Expansion overseasFor
- Our American ‘mission’ is to ‘civilize’ ‘savages’
- ‘They’ are child-like and need us
- We need their natural resources
- Door to Chinese markets
- Pacific ocean is our ‘sphere’ (all those other Euro nations are doing it to)
- ‘March of the flag’ id ‘march of the freedom’
Against
- It violates our values! We fought against ‘empire’
- ‘They have their own culture, they don’t want ours!
- Either we have to be an occupier or we have to give them rights….problem
- This will encourage the ‘rule of the few’ (plutocracy)
-corruption and $$$
- Patriotism can blind people to realities
- DEBT!! TAXES!!
Manifest Destiny
-Anglo-Americans were destined by God to rule the whole continent
-Americans represent ‘civilization’- this is always better then ‘savagery’ so whatever Americans
so is more ‘civilized’ then other peoples
-the ideology of manifest destiny is a specific example of ‘American exceptionalism’… American is
an exception to the usual ‘rules’ of empire. Why? Because we are not like Old World empires,
even when Americans act like an empire, because we are different and unique and good…
-in other words, Americans might LOOK like an empire in the way we act, but because American
is ‘unique’ then whatever ‘we’ do is ‘good’
Other Aspects
-the end of the public land auctions east of the Mississippi is a big reason
-the idea of ‘the west’ (Gold Rush and Oregon Trail and ‘paradise’)
Important Features of the era of ‘Reconstruction’- (1865 – 1877)
- Economic? –to rebuild South after war and get that cotton going again?
-Cultural? – to change the ways of white southerners?
Stages if federal involvement in the southern states:
- (Lincoln wanted a quick re-integration of confederate states/politicians)
-President Andrew Johnson: wanted to limit Congressional Power, so moved for a quick return for
southern politicians back into the federal government
-pres. Johnson’s move sets up a backlash: why did we fight the war if everyone’s back in? So ‘Radical’
reconstruction adopted by Congress- sets up military occupation of south and Freedman’s Bureau to aid
African Americans, especially with education
The ‘failure’ of reconstruction
-Freedmen’s Bureau set up schools for black communities but also pushed for the resumption of cotton
industry, so this federal agency has complicated relationship with black communities: gives some
protection from white southern violence, helps education, but DOES NOT re-distribute land. Instead, a
new system of labor, “share-cropping”, developed that tied black farmers to work land owned by whites
= meant each generation of African American farmers built debts (seeds/tools/taxes/rent/) that kept
them stuck.
-Southern states enact “Black codes’ limiting freedom to travel and work; with share-cropping the
dominant form of labor, an outsider might wonder; ‘what changed?’ after the war? Black Americans
owning land? More freedoms? Not so much!
‘Reconstruction’ ends in 1877 as rest of nation moved on to other issues, but African Americans left in
south without ‘reconstructed’ southern society: racism was violent and blatant, black farm workers
encircled with debt and no chance to land ownership, and ‘freedom’ remained elusive for most African
Americans.
Supreme Court Involvement
-the ‘Civil War’ Amendments undermined by Supreme Court decisions: the 13 th formally ended slavery;
th
the 14 amendment granted legal protections to all Americans (men?) by guaranteeing ‘due process’ under law
but Supreme Court leaves those protections up to the states to provide (good luck); the 15th opens the vote to
black men but Supreme Court interprets that this isn’t a ‘right’ only an ‘opportunity’, so states pass numerous laws
to restrict black men’s voting(poll taxes, literacy tests, outright intimidation)
Important consequences of the Civil War:
-War enhanced the power of large business interests; wartime profits and large-scale production
accelerated path towards corporate capitalism
-War increased size and role of government: Lincoln’s wartime se of martial law to suspend Bill of Rights,
especially freedom of speech, press, assembly; military draft; federal troops occupied the south so
needed bureaucracy to direct re-organization
-increased urban and industrial growth, which also meant escalation class conflicts (draft riots, food and
price riots, resentment at war profiteers); war unleaded a huge wave of violence and firearms in American
society (especially in the west, targeting First nations)
-Was also meant changing women’s roles: military supplies and medical support required volunteers to
accomplish (federal govt too small to organize all that) so both armies looked to women for re-supply,
food, nursing, community relations.
nd
The 2 Industrial revolution responses by business?
Social Darwinism – Monopolies and corporations to drive out competition and this growth of corporate
capitalism in late 19thc created SOCIAL DARWINISM = that wealth flows to the ‘naturally’ more capable
*** (this is another way of saying that inequality is the ‘law of nature’ and can’t be changed…..
not exactly the typical American “all are created equal” idea)
-This produces two powerful consequences:
1. encourages hard work, because it implies each worker might rise to the top to join the rich
2. discourages any government regulations of the economy, since this would tamper with the
‘natural order of things’
The 2nd Industrial Revolution responses by labor?
Unions – 1. Opposed by capitalism
-Knights of labor (1870’s -1888’s): used old language of ‘wage slavery’ and wants worker control
of production, includes all ‘wage slaves’ (not really)
- Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies) (1890’s – 1920’s): wants unity of ‘one big union’
and worker control of production, included all workers (Hispanic, Asian, freed African Americans, women)
2. Accepts capitalism
-American Federation of labor (1890’s – today): supports system but wants ‘pieces of the pie’
with better wages and working conditions; focus is on skilled workers = to protect small gains by
white working men, union excluded cheap labor ‘strike-breakers’ (women, immigrants, African
Americans)
Dawes Severalty Act –
1. (private property) break up communal culture of tribes by ‘severing’ land to individuals/families
2. (gender roles) enforce farming not hunting: enforce white gender roles of 2 nd class statues of women.
(women in the house; men drop what they have always done and farm)
3. (remove children) take First Nation children away from families to Indian Boarding schools= can’t speak
language, do dances, sing songs, wear native dress. The boys typically learned farming; the girls became
servants/house workers.
RESULTS – a policy meant to ‘help’ save Native Americans actually increases destruction of tribal culture
and control of land. 1888=138million acres; 1935=47 million acres still held by tribes