U.S. Social History - SAT Subject Test in United States History

The key argument for Columbus' voyage west across the Atlantic Ocean was to find a shorter route to the Far East, which was importing spices and precious metals across the Eurasian landmass to Western Europe. The Catholic Church was also attempting to missionize into Asia. Most learned people in the late fifteenth century believed the earth was round. Where Columbus disagreed with the consensus was in his belief the Earth was much smaller. Many scholars at the time knew just how big the earth was, but did not believe there was a landmass between Japan and Western Europe. Columbus believed he had reached Indonesia when he landed in the Caribbean, and never thought he had discovered a new Continent.

During British colonial rule many Americans living on the frontiers were forced to house British soldiers. This practice was particularly common during the French-Indian Wars in the middle of the eighteenth century. The economic and social strain of this situation was one of the motivating factors behind the outbreak of revolution. After colonial rule was overthrown, the new United States government sought to prohibit forced quartering in the Constitution. This was achieved with the passage of the Third Amendment.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects United States citizens from unreasonable search and seizure of property. In practical application it requires law enforcement to provide a warrant and valid cause before any invasion of privacy can take place. The Fourth Amendment was added to the Bill of Rights in response to British abuses of writs of assistance, which, in pre-Revolutionary America, allowed British colonial officials to inspect property whenever they pleased.

The Eighth Amendment prohibits the use of “cruel and unusual punishment” when dealing with criminal practice. The Amendment has its roots in British common law and later the British Bill of Rights. The terms "cruel and unusual" are somewhat vague and open to interpretation. As a result, throughout American history, legal and judicial theorists have offered competing definitions of cruel and unusual; however, it is generally considered to prohibit mental and physical torture, as well as dehumanizing and humiliating treatment.

Whether intentional or not, Eli Whitney's cotton gin resulted in an increase of slave numbers throughout the American South, as the southern economy became more heavily dependent upon upland short cotton.

In the era of America’s Founding Fathers, most prominent thinkers thought that it might take as much as a thousand years to settle the entirety of the continent under one national entity. Due largely to the invention and widespread construction of Railroads this was achieved in a mere few decades. Railroads helped promote trade across the continent and further afield – enabling goods from the Far East to be shipped back to the Eastern seaboard. It encouraged the growth of urban communities which could be much more easily sustained by railroad trade. And, not insignificantly, it provided for the first time a far easier means for tourists from the East to travel to places like Yosemite to witness the wonders of America’s, as of yet not established, National Parks—which in turn lead to much wider support for legislation to protect them. It did not, however, improve American relations with Native American communities—one might suspect that the removal of the massive boundary of space might have resulted in the reduction of the perception of Native Americans as an “other” group to be feared; on the contrary, it allowed Americans to move en masse to territories occupied by Native Americans, and made it much easier to keep supply lines reinforced.

The Pony Express was known for it's speed and reliability, but the new telegraph lines, once complete, were much cheaper and more efficient. This development rendered the Pony Express obsolete in a mere 18 months.

Irish immigrants had come to America since the first Europeans arrived, but the first large migration occurred in the 1840s and 1850s. The biggest reason for this was the Irish Potato Famine that began in 1845. The famine was exacerbated when the British government refused to give any assistance. Estimates are that as many as 1 million Irish died during the famine, while another million emigrated elsewhere, chiefly to the Northern cities of the United States.

In the aftermath of the XYZ Affair and straining relations with France, the Federalists passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which outlawed anti-government activity, lengthened the residency time required for naturalization of foreigners, and allowed the President to imprison or deport aliens who he deemed dangerous to American peace and safety. The laws were unpopular with many Americans due to their authoritative nature, leading to increased support for Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans at the expense of John Adams and the Federalists.

The Eighteenth Amendment was the culmination of a decades long temperance movement that sought to end all alcohol sales, distribution, and consumption in America. Initially celebrated as a progressive victory, the legal enforcement of prohibition proved a nightmare, and legions of criminal gangs began to control the illegal alcohol sales. The Eighteenth Amendment was repealed by the Twenty First Amendment in 1933.

The quote refers to the difficulty of American men to reintegrate into society following World War I. The majority of Americans in that era had never been more than a few hundred miles from their homes, let alone across continents. In addition, many men suffered from extreme trauma from the events they witnessed and participated in. A lot of jobs had been taken up by women, in the absence of male workers, and post-war society faced the problem of how to resolve this disparity.

In Brown, Chief Justice Earl Warren expressed that in the arena of public education, "separate but equal" is inherently unequal, unfair, and unconstitutional. Plessy v. Ferguson is a prior case that upheld the "separate but equal" doctrine.

Free slaves numbered only in the thousands in the Colonial period, but they were an important social factor, being both reminders of the humanity of blacks and as a symbol to those blacks still enslaved. A slave could gain freedom if their mother was white, if their owner freed them or if they were able to buy their freedom (almost impossible). Those who were descendants of indentured servants had been brought over at a time when slavery had not yet been embraced and maintained their freedom, legally, throughout their lives. However, those slaves that escaped from a slave owning territory to one in which slavery was illegal were still considered property of their masters and legally had to be returned.

New York was originally called New Amsterdam when it was established by the Dutch in 1614. Surrounded by English settlements, the small colony was taken by the English in 1664 and rechristened New York.

The Crucible is based on the Salem Witch Trials.

The first permanent English settlement in the New World was Jamestown. Plymouth, Massachusetts was founded in 1620.

Hernando de Soto is the first European known to have discovered and crossed the Mississippi River. His expedition ranged across the southeastern and western United States. He was searching primarily for gold, like many Spanish explorers of the time. The motivation for Spanish exploration is often illustrated by historians with the simple phrase “God, glory, and gold.” God—the desire to spread Christianity to Native populations. Glory—the desire to make a name for oneself back in Spain. Gold—the desire for wealth. It is important to remember these three primary motivations as they explain the actions of many European explorers at the time.

The city of St. Augustine was established in 1565, in what is now Florida. For many years prior the French and Spanish had tried and failed to establish a European community in Florida, Georgia and elsewhere. The city began life as a base from which the Spanish could combat both piracy and the French. After a shipment of slaves arrived the community grew at a reasonably fast rate.

The Mississippian culture flourished in the Mississippi Valley from roughly 800 CE to 1500 CE. The Mississippians were best known as mound builders: they developed small cities by building giant pyramids from soil around corn based agriculture. Trade between these cities occurred mostly around watersheds and rivers. None of the Mississippian cultures were nomadic in any way.