APUSH CHAP 16 LEARNING CURVE

During the 1870s, what decimated the vast herds of buffalo that had roamed the Great Plains?

Animal diseases and overhunting by whites -- Overhunting and European animal afflictions, like the bacterial disease brucellosis, decimated herds. In the 1870s, hide hunters finished them off so thoroughly that fewer than a hundred bison remained. Hunters left the meat to rot.

Why did Great Britain agree to pay the United States $15.5 million in damages after the Civil War?

British shipyards had built Confederate raiding vessels such as CSS Alabama. -- Britain had permitted Confederate raiding vessels like the Alabama to be built in its shipyards and agreed afterward to pay the United States $15.5 million in damages after an arbitration process.

How did the United States persuade the Japanese to open trade relations?

By wielding naval power to persuade the Japanese to sign a treaty → Prior to the Civil War, Commodore Matthew Perry had forced the Japanese through gunboat diplomacy to sign a treaty in 1854 opening two ports for U.S. ships to refuel. Americans wanted open trade for missionary purposes as well, which they received in 1858.

In the largest mass hanging in U.S. history, President Abraham Lincoln ordered the execution of thirty-eight men from which group?

Dakota Sioux -- In the largest mass hanging in U.S. history, President Lincoln ordered the execution of thirty-eight Dakota men for killing Americans in 1862. The total was actually smaller than it could have been—a military court, bent on revenge, sentenced 307 Dakota to death, but Lincoln commuted most of the sentences.

What did Oglala Sioux Chief Red Cloud accomplish in 1868?

He convinced the United States to withdraw troops from the Bozeman Trail. → In 1868, after years of exhausting and inconclusive fighting, the Sioux, led by the Oglala band under Chief Red Cloud, told a peace commission they would not sign any treaty unless the United States pledged to abandon all its forts along the Bozeman Trail. The commission agreed.

Why were the children of the Dakotas Sioux close to starvation in the late 1850s?

Minnesota's territorial governor and Indian agents stole their provisions. -- In 1858, the year Minnesota secured statehood, the Dakotas had agreed to settle on a strip of land reserved by the government, in exchange for receiving regular payments and supplies. But Indian agents, contractors, and even Minnesota's territorial governor pocketed most of the funds.

What did the advertisement for Buffalo Bills' Wild West show suggest to audiences?

Native tribes in the American West were a fierce and uncivilized race

What did the U.S. Supreme Court rule in the case of Munn v. Illinois (1877)?

States had the right to regulate businesses with a public purpose. → In Munn v. Illinois, the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged that states had the right to regulate those businesses that served important public purposes, such as railroads and grain elevators, but they did not want excessive local regulations to prevent the integration of the national marketplace.

Which technology permitted homesteaders in the West to plant crops in the prairie in the 1860s and 1870s?

Steel plows -- Steel plows enabled homesteaders to break through the tough roots of prairie grasses.

What federal department did Congress create in 1862 to conduct research and provide advice to farmers?

The Department of Agriculture -- In 1862, Congress created the federal Department of Agriculture to conduct research and provide advice to farmers.

What trend is evident in the three maps of South Dakota reservations?

The diminishment of lands guaranteed to the Sioux -- In 1868, the Sioux were guaranteed nearly half of what is now the state of South Dakota. By 1889, they had less than half of that.

One critic called the Comstock Lode "the tomb of the forests of the Sierra." Why was that phrase apt?

The mining industry ravaged the landscape --

In an issue of the journal Wonderland, the Northern Pacific Railroad Company introduced eastern readers to a view of the west from the railcar: "We are now in the far-famed Yellowstone Valley. . . . There are but few Indians now to be seen along the line of the railroad, and those are engaged in agricultural and industrial pursuits. The extinction of the buffalo has rendered the Indian much more amenable to the civilizing influences brought to bear upon him than he formerly was." In the view of the railroad, what made the Yellowstone Valley more appealing?

The taming of Indians -- According to the article, the extermination of the buffalo had forced the Indian tribes of the region from a nomadic into a sedentary agricultural economy. This defeat had also made them more peaceful, benefiting visiting tourists.

What was a major difference between the settlement of the Great Plains and of mining camps and cattle ranches?

There were proportionately more women on the plains. → Homesteading was a family affair, and the work of women and children was vital to the farm family's success.

Why were Republicans so eager to fund the construction of a transcontinental railroad in the 1860s?

They saw the failure to connect different regions via the railroad as one cause of the Civil War. -- Regional isolation, Republicans believed, had contributed to the sectional divisions between North and South that led to the Civil War.

For what reason had states chartered corporations in the early nineteenth century?

To fulfill specific public purposes -- States chartered corporations in the early nineteenth century to assume responsibilities in the public interest but beyond the capabilities of government, such as banking, transportation, or higher education.

Why did William Seward urge Congress to purchase refueling stations in the Pacific and the Caribbean?

To support growing trade with Asia and Latin America -- Seward urged the Senate to purchase sites in both the Pacific and the Caribbean for naval bases and refueling stations in order to facilitate international trade.

Which mode of transportation helped integrate the national economy after the Civil War?

railroad -- Railroads helped integrate the national economy and covered the entire nation by 1900.

How did Frederick Jackson Turner's audience conceive of the frontier in the 1890s?

As an illustration of American exceptionalism → When Turner first published "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," eager listeners saw pioneering in the West as evidence of American exceptionalism, the nation's unique history and destiny.

Although in the late 1800s critics decried the ways in which government spending aided the accumulation of enormous private wealth, they acknowledged that the giant railroad companies that received these funds

benefited the economy. → Critics had to acknowledge that railroads and other giant corporations drove economic growth and aided general prosperity, even as government support and subsidies facilitated a fabulous accumulation of wealth.