Period 7 (HH)

Imperialism
More: American Imperialism

Definition
When a country tries to exert influence over another country
Expansion of countries influence

Cause
Desire for expansion and new markets for industrial products
Belief in the racial and cultural superiority of Americans

Seward's Folly
Purchase of Alaska
Seen as a waste of money at first
BUT GOLD WAS DISCOVERED!!
Increased desire for imperialism
Territorial expansion also basically in DNA of Americans
Led to push for American empire

Imperialists vs. Anti-imperialists

Imperialists

Argued that there are lots of valuable materials in the world and the US should
acquire more land to take it
Wanted to secure new markets for American goods
Believed in social Darwinism
 Fittest survives, weak perish
Believed US was strong and that it must expand
Reverend Josiah Strong
Argued that white Anglo-Saxon race was pinnacle of human evolution
Believed Christians were better than everyone and Christianity must be spread
Alfred Thayer Mahan
Argued any nation that is strong got that way due to strong navy
Only way to secure foreign markets
Congress approved production of new steel ships
Now US needs land to park that new navy and resupply
US wants to secure Caribbean territories

Anti-imperialists

Self determination for nations

Nation should be able to decide for itself who rules them
If America began taking over other countries, they would be robbed for self
determination
America had long period of isolationism
George Washington's farewell address
Racial Arguments
Does constitution follow flag?
Anti-imps believed it should
NOT because they believed other nations should have protection of
constitution
Ruse to hide true argument
What happens when take over foreign country? We give them
rights?? HELL NAW WE AMERICA, JUST DONT EXPAND DAWG

Summary
Imperialism is when a country tries to exert its influence on another country
Spanish-American War
More: Spanish-American War

Cause
American wanted to expand
Cuba was in rebellion with Spain, Spain crushed the rebellion
Yellow Journalism
Journalists published sensational stories that were barely factual to get a larger
audience
Exaggerated atrocities committed by Spain to Cuba
Led Americans to believe that they MUST intervene and provide humanitarian aid
US established naval presence in Cuba
1898 - Explosion on USS Maine in Havana harbor leads to many American
deaths
Before investigation occurred, yellow journalists wrote that it was the Spanish who
did it
Explosion was truly accidental
Spain agrees to go to war with USA

Effects
Cuba gained independence
Limited by Platt Amendment
America insisted it be in Cuban constitution
Stated that America could intervene militarily in Cuba if Americas economic
interests were threatened
Annexation of Philippines
USA overthrew Spanish rule in Philippines and bought it for $20m
Philippines thought USA was intervening so they could have independence
Not the case, led to rebellion
War against US lasted 3 years, US won
Annexation of Hawai'i
China's 'open door' policy
 19th century wasn't good for China
China was made up of European spheres of influence
John Hay sent a letter to China saying:
America wants to trade here, were gonna do that so yea...
China didn't say no, so sure lets go
Gave America access to Asian markets

Progressive Era
Causes
Progressives
Worked on issues such as:
Growing power of big business
Monopolies
Uncertainties in the economy
Increasingly violent conflicts between labor groups and employers
Labor unions
Political machine power
Jim Crow segregation
Lack of women's suffrage
Alcohol
All agreed that on some level, society was deteriorating, and only solution
was significant government intervention

Effects
Progressive era journalists
"New breed" of investigative journalists focused on exposing American corruption
Called 'muck rakers'
Hoped to shine light on crazy corruption in US
Hoped to convince people to put pressure on government to make change
Expansion of democracy
Wanted to put more voting power back into hands of people
The secret ballot
Established that voting be done in private
Cut off power from urban political machines
Direct election of senators
Currently, senators in office were chosen by big businesses, not people
17th amendment
Allowed people to elect state senators

Other amendments and legislature

18th amendment
Prohibition of alcohol
19th amendment
Women's suffrage
The initiative
Voters could require legislators to consider a bill they chose to ignore
Gave ppl more power
The referendum
Voters themselves can vote on adoption of a law
The recall
Remove corrupt politicians before term complete
Led to people receiving their power back!

Social Justice
Racial segregation & lynching
Niagara Movement
Planned protest to secure rights
NAACP
Aimed to abolish all forms of segregation
Expand education opportunities for black children
Progressivism on the National Stage
America elected lots of progressive presidents
Brought platform to national stage
Teddy Roosevelt
Ran on program called square deal
When in a situation, doesn't take sides, works to obtain a square deal
for both sides
'Trust buster'
Began enforcing Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Broke up monopolistic businesses
Did it in a smart way
Broke up bad monopolies, with bad practices, kept the good
ones
Protected Consumers
Pure food and drug act
Ensured that food was safe and 'thumbless'
Meat inspection act
Set a minimum standard for sanitation for meat packing plants
Conservation
Forest Reserve Act of 1891
Reserved 150m acres of unspoiled land for preservation

Military and Diplomacy (WWI)

More: World War 1 (In-class Notes)

Causes
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Created 2 sides against one another
Triple Entente
Britain
Russia
France
 Triple Alliance
Germany
Austria-Hungary
Italy
They began to BLOW EACH OTHER UP
US stayed neutral until...
Sinking of Lusitania
German sank it with a submarine
Enraged US public and President Wilson
However neutrality remained, US threatened to cease diplomatic
relations with Germany
Germany backed off
German unrestricted submarine warfare
Germany started sinking all ships entering war zone
Couple were US ships
Wilson stayed neutral still
Interception of Zimmerman telegram
Germany sent telegram to Mexico telling them to start war with US
Germany promised that after war, Mexico would get back its land lost
in Mexican-American war
US intercepted the telegram and got mad, war was declared

Effects
US entry effectively tipped balance of war in favor of Allies
Treaty of Versailles
Wilsons 14 Points of Peace
Wilson saw that stable Europe required stable Germany
Vengeance was not supposed to be the goal
Wilson said most important was:
Freedom of seas
Self-determination of nations
League of Nations
BUT, Wilson came down with flu, was absent from many of decisions made
Britain and France got payback using treaty, backfired later on (WWII)
 League of Nations
Congress didn't want to join
Feared US would be dragged into wars without congressional approval

WWI, On the Homefront

WWI was total war
Countries put most economic and social resources into fighting the war
Wilson established wartime agencies
War Industry Board
Supervised production of war tools and machinery
Food Administration
Ensured there was enough food for both troops and the people
People migrated to urban areas more
People didn't like US using so many resources on European war
Federal government decided to decrease civil liberties and silence dissenting
speech
Espionage Act & Sedition Act
Basically made it a crime to oppose the war or interfere with the draft
Sounds unconstitutional? Supreme Court disagrees
Argued freedom of speech is not absolute, when in times of need,
people can be silenced
Also silenced how severe case of Spanish flu was, thousands died

Innovations in Technology
Assembly Line
Super efficient
Brought down prices of Ford cars
Other companies couldn't compete
Assembly line took over
Once automobiles started mass manufacture, demand rose
Peoples mobility increased
 People began settling outside urban areas
Roads increased
Restructured American economy
People started buying a lot of stuff
Beauty products, radios, appliances, etc.
Ads became a thing, appealed to consumers
Led to...

Changes in Culture
Popular Culture
Caused mainly new communication tech
Radio and cinema
Companies seized opportunity to reach mass audience
Increase in broadcasters
Movies spread new culture, info, and viewpoints
Showed people their way of life was distinct

Cultural and Political Controversies

New opportunities
Women

Most women were expected to have kids and raise a family

But for those living in urban areas, could work in factories and had more
opportunity

Intl. Migrants
Immigration wave occurred
Led to another spike in nativism
Workers feared they would lose their jobs to immigrants willing to work for
less
Thought immigrants would pollute the white population
 Emergency Quota Act
Limited immigration to 3% of population measured in 1910 census
National Origins Act
Restricted immigration even more

Migrations

The great migration

Part 2 of Exodusters movement
Huge numbers of black people moved northward to settle
Lots in New York, led to Harlem Renaissance
Revival of arts and intellectual pursuits of migrated black population
Birth of Jazz
Urban protestants vs. rural protestants
Urban
Considered themselves modernists
Faith large enough to embrace changing culture
Rural
Considered themselves fundamentalists
Didn't like the change that they saw in cities
Believed every word of bible must be taken seriously
Scopes Monkey Trial
Illegal to teach Darwin's Theory of Evolution in Tennessee
John Scopes violated it and was arrested
Case became highly publicized
Case got overturned
American's saw it as modernism triumphing over fundamentalism

Great Depression
Causes
Farmers overproduced
In severe debt
Combined with high tariffs: DEPRESSION STEW
 Hawley-Smoot Tariff weakened ability of US to sell excess product
Stock market artificially inflated
Due to risky behavior like buying on margin
Ppl saw stock market constantly rising, so they bought more and more by
taking loans
Worked ok at first, cuz they'd get their money back and could pay back
loan
BUT!!
Stock market crashes, everyone loses their money and goes into
debt

Effects
Poverty and homelessness skyrocket
People foreclose on mortgages
Moved to shantytowns dubbed Hoovervilles
Named after Pres. Hoover
Because Hoover didn't do anything!!
Laissez faire economic policy
Believed that, given time, economy would fix itself without govt.
intervention
Presidential election comes around and FDR absolutely demolishes the flip out of
Hoover
Cuz FDR believed in govt. intervention, ppl wanted him
FDR intervened a lot when he came into power
Transformed US into 'limited welfare state'
Means govt. would take responsibility for socioeconomic health of citizens
(Isn't that what they're supposed to do???)

The New Deal

Many pieces of legislation passed to fix economy
The 3 R's
Relief
Recovery
 Reform
Relief
Employed ppl at govt. jobs
Recovery
Nat. Industrial Recovery Act
FDR believed competition in business sector led to lower wages
Meant workers couldn't buy as much
Act established codes that:
Established min. wage
Shortened working hours
Regulated petrol product prices
Reform
Glass-Steagall Act
Ppl lost trust in banks during depression
Act increased trust
Increased bank regulation
Decreased freedom that banks had with ppl's money
FDIC
Guaranteed ppl their money from a bank form govt. funds
SEC
Regulated stock market so ppl would invest again
Stopped buying on margin and insider trading
Social Security Act
Guaranteed those over 65 an income
Still used today
New deal turned US into limited welfare state and expanded American liberalism
Not everyone was happy abt involvement tho
Liberals mad cuz it wasn't liberal enough
Conservatives mad cuz it was too liberal
Couple of conservatives challenged it in Supreme Court
Couple of the cases won, narrowed down effect of New Deal
FDR wasn't happy, proposed bill for judicial reorganization
Court packing scheme
Would allow president to appoint new SC judge for every judge over 70.5
years old
 Meant FDR could appoint 6 new judges
FDR could appoint judges that sympathize with him
Both parties in congress opposed it, abuse of checks and balances, bill
didn't pass
New deal still a big deal tho

American Foreign Policy (Between WW's)

Isolationism
After WWI...

US went back to isolationism, sick of intervention

Pres. Harding
Promised return to 'normalcy'
Increase in tariffs
Makes foreign goods more expensive
Intl. trade decreases
Kellogg-Briand Pact
Pact between 63 nations, including US, trying to make war illegal
Pact was signed outside League of Nations and therefore useless

Isolationism becomes harder to maintain

Americans concerned abt rising fascist and totalitarian govts. in Europe
Nazis, Italians, Japanese
Became more aggressive
Made Americans twitchy
America remained neutral even though Eurasia was going through it
But...
Hitler invades Poland and WWII starts...
Many American policymakers advocated for neutrality
Reminded that many American lives lost in last war
Senate Nye Committee introduced fact that American businesses made a shit
ton from last war
 They said: maybe they causing the war bruh u never know...
Interventionists
Argued its foolish to isolate from Europe's developments
Argued that isolationism made sense back when Washington was around, as
Atlantic ocean served as divider, but with rise in tech, that divider on longer
exists
Europeans could bring war to America if they don't intervene
FDR
Supported intervention, but didn't have support of the ppl (most were
isolationists)
FDR got American involved without appearing involved
Gave aid to allies, mainly Britain
Cash and Carry program
Legislation that allowed any nation in war to purchase war materials
from US as long as they pay cash and use their own ships to
transport it
Since Britain basically owned seas, it helped Britain a lot
But Britain running low on cash, so...
Destroyers for Bases
US exchanged destroyers for land rights on British possessions
Lend-Lease Act
Allowed Britain to lease Armaments from US and pay back later
People weren't blind to who US supported, everyone could see they supported
Britain
BUT NO MORE ISOLATIONISM CUZ!!!...

Pearl Harbor

Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawai'i

Roosevelt addressed congress and asked to declare war
Congress granted it, US JOINS THE WAR BABY!!!

Mobilization for WWII

Cause
 Pearl Harbor

Mobilization
Effects

WWII was total war (again)

Federal spending increases ~1000%
Transformation of American Economy
Before wars, American economy suffered from unemployment
War led to massive spike in GDP, led to a need for more workers to produce
war stuff
BUT... men were going to war, so labor shortage...SO...
Women are encouraged to work in factories to compensate
Black Americans joined military
Double V campaign
African Americans encouraged to join war not only to win for US, but also to win
for themselves and decrease racial barriers
Earned African Americans more recognition and showed that they were capable
Also Mexican Americans, but raises problem
Most Mex-American's worked farms, had to leave those farms to fight
Led to new immigration procedures that allowed Mexicans across border to
work the farms and keep them running
Selective Training & Service Act
First peacetime military draft in US
Japanese relocation
Japanese American citizens were suspected of being spies for Japanese govt.
(cuz yea)
Exec. Order 9066
Allowed fed. gov to relocate over 100,000 Japanese Americans to
internment camps
Not just Japanese American immigrants, ALSO NAT. BORN CITIZENS!!!
Forcefully took them from their homes and even took their personal
property
One person failed to comply
 Case made it to Supreme Court
Korematsu vs. US
American Civil Liberties Union supported Korematsu
Argued forced removal was unconstitutional
But SC overruled it
Said that in times of national security perhaps being compromised,
constitution goes down the drain, civil liberties can be override
But couple years later US apologizes and offers compensation

Postwar Diplomacy
Effects of WWII Involvement
US rose out to be most powerful nation on Earth
Europe and Asia busy cleaning up the rubble
Americans had everything intact except Pearl Harbor
We didn't have to recover
US played critical role in winning the war
US used its industry to supply allies before they even got involved
US weapons tech allowed for victory (atomic bomb)
What did US do with that power?
Tried to limit spread of Soviet communism
After WWII, Germany split into different areas under control of different
nations to help rebuild and prevent future conflict
Soviet Russia tries to take the land given to them to control and claim it, to
stop this US enacted the...
Marshal Plan
Program that gave tons of money to European nations trying to rebuild
Idea was to make Europeans indebted to American democracy rather
than Soviet Communism
IT WORKED!!
United Nations
League of Nations failed cuz US didn't join
Goal was to prevent future wars
But this time, actually had infrastructure necessary to maintain it
Summary Period 7