History II

Question 1

Viet cong

Answer 1

South Vietnamese communist guerila army that helped the regular north Vietnamese army fight against the regular south Vietnamese army.

Question 2

Background of Vietnam war

Answer 2

France colonized Vietnam in the 1800s.

• the Japanese took control during WWII.
• after the Japanese lost, the French tried to take back Vietnam but were stopped by Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese army.

Question 3

How was Vietnam split into north and south?

Answer 3

After the French Indochina war, France and Ho Chi Minh signed the “Geneva Peace Accord”.

• this split Vietnam into a communist north section (under the control of Ho Chi Minh) and a non-communist south section.

Question 4

Ho Chi Minh

Answer 4

Prime minister of Vietnam.

Spent much of his life trying to get the French (who controlled Vietnam) to leave.

• Vietnam was a French colony for years

Question 5

How did the Vietnam war start?

Answer 5

The south (non-communists) began arresting suspected communist sympathizes.

• they also refused to hold democratic elections with the north as they had promised.
• war broke out between the two sides, with JFK backing the South in the fight against communism.

Question 6

Fall of Saigon

Answer 6

1975

This was when the north (communists) overran Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, and took over the country, winning the Vietnam war.

• the country then became unified as a socialist republic

Question 7

Saigon

Answer 7

Renamed Ho Chi Minh city after being taken over by the north.

Question 8

What is the capital of unified Vietnam?

Answer 8

Hanoi

Question 9

What was the cause of the Korean War?

Answer 9

• in 1910, Japan put Korea under Japanese rule and ruled it until the end of WWII
• when Japan surrendered, the US and the USSR agreed to split Korea in half, with the US occupying the South and the USSR occupying the north.
• they then agreed that Korea should have a provisional govt, but relations between US and USSR were bad because of the Cold War.
• fighting eventually broke out

Question 10

American civil war

Answer 10

1861-1865

Civil war in the US

• 11 southern states in which slavery was legal wanted to leave the United States.
• these 11 states formed the “Confederate States of America” (aka the “Confederacy”)
• the US govt and the states that remained loyal to it were called the “Union”.

Question 11

What action began the US civil war?

Answer 11

April 12, 1861

• Confederate forces attack union forces at Fort Sumter.

Question 12

Who was chosen to be President of the Confederacy?

Answer 12

Jefferson Davis

Question 13

Who was president of the US when the civil war began?

Answer 13

Abraham Lincoln

Question 14

Robert E. Lee

Answer 14

General of the Confederate army.

His invasion of the north was stopped at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Question 15

Battle of Gettysburg

Answer 15

1863

• Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
• turning point in the American civil war.
• battle with the largest number of casualties in the civil war.
• ended robert E. Lee’s invasion of the north

Question 16

Ulysses S. Grant

Answer 16

Former General of the Union Army who became President of the US

Question 17

Vietnam war

Answer 17

1955-1975
(Conflict between communist and capitalist countries. Part of the “Cold War”)

• fought between north Vietnam and south Vietnam.
• n. Vietnam was supported by USSR, China, and North Korea.
• s. Vietnam supported by US, Australia.

Question 18

Mexican-American war

Answer 18

1846-1848

• between the US and Mexico
• when Mexico got independence from Spain in 1821, Texas was part of Mexico
• Americans began migrating to texas to live.
• the Mexicans stopped all immigration because they thought they would lose texas if they didn’t.
• eventually texas seceded from Mexico and became its own country for 10 years.
• when Texas seceded it lead to the Battle of Alamo

Question 19

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Answer 19

1848

• treaty that ended the Mexican American war.
• Mexico gave up the lands that would become:
• Arizona
• California
• New Mexico
• Nevada
• Utah
• Texas

Mexico received 15 million dollars in return

Question 20

Louisiana Purchase

Answer 20

1803

• this was a land purchase made by US president Thomas Jefferson.
• he bought the Louisiana territory from France (he bought it from Napoleon)
• purchased for 15,000,000

Question 21

What was included in the Louisiana purchase?

Answer 21

• Oklahoma
• Nebraska
• Kansas
• Iowa
• Missouri
• parts of Louisiana, Texas, Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico.

(Crucially, it gave the US control of the Mississippi River and the port city of New Orleans, both if which were used by farmers to ship crops).

Question 22

What did the Lewis and Clark expedition explore?

Answer 22

The Louisiana purchase

• they traced their route along the Missouri River

Question 23

War of 1812

Answer 23

Fought between the British Empire and the US from 1812 to 1814.

• fought mostly on US soil and at sea.

Question 24

Who started the war of 1812?

Why did they start it?

Answer 24

The US started it because:

• the British kept taking american ships by force.
• they were also seizing american sailors and forcing them to fight in their war against Napoleon (the Napoleonic wars).
• the British were also sponsoring Native American territories to stop the US from expanding westward

Question 25

Who won the war of 1812?

Answer 25

No one. We signed a peace treaty with Britain. It was supposed to end the war, but some soldiers kept fighting unaware it had been signed.

Question 26

What famous poem was written during the war of 1812?

Answer 26

Lawyer Francis Scott Key wrote a poem, whose words would later be used for our national anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner - Key wrote it in 1814 after seeing British ships attacking Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland.

Question 27

Spanish-American war

Answer 27

1898 War fought between Spain and the US. - Fought partially because Cuba wanted to become independent from Spain (Cuba had been a Spanish colony since Columbus landed there in 1492) and partially because the US wanted a colonial empire. - Cubans had revolted against Spain and many were thrown in concentration camps and died. - the US won, though many Americans died of yellow fever and malaria.

Question 28

Which war was supposedly created by yellow journalism?

Answer 28

The Spanish American war - William Randolph Hearst (who specialized in yellow journalism) kept the atrocities done to Cubans by the Spanish on the front page of his newspaper - the San Francisco Examiner (with some exaggerated facts) until war broke out.

Question 29

Result of the Spanish American war?

Answer 29

The Treaty of Paris - it made the US the owners of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.

Question 30

Most famous soldier of the Spanish American war?

Answer 30

Future president Teddy Roosevelt - led the rough riders

Question 31

What was the Korean War a fight over?

Answer 31

The Soviet Union was trying to make Korea a single, unified, communist nation. We were trying to prevent that. - they backed North Korea (who were communist) and we backed South Korea (which was a democracy).

Question 32

Who won the Korean War?

Answer 32

No one. There was a cease fire that is still in effect.