Free US History II CLEP Practice Test

Soldiers, settlers, and "sportsmen" killed millions of bison, or buffalo. The Native Americans of the Great Plains depended on the bison for life--they used its dung for fuel, its skin for clothing and shelter, and its meat for food. Hunting bison was how they could support their nomadic style of life; without the bison, they were forced to settle down.

Reconstruction ended as part of a compromise after the 1876 elections which saw the Republican presidential candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes admitted to office. Hayes was elected President in exchange for the agreement that no Republican administration would ever again disturb the Southern world of segregation. Taxes were slashed; so too was spending on education, especially for black schools. Throughout the South, a campaign ensued to put blacks in their place, which culminated around the turn of the century when one state after another passed laws providing for the rigid segregation of the races and for the disfranchisement of blacks through such devices as literacy tests, poll taxes, and political primaries that were open only to whites. These devices prevented almost all Southern blacks and some poor whites from voting or choosing candidates. During the first half of the 20th century, the South became a rigidly segregated society dominated by an all-white Democratic Party.

The Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act were passed in 1906, the year Upton Sinclair's book "The Jungle" was published. The Pure Food and Drug Act required food and drugs to be accurately labeled, and the Meat Inspection Act enforced sanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry.

Under President Wilson's administration, the Federal Reserve System was created under the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. This system involves 12 Federal Reserve banks set up across the United States which acted as "banks for banks." The Federal Reserve Board sets the interest rates charged on loans by these banks.

This case in Tennessee was popularly known as the monkey trial, and was followed by many Americans mainly because of the two men representing the different sides. Clarence Darrow, the most famous lawyer in the U.S. defending Scopes, and William Jennings Bryan, who was a three-time presidential candidate was on the prosecution's side.

The NIRA was struck down in 1935 in Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States by the Supreme Court. The Wagner Act restored the worker protections under the NIRA, which included the right for workers organize and to collectively bargain.

The constitutionality of internment was challenged, and upheld by the Supreme Court on the basis of national security. It was not until 1982 that the government finally admitted the injustice of the internment.

The Marshall Plan was named after Secretary of State George Marshall. Communist ideas were beginning to spread in many Western European countries as a result of the hardships the people were suffering--by helping to rebuild the economies, Marshall sought to undermine the Communist influence and at the same time provide a market for American goods.

The Cuban missile crisis occurred when the U.S. discovered that the Soviets were constructing medium-range missile sites in Cuba. The Soviets backed down to U.S. demands and removed the missiles. In return, American missiles were removed from Turkey.

The Watergate scandal began in 1972 when five men were arrested while breaking into the Democratic party headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C.. After two years of investigations, it was clear Nixon was going to be impeached, and he resigned from office in August 1974.