RELATIONS BETWEEN THE BRITISH EMPIRE
AND HER NORTH AMERICAN COLONIES
Introduction: four periods
1607-1660: salutary neglect;
1660-1763: Mercantilism;
1763-75: the decade of conflict;
1775-83: the war of independence/the ”American Revolution”
1. Salutary Neglect: Britain ignores colonies, good for colonies
1607: Jamestown; 1660: the Glorious Revolution
colonies: chartered companies, not royal ones
Pilgrims, New England
others on the North American continent: Roanoke, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Providence
1730s: the last of the 13, Georgia
2. Mercantilism: Britain and the economic integration of the colonies
mercantilism: def.
domestic trouble over: time for the colonies
colonies doing well: turned into royal colonies
navigation acts, 1660, 1663, 1673, 1696
triangular trade (four, actually), and the Molasses Act, 1733
Great Awakening, 1720s to 1750s, religious and political revival
wars for the North American colonies: colonists v. the Indians, GB v. France
1754-63: The Seven Years' War, a.k.a. the French and Indian War, Paris Treaty
significance: French threat to colonies removed from the North American continent
3. The Decade of Conflict, 1763-1775
GB: wants to rearrange colonial empire (new territories, etc) + wants colonies to pay for own defense:
three attempts, escalating conflict
Grenville program: Sugar and Currency Acts (1764) + smugglers knocked out (Spain, France, Dutch) ->
boycott by colonials, program ended
Townshend Duties (1767) on colonial imports + quartering of GB troops -> Sam Adams and 'no
taxation w/o representation' and the 'Boston Massacre' of 5 March 1770; Townshend duties repealed
in 1770
rd
3 GB attempt: one by one: kick-off Tea Act 1773 -> Boston Tea Party, 16 Dec 1773: but: this time GB
would not give in: Coercive/Intolerable Acts
result: relations hit rock bottom
4. The War of Independence, 1775-83
Lexington and Concord 19 April 1775 (Sam Adams and Paul Revere)
Second Continental Congress May 1775
Bunker Hill: defeat of US: June 1775 => Washington in command
Common Sense by Thomas Paine, February 1776
Declaration of Independence 4 July 1776 (Jefferson, Franklin, J. Adams) sources: Cicero and Aristotle,
Locke and Rousseau: natural rights and social contract
October 1777 Saratoga US win -> Europe steps in vs. GB
Diplomacy: 1778 France (Franklin); 1779 Spain (Jay); 1780 Holland; League of Armed Neutrality (SU,
Danes, Swe.)
October 1781 Yorktown: the final victory
Peace: 3 September 1783, Paris: US independence recognized; boundaries, fishing rights, compensation
and GB troops staying in New England and the old Northwest, SP and navigation on the
Mississippi.
Summary:
various EUR colonizers in North America, GB succeeds
other, more imp. matters: CW, India, etc.
North America: less imp., less valuable, GB willing to give it up
WOI part of EUR power struggle
US: independence, but GB troops, FRO interests, SP and the Mississippi
FROM THE WASHINGTON ADMINISTRATION TO THE WAR OF 1812
1. After the war:
* Articles of Confederation: 1777, ratified 1781, in effect until 1789: a loose confederacy: only
congress, no tax or other key rights, the FIRST US Constitution
* problems: inter-state debates over representation and territories, debt and compensation w/o taxes, no
unity: defense, currency problems, lack of unified financial, political and military stand if
needed: esp. disentangling form the wartime alliances, potential military threats, diverse
interests
* the Northwest Ordinance: the most significant piece of legislation form the AoC period: 1787: regulates Territory to State progress; bans slavery; bans mistreatment of Indians. BUT: more of a
written thing, never really put to practice.
2. Making the Constitution:
* Federal Convention: September 1787, Philadelphia: to amend the Articles
* Instead: in secret + new constitution -> an elitist coup!
* Fed vs. Anti-Fed debate (Hamilton vs. Jefferson)
* Ratification package deal: OK but Bill of Rights (1791)
* Drafted in 1787, in effect: 4 March 1789
* ratification: by June 1788 9 out of 13 OK but no Virginia and New York yet: they too give in: June
and July of 1788 (NY: 30 : 27)
* Elections for January 1789 --> George Washington takes oath of office (the first president)
3. The U.S. Constitution:
* the oldest written constitution in the world which is still in effect
* the supreme law of the land, no legislation may contradict it
* Preamble, 7 articles and 27 amendments
* sources: British common law, natural rights, separation of powers, social contract
* offers both strict and loose interpretation, cf. Amendments 9 and 10
4. The federal capital: chosen by GW, planned by Pierre L'Enfant, not in any state, 1800 start (before:
Philadelphia and New York)
5. Finance: Hamilton: 1791 Bank of US; sharing the debt + whiskey tax; industrialization program incl.
PROTECTIVE TARIFFS
6. Diplomacy: get out of alliances + Napoleonic Wars
* 1794: GB: Jay's Treaty: NW posts to be evacuated; unfavorable trade arrangements
* 1795 Spain: Thomas Pinckney: Mississippi open boundary, free US use of New Orleans
* 1798 France: XYZ affair; bribery and honor; 1787 treaty repealed by Congress (John Marshall)
7. Politics:
* Anti-Federalists out-federalizing the Federalists (LA purchase, 2nd BUS)
* judicial reforms under Washington and Jefferson, the judicial review
* election of 1800: Jefferson vs. Burr and 36 votes: 12th amendment: separate ballot for president and
vice-president.
8. The West:
* Louisiana purchase: $15m, 1803
* Indian affairs:
1795: Ohio Indians sorted out, Ohio new state (1803)
1804-14: Tecumseh (Shawnee chief): Mississippi Indian Alliance + GB guns; defeated at Tippecanoe,
1811 and US find GB guns: clear evidence of GB meddling
9. Neutral rights in the Napoleonic Wars:
Napoleonic wars: GB and Fro both interfere with US shipping; GB goes too far: 1807 Leopard vs.
Chesapeake; 1807 Embargo Act, backfires -> 1809 Nonintercourse Act; impressment and
piracy
10. Madison and the War of 1812: The second War of Independence?
* US AIMS: Canada, Florida; revenge on GB and FRO for impressment; Indian affairs; Congress badly
split over declaration of war
* THEATERS OF WAR:
Theater 1: Lakes and Canada: two abortive US attempts, 1811, 1813
Theater 2: Mid-Atlantic region, DC occupied (first and last ever, anthem, White House)
Theater 3: South, New Orleans (January 1815) Andrew Jackson, finishes after the peace
* PEACE: GHENT, December 1814: status quo ante bellum restored: The US DID NOT WIN
* EFFECTS:
sorted out the GB problem once and for all
influences westward expansion
Tecumseh dies, Indian resistance over, Jackson finishes them off during the 1830s
nationalistic boost: heroes and anthem
ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL EXPANSION, 1814-61
I. America's First Industrial Revolution
1812-60: unprecedented economic growth:
population 2x every 25 years
capitalist economy emerges
westward expansion
American otherness, cultural independence (literature)
gives rise to regional differences and sectionalism
1. Transportation revolution:
hard surface roads (since 1790s!, tolls!!!)
steam-boats (1807, Fulton) -> Mississippi, Ohio, Lakes
Erie Canal (1825) Albany to Buffalo -> canal building fever: 3,000 mi
railroads: east of Miss-Ohio; 1860: over 30,000 mi (3x of GB)
shipping: tonnage 4x to 4 m; Cunard Line 1840: Boston-Liverpool
2. Trade:
US out: cotton, tobacco, wheat: 5x
US in: manufactured goods
3. Agriculture:
expansive, settlement of the west
new technology: steel plow (1837, John Deere); mechanical reaper (1831 Cyrus H. McCormick)
4. Urbanization:
forts and trading posts much ahead of the line of settlement became cities: expansion, transport
(Mississippi): St. Louis, New Orleans, Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh
1840s urban pop. growth 92%; 1860: one in six
North East: 1/3; South: 10%
5. South:
cotton: 1790: 3,000 bales (250 kg each) -> 1860: 4 m; abuse of soil: westward drive, latifundia, slavery
also: tobacco, rice, wheat, corn
SLAVERY: 1860: 4 m; 1/3rd of total southern population
1808: Trans-Atlantic trade banned -> shift to domestic trade
typical units: 20 or so slaves; occupations: agriculture, industry, households
own economy (Slavery and Abolition)
Status: property; humans in responsibilities (crimes, escape, etc)
resistance: usu. unorganized, exc. 1831 Nat Turner
6. North:
farming, specialization, the 'belts' emerge
industry: cotton mills and clothes production; food and meat packing (supplied by the west and cattle
drives); iron works; shipbuilding + interchangeable parts (Eli Whitney); vulcanized rubber
(1839, Charles Goodyear); sewing machine (Singer); steam cylinder press (newspapers, cheap
books); colt
concentration of business: CORPORATION
II. Society:
different social patterns in different parts (south, north, west)
N: business elite vs. weekly wage earners, WC movement
S: plantation aristocracy, poor whites, slaves
W: egalitarian, Darwinian attitudes
old immigration: 5 m people into urban areas; anti-immigrant feelings: NATIVISM: poverty, Catholics
(IRISH)
III. Culture: winning cultural independence
Literature:
America sold in Europe: Washington Irwing, Cooper
Boston Brahmins: O.W. Holmes; Longfellow; James Russell Lowell
individual voices: Poe
Transcendentalism: Emerson, Thoreau
genuinely American literature: Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman
Second Great Awakening:
a religious revival: emphasis on morality in reform drives; America's mission
Reform Movements:
peace, abolitionism, temperance, women, prison, education, etc.
Utopian Experiments: links with both religion and reforms
Shakers, 1820s, NE to Kentucky
Oneida, 1848, NY
Brook Farm, 1840s, Boston, MA
utopian socialist ideas: Owen, Fourier, etc.
Race relations:
Scientific explanations of racial inferiority of Indians, Blacks and Orientals + mission: "the White Man's
burden" (Kipling)
Summary:
US goes its own way: economic, cultural and religious independence: the rise of American
nationalism.
Next: territorial growth and political changes
WESTWARD EXPANSION
Motivations:
economic: land, natural resources, trade; gold rushes
the missionary impulse
the spirit of adventure
2. Obstacles:
natural: rivers, mountains, deserts; animals; climate
financial: paying for purchases and wars; debt from War of Independence
political: Foreign: other countries on North American continent; Domestic: slavery and related issues;
Indians
3. Justification: America's Mission: 19th Century: take continent
Manifest Destiny: 1845, John L. O'Sullivan
Frontier: 1893, Turner (ONLY AFTER): making Americans
religious: Lost Tribe, 2nd Chosen People; Redeemer Nation
(comp: "city upon a hill" by Winthrop and similar ref. by Paine, 1776)
4. The Story Itself:
1783 Treaty Line
1803 Louisiana Purchase, $15 m; (FRO - SP - FRO - US)
1818 Old Northwest (1814 -> 1818) GB
1819 Florida (SP - GB 1763 - SP 1783 - US)
1835/36-1845 Texas
1846-48: Mexican War, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: TX, AZ, NM, CA
1853 Gadsden Purchase: Mexico, southern border modifications
1846 Oregon Territory: GB (1814 -> 1818 -> 1846)
1867 Alaska: SU: $7.2 m
1898 Spain: Cuba, Philippines, Puerto Rico, etc. + Hawaii
Mexico:
1822 independent, invites US settlers into Texas territory but bans slavery; Us disregards Mexican
instructions -> conflict
1835 Santa Anna tightens the screws, The Alamo => 1836: Sam Houston, war, independent republic:
Lone Star Republic
1845: annexed by US -> war, 1846-48; US wins, Treaty of G.H.: roughly 2/3rds of Mexico taken away
by US
AMERICAN POLITICS FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR
1. The problem:
territorial expansion => slavery + political control (Congress)
2. 1810s AND 1820s: "The era of good feeling"
esp. compared to what came after
seemingly calm: one party, etc.
3. Andrew Jackson (1829-37): Jacksonian Democracy
Tennessee slave owner, "Old Hickory;"
national debt paid back;
democratization of politics;
strong presidency; Democratic Party created;
BUT: drastic solution of the Indian question (Trail of Tears)
4. Slavery
North: sg. evil and unjust; South: an economic necessity
4.1. Abolitionism: a Northern movement to destroy the "peculiar institution"
William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator
Frederick Douglass' The North Star
the underground railroad
H. Beecher-Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)
4.2. Slavery and American Politics
1820: the Missouri Compromise: +1 slave and free state admitted, Louisiana Purchase territory: slavery
OK south of 36o50' - to keep the balance within the Union
1850: the Compromise of 1850: Mexican war and gold in California: new territories, California wants to
join as a free state: OK, but Fugitive Slave Act (everything the South wanted)
1854: The Kansas - Nebraska Act: "popular sovereignty" and no Congressional intervention in deciding
whether a new state should be a slave or a free one
1854: the founding of the Republican Party: openly anti-slavery
1857: Dred Scott Case: the SC rules that he is property and that the Missouri Compromise is
unconstitutional: a citizen cannot be deprived of his/her property w/o "due process of
law"
1860: Lincoln (Rep) wins the election =>
1861: the Secession Crisis: the establishment of the Confederate States of America
QUESTION: Has a state got the right to leave the Union or not after being admitted?
THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-65
1. Causes:
slavery, different development in N and S, territorial growth: how the Constitution should be interpreted, how it would apply
2. Odds:
N: 22m people, industry, no war on territory, keep Europe out
S: 9m (of which 3.5m slaves), agricultural, war on territory, must draw Europe in
3. Myths:
who fought for what
supremacy of S generals and armies (true of Lee only)
first modern war (Old Ironside, machine gun, submarine)
myth of the South
4. Theaters of War:
4.1. Washington, D.C. - Richmond, VA
a: prelude: July 1861, Bull Run: N lost => Gen. George B. McClellan: hesitant, union over abolition:
Lincoln on McClellan, January 1862: 'If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I
would like to borrow it, provided I could see how it could be made to do something.'
b: Antietham, September 1862: Lee stopped in the N.
c: Chancellorsville, May 1863: Lee won but lost his right-hand man: 'Stonewall' Jackson; moves into the
N again: stopped at Gettysburgh, PA (The Red Badge of Courage)
d: Grant takes command 1864-65: Lee surrenders at Appomatox Court House, April 1865
4.2. WEST:
N: cut up the S: along the Mississippi-Missouri and then across to the Atlantic: food supplies gone;
1862: New Orleans;
July 1863: Vicksburg, Grant; September - November: Chattanooga, Grant
1864-65 'Tecumseh' Sherman's march to the sea (Atlanta to Savannah, GA)=> Lee encircled: Sherman
from S, Grant from N: could not get out:
CW ends at Appomatox Court House (April 1865)
5. Diplomacy:
Europe stays out; S: King Cotton, Trent affair, illegal blockade by N
N: blockade and Monroe Doctrine, Emancipation Proclamation: also to feed GB liberals
Europe: would it have worth it?
6. Domestic:
1862: Homestead Act
1863: Emancipation Proclamation
1864: presidential election: Lincoln vs. McClellan
7. Evaluation:
Civil War: true
not really a modern war: technology there but not like WWI
not a revolution, may not even be a major historical watershed
the 'a house divided cannot stand' idea wins
one nation, no state may withdraw from the union
leaves slavery issue unanswered
RECONSTRUCTION, 1863/65 - 1877
1. Reconstruction:
definition: the period between the end of the Civil War and the Compromise of 1877, aiming to restore
the unity of the country and reintegrate the South into the Union
plans for:
1863: Lincoln's 10% plan
1864: Wade - Davis Bill: oath of loyalty by the majority
1865: Johnson's plan: oath of loyalty = amnesty; provisional governments
events after 1866 mid-term election: CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION
military occupation of the South (TENN readmitted, the other 10 into five districts)
serious restrictions on the President (A. Johnson was a DEM!)
Johnson impeached but escaped removal by one vote (Nixon next, but resigns in time)
Amendments 13 - 15 to the Constitution
attacks on the Supreme Court, but the court defends the system of checks and balances
2. The South: resistance vs. Congressional Reconstruction:
refusing to cooperate, refusing to take oath of loyalty, rejecting the amendments
Ku Klux Klan, 1866: Pulaski, Tenn.
Black Codes => Jim Crow legislation
3. Presidents:
Andrew Johnson (DEM, 1865-69);
Ulysses S. Grant (REP, 1869-77);
.
Rutherford B. Hayes (REP, 1877-81)
4. The end of Reconstruction:
Southern resistance + corruption under Grant => disillusionment w. the REPs, undecided election in
1876
the deal: the REPs get the presidency after the highly controversial 1876 election in return for ending the
reconstruction and the military occupation of the South
5. Evaluation:
revenge by the North for the Civil War, punishment of the South is the main issue
a revolution: restructuring US society and politics
an attempt to create a British-type Parliamentary Democracy
its legacy: the emergence of Southern consciousness and the race issue
THE INDIAN WARS
1. The Natives:
”Indians,” so named by Columbus; Mongoloid peoples, from Siberia via the Bering Strait and Alaska,
ca. 30,000 years ago; Number: ca. 10m in 1492: by 1890: hardly 250,000.
North American Indians: primitive agriculture or hunting, nomad way of life, tribal society; religion:
polytheism, attachment to land (taboos and totems, sacred mountains)
2. Early contacts:
Plymouth: saved the Pilgrims' lives, wanted to convert them, refused, massacred
Jamestown: Chief Powathan and Pocahontas, trouble over land: Indians killed off
1637 the Pequot War, the first full-scale war
3. The colonial period:
Indians widely used in colonial war between Britain, Spain and France; peak:
THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR (1756-63): part of a longer, mostly European power struggle, this phase
fought in America; a.k.a. the French and Indian War, cf. The Last of the Mohicans
4. The early republic: 1783 to the War of 1812:
1795: Ohio Indians sorted out, Ohio new state (1803)
1804-14: Tecumseh (Shawnee chief): Mississippi Indian Alliance + GB guns; defeated at Tippecanoe,
1811 and US find GB guns: clear evidence of GB meddling: adds to the crisis that leads to the
War of 1812
5. Westward expansion:
GENOCIDE: images and excuses: ”noble savage” or ”uncivilized beast”: choice made according to the
political demands of the given time; 19th century: ”necessary sacrifice” and racial inferiority
theories
East of the Mississippi: 1830s-40s: Illinois: Black Hawk War, 1832 (Lincoln); Florida: Seminole Wars,
1835-42; Georgia: the Cherokee, the ”Trail of Tears,” 1838-39 (gold)
California Indians: gold rush, cleansing: 1850s
Indians of the Plains: the last drive: 1860s-1890: 1860s: skirmishes: Sioux and Cheyenne; 1865-67: the
first Sioux War; 1868: the Cheyenne liquidated; 1875-76: the second Sioux War: June 25, 1876:
Little Bighorn, Montana: Custer's last stand, Crazy Horse; 1886: Geronimo and the Apache
defeated; 1890: Wounded Knee, South Dakota, the ”Ghost Dance War,” and Sitting Bull
the 1890 Census announces that the frontier is gone
6. Afterwards:
1st pro-Indian pieces of legislation: 1924: citizenship granted; 1934, New Deal, preservation of Indian
cultures and traditions
rediscovery: 1960s Native American movement; 1990s: Hollywood, literature
AMERICA'S SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Introduction:
by the turn of the century the US became the no. 1 industrial power in the world
basis: natural resources, capital, immigration and cheap labor, infrastructure: transport and communication, national market, concentration of big business, 'Robber Barons'
II. The second industrial revolution:
The pull factor: Railroads:
work, needs: coal and steel, clothing, etc.
safety: air break (George Westinghouse), interlocking telegraphic block system
comfort: George Pullman: sleeping and dining cars
bridge building: Ohio, Missouri, the Brooklyn Bridge
James J. HILL (Great Northern), Cornelius Vanderbilt (NY Central), with Hungarian wife (Gladys)
Steel:
the Bessemer process: cheap steel, esp. for construction work
Andrew Carnegie, 1901: US Steel Co. Three-fifths of US steel production;
the benevolent millionaire: CEIP, etc, $350m in all
Oil:
John D. Rockefeller: Standard Oil Co. of Ohio -> New Jersey: oil refinery NOT mining
money + order and stability! = to regulate the business life of the country (big business and not the
federal government)
Banking:
J.P. Morgan + combined control of industries HOLDING COMPANY replacing POOL and TRUST
(both of the same industry only)
Innovations:
typewriter: Christopher L. Shoals 1867 -> Remington Gun Co.; 1st novel typed: The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer
cash register, adding machine
The electronic revolution:
electronic telegraph: Western Union: 80% !!!!
telephone: Bell, later ITT, 1884 long distance service
Menlo Park, NJ: 'the invention factory' of Edison: phonograph, moving picture projector, storage
battery, electric light bulb
George Westinghouse: direct to alternating current: may be transported cheaply!
1st electronic streetcar service: Richmond, VA, 1887
III. Society and everyday life:
1. Society:
birth rate down, death rate more down
new immigration (26m) into the cities: 'New York had more Italians than Naples, more Germans than
Hamburg, twice as many Irish as Dublin and more Jews than the whole of Western Europe'
urbanization 1860: 1/6 -> 1920; slums, 'oppression of the immigrant' esp. true of places like
PITTSBURGH, PA
2. Everyday life:
some people get extremely rich, general welfare grows, mass production of consumer goods starts in this
period (at full flow: 1920s)
department stores: Marshall Field's, Chicago; Wanamaker's, Philadelphia, Macy's, NYC
mail order shops: Montgomery Ward, Chicago: 1872; Sears and Roebuck, Chicago: 1886; Woolworth's:
1911
advertising, sports, entertainment, Hollywood kicks off
press: 1900: 2,190 dailies and 15,810 weeklies: more than the rest of the world combined, incl.: NY
Times, NY World (Pulitzer), McClure's, The Nation, Cosmopolitan, Saturday Evening Post,
Ladies' Home Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The North American Review of Reviews,
Harper's, etc.
IV. Conclusions:
major transformation: from rural, agricultural to urban industrial
the twin forces of urbanization and industrialization + immigration
laying the ground for great power status in the world (first: economic, then political)
POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE
Flashback:
industrial growth and the Robber Barons (the winners)
New Immigration (cheap labor for industry)
urban development and the farmers
2. Labor:
industrialization => working class grows => trade unions
its problems: by TuC union membership under 1 m.
1869: Knights of Labor
1880s: American Federation of Labor (Samuel Gompers)
Industrial Workers of the World (left wing)
strikes: May 1, 1886: Haymarket massacre, Chicago; 1892: Homestead, PA; 1894: Pullman strike, IL
BUSINESS REGULATION: 1890: Sherman Anti-Trust Act, but used against labor in the 1894 US vs.
Debs case (Eugene V. Debs and the socialist movement)
3. Agriculture:
Industrialization, mechanization of production => traditional farming on the decline, rural America
ends, farmers move to the cities
Farmers' Alliances, Granger Movement => adding up to Populism
4. Politics:
after 1877: a delicate balance btw. REP and DEM parties, with REP presidents exc. Grover Cleveland
(not back to back terms)
upset: POPULIST PARTY comes in: western democracy, a regional movement but took center stage
during the 1890s
its program: legislation supporting the farmers, free silver, direct election of US senators, woman
suffrage, 8-hour working day, business regulation
Rural America's LAST STAND, the DEMs ”steal” their program in 1896
5. Outlook:
The twin forces of industrialization and urbanization raise several serious questions and issues: these
require action => PROGRESSIVE ERA, reform by the federal government: the true beginning
of the twentieth century for the United States
THE BEGINNINGS OF TWENTIETH CENTURY U.S. DIPLOMACY
Introduction:
diplomacy when the U.S. was made (Spain, France, Holland)
19th century: westward expansion: to keep the European great powers out or to remove them and
Mexico from the continent => the American diplomatic tradition of isolationism (cf.
Washington's Farewell Address in textbook and the Monroe Doctrine)
the lack of trained diplomats; the arrogance of power; rejection of European imperialism; appointments
by merit (contributions to election campaigns, service to the party, etc.) and not by qualification
Europe:
Monroe Doctrine, indifference, isolationism, hemispheric separation
international peace movements at TuC: the 2nd Hague Conference: international arbitration;
Interparliamnetary Union Movement (1904 St. Louis, MI, Apponyi)
mediation in colonial matters (eg. Algeciras, TR)
Latin America:
Monroe Doctrine, Western Hemisphere concept, the first and foremost US sphere of influence
theories: Anglo-Saxon (WASP) superiority, A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History,
1600-1783 (1890): merchant marine, navy to protect it and naval bases => expansionism; +1:
overseas economic frontiers
the navy and the Panama Canal
interpretations of the Monroe Doctrine: the Roosevelt corollary and Wilson
The Spanish-American War of 1898: "a splendid little war"
Cuba, U.S.S. Maine, TR and 'Rough Riders' and Teddy Bears
Philippines and Puerto Rico
McKinley: God suggested war; "the white man's burden" (Kipling)
Spain loses Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines; BUT trouble in the Philippines: Gen. Arthur A.
MacArthur
the result: THE US BECOMES A 20th CENTURY GREAT POWER
The Pacific and the Far East:
Pacific: islands on the way to the Far East: Midway, Hawaii, Guam, Wake
Far East:
China and Japan: economic prospects (why not Africa)
different images: Japan active, China passive
1899, 1900: the open door and collective security
Immigration issues
TR mediating in the Russian-Japanese War
Conclusion:
The gilded age brings about the first western great power outside Europe.
Question: how will the US adapt to this in the 20th century?
INDUSTRIALIZATION, REFORM AND PROGRESSIVISM
Prelude:
WHEN DID THE TWENTIETH CENTURY BEGIN IN U.S. HISTORY?: 1880S: ECONOMIC
BOOM; 1896 ELECTION; 1898: SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR; 1900: CALENDAR +
PROGRESSIVISM
I. Politics and reform:
Problems:
a painful transition from a rural-agricultural democracy to an URBAN-INDUSTRIAL one: creates
new problems, social injustice, turns certain strata of society into HAVE-NOTS
immigration and growth of population
examples: labor relations, regulation of business, race relations, urban sanitation, slums,
Americanization, crime, loss of moral values (drinking and prostitution), what role should the
federal government play?
Defenders of the (new) system:
Social Darwinism: society is a living organism, it is in a constant state of development;
Natural Selection: the survival of the fittest: cf. the basic rule of American business life: "If you are
good enough you will make it."; William Graham Sumner of Yale called millionaires "the
naturally selected agents of society." = success justifies
benevolent millionaires: Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, etc: big business does something to bring
about social justice and to avoid trouble.
ORDER, ORDERLY REFORM, EVOLUTION: and not revolution
Critics of the system/Sources of reform:
Populists, agrarian reform: the era of the farmers is ending, their last stand (problems: wanting too
much, unacceptable leadership)
Western Democracy: egalitarian, democratic tendencies in the West: Wyoming and woman suffrage,
etc.
Moral crusaders: Christian Women's Temperance Union: temperance, morality vs. urban vice:
crime, prostitution, drinking
individual voices:
4/A: economic criticism: Henry George, Progress and Poverty (1879); Edward Bellamy, Looking
Backward: 2000 - 1887 (1888); Thorsten Veblen, The Theory of Leisure Class (1899);
4/B: the Muckrakers: McClure's, 1902 (TR named them so): Lincoln Steffens, "The Shame of the
Cities;" Ida M. Tarbell, "History of Standard Oil Company;" Ray Stannard Baker, "Railroads
on Trial." Also: Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906)
Labor vs. big business: strikes, strike-breaking, labor unionism, immigrants in labor movement, antitrust movement (check textbook for details)
Conservation movement: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot: proper management of America's vast natural
resources, national parks movement, etc.
Race relations, NAACP, W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey: all against racial
segregation and Jim Crow
the Church: Social Gospel: Walter Rauschenbusch, Washington Gladden, George D. Herron: the
church should play an active role in social change
4. The answer: Reform: The Progressive Era (1900-17)
Progressivism: an all-encompassing reform movement with a moralistic overtone (social justice)
· Level one: Municipal and state:
test case: Robert M. LaFollette of Wisconsin (1900-06)
"the Wisconsin idea:" University of Wisconsin experts regularly consulted
"the laboratory of democracy" (TR): regulated railroads, banks and lobbying,
working hours fixed, income tax
· Level two: Federal:
reform becomes such a hot issue that the two main parties pick it up and it enters national politics
idea: Reform Darwinism: society develops but there is human interference; Social Control (E.A.
Ross, 1901): the government should intervene to channel the transformation of society in the
right direction: calls for a more active presidency
the three Progressive Presidents: Theodore Roosevelt (R, 1901-09), William Howard Taft (R, 190913); and Thomas Woodrow Wilson (D, 1913-21)
forerunners: Populist movement, Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890, etc.
Theodore Roosevelt:
44 trusts busted
railroad regulation
conservation of natural resources
sanitation and health care
solves 1907 banking crisis with the help of J.P. Morgan
mediates in coal strike
William Howard Taft:
betters TR's anti-trust record (ca. twice)
Department of Labor
income tax (16th amendment)
direct election of US senators (17th amendment)
but: messes up conservation, row with TR
The 1912 election:
a three-party election: Republicans split: Rep: Taft; Progressive: TR; Dem: WW
issue of the day: how to continue progressive reform: Taft: offers no answer; TR: regulate and
control big business, not to destroy it (New Nationalism); Wilson: represent the little man,
destroy the trusts (New Freedom)
Wilson wins the election, implements the New Freedom and sets new trends for democrats to
follow.
Woodrow Wilson: The peak of progressive reforms:
New Freedom: an overarching government reform package, seen as the culmination of
Progressivism
1913: Underwood Tariff Act: rearrangement of tariffs, protectionism remains; new revenues needed:
income tax = 16th amendment
1914: Federal Reserve Act: government control over banks and issuing currency; 12 Fed Reserve
Banks created
1914: Federal Trade Commission Act + Clayton Anti-Trust Act: limiting monopolies, pro-TU, "the
Magna Carta of Labor," other related issues include: restriction of child labor, minimum
wage, etc.
1917: Federal Farm Loan Act: loans to farmers on a low interest: boosts war production, leads to
problems after war
1920: Federal Bureau of Mines: government control over natural resources (a step beyond
conservation)
18th amendment: National Prohibition: coming from the temperance movement (CWTU) and from
wartime concerns over drinking and sabotage.
19th amendment: woman suffrage granted on the federal level.
Combined with other wartime measures: a strong suspicion of imperial presidency and the
beginning of DEM vs. REP debate over role of government.
5. The balance sheet:
answers many of the major issues related to the transformation from rural-agricultural to urbanindustrial society
does not answer many traditional issues, above all race and segregation
brings about proper political democracy, in response to the abuses of the Robber Barons
reform goes only as far as it is pushed (cf. race relations, the role of the church in reforms)
a model for future readjustments of the American system: New Deal (Franklin D. Roosevelt); Fair
Deal (Harry S Truman); Great Society (Lyndon B. Johnson).
WOODROW WILSON AND AMERICAN DIPLOMACY IN WORLD WAR I
1.Wilson: the man and his ideas:
presidency to reach new heights
a conservative reformer (progressivism, new world order, LofNs vs. fear of revolutions, radicals,
against women, racist)
1.Style of foreign policy: "Government and business must be associated."
private advisors, esp. House; ambassadors: upon meirt and not qualification
WASP attitudes and arrogance (cf. quote on sitting on their necks, textbook)
1.The Far East:
ends China consortium created by Taft to keep big business with government guarantees out of
China
open door, defends it against Japan: 1915: 21 demands -> Lansing - Ishii agreement, 1917
Siberian Intervention during and after World War I
Washington treaty system ends it: w/o Wilson, but according to his policies (cf. interwar years)
1.Latin America:
military interventions from Mexico to the Dominican Republic -> US loss of prestige
1913 Mobile, ALA speech: Latin American governments should be established upon American
principles to be accepted (this is a step beyond TR!)
MEXICO - the test case, "an affair of honor:" 1911 revolution: Diaz -> Huerta -> Villa and
Carranza; 1914 Vera Cruz affair; 1915 Villa's raid on Columbus, NM; 1916 Pershing’s
abortive "punitive expedition" (THE FIRST MAJOR UNDECLARED WAR BY THE U.S.);
1916-17 ABC intervention, an all-Latin American settlement
5. World War I:
5.1. Introduction:
the opportunity to realize America's mission and to make some profit: idealism and self-interest
New World Order, DEC 1915 to JAN 1918 (collective security, disarmament, LofNs, regulated
international capitalist system)
5.2. Neutrality:
"neutrality in thought as well as in action:" contrast: the decadent Old World far away, US: Panama
Canal opened
problems: US special position: immigrants, trade: effects of GB blockade: contraband issue,
sabotage; GB atrocity propaganda (Belgium, etc) + submarines and blockade: a proEntente position
ambition: US mediation to end the war: could press American program on the rest of the pack w/o
fighting: DEC 1916
5.3. The decision for war:
allied pressure and propaganda
submarine warfare, Lusitania, unrestricted submarine warfare, 31 Jan 1917
Zimmermann telegram 1917
"Autocracy" vs. "Democracy:" Russia and the March Revolution: the first step towards NWO
domestic, esp. Republican pressure (TR)
5.4. America at war:
war aims: win the war + NWO: 14 points and others: January 8, 1918: Associated Power
justification: autocracy vs. democracy, Mitteleuropa
the key: OMM to be removed and to keep U.S. military involvement at minimum level
the Monarchy: secret peace talks until April 1918 => dismemberment
April - July 1918: a complete reversal of US policy towards OMM and Hungary: unfavorable turn
end: collapse of the CPs, September - November 1918
6. The Paris Peace Conference (1919)
aims: US: one treaty incl. LofNs; Fro, GB, It, Cz, Rum, etc: particular interests + punishment
Wilson's control over U.S. policy disintegrates: various PPC committees, field missions, concessions
for LofNs
Wilson at home: LofNs campaign and 1918 Congressional elections vs. Lodge and the
"Irreconcilables:" isolationist tradition and personal dislikes: “The treaty fight”
US withdrawal from Paris: treaties unsigned, LofNs but paper, no collective security, no
international order
Nobel Peace Prize for WW
(Washington Treaty System: belongs to the interwar period)
7. SUMMARY: 1898 – 1920
the US visited the world stage then retreated, finding Europe too big a challenge
firm foothold elsewhere, esp. Latin America and the Far East
economic boost, No 1 in the world
US vs. SU rivalry
backlash: a Republican era, which would lead to Depression and find the way out through Wilsonian
methods: New Deal and FDR
Wilson, a tragic hero and the founder of US diplomacy and diplomatic goals in the 20th century
(echoed by Nixon, Reagan as well as Bill Clinton)
THE 1920S
1. The contrast between the Progressive Era and the Twenties:
decentralization, weak federal government
a Republican era (unlike the 1910s)
2. Images and heroes:
radio, flapper, Ford T, bootlegging, speakeasies, the Jazz Age, the Roaring Twenties, the New
Negro, etc. Chumley's
Herbert Hoover, Charles Lindbergh, Al Capone, Harry Houdini, Charlie Chaplin, etc.
3. The economy:
an economic boom, the Third Industrial Revolution: but not really industrial: the American
consumer culture is born
CAR: gas, gas stations, food, motels, movies, roads, Fordism
RADIO: a new form of media: politics, sports, music, entertainment
LABOR SAVING DEVICES: vacuum cleaner, fridge (both known as "Hoover"), washing machine
labor - business relations: welfare => little tension: unionism on the decline: "open shop" becomes
fashionable; Ford and his workers (Does this kill the American Dream?)
4. Politics:
Presidents: Warren G. Harding (1921-23); Calvin Coolidge (1923-29); Herbert Hoover (1929-33);
the thirties: FDR and the New Deal (1933 and on)
a Republican era: a backlash after Wilson: the federal government keeps out of politics, esp.
economic (foreign) policy
Red Scare (1919-20): Wilson's Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer hunts for supposed communists
- will be repeated in the 1950s (McCarthyism)
Teapot Dome scandal: government oil reserves are leased out for private development by members
of Harding's cabinet (the most corrupt administration since Grant's)
KKK revival and the race issues (anti-lynching bill killed off in Congress)
organized crime emerges because of Prohibition: bootlegging and gangsters
Sacco and Vanzetti (executed in 1927)
immigration restriction: Reed-Johnson Act, 1924: the quota system (in effect until 1965)
5. Problems:
economic (see next lecture)
World War I veterans
race
CRISIS AND RECOVERY: THE NEW DEAL
1. Problems:
a mistaken economic foreign policy in the 1920s (Coolidge: "America's business is business")
3rd industrial revolution: US producing and selling goods no one can afford
protective tariffs and dollar devaluation: better terms of trade but competition ruled out
overproduction and too much money: people save up -> low interests -> investing and "buying on
the margin": the risk of a stock market crash and financial collapse
1/3rd of the population still VERY poor (esp. the underdeveloped South)
unsolved leftovers: agriculture; veterans; crime and Prohibition
natural disasters (mid-1930s dust bowls, cf. The Grapes of Wrath)
calls for change: "Gabriel Over the White House" (1933): a Hearst movie (dictatorship for
democracy, full employment, crime rooted out, world peace and global disarmament)
2. Interpretations:
Commies: cyclical crises, inherent contradictions, wars, the more developed the system the deeper
the crisis (cf. Ciepelewski et al, pp. 288-89)
Polányi: WWI knocks out the national economies, never full recovery, two generations lost
3 phases: 1918-24: the victors and the US help rebuild the defeated powers, Allies take their debts
1925-28: Allied economies in disarray, more pressure on the US; 1929- : US brought down by the
combined deficit of Allies and defeated powers in the war (cf. Polányi, pp. 94-95)
Keynes and Landes: an interpretation centered on the US, JMK offers solution, too
US economy goes its own way, detached from global realities but the world depends on it
US economy comes down -> brings the world down, too
overproduction and over-investment + other domestic problems: the system collapses
(cf. Wilson and the regulated international capitalist world order needed)
solution: global regulation of offer and demand + money wasting operations and creating jobs
(FDR's Brain Trust uses Keynes' theory but FDR refuses to meet Keynes)
3. FDR and the New Deal:
FDR: a leading democrat, paralyzed, 1933-45 (4 times); a brilliant team of experts (cf. Wisconsin
idea); a skilled politician: Fireside Chats, a coherent recovery and reform program, able to
carry it out, fed. govt. acts as a BROKER btw. various interests in conflict
THE CRISIS: very serious: reflexes: self-healing nature of US economy vs. intervention
FDR’s response: govt. intervention needed (expectations are there: "Gabriel")
CRITICS: American Liberty League, Father Coughlin, Huey P. Long: leave the system alone or
social justice, blaming international bankers (Anti-Semitism), racist overtones, Long: "Share
Our Wealth"
4. The first New Deal: Troubleshooting: 100 days honeymoon, sweeping legislation:
Emergency Banking Act
Federal Emergency Relief Act
Civilian Conservation Corps
Public Works Administration (schools, dams, hospitals, roads)
Agricultural Administration Act (aid to farmers + paying them not to produce)
National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRB + 7a: unions legalized cf. open shop of the 1920s)
1934: TVA: a regional project for the South: conservation and cheap electricity)
Prohibition repealed and "War on Crime" (FBI, Hoover and Dillinger)
BACKLASH: too radical => criticism, and Supreme Court declares most of it unconstitutional
5. The second New Deal (135-36): Social and economic reform, social justice:
Work Progress (Project) Administration: permanent work relief (8.5m employed)
Federal Arts Project: artists involved in restoration of national pride and confidence
Social Security Act: UB, OAP (pretty selective)
Wealth Tax Act (answer to Share Our Wealth)
National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act): fed. govt. sides with the unions: reason: riots in the
mid and late 1930s, incl. the War of the Anacostia Flats (1932), the "red thirties"
others: another AAA, plan for "packing the Supreme Court"
6. Evaluation:
addresses only some of the problems, serious resistance, stops the rotting but offers no real recovery
way out: WWII and full employment + recovery of national CONFIDENCE by 1945
one of the most hotly debated issues in US history: Should the federal government play an active
part in improving social, political and economic conditions in the US?
·
AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY BETWEEN THE WORLD WARS
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN THE 1920s
KEY FIGURES:
Charles Evans Hughes and Herbert Hoover: Open Door and "independent internationalism:"
participation in the regulated international world order but w/o politically being present
ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY:
"The Diplomacy of the Dollar" etc.: dollar diplomacy without the big stick: based upon the MorganHughes deal: the Department of State will be consulted before foreign loans are granted (the
foreign policy of big business and not of the USA)
ISOLATIONISM:
America tried, got frightened and moved back to her shell: the price: 1929, AND another world war hence the MYTH of isolationism: condemning the US for it
EUROPE:
economic agreements: aid to Germany (Dawes and Young Plans), Russia, GB and France;
political passivity: 1928: The Briand-Kellog Pact;
US participation in the work of the LofNs;
Hoover and the Hollywood story
LATIN AMERICA:
investments doubled to $3.5bln; Inter-American Conferences, penetration to Chile (copper) and
Venezuela (oil);
BUT: the old rules of the game: intervention in Nicaragua: US invaded in 1911-12; 1925: Coolidge:
order restored, US out, trouble erupts: 1926: US Marines back: Augusto Sandino's resistance
movement, 1927-33; US out, Sandino comes out, too; killed by Somoza in 1934; also:
intervention in Mexico, etc.
FAR EAST:
the Washington Treaty system: 1921-22: 4, 5 and 9 Power Treaties, rules of the game for the region,
economic expansion and the open door;
betting on one horse, but Japan goes astray in 1927, revolution in China: Americans detached from
realities in the region.
MIDDLE EAST:
1928 Red Line Agreement: of distributing the then known oil reserves of the region: Sampson on the
open door: ”proved to be a mysterious portal, with the habit of swinging shut again, just as
the Americans had got inside.”
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN THE 1930s
PROBLEMS:
”inedpendent internationalism” on the rocks + fascism and Nazis on the rise; Japan goes right =>
new rules and playmates needed ==> New Deal Diplomacy
EUROPE:
economic conferences and agreements;
mixed attitudes towards Germany: appeasement but Jews;
recognition of SU (1934) for economic and political reasons;
Spanish Civil War and the international brigades
LATIN AMERICA:
a clean sheet: ”Good Neighbor” policy: no interventions (fear of German penetration)
FAR EAST: THE STORM CENTER:
Japan: banking collapse, 1927; Showa restoration, Kita Ikki; breaks Washington agreements: 1931
Manchuria; 1932 Manchukuo state
China: revolution: 1911, 1919, 1924 KMT; 1925-27 and 1934-35: Chiang vs. Mao; Chiang picked up
by the US
THE COMING OF THE WAR:
the Americans want to avoid problems of World War I: neutrality legislation BEFORE the war
(1935-37); ”cash and carry”: to avoid the contraband controversy
neutrality legislation, "cash and carry" BUT Henry Luce and the "American Century"
the love triangle: Communism <-> Democracy <-> Fascism
Japanese attack and Hitler on the US -> FDR wants war and Germany declares war; Pearl Harbor:
there was a ”feeling of relief” in Washington
attitudes: 1942: Casablanca; Truman: "If we see that Germany is winning the war we ought to help
Russia, and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and in that way let them kill as
many as possible."
THE U.S. IN WORLD WAR II
US considerations and preferences:
EUROPE: stay out of it as long as possible, esp. militarily
LATIN AMERICA: keep Germany and Japan out
FAR EAST: Japan-China swap; Chiang, "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell: "We are allied to a peasant son of a
bitch called Chiang Kai Shek."
MIDDLE EAST: oil and Prestige: beat Rommel, would be first defeat for German army, looks easy
in North Africa, access to the Middle East
Theaters of war:
FAR EAST: June 1942: Midway TuP; Island hopping + the bomb
AFRICA: October 1942 El Alamein; Rommel stopped
EUROPE: 1942/43: Stalingrad and Moscow
Victory in Africa: second front in Italy (cf. Catch-22)
D Day, winter offensive, 1944-45, V Day and V-J Day
Diplomacy:
FDR on himself: "You know I am juggler, and I never let my right hand know what my left hand
does... I may have one policy for Europe and one diametrically opposite for North and South
America. I may be entirely inconsistent, and furthermore I am perfectly willing to mislead
and tell untruths if it will help win the war." (May 15, 1942)
UNO: Atlantic Charter and Dumbarton Oaks (Security Council plan)
ECONOMIC: Quebec (Morgenthau plan), Bretton Woods (IMF; WB; $)
FUTURE OF THE WORLD: Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam (lessons of WWI)
April 1945: Truman takes over: tough line with commies (85%, telling Molotov off)
The atomic bomb and the myth of nuclear diplomacy:
ORIGINS: Szilárd and Einstein, 1939-> Manhattan Project: Los Alamos, New Mexico (incl. Teller,
Szilárd, Wigner and Naumann), and two other locations, 1942: Oppenheimer; the Enola Gay,
Ground Zero, Little Boy and Fat Man
REASONS FOR DROPPING THE BOMB: military (to end the war a.s.a.p.), revenge (Japan),
warning (SU), to test it.
U.S. domestic affairs during World War II:
PROPAGANDA: no Mitteleuropa, but Germany and Jews + Japan and Pearl Harbor (concentration
camps for Japanese-Americans)
WORK: almost full employment; northward migration of Blacks; 60% econ. growth
UNIONS: anti-American yet again, FDR as broker continues, new card: patriotism
MOVIES: and the war effort.
U.S. DOMESTIC AFFAIRS SINCE 1945
1. Introduction:
the American Century, prestige to disgrace, to "the end of history"
US = superpower, a chance to realize its mission (democracy)
2. Background:
crisis -> New Deal + war economy -> way out
war and victory (saved Europe again)
a tri-polar world to a BIPOLAR one -> confidence restored: the U.S. is a major player
3. 1945-52: the Truman years
QUESTION: revert to peacetime economy and risk another 1929 or stay on the international scene
and play Cold War games
ANSWER: Truman: FAIR DEAL: a New Deal-type sweeping reform program to sort out the most
urgent issues and to revert to peacetime economy
1948 election: Truman (D); Thomas Dewey (R); Henry Wallace (Progressive) => Truman wins in the
"biggest political upset of the twentieth century"
FAIR DEAL: four cornerstones: support to farmers; housing and urban development; federal aid to
education; national health care legislation
gets none of it, furthermore: Taft-Hartley Act, 1947: kills off the Wagner Act(!)
RACE RELATIONS: Truman desegregates the U.S. Armed Forces; Jackie Robinson and the
Brooklyn Dodgers; Wallace (1948): "Jim Crow Must Go!" the Civil Rights Movement is
coming!
4. The 1950s: The "good old days" of Eisenhower
welfare, mass production, suburbia, baby boom, chewing gum and Elvis
unifying force: anti-communism (red fascism)
Red Scare 2, McCarhtyism, Nixon; Rosenbergs, Hiss
BUT: social criticism: Whyte, Riesman: men are cogs in the machine w/o opinion or a say
TV on the rise: 17% -> 80% by 1960, transforms media: a key factor in the 1960s
RACE RELATIONS: 1954: Brown vs. Board of Education; MLK and the Montgomery bus boycott
"good old days" in the light of the 1960s; not w/o conflicts
welfare, success, baby boom, etc.
carries in itself the conflicts of the 1960s
5. The 1960s: a ”we” decade: of movements and reforms
The movements:
The Civil Rights Movement: freedom rides, the -ins, the march on Washington, ghetto riots and
assassinations
The Anti-Vietnam War Movement: draft resistance, links up with other movements including: SDS,
rock music, film; peaks in 1970 in the Kent State University shootout
Feminism: women ready to go to work but problems: Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1973);
NOW (1966); the ERA
Environmentalism: Rachel Carson, The Silent Spring (1962); protection of environment, against
nuclear testing; links up with Native American movements: their attitude towards nature,
also: 1969: Alcatraz, 1973: Wounded Knee
The New Left: a conflict oriented view of US history, teach-ins, etc.
Counterculture: sex and drugs and rock and roll (rich kids' fun time)
Politics:
the Presidents: JFK (DEM, 1961-63): assassinated; LBJ (DEM, 1963-69): chose not to run in 1968;
Richard Nixon (REP, 1969-74): resigned.
Reforms: GREAT SOCIETY (handout)
assassinations: JFK; Malcolm X.; RFK; MLK; John Lennon
Nixon: ”Law and Order”: the whole thing calms down, people get tired of violence
the end of the 1960s: Vietnam peace and Watergate
5. The 1970s: a ”me” decade: disillusionment, turning away from politics:
disillusionment with politics and foreign affairs (Vietnam and Watergate)
economic depression: oil embargo, 1973, oil crisis, 1979, etc.
Presidents: Gerald Ford (REP, 1974-77); James Earl Carter (DEM, 1977-81): outsiders
backlash after the 1960s: the Right takes over: 1979: New Religious Right created
6. The 1980s and the 1990s: ”sleepwalking through history;” multiculturalism
Presidents: Ronald Reagan (REP, 1981-89); George Bush (REP, 1989-1993); Bill Clinton (DEM,
1993-2001); George W. Bush (REP, since 2001)
1980s: New Religious Right and Reagan: ”God, Family and Country”: an attempt to recreate the
spirit of the 1950s, anti-communism, etc.
BUT: the Cold War ends during the second half of the 1980s: other issues emerge
Multiculturalism: acknowledging that the US is more like a salad bowl than a melting pot, a rerun of
the issues of the 1960s: race, women, environment; something new: language
7. New problems for the 21st century:
hotly debated presidential election
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
economic challenge: European monetary unification: the Euro, January 1, 2002
FOREIGN AFFAIRS: THE COLD WAR AND AFTER
Introduction:
The US assumes a leading role in international affairs: economic and political reasons
”The Arrogance of Power”: the American style of foreign policy and its failure: Middle East (1956,
1973, now): the ”diplomatic counterrevolution”
the Cold War era: misleading: a period of international affairs and not merely US - SU rivalry
Cold War theories:
1917: George F. Kennan/Walter LaFeber - actually the origins
1941: John Lewis Gaddis - wartime conflicts
1946: Stephen Ambrose - actual Cold War confrontations (the first to emerge)
Cold War periods:
The “first Cold War” (TO 1949): ALL THAT W/O ANY EXTRA EFFORT
US: no. 1 economic and military power, untouched, business OK, bipartisan agreement
Europe: Western Europe: communist-free (France, Italy), West Germany unified, Berlin airlift,
NATO, Marshall Plan: Europe divided by the ”Iron Curtain”
Middle East: takeover from GB: Greece, Turkey, IRAN, ISRAEL, oil and unique political
commitment to Israel
Far East: Japan defeated and transformed; China holding out
Latin America: good neighbor OK
SU: defined as enemy, ”CONTAINMENT” by George F. Kennan, BOMB
The “new Cold War” (1950s to late 1960s):
collapse of the American position: China "lost", Soviet bomb, Korea: communists on the move:
foreign policy revision: NSC 68 (1950); Korea: the excuse for NSC-68 and ground rules for
limited wars
”ROLLBACK” and ”DOMINO THEORY” (Truman and Dean Acheson)
Japan revamped, China lost: new Far Eastern ally - the old enemy
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE THIRD WORLD: African liberation movements; Middle East (1956);
Latin American abuses (UFC and Guatemala)
”MASSIVE RETALIATION,” ”NUCLEAR BRIKSMANSHIP” and ”LIBEARTION” (Eisenhower
and the Dulles brothers)
Stalin's death and ”PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE”: disarmament talks began
PACTOMANIA and a budget conscious arms race
setbacks: Sputnik, U2 affair
VIETNAM: and JFK and LBJ: ”FLEXIBLE RESPONSE”: the Democratic and Republican attitudes
towards containment and the budget; an issue of prestige and not of common sense; carried to
the extreme by Nixon.
Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs, the Wall in Berlin: major setbacks in SU - US relations
1968: Vietnam, Middle East, Assassinations, Prague Spring
Detente (1970s):
comes from Europe: challenges from DeGaulle and Willy Brandt: will not tolerate American
arrogance: own bomb, out of NATO; detente: agreements w DDR, RUM, SU, PL, etc., starts
in mid-60s
Nixon and Kissinger pick it up: ”LINKAGE,” another budget conscious version of containment:
aims: business done and concessions won AND get out of Vietnam
1972: visits to China and SU; peace in Vietnam ”decent interval”; SALT 1, etc.
1973: setbacks: oil embargo, Yom Kippur War; Chile
1975: peaks in Helsinki agreement, Soyuz-Apollo flight, etc.
The “second Cold War” (1980s)
Jimmy Carter: human rights, trilateralism, Iran hostage crisis, economic problems, Panama Canal
returned to Panama
SALT 2: seems on course: 1979: Afghanistan: disillusionment and frustration, SALT 2 stopped in
Congress
Ronald Reagan: ”evil empire” and ”star wars” (Teller again), "voodoo economics" and budget up: $1
trl debt: a world record
Corruption: Iran-Contra Affair and Oliver North; Grenada, Latin America messed up - a backlash
from Carter's Panama canal deal
1985: Gorbachev: the Americans do not/cannot believe him: the SU gives in: the US won the Cold
War; 1989 like 1848 (S. Ambrose)
After the Cold War:
”The End of History” or the Reluctant Policeman of the World and the age of new barbarism?
Where is and what is the New World Order: is democracy really the top level of human social
development?
economic integration in the Americas: NAFTA deal
War crises: Gulf War; Bosnia; Israel: Samuel P. Huntington: the next centuries: wars between
civilizations (while integration within the various civilizations)
The challenge of international terrorism: the attacks on NYC and the Pentagon