Notes
Imperialism
- Motives: new markets, naval bases (Alfred Thayer Mahan), and ideas of racial and cultural superiority.
- The Spanish-American War (1898) gave the U.S. Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines; Cuba became a protectorate. Hawaii was annexed (1898). A brutal war followed against Filipino independence fighters.
- The Open Door Policy sought equal trade access in China. Theodore Roosevelt's "big stick" diplomacy and the Panama Canal expanded U.S. power in Latin America.
The Progressive Era
- Muckrakers exposed problems (Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, Ida Tarbell on Standard Oil).
- Reforms: the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act (1906), trust-busting, the Federal Reserve (1913), and the 16th (income tax), 17th (direct election of senators), 18th (Prohibition) and 19th (women's suffrage, 1920) Amendments.
- Progressives often ignored racial justice. W.E.B. Du Bois helped found the NAACP (1909).
World War I and the 1920s
- The U.S. entered WWI in 1917 after German submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram. The war brought the Espionage and Sedition Acts and the Great Migration of Black Southerners to Northern cities.
- The Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations.
- The 1920s: consumer goods, cars, radio and movies; the Harlem Renaissance; but also the Red Scare, immigration quotas, the revived KKK, and the Scopes trial (modernism vs traditional values).
The Great Depression and the New Deal
- The 1929 stock market crash, bank failures, overproduction and unequal wealth led to the Great Depression. The Dust Bowl pushed farmers west.
- FDR's New Deal: relief, recovery and reform. Programs included the CCC and WPA (jobs), the FDIC (bank deposit insurance), the SEC, Social Security (1935), and the Wagner Act (union rights).
- Critics on the left (Huey Long) wanted more; conservatives said it went too far. The New Deal greatly expanded the federal government's role.
World War II
- The U.S. entered after Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941). The war ended the Depression through massive production.
- Women and minorities joined the workforce ("Rosie the Riveter"). Over 100,000 Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps (upheld in Korematsu v. U.S.). Black Americans pushed for a "Double V" (victory abroad and at home).
- The war ended in 1945 after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The U.S. emerged as a superpower.
Practice
Spain ceded these territories in the 1898 treaty.
His exposé of meatpacking shocked the public.
Ratified in 1920.
Many moved for factory jobs and to escape Jim Crow.
Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston were key figures.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was created in 1933.
It created the National Labor Relations Board.
Executive Order 9066 led to the internment.
Free response
Write your answer first, then open the scoring guide.
Free-response question
Answer (a), (b) and (c).
(a) Briefly describe ONE cause of the Great Depression.
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The 1929 stock market crash wiped out savings, and bank failures, overproduction and unequal distribution of wealth reduced spending.
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(b) Briefly describe ONE New Deal program and its purpose.
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Social Security (1935) gave pensions to the elderly and aid to the unemployed, creating a basic safety net.
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(c) Briefly explain ONE way the New Deal changed the role of the federal government.
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The government took responsibility for the economy and citizens' welfare, regulating banks and stocks and providing jobs and relief, much more than before.
Check off the points you earned: