Industrialization of America to
the Present
Rise of American Industry
• Capitalism (free market/free enterprise
system) – Wealth is privately owned.
• Transcontinental Rail Road - improved
movement of people and goods across
the nation.
• Telegraph and Telephone revolutionized
communication
• Electricity – by 1900 used to power lights,
motors, street cars, and subways.
Rise of Business
• Corporation – business owned by many
through the purchase of stock
• By 1880 New York is the largest industrial
state.
• Carnegie – dominated steel industry
• Rockefeller – dominated oil business
• Monopoly – company that controls all the
business in an industry.
• Interstate Commerce Act and Sherman Antitrust Act passed to prevent/control
monopolies.
Response of Labor
• Unions formed to improve working conditions
and raise salaries.
• Strikes used to get employers to meet
demands.
• American Federation of Labor (AFL) – rep.
skilled labor
• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911) – 146
workers killed in fire when they were locked
in the building.
Urbanization
• Urban (city), Rural (country)
• Urbanization (1865- 1920) –
movement from rural areas to the
cities.
• Reasons for urbanization:
–1) factory jobs
–2)culture
–3) European immigration
–4) African American migration from
the South
Transportation
Inadequate
Public
Services
Over Crowding
Problems created by
rapid Urbanization
Corruption
Social
Tensions
New Wave of Immigration
• 1880’s Southern and Eastern European
migration.
• Extremely poor, spoke little English,
settled in ghettos
• Nativists: wanted to restrict immigration
• Chinese Exclusion Act and Immigration
Acts of the 1920’s sought to restrict and/or
set quotas on immigration.
Settlement of the Frontier
• Homestead Act (1862) – encouraged
settlement of the last remaining areas
of the Great Plains.
• Buffalo Herds destroyed
• Native Americans forced onto
reservations
Progressive Movement
• Grange Movement – formed to
deal with farm problems: overproduction, high cost of shipping
on the rail roads.
• Interstate Commerce Act passed
to stop Rail Road abuses
• Populist party: represented
working class (farmers, laborers,
factory workers)
Populist Party Proposals
Unlimited coinage of Silver
Direct Election of Senators
Secret Ballot
Graduated Income Tax
Restricted Immigration
Shorter Work Day
Progressive Movement (1900 – WWI)
• Wanted to stop corruption in business and
govt.
• Muckrakers – news reporters exposing
corruption
• Upton Sinclair – “The Jungle” exposed
unsanitary conditions in meat packing.
• Jane Adams – est. Hull House settlement
to help immigrants and poor.
Secret Ballots
Election Reforms
Progressive Reforms
Direct Election of
Senators
Direct Party Primaries
Progressive Presidents
• Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1910)
- Break up of Standard Oil monopoly
- Pure Food and Drug Act
- Meat Inspection Act
- Promoted conversation of wildlife
• Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
- 16th Amendment created graduated income tax.
- Federal Reserve Act – regulated banking
industry
- 17th Amendment – direct election of Senators
- 18th Amendment (1919) – Prohibition of manufacture,
transportation and sale of alcohol.
Women’s Suffrage Movement
• Suffrage – winning the right to vote
• 1848 Seneca Falls Convention: led by
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Often seen as the start of the Women’s
Rights Movement.
• Stanton and Susan B. Anthony worked
through the late 1800’s for women’s right
to vote.
• 19th Amendment (1920) – prohibits states
from denying voting rights based on
gender
Spanish American War
Yellow
Journalism
Humanitarian
Concerns
Causes of
Spanish/American
War
Economic
Interests
Sinking of the Maine
Spanish American War
• US defeated Spanish in Cuba and
Puerto Rico
• US took control of Philippines, Guam
and Puerto Rico
• Cuba gained its independence.
American Colonial Empire
• Imperialism – the control of one
country by another.
• Reasons for Overseas Expansion:
1. Economics
2. Belief in Moral Superiority
3. Desire to be a great power
• US annexed Hawaii and held onto
the Philippine Islands
US Involvement in the Pacific
• Japan: 1853 Commodore Perry demands open trade
with Japan.
• China:
– Open Door Policy: all nations should have equal
trading rights with China
– Boxer Rebellion: opposed Western intervention and
attacked foreigners
• Caribbean:
- US becomes policeman of the Caribbean
- Roosevelt Corollary – “Big Stick Policy”
• Panama Canal:
– US helped rebels gain independence in exchange
for right to build and control canal
US and WWI
• Outbreak of World War I
- Militarism
- Alliances
- Imperialism
- Nationalism
• US Involvement – making the world safe
for democracy.
- Ties with Allied nations
- German actions (Zimmerman Telegram)
- Sub Warfare (Lusitania)
Treaty of Versailles
• Wilsons’ 14 Points – America’s war aims
- reduce arms
- freedom of the seas
- end secret treaties
- League of Nations (US did not join/
isolationism)
• Treaty was very harsh
- reparations
- gave up territory
- full blame for the war
The Roaring 20’s
• Prosperity of the 20’s
- Rise of the automobile and associated
industries
- Improved Production: assembly line
- Development of other Industries:
esp. household products
- Laissez-Faire Capitalism (govt. should
interfere with business affairs as little as
possible)
Cultural Change of the 20’s
• Flappers
• Increased independence: women/youth
• Increased leisure time:
entertainment/sports
• Harlem Renaissance: migration of African
Americans from South to Harlem, NY.
Center of cultural expression.
–Music
–Art
–Writing
• Prohibition: 18th Amendment ratified 1919,
prohibited manufacture, transportation and
sale of alcohol. Ineffective law was
repealed in 1933 with passage of 21st
amendment.
• Red Scare: fear of Communism especially
among new immigrants to the United
States.
• Ku Klux Klan: hostile to African Americans,
Catholics, Jews and immigrants and acted
violently towards them. Lynching of
African Americans was not uncommon.
The Great Depression
• Depression – extreme economic downturn.
• Causes of the Great Depression:
- Overproduction
- Shaky Banking: no regulation
- Stock Market Speculation: margin buying
• Stock Market Crash cost most investors
everything: business shut down, job loss, home
loss.
• Dust bowl: Droughts, high winds, migration to
the west.
FDR and the New Deal
• Hoover – Limited Govt. involvement in the
economy.
• FDR – New Deal
Relief – immediate relief for people
Recovery – recovery for the economy
Reform – fix the system
• Attempted to pack the Supreme Court with
judges favoring his New Deal policies to
ensure that they would not be declared
unconstitutional.
World War II
• Causes:
- Rise of Dictators: (Mussolini, Hitler)
- Treaty of Versailles
- Failure of the League of Nations
- Great Depression
- US Isolationism
- Rearming of Germany
US and WWII
• Neutrality Acts – Prohibited America from
selling arms to warring nations.
• Cash/Carry, Lend/Lease – allowed
Americans to send supplies to the British
• Pearl Harbor – Japanese attack Pearl
Harbor bringing US into WWII.
US Home front
• Internment – Japanese on the West Coast
sent to camps to prevent spying or
sabotage.
• US War Production – converted factories
to war goods, increased employment,
brought US out of the Great Depression.
War against Germany
• D-Day invasion – US joined with allied
forces to invade German controlled
France. Let to allied advancements across
Europe and collapse of Nazi regime.
• Holocaust – Nazi extermination of
approximately 12 million people, 6 million
of which were Jewish.
War against Japan
• US battled with Japan over control in the
Pacific Ocean
• Battle of Midway – Important turning point
in favor of the US
• Hiroshima/Nagasaki – Atomic bombs
dropped on these cities to bring an end to
the war to avoid a land invasion of Japan.
• Japan surrendered ending World War II.
Legacy of WWII
• Nuremburg Trials – Nazi leaders tried for
crimes against humanity and hanged.
• Germany divided into zones of occupation
(French, British, US, Soviet)
• Japan occupied by US military forces led
by Douglas MacArthur.
• African and Asian countries sought
independence from imperialism
• United Nations est. to maintain world
peace.
The Cold War
• US/USSR Differences:
US:
Democratic
Capitalist
Personal Freedom
USSR:
Communist
No free market
Limited personal
freedom
• Collapse of Europe left US and USSR as
the world’s 2 superpowers.
- US had strong economy and atomic
weapons
- USSR had largest army in the world and
occupied Eastern Europe.
Containment - Europe
• Containment – US policy to stop the
spread of Communism to new countries.
• Truman Doctrine (1947): US promise to
support any democratic nation fighting
Communism.
• Marshall Plan (1948): Provided economic
aid to Western European nations to
rebuild and resist Communism after WWII.
• Division of Germany:
– French, US and British reunited their zones of
occupation to form the democratic West
Germany. Also combined to form a
democratic West Berlin.
– Soviets est. a Communist government in East
Germany and East Berlin
• Berlin Blockade: Stalin closed all links
from West Berlin to East Berlin. US and
Britain reacted with airlifts of supplies to
the city. After 11 months the blockade
was lifted.
• NATO – formed to protect Western
Europe from the east.
• Warsaw Pact – formed to protect
Eastern Europe from the west.
Containment - Asia
• China (1949): Mao Zedong led
Communist take over of government.
• Korean War (1950-1953):
–Korea divided into North (communist)
and South (democratic) after WWII.
–North invaded South
–US helped democratic government of
the South
McCarthyism
• Senator Joseph McCarthy accused people
of “un-American” acts costing many people
their jobs and ruining their lives.
• McCarthyism – making charges about a
person’s loyalty without any evidence.
Arms and Space Race
• 1949 – Soviets developed their own
nuclear weapons.
• 1957 – launched 1st satellite (Sputnik) into
space.
• 1969 – US land 1st man on the moon (Neil
Armstrong)
Cold War – Latin America
• 1959 Fidel Castro est. a Communist
government in Cuba.
• Bay of Pigs – CIA trained Cuban rebels to
invade and over throw Castro. Major
foreign policy failure.
• Cuban Missile Crisis – US blockaded
Cuba and demanded removal of Soviet
nuclear weapons.
Cold War - Vietnam
• 1954- Ho Chi Minh’s communist nationalist
army defeated the French and Vietnam
divided in half.
- North: Communist
- South: Democratic
• Communists started war with South to
unite the country into one Communist
nation.
• Domino Theory – if South Vietnam fell to
the communists, then neighboring
countries would follow.
US Policy in Vietnam
• Kennedy: sent military advisors hoping to
help them build a democratic nation.
• Johnson: escalated the war.
– bombing raids of North Vietnam
– Sent in troops
– Back home anti-war sentiment increased.
• Nixon: withdrawal from Vietnam
- withdrawal of troops
- Paris Peace Accords, agreement with
North Vietnam to withdraw from the South
Post WWII Prosperity
• US became world’s largest producer of goods.
• Increased demand for goods improved the
economy
• Baby Boom – large number of children born
between late 1940’s and 1950’s.
Civil Rights Movement
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Ruled separate but
equal facilities for blacks and whites was
constitutional.
• Brown v. Board of Education (1953): Ruled that
segregation in public schools was
unconstitutional.
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: used civil
disobedience to change racist attitudes.
• Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955): ended bus
segregation.
• March on Washington (1963): March in
support of Kennedy’s civil rights
legislation.
• “I have a dream” – Dr. King delivered this
speech at the Lincoln Memorial as part of
the march on Washington.
• Civil Rights Act (1964): Prohibited
discrimination on the basis of race or
religion.
• Voting Rights Act (1965):Prohibited
practices used to prevent African
Americans from voting.
• Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl
Warren, made rulings to protect individual
rights.
- Miranda v. Arizona: person needs to be
informed of their rights before being
questioned by police.
• Great Society Programs: President
Johnson’s programs to improve education
and reduce poverty.
• Affirmative Action: programs to promote
hiring of minorities and women.
Women’s Liberation Movement
Education: more
women professors,
more women
admitted graduate
schools
Employment: child
care centers for
working women,
equal pay for
women and men
Impacts of the
Women’s
Liberation
Movement
Changes in
women’s role in
home and
workplace.
1960’s Crisis in Confidence
• Assassinations of the 1960’s
- President Kennedy (1963)
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968)
- Robert Kennedy (1969)
• Increasing Militancy
- some civil rights and anti-war protests
became increasingly forceful.
• Watergate: Nixon resigned to avoid
impeachment. President is not above the
law.
Stagflation and Other Troubles
• 1970’s US economy strained by inflation
combined with high unemployment
(stagflation).
• Iran Hostage Crisis (1978): US granted
asylum to the deposed Shah of Iran.
Revolutionaries seized the US embassy
and held the staff hostage for over a year.
Recovery of Confidence
• President Regan:
- Domestic Programs
•
•
•
•
•
-
Cut federal programs
Cut federal taxes
Increased military spending
Increased federal deficit
Increased national debt
Foreign Policy: aid to countries fighting communism
• Afghanistan
• Nicaragua – Iran/Contra Scandal (secret sale of weapons
to Iran to fund the Contra rebels)
• Eastern Europe – worked with Mikhail Gorbachev to
reduce cold war tensions. Berlin Wall torn down in 1989.
Soviet Union splits in 1991.
New World Role
• US begins to take a role in a “New World Order”
participating in brokering peace in different places in
the world.
• 1977: Panama Canal Treaty
• 1977: Camp David Accords
• 1989 Cold War ends
• 1989 Persian Gulf War
• 1989 Somalia
• 1998 Bosnia and Kosovo
• 1994 NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement)
• US promotes peace talks between Israel and its Arab
neighbors.