Period 7: Booms, Busts, and Bombs

Big Stick Diplomacy

  • Roosevelt believes US should be strong and ready to defend its interests abroad

    • invests heavily in building a navy that could rival Britain

    • prioritizes Latin America as “backyard” (think: Monroe Doctrine)

  • Roosevelt Corollary in 1904 State of the Union Address

    • amendment to Monroe Doctrine

    • makes the US boydguard of Latin America

    • in practice, we police Latin America

  • issues it after his purchase from French company of Panama Canal

    • to build canal across Panama (province of Colombia), TR and French company organize rebellion and threaten Colombia with war

    • Panama declared independent in 1903

      • sign treaty with US, turning over rights to Canal Zone

America in World War I

  • Wilson issues statement of neutrality: we will not take sides

    • helps win re-election in 1916

    • public facade (he’s secretly sending supplies to UK via American ships)

  • in response to British blockade, Germans scatter submarines with orders to torpedo Allied ships

    • Germans say they will try to avoid neutral ships

  • US will enter war because of deteriorating relations wiht Germany

    1. 1915 Lusitania sinking

      • German U-boat sinks Lusitania (carrying ammunition), killing 128 Americans

      • public opinion turns sharply against Germans

    2. Jan 1917 unrestricted submarine warfare

      • Kaiser (German emperor) imposes constraints on German submarines following Lusitania

      • through 1916, Germans are more eager for a swift end to the war → Kaiser lifts restrictions

    3. Feb/Mar 1917 Zimmerman Telegram

    4. 1917 Russian Revolution

      • Czar overthrown in March → Russia stops fighting

      • Wilson claims war is about “making the world safe for democracy”

  • Congress declares war on Germany in April 1917

  • Selective Service Act = requires men 21-30 ot register for draft

    • 2 million volunteer

    • 3 million drafted

  • 100 Days Offensive (Summer/Fall 1918)

    • final Allied offensive = series of battles along western front

    • Americans deployed in September near Verdun to capture German rail hub

      • incompleted because armistice signed No 11, 1918 (Veterans Day)

The New Woman

  • WWI prompts culture shift for women from quiet modesty to flapper

    • young woman are outspoken and fashionable

    • starts with economics as women hold down “men’s work” during war

  • women develop greater sense of self and assertiveness

    • while they are displaced when doughbots return, assertiveness gives rise to the New Woman

  • New Woman:

    • wears makeup

    • short hair

    • shorter, formless dresses with no sleeves

    • openly smokes

    • openly drinks

    • casually dates

    • openly discusses sex

  • changes family dynamic

    • 10 million women work by 1930

    • newlyweds marry for love rather than economics security

    • child labor banned → school attendance increases

  • 1921 Margaret Sanger co-founds American League fo Birth Control

    • primary concern is giving women control of fertility via education, supplies, and safe abortions

  • National Women’s Party lead by Alice Paul

    • campaigns unsuccessfully for Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

  • economically, women are still poorly paid and remain dependent on men

The Great Depression

  • stock market crash on Black Tuesday in October 1929 → stockholders lose $50 billion

    • worldwide depression

    • 1933, height of depression, 25% of US is unemployed

  • Hoover administration responds cautiously

    • believes in laissez-faire (directly helping feels unnatural)

    • intervenes after a year

  • Hawley-Smoot Tariff intends to assist farmers by raising tariffs

    • backfired → foreign markets see a trade war → entire world plunges into further depression

  • Hoover invests $2 billion in public works projects, hoping to create jobs with long-lasting economic benefits

    • Hoover Dam to irrigate Arizona in oder to make it livable/farmable

    • Hoover holds tightly to laissez-faire → labels most congressional ideas as socialist

      • vetoes effort to dam the TN River

    • Hoover’s slow movement → depression deepens

      • unemployed and homeless cluster in “Hoovervilles,” or shantytowns/slums

  • Democratic NY governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) trounces Hoover in 1932 election

New Deal

  • FDR announces all banks close for 5 days (“bank holiday”) to prevent further withdrawals

    • Congress passes EBRA

      • allows Treasury Department to inspect banks and provide loans to banks that couldn’t pay debts

    • FDR delivers first radio address (“fireside chat”) to restore confidence in banking system

  • Glass Steagall Act creates FDIC and forces banks to choose ot become investment banks or regular banks

  • TN Valley economically dismal, even by Depression standards

    • 30% residents have malaria

    • average income $639

    • over-farming → erosion

  • TVA modernizes region by damming, replanting forests, teaching new farming methods, and introducing electricity

  • SEC supervises stokc market and eliminates dishonest practices

  • Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage, 40hr work week, overtime pay for every hourly worker EXCEPT agriculture, service, and domestic work

  • SCOTUS will declare about 10 New Deal programs to be unconstitutional

    • only conservative-majority branch

    • wants to protect the country from FDR’s “socialist programs”

    • FDR “packs” SCOTUS with 6 New Deal-friendly justices… for a grand total of 15 justices!!!

      • incredibly unpopular proposal → FDR backs off

  • LA governor and left-wing populist Huey Long initially likes FDR but support withers because he believes FDR is too restrained

    • assassinated in 1935

The Holocaust

  • Hitler elected 1933 as chancellor

    • defied Treaty of Versailles by manufacturing weapons and stopping reparations

    • blamed antisemitic conspiracies for Germany’s defeat in WWI and Treaty of Versailles

  • Hitler slowly deprived German Jews of rights as citizens

    • anti-miscegenation and citizenship laws (Nuremburg Laws of 1935) were the first discrminatory legislation passed

  • Kristallnacht late 1938 → some Jews immigrated to other countries → many countries closed their borders

The Pacific Theater

  • To defend itself and Australia, US intends to use Pacific bases

    • Hawaii, Midway, Guam, Philippines

    • However, Japan takes Guam in Dec 1941 and Philippines in May 1942

  • General MacArthurt commands Pacific operations

    • Goes on offensive to slow Japan’s expansion by island-hopping

  • Battle of Midway (June 1942)

    • Not island hopping

    • American intelligence breaks Japanese codes that reveal Japanese are advancing towards Hawaii

    • US locates Japanese fleet

    • “Avenges Pearl Harbor” via a surprise attack that destroys enemy weaponry

      • Japan’s planes still grounded and unmanned

  • Battle of Leyte Gulf (Oct-Dec 1944)

    • From 1942-1943, Mac Arthur continues island hopping

    • By 1944, US fought its way to the Philippines

    • Becomes largest naval battle in history

    • Practically destroys Japanese Navy → more army engagements w/ Japanese

    • First kamikaze attacks

    • 12K Japanese casualties : 3K American casualties

      • + some Aussies

  • Battle of Iwo Jima “Sulfur Island” (Feb-Mar 1945)

    • Critical to Allied effort because of airfields

    • Most heavily defended spot → 21K Japanese entrenched in tunnels and caves

    • Japanese exclusively fight here near the end of the war

    • War of starvation

    • 7,000 Americans die : 2,500 Japanese survive

  • Battle of Okinawa (Apr-Jun 1945)

    • Southernmost province of Japan → Allies want to use it as a base for invasion of Japan

    • Civilian population (not established as a military place) not evacuated when Japan started using it for military

    • Japanese hidden in tunnels

    • MacArthur plans to slowly deplete Japanese and their resources

    • Arguably one of the worst battles of the war

      • Japanese use child soldiers and arm anyone on the island

      • Japanese expect people to commit suicide if taken prisoner

    • 12K American deaths : 100K Japanese deaths : 125K Okinawan civilian deaths

Victory!

  • Battle of the Bulge → Allies secure France and Benelux before invading Germany in March 1945

    • US, France, Britain push east; Soviets push west

  • April 1945 Soviets reach Berlin and shell the city

    • Hitler commits suicide

  • May 8 1945 (VE Day) Eisenhower accepts surrender of Nazis

  • Allies debate full-scale invasion of Japan but there are already so many Allied deaths in the Pacific

  • Since 1942, US reserached nuclear weaponry

    • Manhattan Project with Einstein, Oppenheimer, Jewish German escapees

    • July 1945

  • new POTUS Truman warns Japan about destruction

    • Hirohito refuses surrender

  • August 6, 1945 Little Boy dropped over Hiroshima

    • Hirohito hesitate to surrender → Fat Boy dropped over Nagasaki August 9

  • Japan formally surrenders on USS MIssouri September 2, 1945 (VJ Day)