Exam 1 (Reconstruction, Gilded, Progressive, WWI)

Question 1

Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan

Answer 1

10% of a state’s voters needed to take a loyalty oath and the state’s new constitution needed to abolish slavery in order for it to be readmitted into the Union.

Question 2

Wade-Davis Bill

Answer 2

A majority of a state’s prewar voters needed to swear loyalty to the Union and African Americans had to be guaranteed equality for readmittance.

Question 3

Reconstruction Amendments

Answer 3

The 13th Amendment (1865) abolished slavery and involuntary servitude. The 14th Amendment (1868) granted full citizenship rights and “equal protection of the laws” to anybody born in the U.S. or naturalized as a U.S. citizen. The 15th Amendment (1870) prohibits discrimination in voting rights of citizens on the basis of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

Question 4

Black Codes

Answer 4

Different rules for blacks that seemed like nothing other than a slavery substitute.

Question 5

Sharecropping

Answer 5

The farmer farms land owned by someone else and the two share profits. This became the basis for the Southern economy. Many sharecroppers became slaves to debt.

Question 6

Ku Klux Klan

Answer 6

Spread across the South and terrorized blacks and white Republicans.

Question 7

Carpetbaggers and Scalawags

Answer 7

Carpetbaggers were white northerners who came to the South. Scalawags were native white southern Republicans.

Question 8

Military Reconstruction Act of 1867

Answer 8

Toppled 10 state governments and installed 5 Federal military districts. Ratification of the 14th Amendment and allowing black men to vote was the only path to liberation.

Question 9

Tenure of Office Act

Answer 9

Stated that Presidents could not remove cabinet members without Senate approval. Aimed to keep Johnson from firing Stanton.

Question 10

Impeachment of Pres. Andrew Johnson

Answer 10

Impeached for violating the Tenure of Office Act. It was largely political and a result of Johnson blocking Republican Reconstruction programs.

Question 11

Cowboys and Cattle Drives

Answer 11

Cowboys were oftentimes ex-Confederates or former slaves. The cattle boom drove millions of “Homesteaders” to the west.

Question 12

Custer’s Last Stand/Battle of the Little Big Horn

Answer 12

Conflict in 1876 spurred by intrusion of the US Army onto Sioux land after gold was found in the Black Hills. This started the Great Sioux War.

Question 13

Dawes Act

Answer 13

Failed to provide education and citizenship to Indians (they didn’t want it).

Question 14

Compromise of 1877

Answer 14

Informal agreement between southern Democrats and northern Republicans to settle the election dispute. Hayes would become President, but he would have to remove federal troops from the south. This marked the end of reconstruction.

Question 15

Jim Crow Laws

Answer 15

Racially segregated the south. The laws were challenged but upheld in Plessy v. Ferguson. Facilities could be “separate but equal.”

Question 16

Disfranchisement/Mississippi Plan

Answer 16

Many southern states adopted laws that restricted voting rights. Examples of barriers include a residency requirement, a poll tax, and a literacy test. The “grandfather clause” was a loophole that allowed poor whites to vote while still preventing blacks.

Question 17

Colfax and Wilmington Riots

Answer 17

In Colfax, a white mob attacked and killed black Republican leaders and officeholders. In Wilmington, there was a coup that ousted a largely African American/Republican government.

Question 18

Booker T. Washington

Answer 18

Urged Blacks to accept discrimination for the time being and focus on elevating themselves through hard work and material prosperity.

Question 19

W.E.B. Du Bois

Answer 19

African American leader who was staunchly against discrimination. Much more radical than Washington.

Question 20

Gilded Age

Answer 20

The Gilded Age refers to the era of the 1870s - 1890s. Gilded means a thin veneer of gold. It was characterized by economic growth and corruption.

Question 21

Women’s Voting Rights in the 19th Century

Answer 21

Women in the west got voting rights a lot earlier than those in older states did.

Question 22

Andrew Carnegie

Answer 22

Steel mogul who turned to philanthropy. He made up to 70% of steel at one point. He eventually sold to J. P. Morgan.

Question 23

J. D. Rockefeller

Answer 23

He combined 5 companies he owned into Standard Oil. By 1890, Standard Oil controlled 90% of the nation’s refining capacity.

Question 24

John Pemberton

Answer 24

Pharmacist who invented Coca-Cola.

Question 25

Knights of Labor

Answer 25

A large, inclusive labor union led by Terence Powderly.

Question 26

American Federation of Labor

Answer 26

A federation of trade/craft unions that included mostly skilled white men. The group was led by Samuel Gombers.

Question 27

Haymarket Riot

Answer 27

Labor demonstration in Chicago that erupted into violence; at least 11 people were killed, including police. This gave labor unions a bad public reputation.

Question 28

Homestead Strike

Answer 28

Strike/lockout at Carnegie Steel’s Homestead mill near Pittsburgh in which 11 people were killed after the company brought armed Pinkerton “guards” to the mill.

Question 29

Pullman Strike

Answer 29

After the Pullman Company cut wages, the workers went on strike. This shut down the passenger railway system. The Federal government had to break the strike and killed 34.

Question 30

Monopolies and Trusts

Answer 30

Trusts are a legal grouping together of a number of companies under a single board of directors. A monopoly is total ownership of an industry, product, or service by a single company.

Question 31

Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

Answer 31

Prescribes the rules of free competition among those engaged in commerce.

Question 32

Populist Party

Answer 32

Populists believed that the rich had a stranglehold on government and they wanted the government to end poverty, injustice, and unfair laws. Members were often poor farmers, workers, and miners.

Question 33

“Free Silver” and the Gold Standard

Answer 33

Populists wanted the free (unlimited) coinage of silver in order to increase the money supply. Gold standard meant that money used to be backed by gold.

Question 34

Election of 1896

Answer 34

William McKinley vs. William Jennings Bryan. It embodied rural, agricultural America fighting urban, industrial America. McKinley had a much bigger budget and ended up winning.

Question 35

U.S.S. Maine

Answer 35

The Maine, a US battleship was parked at Cuba in an attempt to intimidate Spain and support Cuban rebels. The ship unexplainably exploded and began the Spanish-American War.

Question 36

Spanish-American War

Answer 36

A 10-week war fought in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The Treaty of Paris ends the war and places Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam under US control for $20 million.

Question 37

Hawaiian Revolution & Annexation

Answer 37

White businessmen, in order to avoid Hawaiian sugar tariffs, overthrew the Queen. After two petitions to be annexed, Hawaii became a U.S. territory in 1898 and a state in 1959.

Question 38

Filipino Insurrection

Answer 38

Filipinos refused rule and began a war against America. The U.S. won and installed a civilian governor. They were given room to self-govern.

Question 39

“Gunboat Diplomacy”

Answer 39

Using force to push negotiations and getting involved in other country’s affairs. Initially used by Roosevelt to allow Panama to revolt against Colombia (so that the US could build the Panama Canal).

Question 40

Coal Strike of 1902

Answer 40

Roosevelt threatened coal mine owners with taking over their mines if they didn’t provide better conditions to their workers. They complied.

Question 41

Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act

Answer 41

Passed on the same day in 1906. Inspired by the publication that year of Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, which described filthy conditions in meatpacking plants.

Question 42

The Jungle

Answer 42

Written by Upton Sinclair and intended to be a critique of industrial capitalism. It instead led to consumer safety reforms such as the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Question 43

“Muckrakers”

Answer 43

Investigative journalists who uncovered scandals and problems in America that required reform.

Question 44

Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies)

Answer 44

Mimicked the “one big union” approach of the Gilded Age’s Knights of Labor, but the IWW espoused a more militant philosophy. Leaders espoused socialism and seemingly wished to topple capitalism.

Question 45

Election of 1912

Answer 45

Roosevelt broke from the Republicans and ran for a third term as a Bull Moose. He split the Republican vote and gave Wilson (Democrat) the presidency.

Question 46

Federal Reserve Act of 1913

Answer 46

Created the national banking system that still exists today. It was designed to provide for more effective control of the money supply and bank credit.

Question 47

Ford Model T

Answer 47

The Model T came out in 1907. Ford introduced the moving assembly line in 1913 and sharply dropped automobile prices.

Question 48

“Great Migration”

Answer 48

The movement of millions of African Americans out of the Southern United States to the Midwest, Northeast, and West from 1910 to 1930.

Question 49

Lusitania

Answer 49

British passenger liner secretly carrying small arms and ammunition. It was sunk by the Germans, resulting in 1k+ civilian casualties.

Question 50

Espionage and Sedition Acts

Answer 50

Made it illegal to engage in public criticism of the war, the government’s war policies, the draft, or the sale of war bonds. Upheld by the Supreme Court.

Question 51

“Spanish Flu” of 1918

Answer 51

Pandemic that killed 500k Americans.

Question 52

Progressive Amendments

Answer 52

Sixteenth Amendment created the federal income tax. Seventeenth Amendment provided for the direction election of U.S. Senators. Eighteenth Amendment put in place national prohibition. Nineteenth Amendment granted women suffrage.

Question 53

Wilson’s 14 Points

Answer 53

Served as a blueprint for the treaty and postwar world peace. Advocated for open diplomacy, freedom of the seas, arms reduction, national self-determination for all peoples, no reparations for losers in the war, and the creation of a League of Nations. Most points were rejected by the French and British.

Question 54

Treaty of Versailles

Answer 54

An agreement in which Germany was forced to accept a “war guilt” clause and pay reparations as well as disarm itself. The treaty also created the League of Nations, which is why the Senate failed to ratify it.