Imperialism & Progressivism - Chapter 27 & 28 Terms (copy)

Henry Demarest Lloyd 

muckraker who wrote the book Wealth Against Commonwealth in 1894; was meant to expose the business practices of the Standard Oil company. 

Thorstein Veblen

wrote the book The Theory of the Leisure Class in 1899. This book said that money was being made for the sake of having more money and the industries weren’t making goods to satisfy real needs. 

Jacob A. Riis

famous muckraker journalist who wrote How the Other Half Lives in 1890. This book showed the poor conditions of living in the city (NYC specifically). 

Theodore Dreiser

novelist with a blunt and to-the-point writing style who wrote books such as The Financier (1912) and The Titan (1914) to show people the power of ambitious people and the power of business.

Social Gospel

the promotion of a type of progressivism that was based on Christian teachings. Involved the use of religious doctrines to demand better housing and living conditions for the urban poor. 

muckrakers

young reporters / journalists who exposed scandals in the business world.

Ida M. Tarbell

journalist who published a ‘devastating but factual’ report on the Standard Oil company. Called “The History of the Standard Oil Company.“

initiative

the power that allows voters to propose their own legislation themselves, bypassing possibly corrupt state legislatures.

referendum

the power to let citizens vote on approving or disapproving a law for final approval by the people. 

recall

enables voters to remove bad/corrupt officials. 

Australian Ballot

let voters vote secretly so people couldn’t see who they vote for. Counteracted political boss rule and bribery.

Eugene V. Debs

Socialist candidate in the Election of 1912 and organized the Socialist Party in 1901.

Robert M. La Follette

the most aggressive progressive Republican leader. He became Wisconsin’s governor in 1901 and he regulated lumber and railroad interests; returning a considerable amount of control to the people. 

Muller v. Oregon (1908)

attorney Louis D. Brandeis had persuaded the Supreme Court to accept the constitutionality of laws protecting women workers by presenting evidence of the harmful effects of factory labor on women’s weaker bodies (fewer working hours). Though this was a discriminatory ruling by today’s standards, the case as a whole was good since it broke legal rules that let employers have total control over the workplace. 

Hiram W. Johnson

Republican governor of California in 1910. Broke the grip that the Southern Pacific Railroad had on California politics and set up a political machine, much like La Follette. Prosecuted grafters (a person or people who gain money or other advantages through illegal, unfair, or dishonest means, especially by abusing their positions or influence. This could include corrupt politicians or crooked bankers).

Lochner v. New York (1905)

A Supreme Court case that struck down a New York law limiting the number of hours bakers could work. It said that baking wasn’t particularly dangerous work, so bakers could work more than 10 hours in a day and more than 60 hours in a week, but this was optional. 

Florence Kelley

a former resident of Jane Addams’ Hull House. Became the state of Illinois’ first chief factory inspector. Took control of the newly formed National Consumers League in 1899.

Frances E. Willard

founder of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Built the WCTU into the largest organization of women in the world with over 1 million members. Allied with the Anti Saloon League.

The Elkins Act of 1903

railroad legislation that said giving rebates would be punished with a heavy fine, and the people punished would be the railroads giving them and the shippers accepting them. 

The Hepburn Act of 1906

banned giving out free passes on railroads as it seemed like a hint towards bribery. 

Upton Sinclair

wrote the sensational novel The Jungle in 1906. The book described disgustingly unsanitary food products. It went in detail of the filth, disease, and putrefaction in Chicago’s damp, ill-ventilated slaughterhouses.

Meat Inspection Act of 1906

said that meat passing through state lines would be subject to federal inspection. 

Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906

designed to prevent the adulteration and mislabeling of foods and pharmaceuticals. 

Hetch Hetchy Valley

place where the federal government allowed the city of San Francisco to build a dam for its municipal water supply. 

John Muir

led preservationists to battle building of the Hetch Hetchy Dam for 7 years; was unsuccessful. It was a temple of nature for him. 

Gifford Pinchot

President Roosevelt’s chief forester and was chief of the Agriculture Department’s Division of Forestry. Was dismissed by Taft under the grounds of insubordination after he criticized Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger for opening public lands in Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska to corporate development.

Panic of 1907

A sharp but punishing panic fell on Wall Street. People withdrew their money from banks in large numbers, there were suicides, and there were criminal indictments against speculators. People called it the ‘Roosevelt panic’.

Brownsville Affair

Roosevelt had ordered dishonorable discharges for 150 Black soldiers falsely accused of charges of inciting violence. 

dollar diplomacy

D.C. encouraged Wall Street bankers to put their extra money / funds in foreign areas of strategic concern to the United States, especially in the Far East and in regions critical to the security of the Panama Canal. Investors from rival powers would let New York bankers strengthen American defenses and foreign policies. 

Payne-Aldrich Bill

was supposed to reduce tariffs as per the House and Taft’s campaign promise, but the Senate revised it and instead increased tariffs on things. Taft then signed this bill, calling it ‘the best bill the Republican Party ever passed.’ This made his supporters mad.

Gifford Pinchot

President Roosevelt’s chief forester and was chief of the Agriculture Department’s Division of Forestry. Was dismissed by Taft under the grounds of insubordination after he criticized Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger for opening public lands in Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska to corporate development. 

New Nationalism

Roosevelt’s campaign platform in the election of 1912 that urged the national government to increase its power to remedy economic and social abuses. Campaigned for women’s suffrage and a broad program of social welfare including minimum wage laws and publicly supported health care. 

New Freedom

Woodrow Wilson’s campaign platform. He attacked the predatory trusts and promised to return state governments to the people. 

normalcy

similar to isolationism; the focus of life inside America and not focused on the outside world. Also led to suspected radical people being jailed or deported in the Red Scare of 1919 and 1920.

Isolationism

the belief that the United States should keep to themselves and not get involved in outside affairs.

Big Sister Policy

one of the result of America’s growing international interest - was the two-time Secretary of State James G. Blaine’s idea and he supported it. The idea behind it was to have the Latin American countries under America so they could open American markets in those countries. 

Great Rapproachement

basically a time period in which America and Britain improved their foreign relations with each other. 

McKinley Tariff

put an import tax on sugar that increased the tax on it by 50%. This made the sugar marked bad and made white planters want to annex Hawaii to avoid this tariff.

insurrectos

a group of Cubans who wanted independence from Spain. 

Maine

a US battleship that blew up in Havana Harbor, Cuba. Citizens in the US were inclined to believe that the Spaniards did it because of the yellow press, and wanted war. 

Teller Amendment

an amendment to the United States’ declaration of war on Spain that stated that when the United States had driven Spain from Cuba, they would give the Cubans their freedom. 

Rough Riders

an American regiment of volunteers that was organized by Theodore Roosevelt; part of the invading army on Spain.

The Anti-Imperialist League

formed to fight the McKinley administration’s expansionist moves. They believed that the United States shouldn’t annex the Philippines. To do would violate the ‘consent of the governed’ part of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They believed that this despotism in another country could lead to despotism in the United States. Furthermore, they also believed that imperialism wouldn’t turn a profit and the US would just be involved in the complicated politics of East Asia. Another fear they had was that annexing the Philippines might make more nonwhites eligible for US citizenship. 

Foraker Act

gave Puerto Rico a civilian/popular government but withheld full self-rule. 

Insular Cases

a series of Supreme Court cases that said Puerto Ricans and Filipinos, while under American rule, do not have all the American rights. 

Platt Amendment

an amendment forced into Cuba’s constitution by the United States after they withdrew from Cuba. It said that Cuba could not make treaties that put their independence at risk (by America’s POV) and that they can’t take on debt beyond their finances (measured as what America saw their finances as). It also let the United States intervene in Cuban affairs using US troops to ‘restore order’ and made the Cubans promise to sell the US only needed coaling or naval stations (Cuba sold the US two and then one, Guantánamo). This amendment was done away with in 1934. 

The Open Door note

Secretary of State John Hay had sent this communication to all big powers. It said that in the area they have in China, they would have to respect certain Chinese rights and the ideal of fair competition.

The Boxer Rebellion

started by a patriotic group in China known as the ‘Boxers’ due to their martial arts training. During the Boxer Rebellion, the Boxers murdered more than 200 foreigners, thousands of Chinese Christians, and surrounded the foreign diplomatic community in Beijing. Several countries sent a combined total of 18,000 soldiers to stop the rebellion, including a few thousand American forces sent to protect American rights according to the 1844 Treaty of Wanghia. 

The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty

Signed in 1901, the Americans needed a way to get their ships through Central America but the British reserved exclusive rights to that area in 1850. 50 years later, facing America and unfriendly Europe, they decided to let the US build a canal in this area, which is why the treaty was made. 

The Roosevelt Corollary

President Theodore Roosevelt’s add-on to the Monroe Doctrine. It said that if the Latin American countries were making bad financial decisions, the US would intervene. The US would take control of their customs houses, pay off the debts, and keep the Europeans in Europe. This basically meant that no other nation could push the Latin American countries around except the United States. 

Gentlemen’s Agreement

Made in 1907-1908 as an agreement between the US and Japan. The US had to repeal an offensive school order in California that segregated the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean kids in a special school after an earthquake to make more space for white kids. The US also wanted Japan to restrict immigration from their country into the US, which they did by withholding passports. 

Root-Takahira Agreement

Made in 1908 between the US and Japan. It said that both powers must respect each other’s territorial possessions in the Pacific and to uphold the Open Door in China. 

Reverend Josiah Strong

authored the book Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis. This book, along with others like it, inspired missionaries to travel overseas to find potential religious converts. 

Alfred Thayer Mahan

authored the book The Influence of Sea Power upon History. This book argued that control over the sea is the key to world dominance. The book helped give birth to a naval race among the rising powers in the world. 

James G. Blaine

made the Big Sister Policy. Two-time Secretary of State for Presidents Garfield and Harrison.

Richard Olney

President Cleveland’s Secretary of State. Told Britain to get out of Venezuela and invoked the Monroe Doctrine. 

Liliuokalani

The last queen of Hawaii. Defended native Hawaiian self-rule. Was deposed by desperate whites who staged a successful revolt. Was not able to be reinstated as monarch. 

Valeriano ‘Butcher‘ Weyler

Spanish general who was brought in to crush to the Cuban rebellion. Herded citizens into barbed-wire reconcentration camps. 

Dupuy de Lôme

Spanish minister in D.C. that had a private letter unwillingly published by William Randolph Hearst. This letter had negatively described President McKinley. This infuriated the American Public. (The de Lôme letter)

George Dewey

commodore of an American fleet. Was ordered by Theodore Roosevelt to move the American Asiatic Squadron to the Philippines, to which he did. He sailed with his six ships into Manila on the night of May 1st, 1898, firing at the old, ten-ship Spanish fleet the next morning. The Spanish fleet was destroyed without a single American casualty. He became a national hero for this.

Emilio Aguinaldo

brought with some Filipino insurgents by George Dewey to help capture Manila. Was well-educated and was also part Chinese. Once in the Philippines, he was the leader of an insurrection against the United States starting on February 8th, 1899. Was captured in a guerrilla camp infiltrated by American soldiers. 

William H. Taft

a rather large, 350 pound able man who became civil governor of the Philippines in 1901. 

John Hay

Made the Open Door Policy. Was Roosevelt’s Secretary of State and was a smart poet-novelist-diplomat. 

Theodore ‘Teddy‘ Roosevelt

Was New York City’s police commissioner from May 6, 1895 – April 19, 1897. Was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, appointed by President McKinley. Served as a lieutenant colonel. Led the Rough Riders during the American invasion of Spanish-controlled Cuba. Became vice-president for 6 months in 1901 and then became president on September 4th, 1901 after President McKinley was assassinated.