U.S. History
Second Semester Exam Review
The semester exam will consist of 100 four-option multiple choice questions. It will cover chapters 12-25 (please note NOT every chapter was covered) and additional material on the Cold War. The information below is organized by chapter and topic. To prepare for the exam explain the significance or importance of the terms below.
Chapter 12: Reconstruction
The 10% plan
Explain why the Republican Party grew in strength in the South following the Civil War.
Define carpetbagger
Define scalawag
Define sharecropping
Define tenant farming
What role did the Ku Klux Klan play during Reconstruction?
What was the Compromise of 1877?
What is the significance of Credit Moblier and the Whiskey Ring?
Which amendments legally ended slavery in the United States?
Chapters 13 & 14: The Frontier and Industrialization
Identify the forces that drew people to the West in the years following the Civil War.
How did railroads affect westward migration?
What was the purpose of the Dawes Act?
What were the goals of the Farmer’s Alliance?
What were the goals of the Populists and who did they appeal to?
What was the Bessemer process?
Define the following: monopoly, trust, robber baron, captain of industry
Describe the working conditions for laborers in factories in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Chapter 17: Progressivism
What did progressive reformers aim to do?
Define the following: initiative, referendum, recall
Who was Bob La Follette?
When did people begin directly electing U.S. senators?
When and where did women first begin going to college?
What was the Square Deal?
Who were the muckrakers?
What did The Jungle aim to do?
Who were W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington?
Why was the Bull Moose Party formed?
Chapter 18: Imperialism
Who was Alfred Thayer Mahan and what did he propose?
What the topic of the DeLome letter?
Why did the United States become interested in annexing Hawaii?
What territorial adjustments were made at the end of the Spanish-American War?
What does the “Open Door” policy refer to?
How did the U.S acquire the rights to dig the Panama Canal?
What was message of Roosevelt’s “big stick” diplomacy and corollary to the Monroe Doctrine?
At what point did the United States become an imperial power?
Chapter 19: World War I
Identify the root causes of the outbreak WWI in Europe? What event triggered the outbreak of war?
What did the terms “no man’s land” and “going over the top” mean?
Identify the locations of the Western and Eastern fronts.
What was Woodrow Wilson’s initial position on the war?
Identify the key events that led to U.S. entry into war, and identify which represented the “final straw”.
What role did women play in the armed forces?
Who led U.S. troops in the war?
Who were the “doughboys”
How did the U.S. government “sell” the war to the American people AND use them to fund the war?
What was the Great Migration and how did the war contribute to it?
What brought WWI to an end?
What was the purpose of the League of Nations?
Chapters 22-23: The Depression and New Deal
Describe the U.S. economy in the 1920s.
Define the following: speculating, buying on margin, the bull market, Black Tuesday
What was Hoover’s approach to the onset of the Depression?
Explain why banks collapsed when the stock market crashed.
What was the “brain trust”?
What was the purpose of Roosevelt’s fireside chats?
What was the purpose of the SEC?
How did the Supreme Court tend to interpret New Deal legislation?
What did the Wagner Act do?
Who was the AAA intended to help?
Who was Social Security intended to help?
Chapters 24-25: World War II
What was the purpose of “cash and carry” and “lend and lease”?
What was the purpose of the Atlantic Charter?
When did the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, and how did the U.S. react?
How did women and people of color contribute to the war effort?
How was the United States able to rapidly mobilize for war?
What was the Manhattan project?
What was “Operation Torch”?
What event turned the tide in Europe and when did it take place?
What roles did Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur play in the war?
Why can the Battle of Midway be considered a turning point in the war?
When and why were two atomic bombs dropped on Japan?
What was the purpose of the Nuremberg Trials?
How was Japan transformed after the war?
Chapters 26 –and beyond: The Cold War
TBD – approximately 10 questions based on what we are able to cover