Progressive Era Flashcards

The Progressive Era: Goals and Effects

• The Progressives:

  • A diverse group with varied opinions.

  • Addressed issues like:

    • Growing power of big business.

    • Economic uncertainties (e.g., Panic of 1893).

    • Labor conflicts.

    • Control of political machines over urban areas.

    • Jim Crow segregation.

    • Women's suffrage.

    • Alcohol-related problems.

  • Included Protestant leaders, feminists, labor union leaders, and African Americans.

  • Shared belief: Society was deteriorating, and government intervention was necessary.

  • Focused on grassroots efforts but believed government involvement was crucial for societal change.

Progressive Era Journalists (Muckrakers)

• Investigative journalists exposed corruption.

• Teddy Roosevelt called them "muckrakers" (referencing a character from Pilgrim's Progress).

• Notable works:

  • Upton Sinclair's The Jungle: Exposed unsanitary conditions in meatpacking plants; vivid descriptions of contamination.

  • Ida Tarbell's expose on John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company.

  • Jacob Rees's How the Other Half Lives: Photojournalism exposing unsanitary living conditions in New York tenements.

• Goal: To reveal corruption and inspire public pressure for change.

Expansion of Democracy

• Objective: Challenge political bosses (e.g., Tammany Hall) and empower voters.

  • Secret Ballot: Introduced to combat corruption where political bosses exchanged favors for public votes.

• Direct Election of Senators:

  • Problem: Senators were often influenced by millionaires and big business.

  • Seventeenth Amendment (1913): Transferred the power to elect senators from state legislatures to the people.

  • Other Progressive Amendments:

    • Eighteenth Amendment: Established American prohibition, largely driven by women and groups like the Anti-Saloon League and the American Temperance Society.

    • Nineteenth Amendment: Ratified in 1920, granting women the right to vote.

• Legislative Reforms:

  • Initiative: Voters could require legislators to consider ignored bills.

  • Referendum: Voters could vote on proposed laws (e.g., women's suffrage, prohibition).

  • Recall: Enabled the removal of corrupt politicians before term completion.

• Contrast with the Gilded Age: Shifted power back to the people from big business interests.

Government Efficiency

• Frederick Taylor's Scientific Management:

  • Advocated for efficient factory work.

  • Stopwatch studies to optimize workflow, increase productivity, and profits.

  • Progressives aimed to apply this approach to government to cut down on wasted energy.

Social Justice for the Races

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Legalized racial segregation based on "separate but equal" doctrine.

• Organizations:

  • Niagara Movement:

    • Led by W. E. B. Du Bois.

    • Black intellectuals planned protests for civil rights.

    • NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People):

      • Aims: Abolish segregation and expand educational opportunities for black children.

• Black progressives primarily acted independently; their concerns were often overlooked in the broader progressive agenda.

Progressivism on the National Stage

• Progressive Presidents:

  • Teddy Roosevelt:

    • Rose to presidency after William McKinley's assassination.

    • Square Deal- he worked for equality on both sides of business interest.

    • Trust Buster- Enforced Sherman Antitrust Act against monopolies (distinguished between "good" and "bad" trusts).

    • Consumer Protection:

      • Pure Food and Drug Act: Assured consumers of safe food and drug products.

      • Meat Inspection Act: Set minimum sanitation standards for meatpacking plants.

    • Conservation:

      • Forest Reserve Act of 1891: Reserved 150,000,000 acres of unspoiled land.

      • Supported preservationists and conservationists.

The Spanish-American War and American Imperialism

• Background:

  • American interest in acquiring Cuba, a Spanish colony.

  • Cuban nationalists renewed struggle against Spain in 1895.

• Yellow Journalism:

  • Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst competed for readership.

  • Published sensationalized stories exaggerating Spanish atrocities in Cuba.

  • Influenced public opinion, pushing for American intervention.

• The USS Maine:

  • Exploded in Havana Harbor in 1898, killing over 200 Americans.

  • Yellow journalists blamed Spain, fueling war sentiment.

  • Investigation later revealed the explosion was accidental.

• War!

  • The United States won the Spanish American war, which launched The United States right into the imperial game.

  • The country did gain independence as a result of the war, but that independence was severely qualified by something called the Platt Amendment.

  • The Platt Amendmen- American politicians insisted that be inserted into the Cuban constitution, and it allowed The US to intervene militarily in Cuba if American economic interests were threatened. And that made it extremely difficult for the new Cuban government to conduct its own foreign policy and manage its foreign debts in a way that benefited their own interests.

• Acquisition of the Philippines:

  • Theodore Roosevelt ordered the bombing of the Spanish fleet in The Philippines.

  • Filipino nationalists allied with the U.S. to overthrow Spain.

  • The United States gained control of The Philippines for $20,000,000

    • There was the question of whether independence was a true outcome for the Philippines
      they just traded one overlord for another.

    • Emilio Aguinaldo lead the Filipinos in a War that lasted three years.

• Annexation of Hawaii:

  • Occurred in 1898 after American settlers had overthrown the Hawaiian monarch queen Lili'ukulani in 1893.

  • The United States had annexation Philippines and Hawaii.

• Open Door Policy with China:

  • European Influence on China

    • The superior industrial strength of the European nations, China was essentially taken over, not politically but economically and carved up into European spheres of influence.

  • John Hay

    • Hay sent what was known as the open door note to the European powers in China, asking them to observe an open door of trading privileges in China.

American Imperialism: Attitudes and Debates (1898-1945)

• Imperialism Defined:

  • Expansion of a country's political, economic, and military influence over other nations.

  • Examples: Alaska purchase (1867).

• Imperialist Arguments:

  • Economic expansion: Access to raw materials and new markets.

  • Social Darwinism: Justification for expansion based on the idea of the "strong eating the weak."

  • Global Power: The means by which America could get on the international stage and flex its giant pectorals of liberty.

  • Racial Motivations:

    • Josiah Strong: Advocated for white Anglo-Saxon race to spread Christianity and civilization.

  • Naval Power:

    • Alfred Thayer Mahan: Argued for a strong navy to secure foreign markets.

    • Led to construction of steel ships and strategic territories.

• Anti-Imperialist Arguments:

  • Self Determination: Nations should be able to choose their own rulers and laws.

  • Isolationism: George Washington warned against foreign entanglement.

  • Racial Arguments:

    • Concerns about the integration and citizenship of other brown nations.

Post-WWII Diplomacy

• The United States as a Superpower:

  • Minimal domestic destruction during the war.

  • Critical role in Allied victory.

• Limiting the Spread of Communism:

  • Yalta Conference: Germany was to be occupied jointly, and Soviet Union claimed Eastern European nations for their buffer zone.

  • Marshall Plan: Offered funds to European nations to rebuild, encouraging democratic capitalism.

  • The most significant consequence of the postwar diplomacy was the creation of the United Nations, which would be an international peacekeeping assembly.

• Creation of the United Nations:

  • Addressed failures of the League of Nations.

  • Established peacekeeping forces supplied by member nations to stabilize conflicts.

Victory of the US and Allies in World War II Causes and Effects:

• The US entry into the war signaled a decisive tip in favor of the Allied Powers over the Axis Powers.

• The war was a fight for the survival of democracy and more to the point, freedom against fascist totalitarianism, especially the Nazi kind.

• As Allied soldiers took more and more Axis territory, they began finding Jewish concentration camps in which Jews were condemned to forced labor if they were lucky and death if they were not.

• Two battles turned the tide of this theater toward The United States:

  • The first was the Battle of the Coral Sea.

  • The second was the Battle of Midway, both of which happened in 1942.

• The D Day invasion- June of nineteen forty four,

  • The main defender against the encroaching Germans was the Russians.

  • So Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt met in November of nineteen forty three at the Tehran Conference, where the plans for opening a second front were laid.

• Allied victory at the Battle of Midway-US forces engaged in an island hopping campaign.

• April of nineteen forty five, just as plans were being made for an offensive against Japan, Franklin Roosevelt died in his fourth term in office.

  • Dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan.

    • Truman-

    • Harry Truman, took his place, and the responsibility for the defeat of Japan was laid upon him.

      • First atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima

        • Death toll for those two bombs at 140,000, and half of those died in the moment of the blast.

      • 09/02/1945, Japan officially surrendered in what became known as VJ Day or Victory in Japan Day, and the war was over.

US's Participation in World War II

• Mobilization=
  Federal spending increased something like a 1 %.
  Pulling us out of the Great Depression, all that government spending had the effect of increasing GDP by 15 %, which effectively pulled us out of the Great Depression.,
  Thanks to two new agencies created by Roosevelt, the War Production Board, and the Office of War Mobilization, automobile factories began producing planes and tanks, and other factories began producing all manner of war munitions.

Federal Efforts to get women working in factories.
The NAACP encouraged black Americans to participate in the Double V campaign, which meant they were working for victory in the war and victory against racism at home.
black regiments still remained segregated from white regiments.

Mexican farm workers to enter The US and help with planting and harvesting without having to go through all the normal immigration procedures.
Selective Service Act passed in 1940, which, if you're keeping track, was one year before The US entered the war..
Japanese relocation begun in 1942.

Fred Korematsu refused to comply with this civil liberties-
Korematsu versus The United States in 1944. The American Civil Liberties Union represented Korematsu and argued that the forced removal was an unconstitutional violation of the Fifth Amendment, which, just in case you're rusty, protects Americans from answering for crimes without the indictment of a grand jury.

The court ruled that the Japanese relocation was constitutional on the grounds that it was a quite martial necessity arising from the danger of espionage and sabotage.
In 1988, the federal government formally apologized to the citizens that were interned.

American Foreign Policy Between World Wars

*After the end of World War one, American foreign policy largely slid into isolationism
choice of president in 1920, Warren G. Harding, who ran on the campaign promise of a return to normalcy
In 1922, the Fordy McCumber Act raised tariffs dramatically, and then in 1930 Congress passed the Hawley Smoot Tariff, which drove them up even more.
Kellogg Brand Pact- pact signed among 63 nations, The United States included, which tried to make war illegal or at least renounce war in principle.
beginning in the nineteen thirties, US isolationism became harder and harder to maintain.
Americans watched as Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931.
Senate's Nye Committee, which presented unflattering evidence that certain American corporations had made a metric buttload of profit off of America's involvement in World War I.
Roosevelt began gradually giving aid to the Allies, most notably to Great Britain.
First was the cash and carry program, and under this program, Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass a looser neutrality act that allowed any belligerent in the war to purchase armaments from The US as long as they paid cash and used their own ships to transport them.
Then at the point when Britain was running dangerously low on cash to continue payments, Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill worked out the Destroyers for Bases program.
Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Lend Lease Act, which allowed Britain to obtain arms they needed from The US on credit.
7/12/1941.On that morning, Japanese planes flew over Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii and unleashed terrible destruction on it

The Great Depression and the New Deal

• 10/29/1929 called Black Tuesday when the stock market crashed.

• Farmers across the nation had overproduced for several years and were therefore in severe debt.

• Tariffs, which is to say taxes on imports, were exceedingly high in the 1920s.

• 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the Hawley Smoot Tariff into law, which crippled the ability of The United States to sell its excess products.

• 1932- Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt won in a landslide.
  Roosevelt- expanded the size and scope of the federal government than any president before him.
  the government was going to take responsibility for the social and economic welfare of its citizens.
  relief for the unemployed, recovery for businesses, and reform of economic institutions.
  Public Works Administration or the PWA, which employed Americans to do federal infrastructure work like building roads and dams and bridges.
  Tennessee Valley Authority or the TVA, which hired people to run electric power plants and did work to control flooding and erosion.Civilian Conservation Corps, the CCC, which employed young men between the ages of 18 to 24 to manage soil conservation and forestry projects.
  National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933.
  These codes created security for workers by establishing minimum wage levels, shorter working hours, and the regulation of prices of certain petroleum products.

Reform of Economic Institutions=-
Glass Steagall Act of 1933.
The SEC was established to regulate the stock market and prevent Turkish behavior like buying on margin and insider trading
Social Security Act of 1935. This law provided a safety net of income for workers over the age of 65.
That program is still going strong today
Nailed it. It left a legacy of reforms and regulatory agencies in its wake wh
Roosevelt's New Deal to the Supreme Court, won a few of the cases, and effectively narrowed the scope of what part of the New Deal was constitutional and what part was unconstitutional. The President can appoint new supreme court justices for those over 70 years old

1920s: Culture and Politics

By 1920, more than half of Americans lived in cities.
Modernist- urban Protestants
Fuindamentalist- rural protestants
Scopes Trial- In Tennessee, it was illegal at that time to teach Darwin's theory of evolution.

1920s: Innovations

Henry Ford- mass production of mass produced Model T mass produced model T.
assembly line-Taylor made recommendation for second shave.
Affordable automobile was introduced to Americans, Ford found that there was a nearly insatiable demand for them.
dvertisers learned how to promote their products through ads that attempted to tap into the subconscious of their customers
New Communication technologies-
Radio
Cinema