Download The student understands domestic & foreign issues

Readiness standards comprise
65% of the U. S. History Test
15 D
Readiness Standard (15)
The student understands domestic & foreign issues
related to U. S. economic growth from the 1870s to
1920.
The Student is expected to:
(D) Describe the economic effects of
international military conflicts, including the
Spanish-American War & World War I, on the
United States
Spanish-American War
Readiness Standard (15)
The student understands domestic & foreign issues
related to U. S. economic growth from the 1870s to
1920.
The Student is expected to:
(D) 1 Describe the economic effects of
international military conflicts, including the
Spanish-American War, on the United States
After the Civil War, the United States economy changed
significantly. With a boost in industrialization, an ever-growing
system of railroads, and western expansion, the newly unified nation
enjoyed post-war prosperity. But by the 1870s, farmers and
businessmen began to see just how vulnerable the United States
economy was to depression. As factories spewed more and more
manufactured products, the agricultural industry began to suffer. As
conditions in farming regions began to worsen and fewer Americans
were unable to afford all those manufactured goods, industrialists
saw their own profits decline.
The economic downturn of the 1890s devastated agricultural
business and depleted industrial profits, but factories continued to
generate goods, far too many to be consumed by Americans
strapped by unemployment. New waves of immigration exacerbated
pressures on the economy and contributed to social strife,
particularly in urban regions in the Northeast. But these newcomers
provided factory employers with cheap labor that helped big
industry maintain its rapid pace of production.
Searching for New Customers
Business leaders, then, refused to reduce factory output. They
proposed that the way to strengthen United States industry was not
to produce less but to find more customers to buy goods. For this
reason, many called for greater access to foreign markets, fewer
restrictions on exports, and aggressive foreign policy in
“underdeveloped” regions in
in which
which civilians,
civilians, if
if educated,
educated, could
could
become consumers.
This idea was in no way novel. Throughout the nineteenth
century, many European nations sought to sell goods beyond
their borders to maximize profits, create new jobs, and
enhance national power abroad. The United States, until the
1890s, had expanded only within the North American
continent. Foreign policy prescribed isolation from any and all
turmoil abroad, but by the end of the century the U.S. federal
government began to change its tune.
A State Department memorandum in 1898 declared, “We can
can
no longer afford to disregard international rivalries now that
we ourselves have become a competitor in the world-wide
struggle for
struggle
for trade.”
trade.” Such concerns laid the foundation for the
marriage between business interests and U.S. foreign policy.
Profits Overseas
By 1900, the value of American exports was
three times greater than it had been in the
years following the Civil War. Exports only
increased, and by World War I, the value of
all goods shipped abroad was 67% greater
than the value in 1900. Investments also
ballooned.
After the Spanish-American War, American investors poured
billions into various projects in Latin America, Eastern Asia, and in
the Philippines, including mines, railroads, and sugar, banana, and
coffee plantations. Multinational corporations sprouted in the
United States and supported federal expansionist or, as some
historians have called it, imperialist foreign policy.
The TREATY OF PARIS was most generous to the winners. The
United States received the Philippines and the islands of Guam and
Puerto Rico. Cuba became independent, and Spain was awarded $20
million dollars for its losses. The treaty prompted a heated debate in
the United States. Anti-imperialists called the US hypocritical for
condemning European empires while pursuing one of its own.
President McKinley's expansionist policies were supported by the
American public, who seemed more than willing to accept the
blessings and curses of their new expanding empire.
Readiness Standard (15)
The student understands domestic & foreign issues
related to U. S. economic growth from the 1870s to
1920.
The Student is expected to:
(D) 2 Describe the economic effects of
international military conflicts, including
World War I, on the United States
Before the U. S. entered World War I in 1917, the British
naval blockade of the European coastline prompted
German retaliation with unrestricted submarine warfare.
Wilson was aware that U. S. prosperity depended on movement of
surplus products into the mainstream of foreign commerce—this
found expression in U. S. concern over “freedom of the seas,”
challenged by Germany and thus endangering U. S. capitalism
•
•
•
•
Under international law, neutral countries could
trade non-military goods with all belligerents
Britain blockaded German ports stopping
shipments of foodstuffs and most raw materials
The U.S. economy boomed due to sales and loans
to the Allies
German submarine warfare violated the
principle of “freedom of the seas “
Intervention became
necessary in the
national interest, i. e.,
for self-preservation
•
•
•
•
•
British naval supremacy and the Atlantic community
were vital to U. S. security
A German victory was tantamount to invasions of North
and South America
Isolationism was made obsolete by unrestricted
submarine war—military preparedness was the solution
Idealism was equated with stupidity by the realists
Withdrawal of Russia from the war, tipping balance in
favor of Central Powers
When President
Wilson issued a
series of diplomatic
notes demanding
Germany to change
its submarine
warfare policies,
Wilson’s pacifist
Secretary of State,
William Jennings
Bryan, resigned.
The effect of World War I on the US economy
was considerable. Two effects were
particularly important.
Over the short term, the war actually stimulated the
American economy. It grew during the buildup to the war
and also during its prosecution. From 1915 the U. S. made
significant loans to the Allies to help their war effort.
Following the peace settlement at Versailles, the U. S.
economy temporarily weakened as production in America
went from wartime to peacetime manufacturing.
The U. S. economy not only grew from 1914-1918 but also made important
gains relative to the economies of European nations, many of which had
been significantly damaged by the effects of the war. Put a different way,
the U. S. did not suffer the catastrophic losses sustained by those nations
engaged for four long years in the conflict.
Internationally speaking, the war gave U. S. companies opportunity
to expand their reach around the world, filling a void left by the
belligerent nations during which these respective national economies
were primarily occupied with production of war materiel.
Meanwhile, rationing on the American home front,
combined with the shift from production of materials
used in war rather than consumer goods, enforced the
habit of savings on many Americans, thereby creating
the means to satisfy pent up consumer demands once
the war was over and the American economy
transitioned from wartime to peacetime production.
The outburst
outburst of
The
of spending
spending during
during the
the “Roaring 20s”
was largely made possible by this “happy”
convergence of circumstances.
Over the long term, U. S. involvement in the war
contributed to the coming of the Great Depression and
World War II. During the 1920s, Allied nations owing huge
sums in loan payback eventually ceased payment became
Germany, suffering hyperinflation and subsequent
economic collapse, defaulted on reparation payments that
had been used by the Allied powers to retire their debts to
America.
The heady postwar spending spree during the
1920s, particularly reckless investments in the
stock market, was also a contributing factor
to the economic collapse of the developed
world during the 1930s.
Fini