AP Tips
• Information in this Unit is often used in free response questions that
deal with the causes of imperialism, inter-imperialist competition, and
the clash of cultures.
• Many of the causes for imperialism have been reviewed as causes for Manifest
Destiny, American Imperialism of the late 19th Century, and in foreign policy
dealings with the Cold War.
• Desire for new markets to relieve under-consumption and overproduction,
cheaper sources of raw materials, spread of religious/social/political
ideologies, and building military strength.
• In all of these cases the desire to expand has led the Center (Mother) nation into
conflict – either military or economic. (The Seven Years War, the American
Revolution, The Mexican War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, The
Cold War – Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan).
• Whenever the Imperialist acquires new lands it causes a clash of cultures with
indigenous peoples (Spanish and Latin Americans – Aztec and Inca, The United
States and Native Americans, Europeans and Africans/Asians, etc.)
• Many of the problems and abuses that occurred in the years
immediately following the end of the American Revolution can
be traced to the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation in
addressing these concerns. Making this connection is important
in understanding why the Articles of Confederation were
inadequate for the new nation and why early on some
questioned the new government’s usefulness.
• The Constitution is at the heart of American History. You must
be able to identify the ways in which the constitution was
designed to allow the government to meet changing conditions
and attitudes.
• A free response question that relates to the Jeffersonian Movement,
presidency, or the “Revolution of 1800” may in part ask you to relate
the meaning of these terms in relation to the alternative perspective,
the Hamiltonian Movement.
• Historians have debated the two perspectives for decades, and their observations
will help you make a thorough analysis. The contrasts between the Jeffersonian
and Hamiltonian movements listed in your notes represent one way of looking at
the issue.
• Historians who see these distinctions go on to contend that the Jeffersonian
movement was one that advanced democracy in the United States. Further it was
the first example of political liberalism – reforming the political and economic
system – in the 19th Century: under Jefferson, the government was viewed as the
guardian of the people against the abuses of the upper classes.
• Conversely, Hamilton is often seen as wanting to further the privileges and
objectives of the northern commercial/capitalist interests. Consequently, Hamilton
and Jefferson inhabit opposite ends of the political spectrum.
• Other historians do not see the contrast between Jefferson and Hamilton this way.
To them, there are basically no substantial differences between Hamilton and
Jefferson or between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, because both
represented the interests of the upper classes, whether northern capitalists or
southern planters.
• What is more, Jefferson was a pragmatist who was not tied to any particular
philosophical approach to government but adjusted to what was expedient, as
expressed in his first inaugural address: “We are all Republicans, we are all
Federalists”. Some would argue that he was attempting to provide a smooth
transition from one political party to another. Other historians point to two
important examples that show Jefferson was not consistent with the ideals he
preached.
• The First was an abandonment of his strict interpretation of the constitution when he purchased
the Louisiana Territory from France. No clause in the Constitution gave him the authority to do
so ; he did what was “necessary and proper”, the argument of those holding a loose
interpretation.
• The second example is that despite his opposition to the Bank of the United States, upon
becoming president he did not seek to eliminate it but simply allowed its charter to expire.
• Taking into account these conflicting opinions will make for a more compelling free
response.
• Take note that internal political factors sometimes inhibited territorial
aggrandizement – for example, the internal debate that ensued over Cuba
and the Ostend Manifesto.
• Major territorial acquisitions:
• Original 13 States (1783): Treaty of Paris – All land east of the Mississippi River
• Louisiana Purchase (1803): Purchased from France for $15 Million – 825,000
Square Miles
• Florida (1819): Adams-Onis Treaty: U.S. pays $5 Million
• Texas (1845): Initially declared itself independent from Mexico (Lone Star Republic),
annexed by the United States and became a slave state.
• Oregon (1846): Forty-ninth parallel established by the U.S. and Britain as the
boundary for Oregon.
• Mexican Cession (1848): Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – Mexican defeat leads to
the loss of its northern territories, for which the U.S. paid $15 Million.
• Gadsden Purchase (1853): U.S. purchase of a strip of land from Mexico for $10
Million to complete a southern transcontinental railroad.
• In constructing an essay, how does one make connections between
events, movements, and effects and the intellectual origins that
shaped them? Often students will write about the philosophical or
ideological influences of a period separate from what was actually
happening at that time. A more effective and analytical approach is
to use the ideas to explain motivations and causation.
• For example, in making a connection between the Second Great
Awakening, transcendentalism, romanticism, and the reform spirit of
the antebellum period.
• You may assert that these movements asked individuals to get in touch with their
own emotions rather than their sense of reason.
• Thus, while an individual in the antebellum period might present a reasonable
economic and social justification for the existence of slavery, one responding to
emotional visions of enslavement and degradation might very well come to the
conclusion that the institution of slavery was simply barbaric.
• There are usually numerous causes that explain why an
event happened. Some are more important than others,
but an understanding of the many causes will allow you to
write a fuller free-response or DBQ essay, in addition to
scoring well on the multiple choice section of the AP Exam.
• If you are explaining why the Civil War occurred, a
response such as “To free the slaves” would be seriously
inadequate.
• To preserve the Union
• To establish the authority of the Federal Government
• To reaffirm States’ Rights
• A good way to organize your understanding of the causes of the war is to
consider if the war was reconcilable or irreconcilable. In other words,
could it have been prevented? The fact that it did happen does not mean
that it had to happen.
• For example, some historians claim that a generation of bumbling
politicians in the 1850s could not match the compromises reached by Henry
Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster prior to 1850.
• Other historians contend that fire-eaters in the South and radical
abolitionists in the North exacerbated the relationship between more
moderate politicians, making compromise impossible.
• Still others argue that a dual civilization – the South based on a culture of
slavery, the North on a culture of wage labor – could no longer be
sustained under the same government.
• Lincoln may have had something like this in mind when he declared: “A
house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot
endure permanently half slave and half free. It will become all one thing
or all the other”.
• As much as any period in U.S. History, historians hold widely divergent
views about the causes, ramifications, successes, and failures of
Reconstruction.
• You should attempt to read as widely as possible on the interpretive nature
of the debate over this topic. Should the College Board offer a free
response question or a DBQ on Reconstruction, an understanding of various
historians interpretations will provide you with a broader grasp of its
significance as well as relevant interpretations around which you can
develop your own view.
• Can the Government legislate morality?
• What types of issues prevented the short-term success of the 13th, 14th, and 15th
Amendments?
• What role did Military Occupation play in both the utilization of rights by African
Americans and in intensifying post-Reconstruction sectionalism?
• In what ways did the formation of the “Solid South” affect the Southern African
American population.
• Students sometimes ask whether they should incorporate
contemporary ideas and issues into their free response and DBQ
essays. Believing that history is a continuum in which the forces that
shape our contemporary world have their historical antecedents, you
can make connections between past and present events.
• For example, Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus rights is relevant
to a discussion of the Patriot Act. Make certain, however, that you
maintain your focus on the specific question that is asked of you.
• A question on Lincoln, the Civil War, and habeas corpus should not get lost in a
political discussion on governmental powers in combatting terrorism since 9/11.
• Also, do not incorporate an issue into your discussion if you know little
or nothing about it. College Board readers can identify these.
• A College Board essay dealing with this period will most certainly require
you to understand the causes and effects of the enormous expansion of the
U.S. economy in the Post-Civil War period.
• Business Deregulation: you must have a handle on Laissez-faire economics and
Monopoly Capitalism. Men like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan,
and Cornelius Vanderbilt amassed huge amounts of wealth. At one point 4% of the
nation’s population owned 80% of the wealth.
• The “Robber Barons”, as they became known, used the principle of Social Darwinism
to justify their unfair business practices, destruction of competition, and exploitation
of workers.
• The hazardous working conditions, poverty wages, and long hours that workers were
forced into on a daily basis led to the formation of labor unions – The American
Federation of Labor, Knights of Labor, United Mine Workers.
• The Government, Big Business (obviously), and the public (after the Haymarket
Square Riot) all opposed and obstructed the formation of labor unions. Not until the
National Industrial Recovery Act – then the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner
Act) – were labor unions protected by the federal government during the New Deal.
• Because the heart of the Populist Movement was centered in
predominantly rural areas and more often than not focused on
agrarian issues, it is easy to lose sight of the other forces that were
drawn into the Movement. Take note of the various components of
the Populists when discussing them in a free response essay.
• The Populists sought to forge an alliance between poor white subsistence
farmers and African American tenant farmers/sharecroppers.
• The Populists also tried to appeal to Labor Unions and radical political parties –
The American Socialist Party.
• They opened their membership to women
• Their downfall came when the movement merged with the Democrat Party –
after failing to bring together the diverse groups previously mentioned – and
adopting “free silver” as it main platform.
• The Party lost what was essentially a referendum on Populism in the Election of
1896 when William Jennings Bryan (Cross of Gold Speech) lost to William
McKinley.
• According to the renowned historian Frederick Jackson Turner, the
frontier helped shape the democratic attributes of the American
character and culture.
• In his famous 1893 essay, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”,
Turner put forth a thesis that as Americans moved to the West, they had
consistently regenerated the societies and cultures they had previously created
in the East.
• In the process, they had cultivated a unique American system based on
democratic values and individualism.
• Turner’s thesis has prompted considerable discussion between
historians who support his view and those who challenge it.
• Keep this in mind should you be presented with a College Board free
response question that deals with topics such as Jacksonian
Democracy, Manifest Destiny, and the New Imperialism of the late
19th Century.
• Some social scientists maintain that U.S. Foreign Policy should not be shaped by
theoretical and ethical justifications, but by Realpolitik – The “Politics of Reality” –
the practical and realistic needs and concerns of the nation.
• Much of this discussion will come down to the Machiavellian concept of the “Ends Justifying the
Means or the Means Justifying the Ends”.
• Does a nation base its policy on need and self-preservation or does the nation base its policy
on morality and human rights?
• They hold that U.S. economic imperatives and political/military objectives helped
shape the foreign policy adopted by the United States beginning in the late 19th
Century.
• The realization of a global empire was a realistic and necessary objective of U.S.
policymakers, they contend.
• Others argue that morality should be a primary factor in adopting a foreign
policy, for the implementation of a policy based on realpolitik has its limitations
and unintended consequences.
• U.S. imperialism resulted in deteriorating relations with Latin America that had to be repaired
prior to World War II, then were sent back into disrepair during the Cold War.
• A brief discussion of realpolitik as it applies to U.S. foreign policy (in any period)
may add a compelling dimension to a free response question that asks you to
address foreign affairs.
• During the Progressive Era four Constitutional Amendments were adopted.
Keep them in mind for AP free response essays:
• The Sixteenth Amendment (1913): provided for an income tax. Previous attempts to
create an income tax has been deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The
tax was meant to offset lower tariffs.
• The Seventeenth Amendment (1913): replaced the method of selecting U.S. Senators
as prescribed in the Constitution – by State Legislatures – with direct election of
Senators by popular vote.
• The Eighteenth Amendment (1919): prohibited the manufacture, sale, and
transportation of intoxicating liquors within the United States. Many reformers
blamed alcohol for many of societies problems. The ban on alcohol led to
speakeasies, bootlegging, government corruption, and organized crime – a period
known as the Era of Lawlessness. (the ban was lifted in 1933 by the 21st Amendment
repealing the 18th.
• The Nineteenth Amendment (1920): granted women the right to vote in federal
elections (numerous states – particularly in the West – had already passed
legislation allowing women to vote in State elections). No state could deny or
abridge this right.
• In explaining any historical effect, you should distinguish between shortand long-term causes. U.S. intervention in World War I did not suddenly
occur.
• For example, German violations of American neutrality had long been a
source of tension between the two nations.
• You could even enter into your essay that America’s commitment to the rights of
neutrals dated all the way back to the War of 1812, which the U.S. entered
primarily because of Britain’s policy of impressment.
• However, there were important short-term causes of President Wilson’s
decision to declare war on the Central Powers:
• Germany’s decision to renew U-boat attacks on neutral shipping – resuming their
policy of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare.
• The Zimmerman Note, which had a profound impact on American public opinion.
• The Russian Revolution, which overthrew the Romanov Dynasty – and satisfied
Wilson’s concerns regarding a U.S. alliance with an autocratic Russia and allowed
him to claim that the war was being fought to make the world safe for democracy.
• The communists would have been no better for Wilson, but their first order of
business was to withdraw Russia from World War I.
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What was it about the 1920s that seems so important and unique that it deserves a separate chapter? As
with all historical questions, the answer is very much interpretive.
Some historians see the period as essentially one in which Americans became increasingly identified with
consumerism and materialism. Repudiating the reforms associated with the pre-World War I era and
embracing conservatism and even racism and reactionary politics.
• Conservative, pro-business Presidents fostered a climate conducive to business expansion. Easy Credit,
Installment Plan Purchasing, Buying on Margin in the Stock Exchange, and more caused an economic
boom that was propped up on credit and caused massive spikes in personal debt.
• Challenges to the stability of such rampant consumerism were seen as threats (Civil Rights protests,
Communist and Anarchist agitators, job competition from minorities, women, and immigrants were all
frowned upon by mainstream culture).
Other historians see the reaction by more traditional and conservative citizens as a legitimate attempt to
preserve the values they associated with being an American, which was expressed, for example: in nativism
and antimodernism.
• Urbanization, immigration, and the Great Migration were destroying traditional American (rural) values.
What is more, many Americans were responding to what they viewed as an unhealthy expansion of federal
power as a not unexpected consequence of the development and expansion of the American economy.
• The Mellon Tax Plan defined the Conservative approach to shrinking the government through
deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, and a “trickle down” approach to the econmy.
To be sure, this is a sampling of interpretations, but you should be conscious of divergent perspectives, as
well as how many of the issues that shaped an earlier historical period are contemporary concerns as well.
• For example can we find any themes associated with the 1920s (deregulation, consumerism, reactionary
politics, etc.) in the decades of the 1950s or 1980s?
• When studying this period, students are frequently overwhelmed or
confused by the vast assortment of New Deal programs, legislature, and
agencies. You will find that organizing agencies according to the
particular purpose – work relief, agricultural assistance, industrial
regulation, etc. – , by date, or by category – Relief, Recovery, or Reform.
• Important programs include:
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Civilian Conservation Corps
Emergency Bank Act (Bank Holiday)
Agricultural Adjustment Act
National Industrial Recovery Act
Wagner Act (reaffirmed protection of Labor Unions)
Glass-Steagall Act (FDIC)
Social Security Act
Works Progress Administration (Federal Arts Program)
Securities and Exchange Commission
Tennessee Valley Authority
• In order to comprehend the conflict in ideologies that shaped the economic and
political structures of the combatants, the following definitions may be helpful:
• Fascism (Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain): An authoritarian, anti-democratic economic and
political system that subordinates the individual to the needs of the state and national party.
For example, trade unions are outlawed because they promote the interests of laborers, not
of the nation. Obedience to the nation’s leader borders on cult-like
• Communism (The Soviet Union): A social, political, and economic system in which private
ownership of the means of production is controlled by the state. A key objective of
communism is to rid society of class-based interests and the exploitation of the working class
by Capitalist, imperialist, fascist oppressors.
• Democratic-Republicanism (The United States and Great Britain): A political system in which
certain basic rights and privileges are guaranteed to all citizens, who in turn have the right to
elect representatives to serve their interests and those of the nation at various levels of
government.
• Totalitarianism (Germany, Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union): Similar in several respects to a
fascist society, a totalitarian system requires obedience to the leader (cult of personality) and
the needs of the state. Consequently, the government controls most aspects of society, such as
education (state-sponsored brain washing) and the legal system.
• The post-war decades were filled with turmoil, especially the 1960s. In order to
understand this decade better, you need a working knowledge of the countercultural
movements that shaped American domestic life. The decade was characterized by the
rebelliousness of America’s youth in response to what many perceived as the socially
stifling mores and lifestyles of the 1950s:
• Many of the nation’s “Baby Boomers” sought to combat the social ills they saw as fundamentally
undemocratic: racism, poverty, inequality, and American foreign policy (Containment, Brinksmanship,
etc.) – especially in Vietnam. In the early 1960s, for example, Students for a Democratic Society
(SDS) was formed with the intention of democratizing the institutions that shaped American life, such
as universities and the government.
• A new generation of feminists (led by Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem) re-engaged the Women’s
Rights Movement, which worked to raise the consciousness of women themselves and society as a
whole and pressed for profound changes (Equal Pay Act, Equal Rights Amendment, Title IX) in both
social and political life.
• Minority groups began using a variety of methods (Civil Disobedience, Militant Resistance, etc.) to
press for greater freedom and the acknowledgement of basic freedoms provided by the
Constitution. Leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Caesar Chavez, Malcolm X, Russell Means, etc.
provided leadership to the various efforts to gain social, economic, and political freedom.
• The Hippie Movement expressed their pacifist agenda in opposition to the War in Vietnam through
music, new clothing styles, and challenges to traditional social values (Sex, Drugs, and Rock n’ Roll –
Peace and Love). The Haight-Ashbury district became the epicenter of the Hippie Movement and
Woodstock its Mecca. The transformation of the Beatles may be the best example of the Hippie
Movement’s impact on society.
• Who started the Cold War? The responsibility for starting the Cold War has been
an enduring topic of discussion among historians for over half a century.
Predictably, a simple answer is not the case here. For the most part historians are
seriously divided in their analysis of the causes of the Cold War:
• One perspective claims that ideology was at the center of the conflict. That is, there existed an
ideological incompatibility between the United States, which stood for freedom and
democracy, and the Soviet Union, which was grounded in tyranny and imperialism. Thus, the
United States adopted a policy that at the very least would contain the “Evil Empire” or,
possibly, even assist in its demise.
• Another viewpoint is that the Cold War was less an expression of ideology than an objective
by which each power could enhance its national interests. As for the Soviets, they were
practicing the same policies of expansionism and distrust of the outside world as they had
under the tsars. For example, the Soviets often distrusted Nuclear disarmament plans believing
they were meant to trick them and keep them from fulfilling their goal of nuclear parity with
the United States.
• For other historians, the onus for starting the Cold War rests with both the United States and
Soviet Union. The Cold War could have been prevented had it not been for misperceptions,
misguided idealism, and unfounded suspicions.
• A fourth view places the blame for starting the Cold War on the United States. During the
Bolshevik Revolution the U.S. had supported the counterrevolutionaries. The Soviets would
always argue that imperialism was in the nature of Capitalism and distrusted American
objectives as a consequence. This perspective would argue that an aggressive and
exploitative American foreign policy was to blame for the Soviet’s lack of trust in the Western
World.
• Note some of the comparisons that can be drawn between different
periods in United States History. For example, historians have drawn
some parallels between the 1920s and the 1980s.
• Both decades were dominated by political conservatives: (1920s)
Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover (1980s) Reagan and Bush served as
President. The economic approach in the two decades is also similar:
(1920s) The Mellon Tax Plan and (1980s) Supply-Side Economics –
Reaganomics – featured tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations
meant to stimulate capital investment.
• Be careful not to over-play the comparisons between the two
decades as each is unique in its own way, but know that these
similarities do exist.