World War I

World War I resulted from nationalism and imperialism. When war broke out in 1914 between
Serbia and Austria-Hungary over the assassination of an Austrian leader visiting Serbia, a chain
reaction started as other countries also declared war. Germany and Austria-Hungary were the
mainstays of the Central Powers, who fought against the Allies—England, France, Russia, Serbia,
and eventually the United States. When the Central Powers finally lost the war, millions of ‐ people
had been killed. The war had devastated Europe, leaving many people jobless and homeless. In the
1918 Treaty of Versailles, Germany was blamed for the war and forced to pay reparations to the
Allies.

World War I began in 1914, but the United States would not enter the conflict until 1917. President
Woodrow Wilson had just won reelection in 1916 with the campaign slogan “He Kept Us Out of
War.” The United States sought to maintain neutrality until hit directly by Germany’s actions: first,
Germany sank a British ship carrying over a hundred Americans; secondly, in the Zimmermann
Telegram discovered by British allies, Germany had asked Mexico to join the war in exchange for the
lands it had lost to the United States. The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917.

U.S. troops joined the fight in late 1917, and the Central Powers surrendered in November 1918. The
United States had played a small but crucial role on the battlefield, and it ended the war in a much
stronger military and economic position than the European nations, which had suffered much
greater losses. Ironically, President Woodrow Wilson’s dream of the League of Nations—an
international organization to settle differences over a conference table without American
participation.

The Great Depression

The Great Depression began with the crash of the stock market in October 1929. Although the
United States had weathered several financial panics since the 1790s, this one was nicknamed
“great” because it was the worst, longest-lasting economic crisis in U.S. history.

The simple cause of the stock market crash was the practice of margin buying, which had become
common during the 1920s. Speculators would borrow money and buy stock, then keep an eye on
its value and sell it as soon as its price went up.

The failure of businesses and banks coincided with many months of drought in the Great Plains,
turning the 50-million-acre Breadbasket into the Dust Bowl. With no rain to keep it moist and
anchored in place, the thin topsoil blew away during dust storms, and the crops failed. Thousands
of small farmers lost everything they had. These “Okies” (nicknamed for the state of Oklahoma,
although they were from several neighboring states as well) migrated westward, hoping for a fresh
start in the favorable climate of California. All they found there was hostility, prejudice, and
starvation wages.

Many Americans blamed the Depression on President Herbert Hoover, who had failed to predict it
and seemed not only unable but unwilling to resolve it. In the 1932 presidential election, Hoover
lost in a landslide to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt immediately took action to address the
financial crisis. His New Deal programs created millions of jobs and restored the nation’s banks to a
sound financial footing. During Roosevelt’s first term, unemployment dropped by about 8 percent.
Unsurprisingly, he was reelected in 1936 in the greatest landslide in 100 years.

In the 1930s, in response to the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress
enacted a set of far-reaching economic measures called the New Deal. These measures were
needed to address the dire economic conditions and to help those who were suffering. The New
Deal greatly expanded the role of the federal government in domestic affairs. Some of its programs
provided food, shelter, and financial security to those in economic need. Others provided funds for
building dams, roads, bridges, and other large structures. These building projects provided
employment for thousands of people. Another major New Deal program, Social Security, still
provides a guaranteed income to millions of Americans. World War II brought an end to the
Depression. The demand for weapons, ships, and airplanes created jobs and paychecks for
millions of workers. When the war was over, people spent money freely on everything that had been
postponed during the war years: starting families, buying houses, and purchasing all kinds of
consumer goods developed by new industries. The result was an unprecedented economic boom
that lasted for 25 years. During this period, the United States consolidated its position as the
greatest economic power in the world.

World War II

One hard-hit nation was Germany, which was still suffering economically and politically from its
defeat in World War I. By 1933, nearly half of German workers were unemployed, and people were
starving. Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, rose to power by appealing to German nationalism
and promising to put people back to work. Hitler’s terrible form of nationalism involved imprisoning
and killing people who were not part of “the Aryan race.” Jews were the main targets of Hitler’s
campaign, now called the Holocaust. Hitler wanted to take over all Europe, and because other
powerful nations wanted to avoid war, they let him annex Austria, then Czechoslovakia. But when
Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, England and France declared war on Germany, and World War II
began.

The United States officially entered the war in December 1941, after Japan attacked the American
naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, more than
110,000 Americans of Japanese descent were living on the West Coast of the United States. The
U.S. government moved these Japanese Americans to internment camps in the middle of the
country and California for the duration of the war. This was later recognized by the United States as
a violation of these citizens’ human and civil rights.

The war in Europe ended in the spring of 1945. The United States dropped atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of August 1945. The Allies divided up Germany into districts that
they would control. To help rebuild the rest of Europe, the United States passed the Marshall Plan
to provide economic assistance. In the hope of preventing yet another World War, the United
Nations was formed with a commitment to maintaining international peace.
Postwar America

Following World War II, Americans enjoyed an era of prosperity and plenty after the hard times of
the Great Depression. In 1944, the GI Bill, also known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, was
passed in Congress. This bill provided benefits to veterans to help them transition back into civilian
life after serving their country. Under this act, assistance was provided immediately to servicemen
and women. Although some changes occurred over time, the original bill provided three main
benefits:

• Subsidized education or career training

• Guaranteed low-interest loans for homes, businesses, or agriculture

• One year of unemployment benefits if the veteran was unable to obtain work

This enabled many to marry, start families, and move to the newly built suburbs. People began
buying cars, television sets, and other consumer goods. Congress then passed the Economic
Cooperation Act of 1948, also known as the Marshall Plan, which helped to restore productivity in
the areas of agriculture and industry, prevented famine, and helped the nations of Europe avoid
political chaos.

Cold War

At the end of WWII, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as rival superpowers, and the
Cold War began. Lasting decades from 1947 to 1991, the Cold War was not a direct, combat-based
war; it was a long period of tension between Western democracies and the sphere of communist
influence with the Soviet Union at its center.

As the Allies worked to reset international relations in the wake of WWII, the Americans and the
British worried that democracies within the reach of the Soviet Union would fall to communism. To
counter the Soviet threat, the United States and its European allies created a military alliance
called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In the meantime, the Soviet Union joined
with East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia to form the military
alliance called the Warsaw Pact.

In 1947, President Harry Truman called for immediate economic and military support for Greece
and Turkey to protect those countries from a possible Soviet-backed Communist takeover. Under
the Truman Doctrine, the United States promised similar help to all countries threatened by
Communism. Germany was another Cold War flashpoint. At the end of World War II, Germany had
been divided into West Germany (Democracy country) and East Germany ( Communist country
).

The United States and the Soviet Union committed their countries’ resources to developing
weapons and achieving space exploration. They avoided war while stockpiling nuclear arms
because these weapons amounted to “mutually assured destruction”; if one country used a
nuclear weapon on another with the same power, both would be annihilated.
The Cuban Missile Crisis, a standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union over nuclear
missiles in Cuba, was a dangerous game of chicken based on this idea.

Being the first to reach milestones in space exploration also allowed Americans and Soviets to
compete with one another. In this space race, the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, named
Sputnik, in 1957, and the United States followed with the moon landing of Apollo 11 in 1969. The
Cold War also had a significant impact on American society. U.S. citizens, among them many
celebrities, were accused of being communists during the era of McCarthyism. Americans were
even made suspicious of their own neighbors during this Red Scare.

The Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was built by the German Democratic Republic during the Cold War to prevent its
population from escaping Soviet-controlled East Berlin. It divided the city of Berlin into two
physically and ideologically contrasting zones. Sections of the Berlin Wall were subsequently torn
down by East German border guard crews and residents of a reunified Berlin.

Berlin Airlift

On June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union blocked all road and rail travel to and from West Berlin, which
was located within the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany. The Soviet action was in response to
the refusal of American and British officials to allow Russia more to say in the economic future of
Germany. The U.S. government was shocked by the provocative Soviet move, and some in President
Harry S. Truman’s administration called for a direct military response. Truman, however, did not
want to cause World War III. Instead, he ordered a massive airlift of supplies into West Berlin.

On June 26, 1948, the first planes took off from bases in England and western Germany and landed
in West Berlin. It was the task to provide food, clothing, water, medicine, and other necessities of
life for the over 2 million fearful citizens of the city. For nearly a year, American planes landed
around the clock. Over 200,000 planes carried in more than one-and-a-half million tons of supplies.

The Soviets persisted with the blockade until May 1949. Around the world, the Soviets were
portrayed as international bullies. The unbelievably successful American airlift also backfired
against the Russians by highlighting the technological superiority of the United States. By the time
the Soviets ended the blockade, West Germany had become a separate and independent nation
and the Russian failure was complete.

The end of cold war

The Cold War ended in 1991 with the breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of communism there.
In the late 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had tried to reform the communist government.
But the loosening of Soviet control had led to the collapse of many communist governments of ‐
Eastern Europe. The Berlin Wall, which had separated East and West Germany, was torn down. With
communism no longer so threatening, world politics became less tense but also more
unpredictable.
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Jim Crow Laws

To marginalize Black people, keep them separate from white people and erase the progress they’d
made during Reconstruction, “Jim Crow” laws were established in the South beginning in the late
19th century. Black people couldn’t use the same public facilities as white people, live in many of
the same towns or go to the same schools. Interracial marriage was illegal, and most Black people
couldn’t vote because they were unable to pass voter literacy tests.

Plessy v. Ferguson—1896 Homer Adolph Plessy was a resident of Louisiana and a citizen of the
United States. He was of partial African descent. He paid for a first-class ticket on the East
Louisiana Railway, a passenger train that ran through Louisiana. When he boarded the train, Plessy
found a seat in a car that was filled with white people and was designated for white passengers. The
train conductor informed Plessy that he would have to find a seat in a car not designated for white
people or he would be forced to leave the train. Plessy refused and was arrested. Plessy was found
guilty of violating a state statute that required passenger trains to provide “separate, but equal”
accommodations for white and black people. The statute also imposed criminal punishment on
those passengers who refused to comply. Plessy brought suit challenging the Louisiana statute as
an unconstitutional violation of his due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. The
Supreme Court held that the statute requiring “separate but equal” facilities was constitutional,
rationalizing that separate facilities for blacks and whites satisfied the Fourteenth Amendment as
long as they were equal. In other words, the Court found that segregation does not in itself
constitute unlawful discrimination.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas—1955 Linda Brown, a black third grade student,
walked a mile every day to get to her “black” school, even though a school designated for white
children was much closer to her home. Linda’s father tried to enroll her in the “white” school, but
the school refused to accept Linda as a student. The Browns got help from the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and sued the school board. The Supreme Court,
hearing the case on appeal, ordered oral arguments in the case twice before reaching a decision.
The question before the court: “Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of
race, even though the physical facilities and other ‘tangible’ factors may be equal, deprive the
children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities?”

Thus, the question of “separate but equal” was once again before the court. The Court’s decision in
Plessy v. Ferguson, a finding that separate facilities are not unconstitutional as long as they are
equal, seemed to hold the answer in this case as well. However, fifty-nine years had passed, and
this time, the Court’s ruling was quite different. Significantly, the opinion of the Court was
unanimous. The decision: “We conclude that in the field of public education, the doctrine of
‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
Little Rock Nine

In 1954, the civil rights movement gained momentum when the United States Supreme Court
made segregation illegal in public schools in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. In 1957,
Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas asked for volunteers from all-Black high schools to
attend the formerly segregated school.

On September 3, 1957, nine Black students, known as the Little Rock Nine, arrived at Central High
School to begin classes but were instead met by the Arkansas National Guard (on order of Governor
Orval Faubus) and a screaming, threatening mob. The Little Rock Nine tried again a couple of weeks
later and made it inside, but had to be removed for their safety when violence ensued.

Finally, President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened and ordered federal troops to escort the Little
Rock Nine to and from classes at Central High. Still, the students faced continual harassment and
prejudice. Their efforts, however, brought much-needed attention to the issue of desegregation and
fueled protests on both sides of the issue.

March on Washington

Arguably one of the most famous events of the civil rights movement took place on August 28,
1963: the March on Washington. It was organized and attended by civil rights leaders such as A.
Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King Jr. More than 200,000 people of all races
congregated in Washington, D. C. for the peaceful march with the main purpose of forcing civil
rights legislation and establishing job equality for everyone. The highlight of the march was King’s
speech in which he continually stated, “I have a dream…” King’s “I Have a Dream” speech
galvanized the national civil rights movement and became a slogan for equality and freedom.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

"Letter from Birmingham Jail" is a letter written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 16, 1963, during
his incarceration in the Birmingham City Jail. In the letter, Dr. King responds to a statement by white
clergymen who had criticized the civil rights demonstrations taking place in Birmingham.

In this letter, he wrote “justice too long delayed is justice denied” and “injustice anywhere is a
threat to justice everywhere.” Without writing papers, King initially began by jotting down notes in
the margin of the newspaper itself, before writing out portions of the work on scraps of paper he
gave his attorneys. Dr. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is a powerful and eloquent plea for the
urgency of the civil rights movement and remains a landmark document in the history of the
struggle for racial equality in the United States.
Watergate Scandal

During the 1972 presidential campaign, burglars were arrested in the Democratic National
Committee’s office in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. Eventually it was revealed that the
burglars had ties to the Nixon administration and that White House officials were attempting to
cover up their involvement.

Richard Nixon was the 37th president of the United States. He was a Republican, and he held the
presidency from 1969 to 1974. Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign from office, because
of the Watergate scandal.

During the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon and his administration were discovered to have been
involved in a burglary attempt at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in 1972. After a
heavily publicized investigation and televised hearings, Nixon was ordered by the Supreme Court to
turn over tapes from the Oval Office that eventually provided concrete evidence of his involvement
and later attempts to cover up his association with the crime. The scandal resulted in Nixon’s
resignation in 1974.

Bush Vs Al Gore

Republican George W. Bush succeeded Clinton in 2001 and served two terms in office. His
presidency was controversial from the beginning because the 2000 presidential election, in which
Bush faced Clinton’s vice president Al Gore, was extremely close. Gore won more of the popular
vote, but after the U.S. Supreme Court halted a vote recount in Florida, Bush was awarded the
state’s Electoral College votes and had enough Electoral votes to win the presidency.

9/11

On September 11, 2001, terrorists from an ultra-Islamist group called Al-Qaeda hijacked four
commercial jetliners, crashing two into the World Trade Center towers in New York City and one into
the Pentagon. The fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3000 people died in the attacks,
now referred to collectively as 9/11. In response, Bush launched what he called a War on Terror,
which included:

• The passage of the USA Patriot Act, which gave intelligence organizations broad surveillance
power

• The War in Afghanistan, a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan prompted by its government’s support
of Al Qaeda. The war began in October 2001, and the United States military withdrew in December
2014.

• The Iraq War, a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq prompted by intelligence reports that the country’s
leader, Saddam Hussein, had weapons of mass destruction that could be used against the United
States and its allies. The invasion began in 2003, and the United States withdrew in 2011.