APUSH Period 5 Review (1844-1877)

PERIOD 5 DATES TO KNOW

PERIOD 5 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

1. What were the motives and consequences of westward expansion?
2. What were the causes and consequences of the Civil War?
3. How did the US government react to post-Civil War pressures from Northerners and Southerners?

Past Essay Questions from Period 5

PERIOD 5 KEY CONCEPTS

5.1. Westward Expansion

1. New territories were acquired in the west and more people moved west.
   1. People moved west for opportunities, religious refuge, and access to resources.
   2. Many advocated that the US was destined to expand to the Pacific (Manifest Destiny).
   3. Through the Mexican-American War, the US added a lot of territory, which triggered debates over slavery, Native Americans, and Mexicans in the newly acquired lands.
   4. New legislation promoted westward migration.
   5. The US expanded its interests in Asia
2. The debates about rights and citizenship for some groups continued.
   1. Immigrants from western Europe created ethnic enclaves in the North.
   2. Anti-Catholic nativism spread and limited political power over immigrants.
   3. Mexican Americans and American Indians in the west faced continued oppression.

5.2. Causes of the Civil War

1. Differences over slavery led to a range of opinions.
   1. The North relied on wage labor for manufacturing while the South depended on slave labor. Some Northerners were okay with the principle of slavery, but feared it would affect the wage-labor market. They created the Free-Soil movement.
   2. Abolition activists continued to campaign against slavery and helped free slaves.
   3. Many argued that slavery was a positive good and that states’ rights were protected.
2. The debate about slavery culminated in the secession of southern states in 1860 and the Civil War began.
   1. Debates in the 1850s centered on whether to allow slavery in new territories.
   • Study Guide: The Compromise of 1850
   2. Attempts to solve the issue failed to reduce conflict (Kansas-Nebraska, Dred Scott).
   3. Sectional political parties emerged as issues of slavery and nativism grew stronger.
   4. Lincoln’s victory on the free-soil platform led to southern states seceding. 
   • Study Guide: The Election of 1860

    

5.3. Aftermath of the Civil War

1. The North won because of strong leadership, manpower, & industrial resources.
   1. The economies and societies of the North and South were both mobilized.
   2. Lincoln began the war to preserve the union, but the Emancipation Proclamation made the war squarely about the institution of slavery.
   3. Through speeches, Lincoln framed the war as a battle to preserve democratic ideals.
   4. The Confederacy had a strong military push in the beginning, but the Union won because of stronger leadership, strategy, and greater wartime resources.
   • Learn about the military conflict of the civil war

1. Slavery ended after the Civil War, which led to new debates about citizenship.
   1. The 13th amendment abolished slavery and the 14th & 15th amendments granted citizenship and protected equal rights.
   2. The 14th amendment divided the women’s movement because white women did not want black men to get the vote before them.
   3. Reconstruction initially created more opportunities for black Americans, but eventually failed because of Southern resistance.
   4. Life in the south was difficult for former slaves and many were forced into new exploitative systems of sharecropping because of limited opportunities.
   5. Rights for African Americans were stripped away bit by bit until the 20th century.