AP U.S. History - Unit 6 Outline
Modern American Emerges (Progressives, Imperialism, World War I)
QC Standards
College Board Topics
C.2.a. Identify and explain significant issues and components of
the Populist movement and their impacts
C.2.b. Explain the origins and accomplishments of the
Progressive movement
C.2.c. Analyze the efforts to achieve women’s suffrage in the
early twentieth century
C.2.d. Evaluate, take, and defend positions on the various U.S.
foreign policies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries
C.2.e. Analyze the causes and consequences of the SpanishAmerican War
C.2.f. Identify and evaluate the factors that influenced U.S.
imperialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
and the ensuing debate over imperialism
D.1.a. Identify and analyze the causes and significant events of
World War I and their impact; evaluate the impact of the Treaty
of Versailles
o Origins of Progressive reform: municipal, state, and national
o Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson as Progressive presidents
o Women’s roles: family, workplace, education, politics, and
reform
o Black America: urban migration and civil rights initiatives
o American imperialism: political and economic expansion
o War in Europe and American neutrality
o The First World War at home and abroad
o Treaty of Versailles
Chapter Questions, APUSH Thesis Statements, and Key Terms are DUE ON TEST DAY.
Do not wait until the last minute to do your unit assignments!!!
Chapter 27
1. Explain why the United States suddenly abandoned its isolationism and turned outward at the end of the
nineteenth century.
2. Describe the forces pushing for American overseas expansion and the causes of the Spanish-American War.
3. Describe and explain the unintended results of the Spanish-American War, especially the conquest of Puerto Rico
and the Philippines.
4. Explain McKinley’s decision to keep the Philippines, and list the opposing arguments in the debate about
imperialism.
5. Analyze the consequences of the Spanish-American War, including the Filipino rebellion against U.S. rule and the
war to suppress it.
6. Explain the growing U.S. involvement in East Asia, and summarize America’s Open Door policy toward China.
7. Discuss the significance of the pro-imperialist Republican victory in 1900 and the rise of Theodore Roosevelt as a
strong advocate of American power in international affairs.
8. Describe Roosevelt’s assertive policies in Panama and elsewhere in Latin America, and explain why his corollary to
the Monroe Doctrine aroused such controversy.
9. Discuss Roosevelt’s foreign policies and diplomatic achievements, especially regarding Japan.
Chapter 28
10. Discuss the origin, leadership, and goals of progressivism.
11. Describe how the early progressive movement developed at the local and state level and spread to become a
national movement.
12. Describe the major role that women played in progressive social reform, and explain why progressivism meshed
with many goals of the women’s movement.
13. Tell how President Roosevelt began applying progressive principles to the national economy, including his
attention to conservation and consumer protection.
14. Explain why Taft’s policies offended progressives, including Roosevelt.
15. Describe how Roosevelt led a progressive revolt against Taft that openly divided the Republican party.
Chapter 29
16. Discuss the key issues of the pivotal 1912 election and the basic principles of Wilsonian progressivism.
17. Describe how Wilson successfully reformed the “triple wall of privilege.”
18. State the basic features of Wilson’s moralistic foreign policy, and explain how, despite his intentions, it drew him
into intervention in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America.
19. Describe America’s initial neutral response to World War I, Wilson’s increasingly tough policies on Germany’s
submarine warfare, and the sharp political divisions over the prospect of American entry into the war.
20. Explain how Wilson’s progressive domestic agenda and provisionally successful maintenance of American
neutrality enabled him to win a narrow victory in 1916 over still-divided Republicans.
Chapter 30
21. Explain what caused America to enter World War I.
22. Describe how Wilsonian idealism turned the war into an ideological crusade for democracy that inspired public
fervor and suppressed dissent.
23. Discuss America’s mobilization for war and its reliance primarily on voluntary methods rather than government
force.
24. Explain the consequences of World War I for labor, women, and African Americans.
25. Describe America’s participation in the War, and explain why its economic and political importance exceeded its
military contribution to the Allied victory and German defeat.
26. Analyze Wilson’s attempt to forge a peace based on his idealistic Fourteen Points, the political mistakes that
weakened his hand, and the compromises he was forced to make by the other Allied statesmen at Versailles.
27. Discuss how Lodge and others resisted Wilson’s League of Nations, how Wilson’s total refusal to compromise
doomed the Treaty of Versailles, and why Harding’s victory in the election of 1920 became the final death sentence
for the League.
APUSH Practice Thesis Statements
1. Reform - Why did the Progressives believe that strong government action was the only way to tackle the social and
economic problems of industrialization?
2. Reform - How successful were the Progressives? Were the reforms they proposed adequate to deal with the evils
they decried?
3. Reform - Describe the major role that women played in progressive social reform, and explain why progressivism
meshed with many goals of the women’s movement?
4. Globalization - How was American expansionism overseas similar to and different from previous continental
expansion westward?
5. Economic Transformations - Explain how President Roosevelt began applying progressive principles to the national
economy? (conservation and consumer protection)
6. American Identity - Were U.S. actions in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba, China, and the Philippines a violation of
fundamental American ideas of self-government and democracy?
7. War and Diplomacy - Was the U.S. genuinely neutral during the first years of World War I, or was it biased in favor of
the Allies against Germany?
8. War and Diplomacy - Compare and contrast the foreign policies of Presidents McKinley, Taft, Roosevelt, and Wilson.
Illustrate their relationship to imperialism.
Key Terms - For any 60 of the 85 terms listed below, please indicate the most specific date possible relative to the term
and write a clear, concise statement detailing its main idea and significance. Note – all terms on this list are important
and could show up on the AP exam. You should ID the terms you are least familiar with. Key Term ID’s must be hand
written and can be done on paper or notecards.
Jane Addams
Hull House
Nativism
National American Woman Suffrage Association
Carrie Chapman Catt
19th Amendment
Prohibition
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union
Anti-Saloon League
18th Amendment
Imperialism
Venezuelan dispute
Annexation of Hawaii
Spanish-American War
Yellow journalism
Maine
William McKinley
George Dewey
US in the Philippines
Rough Riders
Platt Amendment
US in Puerto Rico
Roosevelt Corollary
Open-Door Policy
Panama Canal
John Hay
Gentlemen’s Agreement
Great White Fleet
Progressivism
Jacob Riis
Socialism
Social Gospel
Muckrakers
Lincoln Steffens
Ida Tarbell
Upton Sinclair
Direct primaries
Initiative
Referendum
17th amendment
Australian (secret) ballot
City-manager system
Robert La Follette
Muller v. Oregon (1908)
Teddy Roosevelt
Square Deal
Interstate Commerce Commission
Trust-busting
Meat Inspection Act
Food and Drug Act
Forest Reserve Act
Gifford Pinchot
William Howard Taft
Dollar Diplomacy
Payne-Aldrich Bill
Bull-Moose Progressives
Election of 1912
Woodrow Wilson
16th Amendment
Federal Trade Commission
Federal Reserve
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
Moralistic/Missionary Diplomacy
Wilson and Mexico
Pancho Villa
Central Powers
Allied Powers
U-boats
Lusitania
Zimmerman Note
Fourteen Points
Propaganda
Espionage and Sedition Acts (1917-1918)
National War Labor Board
Victory gardens
Rationing
Herbert Hoover
Liberty Loans
Russian Revolution/Bolsheviks
Trench warfare
Treaty of Versailles
League of Nations
Henry Cabot Lodge
Isolationism
Election of 1920
MONDAY
1/5
Intro Progressive Overview
Video
1/12
Quiz 28/29 (Progressives)
Topic: Progressives III
In-Class DBQ?
TUESDAY
1/6
1/13 (A)
WEDNESDAY
1/7
Topic: Progressives I
PD: Progressives
1/8
Topic: Progressives II
PD: Roosevelt v. Wilson
HW: Ch.28 (“TRs Square
Deal”-end)
HW: Ch. 29 (until “New
Directions in Foreign Policy”)
Read DBQ PDs
1/14 (B)
1/15
Topic: Imperialism I
PD: Imperialism
FRIDAY
1/9
1/16
HW: Ch. 27 (“Cubans Rise” –
“TR Brandisher of Big Stick”)
HW: Ch. 27 (until “Cubans
Rise in Revolt”)
1/19
THURSDAY
1/20
MLK Day
1/21
Topic: Imperialism II
PD: Spanish-American War
-No school-
1/26
Quiz 29/30 (WW1)
Topic: WWI Conclusions
PD: Treaty of Versailles
1/27
HW: Ch.27 (“TR Big Stick” end)
Ch28. (“Taft-Round Peg”end)
Ch. 29 (“Wilsonian
Progressivism”- end)
1/28
2/2
Exam 5
2/3
2/4
1/22
Quiz 27/28/29 (Imperialism)
Topic: Imperialism III
PD: presidential policy
1/23
HW: Ch. 30 (until “Fighting
France”)
1/29
Review Day
Writing Workshop
1/30
2/5
2/6
MONDAY
1/5
TUESDAY
1/6
Intro to the Progressives
1/12
1/13 (A)
Topic: Progressives II
PD: Roosevelt v. Wilson
HW: Ch. 29 (until “New
Directions in Foreign Policy”)
Read DBQ PDs
1/19
MLK Day
1/20
Topic: Imperialism II
PD: Spanish-American War
WEDNESDAY
1/7
1/14 (B)
Quiz 28/29 (Progressives)
Topic: Progressives III
In-Class DBQ
THURSDAY
1/8
1/15
1/26
2/2
2/3
HW: Ch.28 (“TRs Square
Deal”-end)
1/16
HW: Ch. 27 (“Cubans Rise” –
“TR Brandisher of Big Stick”)
1/22
-No schoolHW: Ch.27 (“TR Big Stick” end)
Ch28. (“Taft-Round Peg”end)
Ch. 29 (“Wilsonian
Progressivism”- end)
1/27
Quiz 29/30 (WW1)
Topic: WWI Conclusions
PD: Treaty of Versailles
1/9
Topic: Progressives I
PD: Progressives
Topic: Imperialism I
PD: Imperialism
HW: Ch. 27 (until “Cubans
Rise in Revolt”)
1/21
FRIDAY
1/23
Quiz 27/28/29 (Imperialism)
Topic: Imperialism III
PD: presidential policy
HW: Ch. 30 (until “Fighting
France”)
1/28
Review Day
Writing Workshop
1/29
1/30
Exam 5
2/4
2/5
2/6