What broad forces transformed the United States into a modern, urban, world power between 1890 and 1945?
Topic 7.1 Contextualizing Period 7: the reform, economic, technological, and global forces that made the United States a modern industrial world power between 1890 and 1945.
Sets the scene for AP US History Period 7, covering Progressive reform, overseas expansion, the two world wars, the boom and bust of the 1920s and 1930s, the New Deal, and how to write contextualization for a DBQ or LEQ on the emergence of modern America.
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What this topic is asking
Topic 7.1 asks you to set the context for Period 7, the emergence of modern America: the forces that turned the United States into a modern, urban, industrial world power between 1890 and 1945. The exam wants the big drivers, Progressive reform, overseas expansion and imperialism, the two world wars, the boom and bust of the 1920s and the Great Depression, and the New Deal, framed so you could open a DBQ or LEQ on the era.
The reform context
The global context
The United States became a world power. Victory in the Spanish-American War (1898) gave it an overseas empire, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, and a protectorate over Cuba, and it asserted itself through the Open Door policy in China and intervention across Latin America. The nation's entry into the First World War in 1917 decided that conflict, and after a period of retreat, its mobilization in the Second World War (1941 to 1945) made it the dominant power on earth. Across the period, America moved from the edge to the center of world affairs.
The economic context
Why these forces matter together
Period 7 is bound together by two great threads. First, the expanding role of government: from Progressive regulation to wartime mobilization to the New Deal, crisis after crisis enlarged federal power and built the foundations of the modern state. Second, the rise to world power: from 1898 through two world wars, the United States moved decisively onto the global stage. By 1945 the nation was an urban, industrial superpower with an activist government and global reach, ready for the Cold War leadership of Period 8.
Worked example: writing contextualization for Period 7
Try this
Q1. Name the reform movement that opens Period 7 and used government to regulate business and clean up politics. [Recall]
- Cue. The Progressive movement, a response to the inequalities of Gilded Age industrial capitalism.
Q2. Explain why the period from 1890 to 1945 is described as the emergence of modern America. [Short explanation]
- Cue. Across the period the United States became urban, industrial, and a world power, while a series of crises, Progressive reform, two world wars, and the Great Depression, steadily expanded the federal government's role; by 1945 the nation had the activist state and global leadership that define modern America.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP USH (style)3 marksBriefly describe ONE broad development that shaped the United States between 1890 and 1945. Briefly explain ONE way it expanded the role of government. Briefly explain ONE way it changed America's role in the world.Show worked answer →
A Short Answer Question (SAQ), 3 points, one per bullet.
A. Describe: the Progressive movement responded to the inequalities of industrial capitalism with reforms to regulate business and clean up government.
B. Role of government: Progressives and later the New Deal expanded federal power to regulate the economy, protect consumers and workers, and provide relief.
C. Role in the world: the United States became a world power, acquiring an overseas empire after 1898 and decisively shaping the outcomes of two world wars.
Markers want a broad, accurate development tied to concrete consequences for government and the wider world.
AP USH (style)6 marksEvaluate the extent to which the role of the federal government changed in the period 1890 to 1945.Show worked answer →
A Long Essay Question (LEQ), scored on the 6-point rubric.
Thesis (1): "The role of the federal government expanded dramatically over this period, as Progressive reform, the demands of two world wars, and above all the New Deal turned a limited government into an active regulator and provider, though laissez-faire ideas never fully disappeared."
Contextualization (1): the inequalities of Gilded Age industrial capitalism that reformers set out to address.
Evidence (2): Progressive regulation and the income tax; the New Deal's relief, recovery, and reform.
Analysis (2): explain HOW each crisis enlarged federal power, then add complexity by weighing the survival of laissez-faire and conservative resistance.
Related dot points
- Topics 7.2 and 7.3 Imperialism and the Spanish-American War: the causes of American overseas expansion, the war of 1898, the debate over empire, and the new global role of the United States.
A focused answer to AP US History Topics 7.2 and 7.3, covering American imperialism: the economic, strategic, and ideological causes of expansion, the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the Treaty of Paris, the debate between imperialists and anti-imperialists, and the Open Door policy.
- Topic 7.4 The Progressives: the goals, methods, and achievements of the Progressive reform movement, including the muckrakers, the reform presidents, and the Progressive constitutional amendments.
A focused answer to AP US History Topic 7.4, covering the Progressive Era: the response to industrial and urban problems, the muckrakers, the reform presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, women's suffrage and the 19th Amendment, and the Progressive amendments that expanded the role of government.
- Topics 7.5 and 7.6 World War I, Military, Diplomatic, and Home Front: the reasons for United States entry, the war effort, the fight over the peace, and the war's effects on American society.
A focused answer to AP US History Topics 7.5 and 7.6, covering the First World War: the reasons for United States entry from neutrality to 1917, the home front and the curbing of civil liberties, the Great Migration, Wilson's Fourteen Points, and the Senate's rejection of the Treaty of Versailles.
- Topics 7.9 and 7.10 The Great Depression and the New Deal: the causes and effects of the economic collapse and the New Deal's expansion of federal power in response.
A focused answer to AP US History Topics 7.9 and 7.10, covering the Great Depression and the New Deal: the causes of the 1929 crash and the Depression, its human cost, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs of relief, recovery, and reform, and how the New Deal permanently enlarged the federal government.
- Topics 7.12 to 7.14 World War II, Mobilization, Military, and Home Front: the path from isolationism to war, total mobilization, the military effort, and the war's effects on American society.
A focused answer to AP US History Topics 7.12 to 7.14, covering World War II: the move from isolationism to war after Pearl Harbor, total economic and social mobilization, the home front including Japanese American internment and new roles for women and minorities, and the war's end and the atomic bomb.
- Topic 7.15 Comparison in Period 7: using the historical reasoning skill of comparison to analyze the developments of the emergence of modern America.
A focused answer to AP US History Topic 7.15, teaching the historical reasoning skill of comparison through Period 7: comparing Progressivism and the New Deal, the two world wars, and the 1920s and 1930s, and how to frame a comparison essay for the DBQ or LEQ.
Sources & how we know this
- AP United States History Course and Exam Description — College Board (2020)