1898 to 1920

Question 1

What is imperialism?

Answer 1

Imperialism is when big countries pick on little countries to steal their raw materials from their lands

Question 2

What happened in Hawaii during the 1890s?

Answer 2

A group of American sugar planters led by Sanford Dole overthrew the Queen of Hawaii. Later, the US annexed Hawaii as a state.

Question 3

Where is the Panama Canal located?

Answer 3

In central America, in between North America and South America

Question 4

Why was the Panama Canal needed?

Answer 4

To decrease the travel time for American ships between the East Coast and the West Coast

Question 5

What benefits did American businesses get from the Panama Canal?

Answer 5

It increased trade between the Western Coast of the USA and Europe.

Question 6

What do factories have to do with the reasons why the US wanted to be imperialist?

Answer 6

Because the USA wanted access to more raw materials available in other lands

Question 7

What benefit did the Americans have (other than more access to raw materials) for being imperialist?

Answer 7

All of the world’s most powerful countries were being imperialist, so if the USA also wanted to be considered a “world power”, they would also need to be imperialist

Question 8

What were the 3 reasons why the USA went to war against Spain during the Spanish-American War in 1898?

Answer 8

1. Because a Spanish government official had called the US President “weak”
2. Because a ship called the U.S.S. Maine exploded, and the US government thought it was Spain
3. Because of yellow journalism

Question 9

What is yellow journalism?

Answer 9

Yellow journalism is the clickbait of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

They had headlines that were intended to get people’s attention so that people would buy more newspapers and read them

Question 10

What territories did the United States take from Spain after Spanish-American War?

Answer 10

1. Philliphines
2. Guam
3. Puerto Rico

Question 11

What does it mean to be a “World Power”?

Answer 11

It means to be one of the most powerful countries in the entire world.

World Powers during the early 1900s would conquer smaller and weaker countries to show how powerful they were.

Question 12

What does the Spanish-American War have to do with the Panama Canal?

Answer 12

During the Spanish-American War, it took months to move ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This caused people to want to build the Panama Canal.

Question 13

What are three important things to know about Alfred T. Mahan

Answer 13

1. He wrote a book about the importance of Naval Power
2. He said that strong countries are going to need a strong navy so they can protect their trade
3. He influenced the American government to build a stronger navy

Question 14

What is the Progressive Era?

Answer 14

Its the time in US History when a lot of the problems of the Gilded Age were starting to be fixed.

Question 15

What happened to the power of the federal government during the Progressive Era?

Answer 15

The federal government’s power expanded, as the government began to regulate the economy more. The period of laissez-faire ended during the Progressive Era.

Question 16

Who were the 3 Presidents during the Progressive Era?

Answer 16

In order, they were:

1. Theodore Roosevelt (1900-1908)
2. William Taft (1909-1912)
3. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1920)

Question 17

How did President Theodore Roosevelt become President?

Answer 17

He was the Vice President to a different President named President McKinley.

President McKinley got shot and died, so that’s how Teddy Roosevelt became President

Question 18

What is the “Bully Pulpit”?

Answer 18

It’s a term that was popularized by Teddy Roosevelt. He said that the Presidency was a bully pulpit since anyone who was President could use the office to talk and convince people to follow their ideas. If a president is using their bully pulpit, it means he is doing a lot of talking.

Question 19

What does the term “Speak softly but carry a big stick” mean?

Answer 19

It was a term created by Teddy Roosevelt. He didn’t want to talk trash about other countries, but if another country wanted to fight, it was important to have a big stick.

The big stick is the US military, especially the navy.

Question 20

Who is a progressive?

Answer 20

A progressive, during the early 1900s in the USA, was someone who wanted the government to regulate the economy more.

Question 21

Who founded the Settlement House Movement and what was it?

Answer 21

Jane Addams founded the Settlement House movement. It provided housing and help to immigrants who came into the USA. It taught them how to read and write as well so that they could find jobs.

Question 22

What was “The Jungle”?

Answer 22

It was a book written by Upton Sinclair. It talked about the dangers of meatpacking factories. Some of those dangers included when factory owners would still sell the meat from cows who died from diseases.

Question 23

What was the effect of the book called “The Jungle”?

Answer 23

It caused the government to regulate the meatpacking industry. The law was called the Food and Drug Act

Question 24

What were the two major effects of the Food and Drug Act?

Answer 24

1. It caused foods and prescription drugs to get regulated by the government to make sure they were safe
2. It forced businesses to properly label foods and prescription drugs, so that people know what they are putting in their bodies.

Question 25

Why did Progressives oppose ideas like Social Darwinism?

Answer 25

Progressives rejected the ideas of Social Darwinism because Social Darwinists said that poor people could never become rich and wealthy since poor people were poor because they were stupid or lazy.

Question 26

What is NAWSA?

Answer 26

It stands for the National American Women’s Suffrage Association. They wanted to give women the right to vote since women weren’t allowed to vote during the early 1900s and for all of American history before then.

Question 27

What does the word “suffrage” mean?

Answer 27

It means having the right to vote. If you are fighting for Black suffrage, then it means you’re fighting for Black people’s right to vote. If you are fighting for women’s suffrage, then it means you’re fighting for women’s right to vote.

Question 28

What were tactics used by the National Women’s Party, in order to get the right to vote?

Answer 28

They would do acts of civil disobedience. This means that they would intentionally break the law, usually by voting, so that they could bring attention to women’s suffrage.

Question 29

Who is Henry Ford?

Answer 29

Henry Ford is someone who created the first car that was widely available for people to drive called “Model T”. He did this by using assembly line production.

Question 30

What is assembly line production?

Answer 30

Assembly line production is a way to make it so that your factory is very efficient and productive. Every person has a specific job to do, and the job is very simple so if the person who is supposed to do the job quits or gets fired, that person can be easily replaced since their job is very simple.

Question 31

What was happening in the South?

Answer 31

White people were terrorizing Black people. Black people who did not respect the laws of White Supremacy were tortured and lynched.

Question 32

What is White Supremacy?

Answer 32

It’s the idea that white people are better than any other people, based on the color of their skin, and that all non-white peoples need to show respect to the dominant white race.

People who believe in White Supremacy are racist.

Question 33

What are “Jim Crow Laws”?

Answer 33

Laws in the South that were preventing Black people from voting.

Question 34

Provide three different examples of Jim Crow laws from US History

Answer 34

1. Grandfather Clause: Where you couldn’t vote unless you could prove your grandpa lived in the USA
2. Poll Taxes: Where you couldn’t vote unless you paid money
3. Literacy Tests: Where you couldn’t vote unless you knew how to read complex things, like the Constitution of the USA

Question 35

What happens to someone who gets lynched?

Answer 35

It means that they get taken away by a group of people and killed. This occurred to mostly Black people, although some Brown people were also lynched, and the most common form of lynching was hanging someone from a rope tied to their neck.

Question 36

How common were lynchings in the South?

Answer 36

Any person of color was in danger of getting lynched in the South if they did not respect the laws of white supremacy. Tens of thousands of people were lynched violently throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

Question 37

What was “The Great Migration”?

Answer 37

It was the movement of Black people out of southern states and into the northern states.

Question 38

Why did the Great Migration occur?

Answer 38

1. Economic opportunities in the form of factories attracted Black people to the North
2. Escaping Jim Crow laws and White Supremacist violence.

Question 39

Who is Booker T. Washington?

Answer 39

Booker T. Washington was a Black Civil Rights leader during the late 1800s and early 1900s who believed that Black people would gain equality by increasing their education and life skills. He believed more effort should focus on having Black people educated, rather than fighting for equality.

Question 40

Who is W.E.B Du Bois?

Answer 40

W.E.B Du Bois was a Black Civil Rights leader during the late 1800s and early 1900s who believed that Black people had a right to equality and demanded that they have those basic rights. He founded a movement called the Niagara movement whose sole purpose was to get full political and economic equality for Black people.

Question 41

How are W.E.B Du Bois and Booker T. Washington similar?

Answer 41

They were both co-founders of the organization called the NAACP. They were both Civil Rights leaders

Question 42

How are Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois different?

Answer 42

Washington didn’t care about equality as much, he just wanted Black people to be left alone so that they could show their potential to the country. However, Du Bois wanted full equality and didn’t care about vocational training, he wanted the rights that Black people were supposed to have under U.S. Law.

Question 43

What is a conservationist?

Answer 43

Someone who wants to protect the environment for future generations to enjoy

Question 44

What does the National Park Service do?

Answer 44

It organizes all of the United States National Parks. This includes parks like the Grand Canyon National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

Question 45

Do Conservationists like National Parks?

Answer 45

Yes, because National Parks help to conserve land for future generations to enjoy.

Question 46

Do Conservationists like National Parks?

Answer 46

Yes, because National Parks help to conserve land for future generations to enjoy.

Question 47

Which Presidents are known for being Conservationists?

Answer 47

1. Theodore Roosevelt - is known as a conservationist because he set aside 230 million acres of US land for conservation.
2. Woodrow Wilson - He created the National Park Service

Question 48

What is direct democracy?

Answer 48

Direct democracy is when the people directly vote, rather than the people’s representatives.

If the teacher asks all of the students in the class to vote, this is a type of Democracy called Direct Democracy.

Question 49

How is Direct Democracy related to progressivism?

Answer 49

It’s related to progressivism because a lot of progressives tried getting voting reforms that made representatives more accountable to the people.

Question 50

What are the three major examples of progressive era voting reform?

Answer 50

1. Recall: allows the general public to remove elected officials through majority vote before their term is over
2. Referendum: allows the general public to challenge laws that are passed by putting them up for a majority vote after they passed
3. Initiative: allows the general public to make their own laws by creating them and putting them up for a majority vote

Question 51

What did the 1916 Child Labor Act do?

Answer 51

It made it illegal to sell products across state lines if those products were made with child labor.

The law was ruled unconstitutional in 1918.

Question 52

What does the Federal Reserve do?

Answer 52

The Federal Reserve prints money and regulates interest rates in the USA. It’s the national bank of the USA.

Question 53

What is the Monroe Doctrine?

Answer 53

WAAAAAAY back in the early 1800s (almost 100 years before this time period we are currently studying) the United States issued this thing called the “Monroe Doctrine”, which said that European countries couldn’t mess with countries in North or South America.

Question 54

What does the Monroe Doctrine have to do with Teddy Roosevelt?

Answer 54

Teddy Roosevelt said that because the Monroe Doctrine said European countries couldn’t mess with countries in North/South America, he could extend the Monroe Doctrine by also saying that if European countries wanted to collect debt money from countries in North/South America they would have to ask the USA to collect it for them.

This is called the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

Question 55

Who is Ida B Wells?

Answer 55

She was a Civil Rights leader who brought attention to the problem of lynchings in the South. She uncovered evidence of tens of thousands of Black people being lynched in the South and published it in newspapers to bring attention to the problem.

Question 56

What was a mass transit vehicle used during the progressive era?

Answer 56

Streetcars. They were big bulky vehicles that ran on wires that could carry lots of people

Question 57

Why did the United States government start spending more money on its Navy?

Answer 57

Because it had to maintain a good amount of ships to support their overseas expansion

Question 58

What is a muckraker?

Answer 58

A group of American writers who exposed all the bad stuff happening in America.

Some people might call them snitches, but they brought to light some serious problems that were happening in America, like lynching, and the meatpacking factories.

Question 59

What is dollar diplomacy?

Answer 59

When William Howard Taft was President, he encouraged American companies to build railroads and other infrastructure in countries like China. This was to also improve diplomatic relations with countries around the world.

Question 60

What did the 18th amendment do?

Answer 60

It banned Alcohol.

This is because a lot of men would drink alcohol and then come home drunk and beat their kids and wife. As a result, even though women couldn’t vote at the time, they convinced a lot of people to pass the amendment to the constitution.

Question 61

What did the 19th amendment do?

Answer 61

Passed after the 18th amendment, it gave women the right to vote.