobs/opportunity.

  • Ellis Island = immigration station in New York.

  • Statue of Liberty welcomed immigrants.

  • Political machines traded jobs/help for votes.

  • Tammany Hall = famous NYC political machine.

  • Boss Tweed = corrupt leader.

  • Thomas Nast exposed corruption.

Reform & Society

  • Pendleton Act = civil service jobs based on merit, not connections.

  • Americanization Movement = taught immigrants English/American culture.

  • Chinese Exclusion Act = banned Chinese immigration.

  • Jacob Riis exposed poor living conditions.

Race & Society

  • Jim Crow Laws = legalized segregation.

  • Plessy v. Ferguson = “separate but equal.”

  • Social Darwinism = survival of the fittest applied to society.

  • Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” = rich people should help society.

Unit 11 — Progressive Era

Goals of Progressives

Wanted to fix:

  • corruption

  • unsafe products

  • poor working conditions

  • inequality

Important Presidents

  • Theodore Roosevelt

  • William Howard Taft

  • Woodrow Wilson

Reforms

  • Pure Food and Drug Act = safer food/medicine.

  • Sherman Antitrust Act = attacked monopolies.

  • Clayton Antitrust Act strengthened it.

  • Trustbusting = breaking up monopolies.

Major Events

  • Triangle Shirtwaist Fire = showed terrible factory conditions.

  • Coal Strike of 1902 = Roosevelt stepped in.

Reformers

  • Jane Addams created Hull House settlement house.

  • Muckrakers = journalists exposing problems.

  • The Jungle exposed meatpacking industry.

  • Ida B. Wells fought lynching.

  • NAACP fought discrimination.

  • W. E. B. Du Bois helped found NAACP.

Women’s Rights

  • Women’s Suffrage = right to vote.

  • Temperance = anti-alcohol movement.

Politics

  • Initiative = citizens propose laws.

  • Referendum = citizens vote on laws.

  • Recall = remove officials.

  • Bull Moose Party = Roosevelt’s 1912 party.

Unit 12 — Imperialism

Key Idea

Imperialism = stronger nations control weaker ones politically/economically.

Spanish-American War

  • Triggered by sinking of the U.S.S. Maine.

  • Yellow Journalism exaggerated news.

  • William Randolph Hearst used sensational stories.

  • Rough Riders led by Roosevelt.

After the War

U.S. gained:

  • Guam

  • Puerto Rico

  • Philippines

Hawaii

  • Queen Liliuokalani overthrown.

  • Sanford B. Dole supported annexation.

Foreign Policy

  • Big Stick Diplomacy = Theodore Roosevelt’s aggressive foreign policy.

  • Roosevelt Corollary = U.S. can intervene in Latin America.

  • Dollar Diplomacy = influence through money/investments.

  • Open Door Policy = equal trade in China.

  • Boxer Rebellion = anti-foreign uprising in China.

Unit 13 — World War I

Basics

  • WWI began: 1914

  • U.S. entered: 1917

  • Allies: Britain, France, U.S.

  • Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary

Causes of U.S. Entry

  • Zimmerman Telegram

  • Unrestricted submarine warfare

  • Sinking of the Lusitania angered Americans but did NOT immediately cause war.

Homefront

  • Propaganda encouraged support.

  • Victory Gardens

  • Liberty Bonds

  • Selective Service Act = draft.

Important Terms

  • Espionage and Sedition Acts limited free speech.

  • Schenck v. United States upheld speech limits during war.

Military

  • “Doughboys” = American soldiers.

  • AEF led by John J. Pershing.

  • Trench warfare caused brutal stalemates.

  • New technology:

    • tanks

    • airplanes

    • machine guns

    • poison gas

End of War

  • Armistice = ceasefire.

  • Woodrow Wilson proposed Fourteen Points.

  • Treaty of Versailles blamed Germany.

  • Reparations = payments for war damage.

Unit 14 — Roaring Twenties

Economy

  • Mass production lowered prices.

  • Henry Ford pioneered the assembly line.

  • Model T became affordable.

Culture

  • Consumer society = buying more goods.

  • Flappers challenged traditional gender roles.

  • F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about the Jazz Age.

Fear & Nativism

  • Red Scare = fear of communism.

  • National Origins Act restricted immigration.

  • KKK grew again in the 1920s.

  • Sacco-Vanzetti Case showed anti-immigrant bias.

Harlem Renaissance

  • African American cultural movement in Harlem.

  • Great Migration = Black Americans moved north for jobs.

  • Marcus Garvey promoted Black nationalism.

Major Conflicts

  • Scopes Trial = evolution vs religion debate.

  • Prohibition banned alcohol.

Unit 15 — Great Depression & New Deal

Causes of Great Depression

  • stock speculation

  • buying on credit/installments

  • bank failures

  • overproduction

  • unequal wealth

Key Events

  • Stock Market Crash of 1929

  • Bank runs

  • Dust Bowl

Hoover

  • Created RFC.

  • Seen as not doing enough.

  • Hoovervilles = homeless camps.

FDR & New Deal

  • Fireside Chats reassured Americans.

  • 3 Rs:

    • Relief

    • Recovery

    • Reform

Agencies

  • SSA = Social Security.

  • FDIC = protects bank deposits.

  • SEC = regulates stock market.

  • CCC = conservation jobs.

  • WPA = public works jobs.

Opposition

  • Huey Long criticized New Deal.

  • Supreme Court struck down some programs.

  • FDR tried court packing; unpopular.

Unit 16 — World War II

Causes

  • Rise of dictators:

    • Adolf Hitler

    • Benito Mussolini

  • Appeasement = giving in to aggressors.

  • Munich Agreement let Hitler take land.

U.S. Entry

  • Attack on Pearl Harbor caused U.S. entry.

Major Battles

  • Battle of Midway = turning point in Pacific.

  • D-Day = Allied invasion of Normandy.

Homefront

  • Rationing

  • Victory Gardens

  • War Bonds

  • women entered workforce (“Rosie the Riveter” vibe)

Minority Contributions

  • Tuskegee Airmen

  • Vernon Baker

  • Navajo Code Talkers

Japanese Internment

  • Executive Order 9066

  • Korematsu v. United States upheld internment.

End of War

  • Manhattan Project developed atomic bomb.

  • U.S. dropped bombs on Hiroshima/Nagasaki.

  • United Nations created after war.

Unit 17 — Early Cold War

Cold War Basics

  • U.S. vs Soviet Union tension.

  • Containment = stop spread of communism.

Major Policies

  • Truman Doctrine = aid countries resisting communism.

  • Marshall Plan = rebuild Europe.

  • Berlin Airlift supplied West Berlin.

Fear of Communism

  • McCarthyism

  • HUAC

  • Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg executed for espionage.

Space Race

  • Sputnik shocked Americans.

  • Creation of NASA.

  • Apollo 11 Moon Landing put humans on Moon.

Unit 18 — Civil Rights Movement

Key Court Cases

  • Brown v. Board of Education ended school segregation.

  • Mendez v. Westminster challenged segregation.

  • Sweatt v. Painter challenged unequal schools.

Leaders

  • Martin Luther King Jr. → nonviolence/civil disobedience.

  • Malcolm X → Black empowerment.

  • Rosa Parks → Montgomery Bus Boycott.

  • Claudette Colvin resisted bus segregation before Parks.

Important Laws

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

  • 24th Amendment banned poll taxes.

Other Movements

  • Freedom Rides

  • Sit-ins

  • Freedom Summer

Chicano Movement

  • Cesar Chavez

  • Dolores Huerta

  • United Farm Workers

Unit 19 — Vietnam & Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuba

  • Fidel Castro took power.

  • Bay of Pigs failed invasion.

  • Cuban Missile Crisis almost caused nuclear war.

  • Brinkmanship = pushing to edge of war.

Vietnam

  • Domino Theory = if one nation became communist, others would follow.

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution expanded U.S. involvement.

  • Tet Offensive hurt American morale.

  • Vietnamization = South Vietnam takes over fighting.

War Issues

  • Napalm and Agent Orange

  • Media coverage increased opposition.

  • Pentagon Papers exposed government deception.

  • Credibility Gap = people stopped trusting government.

End

  • Fall of Saigon ended war.

  • War Powers Act limited presidential war powers.

Unit 20 — 1970s & 1980s

Nixon

  • Opened relations with China.

  • Détente = easing Cold War tensions.

  • Watergate scandal caused resignation.

Ford

  • Pardoned Nixon.

Carter

  • Camp David Accords = peace agreement between Egypt and Israel.

Unit 21 — 1990s & 2000s

Major Events

  • Collapse of Soviet Union ended Cold War.

  • Gulf War against Saddam Hussein.

  • Bill Clinton and NAFTA.

  • September 11 attacks led to War on Terror.

  • Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

  • USA PATRIOT Act expanded security powers.

  • Barack Obama and Affordable Care Act.

Unit 22 — Pre-Constitution

Early America

  • Land Bridge Theory = people migrated from Asia.

  • Mississippian Culture built mound cities.

Exploration

  • Christopher Columbus reached Americas in 1492.

  • Hernán Cortés conquered Aztecs.

  • Columbian Exchange = transfer of goods/diseases.

Colonies

  • Jamestown = first permanent English colony.

  • Tobacco saved Virginia economy.

  • Indentured servants worked for passage.

New England

  • Pilgrims came for religious freedom.

  • Mayflower Compact = self-government agreement.

  • John Winthrop wanted “city upon a hill.”

  • Anne Hutchinson challenged Puritan leaders.

  • Roger Williams supported religious freedom.