AP U.S. History · Lesson 1

Empire and Progressive reform

Know Know it

In the 1890s many American leaders argued that the nation needed markets and bases abroad. Factories and farms produced more than Americans could buy, the Census Bureau reported after the 1890 count that a clear frontier line no longer existed, and naval officer Alfred Thayer Mahan argued that great powers needed a strong navy with coaling stations overseas. Some leaders also claimed a duty to spread American civilization, an idea bound up with the racial thinking of the time.

In Hawaii, American sugar planters overthrew Queen Liliuokalani in 1893 with the backing of U.S. marines, and the United States annexed the islands in 1898. The Spanish-American War (1898) grew out of Cuba's revolt against Spain. Sensational yellow journalism and the explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbor stirred war fever. The Teller Amendment promised that the United States would not annex Cuba, but the Platt Amendment (1901) let it intervene there and obtain naval bases. In the peace treaty, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines.

Keeping the Philippines led to a war against Filipinos who wanted independence (1899 to 1902). At home, the Anti-Imperialist League argued that ruling people without their consent betrayed the nation's founding ideals. In Asia, Secretary of State John Hay's Open Door notes (1899 and 1900) asked the powers to let every nation trade in China on equal terms. In Latin America, Theodore Roosevelt backed Panama's break from Colombia in 1903 so the United States could build a canal there, and his Roosevelt Corollary (1904) claimed a U.S. right to act as a police power in the hemisphere. Taft's dollar diplomacy relied on American investment, and Wilson sent troops into Mexico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Progressives were reformers, many of them middle class, who believed that experts and an active government could fix problems created by industry and fast-growing cities. Muckrakers exposed abuses: Ida Tarbell investigated Standard Oil, Lincoln Steffens wrote on corrupt city governments, and Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle (1906) on meatpacking helped pass the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act that same year.

Reformers also changed how democracy worked. Many states adopted the initiative, the referendum, the recall and direct primaries. The Seventeenth Amendment (1913) had voters, not state legislatures, elect senators, and the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) barred denying the vote on account of sex.

In Washington, Theodore Roosevelt's Square Deal brought antitrust suits, stronger railroad regulation and millions of acres of protected federal land. Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act (1913), the Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) and the law creating the Federal Trade Commission (1914), and the Sixteenth Amendment (1913) allowed a federal income tax. Progressivism had sharp limits: most white reformers accepted segregation, and several federal departments were segregated under Wilson. W. E. B. Du Bois and other reformers founded the NAACP in 1909 to fight for equal rights.

American expansion, 1893 to 1904
YearEventWhat it shows
1893Planters overthrow Hawaii’s queenBusiness interests and U.S. power drive expansion
1898Treaty of Paris after the war with SpainThe United States gains overseas colonies
1899–1900Open Door notesEqual trade in China, not new colonies there
1901Platt AmendmentControl over Cuba without annexing it
1904Roosevelt CorollaryA claimed right to police Latin America

Trap Not annexed does not mean free

The Teller Amendment ruled out annexing Cuba, so Cuba never became a U.S. territory. That does not mean Cuba was fully independent: the Platt Amendment gave the United States a right to intervene and a naval base at Guantanamo Bay. When a question asks how the United States controlled a place, look for influence and intervention as well as annexation.

Worked example Easy

Under the treaty that ended the war with Spain in 1898, the United States gained which territory in Asia?

  1. The PhilippinesAnswer
  2. The Hawaiian Islands
  3. The island of Cuba
  4. The Panama Canal Zone

How to solve it

  1. Recall what Spain gave up in 1898: Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines.
  2. Of the choices, only the Philippines came from Spain and lies in Asia.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Correct. Spain ceded the Philippines, along with Puerto Rico and Guam, and keeping them led to the Philippine-American War.
  • B. Incorrect. Hawaii was annexed by a separate act of Congress in 1898; Spain never ruled it, so it was not part of the treaty.
  • C. Incorrect. Cuba was not annexed at all; the Teller Amendment ruled that out, and Cuba lies in the Caribbean, not Asia.
  • D. Incorrect. The Canal Zone came from a 1903 treaty with Panama, five years after the war, and it is in Central America.

Explain Explain it

Task verbs: explain, identify

To explain a development, give a specific cause and then the link: what the cause made people want or fear, and what they did about it. When a question asks for reasons of different kinds, sort them first (money, power, beliefs) and give one specific, named piece of evidence for each kind you use. For a reform, connect the problem that was exposed to the law or amendment that answered it.

Worked example Medium

From the Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified 1913 (public domain)

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.

Before this amendment took effect, who chose United States senators, and what Progressive goal did the change serve?

  1. Governors appointed them; the change aimed to make state governors more powerful
  2. State legislatures chose them; the change aimed to cut the power of party bosses and big moneyAnswer
  3. The House chose them; the change aimed to protect each state’s equal vote in the Senate
  4. Voters already chose them directly; the change only fixed the length of each senator’s term at six years

How to solve it

  1. The original Constitution had state legislatures elect senators.
  2. The words 'elected by the people thereof' move that choice to the voters.
  3. Progressives wanted that shift to weaken machines and corporate influence over legislatures.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. Governors did not choose senators; the original Constitution gave that job to state legislatures.
  • B. Correct. State legislatures elected senators until 1913, and Progressives argued that machines and corporations swayed those elections.
  • C. Incorrect. The House never chose senators, and equal state representation in the Senate was not changed by this amendment.
  • D. Incorrect. Voters did not formally elect senators before 1913, since legislatures cast the official votes, and six-year terms date back to the original Constitution.

Explain Your turn

Explain one economic reason and one reason that was not economic that Americans gave for expanding overseas in the 1890s.

Write it, then compare. Nothing you type here is saved or graded.

Compare with a model answer

A full answer does this

  • Gives an accurate economic reason for overseas expansion
  • Gives an accurate reason for expansion that was not economic

Model answer

One reason was economic: American factories and farms produced more than Americans could buy, so business and political leaders wanted new markets abroad for surplus goods. Another reason was strategic: Alfred Thayer Mahan argued that a great power needed a strong navy and overseas bases, which made islands such as Hawaii valuable.

Apply Apply it

Practice these topics. AP Practice questions on exactly what this lesson covers, with an explanation for every answer.

Practice these topics