DBQ 3 :(

Neutrality Act of 1935

Imposed an embargo on selling arms to warring countries and declared that Americans traveling on the ships of belligerent nations did so at their own risk

Neutrality Act of 1936

Congress banned loans to belligerents

Neutrality Act of 1937/”Cash and carry”

If a warring country wanted to purchase nonmilitary goods from the US, it had to pay cash and carry them in its own ships

Atlantic Charter

• 1941

• Called for economic cooperation, national self-determination, and guarantees of political stability after the war

• Arranged between FDR and Churchill

• Drew from Wilson’s Fourteen Points and Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms

• Call for self-determination caused strife in Asia and Africa, where European powers were reluctant to abandon their colonial holdings

War Powers Act

• 1941

• Gave FDR unprecedented control over all aspects of the war effort

• Marked the beginning of the “imperial presidency”-- the far-reaching use/abuse of executive authority during the war

Executive Order 8802

• 1941

• Issued by Roosevelt after a threat from the largest black labor union to march on Washington

• Prohibited “discrimination in the employment of workers in defesne industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin”

• Established the Fair Employment Practice Committee

Revenue Act

• 1942

• The government pays for wartime spending by expanding the number of people paying income taxes– 3.9 million to 42.6 million

• Taxes on personal incomes and business profits covered half the war; the other half was paid for in war bonds

• Federal spending on the war helps end the Great Depression

• By 1943, two-thirds of the economy was directly involved in the war effort and war-related production made up 40% of GNP

Servicemen’s Readjustment Act/”GI Bill of Rights”

• Provided education, job training, medical care, pensions, and home loans for people who had served in the army

WWII migrations

• Families often followed fathers to military bases or points of debarkation

• Civilians moved to take high-paying defense jobs– about 15 million Americans changed residences during the war years

• CA experiences the largest share of wartime migration– grew by 35% during the war

• The growth of war industry accelerated patterns of rural-urban migration– cities grew dramatically as factories, shipyards, and other defense plants drew millions of citizens from rural areas

• Bars, jazz clubs, dance halls, and theaters proliferated, fed by the cash of war workers

America First Committee

• Held rallies across the US, warning against American involvement in Europe

Isolationists

• Largely conservatives, but some progressives/liberals opposed America’s involvement in the war on pacifist or moral grounds

• Some isolationists, such as the National Legion of Mothers of America, combined anticommunism, Christian morality, and even anti-Semetism

• Included the America First Committee

  • Held rallies across the US, warning against American involvement in Europe

The Popular Front

• Advocated US intervention in Europe

• Included the American Communist Party, African American civil rights activists, trade unionists, left-wing writers and intellectuals, and even some ND administrators

  • The Soviet Union pushed American communists to take action in order to oppose fascism

• Many supporters were skeptical of the Popular Front because of the brutal political repression in the Soviet Union

• Included William Allen White’s Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies

Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies

• An interventionist group led by William Allen White

Four Freedoms

• Defined “Four Freedoms”-- promoted freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from war

  • Outlined a liberal international order with appeal beyond its intended European and American audiences

War Production Board

• The “military-industrial complex”

• Awarded defense contracts

• Allocated scarce resources for military use (such as rubber, copper, and oil)

• Persuaded businesses to convert to military production

  • Accomplished this through tax advantages and offering to re-equip existing factories and build new ones

• Often approved “cost-plus” contracts, which guaranteed corporations a profit and allowed them to keep new steel mills, factories, and shipyards

• Worked with large corporations mostly– churned out 86,000 tanks, 296,000 airplanes 15 million rifles and machine guns, 64,000 landing craft, and 6,500 cargo and naval vessels

Code-talkers

• Navajo speakers communicated orders to fleet commanders

• Japanese intelligence could not decipher the code because it was based on the Navajo language

• Sent over eight hundred messages at the battle of Iwo Jima around the clock without error

• On the European front, army commanders used Comanche, Choctaw, and Cherokee speakers to thwart the Nazis

Women in the Army (WWII)

• WAC— Women’s Army Corps

• WAVES— Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service

• Women’s Airforce Service Pilots

• Female officers couldn’t command men

• Most women did jobs in the military that resembled their jobs in civilian life, such as clerical work, communications, and healthcare

Women on the home front (WWII)

• Propaganda campaigns were targeted at housewives, but many women gladly abandoned low-paying obs for higher-paying work in defense

• National factories were full of women working as airplane riveters, ship welders, and drill-press operators

• Women faced sexual harassment on the job and were usually paid less

• Women were pressured to leave their jobs once the war ended– many married women refused

National War Labor Board

• Formed in 1942

• Created by Roosevelt in return for a no-strike pledge throughout the war

• Composed of representatives of labor, management, and the public

• Established wages, hours, and working conditions and had the authority to seize manufacturing plants that failed to comply

Civilians in WWII

• People on the home front took on wartime responsibilities– worked on civilian defense committees, recycled old newspapers and scrap metal, and served on local rationing and draft boards

• Planted “victory gardens” that produced 40% of the nation’s vegetables

Office of War Information (OWI)

• Disseminated news and promoted patriotism

• Urged advertising agencies to link their clients’ products to the war effort, arguing that patriotic ads would both sell goods and invigorate, instruct, and inspire citizens

LGBT Communities

• Wartime migration to urban centers created new opportunities for LGBT individuals to establish communities

• NY, SFO, LA, Chicago, and Dallas developed vibrant queer neighborhoods sustained by the influx of immigrants

• LGBT communities form even in the army

Fascism

• Fascism– combined a centralized, authoritarian state, a doctrine of Aryan racial supremacy, and fervent nationalism in a call for the spiritual reawakening of the German people

  • Fascist leaders opposed parliamentary government, independent labor movements, and individual rights

The Great Depression

• Began in 1929

• US GDP falls by almost half; consumption dropped by 18%; construction fell by 78%; and private investment declined by 88%

• Nearly 9,000 banks closed and 100,000 businesses failed

• Hoover cut federal taxes in an attempt to boost private spending and corporate investment

• Layoffs and wage cuts led to violent strikes in the industrial sector; farmers also protested

• Many Americans lost their homes– as banks collapsed and unemployment rose, the jobless couldn’t pay mortgage payments

Smoot-Hawley Tariff

• 1930

• Approved by Hoover despite heavy opposition

• Triggered retaliatory tariffs in other countries, further hindering global trade and worsening economic contraction

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

• Founded in 1931 by Hoover

• Provided federal loans to railroads, banks, and otehr businesses

• Lent money too cautiously; was not aggressive enough given the severity of the depression

Scottsboro Case

• 1931-1937

• Nine young black men were accused of rape by two white women

• Eight of the nine boys received death sentences despite poor evidence– dubbed the Scottsboro Boys

• Inspired solidarity within African American communities

Bonus Army

• 1932

• A group of fifteen thousand to twenty thousand unemployed WWI veterans traveled to Washington to demand immediate payment of pension awards that were due in 1945

• Hoover deployed troops that evicted the marchers and burned their encampment, leading to further loss of his popularity

Election of 1932

• Most Americans believed that radical change was needed to turn the depression around

• FDR (Democrat) wins

Emergency Banking Act

• 1933

• Roosevelt closed all the banks prior to passing the Emergency Banking Act

• EBA permitted banks to reopen if a Treasury Department inspection showed that they had sufficient cash reserves

• When banks reopened, calm prevailed and deposits exceeded withdrawals, restoring stability to the nation’s basic financial institutions

FDR takes the US off the gold standard

• 1933

• The gold standard was vulnerable during economic downturns, when large financiers withdrew their investments and demanded gold payments

• The gold standard made the international monetary system inflexible by limiting it to the amount of available gold

• Britain and Germany abandoned the gold standard in 1931, allowing their economies to recover modestly

• By taking the US off the gold standard, Roosevelt enabled the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates

Glass-Steagall Act

• 1933

• Created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; insured deposits up to $2,500

• Prohibited banks from making risky, unsecured investments with the deposits of ordinary people

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

• 1933

• Mobilized young men to do reforestation and conservation work

• Build thousands of bridges, roads, trails, and other structures in state and national parks, bolstering the national infrastructure

• Segregated blacks

Public Works Administration

• 1933

• A construction program

Civil Works Administration

• 1933

• Created by Roosevelt; provided jobs for Americans on bridge repairs, highway construction, and the construction of public buildings

Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)

• 1933

• Provided federal funds for state relief programs

Agricultural Adjustment Act

• 1933

• Attempted to adjust overproduction in agriculture which resulted from the depression

• The AAA began direct governmental regulation of the farm economy

• Provided cahs subsidies to farmers who cut production of seven major commodities; policymakers hoped that far prices would rise as production fell

• Benefits were not evenly distributed– subsidies went primarily to the owners of large and medium-sized farmers, who cut production by reducing the amount of land they rented to tenants and sharecroppers

National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)

• 1933

• Attacked declining production; set up separate self-governing private associations in six hundred industries

• Industries from coal, textiles, to small businesses regulated themselves by agreeing on prices and production quotas

• Overall did little to end the depression

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

• Established in 1933

• Integrated flood control, reforestation, electricity generation, and agricultural and industrial development

• Dams and hydroelectric plants provided cheap electric power for homes and factories and ample recreational opportunities for valley residents

• An integral part of Roosevelt’s effort to keep farmers on the land by enhancing the quality of rural life

• Viewed by Roosevelt as the first step in modernizing the South

Townshend Plan/Old Age Revolving Pension Plan

• 1933

• Promoted by Townsend, a doctor from CA

• Spoke for the nation’s elderly, many of whom had no pensions

• Townshend proposed the Old Age Revolving Pension Plan, which would give $200 a month to citizens over the age of sixty; the elderly would receive payments by retiring and opening up jobs for the young

Federal Housing Act

• 1934

• Moved duties of refinancing home mortgages to the Federal Housing Administration

• Paired with the Housing Act of 1937, it permanently changed the mortgage system and set the foundation for the broad expansion of home ownership in the post-WWI decades

Securities and Exchange Commission

• Set up by Congress in 1934

• Had broad powers to determine how stocks and bonds were sold to the public, could set rules for credit transactions, and prevent sales by those with insider information

Indian Reorganization Act/the Indian New Deal

• 1934

• Reversed the Dawes Act of 1887 by promoting Native American self-government through formal constitutions and democratically elected tribal councils

• A majority of groups accepted the policy, but others declined to participate because they preferred the traditional way of making decisions

• Gave Native Americans a degree of religious freedom; Native American groups regained their status as semi-sovereign dependent nations

• The act also imposed a model of self-government that was incompatible with tribal traditions and languages

Tydings-McDuffie Act

• 1934

• Granted independence to the Philippines; classified all Filipinos in the US as aliens, and restricted immigration from the Philippines

Schechter v. US

• 1935

• The Court ruled that the NIRA was unconstitutional because it delegated Congress’ lawmaking power to the executive branch and extended federal authority to intrastate commerce

Wagner Act/National Labor Relations Act

• 1935

• Established the right of industrial workers to join unions

• Outlawed many practices that employers had used to suppress unions, such as firing workers for organizing activities

Social Security Act

• 1935

• Provided old-age pensions for workers; a joint federal-state system of compensation for unemployed workers; and a program of payments to widowed mothers and the blind, deaf, and disabled

  • Did not include a provision for national health insurance, fearing it would doom the entire bill

• Spurred into existence by the Townsend and Long movements along with children’s welfare advocates

• A milestone for the creation of an American welfare state

Revenue Act of 1935

• 1935

• Roosevelt proposed a substantial tax on corporate profits and higher income taxes and estate taxes on the wealthy

• Tax rates were later lowered, but Roosevelt was satisfied, as his plan enabled him to counter the Share Our Wealth Society’s proposal

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

• Created in 1935

• Employed 8.5 million Americans between 1935 and 1943

• Agency workers constructed or repaired 652,087 miles of road, 124,-87 bridges, 125,110 public buildings, 8,192 parks, and 953 airports

• Reached only about one-third of the nation’s unemployed

Rural Electrification Administration

• 1935

• Promoted nonprofit farm cooperatives that offered loans to farmers to install power lines to incentivize electrification

• Electricity brought relief from the drudgery and isolation of farm life

• Brought electric irons, vacuum cleaners, and washing machines along with radios

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

• Formed in 1935

• Organized all the workers in an industry into a single union

• Grew rapidly during the New Deal

FDR’s SC plan fails

• 1937

• The Court had previously struck down a series of ND measures; the future of the ND rested in the hands of a few elderly, conservative-minded judges

• FDR proposed adding a new justice to the Court for every member over the age of seventy in an attempt to add six new judges

• FDR’s suggestion rejected

“Roosevelt Recession”

• 1937-1938

• Within a year of FDR’s re-election, staunch opposition to Roosevelt’s initiative arose in Congress, and a sharp recession undermined confidence in his economic leadership

• Roosevelt slashed the federal budget in response to American recovery from the GD

  • The WPA’s funding was cut by half, causing layoffs of about 1.5 million

  • The Federal Reserve raised interest rates

• The stock market dropped sharply, and unemployment jumped up to 19%

• Roosevelt quickly backtracked and began spending his way out of the recession

Fair Labor Standards Act

• 1938

• Outlawed child labor, made the 40-hour workweek the national standard, mandated overtime pay, and established a federal minimum wage

Hoover in the GD

• Believed that economic outcomes were the product of individual character

• Argued that through voluntary action, the business community could right itself and recover from economic downturns without government assistance or regulation

• Adhered firmly to the gold standard

• Supported high tariffs

• Later approved government intervention

• Americans gradually saw him as insensitive to economic suffering due to his philosophy of limited government

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

• Founded by Hoover; provided federal loans to railroads, banks, and otehr businesses

• Lent money too cautiously; was not aggressive enough given the severity of the depression

FDR in the GD

• Born into a wealthy New York family

• Attended Harvard and Columbia; served as assistant secretary fo the navy during WWI

• Governor of NY; a Democrat

• Wished to mantain the nation’s economic institutions and preserve its social structure, to save capitalism while easing tis worst downturns

• Believed in a balanced government budget and extolled the values of hard work, cooperation, and sacrifice

• A reformer and not a revolutionary; preserved capitalism and liberal individualism while transforming them

Huey Long

• Democratic governor of Louisiana

• Increased taxes on corporations, lowered the utility bills of consumers and built new highways, hospitals, and schools through near-dictatorial control of the state government

• Founded the Share Our Wealth Society, which argued that inequalities in the distribution of wealth prohibited millions of ordinary families from buying the goods that kept factories going

• Advocated a tax of 100 percent on all income over one million and all inheritances over five million

American Liberty League

• Formed by Republican business leaders and conservative Democrats who fought “reckless spending” and “socialist” reforms

• Joined by Hoover

National Association of Manufacturers

• A lasting opponent of the ND; launched a probusiness publicity campaign and promoted free enterprise and unfettered capitalism

• Launched radio programs, motion pictures, billboards, and direct mail campaigns to spread its message

African Americans under the ND

• FDR was the most popular president among African Americans since Abraham Lincoln

• Held 18% of WPA jobs

• Were aided by the Resettlement Administration

• Roosevelt appointed a number of black people to federal office and an informal “black cabinet” of prominent black intellectuals advised ND agencies

• New Deal was limited in its approach to race– Roosevelt was a racial conservative and needed votes of white southern Democrats in Congress

• Jobs mostly held by African Americans were explicitly excluded from Social Security and the Wagner Act

• Hurt by the Agricultural Adjustment Act

Mexican Americans and the ND

• Many migrated to CA, where agriculture had become a big business

• Both Hoover and FDR promoted the deportation of Mexican citizens

• Many Mexicans still allied themselves with Democrats– benefitted form the ND and took jobs with the WPA and the CCC or received relief

• Attracted by Democratic commitment to ordinary people

Artists under the ND

• ND administrators encouraged artists to create projects that would be of interest to the entire community, not just the cultured elite

  • Advertised “art for the millions”

• Artists painted murals, became painters, and sculptors

• The WPA’s Federal Art Project gave work to many young artists who would become very influential later

• Federal Music Project Federal Writers’ Project– employed 15,000 musicians and writers

  • The FWP collected oral histories, including two thousand narratives by formerly enslaved people

Hurston worked for the Florida FWP, writing Their Eyes Were Watching God

Eleanor Roosevelt

• Worked to expand positions for women in political parties, labor unions, and education

• The conscience of the ND; pushed her husband to do more for the disadvantaged

Welfare state

• Describes industrial democracies that adopted various government-guaranteed social-welfare programs

Liberalism

• Liberal takes on a new connotation in the age of a welfare state

• Roosevelt and other intellectuals argued that to preserve individual liberty, the government must assist the needy and guarantee the basic welfare of citizens

Keynesian economics

• Keynes argued that government intervention could smooth out the highs and lows of the business cycle through deficit spending and the manipulation of interest rates, which determined the money supply

Lasting consequences of the ND

• Created a sizable federal bureaucracy– the number of civilian federal employees increased by 80%; reaching a total of 1 million

• Awakened democratic aspirations– millions of ordinary people believed that the nation could and should become more egalitarian

• Labor unions grew in numbers and clout thanks to the Wagner Act– included the congress of Industrial Organizations and the AFL

Post WWI workers strikes

• 1919

• Following the War, membership in the AFL grew by a third, reaching more than 3 million

• Workers’ expectations rose as the war economy brought higher pay and better working conditions

• More than 4 million wage laborers went on strike in 1919– a series of strikes shuts down entire cities and industries

Palmer raids

• 1919

• Palmer’s agents in the FBI stormed the headquarters of radical organizations

• Wide dragnet– captured thousands of immigrants who had committed no crimes but held anarchist or revolutionary beliefs; many were deported without indictment or trial

The Red Scare

• 1920s

• Americans feared that the US harbored dangerous radicals

• The strike wave combined with anti-Bolshevism created fertile conditions for repression– the Red Scare finally started by a mail bomb campaign

  • Palmer uses the incident to fan public fears

• Palmer sets up an antiradicalism in the Justice Department, which later became the FBI

Eighteenth Amendment

• Aside from prohibitionists, the Eighteenth was prompted by WWI

  • Congress limited browser’ and distillers’ use of barley and other grais

  • Anti-German hysteria also identified many German breweries with the wartime enemy

• Prohibited “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors”

• Enforced by the federal government under the 1920 Volstead Act

• Largely opposed by middle-class urbanites and immigrants, who ignored the Eighteenth as old-fashioned Puritanism

  • Immigrants viewed Prohibitionism as an attack on working-class saloons

• Consumption climbs again; enforcement made challenging by the fact that only the sale and not the possession of alcohol was illegal

• Most important legacy was the growing influence of the FBI, which was tasked with enforcing the Eighteenth

Sheppard-Towner Federal Maternity and Infancy Act

• 1921

• Provided federal funds for medical clinics, prenatal education programs, and vising nurses, improved healthcare for the poor, and significantly lowered infant mortality rats

• Marked the first time that congress designated federal funds for the states to encourage them to administer a social-welfare program

Race riot in Tulsa, OK

• 1921

• Sensational, false reports of an alleged rape helped incite white mobs who resented growing black prosperity

• Mobs– helped by national Guardsmen– attacked “the black Wall Street” (Greenwood)

Four Powers Act

• 1922

• Signed between the US, Japan, Great Britain, and France

• Limited naval strength in the Pacific

• Ultimately failed to address underlying East-West international rivalries because it reinforced European and American naval superiority over Japan

Equal Rights Amendment introduced

• 1923

• Proposed by Alice Paul

• Stated that “men and women shall have equal rights throughout the US”

• Opponents pointed out that the ERA would threaten recent labor laws that protected women from workplace abuses

• Proposal divides women’s rights activists

National Origins Act

• 1924

• Established that in the future, annual immigration from each country could not exceed 2% of that nationality’s percentage of the US population as it had stood in 1890

• Drastically limited immigration from Italy, Greeks, Poles, Russians, and other Southern and Eastern European immigrants (since only small numbers had arrived before 1890)

Scopes/”monkey trial”

• 1925

• Scopes, a high school biology teacher, was jailed for teaching the theory of evolution

• Defended by Clarence Darrow and prosecuted by Williams Jennings Bryan

• Scopes found guilty, though his conviction was later overturned

Sacco and Vanzetti executed

• 1927

• Sacco and Vanzetti were Italian immigrants and self-proclaimed anarchists who had evaded the draft

• Captured during the Palmer raids; sat in jail for six years and were eventually executed

Immigration cap

• 1929

• Imposed a cap of 150,000 immigrants per year from Europe; banned most immigrants from Asia

• Did not restrict immigration from the Western Hemisphere; Latin Americans arrived in large numbers

• Nativists lobbied Congress to cut the flow of immigrants, but Congress listened to employers who wanted cheap labor

Harlem Renaissance

• Black artists and intellectuals claim a voice for themselves; artists and writers championed race pride

• Based in New York, where the Great Migration had tripled the black population

African Americans (WWI)

• Many followed the Great Migration north for wartime jobs; used their new economic clout to build community institutions and work for racial justice

• Hostility between whites and immigrants and African Americans– conflicts turned into violent confrontations

• Many who had served in the war emerged determined to achieve citizenship rights; refused to accept second-class treatment at the hands of whites

American Legion

• Decried socialists, communists, and the IWW as un-American

Hoover’s Commerce Department

• Created two thousand trade associations representing companies in almost every major industry

• Government officials worked with the associations, providing statistical research, suggesting industry-wide standards, and promoting stable prices and wages

• Hoover hoped that through voluntary business cooperation with government (an associated state), he could achieve what progressives had sought through governmental regulation

Prohibitionists

• Largely native-born protestants in small towns

• Included the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League; both hailed temperance as good for health and Christian virtue

• Other progressives were convinced that alcohol kept immigrants in poverty and the saloon was a source of political corruption

FBI

• Tasked with enforcing the Eighteenth under the Volstead Act; increased its resources, investigative domain, and presence in police power as a result

• Also tasked with investigating during the Red Scare

Zora Neale Hurston

• Celebrated the strength of ordinary black folks; sought to articulate what it meant to “be both a Negro and an American”

• Born in the prosperous black community of Eatonville, FL where she was surrounded by examples of achievement

• Believed that African American culture could be understood without heavy emphasis on the impact of white oppression

• Traveled through the South and the Caribbean, documenting folklore, songs, and religious beliefs

• Wrote short stories and novels

The auto industry

• The “showpiece of modern consumer capitalism”; car sales played a major boom in the decade’s economic boom

• Stimulated steel, petroleum, chemical, rubber, and glass production; directly and indirectly created 3.7 million jobs

• Highway construction became a major enterprise, financed by federal subsidies and state gasoline taxes

• Most cars were bought on credit

• Cars changed the way Americans spent their leisure time– leads to the development of gas stations, motels, and drive-in restaurants across the nation

• Cars prompt the growth of suburbs– spreading out of cities

UNIA

• Mobilized African American workers and championed black nationalism

  • Supported the migration of black people to Africa; Garvey argued that black folks would never be justly treated in white-run countries

• Led by Jamaican-bron Marcus Garvey

• Published the negro World

• Ran the Black Star steamship company, which fostered trade with the West Idies and carried black Americans to Africa

• Met its decline after Garvey was arrested for mail fraud; movement collapsed without his leadership

The American Plan

• Employers progressively refused to negotiate with unions; aggressive antiunion campaigns

• Leads union membership to fall from 5.1 million to 3.6 million

Welfare capitalism

• A system of labor relations that stressed a company’s responsibility for its employees’ well-being; employers hoped this would build a loyal workforce and head off labor unrest

Dollar diplomacy

• American business interests shaped foreign affairs– presidents worked to advance US business interests, especially by encouraging private banks to make foreign loans

• Policymakers hoped that loans would stimulate growth and increase demand for US products in developing markets

• Officials often pressured foreign nations to take immense loans and would intervene militarily to force repayment of debt

  • Justified occupation on the basis of foreigners being “savage” or “child-like”

• US policies failed to build broad-based prosperity overseas; military intervention often had terrible results

Pan-Africanism

• Argued that people of African descent, in all parts of the world, had a common destiny and should cooperate in political action

  • Developed thanks to black men’s military service in Europe, the Pan-African Congress, and protests against US occupation of Haiti

Cuban guerilla war against Spain

• 1895

• Cuban patriots mount a major guerrilla war against Spain

• The Spanish rounded up Cuban civilians into concentration camps, where 200,000 died of starvation, exposure, or dysentery

• “Yellow journalism” conveys the horrors of the war to Americans– fuels a surge of nationalism, especially among those who feared that industrialization caused American men to lose physical strength and value

• Congress calls for Cuban independence and many senators seized the opportunity to “manufacture manhood”

• Cleveland fears that war is Cuba would impact American interests– trade, sugar plantations, and canals

• McKinley informs Spain that it must ensure an “early and certain peace” or the US would intervene

• Spain offers a liberal government and limited self-rule for Cuba; Spanish loyalists riot and Cubans push for full independence

The War of 1898

• De Lome letter (1898)– A private letter where the Spanish minister to the US belittled McKinley; intensifies American rage

• 1898– American battle cruiser explodes and sinks in Havana– Spain was blamed for not protecting the ship and even causing the incident

• News of war provokes war fever– men across the country enlisted

• Engagement in the Pacific– American ships corner the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay, destroy it, and capture Manila

• After successfully capturing Manila, policymakers turn their attention to Hawaii

• Hawaii gains strategic value as a halfway station to the Philippines; Congress votes for annexation

Teller Amendment

• 1898

• Disclaimed any intention by the US to occupy Cuba; reassured Americans that their country would uphold democracy abroad as well as at home

US-Philippine War

• 1899

• US seeks to annex the entirety of the Philippines since Manila wasn’t defensible without the whole island of Luzon

• McKinley seeks annexation of the Philippines on the basis of Filipinos being “unfit for self-rule”; sparks debate across the nation

• McKinley’s agenda proves more popular– Spain cedes the Philippines to the US for $20 million

• Fighting breaks out in the Philippines; Americans turn to burning crops and villages and rounding up civilians leading to spectacular losses, particularly on the Filipino side

• US wins by 1902; Americans still express doubts about the brutality of the war

• Constitutional issues– ruled that citizenship was not extended to people in acquired territories

Open door policy in China

• 1902

• US fears being shut out of trade in China– pursues an “open door” policy where all nations have an equal right to trade access

• Hay also asserts that China must be preserved as a “territorial and administrative entity”-- the legal fiction of an independent China allows Americans to claim equal access to its market

Insular cases

• 1901

• The SC declares that the Constitution does not automatically extend citizenship to people in acquired territories

• Marks Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines as colonies, not future states

Hay-Paunceforte Treaty

• 1902

• Heeding Roosevelt’s request, Congress authorized $10 million to purchase a six-mile strip of land across Panama

• Rejected by Columbia