Krystal Arenas Jessica Arzola Charis Bulosan Karla Camarena David Garcia

1. Chapter 1-27 Study guide Krystal Arenas Jessica Arzola CharisBulosan Karla Camarena David Garcia

2. Chapter 1New World Beginning -Record of history started at 4000 B.C. -The Theory of Pangaea: mean that the continents were once nestled together into one mega-continent. Then they spread out as drifting islands. -The Land Bridge Theory: People the Bering Sea Came from Asia to the Americas -Those people had spread through North, Central, and South America -Their were many languages, an estimate of 2000 languages -Corn arrived in the U.S. around 1200 B.C. -The Pueblo Indians were the 1st Americans corn growers -Native Americans had different views then the Europeans such as: Native Americans felt that no man owned land~ Europeans liked private property Europeans were Christians~ Indians believed that nature was mixed with spirits Indians had no interest in money~ Europeans thrived on money and gold

3. Ch. 1 -1st Europeans to come to the America’s were the Norse Vikings from the Norway -Marco Polo traveled to China -Christopher Columbus convinced Isabella and Ferdinand to fund his expedition. After 30 or so days of sailing, Columbus struck land -The New World provided gold, soil, & lumber -Cortez conquered the Aztecs at Tenochtitlan -Treaty Line of Tordesillas 1494: Portugal got everything East of the line(Brazil) Spain got everything West of the line

4. Chapter 2The Planting of the English America -Spain had control of Central and South America -France had founded Quebec -Britain founded Jamestown -Elizabeth 1 becomes queen of England in 1558 -Victory also fueled England to new heights due to… Strong government/popular monarch, more religious unity, a sense of nationalism Golden age of literature (Shakespeare) Beginning of British dominance at sea (which lasts until U.S. tops them, around 1900) -Peopling losing jobs because woolen districts were going through hard times economically -By the 1600s, the joint-stock company was perfected (investors put money into the company with hopes for a good return), being a forerunner of today’s corporations. -In 1606, the Virginia Company received King James 1st to make a settlement in the New World -May 24, 1607 , about 100 English settlers disembarked from their ships and founded Jamestown -In 1608, Captain John Smith at one point was kidnapped by Indians and forced into execution but was saved by Pocahontas.

5. CH. 2 -Jamestown found its goldand it was tobacco Tobacco created greed for land, since it hardly depleted the soil and ruined the land -British colonized the Virginia’s -Carolina was named after Charles ll, and was formally created in 1670 -In what is now New York State, the Iroquois League (AKA the Iroquois Confederation) was once a great power. -They were made up of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas.

6. Chapter 3Settling the Northern Colonies -In 1517, Martin Luther had several ideas including: The Bible alone was the source of God’s word (not the Bible and the church or pope). People are saved simply by faith in Christ alone (not by faith and good works). His actions ignited the Protestant Reformation. -John Calvin preached Calvinism which stressed “predestination” (those going to Heaven or hell has already been determined by God). -The Puritans: were influenced to totally reform (“purify”) the Church of England. -Puritans believed: • Believed that only “visible saints” should be admitted to church membership. • Separatists vowed to break away from the Church of England (AKA, the Anglican Church) because the “saints” would have to sit with the “damned.” These folks became the Pilgrims. • King James I, father of the beheaded Charles I,harassed the Separatists out of England because he thought that ifpeople could defy him as their spiritual leader, they might defy him astheir political ruler.

7. -The Pilgrims came from Holland to settle in Plymouth because they wanted a place where they were free to worship their own religion and live and die a good pilgrim -Before the Pilgrims got off the ship, they had to sign the Mayflower Compact It set the first step toward self rule in the Northern Colonies It was a set of rules for which they had to obey -Rhode Island is where people went when they were unwanted everywhere else -In 1638, New Haven was founded and eventually merged into Connecticut. -In 1623, Maine was absorbed by Massachusetts and remained so for nearly a century and a half. -In 1641, New Hampshire was absorbed into Massachusetts. -In 1643, four colonies came together and formed the New England Confederation -In the 17th Century, the Netherlands revolted against Spain with the help of Britain to gain their independence -In 1664, the British troops defeated the Dutch, kicking them out without much violence New Amsterdam was renamed New York

8. Chapter 4American Life in the Seventeenth Century -In the Chesapeake, life was harsh because of the many disease like malaria, dysentery, and typhoid killed many ~because of this, most kids didn’t know their grandparents ~few people lived to be 40 ~A third of all brides in one Maryland county were already pregnant before the wedding (scandalous). -The Chesapeake was very good for tobacco cultivation. -Chesapeake Bay exported 1.5 million pounds of tobacco yearly in the1630s, and by 1700, that number had risen to 40 million pounds a year. -By the late 1600s, there were lots of free, poor, landless, single men frustrated by the lack of money, land, work, and women. -In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon led a few thousand of these men in a rebellion against the hostile conditions. -Slave life in the Deep South was very tough, as rice growing was much harder than tobacco growing.

9. -In 1712, a slave revolt in New York City cost the lives of a dozen whites and 21 Blacks were executed. -In 1739, South Carolina blacks along the Stono River revolted and tried to march to Spanish Florida, but failed. -In 1636, Massachusetts Puritans established Harvard College to train men to become ministers. (Note: in 1693, Virginia established their first college, William and Mary.) -Puritans ran their own churches, and democracy in Congregationalchurch government led logically to democracy in political government

10. Chapter 5Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution -By 1775, Great Britain ruled 32 colonies in North America. Only 13 of them revolted (the ones in what’s today the U.S.). Canada and Jamaica were wealthier than the “original 13.” All of them were growing by leaps and bounds. -By 1775, the population numbered 2.5 million people. -The average age was 16 years old -Germans accounted for about 6% of the population, or about 150,000 people by 1775 -The Scots-Irish were about 7% of the population, with 175,000 people -About 5% of the multicolored population consisted of other Europeangroups, like French Huguenots, Welsh, Dutch, Swedes, Jews, Irish,Swiss, and Scots-Highlanders -Trading was also a popular and prevalent industry, as commerce occurred all around the colonies. The “triangular trade” was common: aship, for example, would leave (1) New England with rum and go to the(2) Gold Coast of Africa and trade it for African slaves. Then, itwould go to the (3) West Indies and exchange the slaves for molasses(for rum), which it’d sell to New England once it returned there.

11. -The Great Awakening : the worry that so many people would not be saved, the stage was set for a revival, whichoccurred, and became the First Great Awakening. the Great Awakening led to the founding of “new light” centers like Princeton, Brown, Rutgers, and Dartmouth -Education was most important in New England, where it was used to train young future clergymen. In other parts of America, farm labor used up most of the time thatwould have been spent in school. However, there were fairly adequateprimary and secondary schools in areas other than New England. The onlyproblem was that only well-to-do children could afford to attend.

12. Chapter 6- The Duel for North America • When King Louis XIV became king, he took an interest in overseas colonies. In 1608, France established Quebec, overlooking the St. Lawrence River. • Samuel de Champlain, an intrepid soldier and explorer, became known as the “Father of New France.” • New France’s (Canada) one valuable resource was the beaver.Beaver hunters were known as the coureurs de bois (runners of the woods) and littered the land with place names, including Baton Rouge (red stick), Terre Haute (high land), Des Moines (some monks) and Grand Teton (big breasts). • The French voyageurs also recruited Indians to hunt for beaver as well, but Indians were decimated by the white man’s diseases, and the beaver population was heavily extinguished. • Louisiana was founded, in 1682, by Robert de LaSalle, to halt Spanish expansion into the area near the Gulf of Mexico. • King William’s War and Queen Anne’s War The English colonists fought the French coureurs de bois and their Indian allies. • The peace deal in Utrecht in 1713 gave Acadia (renamed Nova Scotia), Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay to England, pinching the French settlements by the St. Lawrence. It also gave Britain limited trading rights with Spanish America.

13. Chapter 7- The Road to Revolution • Colonists in America, without influence from superiors, felt that they were fundamentally different from England, and more independent. • Many began to think of themselves as Americans, and that they were on the cutting edge of the British empire. • The British embraced a theory that justified their control of the colonies called mercantilism: A country’s economic wealth could be measured by the amount of gold or silver in its treasury. • England’s policy of mercantilism severely handcuffed American trade. • The Navigation Laws were the most infamous of the laws to enforce mercantilism. • The Navigation Laws restricted commerce from the colonies to England (and back) to only English ships, and none other • Americans had no currency, but they were constantly buying things from Britain, so that gold and silver was constantly draining out of America, forcing some to even trade and barter. Eventually, the colonists were forced to print paper money, which depreciated. • Colonial laws could be voided by the Privy Council, though this privilege was used sparingly (469 times out of 8,563 laws). Still, colonists were infuriated by its use.

14. Chapter 8- America Secedes from the empire • After the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord in April of 1775, about 20,000 Minutemen swarmed around Boston, where they outnumbered the British. • The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, with no real intention of independence, but merely a desire to continue fighting in the hope that the king and Parliament would consent to a redress of grievances.. It sent another list of grievances to Parliament. It also raised money for an army and a navy. It also selected George Washington to command the army. • In June 1775, the colonials seized Bunker Hill (prior known as Breed’s Hill). Instead of flanking them, the Redcoats launched a frontal attack, and the heavily entrenched colonial sharpshooters mowed them down until meager gunpowder supplies ran out and they were forced to retreat. • In October 1775, the British burned Falmouth (Portland), Maine. • The colonists decided that invading Canada would add a 14th colony and deprive Britain of a valuable base for striking at the colonies in revolt. • Also, the French-Canadians would support the Americans because they supposedly were bitter about Britain’s taking over of their land. • General Richard Montgomery captured Montreal. • On the last day of 1775, in the assault of Quebec, Montgomery was killed and Arnold was wounded in one leg, and the whole campaign collapsed as the men retreated up the St. Lawrence River, reversing the way Montgomery had come.

15. Chapter 9- The Confederation and the Constitution • The American Revolution was more of an accelerated evolution than a revolution. • Slavery was a large, problematic issue, as the Continental Congress of 1774 had called for the abolition of slavery, and in 1775, the Philadelphia Quakers founded the world’s first antislavery society. • This new spirit that “all men are created equal” even inspired a few slave owners to free their slaves. • Another issue was women. They still were unequal to men, even though some had served (disguised as men) in the Revolutionary War. • There were some achievements for women such as New Jersey’s 1776 constitution which allowed women to vote (for a time). • Mothers devoted to their families were developed as an idea of “republican motherhood” and elevated women to higher statuses as keepers of the nation’s conscience. Women raised the children and thereby held the future of the republic in their hands.

16. The Continental Congress of 1776 called upon colonies to draft new constitutions (thus began the formation of the Articles of the Confederation). • In most states, the legislative branch was given sweeping powers, though some people, like Thomas Jefferson, warned that “173 despots [in legislature] would surely be as oppressive as one.” • Many state capitals followed the migration of the people and moved westward, as in New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. • After the Revolution, Loyalist land was seized, but people didn’t chop heads off (as later in France). • However, the states all did share similar constitutions, had a rich political inheritance form Britain, and America was blessed with men like Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton, and John Adams, great political leaders of high order.

17. Chapter 10- Launching the New Ship of State • In 1789, the new U.S. Constitution was launched, and the population was doubling every 20 years. • America’s population was still 90% rural, with 5% living west of the Appalachians. • Vermont became the 14th state in 1791, and Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio • In the twelve years after American independence, laws had been broken and a constitution had been completely scrapped and replaced with a new one, a government that left much to be desired. • America was also heavily in debt, and paper money was worthless • Washington established a diverse cabinet (which was not necessary Constitutional). • Secretary of State: Thomas Jefferson Secretary of the Treasury: Alexander Hamilton • Many states had ratified the Constitution on the condition that there would be a Bill of Rights, and many Anti-Federalists had criticized the Constitution for its lack of a Bill. • The necessary number of states adopted the Bill of Rights in 1791. • The Judiciary Act of 1789 created effective federal courts. • John Jay became the first Chief Justice of the United States

18. Chapter11- The Triumphs and Travails of Jeffersonian Republic • In the election of 1800, the Federalists had a host of enemies stemming from the Alien and Sedition Acts. • John Adams became known as “the Father of the American Navy.” • Thomas Jefferson won the election of 1800 by a majority of 73 electoral votes to 6 • The “Revolution of 1800” was that (1) there was a peaceful transfer of power; Federalists stepped down from office after Jefferson won and did so peacefully, though not necessarily happily and (2) the Republicans were more of the “people’s party”compared to the Federalists. • There were two Thomas Jeffersons: the scholarly private citizen whophilosophized in his study, and the harassed public official whodiscovered that bookish theories worked out differently in practicalpolitics. • Jefferson also dismissed few Federalist officials and those who wanted the seats complained. Jefferson had to rely on his casual charm because his party was so disunited still

19. Chapter 12 • The War of 1812 was very divisive to America. Sections were staunchly for it or against it. Generally, the West and South were for the war, the Northeast was hotly against it. • News hit Washington D.C. the same time as news of the Treaty of Ghent ending the war. the treaty had ended the war two weeks before the Battle of New Orleans. • Bucked-up from victories, the British made bold demands. The British wanted an Indian buffer zone created, control of the Great Lakes, and part of Maine. Americans rejected this proposal • The Treaty of Ghent (Dec. 1814) was an armistice (a cease-fire) that ended the War of 1812. • Both sides simply agreed to lay down their arms. No land or booty was given or taken. The main issue of the war, impressment, was even left unmentioned.

20. Chapter 13- The Rise of Democracy 1824-1840 House elects John Quincy Adams as President in 1825. • In 1823 Mexico opened • Texas to the American Settlers. • Lack of electoral majority for presidency • throws election into the house • of Representatives in 1824. The Indian removal Act “The Bank War” Jackson vetoes the bill to recharter bank of the united states in 1832.

21. The Tariff Act of 1832- reduced tariffs to remedy the conflict created by the tariff of 1828, but it was still deemed unsatisfactory by some in the South, especially in South Carolina. South Carolinian opposition to this tariff and its predecessor, the Tariff of Abominations, caused the Nullification Crisis. As a result of this crisis, the 1832 Tariff was replaced by the Compromise Tariff of 1833. The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States built on a speculative fever.[1] The end of the Second Bank of the United States had produced a period of runaway inflation, but in May 10, 1837 in New York City, when every bank began to accept payment only in specie (gold and silver coinage), forcing a dramatic, deflationary backlash. This was based on the assumption by former president, Andrew Jackson, that government was selling land for state bank notes of questionable value. The Panic was followed by a five-year depression, with the failure of banks and then-record-high unemployment levels.

22. Texas wins independence from Mexico. Battle of the Alamo: • The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Van Buren is elected as president in 1836.

23. Chapter 14- Forging the National Economy 1790-1860 Robert Fulton’s first steamboat in 1807. Elias Howea invented the Sewing Machine in 1846. The development of the railroad engineering concepts and equipment that opened the American West began with the "Old Main Line" in 1828. As the first U.S. railroad in public service, constructed between 1828 and 1830, it began operating between Mount Claire, Baltimore, and Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.

24. Cyrus McCormick invents Mechanical mower-reaper in in the 1830’s. In 1842, Massachusetts declares labor Unions legal in Commonwealth v. Hunt. President Van Buren establishes 10-hour day for federal employees in 1840.

25. In 1844 Samuel Morse invents Telegraph . Anti-Catholic Riot in Philadelphia in 1844. The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the High Sierras from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from April 3, 1860 to October 1861. It became the west's most direct means of east-west communication before the telegraph and was vital for tying California closely with the Union just before the American Civil War.

26. Chapter 15- The Ferment of Reform and Culture 1790-1860 University of North Carolina was founded in 1795. Second Great Awakening Begins in 1800. Jefferson founds the university of Virginia in 1819.

27. Noah Webster publishes dictionary in 1828. Joseph Smith founds Mormon Church in 1830. Oberlin College admits female students.

28. Dorothea Dix petition Massachusetts legislature on behalf of the insane in 1843. Over 70,000 Mormon’s migrated to Utah. Main passes first law prohibiting liquor in 1851.

29. Chapter 16- The South and the Slavery Controversy 1793-1860 The Congress outlaws slave Trade in 1808. Whitney’s cotton gin transforms southern economy. The Missouri Compromise in 1820.

30. Virginia legislature debates slavery and emancipation British abolish slavery in west indies in 1833. U.S post office orders destruction Of abolitionist mail in 1835.

31. Mob kills abolitionist Lovejoy in Alton, Illinois. House of representatives passes “Gag Resolution” in 1836. Douglas publishes “Narrative Of the Life of Frederick Douglas” in 1845.

32. Chapter17-Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy 1841-1848 Anti-Slavery Liberty party organized in 1840. Canadian rebellion 1837. Harrison dies after Four weeks in office in 1841, while Tyler assumes presidency.

33. Polk defeats Clay in “Manifest Destiny” election in 1844. United States annexes Texas in 1845. United States settles Oregon dispute With Britain in 1846. Scott takes Mexico City in 1847.

34. United States and Mexico Clash over Texas boundary in 1846. Fremont conquers California in 1846. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. Mexican war 1846-1848

35. Chapter 18- Renewing the Sectional Struggle • President Polk was severely sick and in the election of 1848, the Democrats nominated General Lewis Cass, he was all for popular sovereignty and kept silent on the issue of slavery. • The Whigs nominated General Zachary Taylor in 1848 even though he do o political experience. • A “young guard” of politicians were emerging in Congress, and chief among the Young Guard was William H. Seward that was against slavery. • The South was upset because the proposition of California as a free state threatened free/slave state balance, and the Fugitive Slave law was not being put into use. Picture • The free soil party emerged to favor federal money for internal improvements and free land for settlers out west, and they were against the expansion of slavery.

36. Chapter 19- Drifting Towards Disunion • Harriet Beecher Stowe published “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and stirred up controversy over slavery, thus creating tension. picture • Preston Brooks beat Charles Sumner with a cane in defense of slavery, and it showed the southern resent against the opposition of slavery. picture • Lincoln won the presidential election of 1860, and the south chose to no longer be unified with America. They formed the Confederacy.

37. Chapter 20- Girding for War: The North and the South • On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated president. • The North passed the Morrill Tariff act, increasing tariff rates by about 5 to 10%, but war soon drove these rates even higher. • The Deep South (which had already seceded), felt that Lincoln was now waging an aggressive war, and was joined by four more southern states: Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. • There was a Civil War Drat in which the North paid blacks to be in the war, rich men could hire substitutes or hire an exemption, and people aged 17-50 were forced to enlist. Picture

38. Chapter 21- The Furnace of Civil War • President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen on April 15, 1861, he and just about everyone else in the North expected a swift war lasting about 90 days, with a quick suppression of the South to prove the north’s superiority and end this foolishness. • The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in not-yet-conquered Southern territories, but slaves in the Border States and the conquered territories were not liberated since doing so might make them go to the South. Picture • The key battles were: The Battle of Bull Run, Gettysburg, Penn Campaign Battle, Vicksburg, Battle of the Merrimack and Monitor, Battle of Antietam, Fort Sumter.

39. Chapter 22- Girding for War: The Ordeal of Reconstruction • Many Southerners regarded Reconstruction as worse than the war itself, as they resented the upending of their social and racial system. • For the longest time, abolitionists had preached that slavery was a degrading institution. The freedoms Bureau was designed to help slaves face that freedom was overwhelming and without property or money, they are nothing. • Some reconstruction plans were the Lincoln Act, the Reconstruction Act, and the Tenure of Office Act.

40. Chapter 23- Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age • The Republicans got Grant elected (barely) by “waving thebloody shirt,” or reliving his war victories, and used hispopularity to elect him, though his popular vote was only slightlyahead of rival Horatio Seymour. Seymour was the Democratic candidatewho didn’t accept a redemption-of-greenbacks-for-maximum-valueplatform, and thus doomed his party.

41. In 1873, a paralyzing panic broke out, the Panic of 1873, caused by too many railroads and factories being formed than existing markets could bear and the over-loaning by banks to those projects. Essentially, the causes of the panic were the same old ones that’d caused recessions every 20 years that century: (1) over-speculation and (2) too-easy credit. • “The Gilded Age,” was a term coined by Mark Twainhinting that times looked good, yet if one scratched a bit below the surface, there were problems. Times were filled with corruption and presidential election squeakers, and even though Democrats andRepublicans had similar ideas on economic issues, there were fundamental differences.

42. Chapter 24- Industry Comes of Age • Railroads stitched the nation together, generated a huge market and lots of jobs, helped the rapid industrialization of America, and stimulated mining and agriculture in the West by bringing people andsupplies to and from the areas where such work occurred. • Railroad owners abused the public, bribed judges and legislatures, employed arm-twisting lobbyists, elected their own to political office,gave rebates (which helped the wealthy but not the poor), and used free passes to gain favor in the press • The Interstate Commerce Act, passed in 1887, banned rebates and pools and required the railroads to publish their rates openly (so as not to cheat customers), and also forbade unfair discrimination against shippers and banned charging more for a short haul than for a long one. • After the Civil War, railroad production grew enormously, from 35,000 mi. of track laid in 1865 to a whopping 192,556 mi. of track laid in 1900. • Advancements in railroads included the steel rail, which was stronger and more enduring than the iron rail.

43. Popular inventions included the cash register, the stock ticker, the typewriter, the refrigerator car, the electric dynamo, and the electric railway, which displaced animal-drawn cars. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and a new age was launched. In 1890, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act was signed into law; it forbade combinations (trusts, pools, interlocking directorates, holding companies) in restraint of trade, without any distinction between “good” and “bad” trusts.

44. Chapter 25- America Moves to the City In cities, criminals flourished, and impure water, uncollected garbage, unwashed bodies, and droppings made cities smelly and unsanitary. From 1870 to 1900, the American population doubled, and the population in the cities tripled. Gradually, though, the nation’s conscience awoke to the plight of the slums, and people like Walter Rauschenbusch and Washington Gladden began preaching the “Social Gospel,”insisting that churches tackle the burning social issues of the day. Among the people who were deeply dedicated to uplifting the urban masses was Jane Addams, who founded Hull House in 1889 to teach children and adults the skills and knowledge that they would need to survive and succeed in America.

45. The “nativism” and anti-foreignism of the 1840s and 1850s came back in the 1880s, as the Germans and western Europeans looked down upon the new Slavs and Baltics, fearing that a mixing of blood would ruin the fairer Anglo-Saxon races and create inferior offspring. In 1859, Charles Darwin published his On the Origin of Species, which set forth the new doctrine of evolution and attracted the ire and fury of fundamentalists. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was formed in 1866 to discourage the mistreatment of livestock, and the American Red Cross, formed by Clara Barton, a Civil War nurse, was formed in 1881.

46. Chapter 26- The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution • As the White settlers began to populate the Great West, the Indians, caught in the middle, increasingly turned against each other, were infected with White man’s diseases, and stuck battling to hunt the few remaining bison that were still ranging around. • Sympathy for the Indians finally materialized in the 1880s, helped in part by Helen Hunt Jackson’s book A Century of Dishonor and her novel Ramona. • By 1885, fewer than 1,000 buffalo were left, and the species was in danger of extinction. Those left were mostly in Yellowstone National Park. Women found new rights in these Western lands however, gaining suffrage in Wyoming (1869) (the first place for women to vote), Utah (1870), Colorado (1893) and Idaho (1896). New states like Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming were admitted into the Union.

47. Chapter 27- Empire and Expansion • A deranged murderer shot and killed William McKinley, making Theodore Roosevelt the youngest president ever at age 42. From the end of the Civil War to the 1880s, the United States wasvery isolationist, but in the 1890s, due to rising exports, manufacturing capability, power, and wealth, it began to expand onto the world stage, using overseas markets to sell its goods. In negotiations in Paris, America got Guam and Puerto Rico and freed Cuba The Spanish-American War lasted only 113 days and affirmed America’s presence as a world power. The Americans tried to assimilate the Filipinos, but the islandersresisted; they finally got their independence on July 4, 1946.