APUSH Unit 7

Topic 7.2: Imperialism: Debates

Debate: The U.S. was wavering on whether it should engage in imperialism

-Expansion after the Civil War

● The Purchase of Alaska (1867)
○ Ppl saw no value in Alaska -> ignored its development
● Hawaiian Islands
○ Start: 2nd half of 19th Century
○ 1870: Control of Pearl Harbor
○ 1893: Petition for annexation blocked by President Grover

Cleveland
◆ Cause: sugar

-The Era of New Imperialism (reasons for expansion)

● Want of Raw materials: minerals, oil, rubber
● Want a strong navy
● Panic of 1893 -> seek for new places of settlement
● Social Darwinism and the want to spread religion

-Opposition to Imperialism
● Self-determination
○ People should govern themselves
● Racial justice
● Isolationism
● Expense

-Latin America
● The U.S. sees a role in protecting the Western Hemisphere
● Pan-American Conference (1889)
● Venezuela Boundary Dispute
◆ Settled by arbitration -> friendship between the U.S. and

Britain (vital for both nations in the 20th Century)

● Conflict over Imperialism

Topic 7.3: The Spanish-American War and U.S. Foreign Policy to 1917

Context: American Imperialism starts

-Spanish-American War
● Jingoism
○ Intense form of nationalism
● Causes of the War
 ○ Cuban Revolt (to overthrow Spanish colonial rule)
○ De Lôme Letter (1898)
◆ Leaked letter that insulted President McKinley
○ Sinking of the Maine (ship)
○ Teller Amendment
◆ The Cuban people control their own government
● Fighting the War
○ U.S. won against Spain
● Annexation of Hawaii (1900)
● Controversy over the Treaty of Peace
○ Peace Treaty
◆ Cuban independence
◆ U.S. control of the Philippines in return for a $20 million

payment to Spain
○ The Philippine Question
◆ Imperialists V.S. Anti-imperialists
● Other Results of the War
○ Insular Cases
◆ Residents of newly gained territories do not have the same

constitutional rights as citizens

○ Anti-Imperialist League led by William Jennings Bryan
○ Cuba and the Platt Agreement (1901)
◆ Cuba forms its own constitution, with the U.S. intervention in its

economy
○ Election of 1900
◆ McKinley won again
○ Recognition of U.S. Power

-Open Door Policy in China

● Spheres of influence
○ Countries dominate trade and investment within their sphere and

shut out competitors

● Open Door (by John Hay)
○ All nations have equal trading privileges in China
○ Prevented the U.S. from losing access to China’s trade
● Boxer Rebellion (1900)
○ Xenophobia of foreigners -> crushed by the U.S.

-Theodore Roosevelt’s “Big Stick” Policy

● 1901: McKinley shot by an anarchist -> Theodore Roosevelt succeeded
-> imperialist motives
● The Panama Canal (Construction: 1904-1914)
● The U.S. intervene in Latin America (violation of the Monroe Doctrine)

-Roosevelt and Asia

 ● Relationship with Japan: Good to competitive
● Japan won Russo-Japanese War (1904)
● Gentlemen’s Agreement
○ Laws in California that discriminated against Japanese Americans

-> Compromise
● Great White Fleet
○ Roosevelt sent battleships to Japan to display U.S’s might
● Peace Efforts

-William Taft and Dollar Diplomacy

● William Taft (1909-1913)
● Dollar Diplomacy
○ Promoting U.S. trade by supporting American enterprises abroad

-Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) and Foreign Affairs

● Wilson’s Moral Diplomacy
○ Opposed Imperialism
○ Independence of:
◆ The Philippines
◇ Jones Act: guaranteed Philippine Independence (delayed

until 1946 because of WWII)

◆ Puerto Rico
○ The Panama Canal
◆ Pay canal tolls to other nations
○ Conciliation Treaties
◆ Promote peace

● Military Intervention Under Wilson

○ To protect the Panama Canal
○ Debates

Topic 7.4: The Progressives

Context: The Progressives advocated for a larger role in government and

greater democracy. They were more successful than the Gilded Age Reformers.

-Who were the Progressives?

● Protestant church leaders, African Americans, union leaders, and
feminists
● Beliefs
○ Democracy and the role of government
● Most were middle-class men and women
● Religion
○ Social Gospel (caring for the poor)
 ● Pragmatism
○ Real-world outcomes determine beliefs and actions
● Scientific Management

-Muckrakers
● Harsh, critical writers who used the press to expose corruption
publicly

-Political Reforms in Cities and States

● Division on immigration
● Secret Ballot
○ Voters vote in a private booth
● Direct Primaries
● 17th Amendment: required that all U.S. senators be elected by
popular vote
● Initiative, Referendum, and Recall
○ Amendments to state constitutions offered voters certain rights
◆ (1) the initiative: people have the right to propose a new law
◆ (2) the referendum: a law passed by the legislature can be

reference to the people for approval/veto

◆ (3) the recall: the people can petition and vote to have an

elected official removed from office

● State Reforms
○ Temperance and Prohibition
◆ Urban Progressives (pro temperance) v.s. Rural reformers

(against temperance)
○ Social Welfare
○ Child and Women Labor
◆ Lochner v. New York (1905) and Muller v. Oregon (1908)
◇ Protect children and women

-Political Reform in the Region

● Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal
○ 10% wage increase and a nine-hour workday
Government
○ Used the Sherman Antitrust Act to go against monopolies
intervention in
the economy
○ Railroad Regulation
○ Tightened food/drug safety laws with the Meat Inspection Act
○ Helped protect National Parks
● Taft’s Presidency
○ Built on Theodore Roosevelt’s accomplishments
○ Controversy over Conservation
◆ Taft engaged in conservational movements
◆ Split in the Republican Party (Progressives v.s. Conservatives)
● Rise of the Socialist Party
○ Eugene V. Debs
 New freedom: Greater economic
● The Election of 1912 opportunity for all, while ensuring the
○ Woodrow Wilson won tradition of government intervention
○ New Freedom
◆ Protect individual liberty through government
● Woodrow Wilson’s Progressive Program
○ Tariff Reduction
○ Banking Reform
◆ Federal Reserve Act: Proposed a national banking system with

12 district banks supervised by a Federal Reserve Board

-African Americans in the Progressive Era

● Progressive leaders still ignored Racial Equality
● Two Approaches: Washington and Du Bois
○ Reduce economic exploitation V.S. Civil Rights
● New Civil Rights Organizations
○ National Urban League
◆ Help migrants from the South

-Women and the Progressive Movement

● Nineteenth Amendment (1920)
○ Women’s right to vote

Topic 7.5: World War I: Military and Diplomacy

Context: The causes of the Civil War are MAIN and the assassination of
Archduke Ferdinand

-Neutrality
● The sinking of the Lusitania and Germans attacking US ships spurred
sentiment to join the war, but neutrality was maintained

-Economic Links with France and Britain

● War supplies from the British and the French -> economy rebounded
● U.S. traded primarily with the British and the French because the
British prevented trade of U.S. with Germany
-Decision for War
● Zimmerman Telegram
● The US entered in 1917

-Fighting the War

● The U.S. won

-Making the Peace

● The Fourteen Points
○ Proposal for a post-war peace settlement

-The Treaty of Versailles

● Signers of the Treaty join the League of Nations
○ The U.S. didn’t join because it thought the League would commit

the United States to an expensive organization that would reduce

the United States' ability to defend its own interests
● Germany was stripped of land and colonies and paid a large amount of
money to Great Britain and France
-The Battle for Ratification
● The U.S. rejected to sign the Treaty of Versailles

Topic 7.6: World War I: Home Front

Big Question: Explain the causes and effects of international and internal
migration patterns over time.

-Mobilization
● The United States tried to mobilize its vast economic resources
● Industry and Labor

-Public Opinion
● Patriotic persuasion and legal intimidation for public support of war

-Civil Liberties
● Limits on Immigration
○ Barred Zone Act (the Immigration Act of 1917) Literacy test
● Espionage and Sedition Acts
○ Responses to obstructing the war policy
● Schenck v. United States (1919)
○ Upheld the constitutionality of the Espionage Act

-Armed Forces
● More young men enlisted for military service
● Selective Service Act (1917)
○ Men crafted through the lottery
● African Americans
○ Soldiers with limited options

-Effects on American Society

● More Jobs for Women (workforce)
● Migration of Mexicans to America
○ Because of job opportunities in America and upheavals in Mexico
● The Great Migration
○ People from the South moved to the North
○ Reasons: Discrimination and limited economic opportunities
○ Collapsed in the 1930s because of the Great Depression

-Postwar Problems
● 1918 Pandemic: Spanish Flu
● Demobilization: Economic recession
● The Red Scare 1st round
● Labor Conflict
 ● Strikes in 1919
● Racial Violence
○ Ku Klux Klan
● Confederate monuments
○ Southerners defended White supremacy and slavery
● Decline of the Progressives

Topic 7.7: 1920s: Innovations in Communication and Technology

Context: Short economic recession (1921), economic prosperity (1922-1928),

then the Great Depression (1929)

-Causes of Economic Prosperity

● Increased productivity
○ Scientific management
○ Assembly line
◆ By Henry Ford to manufacture automobiles
● Energy technologies
○ Oil and electricity
● Government policy
○ Corporate tax cut
○ Free-market
● Consumer Economy
○ New consumer appliances
○ An economy driven by consumer spending
● Automobiles

-Farm Problems
● 1916-1918 V.S. After WWI
○ Prosperity v.s. surplus of products and debts

-Labor Unions Struggle

● Welfare capitalism
○ Take care of your workers to have better quality of work

-Technology and Culture

● Mass Media
○ Radio
● Movie Business
○ Hollywood
● Aviation
● Increasing Tension
○ Conflicts over immigration, Prohibition, and the roles of science

and religion
Topic 7.8: 1920s: Cultural and Political Controversies

Context: Social and political issues of the 1920s expressed sharp divisions in
U.S. society

-Religion, Science, and Politics

● Protestantism division
○ Modernism v.s. Fundamentalism
◆ New faith vs. inerrancy of the Bible
◆ City v.s. Rural areas
○ Revivalists
◆ Fundamentalist message led by Billy Sunday
● Fundamentalism and Science
○ Scope’s trial
◆ Scope, a modernist, is set on trial for teaching modernist

principles
◆ Aftermath: Scopes convicted but later overturned
● Prohibition
○ 18th Amendment (1919): prohibited the selling of alcohol
◆ Repealed by the 21st Amendment: repeal of prohibition
○ Some resistance for the law

-Opposition to immigration
● 1919-1921: Immigrants were mainly Catholics and Jews from Europe
○ Nativist prejudices because of competition for jobs
● Quota Laws
○ Limit immigrants

-Ku Klux Klan

● Also directed against foreigners
● Decline
○ Whistle-blowed

-Women, Family, and Education

● Women at home
○ Middle-class women
● Women in the Labor Force
○ Lower wages and less options for jobs than men
● Revolution in Morals
○ Revolt against sexual taboos
● Right to Divorce
● Education
-African American Cultural Renaissance
● 1930s: Harlem Renaissance
○ The influx of talent in African American communities
○ Resistance to oppression
○ Emergence of jazz
○ Many famous black poets (e.g. Langston Hughes)

-Republican Majority
● Context
○ Through the 1920s, three Republican presidents controlled the

executive branch
◆ U.S. business boomed The roaring twenties
○ Death of Theodore Roosevelt (a progressive) -> return to

conservative Republicans
○ Limited government regulation in the economy
○ Business > general public
● Warren Halding, Calvin Coolidge
● Hoover became president in 1928
○ Start of the Great Depression

Topic 7.9: The Great Depression

-Causes of the 1929 Crash

● Wall Street Crash
○ Stock prices collapsed
● Black Thursday and Black Tuesday
○ Selling of stocks

-Causes and Effects of the Great Depression

NOTE: The gross national product is the value of all the goods and services
produced by the nation in one year
-President Hoover’s Policies
● Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930)
○ Meant to help money flow back into the economy, but it failed

severely and worsened the Depression

● Despair and Protest
○ Farm Holiday Association (midwest)
○ Bonus March

-Changing Directions
● Franklin D. Roosevelt won the Election of 1932

Topic 7.10: The New Deal

-The Election of 1932

● New Deal: repeal of Prohibition, aid for the unemployed, and cuts in
government spending
● 20th Amendment
○ Shortened the period between the presidential election and the

inauguration

-Franklin D. Roosevelt as President

● The New Deal Philosophy
○ The Three R’s
◆ People out of work, business and the economy, and the

economic institutions
○ Brain Trust
◆ Sought support from Univerisity Professors
● The First Hundred Days
○ Restored citizens’ confidence in banks
○ Relief for the Unemployed
◆ Public Works Administration (PWA) and Civilian Conservation

Corps (CCC)
◇ Created public works projects
○ Financial Recovery and Reform Programs
◆ Emergency Banking Act
◇ Shut down all banks and slowly reopened them with the

supervision of the government

○ Industrial Recovery Program
◆ AAA: Agricultural Adjustment Act
◇ Allowed the government to regulate crop prices

-The Second New Deal

● Social Security Administration
 ● National Labor Relations Act (1935)
○ Legalized Unions
● Works Progress Administration (WPA)
○ Provide people with jobs
● Evaluating Roosevelt’s first term
○ Federal government intervention in the economy to promote

growth
● Liberalism: human rights

-Opponents of the New Deal

● Business > poor workers
● The federal government has too much power
○ American Liberty League
◆ Wealthy elites wanted private property and individual liberties

-The Supreme Court

● Context
○ Supreme Court was too conservative
● Court Reorganization Plan
○ Remove the Court as an obstacle to the New Deal
● Reaction
○ Refused support
● Aftermath
○ Ironically, the Supreme Court still supported Roosevelt

-Labor Unions and Workers’ Rights

● More union membership

-Recession, 1937-1938
● This occurred because FDR tried to balance the federal budget by
removing funds that supported the New Deal federal agencies

-Life During the Depression

● Insecurity and economic concerns

Topic 7.11: Interwar Foreign Policy

Context: United States in isolationism

-Post World War I Agreements

● Context
○ Presidents of the 1920s promoted peace by arranging treaties of

disarmament
● Washington Conference (1921)
○ Five Power Treaty
 ○ Four Power Treaty
○ Nine Power Treaty
● Kellogg-Briand Pact
○ Decrease of armaments on all sides

-Business and Diplomacy

● The U.S. used diplomacy to advance American business interests

-War Debts and Reparations

● Creditor nation after WWI
○ France and Britain couldn’t pay the money back

-Herbert Hoover’s Foreign Policy

● Isolationism
● Latin America
○ Ended the interventionist policies of Taft and Wilson
● Japanese Aggression in Manchuria
○ League of Nations accused Japan -> Japan quit the League of

Nations

-Franklin Roosevelt’s Policies

● Good-Neighbor Policy The repeal of the Platt Amendment, which
○ Platt Amendment repealed protected Cuba's independence from foreign
● Depression Diplomacy intervention
○ Help the U.S. economy
○ Recognition of the Soviet’s Communist regime to promote trade
● The Rise of Fascism and Militarism
○ Axis powers: Japan, Italy, and Germany
◆ Italy: Benito Mussolini led the Fascist Party
◆ Germany: Nazi by Hitler
◆ Japan
● American Isolationists
○ The Lesson of World War I
◆ Remain isolated!
○ Neutrality Acts
◆ The Neutrality Act of 1935
◇ The president can prohibit all arms shipments
◆ The Neutrality Act of 1936
◇ Forbade the extension of loans and credits to belligerents
◆ The Neutrality Act of 1937
◇ Forbade the shipment of arms to the opposing sides in the

civil war in Spain

○ Spanish Civil War
◆ Fascism v.s. Republicanism
○ America First Committee
 ◆ Travel the country warning against re-engaging in Europe’s
troubles

-Outbreak of WWII in Europe

● Germany’s Invasion of Poland (1939)

-Roosevelt Changes Policies

● Favored Britain indirectly

-Arsenal of Democracy
● Germany’s threat during WWII -> Roosevelt end the appearance of
neutrality
● Four freedoms
○ 1941: lending money to Britain for the purchase of U.S. war

materials
○ Justification: The U.S. will help other nations obtain freedom of

speech, religion, and freedom from want and fear

● Lend-Lease Act
○ The lending of armaments to Allies at no cost (borrow and return in

good condition)
● Atlantic Charter Conference
○ Allies and the US meet up to discuss the Allies’ aims in the war

-Disputes with Japan

● U.S. Economic Action
○ Froze all Japanese credits in the United States and cut off

Japanese access to U.S. oil

● Pearl Harbor
○ Incentive: get oil
● Declaration of War

-The War in Europe in 1941-1942

● 1941: Germany started invading the Soviet Union

Topic 7.12: World War II Mobilization

-The Federal Government Takes Action

● Federal spending increased
● Business and Industry
○ The war concentrated production in the largest corporations
● The Manhattan Project
● Workers and Unions
○ Some rebelled as the workers’ wages were frozen while large

corporations made money

 ● Financing the War
○ Increasing the income tax
○ Selling war bonds
● Wartime Propaganda

-The War’s Impact on Society

● Migration to the West Coast Post World War II Migration
○ Cause: increase in the number of factory jobs

Topic 7.13: World War II: Military

-Fighting Germany
● Defense at sea, attacks by air
● From North Africa to Italy
● From D-Day to Victory in Europe
○ Normandy coast retreat
● German Surrender and Discovery of the Holocaust
○ Genocide against Jews

-Fighting Japan
● Turning Point, 1942
○ Battle of Midway
● Island Hopping
● Atomic bombs
● Japan Surrenders

Topic 7.14: World War II and Postwar Diplomacy

Context: Post WWII Diplomacy

-American Leadership
● 1945: FDR died of a stroke
● Truman succeeded FDR

-Wartime Conferences
● The Big Three
○ U.S. President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Churchill, and

Soviet Premier Stalin

● Tehran
○ British and Americans will Liberate France, and the Soviets will

invade Germany and fight against Japan

● Yalta
○ Germany Divided
○ Free election (no coercion) for the liberated countries of Eastern

Europe
 ○ Soviet will fight Japan
○ Formation of the United Nations

-The War’s Legacy

● Human and Economic Costs
○ The U.S. became the wealthiest country
● The United Nations
● Expectations
○ Peaceful and Democratic World
○ Control of atomic weapons