Exam 2 History

explain who or what it was, when it was, and why it mattered.

Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act (1894)

The Wilson-Gorman tariff (1894) revived the tariff on sugar and implemented an income tax.

• Cuban economy (reliant on plantation sugar farming) breaks

down.

• Rebellions beginning in the Cuban countryside spread.

• US sugar refineries merge

Philippine-American War (1899-1902)

Between 1899 and 1902, the US attempts to subdue the rebellion in

Philippines.

• Even after the war “ends,” rebellion and massacres continue for nearly a

decade.

• The US employs many of the methods they criticized Spain for: deliberate starvation, reconcentration camps, the “water cure.”

• ("ends" in 1902 but resistance and massacres continue throughout the 1900s)

Frederick Taylor publishes The Principles of Scientific Management (1911)

• its principles are adopted in the '10s and '20s

• Goal: manufacturing efficiency and fix lulls in production

• Means: standardization of materials and labor; measurable and timed tasks

• ford incorporates and innovates in production, following Taylorist ideas → assembly line

Presidential election splits between four major candidates (1912)

Republicans split between Taft (former governor-general of the Philippines)

and Roosevelt.

• Democrats run Woodrow Wilson – who benefits from the GOP split.

•A hodgepodge of progressive ideas can be seen in Roosevelt’s campaign and in

both major parties.

• Socialist candidate Eugene Debs wins 6% of the popular vote.

• all progressive candidates, republican vote split, so Woodrow Wilson (D) wins

US enters WW1 (1917)

Different groups opposed US involvement for different reasons.

- Immigrants: divided loyalties?

- Labor, esp. the radical edge of the labor movement.

- Business: wanted to trade with both sides.

- Woodrow Wilson attempted to maintain neutrality

Congress declares war on April 6, 1917.

• A lot of proximate causes (Lusitania, Zimmermann telegram) but ultimately:

increasing US loans to Britain and France guaranteed an interest in their success.

• Britain blockaded the North Sea and prevented anyone from trading with Germany

• Ultimately, US mobilizes 5 million people to serve in WW1, of that number, over 100,000 die – many of them not from combat, but from the Spanish flu pandemic.

Elaine massacre (1919)

• deadliest riot

• black sharecroppers form union to negotiate higher prices for cotton

• land owners send police to watch church where meeting is taking place

• shots exchanged kills a white person

• Mayor spins it as Black insurrection

• Multi-day period of violence, kills 200+ black residence

• burning down houses

• federal troops step in

First Red Scare, including the Palmer Raids (1919)

Bombing campaign in late 1919, one of which explodes in Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer’s house.

• Palmer had arrested a lot of anarchists apposing war, an anarchists had planned on leaving a bomb at Palmer’s house, but the bomb exploded in the anarchist’s hands instead + Palmer was on the second floor

• This, plus the strikes, plus the specter of the Revolution resulted in the first red scare.

• Arrested 6,000 suspected radicals, several hundreds deported to Soviet Russia.

• Palmer raids: rounded up radicals, targeted IWW, targeted Italian immigrants, 1000 people arrested, 500 deported to Russia

• Palmer expected a revolutionary uprising on May Day of 1920.

General Motors begins offering credit/installment plans for its cars (1919)

• allowed middle-class Americans to buy more expensive cars by paying in installments, rather than needing the full cash amount up front.

• The move was crucial for transitioning car ownership from a luxury for the rich to a staple for the middle class, ultimately making GM the worldwide leader in auto sales

• GMAC pioneered the "buy now, pay later" model for big-ticket items, fostering a "culture of debt" that eventually extended to household appliances and other goods.

• Expansion of the Market

• Competitive Advantage over Ford

Federal Reserve lowers interest rates (1922-1928)

• Federal Reserve System established in 1913

• Reccession Recovery

• Support the Gold Standard: preventing an exesive outflow of gold to Europe

• Economic Expansion

• Important: Roaring Twenties Boom, and precersur to 1929 crash

to fight domestic recessions, stabilize the economy after the 1920-1921 depression, and assist European nations in maintaining the international gold standard. This crucial policy facilitated a booming, low-inflation economy (the "Roaring Twenties") but ultimately fueled excessive stock market speculation, encouraging the Fed to tighten policy in 1928-1929, which some economists believe helped set the stage for the Great Depression.

Mussolini’s March on Rome (1922)

After WWI, Italy experienced a 1919-1920 even more disruptive and chaotic than that in America:

• massive strikes, factory seizures, and peasant revolts: a moment of potential revolution.

• factory owners, land owners, and middle class angry

• Mussolini capitalized on middle and upper class fears of revolution and promised to use the state to take apart the Italian left, and took power in a monarch-approved coup d’etat after the March on Rome (1922).

• Mussolini marched his army in the streets and the King appointed him head of gov

• Mussolini’s party, combining ethnic nationalism, an active and partisan state, but maintaining private ownership of industry and land, influenced similar movements throughout Europe.

• His goal was to restore Italy to the glory of the Roman Empire

Ralph Peer records Southern musicians (1923)

• first country music recording

• beginning of blues

• By pioneering field recordings and identifying an untapped market for rural music, Peer transitioned local "hillbilly" talent into national commodities, establishing the foundation for modern country and roots music commercialization

• Birth of a genre

Increasingly devastating dust storms in the Great Plains (1933)

Monoculture wheat farming expanded during WWI, often without crop rotation or fallow periods.(dryer, less fertile soil)

• Mechanical plowing removed native grasses, which anchored the soil, and shrubs, which acted as windbreaks.

• resulting in the dust bowl

•Because of the dust storm As prices collapsed, many farmers moved away, leaving land uncultivated and untended making conditions get worse

Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933)

A centerpiece of Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation meant to address the causes of the Depression, passed in 1933.

• The problem: overproduction caused low agricultural prices.

• So, the solution? Limit production – pay subsidies to farmers for reducing output.

• In addition: refinancing farm mortgages at lower interest rates.

• In the south, landowners got the money and sharecroppers got evicted

• Sharecroppers form unions: strike and write to officals → no political support

• In Cali, lobbied to have specialty crops included, more concentrated growers benefited

Southern Tenant Farmes Union formed (1934)

headquartered in Memphis and led by H. L. Mitchell, organized interracially and aimed to force the hand of landowners to distribute AAA subsidies to tenants and prevent evictions

• wrote to officials to enforce AAA policies

Resettlement Administration attempts to aid migrant workers (1935)

Resettlement Administration (1935), succeeded by the Farm Security Administration.

• “Rural rehabilitation” involved purchasing uncultivated lands and settling with landless farmers.

• Also created camps for migrant workers away form the fields, with access to food, healthcare, etc

• inspired by Mexican president Lazaro Cardenas land reform policies

Essay: Cause of the Depression

International causes.

• During WWI, exports and federal policies (esp. the US Food Administration and the Federal Farm Loan Act) meant high demand for exports, guaranteed price stability and easy access to credit.

• End of war in 1918 and recovery of European food production causes prices to fall.

• Reinforced by retaliatory tariffs after 1922.

Domestic causes: Agriculture

• With no price guarantees, farmers faced market prices with a supply that far exceeded domestic or international demand, esp. in wheat, corn, beef, and dairy.

• Loans taken out for land to cultivate and machinery during the war meant large looming debts.

• Attempts for a federal solution vetoed by Republican presidents as interference in the market.

Domestic Causes: Industry

• Crisis: Stock market crash in October, 1929.

• Underlying causes: Overproduction in key sectors; unregulated banking sector; inflated stock prices built on debt; outstanding international (WWI) debts.

• Effects: By 1933, 25% unemployment; 50% wage decreases; real GDP down by 30%.

Hoover’s response.

• Policies: Smoot-Hawley Tariff (1930), international trade declines by 66%

• Fed response: Raises interest rates sharply, reducing money supply.

• Unrest: Bonus Army in DC.

• Unrest: Hunger march in 1932 at Ford’s massive Rouge River factory ends with four dead, sixty injured, and fifty more arrested