APUSH Unit 7 Key Concepts

Growth expanded opportunity, while economic instability
led to

new efforts to reform U.S. society and its economic system.

The United States continued its transition from a rural, agricultural economy to an

urban, industrial economy led by large companies.

New technologies and manufacturing techniques helped focus the U.S.
economy on the production

of consumer goods, contributing to improved
standards of living, greater personal mobility, and better communications
systems.

By 1920, a majority of the U.S. population lived in

urban centers, which offered new economic opportunities for women, international migrants, and internal migrants.

Episodes of credit and market instability in the early 20th century, in
particular the

Great Depression, led to calls for a stronger financial regulatory system.

In the Progressive Era of the early 20th century, Progressives responded to

political corruption, economic instability, and social concerns by calling for greater government action and other political and social measures.

Some Progressive Era journalists attacked what they saw as political
corruption, social injustice, and economic inequality, while reformers, often
from the

middle and upper classes and including many women, worked to effect social changes in cities and among immigrant populations.

On the national level, Progressives sought federal legislation that they believed would

effectively regulate the economy, expand democracy, and generate moral reform. Progressive amendments to the Constitution dealt with issues such as prohibition and woman suffrage.

Preservationists and conservationists both supported the establishment of

national parks while advocating different government responses to the overuse of natural resources.

The Progressives were divided over many issues. Some Progressives
supported Southern segregation, while others

ignored its presence.

Some Progressives advocated expanding popular participation in government,

while others called for greater reliance on professional and technical experts to make government more efficient. Progressives also disagreed about immigration restriction.

During the 1930s, policymakers responded to the mass unemployment and social upheavals of the Great Depression by transforming the

U.S. into a limited welfare state, redefining the goals and ideas of modern American liberalism.

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal attempted to end the Great Depression by using

government power to provide relief to the poor, stimulate recovery, and reform the American economy.

Radical, union, and populist movements pushed Roosevelt toward
more extensive efforts to change the

American economic system, while
conservatives in Congress and the Supreme Court sought to limit the New Deal's scope.

Although the New Deal did not end the Depression, it left a legacy of reforms
and regulatory agencies and fostered a long

term political realignment in which

Innovations in communications and technology
contributed to the growth of

mass culture, while significant changes occurred
in internal and international migration patterns.

Popular culture grew in influence in U.S. society, even as debates increased

over the effects of culture on public values, morals, and American national identity.

New forms of mass media, such as radio and cinema, contributed to the spread

of national culture as well as greater awareness of regional cultures.

Migration gave rise to new forms of art and literature that expressed

ethnic and regional identities, such the Harlem Renaissance movement.

Official restrictions on freedom of speech grew during World War I, as increased

anxiety about radicalism led to a Red Scare and attacks on labor activism and
immigrant culture.

In the 1920s, cultural and political controversies emerged as Americans debated

gender roles, modernism, science, religion, and issues related to race and immigration.

Economic pressures, global events, and political developments caused sharp
variations in the

numbers, sources, and experiences of both international and
internal migrants.

Immigration from Europe reached its peak in the years before World War I.
During and after World War I, nativist campaigns against some ethnic groups
led to the

passage of quotas that restricted immigration, particularly from
southern and eastern Europe, and increased barriers to Asian immigration.

The increased demand for war production and labor during World War I and
World War II and the economic difficulties of the 1930s led many Americans

to migrate to urban centers in search of economic opportunities.

In the Great Migration during and after World War I, African Americans
escaping segregation, racial violence, and limited economic opportunity in the South moved to the

North and West, where they found new opportunities but
still encountered discrimination.

Migration to the United States from Mexico and elsewhere in the Western
Hemisphere increased, in spite of

contradictory government policies toward Mexican immigration.

Participation in a series of global conflicts propelled the
United States into a position of

international power while renewing domestic
debates over the nation's proper role in the world.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, new U.S. territorial ambitions and acquisitions in the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific accompanied

heightened public debates over America's role in the world.

Imperialists cited economic opportunities, racial theories, competition with
European empires, and the perception in the 1890s that the western frontier
was "closed" to argue that

Americans were destined to expand their culture and
institutions to peoples around the globe.

Anti

imperialists cited principles of self

The American victory in the Spanish

American War led to the U.S. acquisition
of island territories in the

World War I and its aftermath intensified ongoing debates about the

nation's role in the world and how best to achieve national security and pursue American interests.

Although the American Expeditionary Forces played a relatively limited role in
combat,

the United States' entry helped to tip the balance of the conflict in favor of the Allies.

Despite Wilson's deep involvement in postwar negotiations,

the U.S. Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles or join the League of Nations.

In the years following World War I, the United States pursued a unilateral foreign policy that used

international investment, peace treaties, and select military
intervention to promote a vision of international order, even while maintaining U.S. isolationism.

In the 1930s, while many Americans were concerned about the rise of fascism
and totalitarianism, most opposed taking military action against the aggression

of Nazi Germany and Japan until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor drew the United States into World War II.

U.S. participation in World War II transformed American society, while the
victory of the United States and its allies over the Axis powers vaulted the U.S.

into a position of global, political, and military leadership.

Americans viewed the war as a fight for the survival of freedom and democracy against

fascist and militarist ideologies. This perspective was later reinforced by revelations about Japanese wartime atrocities, Nazi concentration camps, and the Holocaust.

The mass mobilization of American society helped end the Great Depression,
and the country's strong

industrial base played a pivotal role in winning the
war by equipping and provisioning allies and millions of U.S. troops.

Mobilization and military service provided opportunities for women and
minorities to improve their socioeconomic positions for the war's duration,
while also leading to

debates over racial segregation. Wartime experiences
also generated challenges to civil liberties, such as the internment of Japanese Americans.

The United States and its allies achieved military victory through

Allied cooperation, technological and scientific advances, the contributions of servicemen and women, and campaigns such as Pacific "island

The use of atomic bombs hastened the end of the war and

sparked debates about the morality of using atomic weapons.

The war-ravaged condition of Asia and Europe, and the dominant U.S. role in
the Allied victory and postwar peace settlements, allowed

the United States to emerge from the war as the most powerful nation on Earth.