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US History (Part III), Created in the 1870's, Jim Crow laws (named…
US History (Part III)
Gilded age (1865-1898)
Political parties
The period saw massive
political corruption
until the assassination of
President James Garfield
by an unhappy supporter in 1881 inspired reform.
Chester Arthur (1881-1885)
took power after Garfield, and created the
Civil Service Commission
to weaken the spoils system.
Political machines worked as local spoils systems for the poor, the most famous being the
Tammany Hall.
The Republicans dominated US politics in this period, advocating for
infrastructure and protective tariffs,
while the Democrats, who often had Senate, advocated for small government.
The
Populist Party (1891-1908)
represented farmers that were hurt by industrialization. They wanted silver coins in order to increase inflation and make loans easier to pay
(Free silver).
The party began to lose support in 1896, when Democrats start advocating for populist ideas.
The
Panic of 1873
was what caused farmers to band together into the Populist party.
Capitalism
Steel production through the Bessemer process made the US one of the giants of the
Second Industrial Revolution,
and the first billionaires rose during this time.
The boom in steel production allowed for the construction of the first
skyscrapers,
such as the Home Insurance building.
Laissez-faire
was popular, and its advocates were often
Social Darwinists.
The Knights of Labor (1869-1886)
were the first major labor union in the US, but became unpopular after the
Haymarket square root (1886)
ended in violence.
The American Federation of Labor
replaced the Knights, but unlike them, it didn't accept unskilled workers.
Other notable strikes were the
Homestead Strike (1892)
and the
Pullman Strike (1894).
After Reconstruction, the
"New South"
was supposed to be industrialized, but failed because no one had capital to invest.
Wild West
As a result of
railroads, the Gold Rush, the Homestead act, and the Indian Wars,
the population of the West skyrocketed, with the creation of 8 new states.
Asians and Mexicans also came to America, and just like non-anglo saxon Europeans, they would live in
ethnic communities
due to discrimination.
Many immigrants running away from the political turmoil in Europe had to work and live under terrible conditions, such as
tenements.
The
Dawes act (1887)
ended the Indian reservation system and forced natives to assimilate, while the
Curtis Act (1898)
forced the "five civilized tribes" to take part in the Dawes act.
The Ghost Dance
was a ritual meant to unite the native American against the white settlers, but after the
Massacre of Wounded Knee (1890)
native resistance was over.
Around this time,
buffalos
were hunted to extinction, making life even harder for natives.
Golden age (1948-1973)
Events
Post-war boom
The
GI Bill (1944-1956)
helped millions of veterans get higher education, along with many social benefits.
The Bill also helped veterans sustain families after the end of the Great Depression, being a major cause of the
Baby Boom (1946-1964).
Blacks faced major difficulties accessing such benefits, and thus didn't enjoy the post war economic boom, another cause for Civil Rights.
To house new families,
Levitt and Sons
mass produced houses in New York
(Levittown),
which were easily affordable by veterans.
Red scare
When the Soviets got the atomic bomb through espionage, the US became paranoid and many people lost their jobs for being “suspicious”, such as actors.
Senator
Joseph McCarthy
used this to his advantage, accusing many rivals of being communists without any proof, thus creating the term
“McCarthyism.”
The US development of the hydrogen bomb in 52 started an armed race with the USSR, with legislation such as
NSC-68
(which tripled American defense budget) only making things escalate.
When the USSR launched
Sputnik
in 1957, the space race began, with
NASA
being created in 58 and Kennedy’s
Apollo Program
succeeded in putting
Neil Armstrong
on the moon in 69.
Youth
Despite gender roles, the 60’s brought the pill, the
sexual revolution
and an increasing demand among women to play a bigger role in the workforce.
Things such as
Rock and Roll
expressed boomers’ desire to rebel against authorities, and people such as
Elvis Presly
and even some African Americans rose to stardom.
Second wave feminism,
fought over the right to use
the pill
and equal rights in the workplace.
The
Pentagon papers
showed that Johnson and Nixon had lied to the public about US involvement in the war, undermining public trust in the government. A ceasefire was negotiated in 73, and the Communists won in 75.
Civil rights
The
Brown v. Board of education of Topeka (1954)
was a lawsuit that ended with the Supreme Court deeming segregated public schools to be unconstitutional.
The trial of the murder of
Emmett Till (1955)
was the first major media event of the civil rights movement, bringing attention to the brutality of racism.
Two months later, this case inspired
Rosa Parks
to refuse to give up her bus seat, sparking the
Montgomery bus boycott,
of which
MLK
emerged as leader.
Democrat support for Civil Rights led to many white southerners joining the Republican, which would be accelerated by Nixon’s
Southern Strategy.
Malcolm X
and the
Black panthers
were major figures of
“Black Power”,
which advocated for self-reliance and racial pride among African Americans. The Black panthers even wrote guidelines in their
“Ten Point Program”.
During the
March on Washington (1963),
MLK delivered his “I have a dream” speech. The march helped pass the
Civil Rights Act (1964),
ending segregation and offering assistance to black communities, and the
Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Stagflation
Expenses from Vietnam and social problems, plus competition from Japan caused wages to stagnate and inflation to rise.
The
Nixon Shock (1971)
was a series of austerity measures to attempt to improve the economy, but without any long term success.
Due to US support of Israel, the Middle East declared an
Oil embargo (1973),
ending the American golden age
Presidents
John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)
In the first post party switch election, Kennedy narrowly won against Nixon, running on civil rights.
Kennedy focused on
Keynesian economics
to combat the recession. Johnson's Great Society was a successor of this.
On the military side, there was the
Bay of Pigs,
Cuban missile crisis
and the
Alliance for Progress
to help Latin America.
Lyndon Johnson (1963-1969)
Due to his role in passing the Civil Rights act of 64, Johnson won re-election by landslide. His
Great Society
package also started a
War on Poverty.
The
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
authorized the US to directly send troops to Vietnam, and the stalemate that followed led to Anti-war sentiment.
Richard Nixon (1969-1974)
Although he ended the US draft for Vietnam, Nixon allowed the FBI to spy on anti war groups, and the
Kent State massacre (1970)
killed 4 protesters.
He reopened relations with China and signed the
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT)
with the USSR.
The Watergate scandal,
in which he set the FBI to spy on political rivals, ended his chances of winning a second term.
Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)
Returning the Panama canal to Panama, halting the construction of nukes, and convincing Egypt to recognize Israel
(Camp David Accord),
Carter alienated both Republicans and Democrats.
Relations with the soviets worsened after their invasion of
Afghanistan
in 1979, and the
Iranian revolution
plus the
Iran hostage crisis
made him increasingly unpopular.
Carter failed to improve the economy in any significant, and thus lost to
Ronald Reagan
in 81.
Eisenhower (1952-1960)
Increased the role of the Federal government and funds to social programs, and his
Federal-Aid Highway Act
was the largest public project in US history.
His national security policy was,
New Look,
relied more on nuclear weapons than conventional armies. His idea was to keep the soviet at bay with the threat of a nuclear war,
brinkmanship.
Eisenhower ended the
Korean war
in 1954 and kept the US out of Vietnam for the time, despite supplying weapons to guerrillas.
He was a moderate supporter of civil rights, and signed a few acts protecting civil liberties. Despite this, he helped stablish many dictatorships in soviet aligned countries.
Rise as world power (1898-1945)
Presidents
Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
To build the
Panama Canal,
Roosevelt helped Panama gain its independence from Colombia in 1903.
The Roosevelt Corollary (1904)
said that the US would intervene in the economic affairs of Latin America when necessary, to protect them from the influence of Europe.
In 1913, he ran for president after his successor disappointed him, representing the
Bull Moose Party (1912-1920).
With Republicans split, Woodrow Wilson won by landslide.
Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
An advocate of
Progressive ideas,
he took many measures to help the working class.
A Southerner, Wilson was deeply racist and segregated the government, inspiring a revival of the KKK.
Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)
Assuming after the death of
Warren Harding (1921-1923),
he continued his policies of returning America to its isolationism and Laissez-faire policies.
He was socially progressive, often advocating for women’s rights.
Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)
Fairly progressive, he advocated for cooperation between the government and corporations
(voluntarism).
With the 1929 crisis, he launched massive public works, such as the
Hoover Dam,
and the
Glass-Steagall Act (1933),
which limited activities of commercial banks, in an attempt to stabilise the economy.
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
imposed higher tariffs on imported goods and started a trade war with Europe, making the crisis worse.
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932)
finally intervened in the economy, but it didn't save his presidency.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)
The First New Deal (1933-1934)
focused of relief for the unemployed, economic recovery and financial reforms.
The Second New Deal (1935-1938)
focused on increasing worker protections and building long-lasting financial security.
Events
World War II
The Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941)
led to an American declaration of war the following day.
Although he said the US fought for freedom, Roosevelt's
Executive Order 9066
interned over 100.000 Japanese Americans during the war, taking away their livelihoods.
Women entered factory and office jobs en masse during the war. Those who joined the airforce flew planes from the factories to the battlefield.
Rosie the Riveter
was created for propaganda.
The Battle of Midway (1942)
destroyed the Japanese navy and gave the US naval dominance for the remainder of the war.
After the
nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
Japan surrendered and was occupied by the forces of
Douglas MacArthur,
who started rebuilding it in case of war against the soviets.
The Great Depression
It was the massive military expenditures of World War II, not the New Deal, that eventually pulled the United States out of the Great Depression.
Farmers were hit very hard by the crisis, due to devalued crops plus a Southern drought that brought dust storms
(Dust Bowl).
Imperialism
In 1893, American sugar plantation owners engineered a coup to dethrone Hawaii's Queen, but Hawaii was only annexed in 1898, due to fears of Japanese annexation.
With the Spanish American war (1898), the US ended its policy of isolationism and entered the imperialist race, making Cuba a puppet and acquiring Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines as territories, not states.
Their excuse was the idea of "White man's burden", something that people such as Andrew Carnegie disapproved.
Progressive era (1896-1920)
Progressives were social groups dedicated to improving the rights of minorities and combating corruption though government intervention. Despite this, many agreed with the ideas of imperialism and eugenics.
Roosevelts Square Deal,
focused on consumer protection, control of corporations, and conservation, greatly helping the small people. He also created many national parks to preserve nature.
Muckrakers
were journalists and novelists of the Progressive Era who sought to expose corruption in big business and government, such as Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, Jacob Riis and Ida B. Wells.
World War I
Although president Wilson wanted neutrality, the sinking of the Lusitania (1915) plus the German unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmerman telegram (1917) forced the US to enter WWI.
Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points (1918) advocated for a united world after the war, but Congress never let the US join the League of Nations.
Roaring twenties
After the war, many were disillusioned with western values. This group, the
"Lost generation"
started the Roaring 20's to cope with it.
Some of the most famous Lost Generation writers were
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos,
and
John Steinbeck.
They often wrote about moral degeneracy, corruption and poverty.
Due to their war contribution, women achieved the right to vote with the
19th amendment (1920).
Groups such as the
Anti-saloon League
made Congress pass the
18th amendment
in 1920. As a consequence, crime skyrocketed and criminals such as
Al Capone
became celebrities.
The need for money during the Great Depression led to the
21th amendment,
once again allowing alcohol production.
Economic prosperity led to a rise in leisure spending, such as parties, movies, radio. For example, the
Harlem Renaissance
was a flourishing of African American art, music, literature, and poetry.
Rural settlers and immigrants didn’t enjoy the prosperity of the time that much. The
Sacco and Vanzetti trial (1921)
plus
Emergency Immigration Act of 1921
were proof of that.
Created in the 1870's,
Jim Crow laws
(named after a popular term for racist portrayals of African Americans in theater, often with
blackface
) would segregate the US until the 1960's
In 1892, Homer Plessy sparked and lost a debate on the constitutionality of the laws
(Plessy v. Ferguson).
The counterargument was that
“separate but equal”
was not unconstitutional.
Urbanization and a growing the middle class resulted in the urban population finally surpassing the rural in 1920.
The reservation system was restored by FDR in 1930 with the US Indian Reorganization Act.
The
Morrill Land Grant Act (1862)
gave Federal land for the construction of universities, giving the lower classes access to higher education.
The term Gilded Age was coined by Mark Twain to ironize how the wealth produced at the time was extremely concentrated.
The Homestead act of 1862
made it easier to acquire land and the newly obtained West.
Membership of the KKK once again declined in the 20's.
The Teapot Dome
scandal during Harding’s presidency was the first time a government official was arrested for taking bribes.
Hoovervilles
were the nicknames of slums created by those who became homeless during the crisis.
In Cuba, future president Theodore Roosevelt led his Rough riders to victory, becoming a celebrity at home.
In 1907, the US became the first country to pass a compulsory sterilization law, sterilizing 60000 people by the end of WW2.
Banks would often refuse loans to POC and people in suburbs would refuse to sell their houses to them, thus suburbs were mostly white.
The
Scopes Monkey
Trial was a clash between fundamentalist and evolutionist values, showing how not everyone was happy with the modernization of the US.
It was in this period that Hollywood, California became what it is today.
This was the time of the boom of television, and by 1955, half of all American homes had TVs.
The violent attack of civil rights advocates on
“Bloody Sunday (1965)”,
convinced President Johnson to propose the Voting Rights Act.
"Massive Resistance"
was organized by whites to oppose Southern desegregation, and Eisenhower had to send Federal troops to intervene.
CORE
and
SNCC,
two major civil rights groups, became disillusioned with the slow progress of the movement and non-violent policies, thus joining Black Power.
The
"Little Rock Nine"
were the first black students to attempt to enter a Southern school, but they were barred by authorities.
Nilton employed the
"Southern strategy"
to appeal to conservatives resentful of civil rights. He also took advantage of a divide in the Democratic party.
The 70's saw the rise of
identity politics,
such as native americans, LGBT,
Although Carter's years in office were rocky, his post-presidential career as a diplomat and human-rights advocate earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
The
Roe v. Wade case (1973)
ruled that the Constitution protects a woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.
