AP US History 7.1-7.2: Imperialism and Progressivism

American imperialism

The exercise of United States political, economic, military, or cultural power beyond its borders. It has included both direct territorial conquest and indirect influence through alliances, aid, trade, sanctions, regime change, military bases, corporations, and soft power.

How did the methods of U.S. expansion change from the 19th century to the 20th century?

In the 19th century, expansion relied heavily on territorial conquest, settlement, and colonialism. Later, the United States increasingly influenced other countries without formally annexing them, using military interventions, alliances, economic pressure, aid, covert operations, and cultural influence.

Manifest destiny

A 19th-century belief that the United States was destined to expand across North America. It was used to justify settlement, territorial acquisition, war, and the displacement of Native American peoples.

How did the closing of the frontier affect debates about U.S. expansion?

The 1890 census announcement that the unsettled frontier had effectively disappeared encouraged some Americans to seek new outlets for expansion overseas. Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis argued that the frontier had shaped American democracy and character, making its closure a significant national development.

What was the Monroe Doctrine, and how did it support U.S. influence?

Announced in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine opposed new European intervention or colonization in the Western Hemisphere. It provided a rationale for treating Latin America and the Caribbean as areas of special U.S. strategic influence.

Louisiana Purchase

The 1803 transfer of approximately 828,000 square miles of territory claimed by France to the United States. It greatly expanded U.S. territory west of the Mississippi River.

What territorial gains resulted from the Mexican-American War?

The United States annexed about 525,000 square miles of Mexican territory between 1846 and 1848, extending U.S. control from Texas to the Pacific coast.

Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized the forced relocation of Native American communities west of the Mississippi River. The resulting Trail of Tears displaced about 60,000 people and caused approximately 16,700 deaths according to the source.

How did U.S. expansion affect Native American sovereignty and landholding?

The United States repeatedly undermined Native sovereignty through warfare, settlement, unequal or broken treaties, forced relocation, and land policies. The Dawes Act of 1887 replaced many communal land systems with individual allotments, contributing to the loss of roughly 100 million acres by 1934.

How did the discovery of gold intensify U.S. expansion and violence in the West?

Gold discoveries attracted settlers, miners, and government interest to Native-claimed lands. In California and the Great Plains, settlement surges contributed to warfare, forced displacement, massacres, and the seizure or reduction of Native territories.

What was the significance of the Great Sioux Reservation and the Black Hills?

The Treaty of Fort Laramie created a Great Sioux Reservation after Native resistance in Red Cloud's War. The discovery of gold in the Black Hills brought settlers into the area, and the United States eventually defeated Native resistance and divided the reservation.

How did the United States participate in overseas colonization before the 1890s?

The American Colonization Society sponsored the migration of free Black Americans to West Africa and helped establish Liberia, which became independent in 1847. Private adventurers such as William Walker also attempted, unsuccessfully, to establish colonies or political control in Central America.

New Imperialism

The late-19th-century period when major powers rapidly expanded overseas territorial control. The United States joined this broader trend through annexations and interventions in places such as Hawaii, Cuba, the Philippines, and Pacific islands.

What motives were used to justify U.S. imperialism in the late 19th century?

Supporters cited national security, preventing European intervention, expanding trade and markets, protecting investments, spreading Christianity or civilization, and racial ideas associated with Anglo-Saxon superiority and Social Darwinism.

What role did racism and cultural paternalism play in American imperialism?

Some imperialists argued that Anglo-Saxon peoples were racially superior and had a duty to civilize or Christianize other societies. These ideas helped portray foreign control as beneficial even when it restricted local sovereignty.

How did economic interests encourage American imperialism?

Industrial expansion created pressure for access to foreign markets, raw materials, investment opportunities, and trade routes. U.S. involvement particularly supported commercial interests in sugar, pineapple, bananas, oil, and other strategic industries.

What factors contributed to the Spanish-American War?

Cuban resistance to Spanish rule, American sympathy for Cuban independence, sensationalist reporting, economic interests, and anger over the USS Maine explosion increased pressure for war. President William McKinley eventually requested congressional authorization to intervene.

What were the major results of the Spanish-American War?

The United States defeated Spain in 1898, gained control of Puerto Rico and Guam, acquired the Philippines through the Treaty of Paris, and established a temporary occupation of Cuba. The war marked a major expansion of U.S. influence beyond North America.

What did the Treaty of Paris of 1898 accomplish?

The treaty ended the Spanish-American War. Spain relinquished Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States, and transferred the Philippines to the United States in exchange for $20 million.

What was the debate over U.S. annexation of the Philippines?

Imperialists argued that the Philippines would provide strategic bases, commercial opportunities, and a chance to spread American institutions. Anti-imperialists opposed colonial rule as inconsistent with self-government, consent, and the principles of the Declaration of Independence.

Big Stick diplomacy

A strategy associated with Theodore Roosevelt that emphasized maintaining the ability to use military force while negotiating from a position of strength. It supported an assertive U.S. role in the Western Hemisphere and overseas.

Roosevelt Corollary

An expansion of the Monroe Doctrine that claimed the United States could intervene in Latin American countries when instability or financial problems might invite European involvement. It provided a rationale for repeated U.S. interventions in the region.

What was the U.S. relationship with Cuba after the Spanish-American War?

Cuba became formally independent in 1898, but the United States retained substantial political and economic influence. The 1901 Platt Amendment restricted Cuba's foreign agreements and granted the United States the right to establish naval stations there.

Platt Amendment

A 1901 measure that limited Cuba's diplomatic independence and authorized U.S. intervention in Cuban affairs. It also permitted the United States to establish naval bases on Cuban territory.

How did the United States govern the Philippines after acquiring the islands from Spain?

U.S. rule was challenged by Filipino revolutionaries in the Philippine-American War, which ended the short-lived Philippine Republic. Even after independence in 1946, the United States continued to exert influence through military bases, economic agreements, and covert political operations.

What was the significance of the Philippine-American War?

Filipino forces led by Emilio Aguinaldo fought U.S. control after Spain transferred the Philippines to the United States. The conflict demonstrated that American imperialism required suppressing an independence movement and exposed the contradiction between U.S. claims to support liberty and its colonial rule.

How did the Bell Trade Act limit Philippine economic independence?

The act allowed U.S. import quotas to restrict Philippine goods competing with U.S. products and required equal access for U.S. citizens and corporations to Philippine natural resources. These provisions made formal independence economically constrained.

What events led to Hawaii becoming a U.S. state?

U.S. commercial and strategic interests grew in Hawaii, especially around sugar exports and Pacific access. Queen Lili'uokalani was overthrown in 1893 with support from U.S. forces; Hawaii became a U.S. territory and later achieved statehood in 1959.

What was the territorial status of regions acquired or controlled by the United States?

Some acquired territories eventually became states, such as Hawaii in 1959, with residents gaining full citizenship and representation within the federal system. Others remained territories, including Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands, while several former territories later became independent.

American exceptionalism

The belief that the United States has a unique political mission or moral character, often linked to democracy, liberty, and national destiny. It has been used both to justify overseas intervention and to criticize intervention as inconsistent with American ideals.

Why have critics considered American imperialism inconsistent with U.S. political ideals?

Critics point to the contradiction between a nation founded in rebellion against an overseas ruler and policies that imposed control on other peoples. They also argue that military intervention, colonial rule, and political manipulation conflict with democracy, freedom, self-determination, and national independence.

What is the distinction between the United States as an empire and the United States as a hegemon?

Those who call the United States an empire emphasize its territorial possessions, interventions, bases, economic control, and political influence abroad. Those who prefer the term hegemon stress that much of U.S. dominance is exercised indirectly through alliances, institutions, markets, and cultural power rather than through formal colonial rule.