Answer:
Explanation:
1. How did economic interests, cultural factors, and political ambitions contribute to an unprecedented territorial expansion from 1844–1860? With territorial expansion came economic development that fed growing regional tensions between the North and South. In the northern states, economic development ushered in the early stages of industrialization, a transportation revolution, and the creation of a market system with cities that flourished on a rising tide of immigration. The South followed a dramatically different course, staking its expansion on the cotton economy and the growth of slavery. While white Southerners fiercely defended this exploitive economic and social system, millions of African American slaves struggled to shape their own lives through family, religion, and resistance to slavery.
2. How did economic differences and political conflicts from 1848–1860 bring the nation into the Civil War? The Southern states wanted for slavery to always be legal and not be contained to only the South, meaning that they wanted it to expand to western territory. As Abraham Lincoln came into office opposing slavery, the Southern states took it as the last straw, which led the southern states to secede. Since the southern economy depended on slavery, they were not willing to give it up. In contrast, the northern economy did not need slaves and depended on industry, contributing to rising tensions between the differing opinions on slavery between the North and the South, eventually resulting in the Civil War.
3. How did the leadership of Abraham Lincoln contribute to the Union victory in the Civil War? Abraham knew that Robert E. Lee was a skilled general, and he was frustrated that the first general he put in charge was slow to make decisions, especially when trying to follow the Anaconda Plan. He demoted him and put Ulysses S. Grant in his place, hoping that Grant would be faster and quicker to react. Because of this decision, Grant brought the Union many victories and eventually turned the tide of the war in the Union’s favor.
4. In what two ways was 1863 a turning point year in the Civil War? On July 4, 1863, the most important Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, Vicksburg, surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant (a general for the Union). The previous day, the union defeated Robert E. Lee in the Battle of Gettysburg, and these important events turned the tide of the Civil War to the Union’s favor.
5. What transformations were brought to the lives of African Americans as a result of the Civil War and Reconstruction? In what ways did their situation not see a major improvement? African American lives improved in the sense that the 14th and 15th amendments allowed them to vote and own land just as white men were able to, but there was not much improvement in the sense that they were still seen as inferior to whites in the eyes of the Supreme Court. Although Congress tried to make them regular citizens, the Supreme Court ruled several cases that denied them the rights of normal American citizens during the Reconstruction.
6. Why did Reconstruction fail to produce the intended lasting effects that many sought? The intended lasting effects were that African Americans would be treated as equal citizens to white men, but this was not achieved. There were many terrorist/anti-black groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, as well as segregation and racist laws (most notably the Jim Crow Laws). These prevented African Americans from being treated the same as a white man and contributed to the prevalence of racism.
