2ND Term Exam

EXAM TOPICS:

 West to the pacific: Monroe doctrine, slavery.

 American Civil War: beginning, heart of the conflict, the war and ending.
 Reconstruction
 Growth and transformation
 The Reconstruction period
 The Growth of industries
 An American Empire
 The Gilded Age
 Discontent and Reform
 An age of reform
 WWI, prosperity and Great Depression.
 The New Deal
 WWII Mobilization and Military Strategy
 The Cold War, Korea & Vietnam
 Holocaust, The Atomic Bomb and Cold War
 Chapters 10, 11, 12, 13, 19, 20, 23, 25 from book

CHAPTER 10 – WEST TO THE PACIFIC

1. Why were Americans afraid of Napoleon? What happened afterwards that benefited the
U.S.?
2. Who authorize the purchase of Louisiana and what were his main objectives?
3. What was the result of the expedition after 1806?
4. Why were the Americans afraid of what was happening in Oregon? What was their
solution?
5. What are the two things’ Pike is remember for today?
6. What were some of the dangers settlers faced?
7. What was the idea of ‘manifesting destiny’?
8. What happened with the territory of Oregon?
9. After the Mexican American War, what territories did Medico have to give the U.S.?

1. Americans feared the Napoleon might send French soldiers and settlers to Louisiana
and so block the further westward growth of the United States. In 1803 Napoleon was
about to go to war with Britain and needed money. For fifteen million dollars he sold
Louisiana to the United States.
2. The Louisiana purchase was authorized by President Thomas Jefferson. He was a keen
amateur scientist and wanted to know more about the geography, the people, the
 animals, and the plants od the lands to the West of the US. He also hoped that the
explorers might find an easy way across North America to the Pacific Ocean.
3. Lewis and Clark arrived back in St. Louis in late September 1806. They had failed to
find an easy overland route to the Pacific, but they had shown that the journey was
possible. They had also brought back much useful information about both Louisiana
and the western lands that lay beyond it.
4. American political leaders began to fear that Britain would soon gain complete control
of the area. To prevent this they made great efforts to persuade more Americans to start
farms in Oregon.
5. Pike is remembered for Pikes Peak, a high mountain in Colorado which he first sighted
in 1806 and which is named after him. The other is in his opinion that the entire central
region of North America between the Mississippi and the Rockies was little better than
a desert and “incapable of cultivation”.
6. Settlers faced many dangers on the way to Oregon. Floods and blizzards, prairie fires
and accidents, disease and starvation - all these took many lives.
7. American settlers soon outnumbered the British in Oregon. American newspapers and
political leaders began to express an idea called "manifest destiny ."This was a claim
that it was the clear (“manifest") intention of fate (“destiny") that the territory of the
United States should stretch across North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Supporters of manifest destiny demanded that the United States should take the whole
of Oregon.
8. President Polk agreed to divide Oregon with Britain into two almost equal sections.
9. The Mexican American war was ended by a peace treaty signed in 1848. The treaty
forced Mexico to hand over enormous stretches of its territory to the United States.
Today these lands form the American states of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New
Mexico, and Colorado.

WEST TO THE PACIFIC CHAPTER 10

 George Washington became to the first president of the United States on April 30,
1789. He had overseen the army. As president, his job was to create a working
government.}
 With Congress, he created the Treasury, Justice, and War departments. Together the
leaders of these departments and the others that were founded in later years are called
the cabinet.
 One chief of justice and five (today eight) associate justices made up the supreme court.
Three circuit courts and 13 district courts were created. Policies were developed for
governing the western territories and brining them into the Union and new states.
  George Washington served two four-year terms as president. John Adams and Thomas
Jefferson had different ideas and this led to the creation of the two political parties.

DEMOCRATIC – REPUBLICANS VS. FEDERALISTS

 John Adams and Alexander Hamilton led the Federalists. Their supporters included
people in trade and manufacturing. They believed in a strong central government. Most
of their support was in the North.
 Thomas Jefferson led the Republicans. Their supporters included many farmers. They
did not want a strong central government. They believed in states having more power.
They had strong support in the South.
 For about 20 years the US was friendly to other countries and neutral toward their
disputes, but France and Britain again were at wat. The British navy seized American
ships going to France. The French navy seized American ships going to Britain.
 After years of unsuccessful diplomacy, the US went to war with Britain. Britain in 1812
weakened and in debt from its recent war with France, Britain signed a peace treaty in
1815. The US victory made sure that Britain wouldn't establish colonies south of the
Canadian border.

 By 1815 many of the new nation’s problems has eased. Under the Constitution, the
United States had a balance between liberty and order. The country had a low
national debt. Much of the continent was left to explore. The country had peace,
prosperity, and social progress.
 An important addition to foreign policy was the Monroe Doctrine. President James
Monroe's announcement of solidarity with newly independent nations in Central and
South America was a warning to Europe not to seek colonies in Latin America.
 The U.S. doubled in size when it bought the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803
and Florida from Spain in 1819. From 1816 to 1821, six new states were created.
Between 1812 and 1852, the population tripled.

NORTH AND SOUTH CHAPTER 11

Slavery in the US.

 The political situation in America was tense because of the growing gap between the
North and the South. While the North was industrialized, the economy of the south was
still based on the vast plantations of tobacco and cotton, and on slavery. The white
 population constantly increased as immigrants continued to arrive from Europe – tough
they tended to settle in the North, while in the South there were about 3,500,00 black
slaves.
 In the North of the US farms were smaller and the climate was cooler. Farmers there did
not need slaves to work the land for them. Some northerners opposed slavery for moral
and religious reasons. Many were abolitionists - that is, people who wanted to end or
abolish slavery by law.
 By the early nineteenth century many northern states had passed laws abolishing
slavery inside their own boundaries. In 1808 they also persuaded Congress to make it
illegal for ships to bring any new slaves from Africa into the United States.
 The question of slavery became urgent when several northern states adopted
emancipation, while the international demand for cotton meant the economy of the
South continued to rely on slave labor. Northern abolitionists, who included writers,
intellectuals and religious associations, began to organize themselves into the
Republican Party, whose candidate, Abraham Lincoln (1809-65), won the presidential
election in 1860.
 Lincoln's victory changed the relationship between the American government and the
institution of slavery. It led to South Carolina's withdrawal from the Union(US). Within
two months, six other states joined South Carolina in forming an independent
'Confederacy. War followed because Lincoln, supported by a majority of northerners,
refused to concede that any American had the constitutional right to withdraw from the
Union, and not certainly in response to a legitimately won democratic election.

CHAPTER 11 – NORTH AND SOUTH

1. Who were the abolitionists?
People who wanted to end or abolish slavery by law.
2. What did Missouri compromise state?
It ended the disputes between the North and South
3. What was the states’ rights doctrine?
A state had the right to disobey any federal law if the state believed that the law
would harm its interests.
4. What was the fugitive slave act?
This was a law to make it easier for southerners to recapture slaves who
escaped from their masters and fled for safety to free states.
5. How did the northerners reply to the act?
The Fugitive Slave Act angered many northerners who had not so far given
much thought to the rights and wrongs of slavery. Some northern judges
 refused to enforce it. Other people provided food, money, and hiding places for
fugitives. They mapped out escape routes and moved runaway slaves by night
from one secret hiding place to another.
6. What happened right after the Missouri Compromise ended?
In 1854 a senator named Stephen Douglas persuaded congress to end the
Missouri Compromise. West of Missouri, on land that was supposed to be
closed to slavery, was a western territory called Kansas. In 1854 Congress
voted to let its people decide for themselves whether to permit slavery there.
7. Who was William Garrison?
The best-known spokesman of the people, he produced the first issue of the
liberator, a newspaper dedicated to the abolition of slavery.
8. Why were northerners outraged after the Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott
case?
The Dred Scott decision caused great excitement in the United States. Southern
slave owners were delighted. Opponents of slavery were horrified. The
Supreme Court seemed to be saying that free states had no right to forbid
slavery within their boundaries and that slave owners could put their slaves to
work anywhere.
9. What was the Confederacy?
In December 1860, the state of Carolina voted to secede from the United States.
In February 1861, these eleven states announced that they were now an
independent nation, the Confederate States of America, often known as the
Confederacy.

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR CHAPTER 12

 The Confederacy (south) – The Union (north)
The beginning.
 Lincoln appealed to the southern states to stay in the Union. He promised that he would
not interfere with slavery in any of them. But he warned:
 " You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I have a
most solemn one to 'preserve. protect and defend' it."

 The heart of the conflict. As the south’s high-minded self-esteem increasingly clashed
with the slavery’s moral rejection by Northern states, the southern leaders defended
their economic system and their grossly exaggerated sense of honor with arguments
most Northerners found beyond baffling.
 "Slavery is praised for giving even the poorest white southerner someone to look down
upon, a sense of dignity and equality with the rich man" - Jefferson Davis, Mississippi
Senator.
 New Americans (much of the immigrants from Ireland and Germany) started settling in
other states and had no need for slaves and no sympathy for Southern lifestyle or
traditions.
 Northerners started patrolling the street to rescue fugitive blacks from the slave
catchers, this, along with other practices and speeches, caused Southerners to detest
northern abolitionists. Many South newspapers depicted northerners as "creatures below
the whites of the noble South"

 MAIN CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR: economic interests, cultural values, the
power of the federal government to control the states, and, most importantly, slavery in
American society.
 1. Was the American Civil War really only about slavery?
2. What other factors contributed to the civil war? Resources, slavery, economic, social

THE WAR. (puede ser que esto no vaya)

 In 1861, Confederate guns opened fire on Fort Summer, Charleston, South Carolina,
occupied by the Union, because they said there was a "War of Northern Aggression"
against them. These shots marked the beginning of the American Civil War.

• The Confederacy soldiers marched saying "Freedom is not possible without slavery"
• THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION (1861). Lincoln proclaims that all slaves
should be made free in the Confederacy (although he doesn't have the power to do so in that
area)
- The war lasted 4 years (1861 - 1865) and it ended with the surrender of General Lee and
the Confederate army to the Union.

 Four years of intense combat left 620,000 to 750,000 people dead, more than the
number of U.S. military deaths in all other wars combined (at least until
approximately the Vietnam War). Much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed,
especially the transportation systems, railroads, mills, and houses. The Confederacy
collapsed, slavery was abolished, and 4 million slaves were freed. The
Reconstruction Era (1863-1877) overlapped and followed the war, with the process of
restoring national unity, strengthening the national government, and granting civil rights
to freed slaves throughout the country.
THE END

 The Civil War gave final answers to two questions that had divided the U.S. since
it became an independent nation:
- It put an end to slavery: In 1865 it was abolished everywhere in the U.S. by the 13th
Amendment of the Constitution.
- It decided finally that the U.S. was one nation, whose parts could not be separated.
- The Gettysburg Address: was a speech given by Lincoln which became even more famous
than the battle. It was seen as a statement of what the North was fighting for, a moving
expression of faith in the basic principles of democratic government.
" The dead shall not die in vain, this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and
that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this
earth"

CHAPTER 12 - THE CIVIL WAR

1. What was the first battle that set the civil war?
2. What were some of the effects on families when choosing sides?
3. What did the North and south have to do in order to win?
4. Why is it said that southerners had more spirit when fighting the war?
5. Why was the battle of Gettysburg such a decisive battle?
6. What was LORD PALMERSTON'S opinion on the emancipation proclamation?
7. How did Grant treat the southern soldiers when they were defeated?
Answers
1. After Lincoln's appeal, On April 12 Confederate guns opened fire on Fort summer a
fortress in the harbor of Charleston, SC, US troops occupied that. These shots marked
the beginning of the CW.
2. Some people found it difficult and painful to decide which side to support. The decision
sometimes splits families. The son of the commander of the confederate navy was killed
fighting in a union on opposite sides. And three of President Lincoln's own brothers-in-
law died fighting for the Confederacy.
3. The North faced one great difficulty, The only way it could win the war was to invade
the south and occupy the land. The South had to hold out until the people of the North
grew tired of fighting.
4. Because most of the fighting took place in the south it meant that the confederate
soldiers were defending their own homes. Southerners denied that they were fighting
mainly to preserve slavery. Most were poor farmers who owned no slaves anyway. The
 South was fighting for its independence from the North, they said. just as their
grandfathers had fought for independence from Britain almost a century earlier.
5. It was the biggest that has ever been fought in the US. in three days of fierce fighting
more than 50,000 men were killed or wounded. On the fourth day, Lee broke off the
battle and led his men back into the south. The Confederate army had suffered a defeat
from which it would never recover.
6. He said that all Lincoln had done was “to abolish slavery where he was without power
to do so while protecting it where he had the power to destroy it”. And he was right.
7. Grant treated the defeated Confederate soldiers generously. After they had given up
their weapons and promised never again to fight against the United States, he allowed
them to go home.

GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION CHAPTER (14/17/19)

After the civil war…
 The U.S. changed after the Civil War. The frontier became less wild. Cities grew in size
and number. More factories, steel mills, and railroads were built. Immigrants arrived in
the U.S. with dreams of better lives.
 This was the age of INVENTIONS. Alexander Graham Bell developed the telephone.
Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. George Eastman made the moving picture, later
called a movie.
 TRUSTS: Separate companies merged to become larger companies + An anti- trust
law was passed in 1890 to stop monopolies, but it was not very effective.
 When Europeans first arrived on East Coast, they pushed the native people west. Each
time, the government promised new land for the native people so they would have a
home. Each time, the promised were broken while white settlers took the land.
 In the late 1800s, Sioux tribes in the Northern plains and Apaches in the Southwest
fought back. Although they were strong, the U.S. government forces defeated them.
Many tribes would live on reservations, which are federal lands administered by Indian
tribes. Today there are more than 300 reservations.
 Toward the end of the 1800s, European powers colonized Africa and fought for rights
to trade in Asia. Many Americans believed that the United States should do the same.
Many other Americans did not like any action that seemed imperialistic. After a brief
war with Spain in 1898, the U.S controlled several Spanish colonies – Cuba, Puerto
Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Oficially, the United States encouraged them to
become self-governing. In reality, The United States kept control.
  Idealism in foreign policy co-existed with the desire to prevent European powers from
acquiring territories that might enable them to project military power toward the United
States. By the end of the 19 th century, the U.S. was beginning to emerge as a growing
world power.
 THE MOMENT THAT MESSED UP EVERYTHING UP…

RECONSTRUCTION CHAPTER 13
 Johnson’s presidency
 He wanted to reunite the south with the rest of the nation. As soon as the citizens of the
seceded states promised to be loyal to the government, they could elect new state
assemblies to run their affairs. When a state voted to accept the 13th AMENDMENT to
the Constitution. After that, they could be accepted back into the Union as a full and
equal member. White southerners were horrified at the idea of giving equal right to their
former black slaves. The assembly of Mississippi expressed the way they felt: "The
negro is free whether we like it or not. To be free, however, does not make him citizen
or entitle him to social or political equality with the white man."
 Black codes. All the assemblies from the other former Confederate states passed laws to
keep blacks in an inferior position. These were called the "Black Codes." The ruling
whites intended them to remain unskilled, uneducated and landless, with no legal
protection or right of their own. These codes refused blacks to: vote, serve on juries,
give evidence in court against a white man. It was almost as if blacks were still slaves.
 Radical Republicans believed that the most important reason for fighting the Civil War
had been to free the blacks. They were determined that neither they nor the blacks were
now going to be cheated.
 Civil rights act of 1866 and freedmen’s bureau. Despite opposition from the
President, Congress passed a Civil Rights Act of 1866. It also set up an organization
called the Freedmen’s Bureau. Both these measures were intended to ensure that blacks
in the South were not cheated of their rights. Congress then introduced the 14 th
Amendment to the Constitution. It gave blacks full rights of citizenship, including the
right to vote.
 Reconstruction act 1867. All the former confederate states except Tennessee refused
to accept the 14th amendment. In March 1867, Congress replied by passing the
Reconstruction Act. By 1870 all the southern states had new “reconstruction”
governments. Most were made up of blacks, a few white southerners who were willing
to work with them, and white men from the North.
  TERRORIST GROUPS. None of the improvements stopped southern whites from
hating Reconstruction. They organized terrorist groups to make white men the masters
once more. The main aim of these groups was to threaten and frighten black people and
prevent them from claiming their rights.
 The largest and most feared terrorist group was a secret society. Its members were
dressed in white sheets and wore hoods to hide their faces. They rode by night through
the southern countryside, beating and killing any blacks who tried to improve their
position. Their sign was a burning wooden cross, which they placed outside the homes
of their intended victims.
 This use of violence and fear helped white racists to win back control of state
governments. When Congress withdrew federal troops from the south in 1877, white
democrats won control of these, too. Reconstruction was over.
 Segregation. From this time onwards southern blacks were treated more and more as
“second-class citizens”. Once they lost the vote, taking away their other rights became
easy. All the southern states passed laws to enforce strict racial separation, or
“segregation”, which was enforced everywhere.
 BUT RECONSTRUCTION HAD NOT BEEN FOR NOTHING. The 14th amendment
was especially important, it was the foundation of the civil rights movement, and it
made it possible for Martin Luther King to cry out eventually on behalf of all black
Americans: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

AN AMERICAN EMPIRE CHAPTER 20

 On January 1898 one of the most modern ships in the United States "Maine" wassent to
Havana, Cuba, as a demonstration of American Power. Maine exploded. No one knows
about the cause of the explosion, BUT, Americans believe that Spain was the enemy
and guilty of the Maine's explosion.
 In 1867 United States bought Alaska from Russia. These were years when Britain,
France and Germany were claiming colonies, foreign lands to rule and exploit. Colonies
overseas meant trade, wealth, power, and prestige.
 Many Americans had invested money in sugar and tobacco plantations in Cuba. But at
this time Cuba was a Spanish colony In 1895 the people of Cuba rose in rebellion
against their Spanish rulers and started to burn villages, sugar plantations and railroad
depots Spanish soldiers moved thousands of Cuban civilians into prison camps Many
people died in them of disease and hunger. By 1898 The American government sent the
 Maine to Havana to show its sympathy for the rebels. When the Maine blew up, people
began calling for war with Spain. The Spanish - American War was fought in two parts
of the world. Cuba, and the Philippines.
 In 1823 President Monroe warned European nations not to interfere in Latin America
affairs. “We should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any
portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.” Monroe’s statement
came to be called the “Monroe Doctrine”
 Roosevelt’s Corollary. In 1904 President Theodore Roosevelt made an addition, or
“corollary” to it. He said that the United States would intervene there whenever it
thought necessary.
 The first battle of the Spanish Vs Americans was fought in Philippines. The American
soldiers occupied Manila, and Spanish resistance came to an end.
 American soldiers also landed in Cuba Other American soldiers occupied Puerto Rico
In July, Spain asked the Americans for peace. When peace was signed, Spain gave most
of its overseas empire to thte United States. At the same time the United States also
annexed Hawaii.
 1946. The Philippines became an independent country.
 1953. Puerto Rico became self-governing but continued to be closely tied to the United
States.
 1959. Hawaii was admitted as the fiftieth state of the Union.
 1902. Americans made the Cuban government give them land on the Cuban coast to
build a big American naval base.
 In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt set up an American military government in
Cuba to stop a revolution.
 In 1912, 1917 and 1921 American marines were again sent to stop revolutions in Cuba.
 Dollar Diplomacy. Political leaders have sometimes encouraged American business to
invest abroad as a way of strengthening the political position of the United States This
happened in the early 1900s, when President Taft favored a policy known as “Dollar
Diplomacy.”
 In the early 1900s the American government wanted to build a canal across the Isthmus
of Panama. The main problem was that the United States didn’t own the isthmus,
Colombia did. President Roosevelt sent warships to Panama to help a group of
Panamanian to rebel against the Colombian government. Panama gave the Americans
control over the land. Americans began digging in 1904 and the first ships steamed
through the completed canal in 1914.
THE GILDED AGE
 The term refers to the economic boom between the Civil War, which ended in 1865,
and the turn of the twentieth century. "Historically, the era ended about 1910, but the
era of great wealth continued to the late 1920s,"
 Mark Twain. The author coined the term when he published his satirical novel The
Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, which was first published in 1873. "Basically, Mark
Twain was making fun of the new rich covering wood and other objects with a thin
layer of gold to make them seem more expensive and important,".
 The term later came to symbolize a period of gross materialism and blatant political
corruption. "The great burst of industrial activity and corporate growth that
characterized the Gilded Age was presided over by a collection of colorful and
energetic entrepreneurs who became known alternatively as 'captains of industry' and
'robber barons,’. Completed in 1869, the transcontinental railroad led to expansion and
settlement of the western United States. It also made it easier to transport goods across
the country, and travel time from New York to San Francisco drastically decreased.

DISCONTENT AND REFORM

 By 1900, the US had seen growth, civil war, economic prosperity, and economic hard
times. Americans still believed in religious freedom. Free public education was mostly
accessible. The free press continued.
 On the negative side, it often seemed that political power belonged to a few corrupt
officials and their friends in business. In response, the idea of progressivism was born.
Progressives wanted greater democracy and justice. They wanted an honest government
to reduce the power of business.
 Changes continued especially under President Woodrow Wilson’s presidency (1913-
1921). The Federal Reserve banking system set interest and controlled the money
supply. The Federal Trade Commission dealt with unfair business practices. New laws
improved working conditions for sailors and railway workers. Farmers got better
information and easier credit. Taxes on imported goods were lowered or eliminated.
 During the Progressive Era, more immigrants settled in the United States. Almost 19
million people arrived between 1890 and 1921 from Russia, Poland, Greece, Canada,
Italy, Mexico, and Japan.

CHAPTER 19 – REFORMS AND PROGRESSIVES

1. How were the working conditions for men, women, and children?
 2. What happened if workers were killed or injured in the workplace?
3. Why did the attempts to start labor unions fail?
4. What was Samuel Gompers beliefs about ending capitalism?
5. Who were the muckrakers?
6. What was “laissez faire”? what was a progressive?
7. Why is it said that Roosevelt wanted to give the US the best of both worlds?
8. What were the “new freedom” policies? Mention some of them.

Answers.
1. Men, women, and children labored for hours in factories, mines, and workshops. Many
lived in cities, for growing industrial centers like Pittsburgh and Chicago needed more
and more workers. The worker's homes were dirty and overcrowded slums. Many
workers worked longer than 59 hours a week and earned less than nine dollars.
2. If workers were killed or injured, neither they nor their families received compensation.
3. One reason for this was the competition for jobs between American-born and
immigrants. Another was the violent opposition unions faced from employers.
4. He believed that unions should concern themselves with the day-to-day welfare of their
members, not with politics. Revolutions would not win a better life for working people,
he said. But practical demand for higher wages, shorter working hours and safer
working conditions would.
5. Americans were not complacent about conditions in their country. In the early years of
the 20th century, a stream of books and magazine articles drew people's attention to
many national problems. This caused people to describe their authors with contempt as
“muckrakers”.
6. Before 1900 most Americans had believed in “laissez-faire” - the idea that governments
should interfere with business, and people's lives in general. A progressive was
someone who believed that, where necessary, the government should take action to deal
with the problems of society.
7. He wanted to allow businessmen enough freedom of action to make their firms efficient
and prosperous, but at the same time to prevent them from taking unfair advantage of
other people.
8. “The new freedom” were policies put into effect by a series of laws passed between
1913 and 1917. One of Wilson's first steps was to reduce customs duties in order to
encourage trade between the United States and other countries. Then he reformed the
banking system and introduced a system of federal taxes on high incomes, gave more
rights to labor unions, and made it easier for farmers to borrow money from the federal
government to develop their land. Many individual states also passed Progressive laws.
 They forbade factories to employ children, introduced secret voting, improved safety at
work, and protected their natural resources.

WWI, PROSPERITY AND THE GREAT DEPRRESSION

 In 1914, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey fought Britain, France, and Russia.
Other nations joined the conflict, and the war reached across the Atlantic Ocean to
affect the US. The British and German navies blocked American shipping. In 1915,
almost 130 Americans died when a German submarine sank the British ocean liner
Lusitania. President Woodrow Wilson demanded an end to the German attacks. They
stopped but started again in 1917 the US declared war.
 More than 1,750,000 U.S. soldiers helped to defeat
 Germany and Austria-Hungary. The war officially ended on November 11, 1918, when
a truce was signed at Versailles in France.
 President Wilson had a 14-point peace plan, including the creation of a League of
Nations. He hoped the league would guarantee the peace, but in the final treaty of
Versailles, the visitors of the war insisted on hatsh punishment. Even the US did not
support the League of Nations. Today, most Americans accept the US taking an active
role in the world, but at that time they believed otherwise.
 After the war, the United States had problems with racial tension, struggling farms, and
labor unrest. After Russia's revolution in 7917, Americans feared the spread of
communism. This period is often known as the Red Scare.
 Yet, the US enjoyed a period of prosperity. Many families purchased their first
automobile, radio and refrigerator. They went to the movies. Women finally won the
right to vote in 1920.
 In October 1929 the good times ended with the collapse of the stock market and
economic depression. 20 percent of Americans did not have jobs.
 That year the candidates for president debated over how to reverse the Great
Depression. Herbert Hoover, the president during the collapse lost to Franklin
Roosevelt.

CHAPTER 23 – CRASH AND DEPRESSION

1. How does the stock exchange work?

2. What are the advantages of owning shares?
3. What did “on the margin” share buyers do?
 4. What started happening by the fall of 1929?
5. What was the main cause of the wall street crash?
6. What were the two things hoover wanted to do to end the depression?
7. What was Hoover’s opinion about Roosevelt’s policies?

1. Dealers called stockbrokers to buy and sell valuable pieces of paper. The pieces of
paper are share certificates. Each certificate represents a certain amount of money
invested in a company.
2. Owning shares in a business gives you the rights to a share of its profits. But you can
make money from shares in another way. You can buy them at one price, then, if the
company does well, sell them later at a higher one.
3. “On the margin” share buyers were really gamblers. Their idea was to spot shares that
would quickly rise in value, buy them at one price and then resell them at a higher one a
few weeks later. They could then pay back the bank that had made a profit.
4. The profits being made by many American firms had been decreasing for some time. If
profit were falling, then share prices too were the thought of investors.
5. The most important cause of the wall street crash was simply that too few Americans
were earning enough money to buy the goods that they themselves were producing.
6. Hoover believed that he could do two things to end the Depression. The first was to
“balance the budget” - that is, to make sure that the government’s spending did not
exceed its income. The second was to restore businessmen's confidence in the future so
that they would begin to take on workers again.
7. Hoover condemned Roosevelt’s policies of greater government action. He was sure that
such policies would only make things worse. They would, he said, “destroy the very
foundations of our American system.” They would cause people to lose their ability to
stand on their own feet and bear their own responsibilities. If they were introduced, he
prophesied grimly, “grass will grow in the streets of a hundred cities, a thousand
towns.”

THE NEW DEAL AND WWII CHAPTER 24

 President Roosevelt believed that democracy had failed in other countries because of
unemployment and insecurity. In the early 1930s, he proposed a new deal to end the
great depression.
 The new deal included many programs. Bank accounts were insured. New rules applied
to the stock market. Workers could form unions to protect their rights. Farmers received
financial aid for certain crops. The government hired people to plant trees, clean up
 waterways, and fix national parks. Skilled workers helped build dams and bridges. The
government provided flood control and electric power for poor areas. The Social
Security system helped the poor, disabled and elderly.
THE HOLOCAUST
 Adolf Hitler and the Nazis claimed that German people were a “master race.” They said
that all other races, especially Jews, were inferior. This racist idea led to the Holocaust,
the worst mass killing in history.
 Because of their religion and ethnicity, millions of Jews were murdered. For centuries,
Europeans had blamed the Jews when things went wrong. For example, in the Middle
Ages, many people thought Jews caused the black plague by poisoning town wells. In
the 1930s, the Nazis blamed Jews because Germany lost World War I.
 When the Nazis took control of Germany, they made new laws for Jews. In 1935, the
Nuremberg Laws took away Jews’ rights, including the right to German citizenship
 Hitler told the Jews to leave Germany, so thousands moved to places like France, Latin
America, and the United States.
 Jews in all the countries under his control were moved to cities in Poland, like Warsaw.
In these cities, Jews were forced to live in ghettos, or areas set aside for Jews.
 The Nazis sealed the ghettos with walls and barbed wire. They hoped the people inside
would starve to death or get sick and die.
 Later, Hitler came up with a plan called the Final Solution. Hitler sent soldiers to find
and kill Jews. The soldiers shot men, women, and children and buried them in mass
graves. Other Jews were forced to live and work in concentration camps.
 Later, camps were built for the sole purpose of killing large numbers of people. When
prisoners arrived, guards set aside the strongest people to be workers. The rest were
poisoned with cyanide gas.
 Six million Jews died during the Holocaust. Two out of every three European Jews
were killed.
 Today, the Holocaust is a reminder of the terrible things that can happen because of
intolerance.
WWII
 Many Americans were uneasy with big government, but they also wanted the
government to help ordinary people. These programs helped, but they didn't solve the
economic problems. The next world war would do that.
 The United States remained neutral while Germany, Italy, and Japan attacked other
countries. Although many people wished to stay out of these conflicts, Congress voted
to draft soldiers and began to strengthen the military.
  As Japan conquered territories in China and elsewhere in Asia, it threatened to seize
raw materials used by Western industries. In response, the United States refused to sell
oil to Japan.
 On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The United States declared war on Japan. Because Germany and Italy were allies of
Japan, they declared war on America.
 American industry focused on the war effort. Women built many of the 300,000
aircraft, 5,000 cargo ships, and 86,000 tanks while the men became soldiers.
 The United States fought with Britain and the Soviet Union against the German Nazi
threat in Europe. Millions were killed in the Holocaust, the Nazi regime's mass murder
of Jews and other groups.
 Fighting continued in Asia and the Pacific Ocean even after the war ended in Europe.
These battles were among the bloodiest for American forces. Japan refused to surrender
even as U.S. forces approached the Japanese home islands.
 When the atomic bomb was ready, President Harry S. Truman decided to use it on two
Japanese cities-Hiroshima and Nagasaki--to bring the war to an end without an
invasion.
 World War Il was finally over in August 1945. Soon the world would fear nuclear
weapons far more powerful than the bombs used against Japan.

THE COLD WAR

 After World War II, the United States and Great Britain had long-term disagreements
with the Soviet Union over the future of Europe, most of which had been freed from
Nazi rule by their joint effort. Each wanted to establish governments friendly to its own
interests there.
 Russia had been invaded twice in the past 40 years, and the United States twice had
been dragged into European wars not of its making. Each believed that its system could
best ensure its security, and each believed its ideas produced the most liberty, equality,
and prosperity. This period of disagreement between the United States and Russia often
is called the Cold War.

THE COLD WAR, KOREA, AND VIETNAM

 After World War II, many empires fell, and many civil wars occurred. The United
States wanted stability, democracy, and open trade. Because it feared that postwar
economic weakness would increase the popularity of communism, the U.S. offered
European nations including the Soviet Union large sums of money to repair the war
 damage and help their economies. The Soviet Union and the communist nations of
Eastern Europe turned down the offer. By 1952, through a program to rebuild Western
Europe (called the Marshall Plan), the United States had invested $13.3 billion.
 The Soviet military forced communist governments on nations in Central and Eastern
Europe. The United States wanted to limit Soviet expansion. It demanded Soviet
withdrawal from northern Iran. America supported Turkey and helped Greece fight
against communist revolts. When the Soviets blockaded West Berlin, a U.S. airlift
brought millions of tons of supplies to the divided city.
 In 1949, the communist forces took control of China. Communist North Korea invaded
South Korea with the support of China and the Soviet Union in 1950. The United States
got support from the United Nations, formerly the League of Nations, for military
intervention, and a bloody war continued into 1953. Although an armistice eventually
was signed, U.S. troops remain in South Korea to this day.
In the 1960s, the United States helped South Vietnam defend itself against communist
North Vietnam. All American troops withdrew by 1973.
 In 1975, North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam. The war cost hundreds of thousands
of lives, and many Vietnamese "boat people" fled their nation's new communist rulers.
Americans were divided over the war and not eager to get into other foreign conflicts.

CHAPTER 25 – THE ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY

1. Who were the isolationists?
2. What did the neutrality acts state?
3. What did Roosevelt do when Japan allied with Germany?
4. What did the lend lease do?
5. What happened in 1941? Why did Japan decide to attack?
6. What were the main countries who took part in WWII?
7. What happened during D-Day?
8. Which 3 countries planned a final attack on Japan? When this plan didn’t work, what
happened next?
9. What did Americans believe about the atomic bomb?

1. Isolationists were people who believed that America should try to cut off, or “isolate”
the United States from the problems of the outside world.
2. These said that American citizens would not be allowed to sell military equipment, or
lend money, to any nations at war. Even non-military supplies such as foodstuffs would
be sold to warring countries only if they paid cash for them and collected them in their
own ships.
3. He sent Britain all the military equipment that the US could spare. Early in 1941, the
British ran out of money. In March, Roosevelt persuaded Congress to accept his lend
lease plan.
4. Lend lease have Roosevelt the right to supply military equipment and other goods to
Britain without payment. He could do the same for any country whose defense he
considered necessary to the safety of the US.
5. Japanese warplanes roared in over Pearl Harbor Hawaii, their bombs and torpedos sank
or badly damaged eight American battleships, blew up hundreds of aircraft, and killed
over 2000 men. Before that General Hideki Tojo became Japan's Primer Minister and
since there was plenty of oil in southeast Asia he decided that Japan must seize it and
must make it impossible for the Americans to use their pacific battle fleet to stop them.
6. Germany, Japan, and the US.
7. On June 6, Allied troops invaded Normandy in German-occupied France. Their
Supreme commander was the American general Eisenhower. The invasion was code-
named Operation Overlord. The day it took place was referred to as D-Day- D for
deliverance. From early in the morning of D-Day hundreds of Allied landing craft
emptied their loads of men and weapons onto the flat Normandy beaches. German
soldiers fought hard to push the invaders into the sea but failed.
8. The US, Australia, and Britain decided on a three-pronged attack.
9. Some believe that Truman was right, without Hiroshima, they say, the Americans
would have had to invade Japan to end the war. Other people do not accept this
reasoning. They argue that the Japanese government was ready to surrender before the
bombings. More than half a century after the destruction of Hiroshima, the argument
continues.