USU 1300 American Institutions

Study Questions Chapter 15

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-For what reason was the Civil War fought…..slavery?

-The first major battle of the Civil War happened on what date, where, and what was the
outcome?

-What was the Union’s “Anaconda plan?”

-Strategic thinking on both sides in the war slighted the importance of what section of the United
States?

-What did Admiral David Farragut do in the Spring of 1862, and why was this so important?

-Which was the single bloodiest day of the Civil War?

-The Union blockade of Southern ports caused the South to do what?

- What were the inequities built into the Confederate draft?

-What were the Morrill Land Grant Act and Homestead Act….what did they do?

-What was Lincoln’s view on emancipation, and what did he think should be done with any freed
slaves?

-What was the Emancipation Proclamation, what did it do exactly, and when was it announced?

-As part of Lincoln’s re-election campaign in 1864, what new plank did the President ask his
party to put into the Republican platform? Was it ever put into force, and if so, when?
-Did any black men serve in the Union Army, and if so, about how many?

-What’s the difference between a “smoothbore musket” and a “rifle,” and what role did they play
in the Civil War?

-Why was the Battle of Vicksburg so important to the North?

-Why was the Battle of Gettysburg so important in the outcome of the Civil War?

-What five (5) major points of disunity can you point out relative to the South and the
Confederacy?
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-What military strategy did General Grant employ for victory, and what were the risks?

-What was Sherman’s march to the sea, when did it happen, what did it accomplish?

-The Civil War ended on what date, where, why?

-What happened April 14, 1865?

-More American men died in the Civil War than what other wars combined?
USU 1300 – American Institutions
Study Questions Chapter 16

-What was President Lincoln’s “10 percent plan?”

-What did the 13th Amendment to the Constitution set forth in law?

-What was the Freedman’s Bureau?

-Once they had been freed, what did former black slaves wander in search of?

-From your book and notes, what three things did former slaves expect with their freedom?

-What is sharecropping, how did it start, and was it a help or hindrance to former slaves?

-Soon after proposing his initial plan for Reconstruction in the South, Andrew Johnson
surprisingly helped subvert his own plan by doing what?

-What were “black codes” and what did they show about white southerners?

-What were the “Radical Republicans” in Congress all about?

-The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution did what for former black slaves?

-Although the South lost the Civil War, it was possible that the South would gain power in
Congress when readmitted to the Union, why?

-When Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867, it reversed what long-standing
principle?
-Can you tell the story of President Johnson’s impeachment?

-Who won the election of 1868?

-What was achieved by passage of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution?

-What is a “Carpetbagger” and who was a “Scalawag?”

-The most enduring failure of Reconstruction was what?

-How effective was the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and why?

-What was the ‘disputed election of 1876 all about, and its compromise?

-From your book and Notes: The migration of the African-American Exodusters from the South
to Kansas in the late 1870s was prompted by what? Over what did African-American grieve?
USU 1300 – American Institutions
Study Questions Chapter 17

-(From the intro to the Chapter 17) How were Buffalo Bill and Frederick Jackson Turner
different, and on what did they both agree?

-In differing degrees, all Indians based their economies on four things...
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-(In your notes): How did Indians on the Great Plains come to have horses?

-(From pages 325-328 of Chapter 13 and your notes) Briefly outline early exploration of the
American West from Lewis and Clark to John C. Fremont

-What is “Manifest Destiny” and how did it impact the West?

-Why did whites attempt to exterminate the buffalo? Can you briefly relate the history of how
that played out?

-How many buffalo roamed the Great Plains about 1820? How about in the 1880s?

-What three degrading consequences came from the United State’s Reservation policy?
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-Supreme Court decisions in 1884 and 1886 did what for/to Native Americans?

-What was the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 and what did it do?
-What two main tactics did US Indian assimilation policy take on in the 1880s?
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-What was the general outcome of reservation policy and assimilation for Native peoples in
respect to their homelands?

-What was the Timber and Stone Act of 1878 and what was its outcome?

-Why did women venture west?

-Explain ‘Riparian Water Rights’.

-What is the doctrine of ‘prior appropriation’?

-(In your notes): about what percentage of western land is owned by the Federal Government?

-What is the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 and what did it achieve/do?

-How in the world were railroads able to meet the extreme costs of building rails across and up
and down throughout the United States?

-What did railroads do for the standardization of time?

-What did the Homestead Act of 1862 do?

-By 1900 there were a couple of developments that helped break the isolation of rural folk in the
far-flung American West and elsewhere, what were they?
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-What was the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862?

-What was the Hatch Act of 1887?

-Explain the idea of open, as opposed to closed range ranching.

-Joseph F. Glidden? ….......what did he do, for cry’n out loud?

USU 1300 – American Institutions
Study Question Chapter 18

-What invention is Thomas Edison most known for; what type of bulb was it?

-What did George Westinghouse do for lighting and electricity in general?

-Who was Granville T. Woods, and what safety device did he invent (among other things)?

-What was Henry Ford’s Five-Dollar-a-Day plan?

-What is the principle of ‘economics of scale’?

-Who was Frederick W. Taylor, and what is he noted for? As a result of Taylor’s writings and
experiments, employees became another kind of what……..?

-Explain the change in labor status as workers went from being ‘producers’ to being
‘employees’.

-In 1890, what percentage of children age 10 to 15 were employed?

-What were the Knights of Labor, the American Federation of Labor, and the IWW?

-What was the Haymarket Riot?

-What happened in the Pullman Strike, and how did President Cleveland fit into the deal?

-What did the invention of machinery for mass producing tin cans have to do with food?
-What is a Pool and how does it function?

-What is a Trust and how does it function?

-What is a Holding Company and how does it function?

-Explain ‘Social Darwinism’.

-What was the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890?

Study Questions Chapter 19

-How did cities in the late 1800s and early 20th Century make room for their huge numbers of
people to live?

-Why did the birth rate decline in America by the 1920s?

-What did the work week have to do with leisure time at the turn of the Century?

-What did cycling do for women?

-What is yellow journalism and how did it come to be?

USU 1300 American Institutions
Study Questions Chapter 20

-What general theme defines the presidents of the United States from Hayes (1877) to McKinley
(1900)?

-What is a poll tax? How was it used to keep blacks from voting?

-What was the “grandfather clause” and how did it affect the voting rights of blacks?

-What is “separate-but-equal doctrine” and how was it supposed to function?

-What is “Jim Crow?”

-What were the ills tied to sharecropping?

-What was a ‘Grange’ and what did granges accomplish?

-What was a Farmers’ Alliance and what did they accomplish?

-What is “Populism” and how did it rise up?

-Name three large companies whose financial problems helped bring on the depression of the
1890s, how did the depression play out?

-What is the “Gold Standard Act of 1900 and what did it do?
USU 1300 American Institutions
Study Questions Chapter 21

-What three goals did Progressives hope to achieve, to bring about what?
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3
what........

-Progressives brought about three reforms, what are they and what do they do?
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-What ideological stance did Progressives take?

-What did the 16th Amendment do?

-What did the 17th Amendment do?

-What did the 18th Amendment do?

-What changes took place in education in the late 1800s?

-What was the thought of black thinkers during the Progressive era; did they all agree?

-What did the 19th Amendment do?

-What are the Pure Food and Drug and Meat Inspection Acts?

-Outline events in presidential elections from when Teddy Roosevelt stepped down through to
Wilson……and, what is the Federal Reserve Act of 1913?
USU–1300 American Institutions
Study Questions Chapter 22

Note: In 1900 there were in the world just 55 independent countries; all others were held by
some empire. Whether composed of contiguous territories or scattered around the globe, Empires
dominated the map of the world in 1900. Empires, Europeans believed, benefited both the ruler
and the ruled, who would be uplifted by religion, technology, and education exported by the
imperial power. Independence was not viewed as a legitimate political goal for non-European
populations.

-Why was economic involvement in foreign marketplaces important to the United States in the
late 1800s early 1900s?

-What was the ‘race thinking’ of America after the Civil War, and who in America were
considered to be ‘civilized’ and ‘uncivilized’.

-What role did missionaries play in the grand scheme of empire introduced above?

-What were the goals of William H. Seward starting in 1865?

-For what in the world did Seward pay $7.2 million dollars?

-What parts of his dream for world-wide communications did Seward ever see come to pass?
Dates and places?

-What was the dream of Alfred T. Mann?

-What thesis did Frederick Jackson Turner put forth in 1893 and what did he claim would happen
as a result?

-What sequence of events brought about annexation of Hawaii to the U.S.?

-Why was the USS Battleship Maine sent to Cuba in 1898, and what happened to it?

-What were the conservative and imperialist views on motives for the Spanish–American War?

-What role did Commodore George Dewey play in the Spanish–American War?

-What were the terms of the Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish–American War?

-What was the Philippine Insurrection, and who was Emilio Aguinaldo?

-What is the ‘Open Door’ policy?

-In 1900, to what country did Panama belong?

-What did President Teddy Roosevelt do for Panama in return for the right to build a canal there?

-Explain what the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine was.

-In 1910, what percentage of Mexican property was controlled by Americans?

-What was the “Great White Fleet” and what was its purpose?