Why did the United States acquire an overseas empire around 1900, and what debate did imperialism provoke at home?
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.
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What this topic is asking
Topics 7.2 and 7.3 ask you to explain American imperialism: the causes of overseas expansion around 1900 (economic, strategic, and ideological), the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the empire it won, the debate between imperialists and anti-imperialists, and the nation's new global role, including the Open Door in China. The exam wants why the United States expanded, what it acquired, and how Americans argued over it.
The causes of expansion
The Spanish-American War
The trigger was the Spanish-American War of 1898. Americans sympathized with Cuban rebels fighting Spanish rule, and sensational "yellow journalism" inflamed opinion. When the battleship USS Maine exploded in Havana harbor, the cry "Remember the Maine" drove the country to war. The short, victorious war ended with the Treaty of Paris (1898), under which Spain ceded the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam and gave up Cuba. Cuba became a protectorate under the Platt Amendment (1901), which let the United States intervene and lease a base at Guantanamo Bay.
The debate over empire
America as a world power
Having won an empire, the United States asserted itself globally. Secretary of State John Hay issued the Open Door Notes (1899 to 1900), calling for equal trading access to China and the preservation of Chinese territorial integrity, an attempt to secure the China market without formal colonies. In the following years the United States would build the Panama Canal, police the Caribbean under the Roosevelt Corollary, and act increasingly as a great power. The acquisition of empire in 1898 marked the decisive turn from continental to global ambition.
Worked example: weighing economic motives for empire
Try this
Q1. Name the 1898 treaty that gave the United States the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam. [Recall]
- Cue. The Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War.
Q2. Explain the main argument the Anti-Imperialist League made against American empire. [Short explanation]
- Cue. The Anti-Imperialist League argued that governing distant peoples without their consent contradicted the nation's founding principle of self-government, would deny conquered peoples their rights, and would corrupt American democracy at home; the bloody Philippine-American War seemed to confirm that empire meant conquest rather than liberation.
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 cause of American overseas expansion around 1900. Briefly explain ONE territorial result of the Spanish-American War. Briefly explain ONE argument made against imperialism.Show worked answer →
A Short Answer Question (SAQ), 3 points, one per bullet.
A. Describe: the search for new markets and raw materials, the desire for naval bases, and ideas of racial and national mission drove expansion.
B. Result: the Treaty of Paris of 1898 gave the United States the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and made Cuba a protectorate.
C. Anti-imperialist argument: the Anti-Imperialist League argued that ruling subject peoples without their consent betrayed the nation's founding principles of self-government.
Markers want a real cause, a concrete territorial result, and a genuine anti-imperialist argument.
AP USH (style)6 marksEvaluate the extent to which economic motives drove United States overseas expansion in the period 1890 to 1914.Show worked answer →
A Long Essay Question (LEQ), scored on the 6-point rubric.
Thesis (1): "Economic motives powerfully drove expansion, as the search for markets and raw materials pushed the United States into the Caribbean, the Pacific, and China, though strategic and ideological motives drove it as well."
Contextualization (1): the closing of the frontier and the industrial economy's hunger for markets.
Evidence (2): the Spanish-American War and the empire it won; the Open Door Notes seeking access to the China market.
Analysis (2): explain HOW the demand for markets shaped policy, then add complexity by weighing strategic (naval bases) and ideological (mission, Social Darwinism) motives.
Related dot points
- 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.
- 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 6.2 and 6.3 Westward Expansion: the economic, social, and cultural development of the West, federal land policy, and the dispossession of American Indians between 1865 and 1898.
A focused answer to AP US History Topics 6.2 and 6.3, covering western settlement: the railroads, the Homestead Act, mining, ranching, and farming, the closing of the frontier, and the dispossession of American Indians through reservations, the Dawes Act, and Wounded Knee.
- 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)