History 152 Review Notes
Reconstruction
Economic changes from Civil War
I. South devastated.
II. North industrialized, improved railroads.
III. Nationalist Union Congress made changes.
A. Homestead Act, 1862.
B. Chartered transcontinental railroads.
C. National Bank Act created a national banking system.
Federal responsibility toward Blacks.
I. Economic concern, Freedmen’s Bureau
II. Some believed in 40 acres and a mule.
The meaning of Reconstruction
I. Rebuilding the South.
II. Rejoining the nation.
III. Reconstructing the society.
Different Views.
I. Moderate Republicans.
II. Lincoln
A. Saw Southern states as “erring sisters.”
B. Set up the Presidential Plan for Reconstruction, 1863.
III. Radical Republicans
A. Wanted to give blacks true equality.
B. Saw Southern states as “conquered provinces.”
C. Helped gain the 13th Amendment.
IV. Lincoln vs. Radical Republicans
A. Compromise died with Lincoln
B. John Wilkes Booth.
Andrew Johnson as president
I. Believed in a lenient reconstruction for the South.
II. Readmitted most southern states.
Confrontation developed between Congress and Johnson.
I. Southern states elected Confederates to office.
II. Southern states passed Black Codes.
A. Limited freedom of Blacks.
B. Not slavery, but next thing to it.
III. Johnson thought conditions OK.
Congress acted to protect the freedoms of Blacks
I. Extended the Freedmen’s Bureau.
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History 152 Review Notes
II. Passed a Civil Rights Act
III. Johnson vetoed measures.
IV. Congress drafted the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
Congress restarted Reconstruction.
I. Military Reconstruction Act 1867.
A. Divided South into military districts.
B. New rules for Southern states to be readmitted to union.
C. Must ratify 14th Amendment.
II. Southern states slowly readmitted, 1868-1870.
III. Last military forces removed in 1877.
Congress asserted authority
I. Passed Tenure of Office Act of 1867.
A. Johnson violated law by firing Edwin Stanton.
B. Johnson put on trial, impeached but not convicted.
II. 15th Amendment passed in 1870.
The South under Reconstruction governments.
I. Blacks served in a number of political offices.
II. Scalawags and Carpetbaggers had influence.
III. A mixed legacy for Southern governments.
Redemption -- Old guard regained power.
I. Ku Klux Klan intimidated Blacks.
II. Old Southern officials regained political offices.
III. The federal government moved on to other issues.
IV. Most Northerners satisfied with what had been accomplished.
V. Reconstruction ended with the Compromise of 1877.
New South.
Southerners wanted a new economic order with the old social order.
I. Diversify economy.
II. Cotton remained primary product.
A. Sharecroppers and tenant farmers became common.
B. Crop lien system thwarted development.
Blacks lost more freedom as 19th century progressed.
I. Blacks joined the Farmers’ Alliance.
II. Democrats and Southern whites felt threatened.
III. Blacks felt backlash
A. Franchise limited with poll tax and literacy tests.
B. Jim Crow laws applied to public accommodations.
C. Segregation upheld in 1896 with Plessy v Ferguson.
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History 152 Review Notes
D. Lynchings.
Black response.
I. Separation -- Exodusters.
II. Booker T. Washington.
A. Accommodation.
B. Atlanta Compromise, 1895.
III. W.E.B. DuBois spoke of “ceaseless agitation.”
A. N.A.A.C.P. in 1909.
Legacy of Reconstruction.
Presidency of U. S. Grant.
Reason for Republican support.
I. Supported Reconstruction.
II. Supported business -- gold standard.
A. Panic of 1873 -- 6 years of depression.
B. Greenbacks or gold.
“Grantism” -- corruption.
I. Secretary of War and Indian agents.
II. Credit Mobilier.
A. Construction company, Union Pacific.
B. Took millions of federal dollars.
III. Patronage part of the problem.
Disputed Election of 1876.
I. Rutherford Hayes v. Samuel Tilden.
Compromise of 1877.
I. Withdraw federal influence.
II. Internal improvements.
III. Cabinet appointments from South.
The West -- Definition of the West.
Myth vs Reality in the West.
I. Untamed, violent or not much more than any other place?
II. Empty or many people lived in the West?
III. Wealth & adventure or failure?
IV. Rugged individuals or people worked & lived together?
Societies of the West.
I. Indians -- generalizations.
A. Moving & changing societies.
B. Disease & horses.
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History 152 Review Notes
C. Couldn’t stop white expansion.
II. Mexican-Americans.
A. Background, how became American.
B. Status in 1860.
III. Chinese.
A. Why into the United States.
B. Accepted differently at different times.
C. Became most hated group.
D. Worked a number of jobs after California gold rush.
1. Central Pacific.
2. Service industry in mining camps.
E. Expression of anti-Chinese sentiment.
1. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
2. Rock Springs Massacre 1885.
IV. Euro-Americans in the West.
A. Who came West before the Civil War?
B. Civil War helped and hindered development of the West.
1. Some came West.
2. Federal government withdrew.
C. Civil War turning point for West.
1. Pacific Railway Acts.
2. Homestead Act of 1862.
3. Helped cattle industry.
4. Mining spread.
5. Started final move against Indians.
Development of the West.
I. Railroads: Union Pacific and Central Pacific.
A. Land and money.
B. Credit Mobilier -- symbol of Gilded Age corruption.
II. Agriculture in the West.
A. Cattle Trails -- open range, federal land
B. Ranches -- open range.
1. Competition on the range.
2. Selective land ownership -- fraud to beat the land laws.
2. The ranges became over stocked.
3. Severe winters disrupted the industry.
C. Reorganization brought sheep to the range.
1. More products from sheep.
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History 152 Review Notes
2. Brought range wars.
D. Farmers.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Homestead Act.
Railroads and states attracted people west.
Other land laws meant to help, such as Timber Culture Act.
Hard times for many.
a. High freight rates.
b. Interest on loans.
c. Prices for goods.
d. Low prices for products.
5. Political organization.
a. Grange.
b. Farmers’ Alliances -- Populist Party.
III. Mining Frontier in the Black Hills.
A. Discovery and Rush.
B. Location, Placer Mining, Boomtown era.
C. The Search for Quartz -- Homestake mine April 9, 1876.
D. The Era of Industrial Mining – George Hearst.
1. Developers consolidated claims.
E. Community Development.
Indian Wars.
I. Civil War turmoil -- Sand Creek Massacre 1864.
II. New pressure for peace after Civil War.
A. Railroad corridor.
B. Indian Peace Commission.
III. New Treaties Drafted.
A. Medicine Creek Lodge, 1867.
B. Ft. Laramie Treaty, 1868.
IV. Treaties fell apart.
V. Indian wars.
A. Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1876.
B. Later Indian Wars -- Geronimo.
VI. Ghost Dance and the Battle of Wounded Knee, 1890.
VII. Whites wanted to assimilate Indians.
A. Dawes Severalty Act of 1887.
B. Dawes Act in operation.
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History 152 Review Notes
Industrial Supremacy: Why the nation flourished.
I. Natural Resources.
II. National Expansion.
III. Population Growth.
IV. Tariffs.
V. Capital.
VI. Spirit of the Times.
VII. Advances in Science and Technology.
Railroads and the growth of America.
I. Created markets and connected markets.
II. Nation’s first big business.
III. Railroads overbuilt and brought heavy competition.
IV. Railroads associated with nation’s greatest frauds.
V. Regulation came to railroads.
A. Granger Laws.
B. Interstate Commerce Act, 1887.
1. Rates had to be reasonable and public.
Other Industries.
I. Steel.
A. Andrew Carnegie and Carnegie Steel.
B. The Gospel of Wealth.
1. Defended competition.
2. Use wealth for public good.
II. Autos.
A. Henry Ford, 1906.
B. Moving assembly line, scientific management, 1914.
III. Electricity and Telephones..
IV. Oil -- John D. Rockefeller.
A. The energy source of the 20th century.
B. Modern corporation with vertical and horizontal integration.
C. A monopoly or trust, dismantled by Supreme Court.
Explanations for those people who didn’t make it.
I. Unbridled Capitalism.
II. Social Darwinism.
A. Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species.
B. Herbert Spencer -- “survival of the fittest.”
1. Those with wealth most fit.
2. Government should not interfere.
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History 152 Review Notes
III. Challenges to Social Darwinism and capitalism.
A. Lester Frank Ward -- Dynamic Sociology.
B. Socialism.
Workers in the Era of Industrialization.
I. Working and living conditions considered poor.
II. Real Wages went up.
III. Still, workers lost status and suffered wage cuts.
IV. Great disparities in wealth.
V. Workers’ choices -- unionization?
VI. Union membership remained low.
VII. Unions that did develop.
A. Molly Maguires in the Pennsylvania coalfields.
B. Knights of Labor, reform, cooperative commonwealth.
C. American Federation of Labor, 1886.
1. Confederation of craft unions.
2. Business unionism, economic issues.
VIII. Important strikes.
A. Railroad Strike of 1877.
B. Harvester Strike of 1886 -- Haymarket Square.
C. Homestead Strike of 1892.
D. Pullman Strike of 1894.
IX. Strike outcomes.
A. Workers lost.
B. Business more powerful.
C. Helped by government.
X. Some turned to Socialism.
Urban America.
I. The growth of cities.
A. Farm to cities.
B. Immigration.
II. What cities offered.
A. Jobs.
B. Conveniences.
Immigration.
I. Push - Pull factors brought people to the United States.
A. Economic reasons/famine.
B. Religious persecution.
C. Political freedom.
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History 152 Review Notes
D. Wars.
II. The change in immigration.
A. “Old” immigrants dominate before 1890, from Northwest Europe.
B. “New” immigrants dominate after 1890, from Southeast Europe.
III. Why change in immigration.
A. Transportation.
B. Industrialization.
IV. How immigrants learned about United States.
A. Friend or family member.
B. Private recruiters.
C. Promoters from states and businesses.
V. “Birds of Passage.”
VI. How immigrants entered the United States.
A. Little early control.
B. Concerns over immigration brought new controls.
C. Bureau of Immigration, 1891.
D. Ellis Island opened in 1892.
VII. How new immigrants were received.
A. Some welcomed, cheap labor.
B. Workers saw immigrants as a threat.
C. Nativism
A. Race -- false beliefs in race.
B. Religion -- Catholics and Jews seen as a threat.
C. Radicals -- foreigners feared.
D. American Protective Association, 1887.
VIII. Move for restriction.
A. Immigration Act of 1917.
IX. Immigrants often first settled in cities.
A. Ethnic neighborhoods developed.
B. Some moved from cities to farms.
Cities.
I. Cities grew horizontally based on transportation.
A. Street railways from 1850s to 1890s.
B. Electric trolleys by 1900s.
1. “Streetcar suburbs.”
2. Subways and elevated railways.
II. Vertical growth.
A. Early buildings limited in height.
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History 152 Review Notes
B. Elevators and steel beams allowed taller buildings.
C. Home Life Insurance Building, Chicago, 1885.
III. Cities had many problems.
A. City machines and city bosses.
B. From sanitation to crime.
C. Cities had benefits.
Politics.
I. The Gilded Age.
A. Politicians seemed to be corrupt.
B. Politicians seemed to avoid the issues.
II. Time of political stalemate or political equilibrium.
A. Balance between parties.
B. Balance within parties.
1. Stalwarts a Republican faction.
2. Half-Breeds a Republican faction, James G. Blaine.
III. Era of Citizen Mobilization.
A. Social function.
B. Part of culture.
IV. Republicans.
A. Party of progress; party of reform.
B. Old stock Americans, party of the North.
C. Party of business and high tariffs.
V. Democrats.
A. People who were not Republicans.
B. Immigrants, Catholics.
C. Limited government, states’ rights, the Solid South.
D. Party of farmers and low tariffs.
Issues.
I. Clean up government.
A. Civil Service Reform, tried to limit patronage.
1. Election of 1880.
a. James Garfield, a Half-Breed.
b. Chester Arthur, a Stalwart.
2. Garfield assassinated apparently over patronage.
3. Pendleton Act 1883: Civil Service Commission.
B. To stop corrupt politicians.
1. 1884 election: James G. Blaine vs. Grover Cleveland.
2. Cleveland seemed to promise reform.
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History 152 Review Notes
3. Mugwumps: Republicans who supported Cleveland.
4. Cleveland won, but cared more about tariffs.
II. Tariffs.
A. Cleveland wanted to lower tariffs.
B. 1888 election dedicated to the tariff issue.
C. Benjamin Harrison vs. Grover Cleveland.
D. Harrison won election with a minority of popular votes.
E. Republicans raised tariffs to new highs: McKinley Tariff 1890.
F. Election of 1890 saw Republicans lose control of Congress.
G. Cleveland returned to the Presidency in 1892.
H. The Panic of 1893 prevented any action on the tariff.
III. Anti-trust -- attack on big business.
A. Railroads -- Granger laws.
B. Interstate Commerce Act, 1887.
C. Efforts to prevent restraint of trade.
D. Sherman Anti-trust Act, 1890.
1. Outlaw conspiracies in “restraint of trade.”
2. Only enforced through law suits.
Agrarian Revolt.
I. Reflected in 1890 election.
A. Problems in South and West brought new political action.
B. People’s Party -- Populist Party.
II. Farm problems.
A. Over-production -- competition.
B. Deflation.
III. Background to farm organizations.
A. Grange, 1867: social group to political activists.
B. Farmers’ Alliances, 1877.
1. Cooperatives.
2. Subtreasury plan: Government to loan money to farmers.
C. Brought little response from government.
IV. Farmers into politics, People’s Party.
A. Graduated income tax.
B. National ownership of railroads.
C. Subtreasury plan.
D. Unlimited coinage of silver.
V. Silver as an issue.
A. Combined the desires of farmers and miners.
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History 152 Review Notes
B. Crime of ‘73 took silver out of circulation.
C. Plenty of silver available.
D. Congress resisted, passed silver purchase acts.
E. Populists entered 1892 election.
VI. Cleveland in 1892, Panic of 1893 overwhelms administration.
A. Pullman Strike of 1894.
B. Coxey’s Army marched on Washington.
C. Cleveland blamed silver for the nation’s problems.
D. Populists believed that silver would solve problems.
VII. Silver became the issue for 1896 Presidential election.
A. Republican William McKinley supported gold.
B. Democrats met and fractured over silver issue.
C. Populists hoped to win the election on silver issue.
D. William Jennings Bryan, Democratic Party selection.
E. Populist Party joined the Democratic Party.
VIII. The election of 1896: McKinley vs. Bryan.
A. Industrial values vs traditional agriculture values.
B. The past vs the future.
C. McKinley claimed it was business vs communism.
IX. New discoveries of gold, the Spanish American War, and prosperity ended silver as an issue.
Foreign Policy from the Civil War to World War I.
Not a great concern for Americans after Civil War.
I. Isolated.
II. Monroe Doctrine: wanted isolation.
III. Weak neighbors.
Foreign policy broken into two periods.
From 1865 to 1898, no set foreign policy.
I. When based on Secretary of State.
A. William Seward, Alaska in 1867.
B. James G. Blaine, trade relations with Latin America.
II. Reacted to violations of Monroe Doctrine.
A. Great Britain threatened Venezuela in 1895.
B. United States threatened war.
III. Citizens forced American policy.
A. Hawaii sugar planters pushed revolution in 1893.
B. Planters wanted annexation.
War with Spain made United States a world power.
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History 152 Review Notes
Reasons for war.
I. Cuban Revolution in 1895.
II. Yellow journalism, fight between Hearst and Pulitzer.
III. American investments.
IV. Security threat to canal.
V. American nationalists.
A. Theodore Roosevelt.
B. Alfred T. Mahan, a “large policy” for America.
C. The Influence of Sea Power Upon History.
VI. deLome Note -- McKinley insulted.
VII. Maine sunk in February 1898.
VIII. McKinley hesitated, offered to mediate.
IX. Spain declined mediation and declared war.
X. United States declared war, April 1898.
How war fought.
I. Admiral Dewey attacked the Philippines.
II. Navy attacked Santiago harbor.
III. Military volunteers took Kettle and San Juan Hills.
A. Rough Riders gained fame: Theodore Roosevelt, national hero.
IV. Treaty of Paris, December 1898 brought peace.
Changes brought by the war.
I. Cuba independent.
A. Teller Amendment kept Cuba independent.
B. Platt Amendment gave United States right to intervene.
II. Philippines and Puerto Rico became part of the United States.
A. Bases for navy.
B. Spread American institutions.
C. Markets.
III. Philippines protest control.
IV. Puerto Rico an American commonwealth.
The United States as a world power.
I. Issued Open Door notes in 1899.
II. Roosevelt pushed US onto world stage.
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History 152 Review Notes
History 152: First Examination Essay Questions.
Of the following four essay questions, two will appear on the examination. You must
answer both. You are encouraged to prepare before the exam, but you are not allowed to bring
anything to class to assist you with your answer. Each is worth 15 points for a possible 30 points.
1. How did the Reconstruction process change over time, and what is its legacy?
2. Discuss the major factors that helped America become an industrialized nation during the late
19th and early 20th centuries.
3. Discuss the major issues that confronted Congress between 1877 and 1896, and explain what
actions were taken.
4. Discuss and evaluate the factors that led to the United States’ decision to declare was against
Spain in 1898.
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