U.S. History

Question 1

What were the three primary European powers that invaded the Americas in the 1500s-1600s? (16th and 17th century)

Answer 1

Spain, France, England

Question 2

What were the key motives of the Spanish, French, and English to explore the Americas

Answer 2

For all: to find the northwest passage, which was believed to be a direct and efficient route to the Orient

Spanish- gold
French- spread Christianity
English- colonize

Question 3

Sailed in 1492 from Spain in search of a route to Asia and the Indies. Instead found the New World (the Americas).

Answer 3

Christopher Columbus

Question 4

The guy that began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas and decimated the Aztec empire.

Answer 4

Hernàn Cortés

Question 5

The oldest city in the United States, founded in 1565 by the Spanish.

Answer 5

St. Augustine

Question 6

The first permanent Enough colony in the Americas, established in 1607.

Answer 6

Jamestown (Virginia)

Question 7

America’s first permanent puritan settlement, located in New England. Established by English Separatist Puritans in 1620.

Answer 7

Plymouth County

Question 8

What was the motivation of the pilgrims for leaving England?

Answer 8

They were English Puritan separatists seeking religious freedom

Question 9

The first legislative assembly in the colonies

Answer 9

The House of Burgesses at Jamestown, Virginia

Question 10

What three categories can the 13 original colonies be separated into?

Answer 10

1) New England Colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and Connecticut colonies)

2) Middle Colonies (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware colonies)

3) Southern Colonies (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia colonies)

Question 11

An English ship that transported the Puritans from England to the new world. The ship has become a cultural icon in the history of the United States.

Answer 11

The Mayflower

Question 12

The first document of self-governance signed by the Puritans sailing to the new world (on that famous ship) on September 16, 1620

Answer 12

The Mayflower Compact

Question 13

The colonists’ revolt against Great Britain from about 1756 to 1783. Caused by colonists feeling slighted that they were taxed without representation in Parliament. Won by the colonists, who gained independence.

Answer 13

The American Revolution

Question 14

A tax put on the American colonies by the British; required colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various forms of papers, documents, etc.

Answer 14

Stamp Act

Question 15

A series of laws passed by the British Parliament in 1767 tha taxed goods imported to the American colonies.

Answer 15

Townshend Acts

Question 16

Confrontation where a British soldier shot and killed several people in Boston.

Leading patriots like Paul Revere and Samuel Adams used this as propaganda for the Revolutionary War.

Answer 16

Boston Massacre

Question 17

A protest in December 1773 by the American Colonists against the British government, as a result of the Tea Tax, and was perpetrated by the Sons of Liberty. A whole lotta tea from the East India Company was destroyed/dumped into the Boston Harbor.

Answer 17

Boston Tea Party

Question 18

A secret organization created in the 13 American Colonies to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government.

Answer 18

Sons of Liberty

Question 19

Lawyer from Virginia, served as Virginia’s first governor, leader of the Anti-Federalists “Give me liberty or give me death!”

Answer 19

Patrick Henry

Question 20

Also called the Shot Heard ‘Round the World, these were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War (1775)

Answer 20

The Battles of Lexington and Concord

Question 21

Party created by Alexander Hamilton; considered the “big government” party. Supported the constitution.

Answer 21

Federalist party

Question 22

Party created by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison; considered the “small government party.” Opposed the ratification of the constitution.

Answer 22

Democratic-Republican party

Question 23

What factions did the Democratic-Republican party spilt into?

Answer 23

Republican party = Henry Clay faction
Democratic party = Andrew Jackson faction

Question 24

First U.S. constitution (1777)

Characterized by:
-weak central government
-inability to regulate inter-state and international trade
-each state was represented by one vote regardless of size

Answer 24

The Articles of Confederation

Question 25

Met between May and September of 1787 to address the problems of the weak central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation.

Answer 25

Constitutional Convention

Question 26

English common law signed in 1212, which established that individuals have natural rights of security, liberty, and property

Answer 26

Magna Carta

Question 27

What three factors fueled Westward Expansion (1840-1850)?

Answer 27

Gold Rush, Oregon Trail, Manifest Destiny

Question 28

Presidents of the Early Republic under U.S. Constitution (there’s four to talk about, just summarize them in order)

Answer 28

George Washington - first president, no political party affiliation, former military general

John Adams - Federalist, favored a strong central government

Thomas Jefferson - Democratic-Republican; brokered the Louisiana Purchase

James Madison - Democratic-Republican; president during the War of 1812 and the burning of the national capital

Question 29

Belief that the United States was destined by God to expand control and spread democracy across the continent

Answer 29

Manifest Destiny

Question 30

A land deal in 1803 between the U.S. and France in which the U.S. acquired ~827,000 sq miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.

Answer 30

The Louisiana Purchase

Question 31

An expedition President Thomas Jefferson sent two men on to explore the area recently gained from the Louisiana Purchase

Answer 31

Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804)

Question 32

A man-made waterway that connects the Atlantic Ocean — through New York City — to the Great Lakes. It would allow people and freight to travel between the eastern seaboard and the Michigan port.

Answer 32

The Erie Canal (Constructed 1817-1825)

Question 33

Treaty between the United States and representatives of several Native American tribes that assigned each tribe a defined territory where they were to be confined (reservations). Later violated by the U.S. government when gold was discovered on Native American land.

Answer 33

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851

Question 34

A war fought by the U.S. against Britain in 1812.
Causes:
-A series of trade restrictions introduced by Britain to impede American trade with France
-British support for Native Americans, who were offering armed resistance to the expansion of the American frontier to the Northwest
-Refusal of the British to give up lands in western America
-seizure of American ships

Answer 34

The War of 1812

Question 35

During the War of 1812, several Native American tribes fought for which country to stop the Westward Expansion into their homeland?

Answer 35

Great Britain

Question 36

This “Treaty of Peace and Amity Between the United States and Great Britain” was signed on December 24, 1814. It ended the War of 1812, fought between Great Britain and the United States.

Answer 36

The Treaty of Ghent

Question 37

The period after the War of 1812 and before the Civil War.
Characterized by an unstable political environment, including the rise of abolition and the gradual polarization of the country between abolitionists and supporters of slavery.

Answer 37

Antebellum Period

Question 38

The War between the Union (North) and the Confederacy (South).

Answer 38

Civil War (1861-1865)

Question 39

Who was President during the Civil War?

Answer 39

Abraham Lincoln

Republican; he ordered Union naval blockade of the South; delivered landmark Gettysburg Address; preserved the Union; abolished slavery; assassinated while in office

Question 40

The period (1865–77) that followed the American Civil War and during which attempts were made to redress the inequities of slavery and its political, social, and economic legacy and to solve the problems arising from the readmission to the Union of the 11 states that had seceded at or before the outbreak of war.

Answer 40

Reconstruction

Question 41

A social and political philosophy that values rural society as superior to urban society.
Central ideas include property ownership and family farming.

Answer 41

Agrarianism

Question 42

The process by which an economy is transformed from primarily agricultural to one based on the manufacturing of goods.

Answer 42

Industrialization

Question 43

Refers to the population shift from rural areas to urban areas

Answer 43

Urbanization

Question 44

The transition from an agrarian (farming) economy to an industrialized economy in the U.S. that began in the middle of the 18th century (~1750)

Answer 44

The Industrial Revolution

Question 45

Who were the key players of the Industrial Revolution and what were they known for?

Answer 45

Andrew Carnegie - Steel
John D. Rockefeller - Oil
Karl Marx - Worker revolution
Eli Whitney - Cotton gin (*Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, became most well known but his idea was based on earlier gins and also on ideas from other people)

Question 46

True or False: The Slave Trade was obsolete after Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery in 1863 (by signing the Emancipation Proclamation)

Answer 46

False, the textile industry was still reliant on slave labor during the Industrial Revolution

Question 47

Women’s groups organized to gain political rights

Answer 47

Suffragette Movement;
Granted the right of women to vote in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th amendment

Question 48

Also known as the Great War.

Started as a result of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in 1914.
Fought between the Allied Powers (France, Britain, Russia, and the United States) and Central Powers (Austria-Hungary, Germany, Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria).

Answer 48

World War I

Question 49

Who was President during World War I and what was he known for?

Answer 49

Woodrow Wilson - Democrat, founder of public administration theories, resisted pressure to enter WWI until it could no longer be avoided, served two terms.

Question 50

Act passed by Congress during WWI that made it illegal to interfere with the operation of the US military.

Answer 50

Espionage Act

Question 51

A court case in which a man named Charles Schenck is arrested for distributing leaflets urging men to resist the military draft and was convicted of violating the Espionage Act.
The court determined speech/writing that created a clear and present danger to society was not protected by the First Amendment.

Answer 51

Schenck v. United States

Question 52

The time between the end of WWI and the beginning of WWII (November 1918 - September 1939)

Answer 52

The Interwar Period

Question 53

Which peace treaty signed in 1919 officially ended WWI?

Answer 53

The Treaty of Versailles

Question 54

An age of dramatic social and political change and the beginning of modern America. Most Americans moved to cities during this period (urbanization). The nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920-1929, making way for the consumer society.

Answer 54

The Roaring 20’s

Question 55

Refers to the development of the Harlem neighborhood in NYC as a cultural mecca for African Americans in the early 20th century.

Answer 55

The Harlem Renaissance

Question 56

The worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world (1929-1939). At its lowest point, nearly half the country’s banks had failed and ~15 million Americans were unemployed.

Answer 56

The Great Depression

Question 57

The name given to the drought-stricken southern plains region of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during a drought in the 1930s.
Caused the death of people, livestock, and crops and led to many farming families migrating across the U.S. in search of work and better living conditions.

Answer 57

The Dust Bowl

Question 58

A global conflict that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The conflict involved the vast majority of the world’s nations, including all the superpowers.

Answer 58

World War II

Question 59

What countries were part of the two opposing military alliances, the Allied Powers and Axis Powers, during WWII?

Answer 59

Allies:
Great Britain (Churchill), Soviet Union (Stalin), U.S. (FDR and Truman), and China (Kai-Shek)

Axis:
Germany (Hitler), Italy (Mussolini), Japan (Hirohito)

Question 60

Presidents during WWII

Answer 60

FDR (1933-1945) - Democrat; led the nation through The Great Depression by implementing The New Deal; led the country during WWII

Harry S. Truman (1945-1953): Democrat; vice president to FDR and successor after his death; staunch anti-communist ; authored the Truman Doctrine (to provide assistance to all democratic nations under threat from authoritarian forces).

Question 61

Germany invades this country in 1939, making the official start of WWI.

Answer 61

Poland

Question 62

The Japanese attack in 1941 on the U.S. in Hawaii, destroying American naval vessels and killing over 2,400 Americans. Ultimately pulls the U.S. into WWII.

Answer 62

Pearl Harbor

Question 63

The largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare. Marked the start of a long and costly campaign to liberate north-west Europe from Nazi occupation.

Answer 63

D-Day/The Normandy Invasion (during WWII)

Question 64

How is the European conflict of WWII ended?

Answer 64

In 1945, Germany surrenders to the Allies after Hitler commits suicide.

Question 65

Attacks on Japan in 1945, ordered by Truman, that killed over 200,000 people and lead to Japan surrendering to the Allies and the end of WWII.

Answer 65

Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear attacks

Question 66

The top-secret research and development project of the nuclear bomb. Led by the U.S. with the support of Canada and the U.K.

Answer 66

The Manhattan Project (1942-1946)

Question 67

A post-WWII period of geopolitical tension between the United States (and its allies) and the Soviet Union and its satellite states (under influence/control of the Soviet Union i.e., Poland) between 1945-1990.

Answer 67

The Cold War

Question 68

A United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism abroad

Answer 68

Containment

Question 69

What did the Truman Doctrine establish?

Answer 69

it established that the U.S. would provide political, military, and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces

Question 70

Also known as the European Recovery Program, this was a U.S. program enacted in 1948 that would provide aid to Western Europe following the devastation of WWII. The plan was also a major proponent of Containment/preventing the spread of communism.

Answer 70

Marshall Plan

Question 71

In response to the Soviet blockade of land routes into West Berlin, in 1948 the U.S. conducted this massive airlift of food, water, and medicine to the citizens of the besieged city.

Answer 71

Berlin Airlift

Question 72

A formal alliance between the territories of North America and Europe, established in 1949, whose main purpose was to defend each other from the possibility of communist Soviet Union taking control of their nation.

Answer 72

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Question 73

Competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union (late 1940s-early 1990s), to develop the first nuclear weapons program.

Answer 73

The Arms Race

Question 74

The Soviet response to NATO. Pact formed by the Eastern Bloc of nations led by the Soviet Union in 1955. Included Albania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and the German Democratic Republic.

Answer 74

Warsaw Pact

Question 75

Competition (1955 -1975) between the United States and the Soviet Union to develop the first space program.

Answer 75

The Space Race

Question 76

Agreement made in 1972 between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to limit the use of ballistic missiles to defend other countries

Answer 76

Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

Question 77

A failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro (president of Cuba) in 1961. Cuban exiles trained and financed by the CIA launched an illl-fated invasion of Cuba from the sea. It was one of President Kennedy’s biggest failures.

Answer 77

Bay of Pigs Invasion

Question 78

(October 1962), a major confrontation that brought the United States and the Soviet Union close to war over the presence of Soviet nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba.

Answer 78

Cuban Missile Crisis

Question 79

Program promoted in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid-1980s to restructure Soviet economic and political policy.

Seeking to bring the Soviet Union up to economic par with capitalist countries such as Germany, Japan, and the U.S., Gorbachev decentralized economic controls and encouraged enterprises to become self-financing.

Answer 79

Perestroika (restructuring)

Question 80

An arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. Signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987.

Answer 80

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty

Question 81

Communist dictator of the Soviet Union from 1924-1953. Turned against the US and Britain after WWII.

Answer 81

Joseph Stalin

Question 82

In 1954, he became the first secretary of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party. He denounced Stalin and lessened government control over citizens.

Answer 82

Nikita Khrushchev

Question 83

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985-1991. He reformed the Soviet Union, effectively ending the Cold War.

Answer 83

Mikhail Gorbachev

Question 84

A scandal involving a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. This scandal led to an uncovering of a number of abuses of powers by the Nixon administration.

Answer 84

Watergate

Question 85

Movement that began in the late 1940s, initiated by African Americans as an effort to end racial discrimination. By the 1960s, laws were passed to help protect the civil rights of every American citizen. Black people and POC are still fighting for equal treatment today.

Answer 85

The Civil Rights Movement

Question 86

A landmark U.S. Supreme Court case ruling that declared racial segregation in public schools as unconstitutional.
Overturned the legal policies established by the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) decision that legalized the practices of “separate but equal”.

Answer 86

Brown v. The Topeka Board of Education (1954)

Question 87

Laws used to enforce racial segregation in public areas and facilities during the 1870s and 1880s, and were still enforced until 1965.

Answer 87

Jim Crow Laws

Question 88

The first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. Signed by Eisenhower in 1957 and established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote.

Answer 88

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Question 89

President Johnson signs this act preventing employment discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, or nationality

Answer 89

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Question 90

Law signed in 1965 by President Johnson preventing the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement

Answer 90

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

Question 91

Law signed in 1968 by President Johnson requiring equal housing rights for individuals regardless of race, religion, or nationality. Also known as the Fair Housing Act.

Answer 91

The Civil Rights Act of 1968

Question 92

Name the causes and effects of WWI (1914-1918)

Answer 92

Causes:
-During the 1800s, rival powers of Europe formed alliances. (Germany, Austria-Hungary, & Italy = Triple Alliance) (Great Britain, France, & Russia = Triple Entente). Political instability and competition threatened these alliances.
-Growing tension between Austria-Hungary and Serbia because Serbian nationalists attempted to unite all Slavic peoples living in the Balkan region into a single state, including the Slavic people of Austria-Hungary.
-Germany’s success in the Franco-German War established the German Empire. French wanted revenge.
-Assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914, suddenly stirred up brewing conflicts in the region.

Effects
-As many as 8.5 million soldiers and some 13 million civilians died during World War I.
-Four imperial dynasties collapsed as a result of the war: the Habsburgs of Austria-Hungary, the Hohenzollerns of Germany, the sultanate of the Ottoman Empire, and the Romanovs of Russia.
-The mass movement of soldiers and refugees helped spread one of the world’s deadliest influenza pandemics, also called the Spanish flu.
-The map of Europe changed forever as territories were divided among the victorious Allied powers.
-The war led to the October Revolution in Russia, which put the Bolsheviks (led by Lenin) in power of the Russian government.
-The United States emerged as a world power.
-Chemical weapons & new technologies were introduced.
-Growth of nationalism in central and eastern Europe set the foundation for World War II.

Question 93

What did the Nineteenth Amendment do? Who helped pass it?

Answer 93

-Gave women the right to vote
-The suffrage movement (First Wave Feminism); the efforts of women like Ida B. Wells and Alice Paul

Question 94

Name the causes and effects of WWII (1939-1945), the largest and deadliest war in history

Answer 94

Causes
-The Treaty of Versailles: (was harsh on losing nations (reparations, were forced to relinquish colonies, limited armies). As a result, the losing nations, especially Germany, were upset.
-Economic Depression: led to declining living standards. As people’s suffering increased within the industrial nations, political instability increased.
-Growth of Fascist and authoritarian governments: Fascist political leaders came to power in the 1920s and 1930s in Italy, Germany, and Spain, and violently repressed all political opposition. Also, the German people resented the Weimer (postwar) government for accepting the Treaty of Versailles, which contributed to the rise of the fascist Nazi party and Adolf Hitler.
-Growth of Militarism & Imperialism

Effects
-The Soviet Union and the United States becoming superpowers: They were no longer Allies but opponents in the Cold War (1945-1991), which split the world into two competing blocs.
-The UN replaces the League of Nations with four Allies (Soviet Union, United States, Britain, and China), and France, as the permanent members of the Security Council.
-The United States used the atomic bomb for the first time in history against Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From then on, a nuclear arms race began.
-The decolonization process continued in Asia and Africa. Many countries became independent. However, in some cases, this process was accompanied by military conflicts, such as the Vietnam War.

Question 95

Causes and Effects of the 1947 Partition of India

Answer 95

Causes:
-European colonization of India. Eventual primary rule by English East India Company (by mid-1700s).
-The British categorization of Indians by religious identity in the 1800s . Caused division and tension.
-Britain finally giving in against decades of anti-colonial uprising and protest because they lost a ton of money after WWII.
-Indian political leaders differing views on an independent India. (Gandhi and Nehru on one side; led the Hindu majority, who wanted one united India. Jinnah; led the Muslim minority, thought the divisions were already too deep, argued for a Muslim homeland (Pakistan)).

*In other words: A complex interplay of factors, including rising communal tensions in the 1930s, political choices made by elites at both national and provincial levels, the impact of the WWII and the widespread breakdown of law and order following the ‘Great Calcutta Killing’ in 1946.

Effects:
-Following riots in 1946-47, the British hurried their retreat, and suddenly announced the partition but gave no guidance.
-The partition caused large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration between the two dominions.
-Among refugees who survived, it solidified the belief that safety lay among co-religionists. In the instance of Pakistan, it made palpable a hitherto only-imagined refuge for the Muslims of British India.
-The migrations took place hastily and with little warning. Excess mortality during the period of the partition is usually estimated to have been around one million.
-Left behind a power vacuum that led to radicalized militias and local groups who would massacre migrants.
-The violent nature of the partition created an atmosphere of hostility and suspicion between India and Pakistan that affects their relationship to this day.

Question 96

Causes and Effects of The Cold War (1945-1990)

Answer 96

Causes:
-The Soviet Union wanted to spread its ideology of Communism worldwide, which alarmed the Americans who followed democracy.
-The acquisition of atomic weapons by America caused fear in the Soviets, and both countries feared an attack from each other.
-The Soviet Union’s action of taking control over Eastern Europe was a major factor for US suspicions.
-President Harry Truman did not trust or like Stalin.
-America was annoyed by the Soviet Union’s actions in the part of Germany it had occupied (blocked the roads and railroad lines into West Berlin).
-The Soviets feared that America would use Western Europe as a base to attack it.

Effects:
-Both the USA and the Soviet Union built up huge arsenals of atomic weapons and ballistic missiles.
-The military blocs, NATO and the Warsaw Pact were formed.
-The Berlin Wall was demolished and the two German nations were unified.
-The Warsaw Pact disintegrated.
-Led to destructive conflicts like the Vietnam War and the Korean War.
-The Baltic States and some former Soviet Republics achieved independence.
-America became the sole superpower of the world.
-Communism collapsed worldwide.

Question 97

Causes and Effects of The Korean War (1950-1953)

Answer 97

Causes:
-Failure to unite Korea after WWII/Soviet and US involvement in Korea:
in 1945 both the Soviet Union and the United States worked to liberate the region from the Japanese (Soviets liberated the North, US liberated the South).
-By 1948, Korea had been officially split into two sovereign states along the 38th parallel. US and Soviets chose sides instead of actually helping them unite.

-Mao Zedong/China:
Mao thought the US got too close to China when liberating Korea and warned of war if they got too close. Truman did not want anything to do with war with China, General MacArthur on the other hand was like: come at me ya commies!! which led to him getting fired by Truman around 1951 lol.

-The war was officially sparked by the June 25, 1950 invasion of South Korea by 75,000 members of the North Korean People’s Army over the 38th parallel.

-During peace talks in 1951, started by President Truman and his new military commanders, those involved could not agree on whether prisoners of war should be forcibly “repatriated”/deported (The Chinese and the North Koreans said yes; the United States said no.)

Effects:
-Nearly 5 million people died. More than half of these–about 10 percent of Korea’s prewar population–were civilians. (This rate of civilian casualties was higher than World War II’s and the Vietnam War’s.)

-After more than two years of negotiations, all three countries signed an armistice on July 27, 1953. The agreement allowed the POWs to stay where they liked; drew a new boundary near the 38th parallel that gave South Korea an extra 1,500 square miles of territory; and created a 2-mile-wide “demilitarized zone” that still exists today.

-No peace treaty was ever signed, although in December 2021, North and South Korea, the United States and China agreed to declare a formal end to the war.

Question 98

An armed conflict fought between countries or non-state actors on behalf of other powers not directly involved.

Answer 98

Proxy War (example: the Korean War)

Question 99

Causes and Effects of The Vietnam War (1955-1975)

Answer 99

Causes:
-The defeat of France in the French Indochina War in 1954, after which Vietnam was divided into the communist-dominated North and the democratic South

-An insurgency of communist Vietnamese (known as the Viet Cong) against the South Vietnam army beginning in the late 1950s that grew into an ongoing guerrilla campaign

-Increasing financial and military aid from the U.S. to South Vietnam as part of an attempt to contain, or limit, the spread of communism throughout the rest of Southeast Asia

-A parallel increase in support to North Vietnam from both China and the Soviet Union

-Allegedly unprovoked attacks on two U.S. destroyers by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 5, 1964; passage of the ensuing Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave the U.S. president new authority to wage war. (sus!)

Effects:
-The collapse of the South Vietnamese government in the spring of 1975, resulting in a communist takeover of the South

-The discrediting of the U.S. theory of “domino effect” (that the emergence of a unified, communist Vietnam would spread communism throughout the rest of Southeast Asia)

-The deaths of as many as 2,000,000 Vietnamese civilians, 1,100,000 North Vietnamese soldiers, 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers, and some 58,000 U.S. troops

-Chaos in neighboring Cambodia, where the radical communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge seized power and caused the deaths of at least 1,500,000 Cambodians before being overthrown by Vietnamese troops in 1979.

-The emigration of some 2,000,000 refugees from Vietnam from the late 1970s to the early ’90s.

Question 100

type of warfare fought by irregulars in fast-moving, small-scale actions against orthodox military and police forces and, on occasion, against rival insurgent forces, either independently or in conjunction with a larger political-military strategy.

Answer 100

Guerrilla Warfare

Question 101

What did the Second Wave of Feminism advocate for? What did it lead to?

Answer 101

Advocated for women’s issues in politics, work, family, and sexuality during the 1960s.

National Organization of Women (NOW) pressured Congress to pass legislation to ensure equal rights regardless of sex and demanded greater access to contraception and abortion services (Equal Pay Act in 1963, Title IX (prohibiting sex discrimination in education) in 1972, and Roe v. Wade in 1973)

Question 102

Causes and Effects of The Six-Day War/Third Arab-Israeli War (1967)

Answer 102

Causes:
By 1967;
-the earlier foundation of Israel
-the resulting Palestinian refugee issue, and
-Israel’s participation in the invasion of Egypt during the Suez crisis of 1956
continued to be significant grievances for the Arab world.

-Arab nationalists, led by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, continued to be hostile to Israel’s existence and made grave threats against its Jewish population.

-By the mid-1960s, relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors had deteriorated to the extent that a number of border clashes had taken place.

Effects:
-On June 1, Israel formed a National Unity Government, and on June 4 the decision was made to go to war. The morning of June 5, 1967, Israel launched Operation Focus, a large-scale surprise air strike that was the opening of the Six-Day War.

-Controversy remains as to whether Israel’s attack was a preemptive strike or an unjustified attack. Many commentators consider the war as the classic case of anticipatory attack in self-defense.

Question 103

Causes and Effects of the Energy Crisis of 1970

Answer 103

Causes:
-During the Yom Kippur War/Fourth Arab-Israeli War (1973), the US provided military support to Israel
-The surrounding Arab nations did not recognize Israel as a legitimate nation-state
-The US’ support of Israel triggered the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) to dramatically reduce their petroleum production and establish an embargo on oil to the U.S.

Effects:
-Led the price of crude oil in US to rise from $3 per barrel to $12 by 1974.
-Led to stagnant economic growth in many countries as oil prices surged. Although there were genuine concerns with supply, part of the run-up in prices resulted from the perception of a crisis.
-The combination of stagnant growth and price inflation during this era led to the coinage of the term stagflation.

Question 104

Causes and Effects of the Persian Gulf War (1990-1991)

Answer 104

Causes:
Why did a majority of the people living in the central part of North America think it in their interest to send half a million soldiers 6,000 miles away to the Persian Gulf? The simplest answer is one word: oil.

Reaction to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait; two-phase war (Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm); president was George W. Bush.

-The Gulf War actually started when Iraq was at war with Iran. During this war, Iran was not only attacking Iraq but also attacking oil tankers from Kuwait at sea too.
To support the ending of the war Kuwait financially aided Iraq by lending the country 14 Billion USD.
Iraq tried to convince Kuwait to dissolve the debt as Iraq had done Kuwait a favor by being at war with Iran, Kuwait declined and this caused a rift between the two countries.

-Next Iraq started alleging that Kuwait was drilling in a diagonal manner into Iraq oil field territory over the border; this would mean that Kuwait was stealing Iraq’s oil.

-Saddam Hussein decided that he had no other option but military might so he stationed 100,000 troops on the border and in early August invaded Kuwait. As the Iraqi forces invaded and took over Kuwait they set fire to hundreds of Kuwaiti oil fields on the way.

Effects:
-Economic costs:
Most were incurred by Iraq. Losses in military equipment alone totaled over $50 billion. The cost of the war to the United States was calculated by the U.S. Congress to be $61.1 billion.

-Death:
Over 1,000 Kuwaiti civilians were killed by Iraqis. More than 600 Kuwaitis went missing during Iraq’s occupation. 146 American soldiers died and 47 British soldiers.

-Environmental:
On 23 January, Iraq dumped 400 million US gallons of crude oil into the Persian Gulf, causing the largest offshore oil spill in history at that time.

The Kuwaiti oil fires were caused by the Iraqi military setting fire to 700 oil wells as part of a scorched earth policy while retreating from Kuwait in 1991 after conquering the country but being driven out by Coalition forces. The fires started in January and February 1991 and the last one was extinguished by November 1991.

Question 105

Causes and Effects of the Iraq War (2003-2011)

Answer 105

Causes:

-The Gulf War in 1990 between Iraq and Kuwait
-Hussein’s continuing armament of Iraq and his tyrannical leadership
-Tony Blair (Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom)’s liberal interventionism
-9/11 and the subsequent war on terror
-Blair and Bush’s political relationship and the Afghanistan War in 2001.
-The continuing tension with Iraq and the Middle East caused the U.S. and Britain to intervene.

Effects:
-The Iraq War caused an estimated 600,000 deaths on both sides and changed the political landscape in the West permanently.

-Tony Blair faced media backlash for the fabrication of Iraq’s weapon arsenal, which was a key reason for the invasion in 2003. The reports of torture in Iraq prisons also reflected badly on the West.

-The 2005 London bombings also suggested that terrorist attacks had increased as a result of the Iraq War.

-Tony Blair resigned in 2007 after the media pressure and loss of support within the House of Commons.

-Although Hussein was deposed and a democratic government was installed in Iraq, the costs of the war were devastating for the global political and economic landscape.