Argued American identity was based on conquering western lands.
Led to Americans looking outward for raw materials and new markets due to the lack of a continental frontier.
American Imperialism
Hawaiian Coup:
American sugar traders helped overthrow the Hawaiian monarch to allow the U.S. to annex Hawaii.
Hawaii provided a strategic location in the Pacific, offering a stepping stone to Asian markets, and had a lucrative sugar trade.
Key Imperialists:
Alfred Mahan: Argued a strong navy was critical for American growth and power.
Josiah Strong: Believed Americans had a duty to spread their culture and religion.
Spanish-American War:
Demonstrated a shift in American foreign policy.
Motivated by support for Cuban independence and yellow journalism (William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer).
The sinking of the USS Maine was attributed to Spanish mines, leading to the declaration of war.
The De Lôme Letter insulted President McKinley, increasing the tensions.
The war resulted in America gaining Cuba, Guam, and Puerto Rico from the Treaty of Paris.
The U.S. also purchased the Philippines, leading to the Philippine-American War.
Significant Foreign Policies
John Hay's Open Door Policy: Provided America access to foreign markets in China, keeping it out of European control.
Roosevelt Corollary: An extension of the Monroe Doctrine, asserting the U.S. right to intervene in Latin American affairs to protect economic interests and maintain stability.
Dollar Diplomacy (Taft): Sought to secure order in Latin America through economic means like investment and loans.
Moral Diplomacy (Wilson): The U.S. would support governments that emphasized democracy and free trade.
Progressive Era
A period of social, economic, and political reform in America.
Muckrakers:
Journalists who used expose journalism to fight corruption.
Lincoln Steffens:The Shame of the Cities to expose political corruption.
Ida Tarbell: Focused on John D. Rockefeller's tactics in growing Standard Oil.
Upton Sinclair:The Jungle exposed the meat packing industry's horrors, leading to the Meat Inspection Act and the Food and Drug Act.
Teddy Roosevelt's Presidency:
Focused on reform, breaking up "bad" trusts and monopolies.
Square Deal: Focused on consumer protection, corporate control, and conservation.
Economic Reforms
Clayton Antitrust Act: Strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act and limited the power of monopolies.
Sixteenth Amendment: Instituted the federal income tax.
Creation of the Federal Reserve.
Political Reforms
Seventeenth Amendment: Allowed for the direct election of senators.
Introduction of initiative, referendum, recall, and the secret ballot.
Women's Suffrage Movement
Carrie Nation: Fought for temperance, leading to the Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition).
Alice Paul & NAWSA: Contributed to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote after World War I.
World War I
Began in Europe in 1914; President Wilson initially declared neutrality.
The American economy benefited from selling supplies to the Allied powers.
Reasons for US entry in 1917:
Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare on American merchant vessels.
The Zimmerman Telegram threatened American security.
Impact at Home:
Women and minorities filled jobs in factories and farms.
Restrictions on American liberties through the Espionage and Sedition Acts.
Wilson's 14 Points: Proposed to prevent future global crises, but mostly ignored in the Treaty of Versailles.
League of Nations: The only point incorporated, an international peacekeeping body.
Treaty of Versailles:
Britain and France sought to punish Germany with the war guilt clause and heavy reparations.
Senate reservationists like Henry Cabot Lodge opposed Article X, fearing it would drag America into future conflicts.
Favored a return to isolationism.
African American Civil Rights
NAACP (1909):
Founded by W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, and Thurgood Marshall.
Fought for equality, justice, and rights.
Sought to tackle disenfranchisement in the South.
Marcus Garvey:
Supported black nationalism, economic self-sufficiency, and a back-to-Africa movement.
Great Migration:
Millions of African Americans left the Jim Crow South for jobs and freedoms in the North.
Harlem Renaissance:
Flourished in Northern cities like Harlem after World War I.
Artists like Langston Hughes shared experiences of African Americans through poetry.
Musicians like Louis Armstrong ushered in the jazz age.
A. Philip Randolph:
Fought for equality in employment practices.
Threatened a march on Washington D.C. to protest discrimination in defense industry jobs during WWII.
Forced FDR to create the Fair Employment Practices Committee.
Inspired future civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr.
Double V Campaign
Fought for victory abroad over fascism and victory at home for equality
Roaring Twenties
Rapid economic growth and a culture of consumerism.
Red Scare:
Fear of communists entering the country after the Russian Revolution.
Increased nativism leading to quota acts, which limited immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe.
Prohibition:
A failed social experiment that led to the rise of organized crime (e.g., Al Capone).
Flappers:
American women celebrated their contributions to World War I and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Some adopted the flapper style, while others held onto traditional Victorian values.
Scopes Monkey Trial (1925):
John T. Scopes arrested for teaching evolution in a Tennessee public school.
Represented the debate between modern values and fundamentalist ideas.
Great Depression
Causes:
Expansion of consumer credit and unregulated banking practices.
Stock market speculation (buying stock on margin).
Overproduction in factories and farms led to falling prices.
Stock market crash on Black Tuesday.
Dust Bowl forced farmers to migrate.
Hoover's Response:
Initially continued laissez-faire policies.
Created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, but it was too late.
FDR's New Deal:
Promised relief, reform, and recovery.
Instituted fireside chats to connect with the public.
First New Deal:
Implemented within the first hundred days.
Included the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) and the Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA).
Second New Deal:
Included further reforms like the Social Security Act.
Criticism:
Huey Long: New Deal did not do enough.
Business leaders: bordered on socialism.
Critizied for court packing.
World War II
Neutrality Acts: Passed as tensions mounted in Europe, but gradually became more involved with the Allied cause.
Cash and Carry (1939):
Lend-Lease Act (1941):
Selective Service Act: America's first peacetime draft.
Pearl Harbor (12/07/1941): Forced America to join the war.
Executive Order 9066 led to the internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast, upheld in the Korematsu case.
Minority Contributions:
Over 1 million African Americans served in segregated units.
Tuskegee Airmen: First African American pilots.
45,000 Native Americans enlisted, including Navajo code talkers.
Women enlisted in noncombat positions (Women's Army Corps).
Wartime Developments
Rosie the Riveter: Women filled positions vacated by men.
Military Efforts:
American troops helped defeat Hitler in Europe (Dwight D. Eisenhower, D-Day).
Island hopping campaign in the Pacific.
Manhattan Project: Developed the atomic bomb.
End of the War:
President Truman demanded unconditional surrender from Japan.
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to Japan's surrender in 1945.