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Flashcards · 9489 · AS Topic 2

American option: The history of the USA, 1820–1941 (AS Level) flashcards

18 cards on AS Topic 2, subtopics 4 to 6. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

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4 The Civil War and Reconstruction, 1820–77

What were the interlocking causes of the American Civil War?
The expansion of slavery into new territories, economic divergence between an industrialising North and an agrarian, slavery-dependent South, and disputes over federal versus state power. Argue how they were entangled rather than listing them.
What did the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) do, and why did it matter?
It let settlers in those territories decide on slavery by popular sovereignty, overturning the Missouri Compromise line of 1820. Violence in "Bleeding Kansas" followed and the Republican Party was formed in opposition.
What did the Dred Scott decision (1857) rule?
The Supreme Court ruled that Black Americans were not citizens and that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories, deepening sectional conflict.
What did the Emancipation Proclamation (1 January 1863) do?
It declared enslaved people free in the Confederate states still in rebellion, making the end of slavery a Union war aim. It did not apply to slave states loyal to the Union.
What did the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments do?
13th (1865): abolished slavery. 14th (1868): citizenship and equal protection of the laws. 15th (1870): the vote could not be denied on grounds of race.
How did Reconstruction end?
With the Compromise of 1877: Rutherford Hayes became President and federal troops were withdrawn from the South, leaving the question of what freedom and citizenship meant for formerly enslaved people unresolved.

5 The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, 1870–1920

Where does the name "Gilded Age" come from?
From Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner’s novel The Gilded Age (1873): a glittering surface of wealth over deep problems of inequality, corruption and poor urban and working conditions.
What did the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) do?
It outlawed contracts and combinations in restraint of trade and attempts at monopoly. It was weakly enforced at first, but later used against trusts such as Standard Oil.
Who were the Populists?
A farmers’ protest movement that formed the People’s Party in 1892, calling for measures such as a graduated income tax, government ownership of the railroads and an expanded money supply through the free coinage of silver.
Who were the muckrakers?
Investigative journalists and writers of the Progressive Era who exposed corruption and abuses. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906) helped bring about the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
Name four constitutional amendments of the Progressive Era
16th (1913): federal income tax. 17th (1913): direct election of senators. 18th (ratified 1919): prohibition of alcohol. 19th (1920): women’s right to vote.
How should a Gilded Age and Progressive Era answer be structured?
Link specific Gilded Age problems to the specific Progressive reforms that responded to them, and judge how far each worked. A named reform is worth more than a description of the period’s atmosphere.

6 The Great Crash, the Great Depression and the New Deal, 1920–41

What caused the Wall Street Crash of October 1929?
Speculative excess, including buying shares on margin, together with structural weaknesses: an unstable banking system, depressed agriculture and the limits of 1920s prosperity, such as overproduction and unequal income.
How did Hoover respond to the Depression?
He relied on voluntary action and limited federal help, such as the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932), and signed the Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930). The eviction of the Bonus Army in 1932 damaged his reputation.
What are the three Rs of the New Deal?
Relief (immediate help for the unemployed and poor), recovery (reviving the economy) and reform (preventing another crash). Evaluate measures against the aim each was meant to meet.
Name three measures of the First New Deal (1933)
The Emergency Banking Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) and the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). Others include the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Name two major measures of the Second New Deal (1935)
The Social Security Act, which created old-age pensions and unemployment insurance, and the Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act), which protected workers’ right to join unions and bargain collectively.
What opposition did the New Deal face?
From the right, business groups such as the American Liberty League and a Supreme Court that struck down the NIRA in 1935. From the left, critics such as Huey Long, who argued it did too little. Roosevelt’s 1937 court-packing plan failed.

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