Imperialism: Debates (College Board AP® US History): Exam Questions

“So much for the past; and now, today: the Berlin Conference to apportion the rising riches of Africa among the white peoples met on the 15th day of November 1884 … Before the Berlin Conference had finished its deliberations … Germany [annexed] an area over half as large again as the whole German empire in Europe. Only in its dramatic suddenness was this undisguised robbery of the land of 7 million natives different from the methods by which Great Britain and France got 4 million square miles each, Portugal three-quarters of a million, and Italy and Spain smaller but substantial areas”

W.E.B. DuBois, “The African Roots of War,” The Atlantic, May 1915

Which author was most critical of the opinions being described here by DuBois?

“So much for the past; and now, today: the Berlin Conference to apportion the rising riches of Africa among the white peoples met on the 15th day of November 1884 … Before the Berlin Conference had finished its deliberations … Germany [annexed] an area over half as large again as the whole German empire in Europe. Only in its dramatic suddenness was this undisguised robbery of the land of 7 million natives different from the methods by which Great Britain and France got 4 million square miles each, Portugal three-quarters of a million, and Italy and Spain smaller but substantial areas”

W.E.B. DuBois, “The African Roots of War,” The Atlantic, May 1915

Which of the following historical events most directly influenced the ideas expressed in the excerpt?

“Having therefore no foreign establishments, either colonial or military, the shops of war of the United States, in war, will be like land birds, unable to fly far from their own shores. To provide resting-places for them, where they can coal and repair, would be one of the first duties of a government proposing to itself the development of the power of the nation at sea.”

Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783, published in 1898

What does Alfred Thayer Mahan's argument in the excerpt primarily emphasize about the role of naval power for the United States?

“Having therefore no foreign establishments, either colonial or military, the shops of war of the United States, in war, will be like land birds, unable to fly far from their own shores. To provide resting-places for them, where they can coal and repair, would be one of the first duties of a government proposing to itself the development of the power of the nation at sea.”

Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783, published in 1898

Who was the most likely intended audience for Alfred Thayer Mahan’s work as suggested in the excerpt?

“Having therefore no foreign establishments, either colonial or military, the shops of war of the United States, in war, will be like land birds, unable to fly far from their own shores. To provide resting-places for them, where they can coal and repair, would be one of the first duties of a government proposing to itself the development of the power of the nation at sea.”

Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783, published in 1898

The idea that Alfred Thayer Mahan is advocating in this passage was later enacted as a result of the