Key Moments in American History: 19th & 20th Century

Civil War & Reconstruction Era

1. Worrying about anti-slavery sentiment in Europe contributed to Lincoln's decision to address the issue of slavery.
2. The Civil War ended when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
3. One of President Lincoln's goals for Reconstruction was to reunify the nation.
4. The outcome of the impeachment proceedings against President Johnson was that the House impeached the President, but the Senate failed to remove him.
5. During his presidency, Ulysses S. Grant gave high-level advisory posts to untrustworthy friends and acquaintances.

Industrialization & Urban Life

6. Electricity was an innovation that extended the number of hours in a day that Americans could work and play.
7. Samuel Gompers was a labor leader who founded the American Federation of Labor.
8. Membership in the Knights of Labor declined as one result of the Haymarket Riot.
9. Rural-to-urban migration was primarily motivated by the promise of steady employment.
10. One of the dangers of living in a tenement was that tenements had few windows and poor sanitation conditions.
11. Jacob Riis was a journalist who called attention to the living conditions of tenement dwellers.

Westward Expansion & Indigenous Impact

12. Local and state laws limited the civil rights of Southern Blacks.
13. White settlement of the West changed the lives of Native Americans by forcing them from their homelands.
14. The Transcontinental Railroads affected the nation by increasing the population of the West.

The Progressive Movement

15. Many Progressives who followed Walter Rauschenbusch's Social Gospel program believed that Christianity should be the basis of social reform.
16. Workers' compensation laws resulted from the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
17. During the 1902 Coal Miners' Strike in Pennsylvania, President Roosevelt threatened to send federal troops to take control of the mines.

American Imperialism & World War I

18. The "Rough Riders" were a volunteer cavalry unit in the Spanish-American War.
19. Social Darwinism is the theory that life consists of a competitive struggle in which only the strong survive.
20. The closing of the frontier might have encouraged American imperialism because discontented Americans sought new territory in which to try their luck.
21. Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize because he helped negotiate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
22. Roosevelt's "Big Stick" diplomacy depended on a strong military to achieve America's goals.
23. One reason for the German surrender in 1918 was that many German soldiers were no longer willing to fight.
24. The invasion of Belgium was influential in turning American public opinion against Germany.
25. The Zimmerman Note hastened the entry of the United States into World War I.