APUSH Unit 7

Debates on imperialism

William Seward—> purchasing Alaska

Alfred T Mahan —> sea power, “look outward”

Albert Beveridge argues moral righteousness/duty

Nationwide renewed interest in power & desire for trade

Spanish American War

US joins fight for Cuba’s freedom from Spain

• Causes= yellow journalism exaggerates Spanish brutality, making Americans sympathetic,

+ financial interests in Cuba, + explosion of USS Maine (yellow journalism)

• “Splendid Little War”

• Treaty of Paris (peace treaty)= US gets Philippines

• Platt Amendment- permitted extensive US intervention in foreign affairs of Cuba

Open Door Policy

All nations get equal + unrestricted access to trade in China

McKinley + John Hays

Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine

Declared US right to intervene in Latin America to ensure stability

US will make sure Latin countries pay their debts to Europe in exchange for European countries keeping OUT

Dollar Diplomacy

Taft’s heavy investment in foreign markets— crowd out rivals, make more countries reliant on US

Failure bc it made us look imperialist & alienated foreign nations + financial loss from poor investments

W. Wilson canceled

Scientific Management

Via John Taylor (Taylorism)

Extreme efficiency + intention behind every role

Treats workers like cogs in a machine (unions no like)

Govt must be experts

Square Deal

TR called union leaders & businessmen to White House, negotiated highers wages + 9 hr workday

3 Cs:

• Corporate control (trust-busting)

• consumer protection (regulations like meat inspection act— Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”)

• conservation (protect natural resources)

Sherman Antitrust Act

Via TR

Prohibits monopolies & outlaws [unreasonable] restraints on foreign trade

Broke up railroads

WW1 premise

Triple Entente (Brit. France. Russia) vs Triple Alliance (Germany Austria Italy)

Imperialist competition + arms race

Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand

US Entry to WW1

Pres Wilson bases whole campaign on being neutral, then enters war upon election

• Sinking of Lusitania via Germany

• Euro economic ties

• German submarine attacks

• Zimmerman telegram

US is savior

Wilson puts forth 14 pts

Nation during WW1

Propadanda for liberty bonds— citizens loaned money to govt

Women took job positions + many served in Army Nurse Corps

African Americans played huge roles as segregated units— however, end of war yielded no civil rights advancements

Selective Service Act- required all men 21-30 to register for draft

Great Migration

Push = racial violence, economic exploitation

Pull = WW1 labor shortages (=job openings), better wages, information networks

Demobilization

Rapid discharge of soldiers to civilian life

• Mass unemployment + inflation

• Civil unrest— soldiers returned to find Black Americans in their jobs— Tulsa Massacre

• 1st Red Scare— Palmer Raids— fear of communism & political radicalism= deportation of suspected communists

• Decline of progressivism w/ “return to normalcy”

20s

• Prosperity boom from new productivity, electricity, consumerism

• Union decline in membership— employer “welfare capitalism,” govt suppression

• Growth of pop culture + Hollywood

• US is a creditor nation, loaning Europe money. US major profit

Scopes Trial

• John Scopes = high school teacher teaching evolution

• Butler Act= illegal to teach non-biblical theories

• Prosecution led by William Jennings Bryan, advocated trad. morality + strict bible interpretation

• Defense by Clarence Darrow, advocated academic freedom

Scopes lost but case drew nat. attention

Warren G Harding, Calvin Coolidge

Harding = high tariffs, force Europe to raise tariffs, slowing of global trade

Coolidge = pro-business policies, laborers & farmers suffer

Teapot Dome

Albert Fall (sec of interior) accepted bribes to lease govt land to oil companies

2nd Red Scare

• Intense anti-communist paranoia

• Growing rivalry w Soviets + outbreak of Korean War

• Rosenberg Trials

• McCarthyism

Dawes Plan

Post WW1

• Euro nations slow to repat war debts & Germany is bankrupt

• US banks loan Germany money to rebuild, England & France us reparation payments to pay back US

Great Depression

Beginnings:

• buying on margin (stock loans. Everyone sells their stocks on Black Tuesday & stock prices plunge

• Mass unemployment

• Banks fail & people’s $ disappears

• Shantytowns

• Overproduction in agriculture & industry

Hawley Smoot Tariff

Raised import taxes on foreign goods

intended to protect american industries but backfired & worsens worldwide depression

Road to WW2

Rise of Totalitarianism — Italian Mussolini, Hitler + Nazis

• Congress reinforces American neutrality— no Americans on ships of belligerent nations. Preparedness= arms buildup

Pre-entry US support in WW2

• cash and carry” Britain can buy US arms if it uses its own ships + pays cash

• Selective Service Act- registered all men for peacetime draft

• Britain got old US destroyers

• FDR lends $ to UK for purchase of weapons, arguing that US must help nations defend 4 freedoms

• Lend-Lease Act— Britain obtain US arms using credit

Entry to WW2

• FDR cuts off Japanese access to oil etc after Japan joins Axis —> bombing of Pearl Harbor

• FDR declares war on Japan; Germany & Italy declar war on US

• US & Soviets join Allies & agree to concentrate on Nazis