Chapter 21-22

Roosevelt and “Civilization”

Roosevelt and “Civilization”

• racial and economic basis for using american power around the world

• “civilized” (white, anglo-saxon, industrialized) had the right to intervene in affairs of the uncivilized to preserve order

Protecting the “Open Door” in Asia

• Roosevelt agreed to mediate Russo-Japanese war in order to prevent either nation from becoming dominant in the area

• Japan emerged as predominant power in East Asia

• Japan increased naval power

• Roosevelt sent “Great White Fleet” to make them recognize the power of the US

Roosevelt Foreign Policy

• Roosevelt started a legacy of interventionism in Latin America

• “Big Stick Diplomacy”: power of us navy

• Roosevelt corollary to the Monroe Doctrine: right to intervene in domestic affairs of neighbors

Construction of the Panama Canal

• Reason for canal: Mahan sea power idea

• Colombian government refused to give US land to build canal

• US supported revolution in Panama that made it an independent country who agreed to the terms the Colombian Senate rejected

Taft and “Dollar Diplomacy”

• Taft’s sec of state worked to extend US investments in less developed regions aka “Dollar Diplomacy”

• Us sent troops to support insurgents of a revolution in Nicaragua (to protect american financial interest - spurred by American mining company)

  • stayed there for more than a decade

Wilson and Huerta

• “moral diplomacy”

• Wilson refused to recognize mexican gov under Victoriano Huerta b/c he murdered the previous president Francisco Madero (who had overthrown previous dictator: Porfirio Diaz)

• Huerta, backed by American business, established military dictatorship

  • sailors from USS dolphin briefly arrested and Mexican ships refused to apologize (21 gun salute)

  • Wilson seized Mexican port of Veracruz

• US action strengthened opposing constitutionalist fation led by Venustiano Carranza who captured Mexico City and forced Huerta to flee

Wilson and Carranza

• Carranza refused to accept American guidelines for a new gov: Wilson considered backing another rebel group led by Pancho Villa

• Wilson forced to accept Carranza’s gov

• Villa retaliated American meddling by marching into New Mexico and killing Americans

• Wilson sent general john pershing to go to Mexico in search of Villa, didn’t find him, search called off cus of start of WW1

The Collapse of European Peace

• The Triple Entente: Britain, France, and Russia

• Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy

• Anglo-German Rivalry

• Assasination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand by a serbian nationalist

• Main Causes: Militarism Alliance Imperialism Nationalism

• w/ German support (blank check), Austria-Hungary launched an attack on Serbia, Serbia called in Russia to their defense (secret alliance)

Call for Neutrality

• Wilson called for neutrality

  • “US Exceptionalism”: idea that democratic values mades their country immune from the corruption and chaos

• Anti-imperialists leaders wanted to stay out (Henry Ford)

• African American leaders saw it as a “white man’s war”

Slowly taking sides

• German and Irish immigrant sympathized w Germany

• most Americans sides with Britain

• American couldn’t trade w/ Germany as much due to British blockade - economic gain pushed them further to British side

  • war orders from Britain and France caused greatest economic boom in US history

  • US became arsenal for Allies - New military tech (Machine guns)

German submarine warfare

• U-Boats with deisel-electric engine used passive sonar (hydrophone) to locate enemy ships

• Sank the Lusitania - a british passenger ship (carrying weapons), killing many americans

• Wilson demanded Germany agree to no longer attack passenger ships w/o warning + reaffirm commitment to neutral rights

  • Germany agreed

Preparing for war (maybe??)

• after German hostilities, Wilson endorsed a proposal to allocated $1 billion to increase armed forces - controversial

• Wilson’s reelection campaign vs. Republican Charles Evans Hughes revolved around Wilson being the anti-war candidate

  • won by slim margin due to his support for the bolstering of armed forces

Entering the War

• immediate cause of US entrance: unrestricted submarine warfare against Allied (and American) ships

• Zimmerman Telegram: germany asked mexico to ally with them in the event of war with the US so that Mexico could reclaim it’s lost territory

• Wilson asked for a declaration of war

  • now used US exceptionalism to support the other side: US intervention as means to spread progressive ideas

  • self-determination

US comes to saves the day!

• US troops crossed atlantic, used convoy system to avoid german submarines: sent multiple ships at the same time at the same speed and changed course a lot

• US destroyers aided in assault on subs

• after bolshevik rev lenin neogtiated Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: Russia left the conflict

Raising Forces

• national draft: selective service act

• command from Washington carried out by local administration, preserved local autonomy

• American Expeditionary Forces

Diverse Troops

• women allowed to enlist: served in hospitals and offices

• African Americans also enlisted: preformed menial tasks and served in segregated units

• Many wanted recent immigrants to join military to become true americans

American Legion

• former AEF soldiers form American Legion to help soldiers cope with experience of war

• PTSD and after effects of war very rampant in soldiers coming back from abroad

American Expeditionary Force

• joined allies under General John J. Pershing

• Europe had been embroiled in trench warfare for years at that point

  • European leaders didn’t trust US forces but Pershing wouldn’t allow foreign officers to command Americans

  • European leaders caved when German advanced basically to Paris

• Marines = devil dogs

The Battles

• Americans assisted French at Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood (Meuse-Argonne Campaign) in repelling German forces that were nearing Paris

• Pushed German back at St. Mihiel

• German leaders began to seek an armistice

End of War

• after pushing Germans basically back to their borders Central Power leaders sought an armistice

• Nov 11, 1918: WW1 ended

• America emerged as a world leader, European dominance declined

New Technology of Warfare

• high casualty rate as a result of highly destructive weapons

• had to break stalemate by overcoming trenches: tanks, dreadnoughts, airplanes

• american diesel submarines

• disease = huge killer

Organizing the economy for war

• US spent $32 billion

• used federal serve system to expand money supply

• War Revenue Bills: levies on “excess profits” of corps and graduated income and inheritance tax

• Wilson established a Council of National Defense to mobilize at a local level

The War Boards

• oversaw railroads, fuel supplies, food, etc.

• food administration: under Herbert Hoover

  • farms at home; didn’t actually need to ration food

• War Industries Board: coordinated gov purchases of war supplies

  • under Bernard Baruch

  • wielded great federal power

• gov planning disbanded after war but emerged with positive view on the cooperation of the public and private sector: modern bureaucratic state (big government)

Ludlow Massacre

• striking miners in Rockefeller mine

• killed

National War Labor Board

• improved labor position to avoid strikes

• 8-hour workday, overtime, and women = pay

Economic and Social results of the war

• increased employment

• white men @ war so new opportunities for women, African American, Mexican, and Asian workers

• The Great Migration: migration of a lot of A.A from rural south into industrial north

• Mexican Americans left farm labor for industrial jobs in western cities

• Many Mexican immigrants - settled in segregated neighborhoods: barrios

• women started working industrial jobs

The Peace Movement

• Carrie Chapmen Catt created the Women’s Peace Party: wanted to stay out of war

• Once war started many women saw war as a means for women’s suffrage and as a female labor opportunity

Propaganda and Silencing of Dissent

• Committee on Public Information (CPI): distributed pro-war propaganda

• propaganda became aggressively anti-german

• Espionage Act: stiff penalties for spies and obstruction of war

• Sedition Act: made it illegal to express any opposition to war

• Schenck v. United States: supreme court upheld limits on freedom of speech that would not have been acceptable in peacetime (clear and present danger)

• “American Protective League”: ppl would spy on neighbors to “impose unity”

• violence and prejudice against immigrants (esp german)

• 100% americanism: conformity + support for war

Wilson’s 14 points

• Plan for the peace negotiations

• open diplomacy (no secret alliances)

• freedom of navigation

• arms reduction

• removal of trade barriers

• self-determination

• multinational organization: The League of Nations w/ internatonal peackeeping force (Article X)

The Peace Conference

• German and russian reps excluded - west fear of bolsheviks

• Wilson had partial success in scaling back French and British demands for reparations from Germany meant to keep Germany weak

• Wilson got a commitment to the League of Nation

• allies signed the Treaty of Versaille

Issue of Ratification

• Wilson could not get 2/3 vote of senate for ratification of the Treaty of Versailles

• congress didn’t like how it stripped their power to declare war + their loss of unilateral power

• people against ratification: irreconcilable (mostly western isolationists or republicans)

• wilson went on a speaking tour to defend the treaty, he had a stroke, the US never ratified the treaty or joined the league of nations

1920s economy

• increased manufacturing output and income

• roaring 20s

• causes of boom: European destabilization left big markets for the US, technology and industrial expansion

Expansion of linked industry

• automobile industry good example:

  • stimulated growth in other industries

  • auto manufacturers also purchase steel, rubber, glass, and tools, auto owners buy gas from oil corps, road construction, increased demand for suburban housing

rise of radio

• radio: theory of modulation discovered by Reginald Fessenden

• led to commercial broadcasting: advertising and entertainment

early computers

• Vannevar Bush: first analog computer

• Howard Aiken: even more complex computer with memory and advanced math skills: financial assistance from Harvard and MIT

New Economic Organization

• oligopolies

• CEO’s replaced individual/family-owned enterprises as major form of business org

• General Moters: Alfred P. Sloan: implemented efficient divisional organization

• Trade Associations: members of an industry coordinate in production and marketing techniques

• fear of overproduction

Labor in the New Era

• increased wealth gap

• increased living standards and working conditions for some workers - employers tried to avoid labor unrest (Welfare Capitalism)

• wage increases were nowhere near the rate of production and profit increase

• welfare capitalism undercut labor unions: ppl also wanted to avoid being labeled socialist

Women in the workforce

• women mostly worked “pink collar jobs”: lower-paying service jobs

• largely left out of labor orgs

Minorities in the workforce

• A.A who had migrated to industrial cities were often unrepresented by labor unions - creation of The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters: A. Philip Randolph: union led by A.A and represented virtually all black workforce

• in west: asian and hispanic workers were also scarceley organized

  • Japanese immigrants found success in truck farming

  • CA passed laws to make it more difficult for Japanese ppl to buy land

  • Filipino workers also made up a considerable part of the unskilled

  • Anti-Filipino Riots in CA led to legislation virtually eliminating immigration from the Phillipines

The “American Plan”

• open shop crusade: democratic capitalism relied on workers not being required to join a union

• incorporated welfare capitalism

• some corps would ban unions (by negotiating with union leaders and using welfare capitalism)

Agricultural Technology and the Plight of the farmer

• mechanized farming

• increased crop yield w/ fewer workers

• Hybrid corn (genetic research)/chemical fertilizers/pesticides

• overproduction of agriculture caused dramatic price fall/drop in farmers income

  • farmers accounted for 25% of pop so this spelled big problems for the American economy

• increase in tenancy

Parity

• government price support ensuring farmers would earn back at least their produ tion costs

• promoted tariffs and gov sells of surplus crops abroad

• McNary-Haugen Bill: parity act: vetoed by Pres Calvin Coolidge as a “special interest” bill

Consumerism

• mass consumer culture

• installment plan: let people buy good they couldn’t afford

• increased purchasing of automobiles

  • rise of suburbs

  • travel for pleasure possible for working/middle class families - vacation industry

  • rise of independent youth culture

  • real estate speculation

• rise of advertising industry

The Man Nobody Knows

• controversial book by Bruce Barton

• portrayed jesus as the ultimate salesman

Newspapers

• national medium

• mass-circulation magazines

• condensed stories, books, and news in a more accessible format

• Americana style of art: nostalgic american themes: Norman Rockwell (covers of Saturday evening post)

Movies

• important for mass communication and spreading common values and attitudes image-wise

• industry centered in socal - LA has reputation as being anti-union

• US produces 90% of world’s films

• most famous female actress: Clara Bow: created flapper image

• first feature-length film with sound: “The Jazz Singer” w/ Al Jolson

Commercial Radios

• first commercial radio station: KDKA

• revenue from advertisement

• live broadcast of sports

  • baseball: Babe Ruth

Charles Lindbergh

• most popular american

• flew on the first succesful nonstop flight from NY to Paris on “The Spirit of St. Louis”: time’s first “man of the year”

Women’s role in the family

• “companionate marriage”

• serial monogamy

• birth control

Flapper

• Flappers: modern women living liberated lifestyle

• mostly lower-middle class and working class women

• most women however were still largely reliant on men

Modernist Religion

• more in favor of personal fulfillment in the present world

• liberal protestantism: Harry Emerson Fosdick

• religion lost value in the life of some middle-class people

Pressing for Women’s Rights

• Alice Paul’s National Woman’s Party continued to campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment

• Sheppard-Towner Act: allocated funds for prenatal and child healthcare programs

  • opposed by some feminists cus it classified all women as mothers

  • “protective” legislation

  • healthcare professionals feared untrained healthcare workers

Education and Youth

• highest rate of school attendance

• schools offered traditional/classical education and vocational/technical skills

• athletics, clubs offered

A Lost Generation

• Gertrude Stein: coined the term

• Ernest Hemingway: “A Farewell to Arms” - contempt for war

• H.L. Mencken (Debunker): journalist who ridiculed religion, politics, art, and democracy

• F. Scott Fitzgerald: “The Great Gatsby” ridiculed American obsession with material wealth

Jazz

• Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith

• born in New Orleans

• had a white audience

The Harlem Renaissance

• flourishing african american culture centered in Harlem NY

• drew from american and african roots: celebrate the richness of their heritage: black pride

• Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston

• Major Leader: Alain Locke

Prohibition

• 18th amendment: prohibition of sale and manufacturing of alcohol

• not enforced: easy to produce, not enough enforcement agents

• black market: industry for organized crime (Al Capone)

Nativism post war

• Emergency Immigration Act: Annual immigration from any country could not exceed 3% of people of that nationality in 1910

• The National Origins Act of 1924: banned immigration from East Asia and reduced quote from Europe to 2% based on 1890 census

• 1927: cap of 150000 immigrants per year

• loopholes in immigration laws from Mexico and Central/South America

Rebirth of the Klan

• D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation”: glorified early klan - inspired rebirth

• still focused on intimidation of A.A.: expanded to concern over Catholics, Jews, and immigrants

• fear of threat to “traditional values”

• gained public office and control of state legislatures

• Decline: scandal and corruption: David Stephenson: raping and kidnapping of secretary, led to her suicide

Scopes Trial

• Tennessee made teaching evolution illegal (evangelical fundamentalist influence)

• John T. Scopes (bio teacher) was arrested for doing so and was represented by the ACLU in the trial

• William Jennings Bryan was the main figure of the prosecution

• known as the “Monkey Trial” for it’s popularity

• Modernist v. Fundementalist

Split of the Democratic Party

• 1920: Harding/Coolidge ticket won against James Cox/Frankling Roosevelt

• tension within the party due to diverse interest groups: split over prohibition, immigration restriction, and kkk

• 1924: nominated John W. Davis - defeated by Coolidge

• 1928: nominated Alfred E. Smith (Irish Catholic, represented the Urban Working Class) - lost to Herbert Hoover

Harding

• passive president

• incompetent

• Teapot Dome Scandal: Sec of Interior Albert B. Full secretely leased naval oil reserves to wealthy business men

• Died of a heart attack

Coolidge

• passive president: believed in deregulation of business

• more honest

Government and Business

• relationship between private sector and federal gov

• Sec of Treasury Andrew Mellon: reduced taxes on corporate profits, personal incomes and inheritances + decreased federal budhet: cut WW1 payment in half

• Herbert Hoover (Sec of Commerce): associationalism: creation of national org of businessmen in particular industries (trade associations)

Election of 1928

• Hoover seen as progressive candidate

• easily won against Smith

• broke “solid south” by carrying some southern states

Marcus Gravey

• black nationalism

• reject assimilationism

• “negro improvement association”

• return to africa movement

Chicago Race Riots

• in response to black voters deciding elections and competing with white for jobs and housing

• part of the red summer of 1919

The Red Scare

• russian rev presented threat of communism

• radicals supposedly to blame for a series of bombings

• undermined power of labor unions seen as radicals

• deportation of immigrants w/ suspected anarchist or revolutionary leanings

• Sacco and Vanzetti Trial: italian immigrants charged w/ murder one questionable evidence just cause they were anarchists - denied a retrial when someone literally confessed to the crime

Backlash to gov’s infringement of civil liberties

• American Civil Liberties Union created

• supreme court justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Brandeis defended unpopular speech

The Palmer Raids

Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer orchestrated raids on “radical centers” and arrested more than 6000 ppl