APUSH Period 7 (1890-1945)

the expansion of one country’s political, economic, and military influence over another country

Russia and Great Britain laid competing claims to the territory, and William Seward (Lincoln and then Johnsons secretary of state) proposed a purchase of the territory.

In 1898 gold was discovered there, so the US was like maybe imperialism is kinda good

Saw the success from the gold in Alaska and was like we should keep doing that

Wanted to secure new markets for American goods (manufactured items and agricultural goods)

Used social darwinism (survival of the fittest) as justification, afraid that US might be seen as a second class nation

Racial motives- White anglo Saxon race was the pinnacle of evolution

imperialist- argued that it was the Christian duty to expand Christianity to lesser countries and people

imperialist- wrote a book that argued any country that was on the world stage got that way because of a robust navy, which was the only way to secure foreign markets

Congress approved tue construction of big new fleets of ships- whoo we’re imperialists!!

argued for self determination for nations

believed america had a long history of isolationism from foreign affairs- washington wrote in his speech to not be part of foreign affairs because they have consequences beyond our control (war, economic disputes…)

Believed citizens of colonized countries should become US citizens under the constitution and didn’t want that.

Nations should be able to decide for themselves who ruled them and what laws were passed

Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty (1903) allowed US to build CANAL in Panama, Columbia. This let them have quicker access to Asia.

the US was the police that managed Latin America. BIG STICK DIPLOMACY: the US can use force in Latin America. Walk gently, but with a big stick

A group of journalists competing with each other for more readership under competing leaderships of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst.

Published increasingly sensational stories that were barely true, not very ethical

(Industrials really wanted Cuba, Spains imperial colony) , Exaggerated atrocities of the Spanish on Cuba and the U.S. was like “oh no we need to interfere!”- which established a naval presence on island

Yellow journalists claimed it was ignited by Spanish because they didn’t like the U.S. interfering in Cuba (it wasn’t)

President McKinley issued ultimatum to Spain to back off or they’ll go to war and then Spain was like backing off and then the U.S. was like no we’re going to war.

The victory of the Spanish American war launched the U.S. into imperialism

Cuba was independent but the amendment allowed the U.S. to intervene militarily in Cuba if American economic interests were threatened, so Cuba couldn’t really manage its own foreign policy.

Annexed from Spain

Before the war was over assistant secretary of the navy Teddy Roosevelt sent new navy into the Philippines and bombarded Spanish fleet stationed there. They allied with the Philippine nationals and overthrew the Spanish.

Filippinos thought the U.S. was helping them gain independence but they were just replacing the Spanish so under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo tried to throw off U.S. rule (war lasted 3 years, limited conflict lasted 10 years).

Wanted land closer to the U.S.

American settlers overthrew Hawaiian monarch queen Liliuokalani in 1893

China carved up economically into European spheres of influence. John Hay sent an open door note to European powers in China asking to observe open door trading privileges in China, Europe didn’t exactly reject them so yay!! America held onto trading rights in the highly desired Asian market.

All agreed that society, on some level, was deteriorating and the only cure was significant government intervention

1. combat growing power of big businesses

2. Uncertainties in the economy caused by Great Panic of 1893

3. Increasingly violent conflicts between labor groups and their employees

4. Political machine power

5. Jim Crow segregation in the South

6. Lack of women’s suffrage

7. Alcohol (Prohibition)

• Progressive Era journalists

• Named dubbed by Teddy Roosevelt (bad mean bu hao)

• Sought to expose the rooten underbelly of American corruption.

A story that exposed the unsanitary conditions of the meat packing industry

Published an exposé on Rockefellers standard oil company

Photo journalist. His book “How the Other Half Lives” exposed the unsanitary and disease ridden living conditions of New Yorks poor and working class people.

Expansion of Democracy

Voting was done in secret because prior political bosses could keep power because they dulled out favors to members of the community in exchange for votes and the bosses could see who people voted for.

Expansion of Democracy

Constitutionally, senators were elected by state legislatures. The amendment transferred the election of senators to the people

Expansion of Democracy

Mainly women who fought for it. Forbade the manufacturing and sale of alcohol.

Expansion of Democracy

Women’s voting rights!!!

Expansion of Democracy

Answer to the problem that once a politicians elected they could decide to ignore the voice of the people

Expansion of Democracy//Legislative Reforms

Voters could require legislators to consider a bill that they chose to ignore

Expansion of Democracy//Legislative Reforms

Voters themselves could vote on the adoption of proposed laws

Expansion of Democracy//Legislative Reforms

A way to remove a corrupt politician before their term was complete

Made factory work more efficient and increased productivity and profits. Some progressives thought that it could work on wasted government energy.

Led by W.E.B. Dubois, met frequently to plan protests and other acts

Goal to abolish all forms of segregation and expand opportunities for Black children.

Made racial segregation legal

Strike by the United Mine Workers of America in the anthracite coalfields of eastern Pennsylvania. Miners struck for higher wages, shorter workdays, and the recognition of their union. The strike threatened to shut down the winter fuel supply to major American cities.

It strengthened moderate labor leaders and progressive businessmen who championed negotiations as a way to labor peace.

Because of the Anthracite Coal Strike, Teddy Roosevelt promised a square deal, where he wouldn’t side with businesses leaders or minors and offered a fair deal for both.

Broke up monopolistic businesses

Ensured consumers clean meat

Ensured consumers that meat packing plants conformed to a minimum standard of sanitation

Reserved 158 million acres of unspoiled land

When a country mobilizes much of its economic, industrial, and social resources in order to win

Frederick Taylor

the science of dividing specific tasks to allow employees to complete assignments as efficiently as possible

(Taylorism)

Coordinated labor and management to keep factories producing war related materials

(Taylorism)

Made sure that food production was sufficient for troops at home

Made it a crime to oppose the war or interfere with the draft or say anything disloyal about the war effort

Charles Schenck and others in the Socialist Party wrote pamphlets urging young men to resist the draft.

Decided freedom of speech is not absolute, if the speech constitutes a clear and present danger then it is constitutional to silence it.

Federal Government forbade publications that revealed the true death toll and true dangers on count of it damaging morale for the war effort.

Anti-Communist sentiment, started in 1919

Began to fear communist infiltration because of the success of the Russian Revolution

Led to further Xenophobia- the fear and distrust of people from other countries- which then led to further immigration restrictions

At the height of the Red Scare

General Mitchell Palmer tasked official J. Edgar Hoover to gather information on suspected radicals. Ordered mass arrests of socialists and radicals and labor union leaders, over 65,000 arrested and over 500 deported

Set quota for accepting new immigrants very low, especially from Southern and Eastern Europe and Asia

A huge portion of the southern black population migrated to northern urban industrial centers, mainly to escape the oppressive atmosphere of the south society.

Finding Jobs- Northern cities were experiencing a big BOOM! in industry and there was no cheap immigrant work because of the restrictions and they needed workers

Discrimination still there, not entrenched in the legal structures

Separate but equal

Black people were often disenfranchised because poll taxes and literacy tests were required to gain access to voting

White woman claimed a black shoe shiner assaulted her. A white mob assembled to lynch the black man and black people rose up to intervene

Resulted in the mass destruction of property in neighborhoods, left 10,000+ homeless, 300+ killed

Large conveyor belt from worker to worker, made it efficient and lowered prices of cars

Cities were remade for automobiles with roads becoming a dominant urban feature.

Many American’s standard of living rose

Advertisers learned how to promote their products through ads that attempted to tap into the subconscious of their customers.

Radios- Many American houses had them for broadcasts, news, entertainment

Cinema- Almost ¾ of America attended films weekly by the end of the 1920s, was the end of the Silent film era. Spreading a form of homogenized national culture

Emphasized regional and cultural differences- race, ethnicity, origin. Distinction led to the Harlem Renaissance for Black culture.

Challenged norms for women (cutting hair short, smoking, showing their ankles :0…) A symbol of women’s liberation in the 20s

Effort to protect the rights of native born citizens against the interest of immigrants.

Feared they lose their jobs to cheaper immigrant work

Feared the pollution of the white race

Revival of the arts and intellectual pursuits of recently migrated Black population (great migration)

Birth of Jazz- Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington

Writers- Langston Hughes, Claud McKay

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway

Writing carried themes of pervasive materialism that plagued American culture and waste of life and resources expended in WWI.

Urban Protestants

Faith was large enough to embrace the changing culture (Darwins theory, changing gender roles…)

Rural Protestants

Condemned the degradation of the morals they saw in the city, believed the Bible must be taken literally

It was illegal in Tennessee to teach evolution but John Scopes did and was arrested.

Was sentenced but then overturned, proved modernists over fundamentalists.

Stock Market Crash

Mainly caused by farmers overproducing for several years therefore was in severe debt, overproduction and high tariffs

Signed by Hoover, crippled U.S.’s ability to sell its excess products on a global market

Risky investment behavior— it became a common practice to borrow money for stocks because it was assumed that stocks would keep rising.

People who lost their homes took residence in the shanty towns, which were named after Hoover to criticize Hoovers laissez-faire economic policy.

Republican, believed the economy would correct itself overtime so had minimal government intervention

Roosevelt won because he was to opposite of Hoover, promised heavy government intervention

Promised by Roosevelt, government would take responsibility for social and economic welfare for citizens.

As a whole transformed the U.S. into a limited welfare state and seriously expanded the aims of modern American liberalism

RELIEF for the unemployed

RECOVERY for businesses

REFORM of economic institutions

RELIEF

employed people to do federal infrastructure work

RELIEF

Hired people to run electric power plants to control flooding and erosion

RELIEF

Employed young men (18-24) to manage soil conservation and forest tree projects

RECOVERY

Believed the main factor of economic hardship was the cut throat competition in business that made wages low

Established codes to create security for workers (minimum wage, max working hours, regulated prices of certain products)

REFORM

Increased regulation in banks and limited ways banks could invest peoples money

REFORM

Guaranteed peoples bank deposits with federal money

REFORM

Regulate stock market and prevent tarnished behavior like buying on margin and insider trade

second phase of new deal

Provided a safety net of incomes for workers over 65 years, part of workers wages were held on by government and given back at retirement age

Liberals- Believed it did too much for big businesses at the expense of the unemployed and the poor

Conservatives- Believed it represented an extreme federal overreach- Took new deal to the Supreme Court, won some cases, and narrowed the scope of what part of the New Deal was constitutional or not.

Never materialized because people thought Roosevelt wanted too much power

Allowed the president to appoint new Supreme Court justices for every justice that was over 70, meaning Roosevelt could appoint 6 new judges.

Roosevelt wanted so there would be more support for the New Deal.

Warren G. Harding- said wanted U.S. to return back to a state of normalism

Americans wanted isolationism after WWI

Raised tariffs dramatically, alongside Hawley-Smoot tariff, international trade decrease

Pact signed among 63 nations including America. Tried to make war illegal or at least renounce war in principle.

Signed outside of the League of Nations so it was impossible to enforce

Showed the U.S. was trying to keep out of foreign policy like international wars

Made America twitchy but not so much they wanted to get involved

• Benito Mussolini-Italy

• Adolf Hitler- Nazi Germany

• Michinomiya Hirohito- Japan

Many Americans argued for neutrality at first, pointed out the huge loss of lives in WWI

Presented unflattering evidence that certain American corporations had made a lot of profit off of America’s involvement in WWI

Suggested that the pursuit of profits from these companies may have led us to war in the first place

Opposed isolationists

Argued it was foolish to isolate from the developments in Europe

Argued that the “Atlantic Ocean was a buffer” argument from before was no longer arguable because they were in an age of submarines and airplanes and Hitler could attack the U.S. at any time if Britain was defeated.

Thought U.S. intervention was proper but didn’t have the support of a largely isolationist American public

Gradually gave aids to the allies, mostly Great Britain (was involved in the war without being involved in the war)

Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass a looser Neutrality Act that allowed any belligerent in the war to purchase armaments from the U.S. as long as they paid cash and used their own ships to transport them. Was in order to aid Great Britain.

U.S. exchanged America destroyers for land rights on various British possessions.

Allowed Britain to obtain the arms they needed from the U.S. on credit

Japanese bombed naval base in Hawaii, resulted in death of 2400 Americans

Roosevelt asked for declaration of war against Japan, when it was granted Hitler declared war on the U.S.

Created by Roosevelt

Companies started manufacturing war supplies

Labor shortage since men were at war

Rosie the Riveter- poster to get women to work

Used by NAACP to encourage Black Americans to join the war for a victory in war and against racism at home

still segregated

participated in war efforts to put the race issue on the national agenda

TUSKEGEE AIRMEN- flew in almost 1600 combat missions

Many agricultural workers left to join the war, so in 1942 a new provision was made to allow mexican farm workers to enter the U.S. to help plant and harvest without going through the normal immigration stuff.

First peacetime military draft in U.S. history

Relocated many Japanese Americans (American citizens) to internment camps because they associated them with the hated Japanese and suspected them to be spies

Issued by Roosevelt, authorized the federal government to relocate over 100,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps in the West, this applied to Japanese immigrants and their descendants who were born on American soil.

Fred Korematsu refused to comply and was arrested. His case was taken to the Supreme Court where the American Civil Liberties Union represented him, arguing that the forced removal was an unconstitutional violation of the 5th amendment (Protects Americans from answering orders without indictment of the Grand Jury). The court ruled that the relocation was constitutional because it was a “martial necessity arising from the danger of espionage and sabotage.”