General Quiz

Question 1

When was the 13th Amendment passed and what did it do?

Answer 1

1865 - abolished slavery.

Question 2

When was the Civil Rights Act passed and what did it do?

Answer 2

1866 - re-stated the equal rights of African Americans and authorised federal intervention to enforce them.

Question 3

When was the Reconstruction Act passed and what did it do?

Answer 3

1867 - split the South into 5 military districts and administered by the Federal Government

Question 4

When was the 14th Amendment passed and what did it do?

Answer 4

1868 - it said it would penalise any states who denied the vote to male citizens. One clause disqualified from office anyone who had supported the Confederacy, thus cancelling most pardons issued by Johnson.

Question 5

When was the 15th Amendment passed and what did it do?

Answer 5

1869 - specifically stated that the right to vote should not be denied on account of colour or race.

Question 6

When were the Enforcement Acts passed and what did it do?

Answer 6

1870-1 - protected African Americans’ right to vote, hold office etc. The last Act specifically targeted groups like the KKK and said it would prosecute when necessary.

Question 7

Give 2 reasons for the failure of Reconstruction.

Answer 7

• Peaceful/lawful resistance (black codes, Grandfather Clause, literacy tests, Amnesty Act, redemption of the South)
• Violence (KKK, violent suppression of voting rights).

Question 8

What are pork-barrel politics?

Answer 8

The process whereby spending is undertaken to benefit constituents of a politician in return for financial support and/or votes.

Question 9

Describe the Tweet Ring. What did it control and how much money did it steal?

Answer 9

• system of patronage and corruption run by William Tweed, the ‘boss’ of the Democratic political ‘machine’, Tammany Hall, in New York. - His Ring controlled the courts, police, legislature and oversaw the elections.
• He and his associates stole at least $45 million from New York. He was convicted in 1877.

Question 10

How many immigrants came to the USA from the 1860s to 1890?

Answer 10

10 million

Question 11

Which Act was passed in 1882 to do with immigration and what did it do?

Answer 11

Chinese Exclusion Act, which stopped the immigration of skilled and unskilled Chinese workers and prevented those already in the USA from gaining citizenship.

Question 12

What was the role of Booker T. Washington?

Answer 12

African American who set up the Tuskagee Institute in 1881, a school to train African-American teachers. In 1891 he founded West Virginia State University. He gained a greater reputation as a black leader but radicals criticised him for being too moderate.

Question 13

Name 2 big corporations that emerged in the late 19th century in America.

Answer 13

• Standard Oil (Rockefeller)

- US Steel (Carnegie)

Question 14

Give 2 factors to why the US economy expanded between 1865 and 1890.

Answer 14

• affordable / readily available workforce

- transport system

Question 15

What was the Monroe Doctrine?

Answer 15

Isolationist foreign policy, 1823. Stated that the US would see any interference by European powers as an act of aggression; in return the US wouldn’t meddle in European affairs either.

Question 16

Describe the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889.

Answer 16

2 million acres of ‘Indian territory’ granted as free land to white settlers.

Question 17

What was the Turner Thesis? What did he stress the importance of?

Answer 17

Argument by Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 that expansion was the most important factor in American history. He said that America had become a nation from sea to sea. He stressed the importance of free enterprise, hard work, self-help and minimal government interference.

Question 18

What organisations like the Granger Movement and Knights of Labor stand for?

Answer 18

Organisations that represented farmers (GM) and industrial workers (KoL). They criticised the practices of big business and demanded state regulation.

Question 19

By 1912, which reform movement had become the central issue in American politics?

Answer 19

Progressivism – it was urban, middle-class and national. It linked together several themes, including corruption, demands to regulate big business, female suffrage, prohibition, workers’ rights and protection of the environment. It deeply divided the Republicans.

Question 20

Who propped up the government after the Panic of 1893?

Answer 20

JP Morgan. He and his allies lent the government $62 million. Cleveland was criticised for this. It also showed government weakness in the face of big business.

Question 21

Who was Robert La Follette? Who did he criticise? what happened from 1910-1912? How did the Bull Moose Party form?

Answer 21

Republican politician who became disillusioned with the Party and criticised bankers, railroad corporations and other companies. From 1910 – 1912 he led the breakaway from the Republican Party to form a new Progressive Party. He was bullied by Roosevelt into standing down and the Party soon became known as the Bull Moose Party.

Question 22

What was the term used by Wilson to describe his reforms from 1913?

Answer 22

‘New Freedom’.

Question 23

When was the Adamson Act passed and what did it do?

Answer 23

1916 - It introduced an 8 hour day for railroad workers.

Question 24

Economically, what is the period between 1880 and 1914 known as?

Answer 24

Second Industrial Revolution. By 1913, the USA was a net exporter.

Question 25

Economically, which group did badly towards the end of the 19th century?

Answer 25

Farmers – sharecropping African Americans, small white farmers couldn’t compete with agri-businesses, couldn’t get enough finance, series of bad harvests due to poor weather. Led to the rise of populism.

Question 26

Where was an immigration centre opened in 1892

Answer 26

Ellis Island

Question 27

How many Europeans came to the USA between 1890 and WW1?

Answer 27

18 million

Question 28

Who were the great strikes of the 1890s blamed on?

Answer 28

‘foreign agitators’

Question 29

Who did the NAACP (1909) represent and what were its aims?

Answer 29

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People – wanted to abolish segregation and enforce equal voting rights. One its most prominent members – W.E.B. Du Bois.

Question 30

What was the ‘Yellow Press’?

Answer 30

Enthusiastically pushed for the Spanish-American War. Led by William Randolph Hearst’s empire of newspapers.

Question 31

Describe the Roosevelt Corollary.

Answer 31

essentially an amendment to the Monroe Doctrine, which said that the USA had the right to ‘exercise international police power’ in Latin America if deemed necessary.