All SAT II US History Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Cause And Effect In U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
How did Yellow Journalism most significantly contribute to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War?
One of the primary causes of the Spanish-American War, were sensationalized accounts of news events, for example the sinking of the USS Maine. These accounts provided by The New York Journal and New York World, owned respectively by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, focused on the implied responsibility of the Spanish government for the sinking of the ship, even though most of the evidence supported that it had been an accident. Whilst it is true that the editors championed Imperialistic responses and the use of photos engendered a strong visceral response among the United States’ population, the most significant contribution was the so called “Yellow Journalism” that sensationalized detail and often completely fabricated facts when evidence did not exist to support the claims being made. The American public, already angered by Spanish involvement in Cuba, became increasingly more supportive of war.
Example Question #1 : U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History
Yellow journalism stoked American passions over the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine, which created support for which war?
None of the other answers
Mexican-American War
American Civil War
French and Indian War
Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
Yellow journalism was a product of the rivalry between William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. Both papers printed exaggerations and false news reports to sell more papers. The sinking of the battleship U.S.S. Maine near Cuba was portrayed by Hearst’s newspaper as an attack by Spanish forces fighting Cuban rebels. This propaganda engendered support for American efforts to send armed forces to Cuba, leading to the Spanish-American War.
Example Question #2 : U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
Which of the following is NOT true about Joseph Smith?
Smith published the Book of Mormon from the tablets he found, and hoped it would replace the Bible.
Smith started Mormonism in New York.
Smith was killed in the Illinois Mormon War after being jailed.
Smith practiced and preached polygamy.
Smith claimed to have found tablets written by a lost tribe of Israel.
Smith published the Book of Mormon from the tablets he found, and hoped it would replace the Bible.
Smith said he had found tablets from a lost tribe of Israel. He wrote the tablets into a book called the Book of Mormon, which he believed should not replace the Bible. All other answer choices are true. After finding trouble in New York, Smith moved his followers to Ohio, Missouri, and then Illinois. After Smith was killed in Illinois, Brigham Young moved the Mormons to Utah.
Example Question #3 : U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
The principle of separate but equal was established by .
Plessy v. Ferguson
Freemen v. United States Government
Gibbons v. Ogden
Brown v. Board of Education
Wesbery v. Sanders
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson was a case that appeared before the Supreme Court in 1896. It established the legality and constitutionality of state laws, mostly in the South, that had required segregation of public facilities under the guise of “separate but equal.” It remained protected by law until 1954, when the Brown v. Board of Education decision reversed it.
Example Question #3 : Facts And Details In U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
The American inventor, Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) is credited with the invention of what?
Morse Code
The combustible engine
The Breese-Morse interchangeable part
The pulley block
The assembly line
Morse Code
Samuel Finley Breese Morse is credited as co-inventor of Morse Code: a way of sending text as a series of on-off tones, clicks, or lights that can be deciphered by a trained listener.
Example Question #4 : Facts And Details In U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
Who authored The Age of Reason?
Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
Thomas Paine
Samuel Adams
Thomas Paine
The Age of Reason was written by Thomas Paine and published at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Paine was an American revolutionary who lived in France throughout the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon. In The Age of Reason Paine attacks organized religion and paints the Catholic Church as corrupt and morally bankrupt. It is a classic example of Enlightenment and deist literature. It was also a bestseller in the United States and led to a massive revival of Deism amongst the American middle and upper classes.
Example Question #5 : Facts And Details In U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
A person who wanted to end slavery in the United States was known as what?
A prohibitionist
An advocate
A teetotaler
A sectionalist
An abolitionist
An abolitionist
A person who wanted to abolish slavery in the United States (and elsewhere) was known as an abolitionist.
Example Question #5 : Facts And Details In U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
What did Francis Scott Key write as he watched the British attack Fort McHenry in Baltimore in 1814?
America the Beautiful
The Star-Spangled Banner
The Pledge of Allegiance
Hail, Columbia
My Country, 'Tis of Thee
The Star-Spangled Banner
Held captive during the attack on Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key wrote his poem "Defence of Fort McHenry" from which the lyrics for the Star-Spangled Banner were taken.
Example Question #6 : Facts And Details In U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
What historical term is used to describe the period of United States history prior to the Civil War?
The Era of Manifest Destiny
The Antebellum Era
The Era of Good Feelings
The Reconstruction Era
The Gilded Age
The Antebellum Era
The term used to describe the historical period between the American Revolution and the Civil War is the Antebellum Era. The term "antebellum" directly means before the war. In the context of the United States it is generally used to refer to the Southern United States prior to the Civil War.
Example Question #7 : Facts And Details In U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
In 1831, William Lloyd Garrison began publishing his weekly newspaper, The Liberator, which advocated what?
The dissolution of the American Republic for a more direct democracy
The end of taxes
The secession of the South from the Union
The end of the British presence in Canada
The abolition of slavery
The abolition of slavery
In 1831, William Lloyd Garrison began publishing his weekly newspaper, The Liberator, which advocated the abolition of slavery. Garrison, a white man from Massachusetts, was one of the abolition movement's most prominent figures.
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