1. American History I NC Final Exam Review #3
Tracking issues and problems as they effect not just their own time period but future events

2. This sort of concept asks you to think “cause and effect”
What does it mean to think about issues and problems and look for their impact on future events?
This sort of concept asks you to think “cause and effect”
What issues, both long-range and short-term, play a role in shaping the major events of our history.
First we need to define the “major events” that have shaped American History
Discovery of America
The American Revolution
Drafting a Constitution
Manifest Destiny
The American Civil War
Settling the West
Then we need to look at what events led up to them causing them to take place.

3. Attacking questions related to cause and effect
The biggest problem with “cause and effect” questions is that many of these major issues have what is called “multiple causation”, meaning that more than one cause contributed to the event.
For this reason many cause and effect questions feature the “dirty words” of testing:
All of the following or which of the following (usually precedes these type of questions)
Not
Best
Except
There are others
Once you have identified any possible “dirty words” then you need to seek out your answer by eliminating things that do not apply to time period, that are unrelated to the event, that simply are incorrect.
Here again, because this often requires you to change your thinking on looking for the answer, you need to take your time and read the question and answer options carefully.

4. Cause and Effect by major event
Discovery of America (causes)
Marco Polo’s journey to China inspired desire to trade with China
Diaz and de Gama’s voyages around the southern tip of Africa showed that water routes were possible.
Spanish Nationalism and enthusiasm following the Reconquista led to the financing of Columbus’s voyage across the Atlantic
Discovery of America (effects)
Spanish conquest of major Central and South American empires in the search for gold.
English, French, and Dutch settlement of North America and the development of the American Colonies.
Tragic depletion of the Native American population through disease and warfare.

5. Cause and Effect by major event
American Revolution (causes)
Salutary Neglect preceding the French and Indian War
New Taxes and restrictions placed on colonists after the French and Indian War
Desire for self- determination (self-rule) that had developed in the Colonies for years preceding the Revolution.
American Revolution (effects)
Independence
Problems in asserting ourselves in trade and commerce on the international market
Issues of trying to govern while at the same time creating a system as foreign to the British model as possible. Led to the formation of a weak central government incapable of meeting the nation’s needs.

6. Cause and Effect by major event
Drafting a Constitution (causes)
Failures of the Articles of Confederation
Ineffective trade policies
Inability to settle debt issues
Inability to tax
Lack of appropriate national security
Shays’s Rebellion
Drafting a Constitution (effects)
Debates between the Federalists and Antifederalists
Some loss of power by the States in order to created a stronger central government.
Addition of a Bill of Rights to guarantee the personal freedoms of all citizens.

7. Cause and Effect by major event
Manifest Destiny (causes)
Desire to increase the power and wealth of the United States through acquisition of land
Desire to spread the “Empire of Liberty”
Desire to spread Christianity
Desires to make possible trade with China through ports on the Pacific Coast
Manifest Destiny (effects)
The Texas Revolution
The Annexation of Texas by the United States
The Oregon Treaty
War with Mexico
Acquisition of the “Mexican Cession” (Cal., Nev., Utah, Ari., and NM) by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Controversy surrounding the potential spread of slavery into the western territories

8. Cause and Effect by major event
Civil War (causes)
Abolition Movement
Attempts to stop the spread of slavery into the western territories
Failed Compromises
Three Fifths Compromise
Missouri Compromise
Tariff Compromise
Compromise of 1850
Crittenden Compromise
Controversies surrounding the Kansas-Nebraska Act (Bleeding Kansas), Dred Scott Decision, and John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry.
Election of Abraham Lincoln
Secession of the Southern States (led by South Carolina) and the firing on Fort Sumter
Civil War (effects)
Dramatically increased the power of the Federal Government.
Demonstrated that the Federal Government could be used as a tool to protect the rights and interests of oppressed minorities.
Continued Sectionalism during and after the Reconstruction Process
The Military occupation of the Southern States as part of Radical Reconstruction
Fights between the Presidents (Lincoln and Johnson) and Congress (Radical Republicans) over how the former Confederate States should be readmitted to the Union.
Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th)

9. Cause and Effect by major event
Settling the West (causes)
Enclosure Movement (fencing in property)
Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad and the increase use of the Steamboat (invented by Robert Fulton)
Telegraph and Morse Code
Homestead Act of 1862
Exodusters, pioneers, and the unemployed Civil War vets that moved west
Cattle Trails, growth of the meatpacking industry, and refrigerated boxcars.
Settling the West (effects)
Increased Urbanization as many immigrants and failed farmers sought employment in factories in the cities.
Loss of the romantic view of frontier as a place where a person could go and start a new life in the more independent west.
Increased Industrialization
Increased power of the Federal Government
Native Americans forced to Reservation after numerous wars fought on the Great Plains

10. Lingering Problems that effected the development of American Society
Democratization
A big part of what caused the American Revolution was a desire for representation in Parliament and a commitment to importance of Colonial Assemblies and Town Meetings.
After the Revolution, despite the “All Men Are Created Equal” Doctrine pronounced in the Declaration, the only Americans that could vote were White Male Property Owners.
In 1828 the requirement to own property in order to vote was dropped ushering in a period of increased voting rights for White Males during the presidency of Andrew Jackson (Jacksonian Democracy)
In 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the Seneca Falls Convention and began the Women’s Suffrage Movement which culminated in the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote in 1920
The 14th Amendment granted rights of citizenship and equal protection under the law to African Americans (freed slaves)
The 15th Amendment stated that the right to vote could not be denied on the basis of race. During Radical Reconstruction 900,000 African Americans voted for Ulysses S. Grant for President. When Radical Reconstruction ended Southern States resumed oppression of African American voting rights with literacy tests and poll taxes, despite the 15th Amendment.

11. Lingering Problems that effected the development of American Society
Sectionalism
The first example of Sectionalism was the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were a direct attempt to silence the Democratic-Republicans of the South and strengthen the Federalists in the North.
Other early examples included the Embargo Act of 1807 (which hurt the Northern Shipping Industry), The Hartford Convention (The Federalists tried to pull the North out of the War of 1812), and the Tariff of 1828 (labeled by John C. Calhoun as the Tariff of Abominations because it was so damaging to Southern Cotton profits).
Most of the Questions that you will see regarding Sectionalism will be in reference to slavery, things like:
The Three Fifths Compromise
The Missouri Compromise
The role of the Mexican War in stirring Sectional controversy
The Compromise of 1850
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Role of Abolition in stirring Sectional controversy
How Radical Reconstruction did not solve sectional differences following the Civil War

12. Lingering Problems that effected the development of American Society
Nationalism
American Nationalism arguably began with the Albany Plan of Union prior to the French and Indian War.
That nationalism was only enhanced by the period of Salutary Neglect during which each of the Colonies formed their own Colonial Assemblies and essentially ran their own affairs.
The drafting of the Constitution helped bring about a new sense of nationalism by creating a stronger central government that would assert American influence over the Western Hemisphere.
The Monroe Doctrine proclaimed that the Western Hemisphere was a United States “Sphere of Influence” and forbade future European colonization in the region.
Nationalism would play a major role after the Civil War in leading the U.S. into the Spanish-American War, acquisition of an overseas empire, and involvement in both World Wars I and II.

13. Lingering Problems that effected the development of American Society
Freedom and Equality
The first African slaves arrived in the Jamestown Settlement in 1619 from the Caribbean as part of the Triangle of Trade.
Although many African Americans lived in the north as free blacks, most African Americans that came to the United States came as slaves.
During the Second Great Awakening Protestant ministers began urging their congregations to do “God’s Work” here on earth and many became involved in the Abolition Movement, which began in England and was initiated in America by William Lloyd Garrison who called for the immediate end of all slavery in his newspaper The Liberator.
During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln (although not an abolitionist himself) focused the war effort on abolition with the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation then called abolition the “unfinished business” of the Civil War at the Gettysburg Address.
After the Civil War Slavery was abolished, African Americans were granted rights of citizenship, and their vote was “protected” by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
When the Compromise of 1877 ended Radical Reconstruction African Americans found themselves oppressed once again by limited voting rights (literacy tests, poll taxes, and gerrymandering), segregation of public facilities, and Jim Crow Laws.
It would take two major Civil Rights Movements in the 1920s and 1950s/1960s to regain the vote and end segregation.

14. Lingering Problems that effected the development of American Society
Freedom and Equality
One of the first women to begin calling for increased women’s rights was First Lady Abigail Adams, who in letters to her husband (2nd President John Adams) urged him “to remember the ladies” and not put too much power in the hands of the husbands.
Despite some early successes many women found themselves bound to the home. Two major schools of thought were responsible for confining women to the home:
Republican Motherhood (women needed to be in the home educating and raising patriotic sons, which did open some educational opportunities for women)
Cult of Domesticity (women’s place is in the home, and only the home)
During the Second Great Awakening women became the backbone of both the Temperance (banning alcohol) and Abolition (ending slavery) Movements. This prompted many women to then desire increased rights for themselves.
In 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the Seneca Falls Convention where they drafted the Declaration of Sentiments and began the Women’s Suffrage Movement.
With industrialization (especially in the Textile industry) many women began working outside the home and earning their own money (Lowell Mills), which inspired them to seek more freedoms politically.
Susan B. Anthony led a campaign during the late 1800s urging the States to grant women the right to vote, Colorado and many other western states did so.
After Women’s heroic contributions during World War I in both the factories and as nurses the status of women in society shifted greatly. Their efforts would lead to the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote in Federal elections.