Download Chapters 21-23 - Sarah Mahajan Study Guides

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Chapter 21: An Emerging World Power
Roots of Expansion
Diplomacy in the Gilded Age
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In 1877 the United States was, by any economic or demographic measure, already a great
power.
But America was inward looking. The absence of significant overseas concerns led to lax conduct
of its foreign policy and neglect of its naval power.
- The naval fleet gradually deteriorated after the civil war
- In the Caribbean, many Americans abandoned their expansionist ideas
- Blaine supported Pan-Americanism, which was the notion of a community of states of the
Western Hemisphere
American interest centered on Hawaii, but President Cleveland didn’t want to annex it
In 1867, the US purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million
In 1878, the US secured rights in the Samoan islands, a key link on the route to Australia
American diplomacy during these years had been characterized by a series of incidents, noa the
pursuit of a foreign policy
The Economy of Expansion
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However, America’s rapid economic development began to force the country to look outward,
particularly in search of markets for surplus goods.
America’s GDP quadrupled between 1870 and 1900: its supply was more than its demand, so
there was a surplus
America looked to foreign markets for their surpluses
American firms began to plant themselves overseas (such as Rockefeller’s Standard Oil)
The US attracted a lot of foreign capital so the US had to export more goods than it imported
80% of all exports went to Europe and Canada
Trade with Asia and Latin America was growing
The Making of “Large” Foreign Policy
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By the early 1890s, a new strategic outlook had taken hold, shaped in large part by the writings
of Alfred T. Mahan, who called for a battleship navy, an interoceanic canal, and overseas bases.
This dramatic shift was underpinned by economic, military, and intellectual justifications.
Arguments drawn from Social Darwinism and America’s earlier tradition of Manifest Destiny
supported this new expansionism.
The US had no choice: if it wanted to survive, it had to expand
There was a belief in the inherent superiority of the Anglo-Saxon “race”
Fiske’s lecture called “Manifest Destiny” became a term that described the expansion into the
west
In 1890, westward expansion came to an end: there was no more territory left to explore.
Turner links the closing of the frontier and overseas expansion.
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An American Empire
The Cuban Crisis
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The United States went to war with Spain in 1898
The public was pushing for war with Spain due to a combination sympathy, anger, and
patriotism called jingoism
Cleveland was more tolerant towards Spain that McKinley, who had business fears
US battle cruiser exploded and sank
The US acquired distant possessions in the peace settlement, and set about becoming a colonial
power
The Imperial Experiment
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The US didn’t grant Philippine independence because they didn’t think the Philippinos could
handle it on their own
This was imposed by anti-imperialists:
- Jane Addams, Samuel Gompers, Andrew Carnegie
- But the anti-imperialists never became a popular movement
Then American troops had to put down a rebellion in the Philippines
It was violent and more brutal than the war with Spain
Overseas expansion was different from the nation’s continental expansion: acquired territories
were marked as colonies, not future states
In a few years, America had assembled an overseas empire: Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the
Philippines, and several of the Samoan islands
Onto the World Stage
A Power Among Powers
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After McKinley’s assassination, Roosevelt became president.
He supported imperialism and saw that the duty of “civilized nations” was to enlighten
“backward people” and police the world
He also saw the threat of world war and strived to help maintain balance of power
America and Britain became to start a “friendship,” an unofficial alliance
Britain surrendered its canal rights in Central America
Roosevelt leased a strip of land across Panama from Columbia
Columbia rejected the proposed treaty. Furious, Roosevelt helped instigate a revolution for
independence in Roosevelt. It succeeded and Panama approved the perpetual lease on a canal
zone.
The Panama Canal gave the US a commanding position in the Western Hemisphere
Cuba had accepted the Platt Amendment, which gave the US right to intervene if Cuban
independence was threatened. Still, resentment grew against America for taking Panama.
Roosevelt Corollary: US is the policeman of the western hemisphere and has the right to
intervene in Caribbean affairs
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The Open Door in Asia
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The United States sought to limit foreign control of China and keep China’s markets accessible in
the Open Door notes of 1899 and 1900.
Many other nations carved out spheres of influence in China
Even though the US lacked leverage, they agreed in order to keep peace and balance of power
The US participated in the multinational suppression of the Boxer rebellion in China in 1900.
Japan emerged as the dominant power in East Asia
Roosevelt respected Japan and acknowledged its rights to Kora
But there was an anti-Asian feeling in California
William Howard Taft entered the White House after Roosevelt, and he pressed for a larger role
for American investors
Taft hoped that American capital would counterbalance Japanese power. He supported the idea
of dollar diplomacy: the aggressive coupling of American political and economic interests
abroad.
Taft also supported Chinese Nationalists who toppled the Manchu dynasty and called for
liberation from Japanese domination.
The United States then entered a long-term with Japan that would end in war 30 years later.
Wilson and Mexico
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Wilson became president in 1913 and focused on reforming American foreign policy
His “Wilsonian” foreign policy focuses on spreading democracy and cooperating with other
nations.
Relying on Theodore Roosevelt’s unilateral addition to the Monroe Doctrine, Wilson led the
United States to police the Caribbean basin, focusing on Mexico.
In 1914 and 1916, American troops were sent into revolutionary Mexico.
Gathering Storm in Europe
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In the meantime, Europe drifted toward war. The two main sources of tension were:
1. Rivalry between Germany and European states who felt threatened (especially France)
2. The Balkans, where the Ottoman empire was disintegrating, leaving it open for AustriaHungary and Russia to compete for control
Alliances formed:
Germany+ Austria-Hungary + Italy (Triple Alliance) vs. France +Britain+ Russia (Triple Entente)
World power status came with penalties, however, and America paid the price:
Thousands of men were killed or wounded in the war with Spain and in the Philippine
insurrection
Government spending increased
The newly acquired colonial territories far removed from the Western Hemisphere were
vulnerable to unfriendly powers
Suddenly, rivalries that had gone unnoticed became significant to the American government, as
did the British move toward rapprochement.
The United States had become a world power just as war was about to erupt in Europe.
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Chapter 22: War and the American State
 Before the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, the world had been dominated by the nationstates of Europe.
 In the postwar world, the United States increasingly dominated the political, economic, and
cultural affairs of many countries.
The Great War, 1914-1918
The Perils of Neutrality
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In keeping with the American tradition of noninvolvement in foreign affairs, President Wilson
issued a neutrality proclamation at the outbreak of World War I.
Worried about divided loyalties; wanted to maintain trade relations
As the war progressed, however, enormous strains were placed on the United States, the most
serious being violations of American neutrality rights.
Britain violated rights in 1914 with blockade on Germany
Germany violated rights in 1915 with U boats
The German sinking of the British liner Lusitania, with the loss of more than a hundred American
lives, epitomized those strains.
Neutrality was not abandoned, however, until early 1917, when imperial Germany resumed
unrestricted submarine warfare.
With public opinion aroused by the contents of the Zimmermann telegram, political opposition
to entering the war evaporated
Zimmerman Telegraph: urged Mexico to join the war on the side of the Central Powers
And the United States declared war on Germany.
American Fighting Force
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The public expected a limited naval conflict, and mainly mutation and economic aid.
But the enormously destructive war led to the mobilization, training, and movement of several
million young Americans to European battlefields, where their numbers proved decisive in the
defeat of Germany.
2 million American soldiers were in France when the war ended
The many varying ethnicities of soldiers revealed how diverse America’s population was
But it was a Jim Crow army: very racist and segregated
War on the Home Front
Mobilizing Industry and the Economy
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On the home front, the Wilson administration vastly expanded the government’s powers in
order to coordinate economic production and to popularize the war through propaganda.
The war cost $33 billion
1/3 of it was paid with income taxes
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Antitrust laws were suspended to encourage output
War industries Board – in charge of directing military production. They gathered scare
resources, converted factories to war production, and standardized procedures.
Food administration – most successful wartime agency (led by Hoover)  it increased food
output and prevented rationing
The reforms didn’t last: wartime controls were dismantled after the war ended
Ambivalence about expanding state power, coupled with pressures of wartime mobilization,
severely damaged the impetus for progressive reforms that had characterized the prewar era.
Yet even in the context of international crisis, some reformers expected the war to serve the
cause of improving American society.
Mobilizing American Workers
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National War Labor Board- improved lives of working men and women: 8 hour day, time and a
half for overtime, equal pay for women, right to organize unions
The Great Migration: blacks moved North and West from the South  blacks and women found
jobs in factories in the North and West due to labor shortages
Women joined the paid labor force for the first time
Wartime Constitutionalism: Women Suffrage and Prohibition
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The wartime environment facilitated the passage of prohibition and woman suffrage
amendments to the Constitution.
NAWSA supported the war and stood behind the Wilson Administration.
They argued that women had to prove their patriotism to advance the cause of the suffrage
movement—promoted food conservation, aided war industry workers, worked at Red Cross
Alice Paul and the NWP were more aggressive and militant—picketed the white house, went on
a hunger strike
19th amendment – passed in 1920 granting women’s suffrage
The passions of the Great War increased the political momentum of prohibition.
Anti-German feelings: mostly immigrants opposed prohibition laws
Congress needed to conserve grain supplies for the war
18th amendment (The Prohibition Amendment) passed in 1919- a perfect example of wartime
progressive reform
Reformers concerned for the welfare of children, health, and public morality found an ally in the
military, which wanted to promote discipline.
Promoting National Unity
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Wilson formed the CPI (Committee on Public Information) as a government propaganda agency
Touched the lives of every American
But as a spirit of conformity pervaded the home front, many Americans found themselves
accused of fomenting treason and revolution.
Public officials curbed civil liberties and tolerated little criticism of patriotic values and
established institutions.
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Had an “Americanization” campaign to urge recent immigrants and long established ethnic
groups to give up their customs and ties
An Unsettled Peace, 1919-1920
The Treaty of Versailles
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President Wilson, although not oblivious to problems on the home front, concentrated on
pursuing a nonpunitive peace settlement with Germany and approval of an international
organization called the League of Nations.
The League of Nations: a multinational organization, a community of power, an organized
common peace
The allies accepted Wilson’s Fourteen Points as the basis of peace negotiations
The Fourteen Points embodied the spirit of American progressivism: extending American ideals
of democracy and freedom, peaceful economic expansion
The Big 3 (France, Britain, Italy) wanted to punish Germany and ignored Wilson’s calls for a just
peace. But they did adopt his idea of national self-interest, creating independent states of
Austria, Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia
But Germany had to accept a “war guilt” clause and pay for the war
In a harsh settlement that left lasting resentment and would lead to a second world war, the
Allies forced Germany to give up parts of its territory, colonies, coal supplies, merchant ships
and to pay $33 billion for the war.
When the Republican Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles without changes, Wilson
refused to compromise.
Wilson believed that the League of Nations was the only hope in securing peace between
nations
But there was widespread opposition to the treaty
“Irreconcilables” – Republican progressives were isolationists and opposed involvement in
European affairs
Another group of Republicans led by Henry Cabot Lodge was worried about article X – that
collective security would prevent America from having an independent foreign policy
Wilson toured the US trying to raise support for the treaty. But then he had a stroke.
The treaty never passed because Wilson and Democrats were unwilling to accept any changes or
compromises.
Many wartime issues, including reparations and the division of colonies among European states,
were left unresolved and established conditions for another war in Europe.
The US never ratified the treaty of joined the League of Nations
Racial Strife, Labor Unrest, and the Red Scare
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In America, workers of all races harbored hopes for a better life after the war.
Many African Americans were determined to stand up for their rights, which contributed to a
spirit of militancy but also sparked white racism and violence.
Competition for housing and jobs between blacks and whites made things worse
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Violence ensued
The war years had brought better pay, shorter hours, and improved working conditions.
Workers also had higher expectations.
But corporations cut back war benefits
Many workers went on strike
Unions declined throughout the 1920s
The Bolshevik Reds:
Public concern about this Bolshevik radical socialism grew
Palmer, the attorney general, attacked radicalism. He started the “Palmer raids:” seizing and
deporting any aliens who committed no crimes but had anarchist beliefs
The “Soviet Ark” sailed back to Russia with 294 deported radicals, including Emma
Goldman(birth control)
Basically: workers’ strikes, black activism, and long-standing anxiety among whites about
unassimilated immigrants led to increased social tensions and heightened fears of radicalism
that culminated in race riots, the Red Scare, and renewed government suppression of union
strikes.
 Thanks to the war, the US had become a major international power, both economically and
politically.
 Although the US emerged from the war a stronger nation, after it ended, racial, ethnic, and
class tensions exploded.
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Chapter 23: Modern Times
 The American economy generally flourished in the 1920s, driven by innovations in mass
production and mass consumption.
 However, agriculture and several “sick industries” did not share in the general prosperity, and
the problems in those sectors foreshadowed the difficulties facing the whole economy in the
1930s.
The Business-Government Partnership of the 1920s
Politics in the Republican “New Era”
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The Republican Party dominated national politics in the 1920s.
Most Americans were comfortable with the Republicans’ promotion of business interests and
advocacy of limited government.
FTC was inactive and ignored antitrust laws
A series of scandals in the mid-1920s was not enough to drive the Republicans from power.
The Democrats, as was often the case in the twentieth century, were divided between northern,
urban, liberal interests and a southern, rural-conservative wing.
The Progressive Party made an attempt to capture the White House in 1924 but was soundly
defeated.
Women were active in 1920s politics but were unable to achieve any long-term reforms. The
problems of minority groups were largely ignored.
Corporate Capitalism
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The modern corporation was a prominent feature of American life in the 1920s.
Most industries were dominated by a few large producers.
Business leaders enjoyed enormous popularity and respect compared with most of the
politicians of the period.
Corporations improved their images in the minds of the public by developing “welfare
capitalism.”
They provided benefits for their workers, such as pensions, paid vacations, and a shorter work
week. They also raised wages.
Foreign Policy in the 1920s
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The United States was not completely isolationist in the 1920s.
It had emerged from World War I as a powerful modern state and could not withdraw entirely
from international involvement.
Instead, the nation became selectively involved in foreign affairs, usually choosing to do so
when American economic interests were at stake.
A New National Culture
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A new emphasis on leisure, along with innovations in mass communication, gave rise to a mass
culture in America.
Magazine and radio advertising, automobiles, chain stores, motion pictures, and spectator
sports helped to transform American values and consumption patterns.
However, not all segments of the population participated in this mass culture.
Redefining American Identity
The Rise of Nativism
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Not all Americans accepted the secular values that characterized the mass-consumption society
of the 1920s. One response to the rapid change in values was nativism.
Congress passed strict new immigration quota limitations that favored northern and western
Europeans and discriminated against Asians and against southern and eastern Europeans.
The Ku Klux Klan became popular, not just in the South but also in the Midwest and other
sections of the country.
Protestant fundamentalists gained a large following by challenging scientific thought and
modern notions of morality.
Intellectual Crosscurrents
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Literature and the arts reflected the disillusionment felt by many intellectuals about the
direction in which American life and institutions were moving in the 1920s.
Many American writers criticized the futility and waste of World War I, whereas others attacked
the blandness of middle-class American life.
A short-lived but dramatic flowering of black artistic talent, known as the Harlem Renaissance,
occurred in New York City in the 1920s.
Legislating Values: Evolution and Prohibition
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Prohibition was the law of the land in the 1920s, but it was not always enforced.
Americans reduced their total consumption of alcohol, but thousands of ordinary citizens
became lawbreakers when they drank or served liquor.
By the end of the decade, even Prohibition’s most ardent defenders conceded that the law was
not working and was encouraging the rise of organized crime.
 Prohibition ended in 1933
The Scopes trial (the “monkey trial”)
A high school teach, John Scopes, was put on trial for teaching about evolution
It attracted national attention because Clarence Darrow (a famous criminal lawyer) defended
Scopes, and William Jennings Bryan (3-time Democratic presidential candidate) spoke for the
prosecution
The Election of 1928
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The 1928 presidential election demonstrated that many Americans were not ready to support a
Catholic for the presidency.
The Republicans won easily, but the election also demonstrated the Democratic Party’s growing
strength among urban voters.
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