Download The Progressive Era - Franklin County Public Schools

The Progressive Era
Overview
• Late 1890s-1920s
• Period of social activism and political reform
• Main goal of the Progressive movement was purification of
government
• Attempt to eliminate corruption by exposing political
machines and bosses
• A second goal was achieving efficiency in public and private
sectors by identifying old ways that needed modernizing
• Early on, the movement operated mostly at local levels
• Later it expanded to state and national levels
• Supporters of Progressive politicians included the middle class
(lawyers, teachers, physicians, ministers and business people)
William McKinley
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25th President (March 1897-Sept 1901)
3rd President to be assassinated
Commander-in-Chief during the Spanish-American War
Foreign policy issues during his presidency paved the way for
the U.S. becoming a world power
• Shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz on Sept 6 and dies on Sept
14th
William
McKinley
25th President
3rd President to
be assassinated
Leon Czolgosz
Executed October 29, 1901
by electric chair
Spanish-American War
• Main issue was Cuban independence from Spain
• American public opinion grew angrier at reports of Spanish
atrocities in Cuba
• February 15, 1898:
• Battleship, USS Maine, sent to protect U.S. interests in Cuba:
• Explodes in Havana Harbor killing 261 sailors
• “Yellow Press” introduced by William Randolph Hearst and
Joseph Pulitzer:
• Journalism using little or no legitimate facts but presents
exaggeration and sensationalism to sell more papers
• “Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain”
• Spain declares war on the U.S. April 23, 1898 U. S. declares
war on April 25, 1898
William Randolph Hearst
Spanish-American War Cont.
• May 1, 1898, Battle of Manila Bay (Philippines)
• Commodore George Dewey defeats the Spanish
fleet
• July 1, 1898, Battle of San Juan Hill (Cuba)
• Victory for Teddy Roosevelt and the “Rough
Riders”
• Fighting ends on August 12, 1898
• Treaty of Paris signed on December 10, 1898
Commodore
George Dewey
Effects of the Span-Am War
• Temporary American control of Cuba:
• Teller Amendment was passed prior to the war which
promised Cuban independence (anti-imperialists)
• Platt Amendment was passed which prohibited Cuba
from signing treaties with other countries (imperialists)
• After purchase from Spain, U.S. obtained indefinite
colonial authority over Puerto Rico, Guam, and the
Philippines. (20 million dollars)
• Hawaii annexed by the U.S. in June 1898
• The war marks the beginning of the U.S. in world affairs
• Marked the end of the Spanish Empire
Progressive Era Politicians
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Theodore Roosevelt
Assistant Secretary of the Navy (April 1897-May 1898)
Governor of New York (January 1899 – December 1900)
Vice President under McKinley (March 1901-Sept 1901)
26th President of the U.S. (Sept 1901-March 1909)
Leader of the Republican Party
Founder of the “Bull-Moose Party” (Progressive Party) for the
1912 election
• Won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating an end to the
Russo-Japanese War, 1st American to win the prize in any area
Theodore
Roosevelt
26th President of
the U.S.
“Speak softly but
carry a big stick”
T.R.’s Square Deal
• Roosevelt’s domestic agenda
• Three basic ideas:
• 1. Conservation of natural resources
• 2. Control of corporations
• 3. Consumer protection
• Overall, designed to help the middle class
Newlands Reclamation Act
• United States federal law that funded irrigation projects for
the arid lands of 20 states in the American West.
• The act set aside money from sales of semi-arid public lands
for the construction and maintenance of irrigation projects
• Led to the eventual damming of nearly every major western
river.
T.R. and National Parks
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Signed legislation establishing five national parks:
Crater Lake, Oregon
Wind Cave, South Dakota
Sullys Hill, North Dakota (now a game preserve);
Mesa Verde, Colorado
Platt, Oklahoma (now part of Chickasaw National Recreation
Area)
Proclaimed four national monuments:
Devils Tower, Wyoming
El Morro, New Mexico
Montezuma Castle, Arizona
Petrified Forest, Arizona
T.R. and Big Business
• T.R. was considered a “trust-buster” due to his
aggressive attacks on large corporations known as trusts
• Sherman Antitrust Act:
• Passed by Congress in 1890
• It was intended to prohibit business practices that
reduced competition in the marketplace
• It was the first federal statute to limit cartels and
monopolies
• Until the presidency of T.R., politicians were unwilling to
use the law
Trust busting cont.
• Roosevelt opposed banning monopolies
• He wanted the federal government to “assume power
of supervision and regulation over all corporations doing
an interstate business.”
• 1902-T.R. brings suit against Northern Securities
Company which controlled all major railroads in the
northwestern states (J.P. Morgan)
• Morgan lost in the lower courts and took his case to the
Supreme Court that ruled against the railroads
• The Court ordered the breakup of Northern Securities
into independent competitive railroads
Trust busting cont.
• 1906- Hepburn Act signed which gives the Interstate
Commerce Commission power to regulate railroad rates
• 1906- T.R. files suit against J.D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil
• Standard Oil ordered broken up
• 1907- T.R. files suit against American Tobacco Company
• ATC is broken up into 4 companies
• T.R. recognized a difference between “good trusts” and “bad
trusts”
• He believed that “good trusts” benefited the public with
efficient distribution of new products.
• It was his decision to determine the difference between good
or bad trusts
T.R. and Consumers
• 1906: “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair
• Exposed the corruption of the American meat packing
industry
• Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906
• Provided federal inspection of meat products and prohibited
the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated food
products and poisonous patent medicines
Muckrakers
• Term made popular by T.R.
• Journalists who exposed waste, corruption, and scandal
• Roosevelt gave these journalists their nickname when he
complained they were not being helpful by raking up all the
muck
• Ida Tarbell:
• Known as one of the leading "muckrakers" of the progressive
era
• Best known for her 1904 book The History of the Standard Oil
Company
• First woman to challenge Standard Oil
Ida Tarbell
Robert M. La Follette, Sr.
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Republican and later a Progressive politician
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Governor of Wisconsin
U.S. Senator from Wisconsin
Considered the most important and recognized leader of the
opposition to the growing dominance of corporations over the
Government
• Tied for first with Henry Clay as being in the top ten senators
in American history
Robert La Follette
William Jennings Bryan
• Democrat
• Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson
• Presidential candidate for Democratic Party 1896, 1900, and
1908
• Advocate of trust busting
• Opponent of Darwinism (Theory of Evolution)
• Lobbied for state laws banning public schools from teaching
evolution
• Involved in the “Scopes Monkey” Trial of 1925
• Known as the “Great Commoner” because of Christian values
William Jennings
Bryan
Progressive Era Amendments
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16th Amendment ratified Feb. 1913:
Allows Congress to levy an income tax
17th Amendment ratified May 1913:
Direct election of senators by the people
18th Amendment ratified Jan 1919:
AKA Volstead Act
Outlawed manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol
which started the era known as “Prohibition”
• 19th Amendment ratified Aug. 1920
• Gave women the right to vote
Direct Democracy
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Initiative:
Piece of legislation proposed by any citizen THEN:
Circulated through a petition phase to qualify for the ballot
If it receives a statutory minimum number of valid signatures
it qualifies for the ballot and is then put to the vote
Referendum:
Petition from citizens to seek an election to put legislation
that has passed the executive and legislature up to a vote
Provides a form of citizen veto for legislation
Recall:
Process by which the people seek to remove a elected official
from office.
Election of 1908
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T.R. decides not to run but had handpicked his successor:
William Howard Taft (T.R.’s Secretary of War)
Easily wins the election based on the popularity of T.R.
Continued with agenda of T.R.(Trust busting, etc)
“Dollar Diplomacy”:
Effort of the United States under President Taft to further its
aims in Latin America and East Asia through use of economic
power by guaranteeing loans made to foreign countries
• Extension of T.R.’s “Roosevelt Corollary” to the Monroe
Doctrine:
• “If any nation in the Western Hemisphere appeared politically
and financially so unstable as to be vulnerable to European
control, the United States had the right and obligation to
intervene.”
William Howard
Taft
27th President of
the U.S.
After presidency,
serves as the 10th
Chief Justice of
the Supreme
Court
Election of 1912
• T.R. decides to run again but does not get the Republican
nomination
• Remains with Taft
• T.R. forms the Progressive Party (Bull Moose Party)
• Other candidates include:
• Woodrow Wilson from the Democratic Party
• Eugene Debs from the Socialist Party
• Election won by Woodrow Wilson
• Last election in which a candidate who was not a Republican
or Democrat came second in either the popular vote or the
Electoral College
• First election in which all 48 states of the contiguous United
States participated.
Woodrow Wilson
28th President
Governor of New
Jersey
President of Princeton
University
Wilson as President
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Continues with progressive reforms
Federal Reserve is established:
Known as today “The Fed”
Created on Dec. 1913 with the enactment of the Federal
Reserve Act
Central banking system of the U.S.
Originally, three key objectives for monetary policy:
maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate longterm interest rates
Events such as the Great Depression were major factors
leading to changes in the system
Wilson as President cont.
• Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914
• Established the Federal Trade Commission:
• Authorized to issue “cease and desist” orders to large
corporations to curb unfair trade practices
• Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916
• Prohibiting the sale in interstate commerce of goods
manufactured by children in the United States
• Supreme Court ruled the act unconstitutional in 1918
World War I Overview
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4 forces at work in Europe
1. Nationalism
2. Industrialism
3. Militarism
4. System of alliances
The Balkans (Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovinia) called:
“Powder keg of Europe”
June 28, 1914:
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and wife Sophie were assassinated
Set off the chain of events that leads to the start of WWI on
July 28th 1914
Wilson and WWI
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Wilson narrowly wins re-election in 1916
His campaign slogan:
"He kept us out of war“
Challenges to U.S. neutrality:
May 7, 1915, German U-Boats sink the British passenger ship:
Lusitania
1198 dead including 118 Americans
Early 1916, Germany begins unrestricted submarine warfare
Torpedo armed merchant ships w/o warning but no passenger
ships
Wilson and WWI Cont.
• March 24, 1916:
• French cross-channel passenger ferry, the Sussex, was torpedoed
without warning
• No U.S. citizens were killed in this attack
• Wilson threatens to break diplomatic relations with Germany if they
continued to sink unarmed ships
• May 4, 1916, Germany issues the Sussex Pledge to appease the U.S.
by changing German naval warfare policy
• Contained 3 provisions:
• Passenger ships would not be targeted
• Merchant ships would not be sunk until the presence of weapons
had been established, if necessary by a search of the ship
• Merchant ships would not be sunk without provision for the safety
of passengers and crew
Wilson and WWI Cont.
• By 1917, Germany is convinced they could defeat the Allies
before the U.S. became involved in the war.
• Germany retracts the Sussex Pledge and resumes unrestricted
submarine warfare
• Zimmerman Telegram:
• Coded message from Germany to Mexico urging the Mexican
government to declare war on the U.S.
• Promised the return of the Mexican Cession upon victory
• Intercepted and decoded by British intelligence
• Wilson asks Congress to declare war in April 1917
Anti-German Sentiment
• German Americans were sometimes accused of being too
sympathetic to Germany
• Former president Theodore Roosevelt denounced
"hyphenated Americanism“
• Insisted that dual loyalties were impossible in wartime
• 4,000 German aliens were imprisoned in 1917-18
• Allegations included spying for Germany, or endorsing the
German war effort
• Thousands were forced to buy war bonds to show their loyalty
• "Americanize" names (e.g. Schmidt to Smith, Müller to Miller)
• Limited the use of the German language in public places,
especially churches
American Forces in Europe
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American Expeditionary Force (A.E.F.)
Led by General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing
Soldiers were known as “Doughboys”
By June 1917, 14,000 U.S. soldiers had arrived in France
By May 1918 , over one million U.S. troops were stationed in
France with about half on the front lines
Battle of Chateau Thierry
Battle of Belleau Woods
Key battles where U.S. Marines stopped the advance of the
Germany army into Paris
The AEF sustained about 320,000 casualties
53,402 battle deaths, 63,114 non combat deaths and 204,000
wounded
General John J. Pershing
Typical WWI
“Doughboy”
Ending the War
• Armistice is signed on November 11, 1918 which ends the
fighting
• Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919, officially ends
the war
• There were many provisions in the treaty, one of the most
important and controversial required Germany to accept
responsibility for causing the war (along with Austria and
Hungary)
• Became known as the War Guilt clause
• Required Germany to pay war reparations for damages
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
• Wilson’s view of a post-war world that could avoid another
terrible conflict:
• No secret alliances between countries
• Freedom of the seas in peace and war
• General reduction of armaments
• The 14th Point:
• A league of nations to protect "mutual guarantees of political
independence and territorial integrity to great and small
nations alike.“
• Wilson wins the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919
• Congress never ratifies the treaty
• Claimed it was too harsh on Germany
• U.S. is not a member of the League of Nations