GED and HiSET social studies — the United States and the world, 1898–2001

The United States history material in this category follows events at home, from the Constitutional Convention to the Civil Rights Act. This one covers what it leaves out: how the country dealt with the rest of the world, from the war with Spain in 1898 to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Both equivalency tests treat US history as running from the colonial era to the present, and foreign policy is a large part of the twentieth century.

The questions ask why things happened, not only when. The war of 1898 brought Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines under American rule and started a real argument, set out here as each side made it: markets, naval bases and national standing on one side, government by consent on the other. In 1917 German submarines and the Zimmermann Telegram brought the United States into the First World War; afterwards the Senate, worried about what the League of Nations' collective-security pledge meant for Congress's power to declare war, rejected the Treaty of Versailles. The Neutrality Acts of the 1930s show how hard the country then tried to stay out of Europe's quarrels, and Pearl Harbor shows how quickly that ended.

The Cold War follows: the Marshall Plan as economic containment, NATO and the collective-defense promise of Article 5, a Korean War that stopped with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, and the Cuban Missile Crisis and the deal, part of it secret at the time, that ended it. Vietnam is approached through the balance of power in Washington: the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 1964 and the War Powers Resolution with which Congress tried in 1973 to take back part of its role. The last questions cover the 1991 Gulf War under a United Nations mandate and the immediate consequences of September 11: the war in Afghanistan and a new Department of Homeland Security.

The flashcards give each event or term with its meaning and date, including the Truman Doctrine, detente and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The written work asks for fuller explanations — the case for and against annexing the Philippines, why the Senate rejected Versailles, containment in practice, the end of the Cold War, and how Congress and the President share war powers. The oral exam walks through the century one turning point at a time.

Contested choices are described as their supporters and critics saw them, without verdicts. Zestly is an independent study tool, not affiliated with GED Testing Service or the HiSET program.

• Explain the results of the Spanish-American War and state fairly both sides of the annexation debate
• Explain why the United States entered the First World War and why the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles
• Describe the shift from 1930s neutrality to full participation in the Second World War
• Explain containment through the Marshall Plan and NATO, and how the Korean War and Cuban Missile Crisis ended
• Connect the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to the War Powers Resolution and the constitutional balance of war powers
• Describe the end of the Cold War, the goal of the 1991 Gulf War and the immediate consequences of September 11

Practice material written by Zestly on US foreign policy from 1898 to 2001, based on the published descriptions of the GED Social Studies test (United States history) and the HiSET Social Studies subtest (history).