Test+2+Questions


 * TEST 2 QUESTIONS...**


 * -Why did the economies and cultures of the Northern and Southern colonies/states develop so differently?**

The north and sound are very different in many ways. But the main difference is that the two's economies are based on different things. The south was based on agriculture and the north was based on industry. Another difference is slavery, but you'll find that the differences in the economies and slavery are closely related.

The south's economy was more focused on agriculture. Their climate was warmer that the northern climate, which made it easier for growing crops. They were able to plant a lot of food, and they became the main source of food for the United States. The most common crops that the south grew were tobacco, cotton, and sugarcane. These were also the main cash crops for them. Cash crops are where you sell extra crops to make money during the good summer months. then you stash the money you make from the extra crops away so that you have it for the winter months when you can't grow anything. They would often be exported to either the north or other countries. Cotton was in high demand, so they would grow giant fields filled with cotton. The only problem with that is that you have to go through all of the cotton and pick out all the sids and other sticky and poky things, which means that they needed a lot of people to go throught all of the cotton. which is where slavery came in. many wealthy plantation owners owned slaves to pick the cotton

The north's economy was focussed on industry and manufacturing instead of agriculture. their climate was clder than that of the south, so they couldn't grow lots of food like the south could most families had small gardens to feed themselves, but there weren't big fields of food. Since they had trouble growing food, they turned to the industry business instead. They built facroties to process the cotton that the south grew. With cotton in such high demand, and with the picking of cotton taking so long, Eli Whitney (a northern gentleman) invented the cotton gin which made the picking of cotton easier. As a result, the south was able to produce more cotton, and the north was able to do more things with it. With a bigger input of cotton, they needed to have a bigger export of cotton-based goods also. So they built more factories. Mnay of the northern families sent their youth to work in the factories, because there were no farms for them to work on. The eldest son generally inherited their parent' entire estate (money, land, etc.), while the other sibling eith had to marry well (for the women), find a career (for the men), or to be dependent upon their sibling for the rest of their life. The noth had no real reason for slaves because there was no need for slaves to produce anything, and most households did not have slaves. And the few households that did have slaves used them as house servants, rather than having them do hard labor like in the south.


 * -Evaluate the processes and outcomes of reconstruction following the civil war**

abraham lincoln was president when the civil war came to an end. and as president, it was up to him to decided the best way to put the country back together. lincoln believed that the sooner the nation healed its wounds and moved forward, the better off everyone would be. he felt that the south had already been punished for the war, and so his reconstruction plan was fairly lenient toward them. his plan was to pardon any confederate who had not held civil office and would swear to support the constitution and the union. the only subject lincoln didn't adress was how the newly freed slaves were to be basorved into the southern society. on april 14th, 1865, lincoln was shot by a confederate sympathizer. lincoln' replacement as president was andrew johnson.

andrew johnson said that he intended to carry out lincoln's reconstruction pan. the only difference was that jounson felt that the south needed to be punished forits role in the war. but once in office, his actions showed somewhat differently. he pardoned many confederate leaders, and allowed important former confederates to keep their lands and jobs. other han that, johnson's plan was pretty close to lincoln's plan. as for the newly freed slaves, johnson decided that it was the job of the states', not eh federal government,to set policies to deal with them. Unfortunately, that decision practically insured that blacks would be forced to struggle to be equal with the southern whites. because he didn't enfore government control of the southern states, nothing really changed about the treatmend of the african americans. many southern states made black codes, which were state laws that limited what the blacks could do as free people.

by 1865 (the same year that the war eneded), all of the former confederate states (except texas) had organized governments, they had ratified the 13th amendment, and they had elected members of congress. Johnson announced that the reconstruction was complete. but radical republicans weren't satisfied, and didn't like the job johnson had done with the reconstruction. they wanted changes, and they argued that only strict federal intervention could achieve them moderates initially said that johnson's plan would be acceptable with only a few minor changes. and those minor changes were an extension for the freedman's bureau to help protect southern blacks, and they also passed the civil rights bill in march 1866. the civil rights bill was designed to protect freed slaves from the southern black codes. it delcared that all people that were born in the U.S. of every race and color were now citizens. johnson said that both measured gave too much power to the federal government, and he vetoed both, which angered many of the moderates.

in april 1866, congress overrode johnson's veto of the civil rights bill, which gave them the necessarty two-thirds vot to pass it. it was the first time ever that congress had overridden a presidential veto of major legislation. three months later congress submitted the freedment's bureau bill again. and when johnson once again vetoed it, congreww overrode that veto as well. to make sure that the civil rights bill was enforced, congress approved the 14th amendment, which guarantees full citizenship rights to blacks. as life in the south failed to get better for the blacks, the moderates were starting to agree with radical republicans that greater action was needed to protect the rights of freedmen. with the modrates and radical republicans agreeing, they were able to get an edge in the congressional election in 1866. the new session of congress passed a stricted version of the reconstruction, which was the reconstruction act of 1867. the main points of the act included the creation of five military destrics in the southern states; each district was to be headed by a military official that could appoint and remove state officials; and states were required to ratify the 14th amendment before they could be readmitted to the union.

johnson strongly opposed te radical reconstruction. the relationship between the president and congress got even worse when johnson tried to get rid of secretary of war edwin stanton. johnson felt that stanton was impeding his reconstruction efforts. when statnton refused to resign, johnson fired him. the congress reinstated stanton in 1868 and johnson again tried to get rid of him, and the house passed a motion which impeached johnson. his senate trial ended in acquittal, which spared him from being fromved from office. johnson continued to dislike th radical reconstruction, but he didn't stand in its way anymore.

during the reconstruction the ku klux klan (kkk) was formed. the klan strongly opposed the republican governments and the appearance of freed blacks in the government and other parts of the sothern society. they began to threaten the freedmen and the white republicans. in some areas they felt like threats weren't enought, and they started beating, whipping, murdering, and lynching any who were against the. black voters, scalawags (white southerners who suppor the federal reconstruction plan), and carpetbaggers (northerners who over to the south during recontruction for profit) were targets of this violence. along with the kkk, the jim crow laws were also created. many states across that nation began to pass laws which required the black (and other races) to be seperate from the whites. Libraries, schols, and transportation (along with many other things) required separate facilities for black and white. and generally, the whites had better things than the blacks. for example: the schools of white children would have books and chalkboards, while the school of black children might not even have desks to sit at.


 * -What were the causes, conditions, and outcomes of the war with Mexico?**

One cause of the war with Mexico was Texas. In 1835 Texas revolted and fought for its independence from Mexico, and in 1836 Texas was given its independence in the Treaty of Velasco. Even though Texas wasn't under the conterol of Mexico anymore, many of the Mexicans still thought of Texas as part of Mexico. The U.S. wanted more lands as a part of their Manifest Destiny (a country spanning from east to west coast), and they sympathized with Texas to gain their trust and get their land. Texas sided with the U.S. and was annexed into the Union and became the 28th state. Mexico was not very happy about Texas being a part of the U.S., and they had warned the U.S. that they would reguard annexation as an act of war. But when the annexation took place, Mexico did not declare war, but they did break diplomatic relations. Another cause was the boundary between Texas and Mexico. The U.S. said that the border was formed by the Rio Grande, but Mexico argued that the real boundary was at the Nueces River which was farther north. All of those causes led up the the biggest cause, which happened on January 13, 1846. General Zachary Taylor and his troops were ordered by the U.S. to go down to the Rio Grande and maintain the border of Texas. With Mexico believing that the border was farther morth, they thought that the Americans were on their land, and they attacked Taylor's men. Soon after, in May, the U.S. declared war on Mexico.

General Taylor and two American armies moved to Mexico by going south from Texas, while another army went west to Sante Fe, New Mexico and then to California. Taylor and his army defeated the Mexican forces after a couple of battles and they began to move south into Mexico. In July and August of 1846, the U.S. Navy got control of Los Angeles in California. In September, Taylor's army fought for control of Monterey in the north part of Mexico. The Battle for Monterey was a very bloody three-day battle, and both sides had many losses and casualties. The battle wasn't officially won by either side because they decided on a short truce because of all the casualties, and they both needed a chance to recover. The truce didn't last very long and they soon resumed fighting again. President Polk realized that the only way to end the war was to have a complete battlefield victory. And he also realized that continuing fightingin the deserts of northern Mexico to get to Mexico City (Mexico's capital) would be really difficult and hazardous. So General Winfield Scott devised a plan which would become the largest amphibious landing in history (at that time), and a plan to seize Mexico City. Amphibious is when you have a miliatry attack by troops landed by a naval ship, and that's exactly was Scott's plan was.

On March 9, 1847, Scott landed on the beaches near Veracruz (one of Mexico's important ports) with 12,000 men. And from March to August, they fought several battles as they made their way towards Mexico City. These battles include the Battles of: Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, and a few others. On september 14, the American army entered Mexico's capital. The city's population resisted, but by mid-October, the U.S. army had full control. Mexican General Santa Anna tried to continue military operations against the Americans, but his troops refused to fight.

The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo in Spanish) on the 2nd of February, 1848. The treaty was then ratified by the American government as well as the Mexican government about a month later. Under the treaty, Mexico ceded about 525,000 square miles of their land to the U.S. in exchange for 15 million U.S. dollars. This area of land inclused the states presently known as Colorado, Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming and New Mexico. Also under the treaty, America agreed to take over the 3.25 million U.S. dollars in debt that Mexico owed to American citizens.