Tennessee US History EOC Module 2 (The Progressive Era and Imperialism): a complete overview of reform, civil rights leaders, empire, and World War I

What Module 2 actually demands

Module 2 is the rise of modern reform and modern American power. The country reforms itself in the Progressive Era, African Americans build a movement against Jim Crow, the United States becomes an overseas empire, and it fights its first major war as a world power. It covers standards US.08 to US.14 and develops the course's big themes: the expanding role of government, the long struggle for civil rights, and the rise of an active American foreign policy.

This guide ties together the matching dot-point pages, each with its own worked questions: the Progressive movement, Progressive reforms and amendments, African American responses to segregation, American imperialism and the Spanish-American War, World War I and American involvement, and the home front and the peace.

The Progressive movement (US.08)

Progressives used government to fix the abuses of the Gilded Age. Muckrakers (Sinclair, Tarbell) exposed problems. Theodore Roosevelt's Square Deal delivered trust-busting, consumer protection (the 1906 food and drug laws), and conservation. Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom added the Federal Reserve, the Clayton Antitrust Act, and the FTC.

Reforms and amendments (US.09)

Progressives expanded democracy with the initiative, referendum, recall, the secret ballot, and the direct primary. Four amendments were ratified: 16th (income tax), 17th (direct election of senators), 18th (Prohibition), and 19th (woman suffrage). Tennessee cast the deciding 36th vote for the 19th Amendment in 1920.

African American responses (US.10)

Booker T. Washington urged accommodation (vocational education and economic progress first); W. E. B. Du Bois demanded immediate rights and helped found the NAACP (1909). Ida B. Wells led an anti-lynching crusade from Memphis, Tennessee.

Imperialism (US.11 to US.12)

Driven by economic, strategic, and ideological motives, the United States fought the Spanish-American War (1898) and gained Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines (with Cuba a protectorate); it annexed Hawaii. The Open Door sought trade with China, and the Panama Canal (1914) linked the oceans.

World War I (US.13 to US.14)

The war's causes were M-A-I-N. The United States entered in 1917 after submarine warfare (the Lusitania) and the Zimmermann Telegram; Alvin York of Tennessee became a hero. At home came propaganda, the Espionage and Sedition Acts (Schenck), and the Great Migration. The peace failed: the harsh Treaty of Versailles punished Germany, and the Senate rejected the League of Nations.

Check your knowledge

A mix of recall and reasoning questions covering Module 2. Attempt them under timed conditions, then check against the solutions.

1. Who were the muckrakers, and name one. (2 marks)
2. Name two of Theodore Roosevelt's "three C's." (2 marks)
3. State what the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Amendments did. (4 marks)
4. What was Tennessee's role in woman suffrage? (1 mark)
5. Contrast Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. (2 marks)
6. Name the leader of the Memphis anti-lynching crusade. (1 mark)
7. List the territories the United States gained from the Spanish-American War. (2 marks)
8. State the M-A-I-N causes of World War I. (2 marks)
9. Name two events that pushed the United States into World War I. (2 marks)
10. Why did the Senate reject the League of Nations? (2 marks)