History 106 Final - FLASHCARDS - Final clues deck 1-50

Question 1

What were the origins of the gilded age and who coined the term?

Answer 1

Mark Twain coined the term

Question 2

What was the Gilded Age?

Answer 2

Growing division between rich and poor. By 1900, the top ten percent owned more than 3 quarters of the nation’s wealth. Growing middle class worked white collar jobs. Gilded means covered in something that looks like gold but isn’t really gold–Gilded Age looked good because the country prospered and many people got very rich (Carnegie, Rockefeller, etc) but many more were very poor, cramped, bad living conditions, disease

Question 3

What was The Trust?

Answer 3

Arangement that gives trustee legal power to manage someone else’s money or company without saying they own it. Started by Samuel Todd in 1882

Question 4

What was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877?

Answer 4

Workers for the Baltimore and Ohio railroad went on strike over pay reduction in West Virginia

Question 5

How did the railroad strike of 1877 end?

Answer 5

West Virginia’s militia was called out, but refused to intervene because they were sympathetic to the strikers. Strike ended when President Hayes used federal troops. 100 people were killed and millions of dollars in damages.

Question 6

What were Jim Crow Laws?

Answer 6

Laws enforcing racial segregation beginning in the 1890s. Those who fought back were lynched. From 1890 to 1899, 188 a year were lynched. The Mississippi plan was a series of constitutional amendmants to keep African Americans from voting. They had to live in the same election district, couldn’t vote if convicted of a crime, poll taxes, and had to take a literacy test. Nine other states made variations of this plan

Question 7

What was the Plessy Vs Ferguson ruling of 1896?

Answer 7

Ruled that it wasn’t a violation of the 14th amendment to have separate but equal facilities. Upheld racial segregation on trains, buses, and public places

Question 8

What was the Carlisle Indian School?

Answer 8

Founded by Richard Pratt. Beginning of a trend of sending Indian children to boarding schools to assimilate. They would lose their culture and not fit into either white or Indian societies. Considered a huge human rights violation now.

Question 9

When did the idea of native schools come about?

Answer 9

With the idea of assimilation and Pratt’s model

Question 10

By 1890, what percent of the population was foreign born?

Answer 10

15 percent of the population was foreign born. 4 out of every 5 people

Question 11

What did the 1890 census show about the west?

Answer 11

The end of the frontier. That there was no more land to settle

Question 12

Who was Jacob Riis?

Answer 12

Published “How the Other Half Lived” in 1889, which helped inspire future reforms

Question 13

By 1890, what percentage of dwellings in NYC were tenements

Answer 13

1/2 of all NYC dwellings were tenements

Question 14

What were the drawbacks of tenements?

Answer 14

cramped, little air, poor construction, poor light

Question 15

What was the Chinese Exclusion Act if 1882?

Answer 15

Barred all Chinese from the US for 10 years. First federal law against a specific group of people based on race. Renewed in 1902 with the Geary Act

Question 16

What was Social Darwinism?

Answer 16

The theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals. Advocated by Herbert Spencer. It was used to argue against helping the poor because only the strongest/fittest should survive

Question 17

Who was Mary Elizabeth Lease?

Answer 17

Leader of the populist party in Kansas. She campaigned for more rights for farmers out west.

Question 18

What was the 1896 presidential election?

Answer 18

Populists surrendered their identity and allied with the Democrats to choose William Jennings Bryan.

Question 19

What were the results of the 1896 election?

Answer 19

The populist party came to an end

Question 20

Who was Alfred Mahan?

Answer 20

Wrote “The Influence of Sea Power

upon History” in 1890

Question 21

What did Alfred Mahan argue?

Answer 21

No nation could prosper without a large fleet of merchant ships protected by a powerful navy

Question 22

Where did the USS Maine explode?

Answer 22

Exploded in Havana harbor in 1898.

Question 23

What was found the be the cause of the explosion of the USS Maine?

Answer 23

Mixed reports. Some think it was an external explosion. Some think it came from inside the ship. Most believe it was an accidental fire

Question 24

What was yellow journalism?

Answer 24

Focuses on sensational storylines, rather than evidence or facts

Question 25

How did yellow journalism lead to the Spanish American War?

Answer 25

It said the Spanish blew up the USS Maine

Question 26

What were the Muckrakers?

Answer 26

Writers who made it a practice to expose the wrongdoings of public figures and corporations in business and politics between 1903 and 1909

Question 27

Who were some Muckrakers?

Answer 27

Samuel Adams, Ida Tarwell, Upton Sinclair

Question 28

What did Samuel Adams write in 1906?

Answer 28

The Great American Fraud

Question 29

Who wrote about Standard Oil abuses?

Answer 29

Ida Tarbell

Question 30

Who was Upton Sinclair?

Answer 30

Writer who drew attention to the bad conditions in meatpacking industry and how it was not only bad for workers but for consumers

Question 31

What did Upton Sinclair publish in 1906?

Answer 31

The Jungle

Question 32

What was Upton Sinclair worried about?

Answer 32

working conditions of workers. And meat packing conditions

Question 33

What was the Triangle Fire of 1911?

Answer 33

Broke out on the 8th floor. Women jumped from windows and down the elevator shaft because it could only hold 12 people. Lasted only 18 minutes. 39 women jumped down the elevator shaft. 58 women jumped out of windows to their death

Question 34

What was a consequence of the Triangle Fire?

Answer 34

people start demanding better work conditions, a week after the fire 80,000 people protested in New York

Question 35

What were long term reasons for World War 1?

Answer 35

Nationalism (pride in your country but also means a lot of areas trying to become independent from empires, like Serbia didn’t want to be part of Austria-Hungary), militarism, and alliances (Germany was pledged to support Austria, Russia was pledged to support Serbia, France was pledged to support Russia)

Question 36

How long did World War 1 last?

Answer 36

4 years from 1914 to 1918

Question 37

What was the RMS Lusitania?

Answer 37

British passenger ship with 2000 people

Question 38

When did the Lusitania sink?

Answer 38

1915. German U boat torpedoed Lusitania. 1200 people died, including 128 Americans.

Question 39

What was unrestricted submarine warfare?

Answer 39

Germany says it will sink any boats in water around England–it’s trying to starve Britain into submission and it thinks this will prevent neutral countries from trying to trade with England. It does the opposite because US is mad that its sovereignty is not being respected and says that if its ships are attacked, that will be an act of war

Question 40

What was the Sussex Pledge?

Answer 40

Agreement that Germany would not attack ships without first searching them and providing time for crew and passengers to get off the ship. Revoked in 1917

Question 41

Who were the big 4 at the Paris peace conference?

Answer 41

Britain, France, U.S., and Italy

Question 42

Why was the United States opposed to the Treaty of Versailles?

Answer 42

They didn’t want to punish Germany too harshly, but it got overruled by England and France. The Senate also would not agree to be in the League of Nations because they wanted to be isolationist again, which was embarrassing to Wilson since it was his idea

Question 43

Who were Sacco and Vanzetti?

Answer 43

Italian immigrants and anarchists who wished for a socialist utopia in USA. Sentenced to death by the electric chair by Webster Thayer in 1927

Question 44

What was the Scopes Trial?

Answer 44

John Scopes charged by state of Tennessee for teaching evolution in schools. Clarence Darrow defended him and William Jennings Bryan was the prosecution lawyer. Scopes was convicted, but released on technicality

Question 45

What was the National Origin Quota Act of 1924?

Answer 45

Promoted by the KKK and anti-immigrant feeling especially against Jewish and Catholic immigrants. Only 150 thousand from Europe. A country’s immigration was capped at 2% of their numbers in the 1890 census.

Question 46

What was the Bonus Army?

Answer 46

Hoover promised in 1924 that servicemen would receive a bonus for their service, in 1945. Marched on Washington in 1932, demanding their payments early. Hoover sent the U.S. army to force them out

Question 47

What were the results of the 1912 election?

Answer 47

435 electoral college votes for Wilson, 88 for Roosevelt, and 8 for Taft. Taft was the Republican, Teddy Roosevelt had run for Republican nomination and lost so he ran as third party Progressive candidate, and Woodrow Wilson was Democrat

Question 48

How many Americans were unemployed by 1933?

Answer 48

25% or 13 million Americans. 1/4 of all Americans

Question 49

What was the Civillian Conservation Corp?

Answer 49

New Deal program to employ young men 18-25 in national parks

Question 50

What was FDR’s court packing?

Answer 50

Wanted to increase the size of the Supreme Court from 9 judges, to 15 judges. Wanted to also remove judges over 70 years old. Was concerned that the Supreme court was ruling his New Deal programs were unconstitutional. Both parties were opposed

Question 51

What was the Nye Committee?

Answer 51

investigated US munitions dealers and claimed enormous profits made during the war. Bankers, munitions workers were Merchants of Death

Question 52

How did historians describe the German War Machine (Blitzkrieg)?

Answer 52

Historians question whether the Blitzkrieg as a premeditated strategy ever existed, saying the term was made up by Nazi propagandists after the campaign in order to convince potential enemies of the uselessness of resisting Germany’s military might.

Question 53

What was the 1940 presidential election?

Answer 53

Roosevelt announced he wanted to run for a third term. Ran against Wendell Wilkie and won. First time a president served more than two terms

Question 54

What were the Germans up to during the war in eastern Europe?

Answer 54

they attempted to move really quickly to defeat Eastern Europe (Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria) hoping that they could conquer most of Europe before France and England had time to mobilize–this was blitzkrieg or “lightning war,” moving so fast no one else had time to respond

Question 55

What was the 1944 presidential election?

Answer 55

FDR ran for fourth term and defeated Thomas Dewey, but died of a stroke in 1945. Truman succeeded him and was informed of secret Manhattan Project

Question 56

What did George Kennan say in his telegram?

Answer 56

he said Soviet Union didn’t believe communism and capitalism could peacefully coexist and there would have to be a conflict; therefore the US needed to contain the spread of communism (theory of containment originates here)

Question 57

What was the Truman Doctrine?

Answer 57

Offered help to any country struggling with communist insurgencies, focused on Europe

Question 58

What was the Warsaw Pact?

Answer 58

organization of Soviet Union and satellite states. The states were all allies and would fight together if one of them was attacked. Soviet version of NATO

Question 59

What speech did Joseph McCarthy give and what was he saying about communism?

Answer 59

Gave a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, saying 205 members of the State Dept were communist sympathizers. He was trying to scare people that the government had been infiltrated by communists

Question 60

Who was executed In the electric chair in 1953?

Answer 60

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg–believed to be Soviet spies

Question 61

What was the Sputnik?

Answer 61

Soviet Union launched space age in 1957 by launching Sputnik, first satellite around the earth. Americans worried Soviets were getting ahead in the space race which led to investment in science education. We thought the satellite would drop bombs on us.

Question 62

What was the Montgomery Bus Boycott?

Answer 62

On Dec 1, 1955, black people were forced to sit separately at the back of the bus. Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat. Parks then arrested and calls Edward David Nixon to bail her out. A boycott was then called, in which 40,000 participated. Boycott went on for 381 days. Successful and inspired future civil rights reforms

Question 63

How did Eisenhower respond to the Central High School protests?

Answer 63

Protests broke out, and on September 24, Eisenhower reluctantly dispatched 1200 federal troops to make sure the students got access to the building

Question 64

What was the Bay of Pigs?

Answer 64

1400 Cuban exiles failed to overthrow Castro and his communists. US government had backed those exiles and Soviet Union criticized US for getting involved

Question 65

What event happened in 1968 that lead to people questioning whether the war would be successful?

Answer 65

Tet Offensive. 1968. Massive invasion where cities fell into communist hands. Shocked Americans and increased anti war demonstrations

Question 66

Who was the segregation leader in the 1960s?

Answer 66

George Wallace–governor of Alabama, said “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,” ran as third party candidate in 1968 and won five Southern states, also did pretty well in places like Michigan

Question 67

What was the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Answer 67

Outlawed segregation in public facilities and prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Question 68

What was the 1968 presidential election?

Answer 68

Richard Nixon (republican) vs Hubert Humphrey (democrat). George Wallace ran for American Independent Party. Nixon got 301 electoral votes to 191. LBJ didn’t run for reelection because the Vietnam War was so unpopular. Bobby Kennedy was assassinated at the Democratic National Convention