The United States would not annex Cuba and would give Cuba independence.
The Platt Amendment
In 1901, Cuba included provisions that gave the US control over Cuban foreign affairs.
Cuba could not sign treaties without US consent.
The US could intervene in Cuba's domestic and foreign affairs.
The US is to build a military base in Guantanamo Bay.
The Platt Amendment was repealed in 1934 during FDR's Good Neighbor Policy.
The Philippines was not as lucky as Cuba.
The US annexed the island, hoping to increase its influence in Asia
The best-known rationale for US annexation was that Americans had the moral obligation to “Christianize and Civilize” the Philippines
In line with “Whiteman's Burden” in which many empires used to justify imperialism
White Man's Burden
A Kipling poem about the Philippine-American War in which the “duty” of white people was to civilize non white peoples through colonialism, as western civilization was “superior”.
1901-1903 Insular cases
The Supreme Court ruled that colonial subjects were under the same protections and privileges granted to US citizens by the Constitution
Open Door Policy
China should open its doors to everyone in its trade
America hoped to gain access to Asian markets.
This was because Europe was gatekeeping its colonized regions of China.
After the US joined forces with Europe to abolish the Boxer rebellion, Europe allowed the US entry into Chinese markets.
7.3 The Spanish–American War
William Seward purchased Alaska and used the Monroe Doctrine to force France out of Mexico.
Most Americans supported Expansionism, in which the US moved into foreign regions to do business.
Imperialism, however, in which the US took control of other countries, was more controversial.
The US annexed Hawaii in 1898 after 3 decades of economic and governmental intervention.
Blame the Maine on Spain
The USS Maine in Havana mysteriously blew up, leading many to blame Spain
This led to America declaring war on Spain.
Yellow Journalism
Newspapers printed exaggerated headlines without claims, causing public outrage and support of the war.
The US drove Spain out of Cuba and the Philippines.
7.4 The Progressives
Reforms
Progressives built on Populism's success.
They were urban middle-class reformers who wanted to increase the role of government in reform while maintaining capitalism.
In his book The Jungle, Upton Sinclair exposed the terrible working conditions of meat processing plants.
Led to a world ban and major reforms.
In response, Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act (1906)
The Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) responded to Sinclair's book.
Muckrakers
Progressive Journalists who exposed corporate greed and misconduct
Theodore Roosevelt (Teddy) took over the presidency after McKinley was assassinated in 1901
He used the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 to tear apart unions and dispel corporate monopolies.
Teddy was progressive at home but an intense imperialist abroad.
He promoted a rebel insurrection in Panama so the US could buy and build the Panama Canal.
Big Stick Diplomacy
Teddy’s policy was that the US would negotiate peacefully but also have military strength when something went wrong. It used a big stick or a powerful military.
Teddy stated that the US could intervene in Latin American affairs when they affected American security or became too chaotic.
Teddy's Square deal can be summed up as: Conservation, trust-busting, and consumer protection.
Taft, elected in 1908, continued the promotion of Progressive Ideals
Spearheaded the drive for 2 constitutional amendments
The 16th Amendment: National Income Tax
The 17th Amendment: Direct election of senators
Taft was known for dollar diplomacy
He attempted to secure good relationships with other countries by providing money and loans.
Election of 1912
Confusingly, three big candidates ran for president in 1912
Democratic Woodrow Wilson, Republican William Taft, and our good friend Teddy.
Teddy was unhappy with how the Republicans were running their party, so he ran as a third-party candidate from the Bull Moose party.
This rift in the Republicans caused Wilson to win the election of 1912
Reforms
Wilson created the Federal Trade Commission
This prevented unfair methods of competition in commerce.
Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, basically the Sherman Act, but it couldn't target Unions.
It was enforced by the FTC, splitting up more trusts and monopolies
Wilson also created theFederal Reserve System
This gave the government greater control over the nation's finances
Wilson was an outspoken white supremacist abroad.
The birth of a nation, a KKK sympathetic film, was the first film and was played at the white house often.
Prohibitionists
A large female group advocating for banning liquor got its wish with the passing of:
18th Amendment (1919)
Banned the manufacturing, sale, and trade of alcohol
21st Amendment (1933)
Repealed the 18th Amendment when prohibition failed, as it wasn't well enforced and led to the rise of the mafia.
19th Amendment (1920)
Women were given the right to vote. Super supported by the National Woman's Suffrage Association
Progressivism lasted until the end of WW1, when most progressive goals were met and Americans were too war-weary to advocate for more reforms
7.5 World War I: Military and Diplomacy
Before the War, many European empires had colonies all over the world, leading to fighting not only in Europe (though that was the main stage) but also in Africa and Asia.
Sentiments of Nationalism, which is the super pride of one's own nation's culture and country, fueled tensions.
Multiple alliances were formed between powers, drawing in countries from all over Europe.
In 1914, Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was shot in Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist.
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, and the war starts.
Serbia was allied with Russia, which was allied with France, and Austria was allied with Germany. Everyone declared war on each other.
Germany invades France through Belgium, bringing the UK into the war.
Italy joined in 1917, and the Ottomans joined in 1916.
WW1 was the first “modern war” (Crimean War doesn’t count).
New technologies, such as the Machine gun, artillery, and chemical gas, led to new war tactics, unprecedented death counts, and manufacturing speeds never seen before in war.
Russia capitulated in 1917 to a Soviet revolution.
Leading Up to Entering the War
The United States was isolationist (at least in Europe).
When the war broke out, Wilson immediately declared a US policy of neutrality.
Because there were many immigrants in the United States (especially German), Americans were generally also anti-war for the United States to join
German U-boats (Submarines) sank the passenger ship Lusitania in 1915, killing 128 Americans.
German unrestricted submarine warfare led to many sinkings of civilian ships, which helped sway American public opinion to the side of the Allies
Also, because Germany was committing mass war crimes in Belgium
In 1917, Germany sent the Zimmermann Telegram, asking for Mexico to attack the United States, and Germany would give Mexico support
This shifted American public perception heavily, and the United States joined the war
7.6 World War I: Home Front
The United States was becoming super rich off the backs of Europe, as it sold boatloads of supplies to the allies.
The US was now the world's richest and largest manufacturing power.
During wartime, the government's power expanded dramatically, seizing control of the telephone, telegraph, and rail industries.
Congress passed the Espionage Act in 1917,
This act criminalized actions that could interfere with the war effort.
In 1918, Congress passed the Sedition Act.
This made it illegal to speak badly of the United States government for the war effort.
The Committee on Public Information created lots of pro-war, anti-German propaganda.
Mostly took the form of lectures, films, and newspapers.
Germany and its allies surrendered on November 11th, 1918, marking the end of the First World War.
The war cost 16 million people, but only 115,000 Americans.
The war ruined most of Europe, while America was mostly unaffected.
Post War
After the Bolsheviks took over Russia in the 1917 Russian revolution, a mood of increased paranoia called The Red Scare took over America.
Fearing communist takeover, America developed an anti-communist attitude for the rest of its life. The The
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was created to prevent radicals from a total American takeover.
At the end of the war, Wilson created his 14 points, a set of principles that called for open diplomacy, a reduction in arms, freedom of commerce and trade, national self-determination,
Also called for the establishment of the League of Nations.
The League of Nations, a US-led organization that promoted world peace, was largely ineffective and did nothing.
Isolationist Republicans in Congress refused to allow the US to join the League of Nations.
The 1919 Treaty of Versailles severely reprimanded Germany, which was blamed for the war, and imposed intense reparations and other conditions on the country.
7.7 1920s: Innovations in Communication and Technology
New Technologies
Automobiles, radios, revolutions, vacuums, and cheeseburgers.
With mass production, middle-class consumption significantly rose.
The spirit of the American Nation shifted to one of consumerism
Consumerism is the consumption of goods
The booming advertising industry influenced America a lot
Women, influenced by newly gained voting rights and economic self-sustainability, embraced a new culture and became flappers
Flappers were women who drank, smoked, and broke traditional barriers
Great Migration
During WW1, Southern African Americans, realizing the Northern demand for manufacturing workers, went to large cities in the North.
In NYC's largest black neighborhood, the Harlem Renaissance ignited black culture, clubs, and newspapers.
Jazz music, a black musical invention, represented the Twenties the best.
7.8 1920s: Cultural and Political Controversies
Resistance
Renewed nativism, in the form of the Ku Klux Klan, emerged
The KKK resurgence in popularity in the 20s, attacking blacks, Jews, immigrants, and everyone the Klan didn’t like (Non-Anglo Protestants)
The Emergency Quota of 1924 set limits on national origin and discriminated against new immigrants who came from Southern and Eastern Europe.
In the 1920 case of Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian immigrants were convicted and executed despite inconclusive evidence because the public believed they were dangerous.
In the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, Tennessee school teacher John Scopes was fined 100 for breaking the state law forbidding teachers to teach Darwin's theory of evolution.
This represented the battle between traditionalism and modern thinking in America.
Politics
Three republican presidents in the 20s: Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover
Their administrations were pro-business:
After WW1, they shifted toward a pro-corporation stance, overturning a minimum wage law for women and nullifying child labor restrictions.
The Harding administration produced the infamous Teapot Dome Scandal, where oil companies bribed the Secretary of the Interior to drill oil on public lands.
Welfare capitalism
Where businessmen gave pensions and other benefits to keep employees away from tempting them to unionize
7.9 The Great Depression
Before the start, farmers were already in terrible financial conditions.
Huge crop deflations across the country have already led to many farm closures.
In October 1929, the stock market crashed on Black Tuesday, kick-starting the great depression.
Huge banks and corporations became bankrupt as their money reserves dried up.
People rushed in lines to withdraw their life savings, and banks ran out of money.
Impact was felt around the world.
The US was the world's biggest exporter and importer, but the depression stopped it, halting world trade.
For Germany, this was terrible news.
The Dawes plan of 1925 was for the United States to give loans to Germany to pay back their war debt.
With the Great Depression, the US wanted those loans back. Germany couldn’t pay back and fell into a worse state.
France and Britain were paying back numerous loans from the US in WW1.
Cycle: The US gives loans to Germany.
Germany uses this to pay France and the UK.
Allies use these to pay back the US.
However, everything fell apart when the US stopped giving loans to Germany.
In the US, consumer goods supply exceeded demand, leading to deflation and unemployment.
The government's lax regulations of large businesses concentrated wealth in the hands of a few people.
People started going politically to the far right or left when faced with tough situations.
Led to the rise of numerous fascist and communist states around the world.
US and World response
As thousands of banks failed, people lost their life savings.
Hoovervilles
Homeless Americans who built shanty towns.
The crazy deflation of produce prices has forced farmers to struggle to survive.
Prices dropped up to 50%
It also didn’t help that a prolonged drought and overused soil led to the Dust Bowl.
Millions of farmers moved west to California in search of jobs.
Hoover initially opposed relief efforts because he believed it violated the American ideal of individualism.
This led Hoover to be widely hated. It also marked the end of the “self-made man” and increased reliance on the government.
As the Depression worsened, he initiated farm assistance programs and federal work projects like the Hoover Dam to create jobs.
He hoped the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, the highest Tariff in US history, would help, but it instead worsened the economy.
Congress then created the Emergency Relief Administration, giving government money to companies that were big enough to pay it back later on.
Hoover's biggest embarrassment came when the Bonus Army, WW1 veterans who were promised pay by 1945, demanded that payment now.
They marched on the capital but were met with force from the US Army.
After all of these failures, the United States population, tired of economic failure, elected Democrat Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) in 1932.
7.10 The New Deal
FDR drafted the First New Deal and implemented most of the plans for major programs within the First 100 Days.
In these 100 days, FDR introduced 15 major bills designed to counter the effects of the Great Depression.
First New Deal programs included:
The Emergency Banking Relief Billput poorly-managed banks under government control
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, implemented through the Banking Act of 1933, guaranteed the return of 33 bank deposits.
The Agricultural Adjustment Act paid farmers who agreed to cut production by 50%
FDR also made the National Industrial Recovery Act consolidate businesses to eliminate overproduction/stabilize prices
The Public Works Administration, which created jobs via federal works projects, like building roads
The Tennessee Valley Authority is to improve Tennessee's infrastructure
The Wagner Act guaranteed the right to unionize, strike, and engage in collective bargaining
FDR connected with the average American through his fireside chats, through radio.
He reassured the public that his anti-Depression programs would work.
The Supreme Court ruled the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Agricultural Adjustment Act unconstitutional.
In response, FDR tried to get the Supreme Court from Republican to Democratic.
He did this through a failed scandalous court-packing scheme, in which FDR tried to increase the number of Supreme Court Justices from 9 to 15.
He continued with the Second New Deal.
The Works Progress Administration created more than 8 million jobs and employment for writers and artists.
It also created the Social Security Administration,providing retirement benefits for workers.
The Fair Labor Standards Act sets a minimum wage and a 40-hour work week
Union members, urban people, the lower class, and black people constantly voted for FDR as they benefited positively from his New Deal policies
7.11 Interwar Foreign Policy
Pre-WW2 Foreign Policy
In 1922, the Washington Conference gathered eight of the world's great powers. They set limits on stockpiling armaments and reaffirmed the Open Door Policy toward China.
In 1928, 62 nations signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which condemned war as a means of foreign policy, even though there were no enforcement clauses.
In Latin America, FDR tried to reverse previous policies withhis Good Neighbor policy in 1934, trying to gain favor with Latin American and Caribbean nations.
This repealed the Platt Amendment.
Congress passed two neutrality acts in 1935 and 1937, prohibiting the sale of arms to countries.
FDR ignored this one by selling arms to China during its invasion by Japan.
At the beginning of WW2, Congress relented with a third Neutrality Act in 1939, permitting arms sales to warring countries under strict conditions.
In 1941, FDR forced the Lend-Lease Act through Congress, permitting the US to lend arms to an Isolated England.
That same year, he met with Churchill at the Atlantic Charter Conference, a prerequisite for the United Nations.
It reviewed the Allies' goals for peace, which included national self-determination and economic and social international cooperation.
7.12 World War II: Mobilization
Due to the horrors of WW1, France and the UK did not want to join a new war.
As a result, they adopted the method of appeasement.
Diplomatic strategy involving making concessions to a potentially aggressive power to avoid conflict or war
In this case, Hitler wanted Austria (Annexed in 1937) and the Sudetenland, an area of Czech filled with Ethnic Germans.
In 1939, Hitler signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union, a nonaggression pact, and on September 1st, invaded Poland.
The Soviets took Eastern Poland.
Hitler then invades Norway and Denmark, and in 1940 invades France.
Unlike WW1, in which the Germans failed to take Paris, Hitler smashed through the Ardennes, the British retreated through Dunkirk, and Hitler took Paris in 6 weeks. This isolates Britain.
After failing to take Britain (Battle of Britain for the English Channel), Hitler then invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.
This goes well until the Battle of Moscow and Stalingrad (Turning point of the War in 1942).
Hitler was then squeezed out of Africa by the British and Americans in 1943, Italy capitulated later, and with the Soviets pushing into Berlin and the west with D-Day, Germany finally surrendered in 1945.
7.13 World War II: Military
The US entered WW2 after Imperial Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, destroying a lot of stuff.
The Big Three—Stalin, Churchill, and FDR—met in Tehran in 1943 to discuss important war issues.
Again, like other wars, the US government has more power.
The War Production Board allowed the government to oversee the mobilization of industry.
The Labor Disputes Act allowed the government to take over businesses.
The government sponsored research that made radar, sonar, and the atomic bomb in the Manhattan Project.
Japan is halted at the Battle of Midway, and a brutal island-hopping campaign ensues (Iwo Jima and Okinawa)
Millions of Japanese Americans, many of whom were citizens, were forcefully relocated to camps across the western US coast for security reasons.
In Korematsu v. United States (1944), the Supreme Court ruled that a citizen's civil liberties can be curtailed and violated during wartime.
To end the war, American planes dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
It's important to note that the firebombing of Japan's Mainland after the capture of surrounding islands left equal devastation already.
The Japanese surrendered, ending the war.
7.14 Postwar Diplomacy
At the end of the War, the Allies agreed to create the United Nations.
Despite this union, the American Soviet animosity grew without a common enemy.
The USSR was granted dominion over Eastern Europe and forced all the states to be communist, instead of the ideal democracies that the US wanted.
This decision marked the beginning of the Iron Curtain separating Eastern and Western Europe.
The Cold War had begun.
Summary
Comparison
Progressivism vs. New Deal: Both aimed to address social and economic issues, but Progressives focused more on regulating and reforming capitalism, while the New Deal involved direct government intervention and relief programs.
WWI vs. WWII: Both world wars pulled the U.S. out of economic slumps and expanded federal power. However, WWII led to a more significant and lasting global presence for the U.S., especially with the creation of the United Nations and the beginning of the Cold War.
Immigration attitudes: The late 1800s saw large-scale immigration, while the 1920s saw restrictive policies like the Immigration Act of 1924, reflecting growing nativism. WWII, however, reopened some avenues due to labor needs (e.g., the Bracero Program).
Civil Liberties during War: During WWI, the Espionage and Sedition Acts limited speech; WWII saw Japanese internment under Executive Order 9066 — both show civil liberties being suppressed during wartime.
Continuity
Racial Discrimination: Despite some gains (e.g., the Harlem Renaissance), segregation, disenfranchisement, and violence against Black Americans continued, especially in the South under Jim Crow laws
U.S. Economic Involvement: The U.S. continued expanding its economic influence globally, from imperial actions in the Philippines and Latin America to Lend-Lease and wartime production.
Nativism: Anti-immigrant sentiment persisted through the period, highlighted by Sacco & Vanzetti, the Red Scare, and immigration quotas.
Debates Over Government Power: Ongoing debate over how much the government should intervene in the economy, seen in responses to both the Progressive Era and the New Deal.
Change
Role of Government: The federal government’s role in the economy expanded dramatically under FDR's New Deal, setting a precedent for future welfare state policies.
Women’s Roles: Women's public participation increased (e.g., 19th Amendment, women in war industries during WWII, like in "Rosie the Riveter").
Foreign Policy: The U.S. shifted from a more isolationist stance post-WWI (e.g., rejection of the League of Nations) to a global leader after WWII.
Culture and Media: The rise of mass culture with radio, movies, and national consumer culture; cultural shifts like the Harlem Renaissance and Lost Generation writers.
Causation
Progressive Reforms: Progressives aimed to address issues caused by industrialization, urbanization, and corruption through legislation (e.g., the Pure Food and Drug Act, and child labor laws).
The Great Depression: Caused by over-speculation, banking failures, and the stock market crash in 1929, it led to mass unemployment and the New Deal.
U.S. Entry into WWI: Caused by German unrestricted submarine warfare, the Zimmermann Telegram, and economic ties to the Allies.
WWII: U.S. entry caused by Pearl Harbor in 1941, following increasing tensions with Japan and support for Allies via the Lend-Lease Act.
Red Scare: Sparked by the Russian Revolution and labor unrest, it led to fear of communism and government crackdowns on radicals.