Things You Need to Know in U.S. History...or else!!!
1. One of the first questions on the regents could deal with geography. Possible suggestions:
★North/South
★harbors in northeast allow for shipping and development of manufacturing
★plantation friendly geography of south leads to the use of slavery and dependence on agriculture
★Mississippi River - trade/commerce
★Atlantic Ocean buffers us from Europe - isolationism
★Gulf of Mexico - access to trade
★Appalachian Mountains - western border for colonies
2. House of Burgesses and Mayflower Compact - self-government, representative democracy
3. Mercantilism or triangular trade: between Europe, Africa and Americas, Europe is using the colonies for their stuff, saving the profitable business of manufacturing for England; Africa - the human slave trade which was used to help harvest raw materials in Americas
4. No taxation without representation - by not being “represented” through a vote, the people felt as if they were “owned” rather than “owning” their government
5. The Declaration of Independence is the ultimate breakup letter to King George; influenced by John Locke, written by Thomas Jefferson, it is a list of complaints about why we were leaving England; consent of the governed; right of revolution
6. “Common Sense” (1775) was written by Thomas Paine and was used to persuade the colonists to support the revolution by using “common sense” arguments
7. The American Revolution was won because of home field advantage; started in 1776; from 1776-1787 we were governed by our first constitution, the Article of Confederation
8. The Articles of Confederation suck/failed because: the Federal government was too weak, states had too much power, it had only a legislative branch, each state had only one vote, required everyone to amend the Articles. Remember this:
★NO TAXING
★NO ARMY
★NO MONEY SYSTEM
★NO PRESIDENT
8. Shay’s Rebellion - death blow to the Articles of Confederation; once it was seen how poor, angry farmers could threaten power and no one could stop it, it was decided a stronger government was needed
9. Federalism is the division of power between the state and federal (national) government; basis for our Constitution
★Delegated power - federal power in Constitution
★Reserved power - power reserved or set aside for states
★Concurrent Power - shared power between state and federal government
10. Northwest Ordinance of 1787 - passed under Articles of Confederation, develops process in which territories can enter the union
11. Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia, 1787 - originally intended to amend (change) the Articles
12. Great Compromise - compromise at Constitutional Convention, between large and small states, two house Congress (bicameral), House of Representatives based on population, Senate equal for each state (2)
13. Census taken every 10 years to count population
★⅗ Compromise - how to count slaves for representation, gave slavery and racism a written place in the Constitution
14. Federalist Papers - written by Federalists (Alexander Hamilton) to persuade people to ratify the Constitution
15. Federalists - wanted strong central government, Anti-Federalists - feared an abusive federal government, wanted a Bill of Rights added to protect our rights
16. Constitution:
★Article 1 - Legislative power (Congress)
★Article 2 - Executive power (President)
★Article 3 - Judicial power (Courts)
★Article 4 - State Obligations
★Article 5 - Amendment procedure
★Article 6 - Supremacy clause
17. Bill of Rights: know them!
18. Supremacy Clause states that the Constitution is the law of the land, Federal law always wins out over states
19. House of Representatives - can impeach president, starts revenue/tax bills
20. Senate - check President decisions, can hold an impeachment trial
21. Elastic Clause - Congress shall make all laws necessary and proper, lets Constitution stretch like a rubber band to change with times
22. Congress can amend Constitution with ⅔ vote (¾ vote of states), can also override a presidential veto
23. Executive branch - president, can serve two terms, no more; each term is four years; Commander in Chief; enforcer of law; can sign treaties, can suspend habeas corpus, can veto laws
24. Judicial branch - chosen by president, confirmed by Senate; Marbury v. Madison (judicial review), serve lifetime terms to protect them from public opinion
25. Constitution is flexible because it can be changed
26. Amendments: know ones not in Bill of Rights
27. Unwritten Constitution: tradition, custom
★cabinet
★two party system
★filibuster
28. Electoral College: how we elect the President; electoral number is based on the representation in Congress; 538 electoral votes, 270 needed to win election; can win popular vote but still lose election (Bush v. Gore - 2000)
29. Northerners were generally considered Federalists (supported a strong central government) to protect their industries and banks, Southerners generally did not trust the Federal government, and wanted more states rights
30. Tariffs are taxes on imports; designed to help protect U.S. industry and encourage people to buy American made goods; Northerner love it, Southerners hate it because it raises prices of their goods
31. Washington known for enforcing presidential power in the Whiskey Rebellion, Alexander Hamilton known for his economic power and position regarding the national bank, John Marshall (supreme court justice) known for his strong court decisions (Marbury v. Madison)
32. Washington’s Farewell Address: stay away from foreign affairs, avoid political parties, no more than two terms for president
33. Thomas Jefferson: Louisiana Purchase - manifest destiny, addition of Mississippi River; he has a loose constructionist view of the Constitution (believe it can change with the times)
34. Andrew Jackson: not a friend to Native Americans, uses the spoils system to appoint friends to powerful positions, vetoes a LOT of bills
35. Manifest Destiny: expansion ordained by God from coast to coast; examples: Mexican War, Louisiana Purchase, transcontinental railroad, relocating Native Americans to reservations
36. Trail of Tears: forcible removal of Native Americans to west of the Mississippi; 50 years later the U.s. will forcibly move Native Americans onto reservations again with the passage of the Dawes Act
37. Homestead Act: giving free land to settlers who committed to working and farming the land out west for five years
38. Sectionalism: what do we do with slavery as we expand?; temporary compromises: Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, popular sovereignty - none of this works
39. Dred Scott Decision: declared slaves property, made compromising over slavery impossible, caused abolitionists to be angry, pushed north and south further apart; the match that lights the fuse of the Civil War; John Brown’s execution and Lincoln’s election are the last straw
40. North wins the Civil War because of:
★more money
★more men
★more resources
★more transportation
41. Lincoln suspends habeas corpus in border states to keep them in the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in Southern states, not the border states.
42. Lincoln fought the Civil War to save the Union!!!!!!!!!
43. Reconstruction: Lincoln and Johnson want to go easy on the South and let them back in quickly; Congress wants to punish the South. Johnson impeached for violating the Tenure of Office Act, found not guilty by one vote
44. Reconstruction - 1865-1877: blacks get votes and elected, military occupies south to keep order, south tries to pass black codes, 13, 14, 15 amendments, Freedmen’s Bureau, carpetbaggers, scalawags
45. 14th amendment: equal protection under the law, African Americans made citizens
46. Compromise of 1877: troops left the South and Reconstruction ends
47. Plessy v. Ferguson trashed the 14th amendment and upholds segregation; Jim Crow Laws= KKK, lynching, literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses
48. Booker T. Washington: hard work and vocational education was the path to civil rights; W.E.B. DuBois: Harvard educated lawyer who did not want to wait for civil rights but to fight for them in court, founded Niagara Movement and NAACP
49. Industrialization: immigrants and rural people moved to cities to work in factories, increased production, created a middle class, improved way of life; because government was laissez faire = no protection from the government for consumers and workers
50. Businesses grow to form monopolies and trusts that kill competition and raise prices; some business owners were philanthropists and gave money to charity (Carnegie)
51. Immigration: open during industrialization; cheap labor; backlash - Chinese Exclusion Act; nativism; xenophobia
52. Laissez faire: unions struggle, government supports big business; Knights of Labor, American Federation of Labor - unions want collective bargaining rights
53. Social Darwinism: belief of the rich of the industrial age, those with riches were deserving because they were born that way; defended the extreme gap between the rich and the poor
54. U.S. Foreign Policy = Self interest
55. Monroe Doctrine: warned Europe that Latin America was our neighborhood and we didn’t want Europe hanging around
56. Imperialism: demand for raw materials and new markets; let to annexation of Hawaii and Alaska; Open Door Policy with China (trade)
57. Spanish American War: Cuba; yellow Journalism (stretching the truth to sell and make war), sinking of USS Maine used to invade Cuba and kick out Spanish; U.S. controls Cuba for a time, and gets control of Puerto Rico and the Philippines
58. Roosevelt Corollary: imagine the Monroe Doctrine beefed up and armed!; Spanish American War, Panama Canal
59. Populism: at turn of century, people start to want change; Populists, Grange Movement, Progressive Party, Socialist Party; third parties give us many ideas for change
60. Grange movement: farmers lives stink, they hate gold, banks and railroads
61. Progressive Era: Teddy Roosevelt pushed through the Square Deal, used Sherman Anti-Trust Act and Interstate Commerce Commision to break up monopolies, signed Meat Inspection Act, Hepburn Act (regulates RR), conservationist who created many of our national parks
62. Muckrakers: made people aware of problems, most often seen on test is Upton Sinclair - The Jungle; also know How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis and The Octopus by Frank Norris
63. Woodrow Wilson: supports progressive income tax, Federal Reserve Act regulates money supply, president during WWI, adopted neutrality when war broke out; U.S. enters war after Zimmerman Note, Lusitania and unrestricted submarine warfare
64. WWI and WWII domestic ideas: women working in factories, Rosie the Riveter; Great Migrations (African Americans move north for jobs, causing the Harlem Renaissance); people buy liberty bonds/war bonds to raise money for the war and government controls the economy (price controls and rationing)
65. Peace after WWI: Wilson’s plan for peace - 14 Points, League of Nations; the Treaty of Versailles included the League of Nations, but the U.S. Senate rejects the treaty and the League, and we become isolationist
66. Schenck v. U.S.: WWI free speech case; Schenck is a protester, socialist, and advocates avoiding the draft; court limits the first amendment, declares speech which creates clear and present danger to be illegal
67. 19th amendment: women’s suffrage; women first demand right to vote in Seneca Falls in 1848; during 1960s women fight for equal pay and equal rights amendment (never ratified)
68. 1920s: isolationism, nativism, laissez faire (with regard to business), economically booming, prohibition, Scopes Monkey Trial (conflict between traditional values and modern values), National Origins Act (limiting immigration), fear of foreigners, Red Scare (fear of communism)
69. 1929: Stock Market crash, Hoover believes in self-reliance, Hoovervilles setup, Bonus Army riots for payments from WWI
70. Causes of Great Depression: credit, overproduction, margin buying, overspending, Dust Bowl, bad loans
71. FDR: New Deal (expands government power, expands presidential power); Alphabet Soup (Social Security, TVA, CCC, AAA, FDIC, NRA, WPA)
72. Court packing: following the AAA and the NRA being declared unconstitutional, FDR proposes to increase the number of justices on the Supreme court, ultimately rejected by the Congress and American public, violates checks and balances
73. 1930s: neutral until Lend Lease Act; after Pearl Harbor - WWII
74. D-Day: invasion of Europe by Allies, June 6, 1944
75. Korematsu v. U.S.: Japanese Americans on West Coast sent to “relocation internment camps” because we fear they may be spies; court rules this is okay because of national security
76. Cold War: starts as WWII ends; Soviet Union (ally in WWII) now our enemy, map of Europe is drawn at Yalta Conference, U.S. policy is containment
77. Containment: Truman Doctrine, Marshall plan, Berlin airlift, Korean War, Bay of Pigs Invasion, Vietnam War
78. NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization, form of collective security to keep WWIII from happening
79. Truman: dropped atomic bomb on Japan ending WWII, fired MacArthur during Korean War, desegregated the army in 1948
80. Post WWII: GI Bill passed (helped to send veterans to school), U.S. experiences Baby Boom (growth in population), Red Scare (McCarthyism, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, House Un-American Activities Committee)
81. Sputnik: Soviet satellite, first ever launched; pushed U.S. into forming NASA, putting man on the moon (1969), space race and investing in math and science education
82. 1950s: economic growth, suburbia, conformity, red scare
83. Civil Rights: civil disobedience; Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr.; Brown v. Board of Education (separate is NOT equal); Little Rock Nine and use of federal troops to desegregate schools; sit-ins; CORE; freedom riders; March on Washington; Selma March; 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1965 Voting Rights Act; Malcolm X; black nationalism; Black Panthers; rejection of passive resistance
84. Korean War: United Nations effort, effort to contain communism in Asia
85. Vietnam War: domino theory; war expanded after Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (giving LBJ power to send troops without a declaration of war), resulted in protests at home, ended with Nixon’s plan of Vietnamization; 1974 - Congress took back some of its powers with the War Powers Act which gives them the power to bring home troops after 60 days if there is no declaration of war
86. Peace Corps: created by JFK to aid in the development of developing nations and contain communism
87. Cuban Missile Crisis: JFK blockaded Cuba when Soviets were putting nuclear weapons on the island, resolved through negotiation, weapons were removed
88. Warren Court: activist Supreme Court which expanded constitutional and individual rights; Mapp v. Ohio, Miranda v. Arizona, Gideon v. Wainwright, Escobedo v. Illinois, Tinker v. DesMoines, NJ v. TLO
89. Great Society: LBJ’s plan to expand on New Deal to create a larger safety net and help the poor; Medicare (elderly), Medicaid (poor), welfare, public housing, food stamps, Head Start; expands the role of the federal government; criticism is that it is too big, too costly, creates a form of dependency
90. Roe v. Wade: legalized abortion
91. Detente is the cooling off of the cold war; Nixon led it, visits China, signs SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) to limit nuclear weapons, ends Vietnam
92. Affirmative Action: when colleges and government use race as a factor to award jobs, entry or awards; designed to fight the effects of racism/poverty/history; critics call it reverse racism; Bakke v. University of California - court said it could not be used as a quota system but race could be a consideration (one of many) for entrance into college
93. Watergate: forces Nixon to resign, Nixon tried to use executive privilege to try and ignore a congressional investigation; U.S. v. Nixon (no one is above the law, turn the tapes over)
94. NY Times v. U.S.: court case which expanded press rights over prior restraint, allowed the NY Times to publish the Pentagon Papers
95. Camp David Accords: signed by Jimmy Carter, peace in Middle East between Egypt and Israel
96. Iran Hostage Crisis: Iran takes U.S. hostages as it creates an Islamic nation, Carter cannot rescue hostages, causes him to lose election in 1980, Reagan wins election and hostages are released; later Reagan involved in Iran Contra Scandal which involved U.S. selling arms (weapons) to Iran and give the money to anti-communists (Contras) in Nicaragua
97. Supply side economics: trickle down economics, used by Ronald Reagan, tax cuts for the rich to create jobs for the poor
98. Star Wars: SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) to change the threat of a nuclear attack, increased defense spending
99. Soviet Union broke up in 1991, two years after fall of Berlin Wall; Gorbachev instituted reforms such as glasnost and perestroika
100. Foreign Policy in 1990s: New World Order; U.S. likes to be policeman of world; Persian Gulf War (save Kuwait from Saddam Hussein), Bosnia/Serbia (stop civil war/genocide)
101. Relationship with Japan and China in 1980s and 1990s is a trade imbalance (we sell lots of their stuff but they don’t buy much of ours)
102. Bill Clinton: 1992-2000, Democrat, balanced the budget, impeached for lying under oath about relationship with White House intern (Monica Lewinsky), found not guilty by Senate