Causes of the Progressive Movement

• Excess of the Gilded Age

• Poor working conditions

• Child labor

Four Goals of Progressives

• Goal One- Protect social welfare, support churches, settlement houses, YMCA, Salvation Army.

• Goal Two – Promote moral improvement, improve morality, prohibition, Christian temperance movements.

• Goal Three – Economic reform, Labor leaders and socialism, muckrakers.

• Goal Four – Foster efficiency, improve society/workplace, simpler manufacturing, scientific management.

Progressive Movement

An early 20th century reform movement seeking to return control of the government to the people, to restore economic opportunities, and to correct injustices in American life.

Accomplishments

• State and Local Reform

• Election Reform

• Better Worker’s Rights

• Women’s Rights

State and Local Reform

End the era of the political machine and political boss.

Government needed to be more efficient and more responsive to its constituents.

Election ReformSecret Ballot

Primary Election for president

Initiatives and referendums.

Bills originated by the people and voted on during elections.

Recall election.

Seventeenth Amendment.

Senators would be elected directly by the people.

Discussion

• What does democratic mean?

• What are two ways American elections became more democratic?

Workers’ Rights

Child Labor

All family members need to work.

Children become fatigued easily and were more prone to injuries.

Did not get an education.

Laws were passed to ban child labor in most states.

Workers’ Rights

Muller v. Oregon

Ten hour workday for women.

Workers compensation.

Gave aid to families of those hurt or killed on the job.

Women in the Workforce

Farm women - their roll hadn’t changed much, took care of household tasks, raised livestock, sometimes worked in the fields.

Women in Industry - better pay, 1 out of 5 women worked, 25% worked in manufacturing, new jobs in offices, book keepers, and typists.

Domestic Workers - house cleaning, cooks, maids, many African Americans worked in this field.

Women ReformersDangerous conditions, long hours, low pay for workers.

International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union

Women’s Colleges - helped with jobs, etc.

Florence Kelley

Susan B. Anthony

Want Women’s Suffrage - women’s right to vote

Who is Theodore Roosevelt?

National Politics

President of the United States

Progressive leader.

The Square Deal

• Roosevelt would give a “Square Deal” to the American people.

• Use the “bully pulpit,” his ability to speak and promote causes to make change as the president

• It described Roosevelt’s progressive reforms.

The Jungle

• Who were muckrakers?

• Reading and Discussion

Regulating Food and Drugs

• Muckrakers

• Upton Sinclair – The Jungle

• Meat Inspection Act

• Placed strict cleanliness requirements for meatpackers. Creates federal meat inspection.

• Pure Food and Drug Act

• Ends sale of contaminated food and medicine.

• Labels must be truthful.

Bull Moose Party – Election of 1912

• Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party

• Created because the Republican Party did not represent the views of Roosevelt.

• Also, President Taft (R) was running for reelection.

• Splits the Republican Party – Roosevelt comes in 2nd in the election of 1912.

• Democrat Woodrow Wilson wins the election.

Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom

• Clayton Anti-trust Act

• Harder to form a trust.

• Strengthened unions.

• Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

• Regulates business, investigates violations, and requires reports from Corporations

• Federal Reserve System

• National banking system. Strengthens banks, adjust the amount of money in circulation, protected local banks.

Prohibition

• Banning the manufacture and sale of alcohol.

• 18th Amendment makes this a national law.

• The speak easy.

• Crime/Mafia

• Al Capone

Nineteenth Amendment

• Women’s Suffrage – the Right to Vote

• Passed in 1919, final ratification in 1920.

• Passes 72 years after the Seneca Falls Convention.

What is Imperialism?

• Colonialism – Europeans and America takes control of foreign lands.

• They want to civilize people in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

• Spread Christianity.

Expanding Manifest Destiny

• What was Manifest Destiny?

• Imperialism-the policy of extending a nation’s authority over other countries by economic, political, or military means.

• The U.S. wanted to show its strength.

Alaska

• Bought from Russia by Secretary of State Seward in 1867.

• Area is rich in timber, minerals, and oil.

• Became a state in 1959.

Aloha?

• Hawaii was important to American trade in the Pacific.

• The U.S. established Christian schools and churches.

• American owned-Hawaiian sugar plantations traded mostly with American companies.

Aloha? (cont.)• By 1900, foreigners and

immigrant laborers outnumbered Hawaiians 3 to 1.

• An increased American presence:

• United States built naval base at Pearl Harbor in 1887-refueling station for American ships.

Aloha? (cont.)

• In 1891, Queen Liluokalani proclaimed “Hawaii for Hawaiians”-get rid of voting restrictions.

• Business groups revolted and established a government led by Sanford B. Dole.

• President Cleveland recognized the Republic of Hawaii.

• In 1898, Congress made Hawaii an American territory.

• Became the 50th state in 1959.

“Cuba Libre!!”

• End of 19th Century = declining Spanish power.

• American businesses invested millions in Cuba (a Spanish colony).

• Stories of Spanish atrocities led to calls for Cuban independence-“Cuba Libre!”

Yellow Journalism

• American newspapers need more readers: William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer competed by publishing sensational and exaggerated accounts of the events in Cuba.

• Yellow journalism - sensational writing that exaggerated news to lure and enrage readers.

• “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”-Hearst

The Path to War

• President McKinley ordered the U.S.S. Maine to Havana in 1898.

– On February 15, 1898 the ship mysteriously blew up in the harbor, killing 260.

– American media blamed Spain.

• War was inevitable- “Remember the Maine!!”

– United States declared war on Spain on April 20, 1898.

Spanish American War

• Fought in the Philippines and Cuba.

• Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders-volunteer Calvary unit in Cuba.

• Fighting lasted less than 15 weeks.

– Secretary of State John Jay-”a splendid little war.”

Spanish American War (cont.)

Results:

• End of Spanish Empire

• Cuba was freed

• United States received Guam and Puerto Rico

• United States bought the Philippines for $20 million

• Sparked a debate in the United States-Did the U.S. have the right to control the Philippines?

Reasons Against Imperialism

• International trade did not require the United States to colonize.

• Imperialism was in contradiction to American founding principles: liberty, equality, and self-government.

• Foreign entanglements would lead to war.

An Independent Cuba?

• United States insisted that the Platt Amendment be added to the new Cuban constitution:

– Cuba could not make treaties that would allow other countries to control parts of its territories.

– United States could intervene in Cuba.

– The United States could buy/lease land in Cuba for naval purposes. (Guantanamo Bay)

The Not-So Independent Philippines• Americans forced Filipinos to live in designated areas

with poor sanitation where starvation and disease were rampant.

• Americans playing the role of Spain in Cuba?

• 70,000 U.S. troops sent to put down the rebellion.

• Took three years, cost 20,000 Filipino lives, and cost the United States $400 million.

• Philippines remained an American colony until 1946.

Open the Door to Asia

• Secretary of State John Hay

• Open Door Policy

• Called for equal trading rights in China for all imperial powers.

Latin America• Panama:

– Roosevelt wants a canal to shorten the voyage around South America.

– Panama, a Colombian province, was identified as the ideal location.

• Colombians refused.

Latin America (cont.)

• Roosevelt encouraged Panamanians to revolt and blocked Colombia with U.S. Navy.

• U.S. recognized the new government of Panama, who granted the United States the lease

• Panama Canal was completed in 1914.

• Latin America was angry at the USA.

Latin America (cont.)• The Roosevelt Corollary:

– Latin American nations owed debts to Europeans and were not paying them.

• Europeans threatened to invade if payment was not received.

– Roosevelt instructed European countries that the Monroe Doctrine restricted them from interfering.

• He proposed expanding the Monroe Doctrine to allow the U.S. to intervene in Latin American nations economic affairs to force them to pay their debts-the Roosevelt Corollary.

Latin America (cont.)

• Dollar Diplomacy - President Taft expanded the Roosevelt Corollary, urging American businesses to invest in Latin America.

A Neutral America?• Most Americans felt ties

to the British because of the common ancestry.

• Stories of German atrocities (some true, some not) made many support Allies against evil Germans.

• While the United States traded with both sides, they had significantly stronger trade ties with Allies (Britain, France, et. al.).

• While Americans wanted to see an Allied victory, they still did not want to fight.

Path to War

• Germany responded to the British blockade by launching a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

Threatened to sink any Allied ship found around Great Britain with U-boats (submarines).

• May 7, 1915-Germany sunk the British liner, Lusitania, killing 1,198 passengers (including 128 Americans).

Germany claimed the ship was carrying weapons, thus justifying the attack.

Americans were outraged and public opinion turned severely against the Germans.

Wilson wanted to avoid war, but Germans continued sinking ships carrying Americans.

Path to War (cont.)• Zimmerman Telegram-

German foreign secretary had secretly proposed an alliance with Mexico in the event of war with the United States.

• Offered the recovery of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona if Germany won the war.

• Message intercepted by the British.

• April 2, 1917-Woodrow Wilson asks Congress for declaration of war against Germany in order to make “the world safe for democracy.”

“Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind…We are glad…to fight…for the ultimate peace of the world must be made safe for democracy…We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities…it is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war…But the right is more precious than peace.”-Woodrow Wilson

An American Boost

• The entry of the United States into the war provided much needed resources and manpower for the Allies.

• Experienced a deadly style of fighting never witnessed before:

• Machine guns

• Tanks

• Airplanes

• Poisonous gas

• Armistice (cease-fire) signed on November 11, 1918, bringing the war to an end.

• The bloodiest war in history up to that point-22 million dead (48,000 Americans).

• American war materials and troops helped change the war, leading to the defeat of Germany.

A Plan for Peace• Fourteen Points-Wilson’s plan for

peace:

• Abolish secret treaties (Alliances)

• Freedom of the seas (Unrestricted Submarine Warfare)

• End Militarism

• Recognize rights of colonies within Empires (Imperialism)

• Promise “self-determination” to oppressed minority groups within European Empires

• Create the League of Nations-international organization designed to address international issues-allow countries to discuss and settle problems without war.

• Wilson’s plan was rejected by the remaining Allies-wanted to punish the Germans for the war.

Treaty of Versailles

• Treaty that ends World War I.

• Provisions:

• Established nine new countries in Europe.

• Created the Mandate System-former German colonies were given to France and Great Britain as temporary colonies (mandates)-would be given freedom when it was determined they were ready.

• Germany was not allowed to maintain an army or manufacture many weapons.

• Germany was forced to pay $33 billion in reparations to the Allies.

• War Guilt Clause-placed sole blame for the war on Germany.

• Created the League of Nations.

Treaty of Versailles (cont.)

• Angered Germans:

• Were not allowed to take part in the negotiations.

• Did not feel responsible for the war.

• Bred a sense of revenge in Germans against the Allied Powers.

Opposition in the United States

• Opposition to the Treaty of Versailles in the United States was led by Henry Cabot Lodge.

Argued that the League of Nations threatened American isolationist foreign policy.

Congress did not want to give up the power to commit troops to fighting to an outside group.

• Wilson refused to accept all compromise and the treaty failed-the United States settled with Germany in 1921 through a separate peace.

Legacy

“It cannot be that two million Germans should have fallen in vain…No, we do not pardon, we demand-vengeance!”-Adolf Hitler