Unit 5: 1844-1877

• What important events/topics take place within this unit's time period? Include significant dates. (5)

  Mexican-American War, 1846-1848

  Manifest Destiny

  Compromise of 1850

  Civil War, 1861-1865

  Reconstruction, 1865-1877
• List the reasons behind the need for westward expansion. (4)

  Manifest Destiny (desiring the Oregon territory from Britain and Texas from Mexico)

  Better access to resources (hence the Gold Rush)

  Economic and homestead opportunities

  Religious refuge of rejected groups like the Mormons
• What dispute led to the Mexican American war?

  U.S. tried to negotiate land with Mexico and when they were rejected, sent troops to the Rio Grande border of disputed Texas territory where conflict broke out. Americans died on supposed American soil, giving reason to start war
• What treaty ended Mexican-American war? Include year.

  Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848
• What were results of Guadalupe Hidalgo treaty and end of the Mexican-American war? (3)

  Rio Grande established as official Texan southern border

  Paid deal for Mexico to give up California and New Mexico

  Though Mexicans already living in the new territories were granted U.S. citizenship, Indians were not included as citizens by the U.S., and both groups faced attacks on their civil rights
• What indicated increasing tension over slavery before the civil war? (2)

  Wilmot Proviso, which—although rejected—proposed that territory acquired by Mexican-American war would be off-limits to slavery

  Free soil ideal which wanted more land available for homesteaders without competition from plantations
• Why was the South upset by the admission of California and New Mexico as new states?

  Both were admitted as free states, thus ruining the 50/50 balance in Congress and putting them at risk of a ban on slavery
• What were the terms of the Compromise of 1850? (4)

  Divided territory gained from Mexican-American war into Utah and New Mexico and both would practice popular sovereignty

  California a free state

  Banned slave trade in Washington D.C.

  Stricter fugitive slave law
• What aspects contributed to the sectional divide during this period? (2)

  Nativists and the Know-Nothing party who were against immigration of Irish and Germans

  North's economy manufacturing-based while South still agricultural
• What other decisions came after the Compromise of 1850, and how did they end up contributing to tensions leading to civil war? (2)

  Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 decided that the two territories (which were above the Missouri line) would decide slavery by popular sovereignty, which essentially overturned the Missouri Compromise and led to Bleeding Kansas

  Dred Scott decision which established that slaves were not citizens (but rather property) and therefore couldn't sue in court and also said it was unconstitutional for Congress to seize (AKA ban) the "property" of any citizen
• Advantages of South in civil war: (2)

  Able to fight a defensive war

  Had more experienced military leaders
• Advantages of North in civil war: (4)

  Greater population

  Strength in the navy for control of seas and rivers

  Economic advantage through control of banks, railroads, and manufacturing

  An organized central government
• Anaconda Plan

  North would utilize naval advantage to surround and blockade the Confederacy by taking control of Mississippi River
• What year was Emancipation Proclamation?

  1862
• How was the Emancipation Proclamation effective as a war tactic? (2)

  Cut off South's reliance on outside nations by making the civil war about slavery, which countries like Britain and France were outwardly against

  Gave enslaved people the chance to escape from South and take up arms against their former holders
• Lincoln's Gettysburg Address speech is famous for...

  Depicting the civil war and fight against slavery as a struggle for fulfilling the nation's democratic ideas
• What were the two plans proposed for Reconstruction after the civil war?

  (Lincoln's) 10% Plan: 10% loyalty oath needed to be taken in order to bring Confederate states back into the Union, and they were required to ratify 13th amendment abolishing slavery

  Radical-Republican plan: wanted Congress to lead Reconstruction by passing legislation in protection of black rights
• Freedmen's Bureau

  Agency set up to support recently freed blacks in the South by providing education and economic aid
• Civil Rights Act of 1866

  Protected the newly granted citizenship of blacks and provided them equal protection under the law
• Why did the women's rights movement split into two after the 15th amendment?

  Amendment granted universal right to vote to all men; movement was divided on whether they supported it or not
• What are examples of attempts by the South to retain pre-civil war society? (2)

  Sharecropping system which kept black workers bound to plantations by contracts and essentially replaced slavery

  Belief of white supremacy through the founding of the KKK and the effort to establish it in law through Black Codes
• Explain what the Compromise of 1877 did and how it led to the end of Reconstruction

  Democrats agreed to have Rutherford B. Hayes as president and in exchange he would remove federal troops from the south, allowing democrats to dominate instead
• What were the successes and failures of Reconstruction?

  Successes: 13-15th amendments, establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau, and black men entering congress

  Failures: allowing Jim Crow laws to remain, as well as poll taxes and literacy tests (which limited blacks' abilities to exercise their voting rights), and the survival of white supremacy groups
• How were women involved in the Civil War?

  The war involved ordinary public more than any other war; most women were nurses to treat the wounded and supported their respective sides from home by raising funds for the troops