Progressive Reform, Empire & World War I — Problem set, Grade 11
5 focused units, followed by an evidence workshop, chapter review, and chapter quiz.
Review the key ideas
Progressive Reform: Federal Tools, Expertise & Exclusions
A reform has a target problem, a proposed mechanism, and consequences. Investigative journalism, voluntary associations, electoral campaigns, lawsuits, and government action could reinforce one another. Analyze a specific measure rather than assuming the name Progressive guarantees an inclusive outcome.
American Expansion Overseas: 1898, Sovereignty & Intervention
People in Hawaii, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific had their own governments, movements, and aims. They were not merely settings for U.S. decisions. Distinguish trade, diplomatic influence, military intervention, annexation, and colonial rule.
World War I: U.S. Entry, Mobilization & Civil Liberties
The United States initially remained formally neutral, though trade and public opinion were uneven. In 1917 unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram contributed to entry. Mobilization, restrictions on dissent, and peace negotiations then raised questions about democracy, security, and international cooperation.
Education, Technology & Women’s Political Rights
Women’s suffrage campaigns used petitions, state campaigns, litigation, organizing, and protest over decades. Women disagreed about goals and methods, and the movement contained racial exclusions. The Nineteenth Amendment prohibited denial of voting rights on account of sex; it did not remove every voting barrier.
Jim Crow, Black Institutions & the Great Migration
The Great Migration involved millions of Black Americans moving from the South to other regions during the twentieth century. It combined efforts to escape racial violence and restricted opportunities with the attraction of industrial employment, family networks, and urban institutions. Migration changed both the places people left and the places they entered.
Problem 1
Answer and explanation
Inspection is a mechanism for finding hazards, but annual visits may leave gaps. Fees can burden shops while contamination burdens consumers. Evaluation needs evidence about both implementation and outcomes, including whether smaller shops and poorer neighborhoods are served fairly.
Connect inspections to identifying and correcting hazards.
Describe cost and safety concerns without assuming either determines the outcome.
Ask about violation frequency, compliance, staffing, and illness records.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 2
Answer and explanation
A public-health problem can involve private behavior, housing, business decisions, and municipal infrastructure. Identifying a shared cause helps explain why reformers sought collective action. A reformer’s diagnosis should still be tested against data and residents’ knowledge rather than accepted solely because it invokes expertise.
Problem 3
Answer and explanation
The sources address different questions. Strategic or commercial gains do not answer whether local people consented. The petition matters but should be situated among local institutions and other evidence rather than treated as a complete census of opinion.
The planner and merchant explain outside interests.
The petition documents an objection by its signatories, not necessarily every resident.
Investigate local authority, competing views, and conditions of decision-making.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 4
Answer and explanation
Annexation changes claimed sovereignty, a protectorate arrangement constrains decisions without identical incorporation, and economic influence works through other relationships. Trace treaty provisions, local authority, and military capacity. A nation’s largest territorial map cannot establish consent, constitutional status, or equal political membership.
Problem 5
Answer and explanation
Shipping attacks threatened lives and commerce; the telegram intensified fears about security. These pressures interacted with earlier relationships and political choices. Additional records are needed to weigh their relative importance.
Identify threats to shipping and perceived security.
Connect the telegram to existing pressures rather than replacing them.
Distinguish a public justification from a complete account of motives.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 6
Answer and explanation
European background conditions and U.S. entry are different questions. A cause of the 1914 outbreak does not automatically explain the 1917 U.S. decision. Build two connected sequences identifying maritime events, financial relationships, diplomatic messages, and presidential and congressional actions.
Problem 7
Answer and explanation
Voting access varied before 1920, and the amendment addressed one category of denial. A discriminatory registration system could obstruct a woman afterward. The legal achievement and remaining exclusion must both be included.
Identify different dates and legal mechanisms.
Explain the amendment’s sex-based scope.
Show how racial barriers could remain and require further action.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 8
Answer and explanation
School attendance, literacy, educational quality, and access to occupations are different measures. Compulsory attendance rules did not guarantee equal facilities or eliminate racial segregation. Compare the legal requirement with funding, transport, family resources, and evidence from the students and communities affected.
Problem 9
Answer and explanation
The figures show population growth, not its complete causes. Recruitment and intimidation supply plausible mechanisms, but births, other migration, and changing boundaries could also matter. More records are needed to measure their contributions.
Find an increase of 30,000, or 150% of the starting population.
Connect recruitment to opportunity and intimidation to pressure to leave.
Distinguish a city-level pattern from an individual explanation.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 10
Answer and explanation
A literacy test could be administered discriminatorily, while intimidation or economic retaliation could obstruct participation even without the same written rule. Separate formal qualifications, administration, and coercion. Counting an eligible population does not establish the number able to register safely or cast an effective ballot.