History of the United States I / Unit 17 USH1 2414 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
What the War Built
The idea
Three Union measures of eighteen sixty-two outlast the war and reshape the country. The Homestead Act let settlers claim one hundred and sixty acres by residing on the land five years. Congress chartered the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads. And the Land Grant College Act granted each state thirty thousand acres to fund agricultural colleges. None of the three is a war measure in any direct sense, and all three passed a Congress from which the southern delegations had withdrawn with their states.
In practice
A national land policy, a national rail network and a national university system enacted in one session by a Congress missing a third of its members.
Where people slip
The mechanism deserves the emphasis. Secession removed the standing obstacle to programmes that had been blocked for a decade, and the South's withdrawal from Congress did more to enlarge federal power than any Republican argument had managed. Unit 15 entry 2138 carries this. When you are asked why the federal government grew, the answer includes who stopped voting against it.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
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