CSET Practice Test History Subtest I

The Civil War The Civil War was caused by a myriad of
conflicting pressures, principles, and prejudices, fueled
by sectional differences and pride, and set into motion by
a most unlikely set of political events. At the root of
all of the problems was the institution of slavery, which
had been introduced into North America in early colonial
times. The American Revolution had been fought to validate
the idea that all men were created equal, yet slavery was
legal in all of the thirteen colonies throughout the
revolutionary period. Although it was largely gone from
the northern states by 1787, it was still enshrined in the
new Constitution of the United States, not only at the
behest of the Southern ones, but also with the approval of
many of the Northern delegates who saw that there was
still much money to be made in the slave trade by the
Yankee shipping industry. Eventually its existence came to
color every aspect of American life. At the Constitutional
Convention there were arguments over slavery.
Representatives of the Northern states claimed that if the
Southern slaves were mere property, then they should not
be counted toward voting representation in Congress.
Southerners, placed in the difficult position of trying to
argue, at least in this case, that the slaves were human
beings, eventually came to accept the three-fifths
compromise, by which five slaves counted as three free men
toward that representation. By the end of the convention
the institution of slavery itself, though never
specifically mentioned, was well protected within the body
of the Constitution. It seemed to Thomas Jefferson and
many others that slavery was on its way out, doomed to die
a natural death. It was becoming increasingly expensive to
keep slaves in the agrarian society of the south. Northern
and Southern members of Congress voted together to abolish
the importation of slaves from overseas in 1808, but the
domestic slave trade continued to flourish. The invention
of the cotton gin made the cultivation of cotton on large
plantations using slave labor a profitable enterprise in
the deep South. The slave became an ever more important
element of the southern economy, and so the debate about
slavery, for the southerner, gradually evolved into an
economically based question of money and power, and ceased
to be a theoretical or ideological issue at all. It became
an institution that southerners felt bound to protect. But
even as the need to protect it grew, the ability, or at
least the perceived ability of the South to do so was
waning. Southern leaders grew progressively more sensitive
to this condition. In 1800 half of the population of the
United States had lived in the South. But by 1850 only a
third lived there and the disparity continued to widen.
While northern industrial opportunity attracted scores of
immigrants from Europe in search of freedom the South's
population stagnated. Even as slave states were added to
the Union to balance the number of free ones, the South
found that its representatives in the House had been
overwhelmed by the North's explosive growth. More and more
emphasis was now placed on maintaining parity in the
Senate. Failing this, the paranoid theory went, the South
would find itself at the mercy of a government in which it
no longer had an effective voice. Never mind that slavery
was protected under the constitution, and that it would
have been impossible to make amendments to abolish it.
Jefferson Davis, at the time a Senator from Mississippi,
summed up the sectionalist argument himself. Speaking, in
effect, to the people of the North concerning slavery, "It
is not humanity that influences you… it is that you may
have a majority in the Congress of the United States and
convert the Government into an engine of Northern
aggrandizement… you want by an unjust system of
legislation to promote the industry of the United States
at the expense of the people of the South." There, in
plain English, is the shrill, accusatory language of
sectionalism. Nothing but bitterness and bad feeling could
come of it. From such a position it was a short step to
the proposition that if a state or section of the country
no longer felt itself represented in, or fairly treated
by, the Federal Government, then it had the right to
dissolve its association with that government. It could
secede from the Union. The use of force to stop a state
from seceding was, the argument went, unconstitutional,
since the Union itself was a creature of the states. It
had been wholly created by them. Moreover no provision had
been made for such an eventuality in the Constitution. The
Unionist response was that the Preamble of the
Constitution stated that the Union derived its power from
the people as a whole, and that they alone could dissolve
it. President Andrew Jackson, himself a Southerner, had
threatened in 1832 to send troops to force South Carolina
to allow the collection of the Federal tariff if that
state persisted in its assertion that it could "nullify"
any Federal law it did not agree with. Jackson's message
to the people of the offending state read, "Those who told
you that you might peaceably prevent the execution of the
laws deceived you. The object is disunion. Disunion by
armed force is treason." On that occasion South Carolina
had backed down. We see this same State's Rights argument
brought forward again in the 1860's to justify secession
as a solution to what amounts to a sectional inferiority
complex. The section I refer to, of course, the deep South
as whole. Please note that it feels itself to be a
"section", not because of simple geography, but because
its society is based upon slavery. So the problem, once
again, came down to that "peculiar institution." Of course
there was agitation in the North for the abolition of the
slavery on purely moral grounds. Abolitionist leader
William Lloyd Garrison, holding aloft a copy of the
Federal Constitution before a crowd in Massachusetts
called it "a covenant with death, and an agreement with
hell." The abolitionists believed not only that slavery
was wrong, but that the Federal government should move to
abolish it. Although they were always a small minority
they were very vocal about their beliefs, and projected
themselves into the minds of southerners as a threat out
of all proportion to their actual power and infuence. This
threat was greatly magnified in 1859 by John Brown's
seizure of the Harper's Ferry arsenal and his call for a
general insurrection of the slaves. This caused many of
the Southern states to implement plans for more effective
militias for internal defense. While some in the North
hated slavery because they felt that it was wrong, most
people held no opinion of it at all, and some even
condoned it because abolishing it would be bad for
business. Without slaves there would be no cotton. Without
cotton the textile industry would suffer. To many it was
just that simple. Even in the North only four states
permitted free blacks to vote, and in no state could they
serve on a jury. Many people wondered what could possibly
be done with the huge number of blacks if they were, in
fact, freed. The whole mess went up in smoke in the
presidential election year of 1860. The Democratic party
split badly. Stephen Douglas became the nominee of the
northern wing of the party. A southern faction broke away
from the party and nominated Senator John Breckinridge of
Kentucky. The remnants of the Whig party nominated John
Bell of Tennessee. Into this confusion the new Republican
party injected its nominee, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was a
moderate Republican. As such he was a compromise
candidate, everybody's second choice. He was convinced
that the Constitution forbade the Federal government from
taking action against slavery where it already existed,
but was determined to keep it from spreading further.
South Carolina, in a fit of stubborn pride, unilaterally
announced that it would secede from the Union if Lincoln
were elected. To everyone's amazement Lincoln was
victorious. He had gathered a mere 40% of the popular
vote, and carried not a single slave state, but the vote
had been so fragmented by the abundance of factions that
it had been enough. South Carolina, true to its word,
seceded on December 20, 1860. Mississippi left on January
9, 1861, and Florida on the 10th. Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana, and Texas followed. The sitting President,
James Buchanan felt himself powerless to act. Federal
arsenals and fortifications throughout the South were
occupied by southern authorities without a shot being
fired. In the four months between Lincoln's election and
his inauguration the South was allowed to strengthen its
position undisturbed. Lincoln's inaugural address was at
once firm and conciliatory. Unwilling to strike the
initial blow to compel the southern states back into the
Union, he decided to bide his time. When a Federal ship
carrying supplies was dispatched to reprovision Fort
Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, the secessionist hand was
forced. To forestall the resupply of the fort the Rebel
batteries ringing it opened fire at 4:30 a.m. on the 12th
of April, 1861, forcing its rapid capitulation. President
Lincoln immediately called upon the states to supply
75,000 troops to serve for ninety days against
"combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the
ordinary course of judicial proceedings." Virginia,
Arkansas, and Tennessee promptly seceded. The war was on
in earnest. Ironically, the combination of political
events, southern pride, and willfulness succeeded in
paving the way to the abolition of slavery; a condition
that no combination of legal action on the part of the
most virulent abolitionist could possibly have
accomplished.

Pre-Columbian Art and Architecture 

Pre-Columbian art and architecture are works of art and
structures created in Central and South America before the
arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. For many
years the regions that are now Mexico and Guatemala and
the Andean region of South America had been the cradle of
indigenous civilizations whose remains bear witness to an
exceptional degree of artistic advancement.

Native American art in North America North American Native
art, diverse traditional arts of Native North Americans.
In recent years Native American arts have become
commodities collected and marketed by nonindigenous
Americans and Europeans. Originally, these objects were
produced in different cultural contexts and for altogether
different purposes. In many cases native peoples endowed
utilitarian objects with aesthetic qualities not strictly
related to the objects' primary function. In addition,
some groups produced articles symbolizing status positions
or items of religious significance.

Characteristic Objects The material culture of the Eastern
Woodlands groups (such as the Cherokee and Iroquois), for
example, included decorated pottery and baskets, quillwork
and beadwork, birchbark utensils, plaited sashes, and
carved wood ritual masks. Early Woodland cultures,
including the Adena and Hopewell, are renowned for their
elaborate grave offerings, including copper plates and
earspools, objects made of other minerals (e.g. mica,
silver, meteoric iron), shell and pearl beads, and ceramic
vessels and figurines.

The mainstay of life for the Native Americans of the Great
Plains (such as the Arapaho, Blackfoot, Crow, and Sioux)
was the buffalo, whose skin, both rawhide and tanned, was
used for clothing, containers, tepee covers, and shields.
Triangular and quadrangular designs were often painted or
embroidered on these items, with beads and porcupine
quills. Featherwork, of which the familiar "war bonnet" is
a prime example, was lavish. California, Great Basin, and
Plateau groups (Pomo, Nez-Percé, Paiute) lived by
gathering, hunting, and some fishing. They developed
basketry, especially in N and Central California, as a
highly refined art. Using a great variety of materials,
these groups created many different basketry forms and
techniques to make such items as baby carriers, collecting
and winnowing baskets, fish weirs, and hats. As cooking
and serving containers, the baskets were watertight. They
also fashioned ceremonial and "gift" baskets imbued with
religious significance. Featherwork was used for
headdresses, capes, skirts, and mantles, in dance
costumes, and as decoration, together with beads, on
baskets.

In the Southwest, Native Americans generally practiced
agriculture and lived in settled villages. In that region
pottery making, particularly of jars and bowls, is still
today a highly developed art with a rich tradition
extending back to pre-Columbian times. An art of strong,
graphic, geometric design developed for pottery
decoration. Southwestern groups cultivated cotton to be
spun into yarn, and used a backstrap loom with heddles
prior to European contact. The Spaniards brought sheep to
the region, which the Navajo adopted for weaving
intricately patterned woolen rugs and blankets. Many
designs for blankets were adapted from the ritual
sandpaintings of the Navajo. The Hopi and Zuni developed
brilliantly carved and ornamented kachina dolls to
represent living spirits; these are greatly valued by
collectors today. After the Spanish conquest,
silverworking evolved among the Southwestern Pueblo
groups, especially among the Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi, who
perfected it to the level of fine art, largely as jewelry.

On the heavily forested Northwest Coast, the Native
American groups (Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl,
Nootka, and Salish) developed elaborate woodcarving
techniques used to fabricate tools, houses, huge dugout
canoes, totem poles, and other heraldic and ritual posts,
as well as outstanding masks, bowls, and ladles. Human and
animal figures were stylized to abstraction in this work.
In addition, they made superb basketry and clothing by
twining, and produced metalwork weapons and jewelry. In
Arctic regions the skin and fur garments of Eskimo groups
were elaborately tailored and occasionally decorated.

Eskimos carved sculptures of Arctic animal life (including
seals, walruses, and polar bears) and hunting motifs,
using stone, ivory, and bone, and made elaborate
ceremonial masks. The subjects of their work were chosen
from their extensive mythology as well as their everyday
experience.

The Effects of European Contact It is important to note
that prior to European contact, Native American groups did
not generally produce art for its own sake. Objects, often
utilitarian in function, were adorned with symbolic
elements drawn from their daily lives or cosmologies. In
other instances minute differences in design motifs on
clothing or residential structures served as
differentiating mechanisms, rendering the identity of the
group immediately apparent to knowledgeable outsiders.
Standards of beauty, to the extent that they were
considered at all, were based on traditional notions, not
on innovation or experimentation away from the cultural
norm.

With the coming of European populations and the
devastation of Native American cultures, artifacts were
avidly sought for museum and private collections. That
early collectors attributed great value to often mundane
objects almost certainly struck historic Native Americans
as odd, so that when the articles were not stolen outright
they were usually acquired by buyers at "bargain" rates.
This has provoked numerous conflicts in recent years as
Native Americans become increasingly vocal in calling for
the return of museum items symbolizing their cultural
heritage. In recent years the abject poverty of surviving
Native American populations, combined with the growing
demand for artisans' commodities in industrialized
countries, has stimulated the emergence of increasing
numbers of North American native artisans. Art has thus
become a cottage industry serving tourist markets as well
as demand by more discriminating collectors. Among the
most sought-after articles are works of jewelry, Eskimo
sculpture, as well as the textiles and ceramics of the
Southwestern groups.

Major Collections Museums with major collections of North
American native art include the American Museum of Natural
History, New York City; Field Museum of Natural History,
Chicago; National Museum of the American Indian,
Smithsonian Institution, New York City; National Museum of
Canada, Ottawa; Peabody Museum of Archaeology and
Ethnology, Harvard, Cambridge, Mass.; Provincial Museum,
Victoria, British Columbia; Robert H. Lowie Museum of
Anthropology, Univ. of California, Berkeley.

The Cultures of Central America The Maya The Maya occupied
the general area of Yucatán and adjacent parts of Central
America from very early times. Their roots were in the
Archaic period (c.2000 B.C.), but it was only during the
Late Formative (300 B.C.-A.D. 150) and the Proto-Classic
(A.D. 150-300) periods that the traits associated with the
Classic Maya were developed. Their greatest artistic
achievements included their elaborate calendar, writing,
palaces and temple pyramids with vaulted rooms made of
limestone, polychrome pottery, stone stelae, and stylized
wall paintings and bas-reliefs.

The Classic Maya (A.D. 300-900) was the apex of Maya
civilization and is described as that period when the Maya
inscribed the "Long Count Calendar" on their monuments.
The remains of Bonampak, with its famous murals, can be
dated to shortly after 800. Maya cities were ceremonial
centers, and some of the edifices may be more properly
identified as sculptured monuments. Maya architectural
styles are found in three main regions: the Petén district
(Uaxactún and Tikal); the cities of the river valleys,
such as Piedras Negras and Palenque; and the cities of
central and N Yucatán (Uxmal).

In the valley of the Motagua River to the south are Copán
and Quiriguá, where sculpture flourished in the form of
huge, elaborately carved stone stelae; more delicate forms
and a refined spatial sense are evident in the famous
stucco sculpture of Palenque and in the airiness and grace
of its buildings. In the flat, dry country of N Yucatán,
Maya architecture underwent changes in style. The erection
of stone stelae was largely abandoned, and decoration,
notably at Uxmal, became geometric. The cause of the
collapse of the Maya civilization is not precisely
understood. The culture persisted over so long a period
that it is easier to understand the rest of Mesoamerican
art and culture from the framework of Maya chronology.

The Olmec The Olmec civilization, to the west, in the area
of Veracruz and Tabasco, Mexico, was developing in the
Formative period. Specifically, the period 800 to 400 B.C.
marks the finest period of Olmec art as typified by the
finds made at the site of La Venta. It is believed that
the Olmec devised the Long Count Calendar and invented
writing and that they may well be the source of these
developments among the Maya. Noted for the excellence of
their stone carving-ranging from small, finely detailed
jade objects to colossal, often realistic basalt heads-the
Olmec frequently used a motif combining human and jaguar
features.

Teotihuacán Teotihuacán is much to the west of the Olmec
and Maya areas and dates from the 1st cent. A.D. to A.D.
700. The major part of the site and the height of its
artistic expression belong to the periods Teotihuacán II
and Teotihuacán III (c.300-700). Teotihuacán is an urban
center, perhaps the greatest in Mexico; its monumental
pyramids, temples, and royal processional roads are an
extraordinary architectural achievement.

In the latter part of Maya Early Classic (c.A.D. 400-
c.A.D. 600) there is evidence of great influence from
Teotihuacán, as exemplified at the site of Kaminaljuyú and
in varying degrees at other sites, including Tikal and
Uaxactún. Erected on high land above the surrounding
swamps, the latter two sites reveal their massive, richly
decorated temples in the midst of tropical jungles. The
site of Teotihuacán apparently was deliberately destroyed
by invaders c.700 and thereafter ceased to be a factor in
Maya civilization.

The Toltec After the fall of Teotihuacán, a period of
nearly two centuries (700-900) seems to have ensued during
which there was no single dominant force, but a number of
warring factions. One of these, the Toltec, made their
capital at Tula (c.900-1200), northwest of Teotihuacán.
The Toltec achieved power and dominated much of N and
central Mexico until they were vanquished in 1156 or 1168.
They invaded Maya country, principally Chichén Itzá
(c.987). There they had a profound influence as revealed
by the pyramids at Tula and Chichén Itzá, with their deep
colonnades (an unusual feature in Mesoamerican
architecture) and their decorative bas-relief and
sculptured structural elements, e.g., the 15-ft-tall (4.5
m) caryatids at Tula. Toltec occupation has also been
identified at other sites in the Yucatán. Indications are
that Chichén Itzá was abandoned by the Toltec around 1224.

The Aztec The final great native conquest in Mesoamerica
was by the Aztec, who rose to power following a period of
anarchy after the destruction of the Toltec's Tula. By
1344 the Aztecs had founded their magnificent capital,
Tenochtitlán, at the site of present-day Mexico City in
the Valley of Mexico, which became one of the
architectural wonders of ancient America. Aztec art was
eclectic, drawing on the traditions of conquered areas;
but under the influence of the harsh Aztec religion, it
developed a unique character. The importance of human
sacrifice in the cult of the war god, Huitzilopochtli,
permeated life and art, and representations of skulls,
hearts, hands, and sacrificial scenes were common.

Much of the stone sculpture was huge and elaborate, a
remarkable example being the statue of the earth goddess
Coatlicue. Masses of intertwined serpents dominate the
statue, which bears a necklace of human hearts and hands.
Less ominous subjects, such as the plumed serpent,
Quetzalcoatl, and various animals, were often beautifully
carved in a smooth, compact style. Featherwork, jade
carving, goldwork, extraordinary ceremonial vases, and
superb textiles were produced by the artisans of
subjugated groups, especially the Mixtec. Aztec power over
Central Mexico extended until the arrival of Cortés in
1519.

Other Mexican Cultures The area of the Mixtec and Zapotec
in Oaxaca, Mexico, was not completely conquered by the
Aztecs. The Zapotec originally occupied the site of Monte
Albán from late Olmec times (c.600 B.C.) until about A.D.
900. Then a new seat of Zapotec civilization was founded
at Mitla. Later the Mixtec began to infiltrate, intermarry
with, occupy, and absorb the Zapotec. Apart from
architecture, the Mixtec also excelled at the minor arts:
goldwork, jewelry, vessels fashioned with semiprecious
stones, turquoise and feather mosaics, extremely fine
polychrome pottery, and painted books known as codices.

Many of the Mexican cultures produced ceramic figurines
and pottery, often of superior artistic merit. The site of
Tlatilco, in the Valley of Mexico, has yielded famous
ceramics of remarkably early date, about 500 B.C. Delicacy
of detail characterizes the figurines of Teotihuacán, and
the finely decorated funerary urns of Monte Albán (c.400
B.C.) are particularly well wrought. In the western states
of Nayarit, Jalisco, and Colima, early cultures produced
an enormously varied array of fanciful and often grotesque
terra-cotta figurines and pottery during the classic
period, A.D. 300 to 900. The Tarascan of Lake Pátzcuaro
were one of these groups; they still produce excellent
lacquerware. In the jungle states of Veracruz, Campeche,
and Tabasco many sites, particularly Remojadas, have
yielded fine examples of clay sculpture.

The Cultures of South America Ancient Peru The first great
art style of the geographical area that is now Peru was
that of the civilization that flourished at Chavín de
Huántar in the northern highlands c.900 to 200 B.C. A more
or less contemporaneous culture of the north coast
produced a style of pottery known as Cupisnique. The
Paracas culture of the south coast, of the same era, left
some of the most beautiful textiles of pre-Inca Peru as
well as fine pottery decorated with resin paint. Excellent
painted ceramics and beautiful weavings were also
characteristic of the Nazca civilization (c.200 B.C.-A.D.
600) to the south, which also produced the huge and
mysterious "Nazca lines."

The Nazca's contemporaries on the north coast, the
Mochica, surpassed them in the art of painted pottery.
Battle scenes, rituals, animals, and mythological beings
were masterfully depicted. Their ceramic "portrait
vessels" in the form of human heads are the high point of
realism in pre-Columbian art. They were also master
builders, the Mochica Pyramid of the Sun being the largest
in South America. During the following period (c.600-800),
the Tiahuanaco culture gained ascendancy. With the decline
of Tiahuanaco the kingdom of the Chimú flourished. Their
capital, Chan Chan, has long been considered one of the
great centers of ancient Peru.

The Inca Chan Chan was surpassed only by the colossal
achievements of the Inca, who conquered the Chimú in the
latter part of the 15th cent. As engineers the Inca were
unsurpassed in ancient America. Their agricultural
terraces are still in use, and the extensive network of
roads and bridges that spanned their empire would merit
the envy of modern road builders. However, their cities
and fortresses remain their towering achievement. The
great cities of Cuzco and Machu Picchu and the imposing
fortresses of Sacsahuamán and Ollantaytambo are typical
examples of their skill. The Inca also excelled at stone
carving and metalwork, achieving in this latter art a
degree of perfection comparable to that reached anywhere
in the world. Their civilization fell to the Spanish
invaders in 1538.