#2 - U. S. History since
1865
Name ____________________________
Use the packet to answer the following questions.
1. How did the industrial revolution change America?
Spurred new technology, factories flourished, transportation increased
2. Name 3 inventions of Thomas Edison’s. Light bulb, phonograph, motion picture camera, microphone
3. Who invented the telephone? Alexander Graham Bell
4. What were Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Morgan and Carnegie known for?
Business:
RR
Oil
banker
Steel
5. Why did American citizens and immigrants move to the cities in the late 1800s?
Employment, availability of goods and services
6. What problems were caused by the rapid growth of cities? Sanitation, disease, lack of housing
7. What were Jim Crow laws? Laws that segregated public facilities
8. What was decided in Plessy v Ferguson?
Permitted segregated facilities, “separate but equal” is constitutional – 1896
9. As Americans moved west, how were the Indians treated? Pushed into smaller territory, cheated by govt.
10. What was the Dawes Act and why did it fail?
Gave each Indian male 160 acres of land to farm but no farm equipment or instruction
11. Why were many Chinese brought to America in the 1860s? build railroads
12. What was the Chinese Exclusion Act? Couldn’t enter the US for 10 years
13. Why did the U. S. seek to acquire colonial possessions (turn to imperialism) around 1900?
Raw materials and world markers to sell surplus American goods
14. Name two causes of the Spanish-American war. Yellow journalism, sinking of the Maine
15. What lands did America acquire as a result of the victory in the Spanish-American war?
Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines
16. How did America acquire the right to build the Panama Canal?
Helped Panama get independence from Colombia
17. What was the Open Door Policy? American proposal for equal trading rights in China
18. What were muckrakers? Journalists who exposed corruption in government and social injustice
19. What was the Progressive Movement?
Reform movement which regulated banking, business, and transportation. Supported by Democrats and
Republicans.
20. Why did America enter WWI?
Germany sank ships carrying Americans, Zimmerman Note, Germany sank 4 Am. merchant ships
21. What was America’s foreign policy after WWI? isolation
22. What were the 19th and 18th amendments?
19th – woman’s suffrage (voting)
18th – prohibition of alcohol
23. Name 3 technological advances of the 20s and 30s. Automobile, electricity, radio, movies
24. What was the Harlem Renaissance? Recognized cultural achievements of African Americans
25. What is one event that led to the Great Depression of the 1930s? Business slowed, stock market crashed
26. Briefly describe the American Economic System.
mixed market economy (free enterprise with some govt. controls)
27. What is a monopoly? Only one company sells a product Are they legal in America? No
28. Why did labor unions begin to form in the 1870s?
Note: Another name for organized labor is “collective bargaining.”
Long hours, hazardous work conditions, low wages, child labor
29. What is the purpose of the Federal Reserve System?
Controls the banking system, influences economic growth by changing interest rates on loans or the
money supply
30. What happened to the price of stock in the late 20s? Why didn’t investors sell their stock?
Dropped rapidly
There was no one to buy it
31. Why couldn’t many people get money from their savings accounts during the Depression?
Banks had lost the money
32. In order to help Americans through the Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt created a series of
government programs known as the New Deal.
a. What agency gave loans to farmers? AAA (Agriculture Adjustment Act)
b. What was the purpose of the TVA? Provide employment and electricity to South
c. What was the purpose of Social Security? Retirement income for workers
d. What law was passed to protect the worker and give him the right to join a union? (both names)
Wagner Act or National Labor Relations Act
e. What was the purpose of the Works Progress Administration (WPA)?
Jobs building hospitals, schools, parks and playgrounds
f. What law created a minimum wage and maximum working hours? Fair Labor Standards Act
33. What was the name for the program in which America provided weapons to Great Britain in WWII?
Lend-Lease Act
34. What event brought the U.S. into WWII? Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor When? Dec. 7, 1941
35. What status was earned as a result of the United States’ victory in WWII? Super Power
Soviet Union was also known by this term.
36. Who were we fighting in WWII? Name the Axis Powers. Japan, Italy, Germany
37. What new weapon did America use to defeat Japan in WWII? Atomic bomb3
38. What happened to the U.S. economy as a result of WWII? Boomed
39. After WWII, the European continent was divided between the U.S. and Soviet Union with the
understanding that each Superpower would help the countries recover from the war. What happened to
the areas controlled by the: U. S? Democracy & recovery
USSR? Communism
40. What is the name for the Post WWII tensions between the US and the USSR? Cold War
41. What was the purpose of the Truman Doctrine? Stop the spread of communism
42. What is the name for the post WWII alliance of Western European countries and the US? NATO
43. What was the purpose of the Korean and Vietnam wars? Contain communism
44. Who created fear of a communist takeover of America in the 1950s? Joseph McCarthy
45. What two nations did President Jimmy Carter invite to Camp David where they worked out a peace
agreement? Egypt and Israel
46. What Supreme Court ruling said that schools must be desegregated? Brown vs. Board of Education
47. What law outlawed discrimination on the basis of race (protected voting rights, integration of public
places and workers)? Civil Rights Act of 1964
48. What was the purpose of President Kennedy’s New Frontier program?
Fight poverty, disease and social injustice
49. What was the name for President Johnson’s program to help America’s poor? Great Society
50. What has America contributed to the “information age”? computer technology
51. What type of economy is practiced in the US, where private ownership of business is allowed, the role
of government is limited and individuals choose their jobs? Capitalism or Market Economy