The causes and effect the Civil War had on American history
1. Discuss, analyze, and evaluate the causes and effect the Civil War had on American history and its impact on society and American culture. What were the legacies of reconstruction and what did it accomplish? Analyze and evaluate primary and secondary sources related to the motivation of Congress in establishing Reconstruction, its impact upon African Americans, and its lasting effects on American culture and political scenes including the failures of the 14th and 15th Amendments and the rise of Jim Crow laws.
2. Discuss the impacts of big business and American Expansionism on the native American populations and what events and actions triggered the last great wars against Americans by Native Americans such as the “Battle at Wounded Knee”.
3. Evaluate the development and expansion of the United States as a world power. Compare and contrast the economic problems faced by the American nation and the possible motives that led to the Spanish-American War.
4. Examine and analyze the progressive political movement and the Theodore Roosevelt administration including the growth of the United States as a world power in the 20th century.
5. Discuss and examine big industrialists of the 20th Century such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller. Were they really to be considered “Robber Barons” or honorable business men that set the tone for the free market. How did they create and define the industrial age?
Sample Solution
The causes and effect the Civil War had on American history
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States fought between the Union and the Confederacy. For nearly a century, the people and politicians of the Northern and Southern states had been clashing over the issues that finally led to war: economic interests, cultural values, the power of the federal government to control the states, and most importantly, slavery in American society. Prior to the war, the North and the South had been divided for decades over the issue of slavery. Measures such as the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 had failed to settle the issue. The Civil War confirmed the single political entity of the United States, led to freedom for more than four million enslaved Americans, established a more powerful and centralized federal government, and laid the foundation for America`s emergence as a world power in the 20th century.