-
Period: to
Time Period 7: Becoming a Superpower (1890-1945)
After the Spanish-American War, the US replaced Spain as one of the world's major powers. While traditionally isolationist ever since Washington, the US became increasingly more interventionist not only in Latin America under the Roosevelt Corollary but also throughout the rest of the world after WW2. After WW2, thanks to mass production during the war, the destruction of the old powers (Britain & Germany), & the development of nuclear weapons, the US was the most powerful nation hands-down. -
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Causes: The public grew more & more resentful against monopolies since they harmed the lower classes, so the government tried to restrict trusts.
People: John Sherman
Effects: The law was largely ineffective in restricting monopolies because the courts & businesses could find loopholes. In fact, the law was often used against labor unions because they were seen as restricting free trade. This proved how hard it was so truly regulate the strong power of trusts and big business. -
National American Woman Suffrage Association
Causes: The 2 rival women's suffrage organization, the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association, banded together to give women the vote both by state and with a federal amendment.
People: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone
Effects: The NAWSA was the most important organization advocating for women's suffrage in the nation, and played a major role in the passage of the 19th Amendment allowing women to vote in 1920. -
McKinley Tariff
Causes: Republicans in Congress wanted to increase the duties on wool, sugar, etc. and protect US manufacturing.
People: Sen. William McKinley
Effects: The tariff, as usual, harmed poor farmers at the expense of helping rich manufacturers. It led to the rise of the Populist Movement for free-silver by farmers. The tariff also caused Hawaii's economy to crash through the new tariffs on sugar and led to white Hawaiian sugar planters uprising against the Hawaiian queen in favor of US annexation. -
Wounded Knee Massacre
Causes: The US banned the Indian Sun Dance in 1884 to get Indians to give up their tribal religions and assimilate under the Dawes Act. Instead, the "Ghost Dance" spread in order to resist assimilation under the Dawes Severalty Act.
People: Dakota Sioux, US Cavalry
Effects: The US army killed around 200 Indians, including women and children, and practice of the Ghost Dance dropped hugely. This marked the defeat of American Indians and the success of the US in imperializing the entire country. -
Homestead Strike
Causes: Steelworkers at Carnegie's Homestead steel plant had a strike over pay cuts. Violence broke out until troops came to dissolve the strike & the union.
People: Andrew Carnegie
Effects: The strike gave Populists hope that poor farmers and poor workers could work together against big business & the Populist Party could expand past the west into more of the North. -
People's (Populist) Party
Causes: From the Farmers' Alliance came a political party called the People's Party by and for poor, indebted farmers.
People: Dem. William Jennings Bryan
Effects: The Populist Party supported free coinage of silver (to cause inflation and lower debts), called for government ownership of railroads/telegraphs, a graudated income tax, directly elected US senators, and shorter workdays. Bryan's loss in the 1896 election led to the end of the Populist movement. -
White sugar planters revolt against Hawaiian Queen
Causes: The McKinley Tariff harmed Hawaii's economy by making Hawaii pay high tariffs for the sugar trade. The white sugar planter minority in Hawaii wanted the US to annex Hawaii & rebelled with the help of US troops.
People: Queen Liliuokalani, President Cleveland
Effects: Newly elected Cleveland withdrew the treaty for annexation, feeling that the US had wronged the Queen and Hawaiian natives, but Hawaii was later annexed in 1898. -
Panic of 1893
Causes: Overbuilding, overspending, labor & agricultural problems, free-silver debates, & US loans led to the depression of 1893.
People: President Cleveland, JP Morgan
Effects: Thousands of businesses collapsed, many were left poor and unemployed, & the Treasury's gold reserve fell to an all-time low, prompting Cleveland to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act & go to JP Morgan/Wall Street for a huge gold loan. The Populist & Socialist parties grew more popular during the 4 year crisis. -
Wilson-Gorman Tariff
Causes: The Wilson-Gorman Tariff was an attempt to lower the tariffs set by the McKinley tariff earlier, but by the time it had gone through Congress it had barely made any change to McKinley's rates.
People: President Cleveland
Effects: The tariff contained an income tax and kept tariff rates very high (supporting American businesses), and is one of the causes of the Spanish-American War. High import tariffs from the US led to Cuba rebelling against Spain. -
Pullman Strike
Causes: The Depression of 1893 hit the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago hard, causing the company to drop wages & anger their workers into a strike.
People: Eugene V. Debs (American Railway Union), Richard Olney
Effects: President Cleveland dispatched federal troops to crush the Pullman Strike. Organized labor saw this as a sign that employers could crush labor unions by going to the courts, while more broadly, Populists saw the ordeal as proof that the businesses and government were allied -
Atlanta Compromise
Causes: Washington & other black leaders had an unofficial agreement with Southern white leaders that blacks would not fight for equality/end of segregation & racism so long as whites allow blacks education & due process.
People: Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois
Effects: Other black leaders like Du Bois disliked the Compromise and called for African-Americans to fight of full social/political/economic equality rather than allow white supremacy. Du Bois founded the NAACP to do so. -
William McKinley's win in the 1896 Election
Causes: Democrat & free-silverite W.J. Bryan went up against Republican William McKinley. McKinley was backed by factory owners, who bribed & threatened workers if McKinley lost.
People: William McKinley, William Jennings Bryan,
Effects: The election was a huge success for big business & showed that candidates needed support from the big cities in order to win rather than the declining rural population. Republicans took the White House for 16yrs & voters showed less interest in parties & voting -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Causes: Louisiana passed a law segregating railroad cars, which was protested and brought to court by Homer Plessy.
People: Homer Plessy, Justice Henry Billings Brown
Effects: The Supreme Court ruled that the law did not violate the 14th amendment (which promised equal protection under the law to all citizens) so long as segregated facilities were "separate but equal." This case formally legalized segregation (Jim Crow) and only supported racist ideas that blacks were inferior to whites. -
Teller Amendment
Causes: McKinley did not want Spain to control Cuba anymore but also didn't want Cuba to be fully independent, since it would leave Cuba open to other imperialistic nations.
People: President McKinley, Congress
Effects: The amendment declared that Cuba would be independent once the US helped defeat Spain. After the war, the US didn't annex Cuba but had much power over the nation with the Platt Amendment. -
Spanish-American War
Causes: With the Industrial Revolution, American businesses began looking internationally for new markets and the government in turn became more interested in imperialism and acquiring colonies. Cuba & the Philipinnes rebelling against Spain gave the US an opportunity to expand so they fought against Spain.
People: President McKinley
Effects: In the Treaty of Paris, the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rica, & Guam were ceded to the US. Continued in "Treaty of Paris" -> -
Hawaii annexed
Causes: During the 1870s, Hawaii got involved with the US through the sugar trade. After the McKinley tariff hugely raised tariffs for sugar, Hawaii's economy crashed & white sugar growers for annexation rebelled against the Hawaiian queen who tried to keep Hawaii free.
People: President McKinley, Queen Liliuokalani
Effects: Japan was mad at the US because over 40% of Hawaiians were of Japanese descent. The US gained a new addition to their growing empire. -
Treaty of Paris - 1898
Causes: The US won the Spanish-American War.
People: President McKinley
Effects: Spain ceded Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the US. The Philippines was annexed, leading to guerrilla warfare by Filipino nationalists. Despite the Teller Amendment stopping the US from annexing Cuba, US troops stayed in Cuba & controlled Cuban politics to the ire of Cubans. The US had gained an overseas empire. -
Boxer Rebellion in China
Causes: McKinley had declared an Open Door Policy for all Western nations in China, meaning that all powers could trade in and imperialize China equally. A group of Chinese rebels (Boxers) rebelled against Western imperialism.
People: President McKinley, Chinese Nationalists (Boxers)
Effects: The US helped France, Russia, & British crush the rebellion. China was fined millions in reparations, then later invaded by Russia, and then invaded by Japan who eventually broke the Open Door Policy. -
Panama Canal
Causes: Roosevelt wanted to build a canal through Panama to speed up trade/transportation (not having to go around South America) as well as gain military advantages (control over Pacific).
People: T. Roosevelt
Effects: Roosevelt encouraged Panama to rebel against Colombia, who had refused to build the canal. After Panama became independent, TR began construction of the canal which sped up trade/travel immensely but also showed the beginning of increased imperialism in Latin America. -
Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
Causes: Countries like Venezuela owed money to Europeans like Germany. The US after the Industrial Revolution craved Latin American resources (sugar, tobacco, etc.) and new markets.
People: T. Roosevelt
Effects: TR's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine appointed the US as the "police force" of Latin America, using Gunboat Diplomacy (aggressive military intervention) to pay off European debts in Latin America and prevent European interests so the US was free to imperialize Latin America. -
Progressive Era (1890s-1920)
Causes: After the corrupt Gilded Age of the late 1800s, Progressives sought to politically, economically, & socially reform the US like the Populists had tried to before.
People: T. Roosevelt, Ida Tarbell, Jacob Riis, Upton Sinclair
Effects: TR & Tarbell began trustbusting, or breaking up powerful trusts like Standard Oil. Riis helped bring about awareness to the harsh life in ghettos. Sinclair's "The Jungle" brought about business regulation. The US moved away from capitalism towards socialism. -
16th Amendment
Causes: Progressives wanted taxes based on income to more equally redistribute the nation's wealth. During the Gilded Age, the wealth gap between the rich & the poor had grown obvious, especially thanks to Jacob Riis's photography of ghettos.
People: President Taft
Effects: The 16th amendment created the 1st federal income tax, which would make people who have higher incomes pay a higher amount of taxes. -
17th Amendment
Causes: Populists in the 1890s wanted to reform politically by creating more of a direct democracy in the US; more specifically by allowing citizens to directly elect US senators rather than by state legislatures.
People: President Taft
Effects: Progressives in the early 1900s helped pass the 17th Amendment that required senators to be elected by popular election. Direct democracy was further achieved in the Progressive Era with the secret (Australian) ballot & women's suffrage (19th amendment) -
Clayton Antitrust Act
Causes: The original Sherman Antitrust Act was used more against labor unions than actual trusts, so Progressives created the Clayton Act in order to exempt unions.
People: President Wilson, Supreme Court
Effects: The Clayton Antitrust Act was more successful than the Sherman Act in breaking up trusts and regulating business. The country began to shift away from laissez-faire and more towards socialism after a long era (Gilded Age) of business-government corruption. -
US enters WWI (1917)
Causes: The US had tried to stick to its policy of neutrality/isolationism, but its large trade with Britain led to Germans sinking the Lusitana in 1915. Then, the British "found" the Zimmerman telegram from Germany convincing Mexico to take US land.
People: President Wilson
Effects: US entered the war to help Britain near the end of WWI but helped win by providing weapons and money to the Allies. 1st Great Migration involved many African-Americans moving North for jobs. -
Treaty of Versailles ends World War I (1918)
Causes: Wilson's 14 Points Plan that suggested a League of Nations, self-determination to colonies & reconciliation w/ Germany was rejected.
People: Pres Wilson
Effects: The Treaty of Versailles that passed instead gave the Allies Germany's colonies and disarmed & made Germany pay off all of the war's debts - directly leading to Hitler's rise in the humiliated Germany & WW2. US also never joined League of Nations in order to stay isolationist, which left the League too weak to prevent WW2. -
1st Red Scare
Causes: In 1918, Russia went through the 1st successful Communist Revolution, leading to fear by rich US industrialists of communism spreading to the US and also increased xenophobia.
People: A. Mitchell Palmer, J. Hoover
Effects: Immigrants (Sacco & Vanzetti Case), labor unions (AFL in 1919), & people who spoke out against the US were branded as communists and imprisoned, deported, or even executed. -
Harlem Renaissance
Causes: During WWI there was the 1st Great Migration of African-Americans to Northern cities like Harlem in order to find jobs & escape Jim Crow/sharecropping in the South. The North proved to be just as racist & oppressive as the South.
People: Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Josephine Baker
Effects: African-Americans banded together to fight segregation, lynching, & oppression by increasing Black Pride. The Black Pride movement led to Black Nationalism & eventually the Civil Rights Movement. -
18th Amendment
Causes: Temperance had been a major issue fought for by women & Christians since the 2nd Great Awakening to the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
People: Pres Wilson
Effects: Prohibition was legalized thanks to Progressives w/ the 18th Amendment. Prohibition of alcohol led to huge amounts of bootlegging, mobs, speakeasies, and other criminal activity. -
Schenck v. United States
Causes: During WWI, Wilson passed the Selective Service Act (1917) that drafted men to serve in the war. The Espionage Act (1917) prohibited people from trying to interfere w/ the draft & the Sedition Act (1918) forbid people from speaking out against the US at all.
People: President Wilson
Effects: Schenck v. US said that the US was allowed to restrict 1st amendment rights during a state of war. This case shows how the US repressed civil liberties during WWI, as well as later wars (WWII, Iraq) -
Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)
Causes: Increased Black Pride as a result of the Harlem Renaissance led to Black Nationalism, a movement led by Garvey to help empower & unite all people of African descent across the world.
People: Marcus Garvey
Effects: The UNIA and Black Nationalism hugely inspired future Civil Rights leaders, most famously Malcolm X, as well as the Nation of Islam and the Rastafari movement. -
19th Amendment
Causes: During WWI, many women left the home to work in weapons factories, mines, railroads, etc, majorly helping the US produce and win the war. After WWI, women finally gained the vote w/ the 19th amendment.
People: NAWSA (Carrie Chapman Catt), President Wilson
Effects: Women now had greater political power & could focus on other women's rights issues, such as reproductive rights (birth control - Margaret Singer), wage equality, & social equality - all of which are still battles today. -
Emergency Quota Act (followed by Immigration Act of 1924)
Causes: After WWI, xenophobia hugely increased due to the US reverting back to isolationism & the association of immigrants with communism during the Red Scare.
People: President Harding
Effects: For the 1st time, the US began closing its door on immigration (except from Mexico, since Mexican farm labor was needed in CA). The Quota act and then the Immigration Act of 1924 highly restricted the amount of immigrants allowed into America by country, largely discriminating against New Immigrants. -
Beginning of Great Depression (1929-WWII)
Causes: The Great Depression was caused by a mix of the stock market crashing, bank closures, bank foreclosures, & the Dust Bowl leaving many farmers homeless & broke.
People: President Hoover, FDR
Effects: Hoover & other Republicans stuck with laissez-faire economics & did not try to regulate the economy to help lessen the Depression. In 1933, Democrat FDR stepped up & created the New Deal to save the economy, regulate business, & genuinely help poor, jobless, struggling Americans. -
FDR's New Deal (1933-WWII)
Causes: During the Great Depression, US's economy crashed & left a huge portion of Americans poor & unemployed.
People: FDR
Effects: FDR's New Deal had 2 goals: regulate business/economy in order to stimulate growth & help Americans through new laws & organizations. This was the 1st time in US history that the government, which under laissez-faire strayed away from regulation of the economy, so radically shifted from capitalism to socialism. -
Good Neighbor Policy
Causes: The US continued to try & revert back to isolationism following WWI by trying to intervene less in Latin America (hence the US trying to be a "Good Neighbor")
People: FDR
Effects: The US continued its interventionism in Latin America (though it repealed the Platt Amendment in Cuba), mostly by putting many Latin American countries into debt (Dollar Diplomacy) or supporting pro-American leaders (Batista in Cuba) that were often dictators. -
Indian Reorganization Act
Causes: Under the New Deal, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Collier decided to finally end the Dawes Act that had tried to forcibly assimilate Native Americans by splitting up reservations and breaking apart tribal governments.
People: John Collier, FDR
Effects: The New Deal law encouraged Native Americans to re-establish tribal governments and revive their culture, while also giving Native Americans some of their land back & preventing it from being taken again - very revolutionary for the US. -
Wagner Act
Causes: The original National Recovery Administration (NRA) of 1933 helped labor unions by creating codes of fair competition for industries & preventing businesses from firing union members.
People: FDR, United Mine Workers
Effects: The NRA was shot down by the Supreme Court but the Wagner Act created a new Labor Relations Board to help labor unions bargain for better wages & conditions. Labor unions were hugely helped by the New Deal thanks to business regulations. -
Social Security Act
Causes: The Soial Security Act was created in case of future Depressions & largely inspired by social welfare in Europe (like Germany).
People: FDR
Effects: Social Security helped older Americans afford retirement, as well as providing help to disabled people, people with dependents, and the unemployed. Social Security Act was one of many acts to help unemployed Americans, including the TVA, PWA, & CCC that provided jobs & the AAA that paid farmers to not farm. -
Beginning of WWII - US Neutrality
Causes: After WWI, the US reverted back to isolationism to avoid involvement in European affairs & future wars.
People: FDR
Effects: FDR passed various Neutrality Acts from 1935 to 1939 asserting US isolationism, but the US did participate in the war by helping Britain & the Allies through the Lend-Lease Act that provided weapons & more. The US also showed its bias against the Axis Powers by cutting off oil to Japan, which led to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. -
Smith Act (1940-1957)
Causes: Like the Alien & Sedition Act during the French Revolution & the Espionage & Sedition Acts of WWI, the Smith Act was passed in order to silence & punish those who spoke out against the US government - before the US even joined WW2!
People: FDR
Effects: The Smith Act, which lasted until after the Vietnam War, shows US repression of our 1st amendment right to freedom of speech & other civil liberties during a state of war. -
Pearl Harbor
Causes: The US's "neutrality" was only for show, as shown by greater US trade with Britain & the Allies (Lend-Lease Act) & the cutting off of oil to Japan. Axis Power Japan decided to target America since the US was helping the Allies.
People: FDR
Effects: The US immediately joined the Allies after Pearl Harbor & the large US military & workforce helped the Allies win. Japanese-Americans were seen as possible enemy spies (US really wanted their land in CA) & forced into internment camps. -
Executive Order 9066: Internment of Japanese-Americans
Causes: After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Japanese-Americans were seen as possible enemy spies. In reality, internment was caused by a mix of racism and whites on the West Coast wanting Japanese land for themselves.
People: FDR, Japanese-Americans
Effects: Japanese-Americans had their land & rights as citizens stripped away & were forced into internment camps against their wills. When they were released after WW2, Japanese-Americans had to start over without any apology by the US gov. -
Bracero Program
Causes:
People: FDR
Effects: -
D-Day
Causes: The Big 3 Allies - FDR, Churchill, & Stalin - decided to free France from German occupation by sending a huge amount of troops to surround & regain control over France.
People: Allies (FDR, Churchill, Stalin)
Effects: The Allies regained France & the defeat of the Axis Powers seemed even more imminent. The Big 3 also agreed that once the war was over, they would split up Germany into their own occupation zones - which would lead to the Iron Curtain (Berlin Wall) in the Cold War. -
Victory in Europe (V-E) Day
Causes: With US involvement in WW2, Allied victory in regaining France on D-Day, Italy's defeat, & Allies invading Germany from all sides, Hitler committed suicide & Germany surrendered.
People: Pres Truman
Effects: WIth victory assured in Europe, the Allies - US, Britain, and Soviet Union - now only had to defeat Japan, who was already losing power over its Pacific Islands & was running out of supplies & soldiers. Truman wanted to end WW2 quickly, leading to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. -
US Drops the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima
Causes: After Germany surrendered following Hitler's suicide, the Allies only had to focus on defeating Japan, the last Axis Power. The US especially wanted revenge for Pearl Harbor & to show off their new nuclear power (Manhattan Project) to the powerful Soviet Union.
People: Pres Truman
Effects: 100,000+ Japanese in Hiroshima & later Nagasaki, almost all innocent civilians, were killed or wounded. As Wilson had wanted, Japan quickly surrendered but the nuclear armsrace/Cold War had just begun. -
United Nations formed
Causes: After Japan's surrender, WW2 came to a close & the US had learned its lesson from WWI. Following Wilson's dream of joining the now defunct League of Nations, the US formed the UN.
People: Pres Truman
Effects: Unlike the League of Nations, the UN was led by the US & therefore had power to actually take action & unite various nations. During the Cold War, US vs. Soviet Union alliances prevented the UN from completely functioning but the UN is still around today.
