📚

Comprehensive US History Exam Overview

May 26, 2025

US History Exam Guide: Key Points

Early American Settlers

  • Settlers came from Asia via the Bering Sea, 20,000-30,000 years ago.
  • First European settlers were Vikings, predating Columbus.

European Interests and Exploration

  • Crusades initiated contact with Asian wealth.
  • Constantinople's fall led to new routes to India and China.
  • Advances: caravel, compass, astrolabe, gunpowder.
  • Henry the Navigator's school in Lisbon.
  • Vasco Da Gama first to sail around Africa.

Columbus and Meso-America

  • Columbus funded by Spain, mistakenly thought he reached India.
  • Meso-American tribes: Mayas, Aztecs, Incas.
  • Social hierarchy, human sacrifice for bounty.

Colonization and Conquistadors

  • John Cabot's discovery claimed Canada for England.
  • Treaty of Tordesillas supported Spanish conquests.
  • HernĂĄn Cortez conquered the Aztecs.
  • Columbian Exchange: diseases, livestock, crops.

Religious Reformation

  • Corruption in the Catholic Church.
  • Martin Luther's 95 Theses.
  • John Calvin's predestination doctrine.

Early American Colonies

  • Toleration Act of 1649 attracted Calvinists to New England.
  • Puritans sought to purify the church.
  • Pilgrims sought religious journeys.

Politics and Revolution

  • First legislative house in Plymouth, Virginia 1649.
  • Great Awakening: religious revival.

American Revolution

  • British Acts: Stamp, Townshend, Tea, Intolerable.
  • Declaration of Independence 1776.

Key Figures

  • George Washington, first president, led Continental Army.

Post-Revolution America

  • Constitution: checks and balances.
  • Articles 1-3 detail government structure.

Civil War

  • Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
  • Key battles: Gettysburg, Antietam, Vicksburg.

Reconstruction

  • Amendments: 13th (abolish slavery), 14th (citizenship), 15th (voting rights).
  • Andrew Johnson's presidency faced impeachment.

Economic Expansion

  • Massive capital influx, railroads expanded.
  • Key industrial figures: Carnegie (steel), Rockefeller (oil).

Progressive Era

  • Reforms: women's suffrage, child labor laws.
  • Muckrakers exposed social issues.

World Wars

  • US neutrality in WWI; later joined due to Lusitania sinking, Zimmerman Telegram.
  • WWI aftermath led to economic boom in the 1920s.

Great Depression and New Deal

  • Stock market crash (Black Friday) led to economic hardship.
  • New Deal programs aimed to recover economy.

Post-WWII Boom

  • Economic boom due to pent-up consumer demand.
  • Rise in GNP and living standards.