The Age of Empire

Introduction to the Age of Empire

• Imperialism: the practice of having political or economic control over a territory that is outside the boundaries of your nation.
• The Civil War had an effect on the US economy as the North ramped up industrialization, made railroad tracks and factories, etc. This resulted in US becoming the leading industrial power in the world.
• Becoming an Imperial Power
• The leading powers of the world, including the US, wanted to become imperial powers for the purposes of domination of the seas, trade with new markets and cheaper raw materials.
• In the late 19^th century, US abandoned its policy of isolationism and worked towards becoming an imperial power. The ideology behind it was that Manifest Destiny is done; it was the time for ‘white man’s burden’.
• US declared war on Spain which was badly outmatched. As a result of the war, the United States acquired Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines as territories.
• Furthermore, US annexed Hawaii and used Pearl Harbor to strengthen its navy.
• Some people supported these moves with the ideology of ‘white man’s burden’. However, some criticized the moves calling it ironic as it was the same policies British used against the US during the colonial era.

Progressivism

Progressive Era

• After the Civil War, there was an influx of:
• Industrialization
• Immigration
• Urbanization
• This resulted in a series of social and political problems within the US and also the rise of ‘progressives’ who aimed to resolve these problems.
• The period of US history from the 1890s to the 1920s is usually referred to as the Progressive Era.
• An era of intense social and political reform aimed at making progress toward a better society by using the power of the federal government.
• It aimed to:
• Eliminate unethical business practices
• Reduce corruption
• Counteract the negative social effects of industrialization

Progressive Era

• Types of Progressives:
• Muckrakers – journalist and writers who tried to expose the evil side industrialization.
• Politicians – tried to reign in big businesses and protect consumers.
• Conservationists – tried to protect national parks and wilderness from exploitation.
• Female Reformers – tried to help women, children and immigrants achieve better working and living conditions.
• Progressives Ideologies:
• Believed in progress
• Support for federal government
• Progressive Divisions:
• Voting rights
• Immigration
• Belief in science
• Segregation

Progressive Era

• Achievements of Progressives:
• Pure Food and Drug Act for sanitation
• 8 hour work days
• Safety protections for workers
• Worker unions
• Limiting child labor
• Right to vote for women
• Monopoly busting
• Removing corruption (17^th amendment)
• Moral reform (18^th amendment)

US and World War I

The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson

• Woodrow Wilson was the 28th president of the United States.
• He served two terms in office, from 1913 to 1921.
• First Term
• Wilson was a Progressive Democrat who believed in the power of the federal government to resolve social problems and industrialization problems.
• During Wilson’s years in office, the US federal government was segregated and the Ku Klux Klan experienced a major revival. He aligned himself symbolically with the KKK by supporting segregation for which he was criticized heavily by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
• Second Term
• Wilson’s second term in office was dominated by the First World War.
• Wilson embraced a policy of neutrality in the European conflict.
• However, German aggression ultimately made it impossible for the United States to remain on the sidelines.
• The Germans sunk the British ocean liner Lusitania, which had many Americans on board, adopted policies of unrestricted marine warfare, and also the reveal of the Zimmerman Telegram.
• The United States declared war on Germany in April 1917.

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The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson

• Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points Objectives
• A postwar world in which all nations enjoyed mutual cooperation and respect.
• A League of Nations that would peacefully resolve all international disputes.
• US never joined the League of Nations due to objections from the Congress and it wasn’t fully realized either.
• After WWII, however, many of Wilson’s ideas and principles would be embodied in the Charter of the United Nations.

WW1 – US Causes to Enter the War

• Official Causes
1. German’s unrestricted submarine warfare
• Sinking of Lusitania
2. Zimmerman’s Telegram
• German’s asking support from Mexico in return for lost territories like Texas
3. Belgian atrocities by the German
4. Fighting for democracy
• Germany, Austria, and Hungary were monarchies
• Cynical Causes
• Financial ties with British
• War profiteer
• Successful propaganda

WW1 – US Home Front

• US declared war on Germany in 1917. It was a rapid transformation from neutrality to war.
• Committee on Public Information
• Propaganda campaigns focused on patriotism
• Support for democracy and capitalism
• WW1 and African Americans Opportunities
• Reduced immigration resulted in more jobs for African Americans.
• African Americans improved their status by showing patriotism
• Black soldiers hoped to win civil rights by fighting in war.
• Espionage and Sedition Acts
• Congress criminalized the expression of antiwar sentiment and criticism of the US government and armed forces.
• A push for a unified American public which supported the military.
• German immigrants suffered from these acts.
• Immigration restrictions were also put in place based on literacy and ethnic quotas.

WW1 – Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points

1. Public diplomacy and dealings of the nations.
2. Freedom of seas.
3. Free trade.
4. Domestic peace.
5. Open-minded, impartial adjustment of colonial claims.
6. Evacuation of Russian territory.
7. Belgium territory to be freed.
8. All French territory should be evacuated.
9. Italy territory to be evacuated.
10. Let the people in Central Powers determine their own fate; governance for Central Powers.
11. Romania, Serbia, to be evacuated.
12. Ottoman Empire should be assured sovereignty.
13. Independent Polish state.
14. A general association of nations - League of Nations.

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WW1 – Paris Peace Conference And Treaty Of Versailles

• Germany is responsible for WW1.
• Large tangible economic reparations for Germany ($400 billion in today’s monetary value).
• German army limited to 100K.
• German to be stripped of some territory; Poland was carved out of the German empire.
• German colonies around the world given to Allies.
• League of Nations created.
• US did not join though as Congress objected.
• Austria, Hungary and many other states created.

WW1 – The League of Nations

• The League of Nations was established at the end of World War I as an international peacekeeping organization.
• Although US President Woodrow Wilson was an enthusiastic proponent of the League, the United States did not officially join the League of Nations due to opposition from isolationists in Congress.
• The League of Nations effectively resolved some international conflicts but failed to prevent the outbreak of the Second World War.

1920s America

1920s Urbanization and Immigration

• By 1920, a majority of Americans lived in cities.
• Economic opportunities
• Immigrants and migrants worked on factory jobs.
• Women participated in labor force.
• Average people had access to
• Consumer goods
• Leisure
• Movies, radio and sports
• Backlash
• Americanism on the rise after WWI
• Labor strikes, bombings in 1919
• Racial pseudoscience
• KKK resurgence
• New immigration restrictions

The Great Depression

Presidency of Herbert Hoover

• In 1929, the stock market crash catalyzed the onset of the Great Depression.
• Hoover launched a massive public works program, part of which included funding for construction of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River.
• Although Hoover ran for reelection in 1932, his inability to mitigate the negative economic consequences of the Great Depression had made him widely unpopular.
• He lost the election to Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Causes for the Great Depression

• Stock Market Crash
• The value of the US stock market nearly doubled in a frenzy of speculative buying in the eighteen months before the crash began on “Black Thursday,” October 24, 1929.
• A share of US Steel which had sold for $262 before the crash sold in 1932 for $22.
• The stock market crash signaled the beginning of the Great Depression.
• Weak Banking System
• More than a third of the nation’s banks failed in the three years following 1929.
• Long lines of desperate and despairing people outside banks hoping to retrieve their savings were common.
• Many ordinary citizens lost their life savings when banks failed.

Causes for the Great Depression

• Further Collapse in Already-Low Farm Prices
• A devastating drought in Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas brought on a series of dust storms known as the Dust Bowl.
• In the South, sharecroppers—both white and black—endured crushing poverty and almost unimaginable degradation.
• Industrial Overproduction
• Global Economy Declined
• Countries in Europe and around the world experienced the depression.
• Hitler’s rise to power in Germany was fueled in part by the economic slowdown, and throughout the 1930s international tensions increased as the global economy declined

Effects of the Great Depression

• Unemployment
• Banking sector failed
• Stock market crashed
• Global economy declined
• Immigration effected in US
• Racial segregation
• Real estate problems
• Agricultural problems

FDR and The Great Depression

• In his 1932 run for the presidency, Roosevelt asserted that he would help “the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid,” and pledged himself to “a new deal for the American people.”
• As president he championed the series of federal legislative initiatives known as the New Deal.
• Although the New Deal did not ultimately succeed in lifting the United States out of the Great Depression, the United States' mobilization for World War II revived the economy during the late 1930s and 1940s.

The New Deal

• The New Deal was a set of domestic policies enacted under President Franklin D. Roosevelt that dramatically expanded the federal government’s role in the economy in response to the Great Depression.
• The New Deal is often summed up by the “Three Rs”:
• Relief (for the unemployed)
• Recovery (of the economy through federal spending and job creation)
• Reform (of capitalism, by means of regulatory legislation and the creation of new social welfare programs)
• Before the 1930s, national political debate often revolved around the question of whether the federal government should intervene in the economy. After the New Deal, debate rested on how it should intervene.

The New Deal – First New Deal

• The First New Deal began in a whirlwind of legislative action called “The First Hundred Days.”
• The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), which boosted agricultural prices by offering government subsidies to farmers to reduce output.
• The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which employed young, single men at federally funded jobs on government lands.
• The Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA), which gave federal grants to states that funded salaries for government workers as well as local soup kitchens and other direct-aid to the poor programs.
• The National Recovery Act (NRA), which sought to boost businesses’ profits and workers’ wages by establishing industry-by-industry codes that set prices and wages, as well as guaranteeing workers the right to organize into unions.
• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which guaranteed individuals that money they deposited in a bank would be repaid to them by the federal government in the event that their bank went out of business.
• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which brought important federal government oversight and regulation to the stock market.

The New Deal – Second New Deal

• The second phase of the New Deal focused on increasing worker protections and building long-lasting financial security for Americans.
• The Works Progress Administration (WPA), which employed millions of Americans in public works projects, from constructing bridges and roads to painting murals and writing plays.
• The Wagner Labor Relations Act, which guaranteed workers the right to form unions and bargain collectively.
• The Social Security Act, which required workers and employers to contribute—through a payroll tax—to the Social Security trust fund. That fund, in turn, makes monthly payments to retirees over the age of 65, as well as to the long-term disabled.
• The Fair Labor Standards Act, which mandated a 40-hour work week (with time-and-a-half for overtime), set an hourly minimum wage, and restricted child labor.

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The New Deal - Legacy

• Roosevelt’s New Deal sought to reinvigorate the economy by stimulating consumer demand.
• The New Deal embraced federal deficit spending to promote economic growth.
• The New Deal was only partially successful, however. The Supreme Court ruled against several New Deal initiatives in 1935, leading a frustrated Roosevelt to suggest expanding the Supreme Court to as many as fifteen Justices (a political misstep that would haunt him for the rest of his career).
• Nevertheless, key elements in the New Deal remain today, including federal regulation of wages, hours, child labor, and collective bargaining rights, as well as the social security system.

US And World War II

WWII - Beginning

• 1937
• all out war between China and Japan known as the Second Sino-Japanese War.
• Rise of Nazi Germany and Italy as extremely nationalistic nations and are against Communism.
• 1938
• Austria and Sudetenland are taken over by Germany.
• 1939
• Czechoslovakia taken over by the Germans. The Allies adopt a policy of appeasement with Germany.
• Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Soviet Union and Germany as a mutually non-aggression pact.
• Germany invades Poland.
• Soviet Union invades Poland.
• Italy occupies Albania.
• England and France declare war on Germany.

WWII – The Rise of Axis Powers

• 1940
• Germany invades Denmark, Norway, Netherlands and Belgium.
• Italy declares war on France and Britain.
• France falls to Germany.
• France divided into Free France and Vichy France (controlled by Germany).
• Germany begins bombing Britain.
• Japan joins the Axis powers by signing Tripartite Pact.
• Japan attacks French Indo China (modern day Vietnam).
• Hungary and Romania are pressured to join the axis.
• The British are able to drive the Italians into Libya in Africa.
• Italy tried to invade Greece but were pushed back by the British forces.

WWII – The Rise of Axis Powers

• 1941
• Bulgaria decides to join Axis Powers.
• Italian and German reinforcements push the British back into Egypt as the British forces went to defend Greece.
• Germany takes over Yugoslavia and Greece with help from the British powers.
• Pivotal decision: Hitler decides to attack the Soviet Union in summer of 1941 and began laying siege of Soviet Union. Germany has to fight two world powers now.
• US puts an oil embargo on Japan as it doesn’t like what is happening in the Pacific Ocean (China vs. Japan).
• The Japan went on the offensive and attacks Singapore, Guam, Philippines, Hong Kong and Pearl Harbor.
• Pivotal Decision: This angered the US and were already sympathetic to the Allies; US joins the war.

WWII – Tide Turned

• 1942
• Hitler loses the siege of Stalingrad in Soviet Union.
• British defeats Italy in Africa.
• The Allies, including the US, use North Africa to lay assault on European mainland under control of Nazi Germany.
• Doolittle Raid happens where Japan mainland is bombed.
• Battle of Coral Sea between US and Japan where Japan navy gets crippled (even though US lost more).
• Major US naval victory in Midway.

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WWII – Tide Turned

• 1943
• US starts to win over Japan in the Pacific.
• Soviet Union manages to stop Germany’s aggression in Stalingrad in 1942 but now they try to go on the offensive.
• British won in North Africa.
• The Allies fought their way from Africa into Italy.
• Italy surrenders to the Allies.

WWII – The End of World War II

• 1945
• The Allies surround Berlin, Germany from all sides.
• Hitler and major German leaders commit suicide.
• VE Day celebrated; Allies won in Europe.
• Japan, decides not to surrender for which US drops a bomb on Hiroshima. After 3 days, a bomb drops on Nagasaki.
• On August, 1945 – the Japanese surrendered.
• VJ Day celebrated; victory in Japan.

WWII – Pearl Harbor

• On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
• The surprise attack by some 350 Japanese aircraft sunk or badly damaged eighteen US naval vessels, including eight battleships, destroyed or damaged 300 US aircraft, and killed 2,403 men.
• Across the nation, Americans were stunned, shocked, and angered. The attack turned US public opinion in favor of entering the Second World War. The United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941.
• Japan’s allies, Germany and Italy, declared war on the United States on December 11. The United States responded in kind, and therefore entered World War II.

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WWII – FDR’s Strategy

• Roosevelt built a powerful wartime coalition with Britain and the Soviet Union, and led the nation to victory against Nazi Germany.
• After war broke out in Europe following Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939, Roosevelt, reflecting national sentiment, maintained US neutrality.
• Indirectly, however, Roosevelt supported the British and the Allies in their fight against Nazi Germany.
• US neutrality in World War II ended after Pearl Harbor.

WWII – FDR’s Strategy

• For the United States, the Second World War was simultaneously fought in two theaters of military combat, in Europe and in the Pacific.
• A war involving sixteen million American men mobilized into the armed forces—405,000 of whom lost their lives.
• Unfounded fears that Japanese American citizens might sabotage the war effort led Franklin Delano Roosevelt to order that all Americans of Japanese descent be forced into internment camps.
• Roosevelt was in poor health in the later years of his presidency. The combined toll of his struggle with polio and his role as Commander-in-Chief wore him down.
• On April 12, 1945 Roosevelt died from a cerebral hemorrhage while visiting Georgia.

WWII – United Nations

• The Secretariat is the main administrative organ of the UN. It commissions research and applies the findings of studies to making the UN a more effective and efficient organization.
• The General Assembly is the main deliberative body of the UN. Every country that is a member of the UN is represented in the General Assembly. The UN General Assembly convenes annually to deliberate and vote on important issues affecting world peace and security. The General Assembly can only make recommendations to member-states; it cannot make binding decisions, nor can it enforce those decisions – only the Security Council has the authority to do that.
• The Security Council is composed of five permanent members—the United States, Great Britain, France, Russia, and China— which were the five main Allied powers in the Second World War. There are also ten non-permanent seats on the Security Council that rotate between different countries every two years. The purpose of the Security Council is to peacefully resolve international conflicts and prevent the outbreak of war. UN Security Council resolutions are binding and are enforced by UN peacekeepers, which are military forces contributed by member-states.

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WWII – United Nations

• The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) was created to promote international economic and social cooperation and development, particularly in the developing world, or what was referred to during the Cold War as the “Third World.”
• Finally, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the judicial organ of the UN. At its headquarters at the Hague, Netherlands, the court hears legal disputes between states and issues opinions on legal matters submitted by members of the General Assembly or other UN agencies.

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