us history quiz

us history quiz

Exploring Key Events and Figures in U.S. History

1. Introduction to U.S. History

In this book, we will explore events that have happened in the United States. We will read about Americans who made important decisions many years ago. Our stories begin long before the United States became an independent country. The grand adventure of America includes many exciting and extraordinary individuals and events. The U.S. country has had a complex and sometimes difficult history in the years after that period ended. Once the United States of America became an independent country, the ordinary people who live there have ever since made changes in the United States that have never stopped. We will study the challenges that the U.S. country has faced. What have the nation’s people chosen to do, and how does this affect Americans living in their country today? Much of the story is sad, but we end our story with hope for the country’s future generations.

What single important event do you remember occurring on September 11th, 2001? That tragedy shocked the world by destroying buildings that were the tallest anywhere. Before they fell, many people were hurt, and some were killed. The country where this happened is called the United States. Of course, U.S. history did not actually begin in September 2001! The people and stories who contributed to the nation’s past have lived long before that date. And the building that was destroyed was not the first place in the United States. The United States became what it is today because of strong and determined people. People in the past hundreds of years have made many important decisions that have impacted permanent U.S. growth. Come with us to U.S. history far, far away and learn how the United States grew.

2. Revolutionary War and Founding Fathers

Nationalism was deeply implanted, and military power was being organized. It seems that the military instrument of Nationalism was utilized to its full potential, but the development of policies for the Union was neglected. The peace Treaty of Paris was formalized on September 3, 1783. The Congress of Confederation ratified the treaty and issued a proclamation on January 14, 1784, declaring the nation’s independence as a fact to foreign powers. However, dissatisfaction arose in the colonies and was a result of the Congress, the Articles of Confederation, and the federal government not being able to protect prosperity in the midst of world conflict, including the impressments of citizens by warring British and French, high commercial tariffs, and Indian attacks by British agents.

On April 19, 1775, at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, and at Bunker Hill, a few months later, militia men clashed with British army troops in the opening skirmishes of the Revolutionary War. American forces invaded Canada but were defeated. They suffered two defeats in the South and were driven out of that region. However, in 1777 General Burgoyne and his British troops were cut off from other British units in the North and forced to surrender. In 1778, British forces shifted to the South and captured Savannah and Charleston. However, in the north, Washington’s troops were capturing two large British forts, while the French captured a British fleet off the coast of Britain.

The Revolutionary War was the fight for independence from British rule by the 13 mainland colonies. This historical event demands a distinction between the Revolutionary War and the creation of the federal Union, covered in the second phase of the book. It was fought over the extent of authority to establish a supreme government on these colonies. The result was the union of the colonies under a compact of government with powers of authority to maintain independence from British rule.

3. Civil War and Emancipation Proclamation

The Civil War was the greatest crisis in American history. Often called a “brother’s war,” it split the nation into two military factions, North and South. These two factions saw themselves as separate nations. The North wanted the South to remain part of the Union. The South wanted freedom to establish their separate nation, which they called the Confederacy. In April 1861, when Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, President Lincoln asked for volunteers to help save the Union. The South stood together. The North accepted a draft to fulfill Lincoln’s call for volunteers. Julius A. Jones, Julius S. Wadsworth, G. Germain, and W.C. Rogers, Auburn residents, displayed their connection to the Union by volunteering for the “Washington Light Guard.” It was a difficult time for African-Americans. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 forced the North into returning escaped slaves to their owners in the South. When the Civil War began and Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the purpose of the conflict changed from a Union-saving war to a war to abolish slavery.

4. Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr.

Using the Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution as inspiration, Martin Luther King Jr. tapped into the American conscience and called upon the United States’ sense of fair play and justice to help change society. He led boycotts, spoke eloquently, and helped strike down or change numerous “Jim Crow” laws, both in the north and south, in just a few years. Small wonder that he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for leading this peaceful movement enabling more people to fully participate in American financial, social, and political life.

Civil rights is a fairly modern concept in America, but one that many feel is both necessary and, for too many people for too long, overdue. There were several significant developments and people who helped move the Civil Rights movement forward, notably Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, and Martin Luther King Jr., who helped organize the bus boycott and later became a major voice in the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. was a brilliant thinker and public speaker. Unfortunately, he was also the target of public and private hate. He was assassinated by James Earl Ray in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

5. Modern U.S. History: Cold War, Space Race, and Civil Rights Legislation

In the second half of the 20th century, the United States considered itself in a Cold War with communist countries. Numerous events and figures shaped the perception of the world during the Cold War. It began soon after World War II, when a struggle for power and control emerged between the Communist block, led by the Soviet Union, and the capitalist, democratic block, led by the United States. The Space Race was one of the events during the Cold War, as both the United States and the Soviet Union competed to be first in achieving several benchmarks during the advancement of technology. The Space Race knowledge was necessary in order to get to the moon, which, in turn, would serve as visual evidence of the nation’s technological capabilities and economic strength. In addition to that, at the height of the both space programs the world learned the different levels of commitment the rival nations had to their race to get to the moon. The Soviet Union had blown its cover by publicly sending astronauts out to space, while the United States had kept its project under wraps until it was ready to land a man on the moon.