Study Guide for Modern US History February 24, 2016
1. What year did the 13th Amendment become part of the Constitution, and what did it do?
ANSWER: 1865. It abolished slavery.
2. What year did the 14th Amendment become part of the US Constitution, and what did it do?
ANSWER: 1868. It provides us with the right of due process, and equal protection of the law.
3. What does due process mean?
ANSWER: Due Process is the right to tell your side of the story.
4. What year did the 15th Amendment become part of the US Constitution, and what did it do?
ANSWER: 1870. It gave African American men the right to vote.
5. What year did the 16th Amendment become part of the US Constitution, and what did it do?
ANSWER: 1913. It gave Congress the power to collect Income Taxes
6. What year did the 17th Amendment become part of the US Constitution, and what did it do?
ANSWER: 1913. It describes the process of electing Senators.
7. What year did the 18th Amendment become part of the US Constitution, and what did it do?
ANSWER: 1919. It started Prohibition, otherwise known as making booze illegal.
8. What year did the 19th Amendment become part of the US Constitution, and what did it do?
ANSWER: 1920. It gave women the right to vote.
9. What year did the 20th Amendment become part of the US Constitution, and what did it do?
ANSWER: 1933. It defines the terms for President and Vice President.
10. What year did the 21st Amendment become part of the US Constitution, and what did it do?
ANSWER: 1933. It ended Prohibition.
11. What year did the 22nd Amendment become part of the US Constitution, and what did it do?
ANSWER: 1951. It put a limit on the terms of President and Vice President to Two, 4 year terms.
12. What year did the 23rd Amendment become part of the US Constitution, and what did it do?
ANSWER: 1961. It established the Electoral College.
13. What year did the 24th Amendment become part of the US Constitution, and what did it do?
ANSWER: 1964. It made charging a poll tax illegal.
14. Why did Lincoln favor a generous Reconstruction policy in the South?
ANSWER: He believed harsher terms would be counterproductive to the United States.
15. Why was the Freedmen’s Bureau established?
ANSWER: It was established to help with the refugee problem created by the Civil War.
16. Who did President Johnson blame for the Civil War?
ANSWER: He blamed the wealthy planter aristocracy.
17. In 1868, what two laws did the radical Republicans pass to reduce presidential power?
ANSWER:
1. Command of the Army Act: All orders had to go through the General,
who could not be removed or replaced without the consent of Congress.
2. Tenure of Office Act: It forbade president to remove government officials (even
from his own cabinet) without the permission of Congress.
18. Define Reconstruction.
DEFINITION: It was the process or event of rebuilding the nation after the Civil War.
19. Define amnesty.
DEFINITION: It is the act of granting a pardon to a large group of people.
20. Define pocket veto.
DEFINITION: It is when the President indirectly vetoes a bill by letting a session of Congress
expire without signing the bill.
21. Define freedmen.
DEFINITION: Freedmen are persons freed from slavery.
22. Define black codes.
DEFINITION: Black codes were laws passed in the South just after the Civil War aimed at
controlling freedmen and enabling plantation owners to exploit African American workers.
23. Define impeach.
DEFINITION: To impeach is to formally charge a public official with misconduct in office.
24. What were the Radical Republicans’ three major goals?
ANSWER:
1. They wanted to prevent leaders of the Confederacy from returning to power.
2. They wanted to make the Republican Party more powerful in the South.
3. They wanted to guarantee African Americans the right to vote.
25. What three groups of people helped to create Republican governments in the South during
Reconstruction?
ANSWER:
1. African Americans
2. Carpetbaggers
3. poor white farmers
26. How did education for African Americans change during Reconstruction?
ANSWER: The number of schools, African American students, and African American teachers
gradually increased.
27. Why did Congress pass the Enforcement Act?
ANSWER: Congress passed the Enforcement Act to combat violence in the South, and to outlaw
the activities of the Ku Klux Klan.
28. Why did Liberal Republicans oppose President Grant?
ANSWER: They disagreed with his economic policies, which they said favored
the rich over the poor.
29. What major issue was settled by the Compromise of 1877?
ANSWER: The issue was to determine who would become the President.
30. What alliance brought economic change to the South during Reconstruction?
ANSWER: It was an alliance between Southerners and Northern financiers.
31. Define Carpetbaggers.
DEFINITION: Carpetbaggers were Northerners who moved to the South right after the Civil War.
They were called “Carpetbaggers,” because their luggage was, often, made from carpet material.
Many Southerners viewed Carpetbaggers as intruders seeking to exploit post war turmoil for
their own gain.
32. Define Scalawags.
DEFINITION: Scalawags were white Southerners who worked with the Republicans, and
supported Reconstruction.
33. Define Graft.
ANSWER: It is the acquisition of money in dishonest ways, as in bribing politicians.
34. Define tenant farmer.
DEFINITION: A tenant farmer is a farmer works on land owned by another person, and pays rent
either in cash or crops.
35. Define sharecropper.
DEFINITION: A sharecropper is a farmer who works on land for an owner who provides
equipment and seed, and receives a share of the crop.
36. Describe the Panic of 1873.
ANSWER: A series of bad railroad investments caused a big bank to declare bankruptcy. This
caused many smaller banks to panic and close, and caused the stock market to crash. This
caused an economic depression, which lasted almost 7 years.
37. Describe the Compromise of 1877.
ANSWER: Southern Democrats, reportedly, agreed to give Hayes the election. In return, the
Republicans promised that a Southerner would become the Postmaster General. This was an
important position, because the Postmaster General controlled many federal jobs.
38. Describe how some white Southerners reacted to the Republican Party gaining power in the
South.
ANSWER: They scorned them.
39. What factors contributed to improving the economy in the South after Reconstruction?
ANSWER: Investments by Northern financiers were used to rebuild roads, railroads, bridges, and
industries.
40. Identify problems faced by President Grant’s administration.
ANSWER:
1. Many people believed that wealthy Americans were influential;
2. Panic of 1873;
3. Belknap Scandal;
4. Whiskey Ring Scandal;
41. Describe the Belknap Scandal.
ANSWER: Carrie Tomlinson Belknap, wife of Secretary of War William Belknap, secured a money
making deal at Fort Sill for John S. Evans. She reportedly received $6,000 per year for this
service. After her death, in 1870, Secretary Belknap continued to receive these payments until
he was impeached in 1876.
42. Describe the Whiskey Ring Scandal.
ANSWER: The Whiskey Ring was a group of whiskey distillers who bribed Internal Revenue
officials to avoid paying taxes. There were 238 indictments and 110 convictions. There were
allegations that the illegally held tax money was used by the Republican Party to fund the
reelection of President Ulysses S. Grant. President Grant was not suspected, but his private
secretary, Orville E. Babcock, was indicted in the conspiracy. Grant testified to Babcock’s
innocence, and his case was acquitted in court.
43. Explain how oil production affected the American economy.
Answer: It fueled economic expansion.
44. Explain what it means when a government has Laissez – faire economic policy.
Answer: It relies on supply and demand rather than the government regulating
prices and wages.
45. How did the use of electric power affect the economic development of the United States?
Answer: It revolutionized business by opening new markets for inventions and goods to sell.
46. Why were many workers on the Central Pacific Railroad recruited from China?
Answer: There was a shortage laborers in California
47. Why did American Railways Association divide the country into time zones?
Answer: They did this to make rail service safer and more reliable.
48. How did the government help finance railroads?
ANSWER: The government provided land grants.
49. How was the Great Northern different from other railroads of the time?
ANSWER: The Great Northern Railroad shipped goods both ways, operated without aid, and was
a financial success.
50. What factors led to the rise of big business in the United States?
ANSWER:
1. General incorporation laws.
2. economics of scale
51. Define economic scale.
ANSWER: Corporations use money raised from the sale of stock to invest in technologies, hire a
large workforce, and purchase many machines, greatly increasing their efficiency. This enabled
corporations to make goods more cheaply because they produce so much so quickly using large
manufacturing facilities.
52. Define corporation.
ANSWER: A corporation is an organization owned by many people but treated by law as though
it were a single person.
53. Why do we study history?
ANSWER: We study history to figure out how to make the world a better place.
54. What is the term for the attitude prevalent during the 19th century period of American
expansion that the United States not only could, but was destined to, stretch from coast to
coast?
ANSWER: Manifest Destiny
55. Manifest Destiny was used to justify what?
ANSWER: It was used to justify:
1. western settlement,
2. Native American removal,
3. the Mexican American War
4. the Spanish American War.
56. Define Temperance Movement:
ANSWER: The Temperance Movement is a social movement against the consumption of
alcoholic beverages.
57. Which Constitutional Amendment was motivated by the Temperance Movement?
ANSWER: 18TH Amendment
58. Define Suffrage:
ANSWER: Suffrage means the right to vote.
59. Define Women’s Suffrage Movement.
ANSWER: The Women’s Suffrage Movement was when women protested to
get the right to vote.
60. Which Constitutional Amendment was the result of the Women’s Suffrage Movement?
ANSWER: 19TH Amendment
61. What conditions led to the Cuban Rebellion in 1895?
ANSWER: The Spanish were oppressing and economically exploiting the Cubans.
62. When was the Spanish American War?
ANSWER: 1898-1899
63. Who was the President of the United States at the beginning of the Spanish American War?
ANSWER: William McKinley
64. Where was the peace treaty that ended the Spanish American War negotiated and signed?
ANSWER: Paris, France
65. List 3 results of the Spanish American War accomplish?
ANSWER:
1. Cuba became independent of Spain.
2. The United States emerged as a world power.
3. The United States gained possession of the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
66. President William McKinley was assassinated on September 6, 1901. Then his Vice President
became the President on September 14, 1901. What was the name of the new President?
ANSWER: Theodore Roosevelt
67. What did the Roosevelt Corollary say?
ANSWER: The United States would intervene in Latin America to prevent European intervention,
and to maintain stability in the Western Hemisphere.
68. How did Americans’ opinions on overseas expansion begin change in the 1800s?
ANSWER: More people believed it was the American destiny to spread its civilization oferseas.
69. How did the desire to expand into new markets help push the United States to become a world
power?
ANSWER: It led them to annex Hawaii, and to open trade with Japan.
70. What was the purpose of the Interstate Commerce Commission? How Successful was it?
ANSWER: Its purpose was to regulate railroad rates so that companies did not compete
unfairly. It was not very successful, because it lacked authority.
71. What 2 pieces of legislation were enacted due to the facts revealed in
Upton Sinclair’s book “The Jungle?”
ANSWER:
1. Meat Inspection Act
2. Pure Food and Drug Act
72. How did Roosevelt’s policies help the conservation of natural resources?
ANSWER: The policies controlled lumbering on federal land, and created national forests and
wildlife reservations to protect timber and wildlife.
73. How did the Adamson Act improve labor conditions in the United States?
ANSWER: It created an 8 hour work day for railroad workers.
74. How did Progressivism change American beliefs about the federal government?
ANSWER: It expanded democracy, and raised expectations of the federal government’s role
in the economy and the society.
75. Define the Progressive Era.
ANSWER: The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform
across the United States, from the 1890s to 1920s.
76. Define Social Activism.
ANSWER: Social activism is an intentional action with the goal of bringing about social change.
An activist is anyone who is fighting for change in society.
77. Define Muckraker.
ANSWER: The term muckraker was used in the Progressive Era to characterize reform-minded
American journalists who did investigative reporting.
78. How did muckrakers help spark the Progressive Movement?
ANSWER: They investigated social conditions, and published their findings.
79. Why did Progressives want to reorganize city government?
ANSWER: They believed that the government could not carry out reform unless it was reformed
first.
80. What actions did Progressives take to deal the issue of child labor?
ANSWER: They established the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), they wrote books to
books to help expose problems, and they helped pass laws.
81. What was impact Eugene Debs and the Socialists Party on the 1912 election?
ANSWER: The election showed socialism unlikely to succeed in the United States.
82. What factors contributed to the start of WWI in Europe?
ANSWER:
1. the alliance system
2. the naval build up
3. nationalism in the Balkans
83. What incident triggered the beginning of World War I?
ANSWER: The Archduke, of Austro-Hungaian Empire, Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie,
Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated on June 28, 1914.
84. How was American prosperity intertwined with the military fortunes of the allies?
ANSWER: Many American banks invested in an Allied victory and made loans to the Allies.
85. How did Germany’s use of unrestricted submarine warfare lead to American entry into WWI?
ANSWER: The Germans sank civilian passenger liners and US merchant ships, which outraged
the Americans who then sided with the British.
86. How did Congress ensure that the military had enough troops to fight in WWI?
ANSWER: The Selective Service Act of 1917 required all men ages 21-30 to register for the draft.
87. What federal agencies helped control industries during WWI?
ANSWER:
1. War Industries Board
2. Food Administration
3. Fuel Administration
88. How permanent were women’s advances in the workplace during WWI?
ANSWER: The gains were mostly temporary.
89. Define Espionage.
ANSWER: Espionage is the practice of spying or of using spies, typically by governments to
obtain political and military information.
90. Why did Congress pass the Espionage Act in 1917?
ANSWER: Congress passed it to control public opinion, and to stop antiwar supporters.
91. Define Conscription.
ANSWER: Conscription is the practice of ordering people by law to serve in the armed forces.
92. Define Victory Garden.
During WWI, Victory Garden was a catch phrase to promote the preserving of garden products.
They also used phrases, like “Turn your Reserves into Preserves,” “Every Kitchen a Canning
Factory,” and “Back up the Cannon with the Canner.” The National War Garden Commission
gave first prize certificates to the “best display of canned vegetables from a war garden” at
county and state fairs around the nation.
93. What new war technologies were introduced in WWI?
ANSWER:
1. machine guns
2. tanks
3. airplanes
4. poison gas
94. What was Vladimir Lenin’s first goal after controlling Russia in 1917?
ANSWER: He wanted to pull Russia out of the war, and establish a Communist state.
95. What major issues did President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points address?
ANSWER:
1. free trade
2. disarmament
3. freedom of the seas
4. impartial adjustment to colonial claims
5. open diplomacy
6. self determination
7. creation of the League of Nations
This is a copy of Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Point Plan as published by the Yale Law Library
8 January, 1918:
President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points
It will be our wish and purpose that the processes of peace, when they are begun, shall be absolutely
open and that they shall involve and permit henceforth no secret understandings of any kind. The day of
conquest and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of secret covenants entered into in the
interest of particular governments and likely at some unlooked-for moment to upset the peace of the
world. It is this happy fact, now clear to the view of every public man whose thoughts do not still linger
in an age that is dead and gone, which makes it possible for every nation whose purposes are consistent
with justice and the peace of the world to avow nor or at any other time the objects it has in view.
We entered this war because violations of right had occurred which touched us to the quick and made
the life of our own people impossible unless they were corrected and the world secure once for all
against their recurrence. What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is
that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peaceloving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured
of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and selfish aggression. All
the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly
that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us. The programme of the world's peace,
therefore, is our programme; and that programme, the only possible programme, as we see it, is this:
I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international
understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.
II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war,
except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of
international covenants.
III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade
conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its
maintenance.
IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point
consistent with domestic safety.
V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict
observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the
populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title
is to be determined.
VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will
secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an
unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political
development and national policy and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations
under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that
she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the
months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as
distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.
VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit
the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as
this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and
determined for the government of their relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole
structure and validity of international law is forever impaired.
VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to
France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world
for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the
interest of all.
IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of
nationality.
X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and
assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development.
XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia
accorded free and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another
determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nationality; and
international guarantees of the political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the
several Balkan states should be entered into.
XII. The turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the
other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life
and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be
permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international
guarantees.
XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by
indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose
political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international
covenant.
XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of
affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states
alike.
In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and assertions of right we feel ourselves to be
intimate partners of all the governments and peoples associated together against the Imperialists. We
cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand together until the end.
For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to fight and to continue to fight until they are
achieved; but only because we wish the right to prevail and desire a just and stable peace such as can be
secured only by removing the chief provocations to war, which this programme does remove. We have
no jealousy of German greatness, and there is nothing in this programme that impairs it. We grudge her
no achievement or distinction of learning or of pacific enterprise such as have made her record very
bright and very enviable. We do not wish to injure her or to block in any way her legitimate influence or
power. We do not wish to fight her either with arms or with hostile arrangements of trade if she is
willing to associate herself with us and the other peace- loving nations of the world in covenants of
justice and law and fair dealing. We wish her only to accept a place of equality among the peoples of the
world, -- the new world in which we now live, -- instead of a place of mastery.
Source: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/wilson14.asp
96. What caused the wave of strikes in 1919?
ANSWER: Businesses attempted to break the wartime gains of unions, and roll back wages.
97. Why did the end of WWI lead to race riots?
ANSWER: White soldiers returned to the US to find that they had to compete with African
Americans for jobs.
98. How did Warren G. Harding become President of the United States in 1920?
ANSWER: He campaigned for a return to a simple time before racial and labor unrest and
economic troubles.
99. What role did American women play in the war effort during WW!?
ANSWER: Women filled noncombat positions such as nurses, clerical help, and other jobs
vacated by men who had become soldiers.
100. What were the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles?
ANSWER:
1. Germany was stripped of its armed forces.
2. Germany was forced to accept guilt for the war.
3. Germany was made to pay reparations to the Allies.
101. What were the Palmer Raids?
ANSWER: The Palmer Raids were also called the Palmer Red Raids. They were raids conducted
by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1919 and 1920 in an attempt to arrest foreign anarchists,
communists, and radical leftists, many of whom were subsequently deported. These raids
were motivated by social unrest following World War I. They were led by Attorney General A.
Mitchell Palmer. They are viewed as the climax of that era’s so-called Red Scare.