APUSH Period 7 Notes

Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis

  • Published after the 1890 census, declared the American frontier closed.
  • Argued American identity was based on conquering western lands.
  • Led Americans to look outwards for raw materials and new markets.

American Imperialism

  • Hawaiian Coup:
    • American sugar trade interests led to the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarch.
    • The U.S. annexed Hawaii for its sugar trade and strategic location in the Pacific, serving as a stepping stone to Asian markets.
  • Key Imperialists:
    • Alfred Mahan: American naval officer; advocated for a strong navy for American greatness and power.
    • Josiah Strong: A minister who believed in spreading American culture and religion globally.

Spanish-American War

  • Causes:
    • American support for Cuban independence from Spain.
    • Yellow Journalism: William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer heightened tensions.
    • DeLome Letter: A Spanish diplomat criticized President McKinley.
    • Sinking of the USS Maine: The press blamed Spain.
  • Outcome:
    • American victory; Treaty of Paris.
    • America gained Cuba, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
    • The U.S. purchased the Philippines.
  • Philippine-American War:
    • Continued for years after the Spanish-American War.

Significant Foreign Policies

  • John Hay's Open Door Policy:
    • Provided America access to foreign markets in China, preventing European control.
  • Roosevelt Corollary:
    • An expansion of the Monroe Doctrine.
    • Theodore Roosevelt asserted the U.S. right to intervene in Latin American affairs to protect economic interests and maintain stability.
  • Taft's Dollar Diplomacy:
    • Sought to secure order in Latin America through economic means like investments and loans.
  • Wilson's Moral Diplomacy:
    • The U.S. would support governments emphasizing democracy and free trade.

Progressive Era

  • Muckrakers:
    • Journalists exposing corruption.
      • Lincoln Steffens: The Shame of the Cities (political corruption).
      • Ida Tarbell: Exposed John D. Rockefeller's tactics in growing Standard Oil Company.
      • Upton Sinclair: The Jungle (meat packing industry horrors), leading to the Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act.
  • Teddy Roosevelt's Presidency:
    • Focused on reform.
    • Breaking up "bad trusts" and monopolies.
    • Square Deal: Consumer protections, controlling corporations, conservation.
  • Economic Reforms:
    • Clayton Antitrust Act: Strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act, limiting monopolies.
    • Sixteenth Amendment: Instituted federal income tax.
    • Federal Reserve created.
  • Political Reforms:
    • Seventeenth Amendment: Direct election of senators.
    • Introduction of initiative, referendum, recall, and secret ballot.
  • Women's Role:
    • Involved in bringing about reforms.
    • Carrie Nation: Fought for temperance, leading to the Eighteenth Amendment.
    • Alice Paul and NAWSA: Contributed to the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote.

World War I

  • Neutrality:
    • President Wilson initially declared neutrality in 1914.
    • The American economy benefited from selling supplies to the Allied powers.
  • Entry into War:
    • In 1917, due to Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare on American merchant vessels.
    • Zimmerman Telegram: Further fueled American entry.
  • Domestic Impact:
    • Men drafted; women and minorities filled jobs in factories and farms.
    • Restrictions on American liberties: Espionage and Sedition Act.
  • Wilson's 14 Points:
    • Aimed to prevent another global crisis, but mostly ignored in the Treaty of Versailles.
    • League of Nations: The only incorporated point, an international peacekeeping body.
  • Treaty of Versailles:
    • Britain and France wanted to punish Germany (war guilt clause, heavy reparations).
    • Senate opposition: Reservationists like Henry Cabot Lodge disagreed with Article X, fearing entanglement in global conflicts.
    • Favored a return to isolationism.

African American Civil Rights

  • NAACP:
    • Founded in 1909 by W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, and Thurgood Marshall.
    • Fought for equality, justice, and rights; sought to tackle disenfranchisement in the South.
  • Marcus Garvey:
    • Supported black nationalism, economic self-sufficiency, and the Back-to-Africa movement.
  • Great Migration:
    • Millions of African Americans left the Jim Crow South for jobs and freedoms in the North.
  • Harlem Renaissance:
    • Flourished after World War I.
    • Artists like Langston Hughes shared African American experiences through poetry.
    • Musicians like Louis Armstrong popularized jazz.
  • A. Philip Randolph:
    • Fought for equality in employment practices.
    • Threatened a march on Washington D.C. to protest discrimination in defense industry jobs, leading to the Fair Employment Practices Committee.
  • World War II:
    • African Americans contributed significantly.
    • Double V Campaign: Victory abroad over fascism and victory at home for equality.

Roaring Twenties

  • Characterized by:
    • Rapid economic growth and consumerism.
    • Increased buying of goods scarce during WWI, new appliances, and radios.
  • Red Scare:
    • Fear of communists entering the country after the Russian Revolution.
    • Increased nativism; led to quota acts severely limiting immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe.
  • Prohibition:
    • Failed social experiment.
    • Led to the rise of organized crime (e.g., Al Capone).
  • Women:
    • Celebrated WWI contributions and the 19th Amendment.
    • Flappers: Short hair, short skirts, smoking and drinking in public.
    • Many also held onto traditional Victorian values.
  • Scopes Monkey Trial (1925):
    • John T. Scopes arrested for teaching evolution in a Tennessee public school.
    • Represented the debate between modern values and fundamentalist ideas.

Great Depression

  • Causes:
    • Expansion of consumer credit and unregulated banking practices.
    • Stock market speculation (buying stock on margin).
    • Overproduction in factories and farms, causing prices to drop.
    • Stock market crash (Black Tuesday).
    • Dust Bowl: Forced farmers to migrate in search of work.
  • Hoover's Response:
    • Initially continued laissez-faire policies.
    • Later created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation but deemed too late.
  • FDR's New Deal:
    • Promised relief, reform, and recovery.
    • Fireside chats: Used radio to connect with the public.
    • First New Deal: Agricultural Adjustment Act and Federal Emergency Relief Act.
    • Second New Deal: Social Security Act.
  • Criticism of the New Deal:
    • Huey Long: Argued it didn't do enough for the poor and working class.
    • Business leaders: Argued it bordered on socialism.
    • Criticized for trying to pack the Supreme Court.
    • Ultimately, the Great Depression didn't end until World War II.

World War II

  • Neutrality Acts:
    • Series of neutrality acts passed but gradually got more involved with the allied cause.
    • Cash and Carry program (1939).
    • Lend-Lease Act (1941).
    • Selective Service Act: America's first peacetime draft.
  • Entry into War:
    • Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941).
  • Domestic Impact:
    • Executive Order 9066: Forced Japanese Americans on the West Coast into internment camps (upheld in the Korematsu case).
    • Minority groups supported the war effort.
      • Over 1 million African Americans served (segregated armed forces).
      • Tuskegee Airmen: First African American pilots.
      • 45,000 Native Americans enlisted (Navajo code talkers, Comanche).
      • Women enlisted in the military (Women's Army Corps) in noncombat roles.
      • Rosie the Riveter: Women filled factory positions.
  • War Efforts:
    • American troops helped defeat Hitler in Europe (Dwight D. Eisenhower, D-Day).
    • Island hopping campaign in the Pacific.
    • Manhattan Project: Developed the atomic bomb.
    • President Truman demanded unconditional surrender from Japan and approved the use of the atomic bomb (Hiroshima and Nagasaki).

Exam Day Topics

  • Causation:
    • Causes of imperialism.
    • Causes of the Great Depression.
    • Effects of the New Deal.
  • Comparison:
    • Similarities and differences on the home front between WWI and WWII.
    • Differences between fundamental values versus modernism in the 1920s.
  • Continuity and Change:
    • Changes in foreign policy (interwar period).
    • Changes during the Progressive Era (progressive amendments and economic reforms like the Federal Reserve).