Part II: Short Answer Essays (30 points) Instructions: You should answer ALL PARTS of each essay question, as there are multiple questions within each essay. You should also use SPECIFIC EXAMPLES throughout your essay. If you cite information from the textbook, any of the readings, any of the videos, or any website, you should include a citation. Each answer should be at least 1-2 paragraphs (5-7 sentences per paragraph). Anytime that you are asked to give examples, you want to EXPLAIN your examples, do not just list them.Each essay is worth 10 points. Essays that score well will answer ALL parts of each question. They will include specific examples to help support their answers. They will also use examples from the readings and the textbook.
Please pick 3 essay questions to answer.
1. What are some of the long-term causes of the American Civil War (1800s-1850s)? Please give at least 2 examples. What are some of the short-term causes of the American Civil War (1850s-1861)? Please give at least 3 examples. What advantages did the North and South have entering into the war? Give 2 examples. What role did American Indians play in the Civil War? What role did African Americans play in the Civil War? What role did Union women play in the Civil War? What role did confederate women play in the Civil War? What are the lasting legacies of the Civil War? Give and explain at least 3 examples to justify your answer.
2. What were 2 significant goals of the Reconstruction period? Explain why they were significant. In what way did the executive branch (under Lincoln and Johnson) and Congress differ in their visions of how the United States should be reconstructed after the Civil War? What are the “Reconstruction Amendments,” and why are they significant? What were the experiences of freedmen after the Civil War? What kinds of black codes were instituted after the Civil War and what was their purpose? What is sharecropping, and what kind of an impact did it have on freedmen? Was Reconstruction a success or failure? Give at least 3 examples to justify your answer.
3. What impact did this new industrial society have on the West? Give and explain at least 2 examples. What was the Dawes Act, and how did it impact American Indians? What factors contributed to the United States becoming a mature industrial society after the Civil War? Give and explain 2 examples. What was the “People’s Party” and what are two important aspects of their political party platform? What characteristics define the “Gilded Age” in the industrial North? Give at least 3 examples. It what ways did the Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller contribute to the Gilded Age culture? What are trusts and/or monopolies? What are the lasting consequences of the Gilded Age? Please give at least 3 examples.
4. In what ways did the lives of disenfranchised Americans, specifically African Americans, women, and American Indians, change from 1840 to 1900? For each group, you need to explain 3 significant events or moments from 1840 to 1900 that altered the status of that group, and explain why each event was significant to changing their lives. At the beginning of the 20th century (e.g. the 1900s), what major problems were still of concern for each of these disenfranchised groups (meaning, what problems existed that made them into second-class citizens)? Give at least 2 concerns for each group.