Essentials for US History--Semester One
1. Students will understand the impact the Industrial Revolution had on the United States.
- Started 1760 and went to 1850. It was when all the businesses started up, like factories, transportation, railroads, steamboats, and farming. New inventions started coming out at this time which changed America forever. More new inventions were: the cotton gin, telephone, typewriter, and weapons became more modern. It took more slaves because it took more jobs to collect everything.
2. Students will understand the impact immigration and urbanization had on the United States.
- Immagrants:
*they came to the US for freedom, money, escape famine, land shortages, religious or political prosecution, and pretty much just a better life from what they had across seas.
* people came from all over the world. Mainly Europe, China, Russia, and Mexico.
* They would arrive at Ellis Island(New York) or Angel Island(California). They would then get tested for physical to make sure they were not bringing and sicknesses into the US.
- Urbanization:
*From all the new inventions, farmers moved into the cities to find better jobs and work because the machines did all the work for the farm. The citites became crowded so everything became dirty. Trash was piled all over the streets because there wasnt places to put it. Three to four families would be sharing one house. Alot of problems such as crime, water, transportation, housing, fire, and sanitation all faced the cities.
3. Students will understand the impact of the Progressive Era on the United States.
- 1890 and early 1900's. Its the time where women got the right to vote. Women started working in factories and earning money instead of staying at home with the children. Children also could start working in factories for long hours for short pay, since they were small and could fit in small places to fix things. The older workers worked short hours, but had bigger pay. It was bringing alot of change into the world during this time period. The goal was to protect social welfare, promote moral improvement, to make economic reform, and fostering efficiency. The reform government was to give power to some of the lower people. During this time the 17th, 18th, and 19th amendments came out. People would get paid more but their hours would be cut down. By having less working hours, it allowed more people to go to college.
4. Students will understand the impact imperialism had on the United States and world.
-economic reasons ($for natural resources)
-wanted to be superior and felt they were more powerful if they had more land
-"White Man's Burden" (cultural superiority)
Imperialism was becoming pretty common for many of the major powers of the world for a simple reason: they all wanted to be superior compared to the others.
5. Students will understand the causes for US involvement in World War I and the effects it had on the United States.
Focus on these topics for the test:
-Causes of WWI
*The major causes of WW1 include but are not limited to: militarism, alliances between Great Britain, Russia, France, and later America, the triple alliance which was Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Imperialism, nationalism, and the assassination of Archduke Franz Fernanda of Austria-Hungary by Serbia was another big reason that pushed them over the edge into a war.
-Causes for US involvement
*Originally, the US had decided we wanted to stay neutral in the war. There were then two major reasons we decided to get involved in the war. The Zimmerman Note: it proposed a military alliance against the US, and it said that the US was in danger of a war. The other main reason we got involved was when Lusitania was attacked by German U-boats. 1 of 90 ships were attacked by the German-U boats.
-Trench Warfare and weapons
*Some weapons that we used to fight in the war were rifles, gas, grenades, cannon, machine gun, bayonet, planes, blimps, and others. The rifle was the most common weapon used. Trench Warfare consisted of a system of trenches where they were protected by a barb-wire entanglement, and they would shoot across to another trench.
-US Homefront
* At home, on the US homefront, they were trying to make it so that everyone would feel like they were taking a part in the war, even children. For the first time in our history, the women had to start doing the mens jobs. The women also had to still make nutritious meals that still conserved food for the men fighting. In the draft, there were 3 million people that were signed up but only about 2.6 were actually drafted. It was a big thing to try and conserve food back then so the soldiers would have enough to eat. Also, there were things passed that said if you were disagreeing with the war or talking bad about it you could get a big fine or thrown in jail
-Wilson's 14 Points and the Treaty of Versailles
*Wilson's 14 points :
- 1. open covenets; no more secrets; (secret deals)
- 2. can navigate freely on the seas; general peace, fighting with other nations, League of Nations remains neutral
- 3. Trying to eliminate barriers of trade; tariffs, etc
- 4. can't own too many weapons, lessen weapons
- 5. have to be neutral with all of the colonies.
- 6. evacuate German troops out of Russian territory; Russia decided to form a government they wanted without any interference (determine own political set-up)
- 7. German troops need to evacuate Belgium; Belgium deserved to be independent like they were before war
- 8. France has taken Germany's control of the French territory; France is allowed to recover Alsase Lorraine (region in France)
- 9.All Italians should be allowed to live in Italy; readjust Italy's boundaries to get land back
- 10. People who live in Austria-Hungary should have self-determination (all ethnic groups) (let people determine the future)
- 11. people in the Balkan states should be independent; must evacuate the General Power of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania
- 12. Turkish people should be governed by Turkish government; non Turkish people should govern themselves
- 13. Poland should be independent; Should be able to access the sea
- 14. League of Nations is created to make independence to all states
* Treaty of Versailles :
- Forced Germany to give up their land; give to other countries (13.5%)
- Germany had to pay 33 billion dollars; put in huge depression
- Wanted to make sure never had to worry about Germany again
- Germany had War Guilt Clause thrown in their face; take responsibility of war
- League of nations; spread pace & stop war
- Harding kept us out of League of Nations (US didn’t sign)
- Didn’t want to be involved in European wars (US didn’t sign)
- Germany hated it; put them into a huge depression & Hilter undid everything it did
- United States didn't like that we were tricked into it & thought we were pulled into it
- Great Britain thought it was okay; middle man; forgive & forget
- France hated it & thought it was way too easy on Germany
- Italy hated it & thought they should have gotten more land
- Russia hated it - got a lot of land taken away
6. Students will understand the political, social and economic changes that occurred in the 1920’s in the United States.
Focus on these topics for the test:
-Roaring 20's and the return to normalcy:
*The roaring 20's was also a time known as "The Advertising Age". There were many things that made the 20's a unique and very interesting time in our history. It was the golden age of sports, the radio was a big thing back then, the common people were able to buy cars because of the buying on credid, young people danced to Jazz Music, and women wore flappers.
Warren G. Harding, who was the president at the time, wanted the return to normalcy which meant turning back to how we were before the war. Before the war, we were kind of isolated and didn't get involved with other countries. And for the US, that was normal.
-Red Scare:
*Happened 1919-1920
* Communist Scare.
*United States thought they were going to turn communist
- United States responded by :
*stopping immigration (to try to keep out any communism)
* stopping Palmer Raids; take out any communists and deport (Hoover & Palmer)
-Republican philosophy
*They had the trickle-down theory which was the thought that there would be tax cuts to big businesses and the benefits would trickle down to the middle and lower class. It would provide more jobs and better pay for the lower class people. The problem with it is that it takes time and the people wanted change right away and the trickle-down theory would take time.
-Prohibition
* The banning of alcohol.
* Women believed alcohol was tearing apart families. They also thought that that's why the crime was going up. They thought that if you eliminate drinking, then you would eliminate crime.
* That didn't really work though. It failed for three main reasons.
1) people did it anyways.
2)there weren't enough people to enforce it. 3)it was supposed to eliminate crime but in turn there was a great amount of gang and violent crime.
For Semester Test Video I have to do:
Questions one and four
major causes of world war one for the world
us homefront
Roaring twenties
Return to Normalcy
Red Scare
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