APUSH Exam practice – US Imperialism and Progressive Movement – Flashcards

B) While Taft was handpicked by Theodore Roosevelt to continue his progressive policies, Taft found himself unable to retain the support of progressive Republicans. This was illustrated by his support of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff of 1909. Originally, the bill was supposed to lower tariffs on certain goods coming into the country, but the bill was altered by Senator Nelson Aldrich, who removed many of the provisions reducing tariffs, and instead of lowering the nation's overall tariffs, it increased them. This went directly against Roosevelt's initial request. Taft's failure of leadership alienated many of the former supporters of Roosevelt and helped convince Roosevelt to run as a third-party candidate for president in 1912 as a member of the Bull-Moose or Progressive Party. The McKinley Tariff, which hurt western farmers, along with the 1902 coal strike settled by Roosevelt, occurred prior to Taft's administration.

A) Jane Addams's Hull House was a settlement house founded in 1889. Located in a poor immigrant neighborhood in Chicago, it provided services and classes to the community to help immigrants succeed. Some of the services offered were English language courses, assistance to widows, and basic health services. While the house began as a limited operation, it expanded over time to occupy numerous buildings and increased its services to offer college extension courses, summer programs for children, and lectures on current issues.

C) The 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory was one of the largest industrial disasters in New York City history. Nearly 150 men and women died in the fire. This high number was due to the common practice of locking factory workers inside the building during the workday to avoid theft and unnecessary breaks. In response to the fire, progressive reformers such as Frances Perkins pushed for increased workplace safety laws as well as the passage of workers' compensation laws. The fire also caused the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union to increase in size and prominence as the union joined the fight for reform. Political machine bosses such as Al Smith, who was a Democratic presidential candidate in 1928, also joined the call to reform labor conditions in New York City factories.

D) While Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico were all acquired with the 1898 signing of the Treaty of Paris, Hawaii was annexed several years after a coup overthrew the ruling monarchy of Hawaii. American missionaries began to arrive in Hawaii in the 1820s, and by the 1850s, American sugar plantations began to dominate the islands' economy. By 1872, native Hawaiians were only a minority population on the island, and American business interests began to dominate the island's government. In 1893, the American business interests staged a revolution backed by the US military, forcing Hawaii's last queen, Liliuokalani, to relinquish control and recognize the new government. While calls for the US to formally annex the island began as early as 1894, they were rejected until 1898, when the administration of William McKinley formally annexed the territory.

B) Andrew Carnegie in 1901 authored the essay "The Gospel of Wealth," in which he argued that it is the responsibility of the rich to use their wealth to benefit society. He stated, "The man who dies rich dies disgraced," believing that it is wrong both to horde one's wealth and to squander it on frivolous things. He did not support distributing the money directly to charity organizations but instead favored directly controlling the use of the funds. He rejected the idea that money should be given directly to the poor, arguing instead that it should be for larger projects that would continue to benefit society. Carnegie's notion of this new type of charity can be seen in the nearly 2,800 libraries he funded.

C) Robert La Follette served as the governor of Wisconsin from 1901 to 1906. He was nicknamed "Fighting Bob" and was an advocate of progressive reform within his state. He fought against railroad trusts and corrupt political machines within his state. He later became a progressive leader in the Senate. Eugene V. Debs started as a labor organizer and later became a perennial presidential condidate for the Socialist Party. Samuel "Golden Rule" Jones was a progressive business leader who eventually became the mayor of Toledo, Ohio. As mayor, he fought to improve living conditions for working-class people within the city. He opened parks, reformed the municipal government, and instituted an 8-hour workday. Gifford Pinchot was the first head of the US Forest Service. He helped President Theodore Roosevelt pursue his conservation policies, protecting the nation's natural resources.

D) Susan B. Anthony was a prominent leader in social reforms during the 19th and early 20th centuries. She fought for women's suffrage and was arrested during the 1872 presidential election after she was caught illegally voting, even after she promised the arresting officer that she had voted for the Republican candidate. Earlier, she had worked with Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the temperance movement as well as for women's rights. She also worked with William Lloyd Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society and alongside Frederick Douglass in his push for black suffrage. Margret Sanger, another advocate for women's rights, was arrested in 1916 for attempting to distribute birth control and other forms of contraception to women. Mother Jones, a prominent mining town mother, gained national prominence for organizing strikes for mining and railroad workers' unions in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

B) The Roosevelt Corollary was issued in 1904 by President Theodore Roosevelt. It was announced in response to the Dominican Republic's government going bankrupt earlier that year. Attempting to keep European powers, such as Germany, from interfering with Latin American and Caribbean nations that had fallen into debt, Roosevelt created this addition to the Monroe Doctrine. In the corollary, the US asserted the right to intervene within these states to "stabilize" their economic affairs. This notion was extended to include not only economic instability but also political unrest, in addition to justifying involvement in the Dominican Republic, the corollary was cited as justification for the US to act in Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Haiti. In this manner, the doctrine is often said to have allowed the US to act as an international police force in the Western Hemisphere.

C) Although George Washington Carver served as one of the Tuskegee Institute's best-known and most influential instructors, the school was founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881 to provide vocational training for African-Americans. Carver was an accomplished scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor who helped poor southern farmers grow cash crops that could yield a profit but also provide nourishment to the planters. This led him to successfully experiment and discover multiple industrial uses for the peanut, sweet potato, cashew, and numerous other crops. While these plants could be used as cash crops, they also provided an inexpensive high-protein diet for the poor farmers who could not afford a regular diet of meat. He also developed an improved method of crop rotation that would allow southern farmers to grow certain traditional crops without exhausting the soil as quickly, as well as a method of creating synthetic dyes from plants such as soybeans and peanuts, which allowed the US to end its reliance on European-manufactured dyes. Early on, much of his work was not acknowledged, but by the 20th century, he had become a prominent leader within the international scientific community, becoming a member of the Royal Society of Arts in 1916.

D) The "insular cases" were the subject of a Supreme Court decision in response to the acquisition of Hawaii and the land gained after the Spanish-American War. With these new lands, people began to debate whether new territories received full constitutional protections and rights. From 1901 to 1905, the Supreme Court made a series of rulings stating that the Constitution fully applied only in incorporated territories (Alaska and Hawaii) but not in unincorporated territories (Guam and the Philippines). This allowed Congress to make the final call on whether new US possessions gained constitutional privileges or not.

C) Dollar Diplomacy is associated with the foreign policy of William Howard Taft. It described the efforts under President Taft to further the US' policy aims in Latin America and East Asia through economic power. Unlike McKinley's Gun Boat Diplomacy or Theodore Roosevelt's Big Stick Diplomacy, Taft's approach advocated exchanging "dollars for bullets". In other words, his administration encouraged US bankers to invest in foreign areas of strategic concern to the US, such as East Asia and Latin America. Much of this effort was led by Secretary of State Philander C. Knox, who regarded the State Department as effectively an agent of the corporate community. This policy was clearly illustrated in Costa Rica and Honduras, where the United Fruit Company had a tight grip on just about every sector of the economy, so these nations came to be referred to as "banana republics". Taft's Dollar Diplomacy is also illustrated by the 1909 revolt in Nicaragua. The US quickly backed the insurgents, who were supported by US mining interests. Following this, Knox encouraged US bankers to invest in Nicaragua and offer substantial loans to the new regime, giving the US increased financial leverage over the country. President Wilson attempted to move away from both Big Stick Diplomacy and Dollar Diplomacy with his Moral or Missionary Diplomacy. Later, Hoover would introduce the Good Neighbor Policy in Latin America, though the policy itself is generally credited to Franklin Roosevelt. This policy called for the withdrawal of American troops and treatment of Latin American nations more as equals.

A) Because of improved technologies in the post-Civil War period, US industry and agriculture had grown beyond the nation's rate of consumption. Business and political leaders believed that foreign markets were essential to further economic growth, so they promoted a more proactive foreign policy. This was one of numerous factors that promoted American overseas expansion. Other factors included ideas such as social Darwinism and Rudyard Kipling's "White Man's Burden", which promoted the idea that the superiority of Western culture should be spread to underdeveloped regions. Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis, which stated the American frontier was the source of culture, further inspired expansion into new frontiers to maintain the American spirit. Naval strategist Alfred T. Mahan's /The Influence of Sea Power upon History/ (1890) advocated expansion as crucial for the US to become a world power.

C) The Hay-Bunau Treaty was signed on November 18, 1903 by John Hay, secretary of state under Theodore Roosevelt, and Philippe Bunau-Varilla, who was serving as minister to the US for the new nation of Panama. The treaty gave the US complete control of the 10 mile wide Canal Zone, allowing for the construction of the Panama Canal to begin in May 1904. Philippe Bunau-Varilla, who was born in France, was the chief engineer of France's attempt to construct a canal through the Isthmus of Panama in the 1880s. He also convinced the US to choose Panama (which at the time was part of Columbia) as the location for its attempt to build a canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific.

C) W.E.B. DuBois and William Monroe Trotter began the Niagara Movement in 1905 to push for the end of the racial segregation and disenfranchisement of African-Americans. The organization also rejected the calls for accommodation made by black leaders such as Booker T. Washington. The Niagara Movement was eventually absorbed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1911.

A) The establishment of the NAACP in 1909was probably the greatest achievement by African-Americans during the Progressive Era. Consisting of African-American leaders and white social justice reformers, it was created in response to the 1908 race riots in Springfield, Illinois. The organization established the mission to fight racial segregation and disenfranchisement of African-Americans in the courts. As the organization grew, it directly fought against Jim Crow laws. The NAACP's success was highlighted by the 1915 Supreme Court ruling in /Guinn v. United States/, which overturned practices that kept blacks from being eligible to vote because of the Grandfather Clause, as well as the 1954 Supreme Court decision in /Brown v. Board of Education/, which helped overturn /Plessy v. Ferguson/, which had legalized the notion of "separate but equal".

B) In 1890, Alfred T. Mahan published /The Influence of Sea Power upon History/, arguing the importance of a strong, modern navy to maintain national strength. He argued that history illustrated that a highly developed modern navy and use of blockades could overpower a well-established land army. He also argued that the US needed to accomplish several goals to maintain a modern navy, as illustrated by Britain throughout the 19th century. He argued for a canal through the isthmus of Central America, as well as numerous bases and coaling stations throughout the Pacific to promote trade with Asia. Mahan's work directly influenced the foreign policy of President Theodore Roosevelt, as illustrated by his leadership in the construction of the Great White Fleet, the completion of the Panama Canal, and his support for the Open Door Policy in China. Even the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine can be seen as an extension of Mahan's arguments for the importance of naval power.

D) During the 1836 presidential election, the Anti-Mason Party held the first nominating convention. Party supporters elected delegates who would attend the party convention and vote for the party candidate the electors supported. Soon after, the other major parties adopted the practice. During the Progressive Era, numerous additional reforms were made to the political system, giving the common person more access to government. Many states began to instate the initiative, which allowed the average citizen to put bills before the state legislatures. Furthermore, referendums, which gave citizens the right to vote directly on bills, became more common within state governments. Citizens were also given the power to remove elected officials from office with the recall. Finally, in 1904, Oregon began to elect its senators directly rather than having them chosen by the state legislature. In 1913, this practice became constitutional law with the ratification of the 17th Amendment, which required all states to choose their senators through direct elections.

A) Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois were two influential leaders of the fight to obtain social equality for African Americans. While they shared the same fight, they differed greatly in their envisioned methods. Washington called for accommodation, where blacks would "cast their bucket where they stood". While assimilation both socially and economically was his eventual goal, he focused first on social equality earned through hard work of blacks. He believed that their primary focus should be in vocational education, and over time, future generations would rise up politically and economically. DuBois rejected this notion, which he referred to as the acceptance of "alleged inferiority of the Negro". He instead believed blacks should obtain a liberal arts education and pursue skilled professions, seeking immediate political and economic equality alongside social equality. This belief would later lead DuBois in his role in founding the Niagara Movement in 1905, when he stated, "We want to pull down nothing but we don't propose to be pulled down." He also later joined the NAACP and worked as the editor of its chief publication, /The Crisis/.

C) Florence Kelley, the daughter of an influential Pennsylvania congressman, gained her own prominence as a leading reformer for workplace safety and against unsafe working conditions and child labor. In 1893, the governor of Illinois made Kelley the chief factory inspector for the state of Illinois, where she fought against child labor. In 1899, she joined the National Consumers' League, which fought to address the harsh conditions found in sweatshops. Furthermore, in 1907, she worked to sway opinion in the Supreme Court case /Muller v. Oregon/, which limited the maximum workday for female employees.

C) In 1899, Sec. of State John Hay sent notes to France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan, and Russia stating no country would extend its sphere of influence over China that would close Chinese markets to other Western powers. This would keep Chinese markets open to all of the major powers, especially the US. While none of the nations agreed to the Open Door Policy, Hay announced in March 1900 that all of the countries had accepted the terms. The Open Door Policy showed little success early on, but the principles were reasserted in the Nine Powers Treaty signed in February 1922. The policy officially ended with the Japanese invasion of China during WWII. Still, the foreign policies of Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and Woodrow Wilson focused on maintaining an open door trade with the abundant Chinese markets.

B) The 1896 Supreme Court decision in /Plessy v. Ferguson/ upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation in public accommodations in what became known as the doctrine of "separate but equal". This allowed southern state governments to pass Jim Crow laws, which further disenfranchised blacks. The basis of /Plessy v. Ferguson/ began when Homer Plessy, who was one-eighth black, challenged a Louisiana law that segregated railroad cars. Plessy argued that the segregated railroad cars violated the 13th and 14th Amendment rights. The Supreme Court disagreed, stating that segregation was acceptable as long as equal accommodations were provided.

B) The Clayton Antitrust Act was passed in 1914 during the Wilson administration. The act gave the federal government greater strength in regulating business and controlling the formation of monopolies and trusts. The act directly defined illegal business conduct and practices such as companies issuing noncompetitive rebates and directors sitting on multiple boards of competing companies. It also gave the federal government the power to regulate mergers. Furthermore, unlike the earlier Sherman Antitrust Act, this law did not make labor unions and farm organizations subject to antitrust laws, so workers' rights to strike, boycott, and picket were made legal. Furthermore, injunctions were deemed illegal. This law marked a major step forward for organized labor, though WWI limited unions' further progress.

B) On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, Cuba. While the actual cause of the explosion was debated, the US blamed the Spanish military and used the action as a pretense for war. On April 25, 1898, President McKinley formally issued a declaration of war. In 1976, nearly a century after the fact, another investigation found that the cause of the explosion was most likely not a Spanish mine. The USS Constitution is one of the US' oldest naval vessels, commissioned in 1797. The USS Maddox was the US ship involved in the Gulf of Tonkin incident that led to the escalation of the Vietnam War. The USS Chesapeake helped spark the War of 1812 after it was attacked by the British ship Leopard and four members of its crew were impressed. The USS Olympia was the flagship of Commodore Dewey in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War; it successfully led the total defeat of the Spanish fleet in that theater of the war.

D) While Roosevelt did expand America's international influence through his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine and his mediation of the conflict between Russia and Japan, the Square Deal dealt only with his domestic program. Theodore Roosevelt announced his Square Deal in 1904. In the Square Deal, Roosevelt would pursue antitrust suits. Over the course of his presidency, he broke up nearly 44 trusts and monopolies. At the same time, Roosevelt wanted to protect business from extreme union demands. This was illustrated by his dealings with the United Mine Workers strike, where he addressed both the miners' and owners' concerns. By way of promoting consumer protection, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, creating the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which allowed for the government to inspect meat products and outlawed the production, sale, or shipment of dangerous medicines. The Antiquities Act of 1906 and the expansion of national parks and monuments helped establish the precedent for future conservation activities.

A) The term /muckracking/ was coined by President Theodore Roosevelt to describe the activity of investigative journalists who exposed corruption and inspired calls for reform during the Progressive Era. The term was derived from a character in the novel /Pilgrim's Progress/ who spent his time mucking, or raking the filth from the floor, and never bothered to see the positive things around him. One example of a muckraking journalist was Ida Tarbell, whose /History of the Standard Oil Company/ (1904) exposed the cutthroat business practices used by the Standard Oil Company to eliminate competition. Lincoln Steffens wrote /The Shame of Our Cities/ (1904), which exposed municipal corruption and the ties between government and big business. Upton Sinclair's /The Jungle/ (1906), besides being in part a manifesto for socialism, helped inspire the Food and Drug Act by illustrating the dangerous and unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry. Samuel Hopkins Adams's work "Drugs That Make Victims", published in /Collier's Weekly/ in 1905, was an exposé on fraudulent medicines that often contained dangerous and addictive chemicals. His work helped inspire stricter regulation of pharmaceuticals.

C) Seward's Folly refers to the US' purchase of Alaska from Russian in 1867. The purchase was engineered by Sec. of State William H. Seward and Tsar Alexander II for the cost of $7.2 million. At the time, Alaska was seen as a barren wasteland, and the purchase of the nearly 600,000 square miles of northern land was called Seward's Folly or Seward's Ice Box. Later, Alaska was found to possess mineral resources of gold and oil that were worth many times what the US had spent on the purchase. This action was one of several taken by Seward that greatly expanded the international influence of the US. In 1865, Seward reaffirmed the Monroe Doctrine by arranging to have 50,000 American troops sent to the Texas-Mexico border to resolve the Maximilian Affair, where France tried to instate its own puppet regime in Mexico. Furthermore, in 1867, the year in which the Alaska Territory was purchased, he arranged for the annexation of the Midway Islands. This new territory in the Pacific provided an important military base and coaling station, further fostering trade with Asia.

E) In 1895, Richard Olney, the Sec. of State under President Cleveland, ordered Britain to settle a boundary dispute it had with Venezuela through US arbitration. This expanded th Monroe Doctrine beyond merely closing the Western Hemisphere to Europe and established the US as the lead arbitrator in the Western Hemisphere. While Perry's opening of trade with Japan in 1854, as well as John Hay's 1899 Open Door Policy, were important expansions of American foreign policy, they dealt more with Asia, which is beyond the Monroe Doctrine's focus on the Western Hemisphere. This was also the case with Hawaii. Polk's usage of the Monroe Doctrine under "Manifest Destiny", while important in increasing the doctrine's scope, took place in the first half of the 19th century.

D) Unlike Theodore Roosevelt's Big Stick Diplomacy and Taft's Dollar Diplomacy, Wilson's policy was based on the belief that the US needed to use the promotion of American values and democratic institutions to promote international security. The practice became known as Moral or Missionary Diplomacy. Wilson moved from an era of diplomacy focused on force or finance to a policy committed to justice, democracy, and Christian values. This policy was illustrated when Victoriano Huerta seized power in Mexico, killing the elected president, Francisco Madero. Despite the urging from many in the US, Wilson refused to recognize the government, calling it a "government of Butchers". Wilson's policy of Moral Diplomacy was not always successful. In 1914, he ordered the US Marines to invade Veracruz after American sailors had been detained in what was called the Tampico Incident. William Taft's urging of US banks to refinance Haiti's national debt serves as an example of Dollar Diplomacy, and Herbert Hoover's removal of troops from Nicaragua illustrates the later Good Neighbor Policy.

E) On April 19, 1898, both houses of Congress adopted the Teller Amendment to the declaration of war issued against Spain. The amendment stated that the US would not annex the island nation of Cuba but would instead leave it in the hands of the Cuban people. The Teller Amendment was replaced in 1901 by the Platt Amendment, which extended the US' sphere of influence over Cuba. Under the Platt Amendment, the US had the right to override decisions made by the Cuban government and directly intervene if Cuba became unstable. It also granted the US territorial rights in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. They 1898 Treaty of Paris ended the Spanish-American War, causing Spain to relinquish its claims to most of its remaining colonial possessions. It gave Cuba its independence and gave the US control of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam. They Hay-Bunau Treaty gave the US control over the Panama Canal Zone.

D) Valeriano Weyler was sent to Cuba in 1888 to quell the disorder caused by the insurrectos, revolutionaries fighting for Cuban independence under José Marti. Weyler set up concentration camps to crush the rebellions. Conditions in the camps were extremely harsh; prisoners lacked proper food, water, and other necessities. Nearly 30% of those interred within the camps died because of this. Reports of these actions were sent back to the US, and American newspapers nicknamed Weyler "Butcher Weyler". Stories of atrocities at the camps and other sensationalized reports, known as yellow journalism, helped convince the US to declare war on Spain in 1898. Porfirio Diaz and Victoriano Huerta were dictators during the Mexican Revolution. Wilson attempted to overthrow Huerta after he staged a coup and murdered Mexico's elected president, Francisco Madero, in 1912.