###1. American Revolution
– **Contextualization**: The American Revolution was a time of great turmoil in the United States, but it helped shape the new nation’s cultural identity and political system. After the Seven Years’ War that left Britain in massive debt, a series of acts beginning with the Sugar Act of 1764, were passed to raise revenue in the American colonies. This created outrage, and ten years later the Americans gathered at the First Continental Congress to address their grievances. Delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies deliberated, but Britain’s obstinance continued, ultimately leading to fighting. The nation was polarized Patriots, who supported the rebels, and Loyalists, who supported the British monarchy. The period of the American Revolution helped form America’s governing model of a representative democracy and ultimately led to the modern American Constitution in place today, and it created a social schism in American society.
– **Synthesis**: The American Revolution is similar to the Civil War in two ways. First, both events were politically formative for the United States, as the Revolution resulted in the Articles of Confederation and later, the Constitution, and the Civil War resulted in significant civil rights legislation in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Second, both created a massive social polarization of American society. The Revolution saw a divide between Loyalists and Patriots, while the Civil War resulted in a divide between pro-slavery Confederates and Union abolitionists.
– **Other possible syntheses:** War of 1812, French and Indian War, French Revolution, World War 2
###2. The Constitution
– **Contextualization**: The Constitution was a landmark piece of legislation for the new United States and the world. Carefully created by a committee at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the Constitution created a unique political system of “controlled” democracy, regulating the masses with a representative Congress and Electoral College. The Constitution also created controversy over states’ rights versus federal rights, resulting in a long-lasting political battle between federalists, or supporters of strong central government, and antifederalists, who opposed this. This political divide remained a central issue in the platforms of the Democratic-Republican and Federalist parties of the first six presidents.
– **Synthesis**: The Constitution was similar to the previous Articles of Confederation in two ways. First, both were drafted by a committee that supported the governing form of representative democracy, although the form of this government was varied. Second, both created controversy between two opposing groups. The Constitution saw political opposition between the federalists and antifederalists over the function and power of the federal government, while the Articles of Confederation created a similar divide between states that wanted to sell western lands to pay off debts and those that wanted all western lands turned over to the central government.
– **Other possible syntheses:** Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments; Judiciary Act of 1789; Alien and Sedition Acts; Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
###3. War of 1812
– **Contextualization**: The War of 1812 was a significant test to the United States’s unity and governmental effectiveness. It was sparked by the embargo on Britain and British impressment of American sailors into the navy. America suffered heavy losses initially, such as the burning of the White House in 1814, but eventually General Jackson pulled through, defeating the British in the difficult but decisive Battle of New Orleans. The war set off a wave of nationalistic pride in America that made the country self-confident in its military abilities.
– **Synthesis**: The War of 1812 and the Pacific front of World War 2 are similar in two ways. First, both wars were difficult at the start, with American defeats at the Battle of the Thames and Washington, D.C. in the War of 1812, and Pearl Harbor and Guam in World War 2. Second, the ultimate American victories in both those wars created an upwelling of nationalism in America, particularly with V-J Day parades in America in August 1945.
– **Other possible syntheses:** American Revolution, Cold War, European front of World War 2, French and Indian War
###4. 1830-50s Nativism
– **Contextualization**: Immigration of German and Irish Immigrants in the 1840’s caused a massive nativist movement to cross the United States. The Irish were fleeing the 1848 potato famine in their home country. A key point hated by the nativists was the fact that the Irish were Roman Catholic, which conflicted with the Protestant majority of America. In response to the influx of immigrants in the time period, the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner, or “Know-Nothing” Party, was formed. They wanted to limit immigration as much as possible in fear that immigrants were corrupting America.
– **Synthesis**: 1830-50s Nativism was similar to 1920s Nativism in two ways. First, although the types of immigrants being discriminated against were different, the Irish and Germans of the 1840’s and the southern and eastern Europeans of the 1920’s were all fleeing turmoil in their countries, and their refugee status was not taken kindly by many Americans. Second, political actions were taken by nativists to stop these immigrants. This was embodied by the 1840-50’s “Know-Nothing” political party and the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, which limited the number of immigrants into America by nationality.
– **Other possible syntheses:** 1880’s Nativism against “New Immigrants,” Naturalization Act of 1798, Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese Internment in World War 2
###5. Imperialism
– **Contextualization**: Imperialism in the United States was a main goal of Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. McKinley championed the Big Sister policy of intervening in the affairs of Latin American nations in turmoil. McKinley also turned his sights toward Samoa, Guiana, Hawaii, and the Philippines. Lastly, McKinley began and Roosevelt finished a campaign to overthrow the Cuban dictator and install the Platt Amendment to the Cuban constitution.
– **Synthesis**: The Imperialism of the 1890-1900s was similar to the Monroe Doctrine in two ways. First, the Roosevelt Corollary, similar to the Monroe Doctrine, declared that the United States would be the only nation with power over other western-hemisphere nations and that Old World nations should stay out of American affairs. Second, the secretaries of states played key roles in both cases, with John Quincy Adams as the key figure in the drafting of the Monroe Doctrine and James Blaine championed the Big Sister imperialist policy of the McKinley era.
– **Other possible syntheses:** Colonization of America, Indian Removal Act, British Imperialism in the 1800-1900’s in Africa and India
###6. Indian Removal Act of 1830
– **Contextualization**: The Indian Removal Act was a significant, controversial action during Jackson’s presidency. It forced the relocation of Indian tribes including the Cherokee due to increased American desire for land. The military forced the tribes along the Trail of Tears to reservations in Oklahoma. This removal of land was opposed by the Supreme Court, but Jackson ignored this and proceeded anyway.
– **Synthesis**: The Indian Removal Act and the Battle of Wounded Knee were similar in two ways. First, the Indian Removal Act violated the Native American traditions by removing their land, and the Battle of Wounded Knee violated Indian traditions by suppressing the sacred ghost dance. Second, both resulted in military confrontation that involved the slaughter of hundreds of innocent, unarmed Native Americans.
– **Other possible syntheses:**Chivington Massacre, Sioux Rebellion, Dawes Severalty Act
###7. Reconstruction
– **Contextualization**: Reconstruction was the period following the American Civil War in which the seceded states were reintegrated into the Union. Lincoln thought that if ten percent of a state’s population took an oath of loyalty to the Union that they state should be eligible to reenter. Reconstruction was ineffective under Johnson, however, resulting in backlash like the Ku Klux Klan. Additionally, most blacks resorted to a system of sharecropping in which they were technically “free” but not able to survive without working on their tenant’s land. This left most blacks in a situation not much better than the one before the Civil War.
– **Synthesis**: Reconstruction was similar to 1800’s feminist movements in two ways. First, both were ineffective attempts to unite opposing factions, with Reconstruction uniting the Union and the Confederacy and feminist movements attempting to unite men and women with the vote for both. Second, neither movement resulted in significant gains for those intended until World War 1: women did not get the right to vote until after World War 1 was over and blacks were largely stuck in the bondage of sharecropping until World War 1 stimulated them to take new industrial jobs.
– **Other possible syntheses:** Reconstruction of Germany after World War 1, Fifteenth Amendment, Intolerable Acts
###8. Missouri Compromise
– **Contextualization**: The Missouri Compromise was negotiated by Henry Clay to resolve disputes over whether Missouri should become a slave state. Ultimately, Missouri was made a slave state and Maine was made a free state to keep the balance. The 36°30’ latitude line was to be used from then on to determine the slavery status of a state: southern states were slave states, northern states were free. This compromise helped maintain the peace as sectarian tensions grew and ramped up into the Civil War.
– **Synthesis**: The Missouri Compromise and the Kansas Nebraska Act were similar in two ways. First, both decisions determined the fate of slavery in the regions in question. Second, both were politically scrutinized from both sides of the abolitionist debate, as northerners argued that both gave too much territory to become slave states while southerners argued that both gave two much territory to become free states.
– **Other possible syntheses:** Compromise of 1850, Compromise of 1877, Nullification Crisis, Federalist-Antifederalist Divide
###9. Alien and Sedition Acts
– **Contextualization**: The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed during John Adams’s presidency in 1798. The Alien Laws aimed to make immigration more difficult by empowering the president with deportation privileges and allowing foreigners to be imprisoned in times of war. The Sedition Acts restricted the freedom of speech of anyone spreading false claims about government officials. Jefferson and other antifederalists were opponents to the acts, claiming they were in violation of the Bill of Rights.
– **Synthesis**: The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 and the Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917 were similar in two ways. First, both served to restrict the freedom of speech of a group for the benefit of the government. Second, the laws targeted specific “undesirable” groups. Immigrants were the target of the Alien Acts, while socialists and pacifists were the targets of the Espionage Act.
– **Other possible syntheses:** Emergency Quota Act of 1921, Judiciary Act of 1789, Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
###10. Second Great Awakening
– **Contextualization**: The Second Great Awakening came at a time of reforming spirit in the 1830-40s. Dorthea Dix was helping the mentally ill, Elizabeth Stanton was fighting for women’s suffrage, and Horace Mann was working on educational reform. The movement was a religious revival led by the passionate Charles Finney. The amount of denominations increased as the movement stressed individual conversion and worship.
– **Synthesis**: The Second Great Awakening and the Progressive Movement were similar in two ways. First, both were reform movements that gained massive popularity among the middle class of American society at the time. Second, both had dynamic, enthusiastic figures leading them, Charles Finney for the Great Awakening and Theodore Roosevelt for the Progressive movement, who quickly fell out of power as their movements lost popularity.
– **Other possible syntheses:** Seneca Falls Convention, Civil Rights movement, Harlem Renaissance, Abolitionism
###11. French and Indian War
– **Contextualization**: The French and Indian War was the American front of the European Seven Years’ War between England, France, and Spain. The War was significantly aided on both sides by Native American allies. The War was also a turning point in regards to the relationship between the American colonies and Britain. For decades, Britain had excised salutary neglect, largely leaving the colonies be, but it now wanted to raise tax revenue in the colonies. This led immediately to the American Revolution in the 1770’s.
– **Synthesis**: The French and Indian War and American Revolution are similar in two ways. First, both wars saw Native Americans as allies to both sides, actively fighting in the French and Indian War and serving primarily as navigators and scouts in the American Revolution. Both wars were also significant turning points in the American relationship with Britain, as the French and Indian war caused tension between the colonies and their mother country over taxation, while the American Revolution ended the colonial relationship with Britain.
– **Other possible syntheses:** War of 1812, Glorious Revolution, Proclamation of 1763
###12. Red Scare
– **Contextualization**: The red scare of the 1920’s was the nation’s response to the creation of the communist Soviet Union. Many anticommunists believed that labor unions were associated with communism because it was a coalition of workers, leading to the ultimate decline of labor unions by the end of the twentieth century. The public panic was addressed by Attorney General Palmer, who conducted raids on anyone suspected of communist ties. Ultimately, Sacco and Vanzetti, two anarchist Italian immigrants, were executed with minimal evidence that they had actually committed murder simply because of the Red Scare suspicion of the time.
– **Synthesis**: The 1920’s Red Scare and McCarthyism were similar in two ways. First, both movements had a powerful political leader, A. Mitchell Palmer and Joseph McCarthy, who strongly opposed communism and used minimal (if any) evidence when accusing suspected communists. Second, both movements capitalized on a new phase of United States relations with the Soviet Union. The First Red Scare occurred right after the formation of the Soviet Union, while McCarthyism took place at the onset of the long Cold War.
– **Other possible syntheses:** Cuban Missile Crisis, Cold War, Stock Market Crash of 1929
###13. Nationalism after WW1
– **Contextualization**: Although America did very little fighting in the first World War, this did not stop an immense nationalistic boom from occurring in the United States after victory. The nation did so much producing in the war that, although the League of Nations was *politically* stagnated, the nation began to develop immensely socially and culturally. The development of the automobile and the emergence of jazz helped propel the United States into a decade of happiness, the Roaring 20’s. This bubble soon burst, however, because the common practice of buying on credit wrecked the economy and launched the nation into the Great Depression
– **Synthesis**: Nationalism after World War 1 and nationalism after War of 1812 were similar in two ways. First, both were periods of immense confidence in America’s self-reliance, as evidenced by military confidence after the War of 1812 and return to isolationism after World War 1. Second, both launched the nation into unique culturally formative periods of history for the United States, the Second Great Awakening and other reform movements after the War of 1812, and the Roaring 20’s after World War 1.
– **Other possible syntheses:** Nationalism after the American Revolution, the Reagan Revolution, national solidarity after the 9/11 attacks
###14. Manifest Destiny
– **Contextualization**: Manifest Destiny was the expansionist urge towards the West that was felt with Presidents Tyler and Polk in the 1840’s. Americans believed it was the divine right of America to continue to expand from coast to coast. However, this brought the United States into conflict with Native Americans and Mexicans. This resulted in military confrontation and the outbreak of the Mexican War.
– **Synthesis**: Manifest Destiny was similar to Jacksonian Indian Removal in two ways. First, both brought the United States into military confrontation with the group whose land America wanted. Second, there was some backlash to both. Specifically, Manifest Destiny was resisted by some Northerners because they realized it would further the spread of slavery, while Indian Removal in 1830 was opposed by the Supreme Court because it was deemed unconstitutional.
– **Other possible syntheses:** Battle of Wounded Knee, Western Settlement of the late 1800’s, Imperialism of 1890-1900s
###15. Progressivism
– **Contextualization**: Progressivism was a complex, expansive reform movement of mainly white middle-class Americans in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. One example of such reform included settlement houses to help immigrants, like Jane Addams’s Hull House in Chicago. Another movement of the period was muckraking, done by Riis, Steffens, Tarbell, and others, which was a form of journalism designed to reveal the political “muck” underneath the seemingly good outside. Theodore Roosevelt championed the progressive movement, even running for his own “Bull Moose” Progressive Party in 1912.
– **Synthesis**: Progressivism was similar to Abolitionism in two ways. First, both were reform movements that primarily aimed to improve a long-criticized aspect of American society, government corruption or slavery. Second, both movements were supported through newspapers and other forms of media. Horace Greeley’s abolitionist newspaper spread massive awareness about the issues of slavery, while published muckraking journalism created great support among the middle class of America for Progressivist goals.
– **Other possible syntheses:** Feminist movement, civil rights movement, Great Awakening
###16. World War 2
– **Contextualization**: Although America tried to stay militarily neutral in World War 2, its practices of Lend-Lease to the Allied Powers caused Hitler to begin to sink United States ships. Finally in 1941 with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States through itself full force into the Allied cause against the despicable Axis Powers. The nations still served as a highly important manufacturer for the war, but with men gone fighting, women took over many industrial jobs. Out of the carnage of World War 2 eventually came the United Nations, and international organization designed to improve diplomacy and prevent another world war.
– **Synthesis**: World War 2 was similar to World War 1 in two ways. First, the scope of both wars was a result of complex, binding alliances that mandated nations to join the war to help those with similar ideals or common enemies. Second, both resulted in attempts at international peacekeeping bodies of nations, the League of Nations in World War 1, which ultimately failed, and the United Nations in World War 2.
– **Other possible syntheses:** Seven Years’ War, The American Revolution, the War of 1812
###17. New Deal Programs
– **Contextualization**: The New Deal Programs were Franklin Roosevelt’s attempt to pull the nation out of the Great Depression. Programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps, National Recovery Administration, and Public Works Administration were designed to get the nation out of unemployment. To prevent another stock market crash, Roosevelt created the FDIC to federally insure money in banks, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate the buying of stocks. Perhaps most significantly, however, the New Deal created Social Security, which still has an impact on America today.
– **Synthesis**: The New Deal and the Great Society were similar in two ways. First, both were liberal presidents’ attempts at transforming the United States into a welfare state. Roosevelt’s programs focused on providing jobs and social security, while Johnson’s programs formed a War on Poverty and healthcare for the poor and elderly; both shifted America more towards a socialized state. Second, both were criticized as superfluous funding, and both increased the national debt substantially.
– **Other possible syntheses:** The Hitler Youth, Soviet Communism, Affordable Care Act
###18. Women’s Suffrage
– **Contextualization**: Over seventy years after the Seneca Falls Convention, women finally got the vote with the 1920 passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Women played an important role in the expanded manufacturing that the United States did during World War 1. Along with progressivist reform sentiment, feminists finally got the victory they had craved for so long – suffrage. The Nineteenth Amendment was a significant step in gender equality that is a continued struggle in the United States to this day.
– **Synthesis**: Women’s Suffrage and the Fifteenth Amendment were similar in two ways. First, both guaranteed the right to vote to a once-disenfranchised group, women or African Americans. Second, both stemmed out of significant reform movements that swept the country at the respective time: the Progressive Reform movement led directly to the Nineteenth Amendment, while the Abolitionist movement after the Civil War led to the Fifteenth Amendment.
– **Other possible syntheses:** Seneca Falls Convention, Civil Rights Movement, Seventeenth Amendment
###19. Monroe Doctrine
– **Contextualization**: The Monroe Doctrine was a policy enacted by James Monroe declaring that the world should keep its hands off of any territories on the American half of the globe. It was created by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and was directed at the British, French, Spanish, and Russians. This policy was a major step towards the longstanding tradition of American isolationism, as it declared that the United States would stay out of European affairs. The Monroe Doctrine was ultimately a direct response to the War of 1812, as the nation felt it needed to prevent Britain from interfering in the same way it had again.
– **Synthesis**: The Monroe Doctrine was similar to the Roosevelt Corollary in two ways. First, both were an attempt to keep foreign nations out of America if at all possible. The Monroe Doctrine was simply a declaration to stay away, and the Roosevelt Corollary extended this by announcing the United States alone would intervene in Latin America if necessary. Second, both were isolationist doctrines intending to protect from foreign interventionism. The Monroe Doctrine wanted to prevent another confrontation with Britain like War of 1812, while the Roosevelt Corollary wanted to authorize the United States to keep the peace in countries like the Dominican Republic without the influence of other foreign powers.
– **Other possible syntheses:** Rejection of the League of Nations, Farewell Address of George Washington, Attempted Neutrality in World War 2
###20. Great Depression
– **Contextualization**: The Great Depression began with the sudden stock market crash of October 29, 1929. The market crashed because most of the “value” of the American economy was not value at all – the common practice of buying on credit combined with inflation of stock values during the Roaring 20’s caused apparent value to be almost worthless. The Great Depression was characterized by soaring unemployment numbers and began with Hoover’s minimal attempts to combat it. This changed with Franklin Roosevelt, however, who employed a massive amount of “New Deal” legislation to help pull the nation out of the crisis.
– **Synthesis**: The Great Depression and the oil recession of the 1970’s were similar in two ways. First, both were the result of the the collapse of an important American economic factor, stocks, because of overvaluation, and oil, because of the Arab Oil Embargo. Second, both resulted in economic action by the government to help stimulate the economy. Roosevelt’s New Deal welfare programs helped combat the Great Depression, while tax cuts by Gerald Ford and, later, Ronald Reagan helped stimulate the dire economic situation and pull the nation out of the 1970’s recession.
– **Other possible syntheses:** Panic of 1873, Panic of 1893, Stagflation, Housing Market Crash of 2008