Comprehensive US History Regents Examination Review Guide

REGENTS EXAMINATION FORMAT

• Part 1: Multiple-Choice Questions

  • Consists of $28$ questions.

• Part 2: Constructed-Response Questions (CRQ)

  • Students must analyze documents and provide written responses.

• Part 3: Civic Literacy Essay (CLE)

  • An extended essay requiring the use of provided documents.

STUDY STRATEGIES AND REGENTS TIPS

• Focus on Causes and Effects: The Regents examination frequently asks "WHY" historical events occurred.

• Vocabulary in Context: Students should know key terms and be able to define them within historical contexts.

• Primary Source Practice: Analyze speeches, cartoons, maps, and graphs.

• Landmark Supreme Court Cases: Understand the outcomes and significance of major legal decisions.

• Thematic Connections: History is cumulative; connections should be made to big themes such as democracy, equality, and American identity.

UNIT 1: COLONIAL AMERICA & EARLY FOUNDATIONS ($1400s$–$1763$)

• Geography of the 13 Colonies

  • New England Colonies (MA, CT, RI, NH): Characterized by rocky soil and a cold climate. The economy relied on fishing, shipbuilding, lumber, and trade. There was a very strong Puritan religious identity.

  • Middle Colonies (NY, NJ, PA, DE): Featured fertile soil and a diverse population. Known as the "breadbasket colonies" for grain production. They practiced religious tolerance.

  • Southern Colonies (MD, VA, NC, SC, GA): Characterized by a warm climate and rich soil. The economy focused on cash crop agriculture (tobacco, rice, and indigo) and a plantation system. These crops required heavy labor, leading to indentured servitude and slavery.

• Economy of the 13 Colonies

  • Mercantilism: A British economic policy stating that colonies exist to benefit the "mother country" by supplying raw materials and buying finished goods.

  • Triangular Trade: A trade network connecting the colonies, Britain, Africa, and the Caribbean. Enslaved Africans were treated as a major commodity in this network.

  • Navigation Acts ($1651$–$1673$): Laws requiring colonial trade to pass through England, which angered colonial merchants.

• Columbus and the Natives ($1492$)

  • Arrival: Columbus reached the Caribbean in $1492$ believing he had reached Asia, claiming land for Spain.

  • Columbian Exchange: The transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and culture between the Old and New Worlds.

  • Disease: Europeans brought smallpox and measles, which decimated Native populations by up to $90\%$.

  • Agriculture/Livestock: Natives introduced corn, potatoes, and tobacco to Europe; Europeans brought horses, cattle, and wheat to the Americas.

  • Spanish Conquest: Conquistadors like Corts (defeated Aztecs) and Pizarro (conquered Incas) used the Encomienda System, a forced labor system where Natives worked for Spanish colonizers.

• Labor Systems and Rebellion

  • Indentured Servitude: A system where people agreed to work for $4$ to $7$ years in exchange for passage to the colonies. After their term, they received "freedom dues" (land, tools, or money). By the late $1600s$, this declined as landowners shifted to a permanent, hereditary labor force of African slaves.

  • Bacon’s Rebellion ($1676$): Led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor William Berkeley of Virginia. Frustrated former indentured servants and poor farmers were angry over a lack of land and the Governor's refusal to fight Native Americans. Significance: It highlighted the danger of a landless poor class and accelerated the shift to African slavery to prevent future uprisings.

• French and Indian War ($1754$–$1763$)

  • Conflict: Britain vs. France (with Native allies) over North America, specifically the Ohio River Valley. George Washington gained early military experience here.

  • Join or Die Campaign ($1754$): Benjamin Franklin's political cartoon of a segmented snake urging colonial unity. Reused later during the Revolution.

  • Albany Plan of Union: A proposed colonial union that was rejected.

  • Treaty of Paris ($1763$): Britain won Canada and all land east of the Mississippi River from France. Consequences: Britain was left in deep debt, leading to colonial taxation, and Native lands were threatened, causing Pontiac’s War.

UNIT 2: ROAD TO REVOLUTION & FOUNDING DOCUMENTS ($1763$–$1800$)

• British Restrictions

  • Proclamation of $1763$: Issued by King George III; it forbade settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to avoid Native conflicts and keep colonists easy to tax. Colonists were furious and many ignored it.

  • Acts of Taxation:

    • Stamp Act ($1675$): Tax on all printed materials; sparked protest with the slogan "No Taxation Without Representation."

    • Townshend Acts ($1767$): Taxes on imports like glass, paper, and tea; led to boycotts.

    • Tea Act ($1773$): Monopolized tea sales for the British East India Company.

    • Intolerable Acts ($1774$): Passive-aggressive response to the Boston Tea Party; closed Boston Harbor and restricted self-government. Led to the formation of the First Continental Congress.

• Colonial Resistance

  • Boston Massacre ($1770$): British soldiers killed $5$ colonists; used as propaganda by Paul Revere. Crispus Attucks, an African American man, was the first killed.

  • Boston Tea Party ($1773$): Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams, dumped $342$ chests of tea into Boston Harbor while dressed as Mohawk Indians.

  • Sons of Liberty: A secret group that used intimidation and propaganda to resist rule. They established Committees of Correspondence for information sharing.

• Push for Independence

  • Thomas Paine’s Common Sense ($1776$): A plain-language pamphlet arguing that independence from monarchy was logical. It reached a mass audience.

  • Declaration of Independence ($1776$): Primarily written by Thomas Jefferson; adopted July $4$, $1776$. Based on John Locke's Enlightenment ideas: Natural Rights (life, liberty, property), social contract, and the right to revolt. It included $27$ grievances against King George III.

• Creating a New Government

  • Articles of Confederation ($1781$–$1789$): The first national government. It was intentionally weak due to fear of tyranny. Congress could not tax, regulate trade, draft soldiers, or enforce laws. It lacked an executive and national courts.

  • Shays’ Rebellion ($1786$–$1787$): A revolt by Massachusetts farmers over debts; the government could not respond, proving the Articles were too weak.

  • Land Ordinances ($1785$/$1787$): A success of the Articles; organized the Northwest Territory and established a process for statehood.

• The Constitution ($1787$)

  • Structure: Preamble (the $6$ purposes), $7$ Articles (Legislative, Executive, Judicial, States, Amendments, Supremacy Clause, Ratification).

  • Separation of Powers: $3$ branches to prevent tyranny.

  • Checks and Balances: Each branch limits the power of others.

  • Federalism: Shared power between national and state governments.

  • Great Compromise: Created a bicameral Congress (Senate with equal representation, House based on population).

  • $3/5$ Compromise: Enslaved people counted as $\frac{3}{5}$ of a person for census and taxation.

  • Bill of Rights ($1791$): The first $10$ amendments, guaranteeing individual freedoms to satisfy Anti-Federalist concerns.

• Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists

  • Federalists (Hamilton, Madison, Jay): Supported the Constitution; wrote the Federalist Papers ($85$ essays). Federalist $\#10$ discussed factions; $\#51$ discussed checks and balances.

  • Anti-Federalists (Patrick Henry, George Mason): Feared central power and demanded a Bill of Rights to protect state sovereignty.

• Washington’s Farewell Address ($1796$)

  • Warned against political parties (factions) and permanent foreign alliances (sectionalism).

  • Established the two-term tradition and a policy of isolationism that lasted over $100$ years.

UNIT 3: WESTWARD EXPANSION, SECTIONALISM & CIVIL WAR ($1800$–$1865$)

• Manifest Destiny and Growth

  • Manifest Destiny: The belief that the US was divinely destined to expand to the Pacific. Term coined by John O’Sullivan in $1845$.

  • Louisiana Purchase ($1803$): Jefferson bought the territory from Napoleon for $\$15\,million$, doubling the size of the US. It raised constitutional questions regarding "implied powers."

  • Lewis & Clark Expedition ($1804$–$1806$): Explored the purchase with the help of Sacagawea, a Shoshone guide.

  • Monroe Doctrine ($1823$): Declared the Western Hemisphere closed to new European colonization.

• Native American Displacement

  • Indian Removal Act ($1830$): Signed by Andrew Jackson; relocated tribes to "Indian Territory" (Oklahoma).

  • Trail of Tears: The forced march of the Cherokee; approximately $4,000$ died.

  • Worcester v. Georgia ($1832$): The Supreme Court ruled the removal illegal, but Jackson famously ignored the court.

• Abolitionist Movement

  • Key Figures: Frederick Douglass (The North Star), William Lloyd Garrison (The Liberator), Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom’s Cabin), and Harriet Tubman (Underground Railroad).

  • Nat Turner’s Rebellion ($1831$): Deadliest slave revolt in US history; resulted in stricter Southern slave codes and increased sectional tension.

• Texas and the West

  • Annexation of Texas ($1845$): Followed the revolt against Mexico and the Battle of the Alamo ($1836$). This led to the Mexican-American War ($1846$–$1848$).

  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ($1848$): Mexico ceded California and the Southwest to the US.

• Compromises and the Path to War

  • Missouri Compromise ($1820$): Missouri (slave), Maine (free); slavery banned north of $36^\circ 30'$ line.

  • Compromise of $1850$: California entered free; popular sovereignty in new territories; stronger Fugitive Slave Act.

  • Kansas-Nebraska Act ($1854$): Replaced Missouri Compromise with popular sovereignty, leading to the violence of "Bleeding Kansas."

  • Dred Scott v. Sanford ($1857$): Court ruled enslaved people were property, not citizens; declared Congress could not ban slavery in territories.

  • Election of $1860$: Lincoln won without any Southern states; South Carolina seceded first, leading to the formation of the Confederate States of America under Jefferson Davis.

• The Civil War ($1861$–$1865$)

  • Fort Sumter: First attack on April $1861$.

  • Emancipation Proclamation ($1863$): Freed slaves in Confederate states but not Border States. Transformed the war into a moral crusade and allowed Black men to serve ($180,000+$ served).

  • Gettysburg Address ($1863$): Lincoln redefined the war as a fight for a "new birth of freedom."

  • End of War: Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox on April $9$, $1865$. Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April $14$, $1865$.

  • Acts of $1862$: Homestead Act (granted $160$ acres for $5$ years of farming) and Pacific Railway Act (authorized transcontinental railroad).

UNIT 4: RECONSTRUCTION & THE GILDED AGE'S ROOTS ($1865$–$1877$)

• Reconstruction Amendments

  • $13th$ Amendment ($1865$): Abolished slavery.

  • $14th$ Amendment ($1868$): Citizenship for all born/naturalized in US; equal protection; due process.

  • $15th$ Amendment ($1870$): Voting rights for Black men.

• Reconstruction Policies

  • Lincoln's $10\%$ Plan: Lenient; readmit states if $10\%$ of voters swore loyalty.

  • Radical Republicans: Wanted stricter terms; military districts in the South.

  • Freedmen’s Bureau ($1865$): Provided food, schools, and legal aid.

• Failure of Reconstruction

  • Black Codes: Southern laws designed to mimic slavery through labor contracts.

  • Sharecropping: A system of renting land for a share of crops; kept farmers in a cycle of debt.

  • Jim Crow Laws: Enforced segregation (separate schools, etc.) and used lynching for terror.

  • Carpetbaggers and Scalawags: Terms for Northerners moving South and Southern Republicans, respectively.

  • Compromise of $1877$: Following the election of Hayes, federal troops were withdrawn from the South, ending federal protection for Black Southerners.

  • Plessy v. Ferguson ($1896$): Upheld "separate but equal" doctrine.

• Civil Rights and Immigration

  • Suffrage: Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton led the movement following the Seneca Falls Convention ($1848$). The $19th$ Amendment ($1920$) eventually gave women the right to vote.

  • Chinese Exclusion Act ($1882$): First federal law restricting immigration based on race; prohibited Chinese laborers.

UNIT 5: GILDED AGE & PROGRESSIVE ERA ($1877$–$1920$)

• Industrialization

  • Key Industries: Steel (Carnegie), Oil (Rockefeller), Railroads (Vanderbilt), Finance (Morgan).

  • Bessemer Process: Allowed for cheap steel production.

  • Social Darwinism: "Survival of the fittest" used to justify wealth inequality.

  • Vertical Integration: Controlling all production stages (Carnegie).

  • Horizontal Integration: Buying out competitors (Rockefeller).

• Labor and Reform

  • Unions: Knights of Labor (all workers) and AFL (skilled workers; Samuel Gompers).

  • Triangle Shirtwaist Fire ($1911$): $146$ deaths led to factory safety laws.

  • Muckrakers: Investigative journalists like Upton Sinclair (The Jungle - meatpacking), Ida Tarbell (Standard Oil), and Jacob Riis (How the Other Half Lives - tenements).

• The Progressive Era

  • Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal: The "Three Cs": Control of corporations, Consumer protection, Conservation. He used the Sherman Antitrust Act ($1890$) to break up monopolies.

  • Bureaucracy: The Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act ($1906$) created the FDA.

  • Civil Rights Leaders: Booker T. Washington (vocational training/gradualism) vs. W.E.B. Du Bois (immediate rights/NAACP/Talented Tenth).

• Immigration

  • New Immigration ($1880$–$1920$): Shift from Northern/Western Europe to Southern/Eastern Europe and Asia. Processed through Ellis Island and Angel Island. Led to the Immigration Act of $1924$ which set strict quotas.

UNIT 6: AMERICAN IMPERIALISM & WORLD WAR I ($1890$–$1920$)

• Imperialism

  • Spanish-American War ($1898$): Triggered by yellow journalism, the explosion of the USS Maine, and Cuban revolts. US gained Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.

  • Ideology: "White Man’s Burden" vs. "Brown Man’s Burden."

  • Expansion: Annexation of Hawaii ($1898$), Philippines War ($1899$–$1902$), and construction of the Panama Canal ($1914$).

  • Roosevelt Corollary ($1904$): Asserted the right of the US to intervene in Latin America.

• World War I

  • Causes: MAIN (Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism).

  • US Entry ($1917$): Sparked by the sinking of the Lusitania ($1198$ killed, $128$ Americans) and the Zimmermann Telegram (Germany-Mexico alliance).

  • Wilson’s 14 Points: Plan for peace emphasizing a League of Nations and self-determination.

  • Treaty of Versailles ($1919$): Forced Germany into the War Guilt Clause and massive reparations. The US Senate (led by Henry Cabot Lodge) rejected the treaty and the League of Nations.

  • Schenck v. United States ($1919$): Stated speech could be limited in wartime if it presented a "clear and present danger."

  • Great Migration: Millions of Black Americans moved North ($1910s$–$1970s$), followed by the violent "Red Summer" of $1919$.

UNIT 7: ROARING TWENTIES & THE GREAT DEPRESSION ($1920$–$1940$)

• Cultural Tensions of the $1920s$

  • Prohibition ($18th$ Amendment): Banned alcohol; led to Al Capone and organized crime. Repealed by the $21st$ Amendment ($1933$).

  • Harlem Renaissance: Explosion of Black art and literature (Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong).

  • Scopes Trial ($1925$): Clash between evolution and fundamentalism.

  • Nativism: Sacco and Vanzetti execution; KKK revival.

• The Great Depression

  • Causes: Overproduction, buying on margin, Black Tuesday (Oct $29$, $1929$ stock market crash), bank failures, Hawley-Smoot Tariff, and the Dust Bowl environmental disaster.

  • Hoover vs. FDR: Hoover followed "rugged individualism"; FDR promised a "New Deal" emphasizing Relief, Recovery, and Reform.

  • New Deal Programs: CCC (conservation jobs), WPA (infrastructure), TVA (electricity), FDIC (bank insurance), SEC (stock regulation), and Social Security Act ($1935$).

UNIT 8: WORLD WAR II ($1939$–$1945$)

• Entry and Home Front

  • Entry: Lend-Lease Act ($1941$) supported Allies before the Pearl Harbor attack (Dec $7$, $1941$) brought the US into the war.

  • Economy: Rationing and "Rosie the Riveter" (women in factories) ended the Great Depression.

  • Injustice: Executive Order $9066$ led to Japanese American internment, upheld by Korematsu v. US ($1944$).

• End of War

  • Manhattan Project: Developed the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ($1945$).

  • Holocaust: Nazi genocide of $6\,million$ Jews; led to Nuremberg Trials and the principle of international accountability.

  • United Nations ($1945$): Created to prevent future wars.

UNIT 9: THE COLD WAR ($1945$–$1991$)

• Policies: Containment, Truman Doctrine (military aid), Marshall Plan ($\$13\,billion$ in economic aid), and NATO.

• Confrontations: Berlin Blockade ($1948$–$1949$), Korean War ($1950$–$1953$; ended at $38th$ parallel), Cuban Missile Crisis ($1962$; Kennedy-Khrushchev standoff).

• Domestic Issues: Second Red Scare and McCarthyism (reckless accusations by Senator Joseph McCarthy).

• Vietnam War ($1955$–$1975$): Escalated by Gulf of Tonkin Resolution ($1964$). Turned public opinion after Tet Offensive ($1968$); resulted in War Powers Act ($1973$).

• Technological Competition: Space Race (Sputnik $1957$, Moon landing $1969$) and Arms Race (Mutual Assured Destruction).

• Soviet Collapse: Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost/perestroika; fall of Berlin Wall ($1989$); USSR dissolved in $1991$.

UNIT 10: THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT ($1954$–$1975$)

• Legal Successes: Brown v. Board ($1954$; overturned Plessy); Civil Rights Act of $1964$ (banned discrimination); Voting Rights Act of $1965$ (outlawed literacy tests).

• Protests: Montgomery Bus Boycott ($1955$–$1956$; Rosa Parks), Greensboro Sit-Ins ($1960$), March on Washington ($1963$; MLK's "I Have a Dream").

• Leaders: Martin Luther King Jr. (nonviolence/jail letter) vs. Malcolm X (Black nationalism/self-defense).

• The Great Society (LBJ): Medicare/Medicaid, War on Poverty, and Immigration Act of $1965$.

UNIT 11: MODERN AMERICA ($1968$–PRESENT)

• Political Crises: Watergate ($1972$–$1974$; Nixon resigned); Bill Clinton impeachment/acquittal.

• Economics: Reaganomics (supply-side; tax cuts for wealthy; deregulation; higher debt).

• The War on Terror: $9/11$ attacks led to the USA PATRIOT Act (expanded surveillance), Department of Homeland Security, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

• Recent Milestones: Barack Obama (Affordable Care Act; Killing of bin Laden; Marriage equality).