Exam2USHist

Question 1

19. Know the conditions proposed by President McKinley to avoid war with the Spanish government.—

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Answer 1

While many Americans wanted retribution for the Maine, McKinley still hoped to avoid a conflict. In March 1898, the president notified the Spanish government of his conditions for avoiding war: Spain would pay an indemnity for the Maine, abandon its concentration camp policy, end the fighting with the Cuban rebels, and commit itself to Cuban independence.

Question 2

18. Why was the United States battleship Maine in Havana harbor?

Answer 2

In order to sell newspapers to the public before and during the Spanish-American War, publishers William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer engaged in blatant sensationalizing of the news, which became known as “yellow journalism.” Although it did not cause the war with Spain, it helped turn U.S. public opinion against Spain’s actions in Cuba. Due to the civil strife between the Cubans and the Spanish government, President McKinley sent the Maine into Havana harbor in ate 1897 to protect U.S. citizens and property from supposed Spanish loyalists’ attacks. The battleship exploded in the harbor leading to its destruction and crew deaths. Americans were certain that the Spanish had sunk the ship, particularly after a hastily assembled naval court of inquiry declared inaccurately that an external explosion by a submarine mine had caused the disaster. Later evidence established that the incident occurred as a result of an accidental explosion in the engine.

Question 3

17. Know the reasons for the U.S. to annex/not annex Hawaii (include Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor). Know the military importance of the Samoan Islands.—

Answer 3

The debate over Hawaiian annexation, continuing through the 1890s, foreshadowed the later debate over the treaty to end the Spanish-American War. People in favor of annexation pointed to Hawaii’s strategic location, argued that Japan or other powers might seize the islands if the United States did not, and suggested that Americans had a responsibility to civilize and Christianize the native Hawaiians. Opponents warned that annexation might lead to a colonial army and colonial problems, the inclusion of a “mongrel” population in the United States, and rule over an area not destined for statehood. While annexation of Hawaii represented a step toward China, the Samoan Islands, three thousand miles to the south, offered a strategic location astride the sea-lanes of the South Pacific. Americans showed early interest in Samoa, and in 1872, a naval officer negotiated a treaty granting the United States the use of Pago Pago, a splendid harbor on one of its islands.

Question 4

How did the United States come into the possession of Hawaii? Who was the last king of Hawaii?—

Answer 4

The islands of Hawaii offered a tempting way station to Asian markets. In the early 1800s, they were already called the “Crossroads of the Pacific,” and trading ships of many nations stopped there. In 1820, the first American missionaries arrived to convert the islanders to Christianity. After the Civil War, the United States tightened its connections with the islands. The reciprocity treaty of 1875 allowed Hawaiian sugar to enter the United States free of duty (A government tax, especially on imports.). The treaty bound the Hawaiian monarchy to make no territorial or economic concessions to other powers. The treaty increased Hawaiian economic dependence on the United States; its political clauses effectively made Hawaii an American protectorate (colony). In 1887, a new treaty reaffirmed these arrangements and granted the United States exclusive use of Pearl Harbor, a magnificent harbor that had early caught the eye of naval strategists. *King Kalakaua passed away in 1891 and he was succeeded to the throne by his sister, Queen Liliuokalani. She was a strong-willed nationalist who was resentful of white minority rule and decreed a new constitution that gave greater power to native Hawaiians. The first step toward American annexation of Hawaii came in 1893 when Queen Liliuokalani was removed fro the throne. Hawaii was annexed to the United States as a possession in 1898 and became a U.S. territory in 1900.

Question 5

Know the different theories used to justify American expansionism.—

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Answer 5

Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution when applied to human and social development seemed to call for the triumph of the fit and the elimination of the unfit. John Fiske argued that Anglo-Saxon racial superiority was the result of the process of natural selection. Josiah Strong called on foreign missions to civilize the world under the Anglo-Saxon races. The “biogenetic law” formulated by German biologist Ernst Haeckel suggested that the development of the race paralleled the development of the individual. Primitive peoples were in the arrested stages of childhood or adolescence, requiring supervision and protection. John W. Burgess, a professor of political science at Columbia University taught that people of English origin were destined to impose their political institutions on the world.

Question 6

14. Know the definition of imperialism

Answer 6

In the 1870s and after, Americans began to take an increasing interest in events abroad. There was a growing sense of internationalism, which stemmed in part from the telegraphs, telephones, and undersea cables that kept people better informed about political and economic developments in distant lands. Many Americans continued to be interested in expansion of the country’s borders; relatively few were interested in imperialism. Expansion meant the kind of growth that had brough California and Oregon into the American system. *Imperialism meant the imposition of control over other peoples through annexation, military conquest, or economic domination.

Question 7

13. How did the Presidency of William McKinley differ from that of Grover Cleveland? Did he have a successful second term as President?—
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Answer 7

McKinley and the Republicans basked in the glow of victory following the election of 1896. They became the party of progress and prosperity, an image that helped them win victories until another depression hit in the 1930s. McKinley’s popularity soared. Open and accessible, in contrast to Cleveland’s isolation, he rode the Washington streetcars, walked the streets, and enjoyed looking in department store windows. Cleveland’s special police barracks vanished from the White House lawn. McKinley became the first president to ride in an automobile, reaching the speed of 18 miles an hour. An activist president, he set the policies of the administration. He maintained close ties with Congress, struck new relations with the press, and traveled far more than previous presidents. In 1898 and 1899, the McKinley administration focused on the war with Spain, the peace treaty that followed, and the dawning realization that the war had thrust the United States into a position of world power. Six months into his second term, McKinley was shot September 6, 1901 as he stood in a receiving line at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York by anarchist, Leon Czolgosz. He died eight days later.Czolgosz claimed to have killed McKinley because he was the head of what he thought was a corrupt government. (www.history.com

Question 8

12. Know the cause of the Pullman Strike (1894). How did the strike end?

Answer 8

Beginning in May 1894, this strike of employees at the Pullman Palace Car Company near Chicago was one of the largest strikes in American history. Workers struck to protest wage cuts, high rents for company housing, and layoffs; the American Railway Union, led by Eugene V. Debs, joined the strike in June. Extending into twenty-seven states and territories, it effectively paralyzed the western half of the nation. President Grover Cleveland secured an injunction to break the strike on the grounds that it obstructed the mail and sent federal troops to enforce it. The Supreme Court upheld the use of the injunction in “In re Debs” (1895).

Question 9

11. Know the original names of the Northwestern Alliance and the Southern Alliance. What occupations were allowed to join the Southern Alliance? On what points did the Northern Alliance disagree with the Southern Alliance?—

Answer 9

Originally a social organization for farmers, the Grange lost many of its members as it turned more and more toward politics in the late 1870s. In its place, a multitude of farm societies sprang into existence. By the end of the 1880s, they had formed into two major organizations: the National Farmers’ Alliance, located on the Plains west of the Mississippi and known as the Northwestern Alliance, and the Farmer’s Alliance and Industrial Union, based in the South and known as the Southern Alliance. It welcomed to membership the farmer’s “natural friends”—country doctors, schoolteachers, preachers, and mechanics. It excluded lawyers, bankers, cotton merchants, and warehouse operators. On the Plains, the Northwestern Alliance, a smaller organization, was formed in 1880. It objectives were similar to those of the Southern Alliance, but it disagreed with the Southerners’ emphasis on secrecy, centralized control, and separate organizations for Blacks. In 1889, the Southern Alliance changed its name to the National Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial union and persuaded the three strongest state alliances on the Plains—those in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Kansas—to join. Thereafter, the renamed organization dominated the Alliance movement.

Question 10

10. How did the court case , United States v. E. C. Knight Co. (1895), weaken the Sherman Antitrust Act?

Answer 10

With the end of the “disappearing quorum” by the Democrats to block Republican-sponsored laws, law after law poured out of the Republican Congress during 1890: McKinley Tariff Act, Dependent Pensions Act, Sherman Antitrust Act, and the Sherman Silver purchase Act. *One of the most important laws Congress passed, The Sherman Antitrust Act made the United States virtually the only industrial nation to regulate business combinations. It tried to harness big business without harming it. The Justice Department rarely filed suit under it, and in the United States v. E. C. Knight decision (1895), the first judicial interpretation of the law, the Supreme Court severely crippled it. Though the E. C. Knight Co. controlled 98% of all sugar refining in the country, the Court drew a sharp distinction between commerce and manufacturing, holding that the company, as a manufacturer, was not subject to the law.

Question 11

9. Describe the presidency of Grover Cleveland.—

Answer 11

The first Democratic president since 1861, Cleveland was slow and ponderous, known for his honesty, stubbornness, and hard work. His term in the White House from
1885 to 1889 reflected the Democratic party’s desire to curtail federal activities. Cleveland vetoed more than two-thirds of the bills presented to him, more than all his predecessors combined. Forthright and sincere, he brought a new respectability to a Democratic party still tainted by its link with secession. Working long into the night, he reviewed veterans’ pensions and civil service appointments. He continued Arthur’s naval construction program and forced railroad, lumber, and cattle companies to surrender millions of acres of fraudulently occupied public domain. Late in 1887, he devoted his annual message to an attack on the tariff, “the vicious, inequitable, and illogical source of unnecessary taxation,” and committed himself and the Democratic party to lowering the tariff.

Question 12

8. What was the Pendleton Act

Answer 12

As a result of the death of Garfield, Congress passed the Pendleton Act to reform civil service. The act created bipartisan Civil Service Commission to administer competitive examinations and appoint officeholders on the basis of merit. Initially, the act affected only about 14,000 of some 100,000government offices, but it laid the basis for the later expansion of the civil service.

Question 13

7. What happened to James A. Garfield?—

Answer 13

Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican), James A. Garfield (Republican), Chester A. Arthur (Republican), Grover Cleveland (Democrat), and Benjamin Harrison (Republican) served as President between 1877-1893. None of these men were charismatic leaders, but circumstances, more than personal qualities, explain why none of these presidents made a larger mark on history. *The president’s most demanding job was to dispense political patronage. Under the spoils system, government jobs were treated as rewards for those who had served the winning party. Reform of this system became urgent after President Garfield was shot July 2, 1881 as he was leaving for a vacation in New England. Charles J. Guiteau, a deranged lawyer and disappointed office seeker, shot Garfield in the back. Suffering through the summer, Garfield died on September 19, 1881 and was succeeded by Vice-President, Chester A. Arthur

Question 14

6. What did Rutherford B. Hayes bring to the office of President?

Answer 14

In the aftermath of Reconstruction, Rutherford B. Hayes admirably embodied the “party of morality.” He brought to the White House in 1877 a new style of uprightness, a sharp contrast to the graft and corruption of the Grant administration. The son of an Ohio farmer, Hayes entered politics as a Whig, but became one of the early Republicans, was wounded four times in the civil war, and was promoted to Major-General. As a member of the House of Representatives for one term (1865-1867), he supported the congressional Reconstruction program. Elected governor of Ohio, he served three terms. Hayes’s presidency suffered from the manner of his election. He was derided as the “de facto President” and “His Fraudulence” and did not pursue a second term.

Question 15

5. How did the Panic of 1873 affect the country after the Civil War?

Answer 15

The depression raised the “money question” that continued to come up for twenty years. At the root of this issue was a long period of deflation following the Civil War. Price levels dropped because the production of goods was growing faster then the supply of money. Farmers are not necessarily hurt by a general deflation if all prices fall equally and farmers debt levels are low. Wheat, corn, and cotton prices, however, declined more than other prices in the late 19th century, and farmers also had borrowed heavily to expand production. They were thus caught in a debt squeeze—their mortgage payments remained high while the prices they received fell.

Question 16

4. Know the Supreme Court case of 1877 that supported Illinois and the 1886 case that weakened the 1877 decision. Know the wording of the decisions.—

Answer 16

In the important case of Munn v. Illinois (1877), the Supreme Court upheld the Illinois legislation, declaring that private property “affected with the public interest…must submit to being controlled by the public for the common good.” But the Court soon weakened that judgement. In the Wabash case of 1886 (Wabash, St. Louis, & Pacific Railway Co. v. Illinois), it narrowed the Munn ruling and held that states could not regulate commerce extending beyond their borders. Only Congress could.—The Wabash decision turned people’s attention back to the federal government. It spurred Congress to pass the Interstate Commerce Act (1877), which created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to investigate and oversee railroad activities.

Question 17

3. How did the state of Illinois respond to unfair railroad practices in 1870?—

Answer 17

Across the country, state bureaus and commissions were established to regulate the new industrial society. Most of the early commissions were advisory in nature. These commissions, experimental in nature, served as models for later policy at the federal level. Illinois had one of the most thoroughgoing provisions. Responding to local merchants who were upset with existing railroad rate policies, the Illinois state constitution of 1870 declared railroads to be public highways and authorized the legislature to pass laws establishing maximum rates and preventing rate discrimination.

Question 18

2. Know the “doubtful states” and their role in the election process.

Answer 18

In national elections, sixteen states, mostly in New England and the North, consistently voted Republican; fourteen states, mostly in the south, consistently voted Democratic. Elections, therefore, depended on a handful of “doubtful” states, which could swing elections either way. These states—New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois—received special attention at election time. Politicians lavished money and time on them; presidential candidates usually came from them. From 1868 to 1912, eight of the nine Republican presidential candidates and six of the seven Democratic candidates came from the “doubtful” states, especially New York and Ohio.

Question 19

1. Know the difference of the role of government between the Democrats and Republicans.—

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Answer 19

While Democrats wanted to keep government local and small, the Republicans pursued policies for the nation as a whole, in which government was an instrument to promote moral progress and material wealth.

Question 20

20. Know the Black military units that fought in Cuba. Know the battle assists they made to the war effort. How did Theodore Roosevelt and white America react to their service?—

Answer 20

The 9th and 10th Negro Cavalries played a key role in clearing away Spanish fortifications on Kettle Hill and allowed Roosevelt’s Rough Riders to make the charge. The 24th and 25th Negro Infantry Regiments performed equally important tasks in the U.S. Army’s taking of the adjacent San Juan Hill. One of Roosevelt’s men commented: “If it had not been for the Negro cavalry, the Rough Riders would have been exterminated.” As Roosevelt’s political ambitions grew, his praise for the Black soldiers diminished. Despite the men’s contributions to the war effort, white America was not ready to embrace the idea of Black equality.

Question 21

40. What were the goals of President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points? Was it successful?—

Answer 21

In January 1918, President Wilson presented these terms for a far-reaching, nonpunitive settlement of World War I. He called, among other things, for removal of barriers to trade, open peace accords, reduction of armaments (weapons and supplies of war), and the establishment of a League of Nations. While generous and optimistic, the Points did not satisfy wartime hunger for revenge and thus were largely rejected by European nations.

Question 22

39. Know the cause of the Houston Riot of 1917.

Answer 22

Black soldiers in training camps were often subjected to insults, harassment, and even beatings. On August 23, 1917, African American troops in Houston, Texas retaliated to police brutality by seizing weapons and killing seventeen local whites. After a speedy trial, thirteen soldiers were quickly executed December 11, 1917 without being allowed to appeal to the War Department, or President Wilson. Forty-one were sentenced to life imprisonment

Question 23

Know the three situations that led to America’s entry into the war.—

Answer 23

German U-boats (submarines) sank all ships—passenger or merchant, neutral or belligerent (hostile), armed or unarmed—in the waters around England and France. On February 25, the British government privately gave Wilson a telegram intercepted from Arthur Zimmerman, the German foreign minister to the German ambassador in Mexico. It proposed an alliance with Mexico in case of war with the United States, offering financial support and recovery of Mexico’s “lost territory” in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. On March 9, 1917, Wilson ordered merchant ships armed on his own authority. Three days later, he announced the arming, and on March 13, the nave instructed all vessels to fire on submarines. Between March 12 and March 21, U-boats sank five American ships, and Wilson decided to wait no longer. He called Congress into special session and at 8:30 in the evening on April 2, 1917, he asked for a declaration of war.

Question 24

37. Know the incident that began WWI. Know the countries that made up the Central Powers and the Allied Powers. Know the American position in this conflict.

Answer 24

On June 28, 1914, a Bosnian assassin linked to Serbia murdered Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Within weeks, Germany, Turkey, and Austria-Hungary (the Central Powers) were at war with England, France, and Russia (the Allied Powers). Americans were shocked at the events. Wilson immediately proclaimed neutrality and asked Americans to remain “impartial in thought as well as in action.”

Question 25

36. Know the similarities/differences in the political views of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson in the Election of 1912.—

Answer 25

In the New Nationalism (Roosevelt) and the New Freedom (Wilson), the election of 1912 offered competing philosophies of government. Both Roosevelt and Wilson saw the central problem of the American nation as economic growth and its effect on individuals and society. Both focused on the government’s relation to business, both believed in bureaucratic reform, and both wanted to use government to protect the ordinary citizen. But Roosevelt welcomed federal power, national planning, and business growth; Wilson distrusted them all.

Question 26

35. According to Roosevelt, what role did government play in disputes involving labor?

Answer 26

More and more, Roosevelt saw the federal government as an honest and impartial “broker” between powerful elements of society. rather than leaning toward labor, he pursued a middle way to curb corporate and labor abuses, abolish privilege, and enlarge individual opportunity. Conservative by temperament, he sometimes backed reforms in part to head off more radical measures.

Question 27

34. How did the reformers make government more responsive to the will of the people? (hint: initiative, referendum, recall, Seventeenth Amendment, and the direct primary)—

Answer 27

To the progressives, commissions offered a way to end the corrupt alliance between business and politics. There was another way too, and that was to “democratize” government by reducing the power of politicians and increasing the influence of the electorate. To do that, progressives backed three measures to make officeholders responsive to popular will: the initiative, which allowed voters to propose new laws; the referendum which allowed voters to accept, or reject a law at the ballot box; and the recall, which gave them a way to remove an elected official from office. Congress added the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution to provide for the direct election of U.S. Senators. By 1916, all but three states had direct primaries which allowed the people, rather than nominating conventions to choose candidates for office.

Question 28

33. What was the reason women used to justify their right to the vote?–

Answer 28

?–Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul, and others made a major change in the argument for woman suffrage. When the campaign began in the nineteenth century, suffragists had claimed the vote as a natural right, owed to women as much as men. Now, they stressed a pragmatic argument: Since women were more sensitive to moral issues than men, they would use their votes to help create a better society. They would support temperance, clean government, laws to protect workers, and other reforms. This argument attracted many progressives who believed the women’s vote would purify politics.

Question 29

32. How did alcohol affect workers? Know the three ways reformers and their allies fought against alcohol abuse.

Answer 29

Working in city neighborhoods, social justice reformers were struck by the degree to which alcohol affected the lives of the people they were trying to help. Workers drank away their wages; some men spent more time at the saloon than at home. Drunkenness caused violence, and it angered employers who did not want intoxicated workers on the job. In countless ways, alcohol wasted human resources, the reformers believed, and along with business leaders, ministers, and others, they launched a crusade to remove the evils of drink from American life. At the head of the crusade was the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).In 1893, it was joined by the Anti-Saloon League, and together the groups pressed to abolish alcohol and the places where it was consumed. In the midst of the moral fervor of WWI, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors, took effect in January 1920.

Question 30

31. What was the social-justice movement and who were its supporters? Where did they apply pressure for better social conditions? How did this affect the focus of social-service casework?—

Answer 30

Ministers, intellectuals, social workers and lawyers joined in a social-justice movement that focused national attention on the need for tenement house laws, more stringent child labor legislation, and better working conditions for women. They brought pressure on municipal agencies for more and better parks, playgrounds, day nurseries, schools, and community services. Blending private and public action, settlement leaders turned increasingly to government aid. Social-justice reformers were more interested in social cures than individual charity. Unlike earlier reformers, they saw problems as endless and interrelated; individual became part of a city’s larger patterns. With that insight, social-service casework shifted from a focus on an individual’s well-being to a scientific analysis of neighborhoods, occupations, and classes.

Question 31

30. Know the belief structure of the progressives.—

Answer 31

Progressives believed in a better world and in the ability of people to achieve it. They paid to people (a friend said of social reformer Florence Kelley) “the high compliment of believing that once they knew the truth, they would act upon it.” Progress depended on knowledge. The progressives stressed individual morality and collective action, the scientific method, and the value of expert opinion. Like contemporary business leaders, they valued system, planning, management, and predictability. They wanted not only reform but efficiency.

Question 32

29. How did Progressivism influence the political, intellectual, and cultural aspects of society?—

Answer 32

In one way or another, progressivism touched all aspects of society. Politically, it fostered a reform movement that sought cures for the problems of city, state, and nation. Intellectually, it drew on the expertise of the new social sciences and reflected a shift from older absolutes such as religion to newer schools of thought that emphasized relativism and the role of the environment in human development. Culturally, it inspired fresh modes of expression in dance, film, painting, literature, and architecture. Touching individuals in different ways, progressivism became a set of attitudes as well s a definable movement.

Question 33

28. What was the cause of the of the Boxer Rebellion?—

Answer 33

The U.S. enjoyed the right to advance its commercial interests anywhere in the world on terms equal to those of other imperialist nations by virtue of the Open Door Policy. The Chinese marketplace was too important to lose. Nationalist rebellion (the Chinese wanting to preserve China from foreign influence) threatened to prevent all outsiders’ plans to end Chinese sovereignty (independence). An anti-foreign society known as the Harmonious Righteous Fists (“Boxers” to the rest of the world) rioted repeatedly in 1898 and 1899 in protest against the foreign occupation of their country. In 1899 they succeeded in controlling the capital city of Beijing and surrounding all of the foreign embassies. The Boxer Rebellion dramatized the surging wave of nationalism affecting increasing numbers of Chinese resentful of the foreign occupation and exploitation of their country and people and destruction of their culture.

Question 34

What was the open door policy?

Answer 34

27. Poised in the Philippines, The United States had become an Asian power on the doorstep of China. Weakened by years of warfare, China in 1898 and 1899 was unable to resist foreign influence. Japan, England, France, Germany, and Russia eyed it covetously, dividing up parts of the country into “spheres of influence.” President McKinley first outlined a new China policy in September 1898 when he said Americans sought more trade, “but we seek no advantages in the Orient which are not common to all. In September 1899, Secretary of State John Hay addressed diplomatic notes to England, Germany, and Russia, and later to France, Japan, and Italy asking them to join the United States in establishing the Open Door Policy. *This policy urged three agreements: Nations possessing a sphere of influence would respect the rights and privileges of other nations in that sphere; the Chinese government would continue to collect tariff duties in all spheres; and nations would not discriminate against other nations in levying port dues and railroad rates within their respective spheres of influence. Under the Open Door Policy, the United States would retain many commercial advantages it might lose if China was partitioned into spheres of influence.

Question 35

26. What happened to Cuba as a result of the Platt Amendment?—

Answer 35

Cuba proved a trickier matter. McKinley asserted the authority of the United States over conquered territory and promised to govern the island until the Cubans had established a firm and stable government of their own. Known as the Platt Amendment to the new Cuban Constitution, the provisions stipulated that Cuba should make no treaties with other powers that might impair its independence, acquire no debts it could not pay, and lease naval bases such as Guantanamo Bay to the United States. Most important, the amendment empowered the United States to intervene in Cuba to maintain orderly government. Between 1898 and 1902, the American military government worked hard for the economic and political revival of the island, though it often demonstrated a paternalistic attitude toward the Cubans themselves. Most troops withdrew at the end of 1899, but a small occupation force remained until May 1902. When it sailed for home, the Cubans at last had a form of independence, but they were still under the clear domination of their neighbor to the north.

Question 36

25. What happened to Puerto Rico as a result of the Foraker Act of 1900?

Answer 36

Unlike the Filipinos, Puerto Ricans readily accepted the wars outcome, and McKinley early withdrew troops from the island. The Foraker Act of 1900
Established civil government in Puerto Rico. It organized the island as a territory, made its residents citizens of Puerto Rico (U.S. citizenship was extended to them in 1917), and empowered the president to appoint a governor general and a council to serve as the upper house of the legislature. A lower house of the delegates was to be elected

Question 37

24. What did the Supreme Court rule in the cases of De Lima v. Bidwell, Dooley v. U.S., and Downes v. Bidwell?

Answer 37

In a series of cases between 1901 and 1904, the Supreme Court asserted the principle that the Constitution did not automatically and immediately apply to the people of an annexed territory and did not confer upon them all the privileges of U.S. citizenship. Instead, Congress could specifically extend such constitutional provisions as it saw fit.

Question 38

23. Know the three concerns Americans had regarding the political status of the Philippines, Guam, Alaska, and Puerto Rico.—

Answer 38

Some people contended that acquisition did not automatically incorporate the new possessions into the United States and endow them with constitutional privileges. Others argued that “the Constitution followed the flag,” meaning that acquisition made the possessions part of the nation and thus entitled them to all constitutional guarantees. A third group suggested that only “fundamental” constitutional guarantees—citizenship, the right to vote, and the right to trial by jury—not “formal” privileges—the right to use American currency, the right to be taxed, and the right to run for the presidency—were applicable to the new nation.

Question 39

22. What was the role of Filipino revolutionary Emilio Aguinaldo in the Spanish-American War?

Answer 39

Aguinaldo’s forces helped the Americans drive Spain out of the Philippines, expecting that the United States would recognize Filipino independence. When the United States failed to do so, Aguinaldo led his forces in warfare against the Americans. He was later captured and forced to sign a proclamation urging his people to end the fighting. Some guerillas held out for another year, but to no avail. On
July 4, 1901, authority was transferred from the army to a special Philippine Commission headed by William Howard Taft who was named civilian governor of the islands. President McKinley reaffirmed his purpose to grant the Filipinos self-government as soon as they were deemed ready for it.

Question 40

21. What was the response of Charles Francis Adams, Jr., William Jennings Bryan, E.L. Godkin/George F. Hoar, William James, Andrew Carnegie, and Booker T. Washington to America’s acquisition of the Philippines?—

Answer 40

Charles Francis Adams, Jr., warned that the possession of colonies meant big armies, government, and debts. Bryan scoffed at the argument that colonies were good for trade, pointing out, “It is not necessary to own people to trade with them.” E.L. Godkin, the editor of The Nation; George F. Hoar, a leading Republican senator; and many others thought there was no way to reconcile the country’s republican ideals with the practice of keeping people under heel abroad. William James, the psychologist, said America was about to “puke up its heritage.” Unless the Philippines were freed, Americans would rob Filipinos of “the one sacred thing in the world, the spontaneous budding of a national life.” To Booker T. Washington, the country had more important things to think about at home, including its treatment of Indians and Blacks. Carnegie was so upset that he offered to buy Filipino independence with a personal check for $20 million. He was sure that keeping the Philippines would divert attention from industrial development to foreign adventure, would glorify physical force, and would lead to a war against the Filipinos themselves, in which American soldiers who had signed up “to fight the oppressor” would end up “shooting down the oppressed.”

Question 41

19. Know the conditions proposed by President McKinley to avoid war with the Spanish government.—

Answer 41

While many Americans wanted retribution for the Maine, McKinley still hoped to avoid a conflict. In March 1898, the president notified the Spanish government of his conditions for avoiding war: Spain would pay an indemnity for the Maine, abandon its concentration camp policy, end the fighting with the Cuban rebels, and commit itself to Cuban independence.

Question 42

Know the three situations that led to America’s entry into the war.—

Answer 42

German U-boats (submarines) sank all ships—passenger or merchant, neutral or belligerent (hostile), armed or unarmed—in the waters around England and France. On February 25, the British government privately gave Wilson a telegram intercepted from Arthur Zimmerman, the German foreign minister to the German ambassador in Mexico. It proposed an alliance with Mexico in case of war with the United States, offering financial support and recovery of Mexico’s “lost territory” in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. On March 9, 1917, Wilson ordered merchant ships armed on his own authority. Three days later, he announced the arming, and on March 13, the nave instructed all vessels to fire on submarines. Between March 12 and March 21, U-boats sank five American ships, and Wilson decided to wait no longer. He called Congress into special session and at 8:30 in the evening on April 2, 1917, he asked for a declaration of war.