Midterm Study Guide

U.S. History II – Mr. Hyer

Mid-Term Exam Review



This comprehensive mid-term exam will touch upon all subjects we have studied since the beginning of September to this week. There will be a Paper 1 exam AND a Paper 2 essay. This is a two-hour test.



The following is a general overview of the topics we have covered. Make sure you understand the general concepts and key points of these topics. Make sure you study from all of your previous quizzes, tests, and handouts.




There will be a review days on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Your assignment during the rest of this week is to study the topics on this list, review your notes and handouts, skim through the textbook chapters, and write down any questions to ask me on these days. Also, I am planning to stay late after school on Thursday.




Paper 1: The topic will be from the Imperialism Era.

Imperialism notes:

Imperialsim is the policy in which stronger nations extend their political economic and military control over weaker territories. It was a world trend at the time.

Begining in 1867 and through the next century, global competition caused the US to expand.

Global Competition- European nations had been establishing colonies for centuries. In the late 19th century Africa emerged as a prime target for European expansionism.
-most Americans liked the idea of expansion overseas
-with manifest destiny they had alreadt pushed US borders to the Pacific.

-3 factors to American Imperialsim
1. the desire for military strength
2. the thirst for new markets
3. the belief in cultural superiority

*Alfred T. Mahan-as an adimiral in the Navy, he urged the government to build American naval power in compete with other powerful nations.
-the US navy would soon become the 3rd largest in the world

-Imperialists viewed foreign trade as a solution to American overproduction and the relatated problems of underemployment and economic depression
-they argued that the US had a responsibility to spread Christianity and "civilization" to the world's "inferior" people

US acquires Alaska
*William Seward-arranged for the US to buy Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million
-in 1959 Alaska became the 49th state. (ended up being rich in resources)

US take Hawaii
-Hawaii was important to the US because it was a stopping point on the way to China East India
-in 1887 the Us established a naval base at Pearl Harbor which was used as a fuleing station
-by 1990 foreigners and immigrant laborers outnumbered natives 3 to 1
-Hawaii was a major source of sugar for the US
-The Mckinley Tariff of 1890 provoked a crisis by elimination the duty free status of Hawaiian sugar
-as a result, Hawaiian sugar growers faced competition in the American market
-American planters in Hawaii called for the US to annex the isllands so they wouldn't have to pay the duty
*Queen Liliuokalani- surrendered her to the superior force of the US and the white foreigners who planned to overthrow her
-the US set up a government head by *Sandford B. Dole
-in August 1898 Congress proclaimed Hawaii as an american territory
-in 1959 Hawaii became the 50th state

The Spanish American War

in 1898, the Us went to war to help Cuba win its independence from Spain

Cubans rebel against Spain
-by the end of the 19th century, Spain had lost most of its colonies
-the US had a long held interest in Cuba, which lies only 90 miles south of Florida
-While president Pierce was in office he offered to buy Cuba from Spain. The Spanish responded saying that they would rather see Cuba sink in the Ocean
-When the Cubans rebelled against Spain, betwqeen 1868 and 1878, americas sympathies went out to the Cuban people

The Second War for Independence
-Anti-Spanish sentiment in Cuba soon erupted into a second war for independence
*Jose Marti-a Cuban poet and journalist in e xile in New York launched a revolution in 1895. He organized a Cuban resistance against Spain using an active guerilla compaign and deliberately destroying property, especially american owned sugar mills and plantations. This was all in an effort ot get America involved in freeing cuba.

War fever escalates
-in 1896, Spain responded to the Cuban revolt by sending general * Valeriano Weyler to Cuba to restore order

Yellow Journalism-exaggerates the news to lure and enrage readers (Willian Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer)

Paper 2: You will choose to answer one question from a bank of five. (Each will be from a major topic)



Chapter 13: Changes on the Western Frontier

Section 1: Indian Massacres, Buffalo Destruction, Custer’s Last Stand, Dawes Act, Chisholm Trail, Cowboys

Section 2: Homestead Act, Challenges facing Homesteaders, Debts and Farmers

Section 3: Railroads overcharging farmers, Populist movement, William Jennings Bryan, Cross of Gold speech



Chapter 14: A New Industrial Age

Section 1: New Inventions spur industrialization / innovations, Electricity, Thomas Edison

Section 2: Transcontinental Railroad, Railroad time, Interstate Commerce Act, Railroad monopolies

Section 3: Social Darwinism, Vertical & Horizontal integration, Rockefeller, Robber Barons, Sherman Antitrust

Act, Labor Unions, Labor Strikes



Chapter 15: Immigrants and Urbanization

Section 1: European and Asian Immigration patterns, Ellis Island, Nativism, Chinese Exclusion Act



Chapter 17: The Progressive Era

Section 1: Goals of Progressivism, Prohibition, Muckrakers, Child Labor, Seventeenth Amendment

Section 2: Suffrage Movement, Rise of Women’s Social Status

Section 3: Teddy Roosevelt, Square Deal, Trustbusting, 1902 Coal Strike, Railroad Regulation, Meat Inspection

Act, Pure Food and Drug Act, Conservation Act, NAACP

Section 4: William Taft, Taft’s departure from Progressive Movement, Bull Moose Party, 1912 Election

Section 5: Woodrow Wilson, New Freedom, Clayton Antitrust Act, Federal Trade Commission, Federal Reserve

System, Nineteenth Amendment, WWI ends Progressive Movement



Chapter 18: America Claims an Empire

Section 1: Imperialism, Alaska, Hawaii

Section 2: The Spanish-American War

Section 3: Puerto Rico, Cuba, Philippines, China

Section 4: Teddy Roosevelt, Panama Canal, Mexico, Latin America



Chapter 19: The First World War

Section 1: Causes of WWI, Opening Battles/results, American neutrality, U-boats

Section 2: U.S. entry into WWI, weapons, war’s hazards, results

Section 3: War economy, propaganda, financing the war, civil liberties, espionage & sedition acts,

Section 4: Fourteen Points, Big Four, Treaty of Versailles, League of Nations, WWI’s legacy



Chapter 20: Politics of the Roaring Twenties

Section 1: A return to isolationism, Red scare, Palmer raids, fear of immigrants, KKK, quota system, labor

unrest



Chapter 21: The Roaring Life of the 1920s

Section 1: Rural v. Urban differences, prohibition, organized crime, Scopes trial,

Section 2: Flappers, double standards, changing roles of women,