Exam stuff!

Muckrakers

Muckrakers

Journalists who exposed the problems of Gilded Age America

• famous muckrakers

  • Jacob Riis: urban poor (led to things like building codes etc for tenements)

  • John Spargo: child labor (led to restrictions on child labor)

  • Upton Sinclair: meatpacking (led to Pure Food and Drug Act)

  • Ida Tarbell: Standard Oil (led to trust-busting)

  • Ida B Wells: lynching (led to anti-lynching laws)

  • Frank Norris: railroads (led to federal regulation of railroads)

  • David Graham Phillips: Senate (led to 17th amendment)

  • Samuel Hopkins Adams: pharmaceutical companies selling fake stuff (led to Pure Food and Drug Act)

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Described the horrid working conditions present in meat packing plants, as well as the disgusting practices common in the meat packing industry.

Led to Pure Food and Drug Act.

Progressive Era

first national reform movement, tackling everything from corruption to immigration and child-labor.

First time the government decided it had a responsibility to deal with social and economic issues.

Progressive presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, Woodrow Wilson.

Imperialism

Imperialism refers to a policy or practice of extending a country's power and influence through military and or economic means. Imperialism, unlike colonialism, does not require a nation to resettle its populace to the conquered region, but instead relies on stripping the imperialized nation of its resources and installing a new government.

Conquering Africa

required 2 major changes:

• the invention of Quinine (anti-malarial drug)

• Slavery: depopulation, internal conflicts, Europe gets slaves, Africa gets guns

  • those doesn’t believe in slavery gets exterminated by parts w/ guns traded from slavery

Pros and Cons of American imperialism

Pros:

• economic reasons, trade

• compete with Europe

• expand American influence

• American dominates the Western Hemisphere

• civilize the non-white world

Cons:

• Risks war

• expensive

• hypocritical

• encourages immigration of non-white people

strategies of American imperialism

“Free” the colonized peoples

Buy their land

Build/establish new governments

“White mans burden”

idea that it is the responsibility of white Europeans and their descendants to civilize and christianize non-white peoples all across the world.

Spanish American War

removed Spain from Cuba

America helps Cuba write a new constitution + establish a democracy

America gains Puerto Rico, Philippines, and Guam

Platt Amendment

U.S. promises not to formally take control of Cuba and helps write the Cuban constitution.

Teller Amendment

Amendment to the Cuban constitution allowing America to intervene in Cuban affairs for whatever reason. Also Grants America a naval base on the island (Guantanamo Bay).

American-Philippino War

The American-Philippine War was a conflict that occurred from 1899 to 1902 between the United States and the Philippines. The war resulted in the deaths of thousands of Filipinos and Americans, and ultimately led to the establishment of the Philippines as a U.S. colony until its independence in 1946.

Imperializing Hawaii

• Economically: Took over economy by buying up plantations

• Politically: became the main land-lords of the island and forced the king to accept constitution stripping Asians of voting rights and only landowners the right to vote

• Biologically: Settled there and had white “native-born Hawaiians**”**

• Militarily: Forced monarchy to allow American naval base (Pearl Harbor)

• White people living in Hawaii form “Committee of Public safety” to fight Queen Liliuokalani

  • request U.S. militaries help

  • U.S. military surrounds royal palace

  • Queen Liliuokalani abdicates to avoid bloodshed

Asian immigration

Mainly Chinese men brought by the gold rush of 1848

• other Asian groups don’t have significant push/pull factors

Most Chinese immigrants are poor men, who want to make a lot of money to send back to China, often take jobs that white men don't want laundry, cooking, railroad work, etc.

Women

most women who came were sex trafficked as prostitutes

wealthy women who came were wives of merchants and often had bound feet so they could not leave the home.

6 Tongs

a group of 6 prominent Chinese gangs who trafficked and bought young Chinese women to sell as prostitutes and sex slaves in America.

infamous for running opium dens

American race competition playbook

White Americans initially view non white men as weak and feminine and women as hypersexual.

When the non white group becomes a threat, the men are viewed as strong and a danger to white women.

Chinese exclusion act of 1882

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a federal law that prohibited Chinese immigrants from coming to the United States and prevented Chinese immigrants already in the country from becoming citizens.

Chinese Americans could still come to the country by lying about their birth data and parentage (paper sons) or by marrying a Chinese man already in the country (picture women).

Japanese Immigration

Very different from Chinese immigrants

• often wealthy and or businessmen

• came as family units

Americans still treat them the same as Americans see no distinction between the different Asian ethnicities.

Gentlemens agreement of 1907

An informal agreement between the US and Japan, where Japan agreed to limit immigration to the US in exchange for the US to allow Japanese wives to join their husbands already living there.

The “New Woman”

New Women/Gibson girls

• more comfortable/open with sexuality

• goes outside/plays sports more

• bikes/drives

• fashion becomes more revealing and masculine

• can get white-collar jobs and go to university

• can vote in some states

Crisis of Masculinity

Men fear losing their place in society as women are becoming more masculine. i.e. voting, working, sports, dating, etc.

“West Cure”

go explore western America

shoot things

imperialize the pacific

play poker, etc.

“Rest Cure”

women need less stimulus, so they are told to go sit in a comply dark room and do…nothing.

Neuresthenia

made up disease

industrialization/urbanization is taking a tole on American bodies

product of changing gender standards/roles

Heterosocial society

different sexes interacting in public spaces/spaces of leisure

• night life -- including women now

• starts the entertainment industry

• Theme parks, roller coasters, etc.

• More public beaches

• Dating instead of “courting”

Homosocial society

one sex in any given public space or space of leisure

popularization of dating

Dating replaces courting

• Courting was under parental supervision with the goal of marriage

• Dating was not with parents and not necessarily with the intention of marriage

• Increased premarital sex

  • Brith control and abortions were common and safe

  • Proto-sexual revolution

• Kept women’s salaries low because men were expected to pay

  • Dating became necessary for women to enjoy entertainment industry

Comstock laws of 1870

Laws passed by the US government in 1870 that prohibited the distribution and sale of obscene materials, including contraceptives and information about them, as well as all types of pornography.