1. What are the main historic events(hit five) that took place in 8th Grade US History that helped shape the United States up to 1877?(10 points)-Chapters 1-4
I thought an important point that helped shape the United States was Christopher Columbus expedition. I picked this as one of my top 5 because this is very significant to the US. This took place on August third 1492. “Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492.” That is a saying to help remember the year it happened. Christopher Columbus’s reason for his journey was to find a faster rout to Asia. But instead he discovered America. This is very important because if he would have never founded this land nothing would be the same as it is today.
Another main historic event is the Declaration of Independences. The Declaration of Independents was signed on July 4th 1776. But we didn’t gain independents until the treaty of pairs was signed. I thought this was important to our country because that’s what helped us become our own counmtry. It also lead to the American Revolutionary War.
The Civil War was another historic event that helped shape our country today. This war was fought in the 1860’s. This war was all about slavery. If this war would have never of been fought there is a very good chance there could still be slavery today. This war was between the Confederate and the Union. The confederate won this war against slavery.
I thought the constitution works good for this topic do to the fact that it organizes all of America. It also frames our government. It may not seem like America is very organized because of our debt, but if we didn’t have the constitution our government would be a mess to say the least. I also think the constitution is very important because we still follow it today. That’s why I feel this one is a very important event in our history.
My last one that I picked was the Treaty of Paris. This was signed September 3rd 1873. The treaty of Paris was an agreement that ended the American Revolutionary War. This was between the French, British, and the Americans. The significance to this treaty is if we wouldn’t have won Britain would have more power over us. But do to the fact that we won we had more say about what happens to America.
2. How did the US change during the late 1800's and early 1900's?(10 points)-Chapters 5-8
Monopolies started happening, which wasn’t good for the US because it caused a lot of stores to close down. John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie Bought companies of oil and steel which made other companies have to shut down because they weren’t getting any business. Labor unions were taking place at this time. Labor unions cause a lot of employs to go on strike. Which made employers eventually give the employs more rights. Immigration was big then too. Ellis Island was a huge immigration site. Angel Island was a big immigration site too. Eventually Immigration stopped which cause a lot of problems for the immigrants. But it was good for the US because the immigrants would come and take our jobs. They got hired easy because they would work for less. So this era wasn’t very good. Monopolies were taking over business, labor unions were happening, and immigrants were talking our jobs.
3. What impact did the Progressives have on the United States?(10 points)-Ch. 9
Well progressives are people that wanted to make our economy better. They had four goals. They wanted to help the poor, help women ban alcohol, they wanted the government to become more capitalism because that was fairer to the workers, and the last thing that wanted was workers to get paid better so they would stay with the company and work to make products to sell which would make more money for the economy. I’d say the progressives had a pretty good impact on the US because it helped the US became more fair to a certain degree.
4. Describe US Foreign Policy in the late 1800's and early 1900's and be able to give examples.(10 points)-Ch. 10
The US foreign policy is how the United States dealt with other countries. Some examples are Old Diplomacy to New Diplomacy. The Old Diplomacy was when we were noninterventionist. We also were isolationist meaning we minded our own business. We stayed out of other peoples things because we didn’t want to get involved in the war. Another thing was passive and reactive. We waited for things to occur and then decided to act on them. Washington’s advice was to stay out of affairs so that’s what we tried to do. The New Diplomacy was pretty much the complete opposite of the old. We were imperialist. We conquer land so we could have an empire. Our Army and Navy were stronger. We became interventionist and became more involved in other countries affairs. We were proud of our country. We had nationalism.
The open door policy was when countries had free trade with china. We stepped in because china was getting sick of the Europeans. This saved the Chinese independents. The Big stick diplomacy was a treat. “Speak soft and carry a big stick.” The stick was our military and navy power. The best example is Columbia and the Panama Canal. The dollar diplomacy was basically saying that we would give them money if they promised not to go into debt. The Missionary diplomacy said that we wouldn’t talk to people that were mean to the US and Latin America.
5. What impact did World War I have on the United States?(10 points)-Ch. 11
WWI took a lot of our money and killed a lot of our citizens. WWI was a bad thing for the US. Just like we became after the war ended. Woodrow Wilson was president at the time. Until 1917 we were neutral. That is the year we joined the war. The reasons for us joining the war would be the Zimmerman note. This note said that if Mexico would of helped Germany win the war then the US would of gave some of our land to Mexico. They also sunk our Lusitanian ship. Trade was another big reason. When the war started we could trade with any of the countries but then the trade with Germany stopped. So we were trading with Great Britain. That is when we started to join the war. On the home front we had lots of propaganda saying we want you for the US army. We were trying to get people to join the war so we would have more troops and a better chance of winning. The women and African Americans took part in the help as well. They started to work in factories. The victory garden was set up to help win the war also. The food cost was lowered. They did this to make every person feel like they were doing something to help as well. The food administration wanted people to cut back on some foods. They suggested meatless days. That way you would save more food for the troops. Their slogan was “food is ammunition, don’t waste it.” The defense of realm act was sort of the same thing. It went by the same concept. This act was set up to prevent food and fuel shortages. The treaty of Versailles was the treaty that ended WWI. Versailles is a place right by Paris. The four big countries were US, Great Britain, Italy, and France. The Paris Peace conference was when they were going to draft the war. Germany lost a lot of land and the map of Europe changed drastically. We never did sign the treaty. After the war ended we went back to being neutral, and staying out of other countries problems.
6. What positive and negative impact did the 1920's have on the United States?(20 points)-Ch. 12-13
Its nickname is the Roaring Twenties. It was a very fun time. Cars were being invented which not only effected transportation but it also had an impact on the cities Rural areas, and business. Once people bought cars they moved to Rural areas because they could drive which meant cities expanded which meant business and building were being built and companies were developing. So that was a huge positive for the 1920’s era.
Some negatives might be that there were a lot of gangs because Prohibition was taking place. Prohibition is the act to ban buying and selling of alcohol. But that didn’t mean people didn’t drink it. That just meant they had to be more sneakily about it. This caused people to rebel against the fact that they can’t drink alcohol legally, so it started gangs. Women also started to Rebel. The women started to dress more as what was considered provocative during that time. They also started drinking and smoking around other people, which wasn't common back then. The red scare was when the people thought the government was going to turn to communist. The red scare also made immigration come to a halt. A lot of the red scare was based on false accusations. Buying on credit was also a negitive because people were buying things without having to pay the whole price up front. So when it would come to payment time they wouldn't have enough money to make payments on all those things which put companies and businesses into debt. Another negative thing was the stock market crash didn't happen till the late 20’s. The stock market crash eventually caused the great depression.
7. What were the causes and effects of the stock market crash of 1929?(20 points)-Ch.14-15
People were selling things and nobody was buying things. People started to get nervous because they were in debt and they were losing money instead of gaining money. Companies weren’t bringing in as much money and their stock prices were going up. So they weren’t making any money but the prices of their items were going up. The effects of the stock market crash were once the companies started to realize they weren’t making any money they would sell which made everybody else do the same. When people were selling the stock market would go down and after it got too far down it eventually crashed.
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