American Expansion and Progressivism to WWII

American Expansion in the 1890s

  • The 1890s marked a transition for the U.S. as it became a global power.
  • Motives for imperialism included:
    • Economic: Opening markets abroad, accessing cheap raw materials, and seeking economic growth.
    • Political: Competing with other nations and avoiding falling behind.
    • Strategic/Military: Alfred T. Mahan's emphasis on a powerful navy, leading to the building of the Panama Canal.
    • Ideological: The concept of the "white man’s burden," applying Darwin’s concepts to international affairs, and ideas of manifest destiny.

Spanish-American War

  • The Yellow Press blamed Spain for the destruction of the battleship Maine.
  • The DeLome letter further fueled tensions.
  • In April 1898, the U.S. declared war on Spain, involving the U.S., Cuba, and the Philippines against Spain.
  • Teller Amendment: The U.S. declared no intention of taking over Cuba, promising Cuba would control its own government, assuring their independence.
  • Treaty of Paris 1898: The U.S. acquired Guam, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.
  • A key debate emerged regarding the U.S.'s course of action with these newly acquired territories, marking the U.S. as an empire.

Cuba

  • The United States left Cuba in 1902.
  • Platt Amendment: Established terms allowing the U.S. to end its military occupation in Cuba while limiting Cuba’s sovereignty and permitting U.S. intervention in Cuban affairs, including maintaining a naval base in Guantanamo Bay.
  • The U.S. retained the right to intervene in Cuba if Cuba could not protect itself.

Theodore Roosevelt

  • McKinley was reelected in 1900 but assassinated in 1901, leading to Roosevelt becoming president.
  • Under Roosevelt, there was a dramatic rise in the power of the Presidency.
  • He pursued an expansionist foreign policy.

Panama Canal

  • The Canal significantly cut down travel time for both trade and military purposes.
  • France initially attempted construction but failed.
  • Roosevelt sought permission from Colombia but, after being denied, supported Panama's revolt to gain the right to build the canal, marking another instance of American imperialism.

Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

  • This stated the U.S. had the right to protect economic interests in South + Central America using military force.
  • The U.S. asserted the right to intervene in Latin American nations if they faltered.

The Progressive Movement

  • Industrialization, urbanization, and immigration brought changes and challenges to the U.S.
  • Progressives aimed to use government power to regulate and improve society, rejecting laissez-faire and socialism, to improve/save capitalism protecting small businesses/entrepreneurs
  • 18th amendment - prohibit alcohol.
  • 21st amendment - repeal 18th amendment.

Promoting Reform

  • Muckrakers: Journalists who exposed problems in American society.
    • Ida Tarbell: History of Standard Oil Company.
    • Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lives, exposed horrors of life in the slums of NY.
    • Lincoln Steffens: The Shame of the Cities, exposed corruption in city politics.

Role of Women in the Progressive Movement

  • More women entered the workforce and participated in promoting reform.
  • National Child Labor Committee fought for laws banning child labor.
  • National Consumers’ League (Florence Kelley) advocated for rights of women in the workplace, laws against child labor, etc.
  • Muller v Oregon (1908): The court ruled that laws protecting women workers and restricting women to 10-hour days were constitutional.
  • Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (1911): This event led to the death of 146 workers and highlighted the need for workplace safety reforms.

State Reform

  • Wisconsin: Experienced significant progressive reforms.
  • Many progressive governors fought against corporate control of state politics.
  • Governor Robert La Follette pioneered many reforms in Wisconsin, known as the Wisconsin Idea.
    • Regulated public utilities.
    • Took on the powerful railroad industry.
    • Adopted tax reforms.

Political Reform

  • Secret ballot: Allowed voters to mark their choice secretly.
  • Direct primary: Nomination of candidates placed into hands of the voters.
  • Recall: Elected politicians could be removed from office by the voters before their term expired.
  • Initiative: Voters could introduce laws.
  • Referendum: Voters could directly vote on a law.
  • 17th amendment: Voters vote for senators.

Temperance

  • Division over the temperance movement:
    • “Wet”: Against prohibition.
    • “Dry”: Support prohibition.
  • Conflict between:
    • Protestant Native-born vs. Catholic immigrants.
    • Rural vs. urban.
  • Women’s Christian Temperance Union advocated for temperance.
  • Anti-Saloon League was a leading organization advocating for legal prohibition.

Theodore Roosevelt's Square Deal

  • Believed in an enlarged role for the President.
  • Proposed series of Progressive reforms known as the Square Deal (3 c’s):
    • Corporations: control of corporations.
    • Consumers: consumer protection.
    • Conservation: conservation of the environment and its natural resources.

Trust Busting

  • Sherman Anti-Trust was ineffective at reducing power of corporations/ trust.
  • Roosevelt will be known as the “trust buster”.
    • distinguish between “good” (efficient and lower prices) and “bad” (hurt consumers and stifled competition) trusts.
  • T.R. sought to increase the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
  • Elkins Act, increased penalties for rate rebates.

Consumer Protections

  • Few protections for consumers existed before reforms.
  • Meat Inspection Act (1906): The federal government would regulate and inspect the meat industry.
  • Pure Food and Drug Act: Created FDA and protected people from mislabeled food/drugs.

Conservation

  • Conservation was not initially a national issue.
  • Sierra Club helped raise awareness.
  • T.R. used the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 to protect 150 million acres of federal land.
  • Newlands Reclamation Act 1902: Money from the sale of public lands could be used for irrigation projects in the west.
  • Conservation was Roosevelt’s longest-lasting domestic achievement.

Taft's Presidency

  • Roosevelt stepped away after his second term, honoring Washington's precedent.
  • Taft continued some Progressive policies of Roosevelt.
    • Broke up more trusts than Roosevelt.
    • Continued conservationist policies.
  • Foreign policy:
    • “Dollar Diplomacy”: Encouraged businesses to invest in areas of strategic concern to the U.S.

Republicans Divided

  • During Taft’s presidency, the Republican party became divided.
  • Taft supported the Payne-Aldrich Tariff 1909, which raised rates on goods, angering progressives in the Republican party.
  • Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy: Taft fired Chief of the Forest Service Gifford Pinchot after he criticized Secretary of the Interior Ballinger.

Election of 1912

  • Taft won the Republican nomination.
  • T.R. formed the Progressive party (“Bull Moose”).
    • Program called “New Nationalism”.
    • Active federal government pursuing a wide variety of reforms.
  • Democrats selected Woodrow Wilson, who ran on a progressive platform called “New Freedom”.
    • Tariff lowered, bank reform, anti-trust laws.
  • Socialist candidate Eugene Debs called for more radical reforms than progressive candidates.
    • Examples: Public ownership of major industries such as railroads, steel, and oil.

Progressive Era Reform under Wilson (Triple Law of Privilege)

  • Tariff reform
    • Underwood Tariff 1913 lowered rates of tariffs; the first major tariff reduction in 50 years.
  • Trusts
    • Federal Trade Commission 1914 would investigate monopolies and exempted labor unions from being prosecuted.
    • Clayton Antitrust Act 1914 increased the power of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
  • Banking reform
    • Establishment of the Federal Reserve with the Federal Reserve Act 1913 to regulate the money supply.
  • 16th Amendment established a graduated income tax.

African American Civil Rights

  • Booker T Washington desired
  • WEB Dubois immediate political and social equality for black people.
  • Ida B Wells was anti-lynching.

Women in the Movement

  • Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association NAWSA.
    • Initially approached fighting for suffrage with a state-by-state strategy, convincing as many states as possible to support the idea that women get the right to vote.
  • Alice Paul broke with NAWSA and formed the National Woman’s Party in 1916.
    • Demanded a national amendment.
    • Led to the 19th Amendment in 1920 granting women the right to vote.
  • There was a split in the movement between NAWSA and the National Woman’s Party.

New Directions of Foreign Policy

  • Wilson disliked dollar diplomacy and imperialism.
  • Jones Act 1916 was enacted.
  • Wilson: “Protect democracy where it exists; don't seek to spread it where it is not”.
  • Wilson accidentally becomes an imperialist.

The Mexican Debacle

  • …

Why Remain Neutrality?

  • The U.S. had 8 million German immigrants and 4.5 million Irish immigrants.
  • The general public opinion supported the allies.
  • Money (economic interests).
  • German submarine sunk passenger liner off the Irish coast (Lusitania), kills 1260 (128 Americans).
  • This angered Americans.

War by Act of Germany

  • Trench warfare:
    • Brutal, attrition (gradually wearing out the other side), high casualties.
  • The German government felt pressure to hasten the end of the war.
  • Unrestricted submarine warfare announced Jan 31, 1917; any ship of the war zone will be sunk.
  • Prez Wilson breaks off diplomatic relations.

Zimmerman Telegram (the Z note)

  • Proposed an alliance between Germany and Mexico against the U.S.
  • Offered Mexico its lost lands back (Mexican Cession, etc.).
  • March 1st, Telegram info released; American opinion shifts.
  • April 2, 1917, Wilson asks Congress for a declaration of war.
  • April 6, 1917, the U.S. declares war on Germany.

Wilson's 14 Points

  • No more secret agreements.
  • Free navigation of all seas.
  • End to all economic barriers between countries.
  • Countries should reduce weapon numbers.
  • All decisions regarding the colonies should be impartial.
  • The German army is to be removed from Russia; Russia should be left to develop her own political set-up.
  • Belgium should be independent like before the war.
  • France should be fully liberated.
  • The 14th point detailed the league of nations.
    • Collective body of nations designed to provide global security and protection of all nations’ sovereignty.
    • Extremely controversial.
  • Causes of WWI: 1.) Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nationalism, secret alliances, militarism, 2.) Zimmerman telegram, Lusitania incident, trade disruptions, propaganda, 3.) global security, coexistence.

George Creel and Propaganda

  • Committee on Public Information.
  • 4-minute speeches explaining why people should support the war.
  • Promoted propaganda to gain support for the war.
    • Portraying the other side as attacking/hurting the innocent and as monsters.

Propaganda in WW1

  • Mobilized support for the war effort, summoned donations to charities, and encouraged participation in war bonds.

Loyality and Anti-German Sentiment

  • Hatred and distrust of all things German.
  • Banning of German books.
  • Espionage Act of 1917
    • The act aimed to prevent espionage and sabotage during wartime and suppress dissent against the war effort.
  • Sedition Act of 1918
    • Made it a crime to interfere with the war effort.
    • Criminalized certain speech/expression that was harmful/disloyal towards the war effort.
      When war breaks out, great migration of African Americans from South to the North

Factories and Workers

  • Barnard Baruch coordinated the production and purchase of war materials and conducted psychological testing.
  • Government economic control during a crisis.
  • National War Labor Board (led by Taft) handled labor disputes, and workers' wages increased more than 20%.
  • Labor grievances included strikes over rights to organize as unions; in 1919, over 250k steel workers went on strike.

Food Administration

  • Herbert Hoover led the Food Administration.
  • Driven by voluntary compliance using patriotism-providing propaganda rather than rationing.
  • Successful as food exports to the allies tripled.

Fuel Administration

  • Implemented heatless, lightless, and gasless days.
  • Conducted Liberty and Victory Loan drives, raising ⅔ the cost of the war for the U.S.

Government Expansion

  • The government expanded in size and power during the war.
  • Implemented quotas, pricing, daylight savings time, and railroad takeovers.

Women in WWI

  • Roughly 11,000 women served, with a standard uniform and official rank but nobody on the front line.
  • Performed clerical duties, worked as radio operators, pharmacists, photographers, and torpedo assemblers.

The 14 points Disarm Germany

  • Feared peace by any terms other than that that was included in the 14 points.
  • Kaiser was forced to abdicate and fled to Holland.
  • Nov 11 1918 germany surrenders.
  • Paris Peace Conference included representatives from France, Italy, Britain, and the U.S.
  • Irreconcilables refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles because it had the League of Nations component in it, because it would violate their sovereignty.

Military and Diplomacy Homefront

  • Mobilization: a nation's civilian population and resources support the war effort.

1920s Politics

  • Progressive era reforms were abandoned.
  • All presidents of this decade are conservative republicans (Harding-Return to Normalcy, Coolidge, Hoover).

Handling Business

  • Republican presidents favored high tariffs.
  • Europe raised tariffs in response to the U.S. tariffs, which slows global trade.
  • Teapot Dome Scandal.

Calvin Coolidge

  • Coolidge continued pro-business policies (higher tariffs).
  • “The business of America is business.”

Farmers and Unions During the 20s

  • Union membership began to decline throughout the 1920s.
    • Companies favored an “open shop,” which were jobs open to nonunion workers.
    • The Red Scare and Palmer Raids had turned public opinion against labor.
  • Farmers did not benefit like everyone else during the roaring 20s.
    • After WW1, there was less demand for crops from domestic and international markets.
    • Advancements in tech led to a large increase in production.

International Affairs

  • In the 1920s, the U.S. did not entirely withdraw from world affairs.
  • Washington Naval Arms Conference (1921): naval disarmament, promote peace (especially in the Pacific), reduce the amount of money we’re paying on defense.
  • Five Power Treaty: Set ratios for battleships, set at Washington Naval Arms Conference.
  • The Four Powers Treaty, England, the U.S., France, and Japan respect each other's territory in the Pacific.
  • Nine Power Treaty: All nations at the conference will respect the Open Door Policy.
  • Kellogg Briand Pact: Established that signatories to this treaty would not participate in war.
    • International finance: how do we take care of the post-war world?

Fear Following WW1

  • The Communist Party came to power in Russia in 1917 (Bolshevik revolution).
  • Fear of the spread of communism.
  • Race riots were due to competition in cities for jobs and housing.

Rise of Nativism

  • Palmer Raids led to the mass arrest of socialists, anarchists, union organizers, or other suspected radicals.
  • Continued hatred toward “new immigrants”.
  • Quota Act 1921: Limited immigration #s to 3% of those living in the U.S. as of 1910.
  • 1924, Extend Restriction:
    • National Quota Act (immigration restriction act): 2% of immigrants in the U.S. in 1890.
    • Intended to limit the # of immigrants.

Sacco and Vanzetti Case

  • Italian immigrants who were charged with robbery and murder in 1921.
  • Found guilty and sentenced to death.
  • No evidence.

Resurgence of the KKK

  • Expanded into the Midwest.
  • Hatred towards immigrants, Catholics, radicals, etc.
  • “Birth of a nation” film portrayed them as heroes.

Mass Consumption Economy

  • More people moved to urban areas with a majority of Americans now living in urban areas.
  • Huge growth in the stock market involving buying “on margin”.
  • Investment was based upon speculation.
  • A large number of affordable consumer goods were available.
  • Electricity in homes led to an increase in-demand for appliances.
    • Washing machine
    • Radio
    • Automobile
    • Refrigerator
  • Transportation changes included Frederick Taylor's principles of scientific management helped increase productivity.
  • Cars became affordable for the average American, like the Model T from Henry Ford’s assembly line (1920).

New Deal

  • Braintrust:
    • Young men out of ivy college to help make a plan to solve problems.
  • 3 R’s:
    • Relief- for people struggling.
    • Recovery- for the economy.
    • Reform- so this situation never happens again.
  • Alphabet Agencies:
    • Fireside chats used the radio to communicate to the American people and provided hope to the American people.
  • Finance and banking
    • FDR calls for a “bank holiday.