US History 1850-1930

Understand key historical periods from Civil War and Reconstruction, 1850-1877 (Era 5), to the Emergence of a Modern America, 1890-1930 (Era 7). This includes the patterns of social, economic, and political change over time and the ways people view, construct, and interpret the history of the United States.

Eras 5-7: United States History 1850-1930

Demonstrate proper etiquette for interacting with the Arkansas and American flags and evaluate the use of various flags between the 1850 and 1930 (e.g., flags used in the Civil War, development of the Arkansas flag).

Analyze the development of regional tensions prior to the Civil War:<ul><li>Economic development: (e.g., effects of cotton gin invention, Industrial Revolution, growth of manufacturing and railroads in northern states)</li><li>Political actions: (e.g., tariffs, nullification crisis, compromises, disenfranchisement of free blacks)</li><li>Expansion of slavery, immigration, and westward migration</li></ul>

Evaluate key laws and decisions addressing the issue of slavery prior to the Civil War:<ul><li>Missouri Compromise on the admittance of free and slave states</li><li>Compromise of 1850, including the Fugitive Slave Act, and its impact on the abolition movement</li><li>Popular sovereignty movement and Bleeding Kansas</li><li>Dred Scott vs. Sanford decision</li></ul>

Evaluate the historical significance of key individuals, groups, and events leading to the Civil War<ul><li>Individuals: (e.g., Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln)</li><li>Groups: (e.g., Free-Soil Party, Republican Party, Northern and Southern Democrats)</li><li>Events: (e.g., John Brown's raid, Nat Turner's rebellion, Underground Railroad, election of Abraham Lincoln, state secessionist conventions)</li></ul>

Develop historical arguments and explanations of causes of the Civil War:<ul><li>Role of Congress and states' rights (e.g., power to admit new states, tariff debate, Supremacy Clause, nullification crisis)</li><li>Debates on the issue of slavery (e.g., expansion vs. popular sovereignty vs. free soil anti-slavery vs. total abolition)</li><li>Sectionalism (e.g., cultural and economic differences between the North and South)</li></ul>

Explain ways economic development of the North and South created certain advantages and disadvantages during the course of the Civil War:<ul><li>Union/Northern states: (e.g., largely industrialized, manufacturing, extensive railroad network)</li><li>Confederacy/Southern states: (e.g., largely agricultural, dependence on chattel slavery, less extensive transportation system)</li></ul>

Analyze political, social, and economic effects of the Civil War on America including destruction of property and infrastructure, a weakened economy, a stronger federal government, and loss of life and livelihoods.

Analyze the historical significance of key Civil War battles, events, and people:<ul><li>Battles: Fort Sumter, Bull Run, Gettysburg, Sherman's March, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Appomattox</li><li>Events: Lincoln presidency, Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address, Second Inaugural Address, assassination, Sultana disaster</li><li>People: various Union and Confederate leaders and generals</li></ul>

Evaluate political, social, and economic impacts of Reconstruction:<ul><li>Political: (e.g., black voting rights, African-American role in government, military occupation of Southern states, Freedmen's Bureau, Reconstruction Amendments, election of Rutherford B. Hayes, restoration of Confederate voting rights, subsequent passage of Jim Crow laws and Black Codes)</li><li>Social: (e.g., public education and dramatic increase of literacy rates, rise of the Ku Klux Klan)</li><li>Economic: (e.g., sharecropping system and crop liens, African-American economic positions, Southern economy)</li></ul>

Analyze economic, geographic, and technological growth associated with the Second Industrial Revolution and its impact on American society:<ul><li>Entrepreneurship: (e.g., John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Madam C.J. Walker)</li><li>Energy: (e.g., oil, electricity, inventions/discoveries by Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla)</li><li>Transportation: (e.g., growth of railroads and steel, Wright brothers, automobile and assembly line)</li></ul>

Examine the causes and effects of immigration after 1870, including push-pull factors, ethnic enclaves, the assimilation process, and rise of nativism through law (e.g., Chinese Exclusion Act, Johnson-Reed Act).

Analyze the historical significance of the women's suffrage movement, including key individuals, groups, and events that contributed:<ul><li>Individuals: (e.g., Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Ida Wells, Grimké sisters)</li><li>Groups: abolition and temperance movements groups</li><li>Events: (e.g., passage of married women's property acts in states, Seneca Falls Convention, passage of the 19th Amendment)</li></ul>

Examine government policies and laws that addressed the escalating labor conflicts and the creation, purpose, and rise of labor unions:<ul><li>Factory system</li><li>Immigrant and child labor</li><li>Convict leasing</li><li>Union tactics (e.g., strikes, negotiations)</li></ul>

Evaluate federal policy toward Indigenous nations, westward expansion, and the resulting struggles and issues that arose.

Explain the origins, development, and impact of American expansionism, including the geographic effects of acquiring new territories, the expansionist foreign policy under William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Taft, and the role of the Spanish-American War:<ul><li>Annexation of Alaska, Hawaii, Panama Canal</li><li>Acquisition of federally protected land such as national parks</li><li>Role of yellow journalism</li><li>Treaty of Paris: annexation of Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam</li><li>Open Door Policy with East Asia</li></ul>

Analyze motives for and significance of America's entry into World War I, including the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, the Zimmerman Telegram, unrestricted submarine warfare, the Argonne Offensive, and key military leaders (e.g., General John J. Pershing and Alvin York).

Investigate political, social, and technological outcomes of World War I on American society:<ul><li>New weapons in warfare</li><li>Women entering the workforce</li><li>Espionage and Sedition Acts</li><li>Wilson's Fourteen Points and the ratification debate of the Treaty of Versailles</li></ul>

Analyze the changing role of the United States in the world from 1890-1930 and the effects on future eras.

Investigate the impact of Progressive Era reformers and ideas:<ul><li>Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. DuBois on civil rights</li><li>John Dewey on education</li><li>Jane Addams on social work</li><li>Rise of religious liberalism, Social Darwinism, and the eugenics movement</li></ul>

Analyze short- and long-term effects of Progressive Era reforms at the local, state, and national levels:<ul><li>Food safety laws (e.g., Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Packing Act)</li><li>Industry and labor regulations (e.g., bans against child labor, Sherman Anti-Trust Act, Clayton Anti-Trust Act)</li><li>Progressive legislation (e.g., adoption of initiative, referendum, recall, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Amendments)</li><li>Social and labor movements (e.g., populism, civil service reform, temperance, the Granger Movement)</li></ul>

Evaluate the effects of key political issues of the 1910s and 1920s:<ul><li>Nativism and cultural assimilation: (e.g., Emergency Quota Act, Sacco and Vanzetti)</li><li>Racial discrimination and civil rights: (e.g., continued presence of Ku Klux Klan, founding of NAACP, Elaine Race Massacre, Tulsa Race Massacre)</li><li>Indigenous rights: (e.g., Indian Citizenship Act, United States vs. Winans)</li><li>Rise of Communism/Marxism: (e.g., First Red Scare, J. Edgar Hoover)</li></ul>

Examine reasons for and effects of social, economic, political, and cultural changes during the 1920s, including the Harlem Renaissance, Great Migration, Prohibition, and financial and consumer trends such as the rise of the automobile, buying on credit, advertising, household products, sports, and the arts.