US History: Final Exam Study Guide
Colonial Era & Revolution
In what ways did having colonies benefit European countries?
Who sponsored Columbus’s journey to the new world?
On the triangular trade route, what was the “middle passage”?
What was the role of an indentured servant?
What was the Boston Tea party & why was it done?
When and why was the Declaration of Independence written? What were some of the complaints against
Britain?
Which Enlightenment philosopher inspired Jefferson’s list of “inalienable rights”?
What foreign country supported the American colonies during the Revolutionary War?
In what ways was the Articles of Confederation weak?
How were the views of the federalists and antifederalists different?
What was the 3/5 Compromise?
What was the Great Compromise? How did it compromise the New Jersey and Virginia Plans?
How many branches of government does the U.S. have? What are they, and what is the purpose of this
separation of powers?
Renaissance
Enlightenment
indentured servant
Stamp Act
Sugar Act
Lexington & Concord
Articles of Confederation
federalist
antifederalist
Bill of Rights
Early America: 1790s through Reconstruction
Why did Jefferson send Lewis & Clark on their journey west?
What was the Trail of Tears and why was it done?
What was the Gold Rush and how did most Forty-Niners fare?
What were some of the causes of the Civil War?
In what ways were the North and the South different?
What event prompted the southern states to begin seceding?
During the Civil War, what was Lincoln’s main goal?
Why was the Battle of Gettysburg considered a turning point in the Civil War?
What was the significance and purpose of the Gettysburg Address?
What was the significance of the following battles: Fort Sumter, 1st Bull Run, Antietam
Where and when did the Confederacy surrender?
What did Dred Scott argue to the Supreme Court? What was the outcome?
What did the following Amendments establish: 13th , 14th , 15th ?
What was the purpose of the Reconstruction Acts?
What was the Underground Railroad and who operated it?
What issues did the south have after the Civil War?
segregation
carpetbagger
tenant farmer
freedman
abolition
secession
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
telegraph
Jefferson Davis
Ulysses S. Grant
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
Jim Crow laws
Late 19th Century America
Why were labor unions being formed at this time? What were their goals?
Why was the Sherman Antitrust Act passed?
Why were many people moving west during this time period?
What were the causes of the Spanish-American War? What were the outcomes?
Why did the U.S. want to annex Hawaii?
How did the U.S. acquire Alaska?
What was the purpose of the Open Door policy with China?
Why was the Battle of Little Big Horn (aka Custer’s Last Stand) fought?
How did railroads contribute to western expansion and technology (e.g. time zones)?
Why were many people moving to cities towards the end of the 19th century? What role did the industrial
revolution play in this?
What were some of the luxuries and leisure activities that came with urbanization and industrialization?
Why did many immigrants come to America during this time? What challenges did they face here?
What was the significance of the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case?
What was the spoils system and how did some Gilded Age presidents try to combat it?
spoils system
graft
political machines
Homestead Act
settlement houses
collective bargaining
vertical & horizontal integration
Andrew Carnegie
John Rockefeller
assimilation
yellow journalism
AFL
William Jennings Bryan
James Garfield
Chester Arthur
Grover Cleveland
civil service reform
push & pull factors
“How the Other Half Lives”
Ellis Island
The Progressive Era
What were some of the goals of the Progressive Era?
In what areas were women specifically active?
What happened at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in 1911? What was the significance of this event?
What were some of the goals of the labor movement? What were some tools used to achieve these goals?
What did the following Amendments establish: 17th, 18th , 19th ?
What role did muckraker journalists play in the Progressive Era?
What were the goals and methods of the suffrage movement? Who were some important figures?
What issues were on the political platform of the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party?
What were some of Theodore Roosevelt’s main goals and achievements?
What was the purpose of the Pure Food and Drug Act?
Why was the NAACP established?
How were Booker T. Washington’s and W.E.B. DuBois’s goals different?
initiative
referendum
direct primary
Susan B. Anthony
Carrie Chapman Catt
Francis Perkins
“The Jungle”
bully pulpit
William McKinley
Teddy Roosevelt
William Taft
Woodrow Wilson
prohibition
moving assembly line
WWI Era
What were the MANIA causes of WWI?
Which countries were on which side of the war?
What was the main style of fighting in the beginning of the war? Was it effective and why?
Why did most Americans side with the Allies, NOT the Central Powers?
How did Americans on the “home front” help with the war effort?
How was propaganda used throughout the war?
Why did Russia withdraw from the war in 1918?
Which country was blamed for the war? What were some consequences for them?
What were some of the goals of Wilson’s Fourteen Points?
Why did many U.S. Senators oppose joining the League of Nations?
What were the impacts of the war on the U.S. economy?
no man’s land
Lusitania
Zimmerman note
Sussex Pledge
convoy system
doughboys
mustard gas
victory gardens
meatless Mondays
reparations
Harlem Hellfighters
armistice
Treaty of Versailles
Espionage and Sedition Acts
Great Migration
1920s
Why was prohibition passed?
What were some of the challenges of enforcing prohibition?
How did the Harlem Renaissance promote African American culture?
How did the mass production of the car change American life?
What was the Red Scare? What were people afraid of?
Why was the quota system enacted?
What happened in the Teapot Dome scandal?
Why was John Scopes put on trial in Tennessee?
Why were Sacco & Vanzetti put on trial in Massachusetts?
speakeasies
flappers
bootleggers
jazz
immigration quotas
nativism
Charles Lindbergh
Babe Ruth
Louis Armstrong
Al Capone
Langston Hughes
Warren Harding
Calvin Coolidge
Great Depression and New Deal
How did speculation and buying on margin contribute to the severe impacts of the stock market crash?
What were some ways in which people responded to the Depression (where they went, how they tried to get
or save money, how they helped each other)?
What were the main differences in the approaches of Hoover and Roosevelt (FDR) to the Depression?
What did the government do to try to restore banks/the economy?
What was the purpose of raising tariffs during the Depression?
In what ways did the Depression impact other countries in the world?
What were some of the psychological impacts of the Depression? How did people either escape these feelings
or express them? (think leisure activities)
Why was the Depression especially hard on women and minorities?
What were the causes and effects of the Dust Bowl?
What were some benefits and drawbacks of the New Deal?
Black Tuesday
Bonus Army
unemployment rate
Dust Bowl
Hoovervilles
tariffs
New Deal
Social Security Administration
Civilian Conservation Corps
Tennessee Valley Authority
Works Progress Administration
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Securities and Exchange Commission
bank run
foreclosure
deficit spending
Mary M. Bethune
Eleanor Roosevelt
Huey Long
WWII
How did leaders like Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin come to power in their countries?
What are the features of fascism, Nazism, and communism?
What were some of Hitler’s goals for Germany, and why did other countries declare war on Germany?
Which group of people were discriminated against and put in camps by the Germans? Why?
Which group of people were discriminated against and put in camps by the U.S.? Why?
When and why did the U.S. enter WWII?
Before this, how did the U.S. stretch their original position of neutrality and help the Allies?
Why did the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact with Germany? Why did this not last?
What was the significance of the following battles/events: Pearl Harbor, D-Day, Battle of the Bulge,
Stalingrad, Iwo Jima & Okinawa, Midway, V-E Day, atomic bomb drop?
Munich Pact
Reich
concentration camps
ghettos
genocide
anti-Semitism
isolationism
Manhattan Project
WPB
WAAC
rationing
Selective Service System
Eisenhower
Nuremberg trials
GI Bill
Cold War and 1950s-60s America
How was the size and habits of the American population changing in the 1950s?
How did the increasing purchase of cars change life/the country?
Why did Americans dislike communism and the Soviet Union?
Why is it called the “Cold” War?
What was NATO and why did the U.S. join it?
What security agencies were formed or built up by the U.S. during the Cold War?
Why was the Berlin Airlift carried out?
What new weapons and technological advancements were made by both countries?
What was the U-2 incident and how did it hurt U.S./U.S.S.R. relations?
What was the kitchen debate and how did it hurt U.S./U.S.S.R. relations?
Explain the conflict in the following areas: Iran, Hungary, Guatemala, China, Korea, Nicaragua.
Who were some known Communist spies/sympathizers during the Cold War?
What was the significance of the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Where, by whom, and for what purpose was the Berlin Wall built? When did it finally come down?
How did Gorbachev change the nature of the Soviet Union in the years preceding its dissolution?
Describe Eisenhower’s domino theory and how it contributed to his stance on fighting communism.
Why did the U.S. enter Vietnam on the side of South Vietnam?
Who were the Vietcong, where did they operate, and why were they difficult to fight?
Why did many Americans become angry about U.S. involvement in Vietnam? How did they express this
anger?
What other social issues were arising in America during the 1950s and ‘60s?
How did the Civil Rights movement progress during this time? Who/what were some of the leaders and
events?
Marshall Plan
Truman Doctrine
iron curtain
Harry Truman
Dwight Eisenhower
John Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson
Joseph McCarthy/mccarthyism
Rosenbergs
Alger Hiss
38th parallel
brinkmanship
Joseph Stalin
Nikita Khrushchev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Boris Yeltsin
Ho Chi Minh
Ngo Dinh Diem
Fidel Castro
Mao Zedong
hawks & doves
boycott
Great Society
Freedom Riders
Brown v. Board of Education
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Rosa Parks
Selma march
D.C. march
George Wallace
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Voting Rights Act of 1965