Download Politics in the Gilded Age

America Comes of Age
Mr. Phipps
U.S. History
The Rise of Industrial America
California State Standards
11.1.4. Examine the effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction
and of the industrial revolution, including demographic shifts and
the emergence in the late nineteenth century of the United
States as a world power.
11.2.2. Describe the changing landscape, including the growth of
cities linked by industry and trade, and the development of cities
divided according to race, ethnicity, and class.
11.2.4. Analyze the effect of urban political machines and
responses to them by immigrants and middle-class reformers.
11.2.5. Discuss corporate mergers that produced trusts and cartels
and the economic and political policies of industrial leaders.
11.2.6. Trace the economic development of the United States and
its emergence as a major industrial power, including its gains
from trade and the advantages of its physical geography.
Era Characteristics










The struggle for states’ rights over federal rights
The struggle over extending slavery into newly occupied
territories
Reconstruction plans after Civil War
Strong and aggressive growth of mechanized industry
Laissez-faire government and regular political scandal and
corruption
Exploitation of cheap immigrant and minority labor
Expansion of the west and growth of large-scale agriculture
Broken and impoverished South
The rapid growth of Northern cities
The rise of American economic power and political influence
Manifest Destiny
The Timeline
(1820-1861)- Manifest
Destiny and
Sectionalism
American Progress, John Gast (1872)
• Argument over the
spread of slavery
• Argument over states’
rights over federal power
• Expansion of the railroad
• The early growth of
American infrastructure
• Promise of American
opportunity--”The
American Dream”
• Outlet for population
growth
Acquiring Land
Territorial Disputes





(1787)-Northwest Ordinance
• Forbade slavery in new territory
• Prohibited slavery in Missouri and any new territories
(1820)-Missouri Compromise
• Missouri allowed to become a slave state, in exchange for Maine becoming a
free state
• Allowed for balance of power in Congress
• Slavery prohibited above 36/30 (Mason-Dixon)
(1850)-Compromise of 1850
• Designated California as a “free state”
• All other former Mexican territories allowed popular sovereignty
• Slave trade abolished in Washington, D.C.
(1853)-Gadsden Purchase
• Purchased Southern parcel of land from Mexico for Southern railroad route
• Required Kansas and Nebraska territories to become states
(1854)-Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Allowed statehood for Kansas and Nebraska
• Slavery decision allowed for popular sovereignty
• Started stamped of abolitionists and pro-slaverites
• Resulted in “Bloody Kansas”
Rapid Expansion

The 13 Original Colonies (1776)
–
–

The Treaty of Paris (1783)
–
–
–

Settlement granted to the United States after winning the American Revolution
Granted the U.S. territory west of the Appalachian Mountains, the Ohio Valley, the
Mississippi River
Created tensions when the British refused to leave the Mississippi River Basin (Caused
the War of 1812)
The Louisiana Territory (1803)
–
–

Considered the first United States, organized together for the purposes of the
Revolutionary War
Held together by the Articles of Confederation, later by the Constitution
Purchased from Napolean for $11.25 million, because Napolean needed quick cash to
finance his wars in Europe
Thomas Jefferson wanted to double the United States, provide land to the average
American, and reap the economic benefits of the abundance of natural resources
Texas (1845)
–
–
–
Settled by eager American land squatters in Mexican controlled territory and declared
an independent country: The Lone Star Republic
After Mexico invaded to protect its lost territory, the American military invaded to
protect American squatters
Petitioned for statehood and admission to the Union
From Sea to Shining Sea

Oregon Territory (1846)
–
–

Mexican Cession (1848)
–
–
–
–

Started because American sailors were killed in Mexico, forcing an American invasion
of Mexico to retaliate and protect American honor
Ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico ceding the territory of the
American Southwest to the United States (U.S. gave Mexico $2 million as
compensation)
Historians argue that the U.S. provoked the war in order to gain the territory
The flood of Americans into California due to the Gold Rush resulted in rapid statehood
Gadsden Purchase (1853)
–
–

Vast wilderness argued over between Britain and the U.S. creating an election issue in
1844: “ Fifty-Four, Forty, or Fight!”
Resolved when Britain conceded the northern border of Washington to include the
Willamette Valley
Required to complete the southern route for the Transcontinental Railroad
Purchased from Mexico to complete the continental United States
Alaska (1867)
–
–
–
Purchased by Secretary of State William Seward (called Seward’s Folly or Seward’s
Icebox because it was considered to be wasteland of ice) from Russia for $7.2 million
Considered to be a buffer between the United States and Russia, Russia needed to
sell it because they were overextended
Later yielded silver and oil
The Vision of the West
The Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, Albert Bierstadt
Other Visions of the West: The
West as…














The Home of the Indian people
Unsettled wilderness
Spain
Mexico
United States
“Garden of the World”
“Great American Desert”
Frontier
“Safety Valve”
The Wild West
Freedom from society and the past
Free land
Under-developed regions
The place to make your fortune













Vast and empty wasteland
Borderlands for diverse people
Pristine environment
Untapped natural resources
Tourist and nature preserve
The place that represents America
The Suburban Jungle
Freeway and fast food culture
Farmers, ranchers, miners, and
loggers
Nuclear waste dump
California
Liberalism
The Promised Land
The Civil War
The Struggle for Unity
(1861-1865) - The American Civil War
Reasons the North fought:
• Take control of railroad route through Northern cities
• Keep control of industrial manufacturing in Northern
cities
• Keep control of waterways and trade routes
• Keep control of representation in Congress
• Emancipate the slaves
• Continue to dominate economically and politically
• Preserve the union and protect the Constitution
The Civil War
Reasons why the South fought:
• Preserve their way of life (Southern aristocracy)
• Protect their economy (large-scale plantation
agriculture)
• Retain their property (slaves)
• Stack Congress with Southern representatives
(due to number of slaves)
• Keep the power of the states and remain
autonomous
Slaves in “celebration of a hard days work, Sourthern perspective.
Reconstruction
A Divided Country
Timeline: Reconstruction
(1865-1877)
Purpose: To unify the
United States
following the Civil
War
• Plan A (Radical
Reconstruction)-Punish the South
• Plan B (Moderate
Reconstruction)-Heal the Union
Atlanta, after Gen. Sherman’s victorious “March to the Sea”
The Problem of Reconstruction






Enforce Southern loyalty to the Union
Punish Confederate leaders who violated the
Constitution
Emancipate slaves and integrate AfricanAmericans into society
Provide cheap labor source for cotton
production and supply to Northern factories
Rebuild infrastructure: roads, railroads,
cities, ports, schools, etc
A VERY angry African-American population
Slave family in Alabama, 1861
Reconstruction Results

Federal government passes Civil Rights
Amendments
• 13th Amendment--Abolition of slavery
• 14th Amendment--Former slaves (freedmen) become
American citizens
• 15th Amendment--All black males allowed to vote
(suffrage)


Government designates Freedmen’s Bureau to
provide $, education, training, and food to freed
slaves
Southern states pass Jim Crow laws
• Establish and enforce racial segregation
• Supported by Supreme Court decision Plessy v.
Ferguson (1892), legalizing “separate, but equal”
facilities
American Impeachment

Andrew Johnson
•
•
•

Johnson’s Downfall
•
•

Started as a “moderate” Southern
Reconstructionist
Nominated by Lincoln as V.P.
Took over presidency after
Lincoln’s assassination
Challenged Congress by
supporting a moderate policy
toward the South
Hated by most of Congress,
impossible to pass legislation
The Impeachment
•
•
•
Fired a federal official without
cause
Accused by Congress as an abuse
of presidential power
Congress voted for impeachment,
but acquitted by one vote
Manifest Destiny: In Sum

The need to expand was obvious
– The U.S. needed a buffer zone
– The U.S. needed natural resources (for factory
production) and agricultural land (to feed the growing
population)
– The U.S. bought, sold, negotiated, and instigated wars
to get what it wanted
– Manifest Destiny caused diplomatic problems (with
other countries: Mexico, Britain, and Russia), problems
with organization and over slavery, national security
challenges (in protecting it), and transportation and
settlement problems
– The U.S. became a continental power, rivaling the
European superpowers in size and potential, in one of
the shortest spans in world history
The Dawn of a New Age

The South is crippled by their loss in the Civil War and by
a bad Reconstruction policy
• Former slaves become sharecroppers, or move to the North
for jobs in factories
• The KKK begins a reign of terror
• Agriculture continues, but Southern economy is crushed

The North, victorious, begins a period of rapid
industrialization based on railroad, the invention of steel,
and cheap labor
• Politicians take a “hands-off” approach to leadership
• Business becomes the central focus of America
• The United States begins a period of unprecedented
economic growth
• The United States becomes THE industrial
producer/manufacturer of the world