US History Exam Questions

What were the causes and significant results of the War of 1812?

causes: british support of native americans (battle of tippecanoe, supplying weaponry to prophetstown), impressment (british were taking soldiers off american ships even though we had signed Jay's Treaty), they weren't leaving northwest territories

Was Polk justified in asking Congress to declare war on Mexico, or was his request merely a thinly veiled attempt to seize more western territory?

No because American's were in a section of Mexico that didn't belong to them. Santa Anna wanted to squash the rebellion in Texas. This would have been a good start to the war if the Americans hadn't been illegal aliens in Mexico. Lincoln was like this isn't our land so we can't declare war. Polk declared war for a couple days as a presidential right. The Americans didn't help the texas rebellion because they were busy dealing with the bank crisis and the U.S. was about to go into a panic.

Why did popular sovereignty fail to resolve the debate over permitting slavery in the new western territories?

"Bleeding Kansas" was an example of popular sovereignty failed because Nebraskans decided to go to Kansas to vote for slavery so that Kansas would be a slave state.

What were the Coercive Acts? Why did the colonists call them the Intolerable Acts? What do these terms tell you about the divisions between the colonists and the mother country?

1) closed the port 2) took away state charter, so mass. can't have a colonial government 3) the quartering act: housed british troops in American homes. After the tea party in 1773, the British punished Boston for rebelling by issuing the Coercive Acts in 1774. The acts took away mass. self-gov. In 1774, the colonies organized the first continental congress to coordinate a protest. As tensions escalated, the american rev. war broke out in April 1775.

What were the final steps on the road to secession?

Dred Scott (federal government has no authority to prohibit slavery and that black people aren't citizens). Rise of the "Know Nothings". Differing economic systems in the north and the south. The Election of Abraham Lincoln. The Fugitive slave act, everyone had to turn in a slave they thought was a runaway. Northerners thought that congress was pro-slavery. Kansas- Nebraska Act, (1854) popularized the idea of popular sovereignty. Creation of the Republican party (Abraham Lincoln)

How did the market economy increase the sectional differences?

Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, which made cotton production more effective, meaning the south needed more slaves. In the north, railroads, factories (like Lowell Mills), made the northern economy dependent on free labor (women, immigrants, freedmen)

To what extent was President Jackson one of the nation's most effective presidents?

He started the indian removal act and he also paid off the national debt. He dealt with the nullification crisis, he believed that south carolina didn't have the right to nullify the federal government's "tariff of abominations"

What was the impact of the American Revolution on Native Americans?

In 1763, the British indoctrinated the Proclamation Line which prohibited Americans from moving west of the Appalachian Mountain Range. to keep americans from interfering with native americans.

How did the French and Indian war affect British colonial policy?

The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war's expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American Revolution.

To what extent did Jefferson violate his avowed constitutional principles when he accepted the Louisiana Purchase?

The constitution did not explicitly say that he had the right to acquire land from a foreign country. He believed that a government should be strictly run by the constitution but in this case he went past what he thought. We need to expand. It was our god given right.

What made the American Civil War the first modern war?

We have railroads and industrialization in the north that gave them a leg up. They had so much industry, railroads, telegraphs, photos, ironclad ships.