semester test questions

[5Shelbie]

1. Students will understand the impact the Industrial Revolution had on the United States.The inventions of the lightbulb, typewriter, and the telephone really changed peoples lives. With light they were able to do things during the night. The typewriter was easier for people because they didn't have to write everything by hand. Business could take notes and keep records. With the telephone they could communicate a lot more. Railroads really changed things. It made American become one. You could travel from the west coast to the east coast. People could also send things and they would get places a lot faster. Railraods set up time zones, new towns were poping up, and they created new markets and industries. The steel business was booming too. Monopolies were starting to happen more. Monopolies were where one companie had pretty much control of one industry. John D. Rockefeller was a good example of monpolies. He owned Standard Oil Company and he bought out all the smaller oil companies and then he could sell his oil for less, so people would buy his oil and not other companies. Which would drive them out of business. Labor unions also started during this time. People who were apart of the labor unions were sick of the way they were getting treated at the work place. They wanted to better the work place for their benefit.2. Students will understand the impact immigration and urbanization had on the United States.Immigration:Immigration came to the US because of land shortages, famine, and there were more jobs in the US. A lot of people came from Italy, Europe, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, they arrived at Elis Island. Chinese came too and they arrived at Angel Island. Many came because of the gold rush and many of these immigrants helped build the railroads. Many Americans were against the immigrants because they were "stealing" jobs. They would work for next to nothing pay. In 1917 Congress passed a bill that required that all immigrants coming into the country would have to pass a litercy test. The Chinese Exclusion act banned entry of all Chinese except for students, teachers, merchants, tourist, and government officials.Urbanization:Some reasons that cities started to grow so quickly in this time were that immigrants moved to cities because there were factories that they would be able to work in a get paid. A lot of farmers were moving to the cities too because they were going broke and it cost a lot to farm. They could work at factories and get a steady income. A lot of people moving to the cities cause overpopulation and that caused some problems. One reason was that there were lots of fires because houses were made of wood and built really close together. Some other reasons are that the cities did not have very good police protection, very little firefighter, and the people in the cities would throw their garbage out of their windows into the streets.3. Students will understand the impact of the Progressive Era on the United States.The Progressive era was a period of time between 1890 and the early 1900's when a lot of change came about to help the common people. The four goals of Progressivism protecting social welfare, promoting moral improvement, creating economic reform, and fostering efficiency. The progressive ere helped women a lot. They could vote for the first time. They started working outside of the homes. The progressive era also helped workers a lot. They made the working place, especially in factories, safer. They canged the working hours from 15 to 12 to 10 to now 8. Workmans Compensation laws said that if someone got hurt on the job they would still get paid while they were recovering. The Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act were passed. The first Federal Reserve Bank was started. The children were also helped. Children sometimes as young as five years old were working in factories. The Keating-Owen Law stated that if children made something in a state, it couldn’t be taken to another state by anyone. The Progressives also limited the amount of time or hours children could work.4. Students will understand the impact imperialism had on the United States and world.Imperialism is were strong powerful countries go and take control of smaller weaker countries. The Monroe Doctrine said that Europe couldn't have any involvment in the western hemisphere. It also said that the US would stay out of European colonies. An example of Imperialism was the United States industrial economy was growing so fast that they were producing more goods than they could consume. The over abundance of industrial goods led the United States to look for new markets. The US gaining Hawaii and Alaska was a show of imperialsim. The US gained a lot of land.5. Students will understand the causes for US involvement in World War I and the effects it had on the United States.-The zimmerman note-Germany meant for this to go to Mexico but it got intercepted and published. The note told Mexico that if they joined Germany in the war they could take out the US and Mexico would get back the land the US took from the as in Texas areas. WWI began with the assassination Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He was going to be the next leader of Austria Hungary. After the assassination of Archduke Franze Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary send an ultimatum to Serbia. Serbia refused to accept the ultimatum, so Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Europe felt like a father to Serbia so they had to help them. Another reason we joined the war was because Germany was sinking our ships without warning and its against the law to sink ships that belonged to neutral countries. Our trade with Great Britian increased and trade with Germany decreased. Many Americans wanted to go to war and encouraged it. That was another reason.The war affected the US in many ways. While men were off at war women took over working in factories and on farms. Women were encouraged to reproduce more children because so many men were dying in the war. The American Red Cross was started because of WWI. Another group that was started during this time was the Committee on Public Information. The goal of this group was to influence the public's opinion to support WWI.6. Students will understand the political, social and economic changes that occurred in the 1920’s in the United States.ECONOMIC CHANGESThe Fordney-McCumber Tariff gave other countries loans and in return they would buy American goods.The number of cars almost tripled between 1920 and 1929, so the production of steel, rubber, plate glass, and other materials that went into making an automobile went up.POLITICAL CHANGESThe Kellog-Braind Pact started for the war between France and the US. The Kellog-Braind Act was named after Frank B. Kellog and Aristide Braind. Kellog wanted countries to sign and agreement prohibiting war. The Dawes plan was a plan to get back all the money Germany owed us from WWI. The Dawes Plan didn't work so the US tried the Young Plan. The Young Plan took the Dawes Plans place. Germany agreed to it and it went into affect on September 1924. The Red Scare was basically just Americans being afraid of communism.SOCIAL CHANGESDuring the 20's there was a lot more recreational stuff to do. Sports took off, like boxing. Anything that you would see on tv today you could listen to on the radio in the 20's. More and more people bought cars. And because of cars they had to make roads, build gas stations, and use oil companies for gas. Because of cars families could go on trips. Motels and tourist attraction were also starting to pop up. Basically because of cars more jobs were available for people. Flappers were young women who always dressed in the latest fashions and had to have "the look" of the time. In the 20's women cut their hair short and tapped their chests down to look more boyish, because that was the look. Flappers did what they wanted. They would drive cars, smoke, drink, and party all night. New electronics like washing machines, vaccumes, electrical sewing machines, and wall sockets.7. Students will understand the causes and effects of the Great Depression.Causes:Major causes of the Great Depression was easy credit. Buying on credit took off in the 20's. People would buy anything and everything on credit, buy not pay later. Most people didn't have enough money to pay back their debt. From 1925-1929 the amount of outstanding credit in U.S. doubled from 1.38 billion to 3 billion. Unequal distribution of income was another cause. There was more production of goods and the cost to make those goods decreased. Workers wages stayed the same, the price of goods stayed the same, so more there was more income for the manufacturers to take, so business owners were getting a lot more money. In a 7 year period corporate profits rose 62%. Falling demand for consumer goods is the last cause i will talk about. The government was investing heavily in new industries like radios and cars. Farmers went into debt because the government wasn't really supporting agriculture. They produced more crops and prices on crops fell. When the stock market crashed wealthy people stopped buying luxury goods and middle class and poor people stopped buying on credit. People couldn't afford to buy anyting. The demand for goods went down. People lost their jobs and warehouses were full of all this inventory that they couldnt sell.Effects:It effected everyone especailly the unemployed. They were uncertain about their future. Many people who didn't get fired got the wages and hours cut. Because so many people went into bankruptcy from buying on credit and not being able to pay it back they were lots of repossessions of houses, cars, household goods, and furniture. They couldn't make their monthly payments. Even some of the rich people were effected. A lot of rich people had investments in the stock market when it crashed and some lost everything. Some people were not effected at all. Business's were going bankrupt because of the fact that nobody had money to buy anything and they had to let people go which didn't help them at all. As companies fired more and more people, more and more people were broke and unable to buy things. Which hurt companies even more. Hoovers reputation went down majorly because he was president during this time. Suicide rates went up, people moved west, and soup kitchens started opening up for people who were poor.