Ap Us Foreign Policy 1890's-1914

AP US HISTORY FREE RESPONSE QUESTIONS SINCE 1971

XI. Expansionism 1890’s – 1914

1. United States foreign policy between 1815 and 1910 was determined less by economic than strategic, moral, or political interests. Assess the validity of this generalization with reference to at least TWO major episodes ( for example: treaties, wars, proclamations, annexations, etc.) in the foreign policy of the United States between 1815 and 1910. (80)

2. How and why did the Monroe Doctrine become the cornerstone of United States foreign policy by the late nineteenth century? (85)

3. Both the Mexican War and the Spanish American War were premeditated resulting from deliberately calculated
schemes of robbery on the part of a superior power against weak and defenseless neighbors. (86)

4. Compare the debates that took place over American expansionism in the 1840’s with those that took place in the 1890’s, analyzing the similarities and differences in the debates of the two eras.
(92)

XII. The Progressives 1900 –1920

1. Analyze and evaluate Booker T. Washington’s program for American Blacks and W.E.B. DuBois’s challenge to that program. (71)

2. Discuss the development of the women’s suffrage movement and account for its success. (72)

3. The legal, political, and economic rights achieved by minorities and women in the United States have come largely during periods of major reform movements, which both helped the struggle of these groups and set limits to them. Assess the validity of this statement for the history of one or more of these groups in the period 1830- 1920. (76)

4. Paradoxically, Darwinism provided a justification for both social conservatism and social reform in the period from 1870-1915. Discuss this statement (77)

5. In American politics the most significant battles have occurred within the major parties rather than between them. Discuss this statement with reference to the periods 1850 –1861 and 1900 –1912. (81)

6. The Progressive movement of 1901 to 1917 was a triumph of conservatism rather than a victory for liberalism. Assess the validity of this generalization.
(87)

7. Analyze the ways in which state and federal legislation and judicial decisions, including those of the Supreme Court, affected the efforts of any TWO of the following groups to improve their position in society between 1880 and 1920.
African Americans Farmers Workers (93)

8. Although many Americans between 1870 and 1915 blamed political corruption at the state and local level on public indifference or greedy politicians, such corruption reflected a serious crisis of traditional institutions in dealing with social and economic problems of modern America. Assess the validity of this generalization (75)

XIII. World War I 1914 - 1920

1. The U.S. in the period 1898-1919 failed to recognize that it had vital interests at take in Europe, where it tried to stay aloof. At the same time, it had fewer or no such interests in Asia, where it eagerly became involved. Assess the validity of this generalization. (77)

2. The United States entered the First World War not “to make the world safe for democracy” as President Wilson claimed, but to safeguard American economic interests. Assess the validity of this statement. (74)

3. Assess the relative influence of THREE of the following in the American decision to declare war on Germany in 1917.
German naval policy Allied propaganda
American economic interests America’s claim to world power Woodrow Wilson’s idealism (95)

3. To what extent did the United States achieve the objectives that led it to enter the First World War? (00)