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U52 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - A new distribution of the social classes:
        
        A small percentage of high social class, namely the industrial capitalists, who accumulated significant wealth & power;
        
        A larger percentage of middle class, namely the skilled workers in technical or professional occupations, who lived comfortably;
        
        A huge number of people from the working class/low social class, who lived in extreme poverty (marked by significant disparities in income, working conditions & living standards).
        
        In fact the American Civil War has been called the first industrial war, and the period between 1861-1914 is regarded as the great era of national prosperity in America ("the Gilded Age") and by the turn of the century (1900), the US was the richest and most productive industrial country in the world.
  - - - The expansion of the West accelerated when the Congress passed the Homestead Act (1862) by means of which public land was offered to people at very low cost, provided they improved the land by settling there & cultivating crops. This act encouraged westward expansion as it allowed many people, including immigrants from all around the world, to acquire land, establish homes & start farms in the West /the American frontier. This also meant the end of native Indians since new settlers occupied their land and slaughtered indiscriminately buffalo herds, their main way of survival
        
        Yet, immigration reached its highest point btw late 19th & early 20th c., when millions of immigrants came from Italy, Poland, Russia, Ireland, Germany & Eastern Europe attracted by the prospect of economic prosperity and political & religious freedom. This movement is known as the Melting Pot of America due to the ethnic diversity that resulted from their cultural assimilation & integration.
  - - - Social reforms:
        
        Poverty
        
        Child labour
        
        Unsafe working conditions
        
        Worker's rights
        
        Regulating big business
        
        Political reforms:
        
        A more transparent gov.
        
        More citizen participation in politics
        
        Putting an end to corruption
        
        The women's suffrage
  - - - In 1895, the people of Cuba rose/rebelled against the Spanish colonial rule, so there was a hard repression. Many Americans wanted to remain away from international affairs, while other demanded for intervention. The explosion (for unknown reasons) of the USS Maine, an American battleship, in Havana Harbor in 1898 initiated the Spanish-American War, as the USA put the blame on Spain. Thus, they had an excuse to start a war which did not last much and, as a result, Spain not only lost the war but also the remains of its overseas empire (Cuba, Puerto Rico & the Philippines) to the US.
        
        The Mexican Revolution was also affected by US intervention, supporting different factions at different times based on its economic & political interests.
      - & the Mexican Revolution
        (1898)
    - - The US government justified its own political interests in the Caribbean to the imperial interests of European powers. Due to its proximity & the availability of valuable resources such as sugar, tobacco, and minerals, the Caribbean region was of economic interest to the US. Its geographical location made it also strategically important in terms of maintaining naval bases for military power & control of sea routes. American businesses sought to invest in and trade with Caribbean countries and the government sometimes intervened politically & militarily to protect American economic interests.
        
        Since 1823, the Monroe Doctrine served as the basis for US interventions, as any efforts by European nations to colonise territories or interfere in the Americas were thus considered an act of aggression. It declared that the Western Hemisphere was off-limits/free from European colonization and intervention ("America for the Americans"). But in 1904, the Roosevelt Corollary (by Theodore Roosevelt) stated their right to intervene militarily in Latin American and Caribbean countries to maintain stability and protect American interests (as in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico and Cuba). Under T. Roosevelt's presidency, another effort to maintain control over key areas was the US occupation & involvement in the construction of the Panama Canal, which connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
      - the Monroe doctrine, Roosevelt Corollary & Panama Canal:
        economic & strategical interests
- - - - The Emancipation proclamation (1863), by Abraham Lincoln, was supposed to free all slaves who were in territory under Confederate control at the time of the Proclamation. Yet, although this did not occur until the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865 (which abolished the institution of slavery for good in all the US), the Proclamation changed the war's character/nature by making the abolition of slavery a central goal.
      - (1863, 1865) the abolition of slavery & the citizenship of former slaves
    - - (1865-1877)
      - From 1865 to 1877, it was a complex, turbulent & controversial era characterized /marked by both progress & setbacks in the North's efforts to rebuild the US, reintegrate the Southern states into the Union, and address the social, political & economic challenges brought about by the abolition of slavery and the aftermath of the war.
        
        A more aggressive approach to this process was adopted with the Reconstruction Acts (1867-68), by which Southern governments were dismissed and new ones were formed which included African American citizens with equal voting rights, known as the Reconstruction governments.
        
        White Southerners hated reconstruction because it challenged their system and they began to create terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a violent, secret organization of white supremacists who wanted to sabotage the civil rights of newly freed African Americans.
    - - After the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, in a speech known as the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln said that the North was fighting the war to keep the Union together so that 'the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth’, where he presented a generous reconstruction policy.
        
        In 1864, Lincoln was re-elected, due to the significant progress & imminent victory by the Union forces. In his planning for peace, the President was flexible & generous with the South in his efforts to bring them back into the Union, seeking reconciliation & unity. He wanted to heal the nation's wounds and ensure that the Southern states could rejoin the Union as smoothly as possible.
        
        However, in 1865 Lincoln's life was tragically cut short when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth (an actor who somehow thought he was helping the South), while attending a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington. His assassination was a shocking and devastating event, especially considering the hopeful prospects for peace and re-union that he had been working toward.
      - (1863-64-65)
  - - - This was a period of great prosperity & growing nationalism (a strong sense of national identity & pride), made possible by a remarkable increase in population due to the influx/arrival of immigrants attracted by the prospect of land, economic prosperity & freedom.
        
        As a result, there is a continuous westward expansion, closely connected with the question of slavery. More and more states entered the Union, soon outnumbering the 13 original colonies, but whose main difference was whether they were "free states" or "slave states". Southern states defended slavery (they depended on cheap agricultural labour for their cotton, tobacco & sugar plantations), but most northerners opposed it for moral and religious reasons (in fact, the Independence War (1775-1783) had been fought to validate the idea that all men are created equal). This balance of power and the question of slavery (or not) was the central issue leading up to the Civil War, causing problems every time a new state wanted to join the Union.
      - West expansion & New states (free-slave)
  - - - The presidential election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 (from the Republican Party) took place in an atmosphere of great tension and was not received in the same way in the North and South, as it was seen as a threat to the institution of slavery, which put the Southerners’ interests at risk.
        
        In December 1860, South Carolina became the 1st southern state to withdraw/secede from the Union, declaring itself an independent nation/government, and soon, 6 more states followed. These seceding states formed the Confederate States of America and adopted their own constitution, which explicitly protected slavery.
        
        The situation escalated when the Confederate forces demanded that Union troops evacuate Fort Sumter, a federal military installation in South Carolina. In April 1861, they fired upon the Federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter until the troops surrendered, initiating the first shots of the American Civil War. In response, Lincoln issued a call to arms for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion, which led additional southern states to secede and join the Confederacy.
      - (1860 & 1861)
    - - the First Battle of Bull Run (the 1st major engagement & a Confederate victory),
        
        the Battle of Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American military history & a Union victory),
        
        the Battle of Gettysburg (the turning point of the war, as it halted Robert E. Lee’s invasion of the North), and
        
        the Siege of Vicksburg (the capture of Vicksburg by General Ulysses S. Grant granted their control of the Mississippi River, hampering the South’s ability to supply and reinforce its armies).
        
        Peace was restored in 1865 when the South, who was severely weakened and lacked food, ammunition, and the ability to reinforce, surrendered to the North. Lee surrendered his Army to Grant’s Union Army at Appomattox Court House, where the two generals agreed to meet.
      - Battles & comparison: a series of battles & campaigns ensued:
    - - As commander of the Union armies, General Ulysses S. Grant launched a series of coordinated campaigns aimed at wearing down the Confederacy's resources and armies. On the other hand, General Robert E. Lee managed to keep the Confederate cause alive for much of the war despite being outnumbered and facing resource limitations. Both sides employed different strategies, with the Union pursuing a policy of "total war" (willing to fight relentlessly) and the Confederacy often relying on defensive tactics.
        
        The North had a strong industrial economy (industrial superiority), with facilities for manufacturing arms, ammunition, clothing and other supplies; a network of railways in the North used for military advantage; possession of the US merchant marine fleet & naval ships; an established government; and their economy was self-sufficient, whereas the South depended on the exportation of raw material to Europe. Also, they outnumbered the South in states & population, (23 states & 22m vs 11 states & 9m).
- - - - (1914-1918, 1917)
      - The Great War between Germany and Great Britain brought a period of diplomatic conflict between the US and Germany since it was an outgrowth of European territorial problems and nationalism. The great majority of Americans were firmly neutral, determined to avoid intervention unless American rights & interests were violated.
        
        Yet, in April 6, 1917 the US was finally drawn into the war against Germany and its allies due to Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare on Atlantic shipping (German military leaders announced that they would attack all merchant shipping on the waters around the British Isles indiscriminately). Hence, the US contribution was decisive in the outcome because of its military superiority. It provided Britain with the ships to overcome the submarine threat and also, with the American Expeditionary Force to France in 1918, whose military power inclined the balance on the western front and helped to end the war in November 1918.
        
        WWI ended on November 11, 1918, with the signing of the Armistice. The US played a key role in post-war negotiations. The Paris Peace Conference was dominated by president Wilson’s principles, the "Fourteen Points", offering a vision/framework for a more just & peaceful world order after the devastation of WWI. The last point was the creation of the League of Nations (a precursor of the United Nations) in order to prevent future conflicts/wars through diplomacy and cooperation. The US was also influential in the writing of the Treaty of Versailles, which formally ended the war in 1919. However, the hard conditions imposed on Germany, the only country made responsible for the war, triggered a nationalistic movement in Germany which was the seed of WWII.
  - - - (1920s,1929-1939)
      - The 1920s saw the rise of mass law-breaking & organized crime. Thus, several acts were passed, such as the Volstead Act (the Prohibition Amendment, 1920), which prohibited the manufacture, sale or transportation of alcoholic liquors /beverages. However, gangsters took advantage of this and controlled the business so successfully that they became the real rulers of many cities. Yet, the end of this prohibition was due to the 1929 Stock Market Crash and the turn of the decade saw the Great Depression which was an unparalleled/unmatched economic disaster in the history of the US.
        
        In the 1930s, all social classes were affected by this crash. Many wealthy & middle-class people lost their life savings, businesses closed their doors, factories shut down & banks failed. Millions of workers lost their jobs in the cities and large numbers of farmers were forced to abandon their farms. 13 million Americans were unemployed (the 25%). The core of the problem was the immense disparity btw the country's productive capacity & its citizens' purchasing capacity (the ability of people to consume. So, they were producing more than they could sell).
    - - In 1932, the Democratic Party candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president, but in the months before his election the depression had worsened (factory closings, farm foreclosures, bank failures, & soaring unemployment), facing the greatest crisis in American history since the Civil War. His leadership was crucial in addressing the crisis, as he undertook immediate action through a series of programs, policies & reforms known as the New Deal, to immediately (1) relieve the unemployed, (2) recover business & agriculture, and (3) reform the economy's long-term infrastructure (the three R's).
        
        Relief: immediate relief measures to provide jobs, food
        & financial assistance to those in need (the unemployed).
        
        Recovery programs aimed at business & agriculture.
        
        Reform: reform the underlying system to avoid repeating an economic disaster like this ever again.
        
        In 1935, he passed the Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act) to prevent employers from firing workers if they joined a labor union (protecting workers' rights to form labor unions) and the Social Security Act, creating a Social Security system, which provided a social safety net: retirement pensions, unemployment insurance, and assistance to disabled individuals and their families.
      - (presidency: 1933-1945)
  - - - (1939-1945, 1941)
      - War broke in Europe when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 and by 1940 he had already occupied/overrun most of Europe, except for Britain. With Hitler governing over Europe and both Italy's and Japan's totalitarian regimes becoming stronger, America saw the danger as it was in a sandwiched position btw Europe & Japan. So Roosevelt persuaded Congress to suspend the Neutrality Acts, which had been designed by isolationists in the 1930s to prevent the US from getting involved in another world war, before sending supplies to Britain & the Soviet Union (still without entering the war).
        
        But on December 7, 1941, the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2000 American soldiers after they had invaded the South-East of Asia and 4 days later Germany & Italy declared war on the US too. FDRoosevelt was exceptionally elected for a 2nd & 3rd time. He founded the United Nations (an international organization aimed at preventing future conflicts) along with Winston Churchill & Joseph Stalin, and he became the Commander of the Armed Forces, playing a crucial role in the liberation of Europe from the Nazis.
        
        In 1944, the war came to an end in Europe after the American invasion of Normandy on the D-Day, which was followed by the Allied invasion of Germany six months later. As the war drew to a close in 1945, Roosevelt’s health was seriously deteriorated. He died from a stroke just a few weeks before the end of the war.
        
        Vice-president Truman took over the post in office and he was the one to drop the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, following Roosevelt’s instructions. 200,000 civilians were killed in a day and a week later the Japanese government surrendered. The war left 38 million deaths and the image of the US as the protector of the world.