Compare and contrast Irish and German immigration in the early nineteenth century.
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1. Between 1840 and 1860, the largest single source of new mass immigration was Ireland, but Germany was not far behind.
2. The push factor that caused 1.5 million Irish to leave Ireland between 1845 and 1854 was the great potato blight, which brought famine to a population that subsisted on this single crop.
3. The million or so Germans who came in the late 1840s and early 1850s were fleeing hard times in their homeland, as changing landholding patterns and a fluctuating market for grain squeezed small farmers.
4. Unlike the Irish, the Germans often left their homeland with a little capital to make a fresh start in the New World.
5. The Irish usually arrived in Canada or the Northeast and, immobilized by poverty and a lack of the skills required for pioneering in the West, most of them remained in the Northeast.
6. Many German immigrants were artisans and sought to ply their trades in cities such as New York, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee, but many peasants went back to the land.
7. With their diversified agricultural skills and small amounts of capital, Germans were often able to become successful midwestern farmers.
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Philosophes crusaded for
A) political equality for all. B) social recognition for all. C) separation of church and state. D) women?s rights. E) all of the above.
Which of the following was true of Wilson's New Freedom slogan?
A) It did not apply to African Americans. B) It did not apply to the working classes. C) It did not apply to women. D) It did not apply to Southerners.
How did Lincoln respond to the Wade-Davis Bill?
A) He signed it into law. B) He issued a direct veto of the bill. C) He quietly pocket vetoed the bill. D) He sent it back to Congress so that it could be rewritten in stricter terms.
Southerners insisted that the first transcontinental railroad should run through the Southwest because
a. the use of slave labor would make the construction cheaper. b. the railroad would pass through the already organized New Mexico territory. c. it was too expensive to use camels for transcontinental transport. d. southern states were prepared to pay the full cost of construction. e. it would guarantee the area against possible Mexican efforts to take it back.