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History of the Americas
Explore questions in the History of the Americas category that you can ask Sparky!
- [Graph of Immigration, spike in mid-late 1800s]The main trend shown in the graph was most directly associated with which of thefollowing processes occurring in the United States at the time?(A) The convergence of European and American cultures(B) The emergence of an industrialized economy(C) The displacement of American Indians from the Southeast(D) The resurgence of evangelical Protestantism
- "The system of quotas . . . was the first major pillar of the Immigration Act of 1924. Thesecond provided for the exclusion of persons ineligible to citizenship. . . . Ineligibilityto citizenship and exclusion applied to the peoples of all the nations of East and SouthAsia. Nearly all Asians had already been excluded from immigration. . . . The exclusionof persons ineligible to citizenship in 1924 . . . completed Asiatic exclusion. . . . Moreover,it codified the principle of racial exclusion into the main body of American immigrationand naturalization law."Mae M. Ngai, historian, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and theMaking of Modern America, 200415. The Immigration Act of 1924 most directly reflected(A) cultural tensions between scientific modernism and religious fundamentalism inthe 1920s(B) conflicts arising from the migration of African Americans to urban centers inthe North(C) the emergence of an increasingly national culture in the 1920s shaped by art,cinema, and mass media(D) social tensions emerging from the First World War
- [John Smith]The excerpt would be most useful to historians as a source of information about whichof the following?(A) The interaction of English colonial settlers with native populations in the earlyseventeenth century(B) The harsh realities of life in the early seventeenth-century American colonies,including illness, high mortality rates, and starvation(C) The role that appeals and advertising played in encouraging men and women toparticipate in colonization efforts(D) The nature of master and apprentice relationships in England in the earlyseventeenth century
- "The peace-loving nations must make a concerted effort in opposition to those violationsof treaties and those ignorings of humane instincts which today are creating a stateof international anarchy and instability from which there is no escape through mereisolation or neutrality."Those who cherish their freedom and recognize and respect the equal right of theirneighbors to be free and live in peace, must work together for the triumph of law andmoral principles in order that peace, justice and confidence may prevail in the world.There must be a return to a belief in the pledged word, in the value of a signed treaty.There must be recognition of the fact that national morality is as vital as private morality."President Franklin Roosevelt, Quarantine Speech, 193744. The ideas expressed in the excerpt differed from the prevailing United States approachto foreign policy issues primarily in that Roosevelt was(A) arguing to expand the role of the United States in the world(B) encouraging the United States to avoid political entanglements in Europe(C) seeking to promote United States influence throughout Latin America(D) encouraging new laws that would give the United States international police power
- [Jefferson]The ideas about government expressed in the excerpt are most consistent with which ofthe following?(A) The concept of hereditary rights and privileges(B) The belief in Manifest Destiny(C) The principle of religious freedom(D) The ideas of the Enlightenment
- [Condition of the South]The attitudes of White Southerners described by Schurz contributed to which of thefollowing developments in the last quarter of the nineteenth century?(A) The sale of most plantations to African Americans to keep them in the South(B) The establishment of sharecropping throughout the South(C) The Nullification Crisis caused by Southern resistance to federal policy(D) The rise of the Whig Party in the South
- [John C Calhoun]In the 1840s and 1850s, the views expressed by Calhoun most directly contributed to(A) the United States acquisition of new territory in the West(B) increased sectional divisions between the North and the South(C) the development of sharecropping and tenant farming in the South(D) the rise of voluntary organizations to promote religious reform
- [Washington Farewell]Which of the following groups most strongly opposed Washington's point of view inthe address?(A) Democratic-Republicans(B) New England merchants(C) Southern plantation owners(D) Federalists
- "The era of big government is over but we can't go back to a time when our citizens werejust left to fend for themselves. We will meet them by going forward as one America, byworking together in our communities, our schools, our churches and synagogues, ourworkplaces across the entire spectrum of our civic life."President Bill Clinton, radio address to the nation, 199650. Which of the following actions by the Clinton administration best reflects the ideasabout the scope of government expressed in the excerpt?(A) The decision to pursue military peacekeeping interventions in the Balkans and Somalia(B) The enactment of welfare reform to restrict benefits and encourage self-reliance(C) The negotiation of new free trade agreements among North American countries(D) The effort to enact universal health care legislation
- [Map of Colonial Settlement]The change in settlement patterns from 1700 to 1775 best explains the(A) development of economic differences between the northern and southern colonies(B) colonists' difficulties in effectively resisting the British military during theAmerican Revolution(C) significant proportion of colonists who remained loyal to Great Britain during theAmerican Revolution(D) growth of social tensions between backcountry settlers and coastal elites
- [Ben Franklin]The preaching described in the excerpt is an example of which of the followingdevelopments in the 1700s?(A) The emergence of an idea of republican self-government(B) The beginning of calls for the abolition of slavery(C) The increased influence of the Enlightenment(D) The expansion of Protestant evangelism
- [Brown vs BOE]The decision excerpted most directly reflected a growing belief after the Second WorldWar that the power of the federal government should be used to(A) promote greater racial justice(B) revitalize cities(C) foster economic opportunity(D) defend traditional visions of morality
- [FDR Quarantine]Which of the following best represents continuity in the years after 1945 with the ideasthat Roosevelt expressed in the excerpt?(A) The conviction and execution of suspected Soviet spies in the United States(B) United States membership in an international collective security organization(C) United States military commitment to countries battling communist insurgencies(D) The rise of peace organizations opposed to the buildup and use of nuclear weapons
- "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consentof the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of theseends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as tothem shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 177610. The excerpt was written in response to the(A) British government's attempt to assert greater control over the North American colonies(B) British government's failure to protect colonists from attacks by American Indians(C) colonial governments' failures to implement mercantilist policies(D) colonial governments' attempts to extend political rights to new groups
- [Brown vs BOE]The Brown decision reversed which of the following earlier decisions?(A) Marbury v. Madison, which established the principle of judicial review(B) Worcester v. Georgia, which established that the federal government rather thanindividual states had authority in American Indian affairs(C) Dred Scott v. Sandford, which proclaimed that slaves could not be citizens(D) Plessy v. Ferguson, which endorsed racial segregation laws
- "We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' hasno place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."Chief Justice Earl Warren, writing the unanimous opinion of the United StatesSupreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 195412. Which of the following was the most immediate result of the decision excerpted?(A) Radicals critiqued government actions as doing too little to transform the racialstatus quo.(B) Education advocates raised awareness of the effect of poverty on students' opportunities.(C) Civil rights activists became increasingly divided over tactical and philosophical issues.(D) Segregationists in southern states temporarily closed many public schools in aneffort to resist the decision.
- [Map of Colonial Settlement]The change in settlement patterns from 1700 to 1775 had which of the followingeffects?(A) A decrease in the coastal population(B) An increase in conflicts between British settlers and American Indians(C) A decrease in the economic importance of slavery and other forms of coerced labor(D) An increase in trade with French Canada
- [Graph of Immigration, spike in mid-late 1800s]Which of the following was a direct effect of the trend in immigration after 1845 shownon the graph?(A) An increase in sectional tensions(B) A major economic downturn(C) An upsurge in nativist sentiment(D) The collapse of the second party system
- [Seneca Falls]Many supporters of the declaration in 1848 broke ranks with which of the followinggroups by the 1870s?(A) Social Darwinists(B) Supporters of Southern secession and states' rights(C) Supporters of the Fifteenth Amendment(D) Isolationists
- [Graph of Immigration, spike in mid-late 1800s]Which of the following was a significant cause of the trend from 1843 to 1854 shown inthe graph?(A) Active encouragement of migration by the United States government(B) Economic and political difficulties in Germany and Ireland(C) Incentives offered by United States companies looking to hire skilled migrants(D) Adoption of free trade policies by European governments