Chapters 1-7 Summary

Knights of Labor

  • First mass organization.
  • Accepted all regardless of skill, sex or race.
  • Became dominant in the 1880s.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

  • Organized based on trade (railroad, iron, steel workers, etc.)
  • Important to review for the test.

Bargaining Power

  • Strikes provide bargaining power.
  • Can help achieve higher pay, time off, etc.

Francis Willard and the WCTU

  • Head of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
  • Attended a political meeting.
  • Meeting included people like Parents Powderly, head of the Knights of Labor.

People's Party/Populist Party

  • Born out of the political meeting attended by Francis Willard.
  • Arose during a turbulent time in American history with many social problems such as:
    • Immigration
    • Conviction

The Gilded Age

  • Everything looks beautiful on the surface, but there's a lot of bad stuff going on underneath.
  • Problems included:
    • Production issues
    • Racism

Falling Farm Prices

  • Farm prices were falling dramatically, even as the world market increased.
    • Wheat: 1 to $0.60
    • Cotton: 0.15 to $0.05
    • Corn: 0.45 to $0.30
  • By 1894, more than half of all farms in Kansas were in foreclosure because farmers couldn't pay their mortgages.
  • Corrupt banking system dominated by eastern commercial banks committed to the gold standard.
  • Corrupt railroad freight rates.

Crop Lien System

  • Farmers without seed or tools borrow money from the bank to plant crops.
  • The bank gets a percentage of the harvest.
  • If the crop fails, the farmer is trapped in perpetual debt and destitution.

Farmers Alliance

  • Farmers banded together for change, similar to unions.
  • The first Farmers Alliance came together in 1877.
  • Supported strikers with food and supplies.
  • Educated followers, distributed pamphlets and newspapers, delivered speeches.
  • Farmers cooperatives aimed to sell crops in bulk for higher prices, but were unsuccessful due to opposition from merchants, bankers, wholesalers, and manufacturers.
  • The Farmers Alliance gave birth to the Populist Party.

Populist Party Goals

  • Land reform to reclaim land given to railroads cheaply.
  • Currency reform, including free silver.

Moral Issues

  • Populist platform lacked moral issues like:
    • Prohibition
    • Temperance
    • Suffrage (women's voting rights)

Labor Wars

  • Homestead Lockout (steel workers vs. Andrew Carnegie).
  • Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
  • Pullman Strike was a major one.

Pullman Strike

  • George Pullman built luxury railroad cars and constructed a town for his workers.
  • Workers had to pay to live there, but couldn't own their homes.
  • Pullman wanted a 6% return on his investment.
  • Rents were 20% higher than surrounding areas.
  • With the onset of the depression, wages were slashed multiple times (30% decrease).
  • Some workers were left with only 47 cents after rent and utilities were deducted.
  • At the same time, Pullman was paying his stockholders a 28% increase and had a surplus of 25,000,00025,000,000.
  • Workers walked out, and Pullman shut down the plant and refused to arbitrate.
  • The attorney general and President Cleveland got involved.
  • Federal troops were brought in to suppress the strike.
  • Eugene Debs, a spokesperson for the railway union, was barred from public speaking via injunction because of his socialist views.
  • On July 5th, 8,000 army troops marched into Chicago. Violence erupted, and 25 workers were killed.

Eugene Debs

  • Ran for president five times as a socialist.
  • Head of the American Railway Union (ARU).

Pullman Strike Aftermath

  • ARU was defeated.
  • Pullman fired everyone and hired new workers.

Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

  • Felt particularly vulnerable to the effects of drinking.
  • Shift from alcoholism being a sin to being a disease.
  • Poverty as a cause of brokenness rather than a result.
  • Social action needed alongside prayer.
  • By 1890, the WCTU had worked to establish women's reformatories, promoted the hiring of female police officers, sponsored day nurseries, industrial training schools for women, admission homes for homeless women, medical dispensaries, and lodging.
  • Had 200,000 dues-paying members, making it a formidable group.
  • Francis William embraced the aspects of labor, prohibition, the people's party until her death and led the first organized mass movement women united against women's issues.

Women's Rights Movement

  • Began in 1848 (Elizabeth Patty Stanton and Susan B. Anthony).
  • Women wanted to vote. They were upset over the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, which enfranchised black men but not women.
  • A conservative group, the NWP (National Women's Party), led by Alice Paul, was also organized.

Populist Party Decline

  • Conducted moral issues; the party didn't have a lot of meat.
  • Joined forces with the Democrats.
  • Fizzled out and were the biggest losers in the election of 1896.

Depressions

  • Two depressions: 1873 and 1893.
  • These depressions propelled The United States into world expansion to grow the country economically.

Reasons for Expansion

  • Need to acquire markets in other countries.
  • Spread of Christianity (Christian missionaries seeking to save souls).

Monroe Doctrine

  • Named after President James Monroe.
  • Established the Western Hemisphere as the sphere of influence for The United States.
  • No more colonization in Latin America.
    Monroe doctrine is imperialism and colonization.

Open Door Policy

  • Dealt with maintaining access to the markets in China.
  • Initiated by The United States in 1899-1900.
  • Called for equal privileges for all countries to trade with China.
  • Became a cornerstone of American foreign policy.
  • All countries should have equal access to the ports in Russia, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy.
  • No monopoly of trade or greater sphere of influence by any country.
  • John Jay, secretary of state, initiated it.
  • The United States will manage and secure its access and expand its economic power while avoiding any problems of having a far-flung empire in China.

Latin American Independence

  • By the early 1820s, many Latin American countries had won their independence from Spain and Portugal.
  • The United States recognized these new republics.
  • Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Mexico all becoming independent countries.
  • No more European powers coming in and taking over our Western Hemisphere.

Spanish-American War (1895-1898)

  • Began with moral outrage over the treatment of Cuban revolutionaries.
  • Cuba wanted to be free of Spain.
  • Newspapers fueled public outrage (yellow journalism) through sensational headlines.
  • American businesses had $15,000,000 invested in sugar and American trade with Cuba.
  • War opened up the prospect of expansion into Asia because Spain controlled Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Philippines (stepping stones to China).
  • President McKinley dispatched the battleship Maine into Havana Harbor.
  • On February 15, a mysterious explosion killed 267 American crewmen.
  • In April, The United States Congress declared war on Spain.
  • The United States Naval Squadron destroyed the entire Spanish fleet in Manila Bay (Philippines.)

End of Spanish American War

*The first troops landed June 22 and the Spanish surrendered on July 17 (about four weeks).

  • Theodore Roosevelt became a war hero during the war and captured Guam, Philippines
  • Roosevelt maneuvered the Navy to capture Guam/ Philippines & forged the Rough Riders (wealthy cowboys, athletes, ranchers, miners, outdoorsmen).
  • Roosevely and the Rough Riders charged up San Juan Hill in Cuba, captured the hill, and Roosevelt became known as the most famous man in America.

Quest for Colonies/Empire

  • After the 1880s, there was a quest for colonies, and The United States was caught up in it; however, they couldn't maintain imperial control.
  • The United States took over Hawaii (deposing the queen due to the money invested there).
  • The United States bought Alaska from Russia.
  • With the Spanish-American War, they acquired Puerto Rico.
  • Platt Amendment (approved 05/22/1993) was a treaty between The United States and Cuba to protect Cuba's independence (attempted protection from foreign intervention).
  • The United States took control of Hawaii in 1898.
  • With the Spanish-American War, The United States took possession of an empire that stretched halfway around the globe.
  • Platt Amendment gave The United States the right to protect Cuba and also gave them a 99-year lease of Guantanamo Bay.
  • The United States paid 20,000,00020,000,000 for the islands.
  • It took seven years and four million deaths to secure control of The Philippines (strategic area for China).

Herbert Spencer

  • Herbert Spencer gave the term of social Darwinism.