Section II
Part A
(Suggested writing time — 45 minutes)
Directions: The following question requires you to construct a coherent essay that integrates your interpretation of Documents A to H and your knowledge of the period referred to in the question. High scores will be earned only by essays that both cite key pieces of evidence from the documents and draw on outside knowledge of the period.
1. At the turn of the century, several nations were competing for international empires. After the Spanish-American War, the United States government sought to extend and solidify its influence in the Western Hemisphere. Analyze the effects of American foreign policy in Latin America in the period 1899 to 1917.
Document A
Source: Platt Amendment, May 22, 1903
Article III. The Government of Cuba consents that the United States may exercise the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life property, and individual liberty, and for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba imposed by the Treaty of Paris on the United States, now to be assumed and undertaken by the Government of Cuba.
Document B
Source: Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, November 18, 1903
The Republic of Panama grants to the United States in perpetuity„ the use, occupation and control of a zone of land and land under water for the construction ... of said canal.... The Republic of Panama further grants to the United States in perpetuity, the use, occupation and control of any other lands and waters outside the zone ... which may be necessary and convenient for the construction ... and protection of the said Canal.
Document C
Source: John Wilson Bengough, “Autonomy,” The Public, January 23, 1904; courtesy of BoondocksNet.com.
Document D
Source: Theodore Roosevelt, Annual Message to Congress, December 6, 1904
If a nation shows that it knows how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency in social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear no interference from the United States, Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may ... ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may lead the United States,... in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to exercise an international police power.
Document E
Source: W. A. Rogers, “The Full Dinner Pail,” Harper's Weekly, April 13, 1907; courtesy of Theodore-Roosevelt.com.
Document F
Source: William Howard Taft, Fourth Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1912
The diplomacy of the present administration has sought to respond to modern ideas of commercial intercourse. This policy has been characterized by substituting dollars for bullets.... It is an effort frankly directed to the increase of American trade upon the axiomatic principle that the government of the United States shall extend all proper support to every legitimate and beneficial American enterprise abroad.
Document G
Source: Erving Winslow, “Aggression in South America,” excerpt from Report of the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Anti-Imperialist League, 1912
It is proposed that in the Honduras and Nicaragua ... the United States government should be authorized to secure the collection and disbursement of the revenue in the interest of American capitalists who contemplate making loans to those countries.
This involves serious risk of complications which may lead to further interferences and ultimate control.
The delicacy of these and other foreign relations of the United States is such as should put our citizens upon their guard and confirm their determination to treat with justice all their neighbors and to recognize generally their independent right to govern (or misgovern) their own countries.
Document H
Source: Nelson Harding, “Uncle Sam: 'I Smell Oil!,' “ Brooklyn Eagle, reprinted from American Review of Reviews, January 1914; courtesy of BoondocksNet.com.
Document I
Source: Woodrow Wilson, Address to Congress, April 20, 1914
A series of incidents have recently occurred which cannot hut create the impression that the representatives of General Huerta were willing to go out of their way to show disregard for the dignity and rights of this government, ... making free to show in many ways their irritation and contempt.
I, therefore, come to ask your approval that I should use the armed forces of the United States in such ways ... as may he necessary to obtain from General Huerta and his adherents the fullest recognition of the rights and dignity of the United States, even amidst the distressing conditions now unhappily obtaining in Mexico.
Section II
Part B and Part C
(Suggested total planning and writing time: 70 minutes)
Part B
Directions: Choose one question from this part. You are advised to spend 5 minutes planning and 30 minutes writing your answer. Cite relevant historical evidence in support of your generalizations, and present your arguments clearly and logically.
2. Evaluate the impact of two of the following in diffusing domestic tensions during the nineteenth century:
Compromise of 1820
Compromise of 1833
Compromise of 1877
3. Explain the impact of the Kansas-Nebraska Act upon national politics, 1854 to 1860.
Part C
Directions: Choose one question from this part. You are advised to spend 5 minutes planning and 30 minutes writing your answer. Cite relevant historical evidence in support of your generalizations, and present your arguments clearly and logically.
4. Analyze the causes of the Great Depression.
5. Evaluate the success of the containment policies of the Truman administration, 1945 to 1953.
END OF SECTION II