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CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction: 5-Step Program

STEP 1 Set Up Your Study Program

1 What You Need to Know About the AP U.S. History Exam

Advanced Placement Program

AP U.S. History Exam

Taking the AP U.S. History Exam

2 Preparing for the AP U.S. History Exam

Getting Started

STEP 2 Determine Your Test Readiness

3 Take a Diagnostic Exam

How to Use the Diagnostic Exam

When to Use the Diagnostic Exam

Conclusion (After the Exam)

STEP 3 Develop Strategies for Success

4 Mastering Skills and Understanding Themes for the Exam

The AP U.S. History Exam

Historical Analytical Skills, Historical Themes, and Exam Questions

5 Strategies for Approaching Each Question Type

Multiple-Choice Questions

Short-Answer Questions

Document-Based Question (DBQ)

Long-Essay Question

Using Primary Source Documents

STEP 4 Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High

6 Settling of the Western Hemisphere (1491–1607)

Native America

The Europeans Arrive

Chapter Review

7 Colonial America (1607–1650)

New France

English Interest in America

Effects of European Settlement

Chapter Review

8 British Empire in America: Growth and Conflict (1650–1750)

Part of an Empire

Growth of Slavery

Political Unrest in the Colonies

Salem Witch Trials

Imperial Wars

American Self-Government

Salutary Neglect

First Great American Religious Revival

Chapter Review

9 Resistance, Rebellion, and Revolution (1750–1775)

War in the West

Defeat of New France

The British Need Money

Stamp Act Crisis

Townshend Acts

Boston Massacre

Boston Tea Party

Intolerable Acts

First Continental Congress

Chapter Review

10 American Revolution and the New Nation (1775–1787)

Lexington and Concord

Second Continental Congress

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense

Declaration of Independence

Reactions to Independence

Balance of Forces

The War in the North

The Saratoga Campaign

The War in the South

The Treaty of Paris

New State Constitutions and the Articles of Confederation

Financial Problems

Northwest Ordinances

Shays’ Rebellion

Chapter Review

11 Establishment of New Political Systems (1787–1800)

The Constitutional Convention

The Ratification Battle

The Bill of Rights

The Birth of the Party System

Hamilton’s Economic Program

Effects of the French Revolution

Washington’s Foreign Policy

The Presidency of John Adams

Chapter Review

12 Jeffersonian Revolution (1800–1820)

Election of 1800

An Assertive Supreme Court

A New Frontier

The Louisiana Purchase

Burr’s Conspiracy

Renewal of War in Europe

The War of 1812

The End of the War

A Federalist Debacle and the Era of Good Feelings

Henry Clay and the American System

Missouri Compromise

Chapter Review

13 Rise of Manufacturing and the Age of Jackson (1820–1845)

The Rise of Manufacturing

The Monroe Doctrine

Native American Removal

The Transportation Revolution and Religious Revival

An Age of Reform

Jacksonian Democracy

The Nullification Controversy

The Bank War

The Whig Party and the Second Party System

Chapter Review

14 Union Expanded and Challenged (1835–1860)

Manifest Destiny

The Alamo and Texas Independence

Expansion and the Election of 1844

The Mexican War

Political Consequences of the Mexican War

The Political Crisis of 1850

Aftermath of the Compromise of 1850

Franklin Pierce in the White House

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

“Bleeding Kansas”

The Dred Scott Decision

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

John Brown and Harpers Ferry

The Election of 1860

Chapter Review

15 Union Divided: The Civil War (1861–1865)

North and South on the Brink of War

Searching for Compromise

Gunfire at Fort Sumter

Opening Strategies

The Loss of Illusions

Union Victories in the West

The Home Fronts

The Emancipation Proclamation

The Turn of the Tide

War Weariness

The End of the War

16 Era of Reconstruction (1865–1877)

Lincoln and Reconstruction

Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction

Efforts to Help the Freedmen

Radical Reconstruction

The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

Final Phase of Radical Reconstruction

The End of Reconstruction

Chapter Review

17 Western Expansion and Its Impact on the American Character (1860–1895)

Government Encouragement of Western Settlement

Challenges for Western Farmers

Agricultural Innovation

Women and Minorities on the Agricultural Frontier

The Mining and Lumbering Frontier

The Ranching Frontier

The End of Native American Independence

Agrarian Anger and Populism

The Gold Standard

The Grange and Farmers’ Alliances

The Populist Revolt

Populism and the Election of 1896

The Idea of the West

Chapter Review

18 America Transformed into the Industrial Giant of the World (1870–1910)

An Industrial Revolution

Changes in American Industry

A Changing Workplace

Big Business

The Emergence of Labor Unions

Uneven Affluence

The New Immigration

The Rise of the Modern American City

Gilded Age Politics

Social Criticism in the Gilded Age

Chapter Review

19 Rise of American Imperialism (1890–1913)

Postwar Diplomacy

Acquiring Hawaii

The New Imperialism

The Spanish–American War

Combat in the Philippines and Cuba

The Cuban Conundrum

The Debate over Empire

The Panama Canal

The Roosevelt Corollary

Chapter Review

20 Progressive Era (1895–1914)

Roots of Progressivism

Progressive Objectives

Urban Progressivism

State-Level Progressivism

Progressivism and Women

Workplace Reform

Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal

Taft and Progressivism

The Election of 1912

Wilson and Progressivism

Assessing Progressivism

Chapter Review

21 United States and World War I (1914–1921)

War and American Neutrality

Growing Ties to the Allies

The Breakdown of German-American Relations

America in the War

The American Expeditionary Force in France

The Home Front

Regulating Thought

Social Change

Wilson and the Peace

Woodrow Wilson’s Defeat

Chapter Review

22 Beginning of Modern America: The 1920s

The Prosperous Twenties

The Republican “New Era”

Warren G. Harding as President

President Calvin Coolidge

The Election of 1928

The City Versus the Country in the 1920s

Popular Culture in the 1920s

Jazz Age Experimentation and Rebellion

The Growth of the Mass Media

A Lost Generation?

Chapter Review

23 Great Depression and the New Deal (1929–1939)

American Economy of the 1920s: Roots of the Great Depression

Stock Market Crash

Social Impact of the Great Depression

Hoover Administration and the Depression

1932 Presidential Election

First Hundred Days

Second New Deal

Presidential Election of 1936

Opponents of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal

Last Years of the New Deal

Effects of the New Deal

New Deal Culture

Chapter Review

24 World War II (1933–1945)

American Foreign Policy in the 1930s

United States and the Middle East in the Interwar Era

Presidential Election of 1940 and Its Aftermath

Attack on Pearl Harbor

America Enters the War

Role of the Middle East in World War II

War Against Japan

Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb

Home Front During the War

Discrimination During the War

Chapter Review

25 Origins of the Cold War (1945–1960)

First Cracks in the Alliance: 1945

The Iron Curtain

Marshall Plan

Berlin: The First Cold War Crisis

1949: A Pivotal Year in the Cold War

Middle East in the Early Years of the Cold War

Cold War at Home

Heating of the Cold War: Korea

Rise of McCarthyism

Cold War Policies of President Eisenhower

Dangerous Arms Buildup

Chapter Review

26 Prosperity and Anxiety: The 1950s

Economic Growth and Prosperity

Political Developments of the Postwar Era

Civil Rights Struggles of the Postwar Period

Conformity of the Suburbs

Chapter Review

27 America in an Era of Turmoil (1960–1975)

1960 Presidential Election

Domestic Policies under Kennedy and Johnson

Struggle of Black Americans: From Nonviolence to Black Power

Rise of Feminism

Cold War in the 1960s

Vietnam War and Its Impact on American Society

Chapter Review

28 Decline and Rebirth (1968–1988)

Presidency of Richard Nixon

Watergate Affair

Presidency of Gerald Ford

Presidency of Jimmy Carter

Election of 1980

Presidency of Ronald Reagan

Chapter Review

29 Prosperity and a New World Order (1988–2000)

1988 Election

Presidency of George H. Bush

1992 Election

Presidency of Bill Clinton

2000 Presidential Election

Chapter Review

30 Threat of Terrorism, Increase of Presidential Power, and Economic Crisis (2001–2014)

9/11 and Its Aftermath

Events Leading Up to the American Invasion of Iraq

Operation Iraqi Freedom

Effects of the War at Home

Victory of Conservatism in the Bush Era

United States in Transition: 2007–2008

Obama Presidency

Election of 2012

President Obama’s Second Term

The Election of 2016

Chapter Review

31 Contemporary America: Evaluating the “Big Themes”

STEP 5 Build Your Test-Taking Confidence

AP U.S. History Practice Exam 1

AP U.S. History Practice Exam 2

Glossary

Bibliography

Websites

PREFACE

So, you have decided to take AP U.S. History. Prepare to be continually challenged in this course: this is the only way you will attain the grade that you want on the AP exam in May. Prepare to read, to read a lot, and to read critically; almost all students successful in AP U.S. History say this is a necessity. Prepare to analyze countless primary source documents; being able to do this is critical for success in the exam as well. Most important, prepare to immerse yourself in the great story that is U.S. history. As your teacher will undoubtedly point out, it would be impossible to make up some of the people and events you will study in this class. What really happened is much more interesting!

This study guide will assist you along the journey of AP U.S. History. The chapter review guides give you succinct overviews of the major events of U.S. history. At the end of each chapter is a list of the major concepts, a time line, and multiple-choice and short-answer review questions for that chapter. In addition, a very extensive glossary is included at the back of this manual. All of the boldface words throughout the book can be found in the glossary (it would also be a good study technique to review the entire glossary before taking the actual AP exam).

The first five chapters of the manual describe the AP test itself and suggest some test-taking strategies. There are also two entire sample tests, with answers. These allow you to become totally familiar with the format and nature of the questions that will appear on the exam. On the actual testing day you want absolutely no surprises!

In the second chapter, you will also find time lines for three approaches to preparing for the exam. It is obviously suggested that your preparation for the examination be a year-long process; for those students unable to do that, two alternative calendars also appear. Many students also find that study groups are very beneficial in studying for the AP test. Students who have been successful on the AP test oftentimes form these groups very early in the school year.

It should also be noted that the AP U.S. History exam that you will be taking may be different than the one that your older brother or sister took in the past. The format of the exam changed in 2015. We will outline the test in detail in the first several chapters. Please do not use old study guides or review sheets that were used to prepare for prior tests; these do not work anymore!

We hope this manual helps you in achieving the “perfect 5.” That score is sitting out there, waiting for you to reach for it.

INTRODUCTION: 5-STEP PROGRAM

The Basics

This guide provides you with the specific format of the AP U.S. History exam, three sample AP U.S. History tests, and a comprehensive review of major events and themes in U.S. history. After each review chapter, you will find a list of the major concepts, a time line, and several review multiple-choice and short-answer questions.

Reading this guide is a great start to getting the grade you want on the AP U.S. History test, but it is important to read on your own as well. Several groups of students who have all gotten a 5 on the test maintain that the key to success is to read as much as you possibly can on U.S. history.

Reading this guide will not guarantee you a 5 when you take the U.S. History exam in May. However, by carefully reviewing the format of the exam and the test-taking strategies provided for each section, you will definitely be on your way! The review section that outlines the major developments of U.S. history should augment what you have learned from your regular U.S. history textbook. This book won’t “give” you a 5, but it can certainly point you firmly in that direction.

Organization of the Book

This guide conducts you through the five steps necessary to prepare yourself for success on the exam. These steps will provide you with many skills and strategies vital to the exam and the practice that will lead you toward the perfect 5.

In this introductory chapter we will explain the basic five-step plan, which is the focus of this entire book. The material in Chapter 1 will give you information you need to know about the AP U.S. History exam. In Chapter 2 three different approaches will be presented to prepare for the actual exam; study them all and then pick the one that works best for you. Chapter 3 contains a practice AP U.S. History exam; this is an opportunity to experience what the test is like and to have a better idea of your strengths and weaknesses as you prepare for the actual exam. Chapter 4 describes historical skills and themes emphasized in the exam. Chapter 5 contains a number of tips and suggestions about the different types of questions that appear on the actual exam. We will discuss ways to approach the multiple-choice questions, the short-answer questions, the document-based question (DBQ), and the long-essay question. Almost all students note that knowing how to approach each type of question is crucial.

For some of you, the most important part of this manual will be found in Chapters 6 through 31, which contain a review of U.S. history from the European exploration of the Americas to the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Undoubtedly, you have studied much of the material included in these chapters. However, these review chapters can help highlight certain important material that you may have missed or forgotten from your AP History class. At the end of each chapter, you will also find a list of the major concepts, time line of important events discussed in the chapter, and multiple-choice and short-answer review questions.

After these review chapters you will find two complete practice exams, including multiple-choice questions, short-answer questions, and essays. Correct answers and explanations for these answers are also included. Take one of the exams and evaluate your success; review any material that you had trouble with. Then take the second exam and use the results to guide your additional study. At the back of the manual is a glossary that defines all of the boldface words found in the review chapters. Use this to find the meaning of a specific term you might be unfamiliar with; some students find reviewing the entire glossary a useful method of reviewing for the actual exam.

Five-Step Program

Step 1: Set Up Your Study Program

In Step 1, you will read a brief overview of the AP U.S. History exam, including an outline of the topics that might be covered on the test itself. You will also follow a process to help determine which of the following preparation programs is right for you:

• Full school year: September through May

• One semester: January through May

• Six weeks: Basic Training for the Exam

Step 2: Determine Your Test Readiness

Step 2 provides you with a diagnostic exam to assess your current level of understanding. This exam will let you know about your current level of preparedness and on which areas and periods you should focus your study.

• Take the diagnostic exam slowly and analyze each question. Do not worry about how many questions you get right. Hopefully the exam will boost your confidence.

• Review the answers and explanations following the exam, so that you see what you do and do not yet fully know and understand.

Step 3: Develop Strategies for Success

Step 3 provides strategies and techniques that will help you do your best on the exam. These strategies cover the multiple-choice, short-answer, and the two different essay parts of the test. These tips come from discussions with both AP U.S. History students and teachers. In this section you will:

• Learn the skills and themes emphasized in the exam.

• Learn how to read and analyze multiple-choice questions.

• Learn how to answer multiple-choice questions, including whether or not to guess.

• Learn how to respond to short-answer questions.

• Learn how to plan and write both types of essay questions.

Step 4: Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High

Step 4 makes up the majority of this book. In this step you will review the important names, dates, and themes of American history. Obviously, not all of the material included in this book will be on the AP exam. However, this book is a good overview of the content studied in a “typical” AP U.S. History course. Some of you are presently taking AP courses that cover more material than is included in this book; some of you are in courses that cover less. Nevertheless, thoroughly reviewing the material in the content section of this book will significantly increase your chance of scoring well.

Step 5: Build Your Test-Taking Confidence

In Step 5, you will complete your preparation by taking two complete practice exams and examining your results on them. It should be noted that the practice exams included in this book do not include questions taken from actual exams; however, these practice exams do include questions that are very similar to the “real thing.”

Graphics Used in This Book

To emphasize particular skills and strategies, we use several icons throughout this book. An icon in the margin will alert you that you should pay particular attention to the accompanying text. We use three icons:

The first icon points out a very important concept or fact that you should not pass over.

The second icon calls your attention to a problem-solving strategy that you may want to try.

The third icon indicates a tip that you might find useful.

Boldface words indicate terms that are included in the glossary at the end of the book. Boldface is also used to indicate the answer to a sample problem discussed in the test. Throughout the book, you will find marginal notes, boxes, and starred areas. Pay close attention to these areas because they can provide tips, hints, strategies, and further explanations to help you reach your full potential.

What You Need to Know About the AP U.S. History Exam

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: Learn about the test, what’s on it, how it’s scored, and what benefits you can get from taking it.

Key Ideas

Most colleges will award credit for a score of 4 or 5. Even if you don’t do well enough on the exam to receive college credit, college admissions officials like to see students who have challenged themselves and experienced the college-level coursework of AP courses.

Since 2015, the exam has had a new format. The new exam de-emphasizes the simple memorization of historical facts. Instead, you have to demonstrate an ability to use historical analytical skills and think thematically across time periods in American history.

In addition to multiple-choice and short-answer questions, the test contains a DBQ (document-based question) and one long-essay question.

Advanced Placement Program

The Advanced Placement (AP) program was begun by the College Board in 1955 to administer standard achievement exams that would allow highly motivated high school students the opportunity to earn college credit for AP courses taken in high school. Today there are 34 different AP courses and exams, with well over 4.5 million exams administered each May.

There are numerous AP courses in the social studies besides U.S. History, including European History, World History, U.S. Government and Politics, Comparative Government, Psychology, and Micro and Macro Economics. The majority of students who take AP courses and exams are juniors and seniors; however, some schools offer AP courses to freshmen and sophomores (AP U.S. History is usually not one of those courses). It is not absolutely necessary to be enrolled in an AP class to take the exam in a specific subject; there are rare cases of students who study on their own for a particular AP examination and do well.

Who Writes the AP Exams? Who Scores Them?

AP exams, including the U.S. History exam, are written by experienced college and secondary school teachers. All questions on the AP exams are field tested before they actually appear on an AP exam. The group that writes the history exam is called the AP U.S. History Development Committee. This group constantly reevaluates the test, analyzing the exam as a whole and on an item-by-item basis.

As noted in the preface, the AP U.S. History exam has undergone a substantial transformation that will take effect beginning with the 2015 test. The College Board has conducted a number of institutes and workshops to ensure that teachers across the United States are well qualified to assist students in preparing for this new exam.

The multiple-choice section of each AP exam is graded by computer, but the free-response questions are scored by humans. A number of college and secondary school teachers of U.S. History get together at a central location in early June to score the free-response questions of the AP U.S. History exam administered the previous month. The scoring of each reader during this procedure is carefully analyzed to ensure that exams are being evaluated in a fair and consistent manner.

AP Scores

Once you have taken the exam and it has been scored, your raw scores will be transformed into an AP grade on a 1-to-5 scale. A grade report will be send to you by the College Board in July. When you take the test, you should indicate the college or colleges that you want your AP scores sent to. The report that the colleges receive contains the score for every AP exam you took this year and the grades that you received on AP exams in prior years. In addition, your scores will be sent to your high school. (Note that it is possible, for a fee, to withhold the scores of any AP exam you have taken from going out to colleges. See the College Board website for more information.)

As noted above, you will be scored on a 1-to-5 scale:

• 5 indicates that you are extremely well qualified. This is the highest possible grade.

• 4 indicates that you are well qualified.

• 3 indicates that you are qualified.

• 2 indicates that you are possibly qualified.

• 1 indicates that you are not qualified to receive college credit.

Benefits of the AP Exam

If you receive a score of a 4 or a 5, you can most likely get actual college credit for the subject that you took the course in; a few colleges will do the same for students receiving a 3. Colleges and universities have different rules on AP scores and credit, so check with the college or colleges that you are considering to determine what credit they will give you for a good score on the AP History exam. Some colleges might exempt you from a freshman-level course based on your score even if they don’t grant credit for the score you received.

The benefits of being awarded college credits before you start college are significant: You can save time in college (by skipping courses) and money (by avoiding paying college tuition for courses you skip). Almost every college encourages students to challenge themselves; if it is possible for you to take an AP course, do it! Even if you do not do well on the actual test—or you decide not to take the AP test—the experience of being in an AP class all year can impress college admissions committees and help you prepare for the more academically challenging work of college.

AP U.S. History Exam

Achieving a good score on the AP U.S. History exam will require you do more than just memorize important dates, people, and events from America’s history. To get a 4 or a 5 you have to demonstrate an ability to utilize specific historical analytical skills when studying history. In addition, you will be asked to demonstrate your ability to think thematically and evaluate specific historical themes across time periods in American history. Every question on the AP U.S. History exam is rooted in these analytical skills and historical themes. You’ll find more information about these analytical skills and historical themes in Chapter 4.

As far as specific content, there is material that you need to know from nine predetermined historical time periods of U.S. history. For each of these time periods, key concepts have been identified. You will be introduced to a concept outline for each of the historical periods in your AP course. You can also find this outline at the College Board’s AP U.S. History website. These concepts are connected to the historical themes and analyzed using historical analytical skills.

To do well on this exam you have to exhibit the ability to do much of the work that “real” historians do. You must know major concepts from every historical time period. You must demonstrate an ability to think thematically when analyzing history, and you must utilize historical thinking skills when doing all of this. The simple memorization of historical facts is given less emphasis in the new exam. This does not mean that you can ignore historical detail. Knowledge of historical information will be crucial in explaining themes in American history. Essentially this exam is changing the focus of what is expected of AP U.S. History students. It is asking you to take a smaller number of historical concepts and to analyze these concepts very carefully. The ability to do this does not necessarily come easily; one of the major functions of this book is to help you “think like a historian.”

Periods of U.S. History

As noted earlier, U.S. history has been divided into specific time periods for the purposes of the AP course. The creators of the AP U.S. History exam have established the following nine historical periods and have also determined approximately how much of the year should be spent on each historical era:

• Period 1: 1491 to 1607. Approximately 5 percent of instructional time should be spent on this period.

• Period 2: 1607 to 1754. Approximately 10 percent of instructional time should be spent on this period.

• Period 3: 1754 to 1800. Approximately 12 percent of instructional time should be spent on this period.

• Period 4: 1800 to 1848. Approximately 10 percent of instructional time should be spent on this period.

• Period 5: 1844 to 1877. Approximately 13 percent of instructional time should be spent on this period.

• Period 6: 1865 to 1898. Approximately 13 percent of instructional time should be spent on this period.

• Period 7: 1890 to 1945. Approximately 17 percent of instructional time should be spent on this period.

• Period 8: 1945 to 1980. Approximately 15 percent of instructional time should be spent on this period.

• Period 9: 1980 to present. Approximately 5 percent of instructional time should be spent on this period.

On the actual AP test that you will take:

• 5 percent of the exam will relate to issues concerning Period 1.

• 45 percent of the exam will relate to issues concerning Periods 2, 3, 4, and 5.

• 45 percent of the exam will relate to issues concerning Periods 6, 7, and 8.

• 5 percent of the exam will relate to issues concerning Period 9.

Many students are worried when their AP class doesn’t get to the present day. As you can see, only 5 percent of the test is on material after 1980; therefore, making it all the way to Barack Obama will not have a major impact on your score.

Structure of the AP U.S. History Exam

The AP U.S. History exam consists of two sections, each of which contains two parts. You’ll be given one hour and 45 minutes to complete Section I, which includes multiple-choice questions (Part A) and short-answer questions (Part B). You’ll have 90 minutes to complete Section II, which includes the document-based question (Part A) and the long-essay question (Part B). Here is the breakdown:

Section I

• Part A: 55 multiple-choice questions—55 minutes recommended—40% of the exam score.

• Part B: Four short-answer questions—50 minutes recommended—20% of the exam score. These questions will address one or more of the themes that have been developed throughout the course and will ask you to use historical thinking when you write about these themes.

Section II

• Part A: One document-based question (DBQ)—55 minutes recommended—25% of the exam score. In this section, you will be asked to analyze and use a number of primary-source documents as you construct a historical argument.

• Part B: One long-essay question—35 minutes recommended—15% of the exam score. You will be given a choice between two long-answer questions in this section. It will be critical to use historical thinking skills when writing your response.

This presents an overview. There will be more information about the different components of the exam later in this book.

Taking the AP U.S. History Exam

Registration and Fees

If you are enrolled in AP U.S. History, your teacher or guidance counselor is going to provide all of these details. However, you do not have to enroll in the AP course to take the AP exam. When in doubt, the best source of information is the College Board’s website: www.collegeboard.com.

There are also several other fees required if you want your scores rushed to you or if you wish to receive multiple score reports. Students who demonstrate financial need may receive a refund to help offset the cost of testing.

Night Before the Exam

Last minute cramming of massive amounts of material will not help you. It takes time for your brain to organize material. There is some value to a last-minute review of material. This may involve looking at the fast-review portions of the chapters or looking through the glossary. The night before the test should include a light review and various relaxing activities. A full night’s sleep is one of the best preparations for the test.

What to Bring to the Exam

Here are some suggestions:

• Several pencils and an eraser that does not leave smudges.

• Several black pens (for the essays).

• A watch so that you can monitor your time. The exam room may or may not have a clock on the wall. Make sure you turn off the beep that goes off on the hour.

• Your school code.

• Your driver’s license, Social Security number, or some other ID, in case there is a problem with your registration.

• Tissues.

• Something to drink—water is best.

• A quiet snack.

• Your quiet confidence that you are prepared.

What Not to Bring to the Exam

It’s a good idea to leave the following items at home or in the car:

• Your cell phone and/or other electronic devices.

• Books, a dictionary, study notes, flash cards, highlighting pens, correction fluid, a ruler, or any other office supplies.

• Portable music of any kind (although you will probably want to listen as soon as you leave the testing site!).

• Panic or fear. It’s natural to be nervous, but you can comfort yourself that you have used this book and that there is no need for fear on your exam.

Day of the Test

Once the test day has arrived, there is nothing further you can do. Do not worry about what you could have done differently. It is out of your hands, and your only job is to answer as many questions correctly as you possibly can. The calmer you are, the better your chances are of doing well.

Follow these simple commonsense tips:

• Allow plenty of time to get to the test site.

• Wear comfortable clothing.

• Eat a light breakfast and/or lunch.

• Think positive. Remind yourself that you are well prepared and that the test is an enjoyable challenge and a chance to share your knowledge.

• Be proud of yourself!

Preparing for the AP U.S. History Exam

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: The right preparation plan for you depends on your study habits and the amount of time you have before the test. This chapter provides some examples of plans you can use or adapt to your needs.

Key Ideas

Choose the study plan that is right for you.

Begin to prepare for the AP exam at the beginning of the school year. Developing historical analytical skills, evaluating themes in U.S. history, and studying important concepts take far more time and effort than by simply memorizing facts. The sooner you begin preparing for the test, the better.

Getting Started

You have made the decision to take AP U.S. History. Enjoy! You will be exposed to all of the fascinating stories that make up U.S. history. To be successful in this course, you will have to work much harder than you would in a “regular” high school U.S. history course. You will be required to read more, including reading and analyzing a wide variety of primary source documents throughout the year. In addition, you will be required to utilize historical thinking, to analyze history in a thematic way, and to be knowledgeable of specific concepts that help guide the study of American history. It cannot be stressed enough that the examination for this course that you will take in May is not a test that will simply measure what you “know” about U.S. history; instead, it is an examination that tests your ability to analyze major events, concepts, and themes in American history utilizing specific historical analytical skills.

Being able to utilize historical analytical skills, study history thematically, and develop conceptual thinking are not skills that develop overnight. In fact, it is difficult to develop these skills in the context of one specific course. If you are reading this before you are actually enrolled in an AP U.S. History course, you may want to take the most challenging history courses you can before you take AP U.S. History. Try to think conceptually in any history course that you take; it involves integrating historical facts into larger interpretive themes.

Creating a Study Plan

As has already been noted several times, preparing for this exam involves much more than just memorizing important dates, names, and events that are important in U.S. history. Developing historical analytical skills, evaluating themes in U.S. history, and studying important concepts take far more time and effort than by simply memorizing facts. Therefore, it is strongly suggested that you take a year-long approach to studying and preparing for the test.

However, for some students this is not possible. Therefore, some suggestions for students who have only one semester to prepare for the exam and students who have only six weeks to prepare for the exam are included. In the end, it is better to do some systematic preparation for the exam than to do none at all.

Study Groups

Many students who have gotten a 5 on the U.S. History exam reported that working in a study group was an important part of the successful preparation that they did for the test. In an ideal setting, three to five students get together, probably once a week, to review material that was covered in class the preceding week and to practice historical, thematic, and conceptual thinking. If at all possible, do this! A good suggestion is to have study groups set a specific time to meet every week and stick to that time. Without a regular meeting time, study groups usually meet fewer times during the year, often cancel meetings, and so on.

THREE PLANS FOR TEST PREPARATION

Plan A:
Yearlong Preparation for the AP U.S. History Exam

This is the plan we highly recommend. Besides doing all of the readings and assignments assigned by your teacher, also do the following activities. (Check off the activities as you complete them.)

IN THE FALL

______ Create a study group and determine a regular meeting time for that group.

______ Coordinate the materials in this manual with the curriculum of your AP U.S. History class.

______ Study the review chapters in Step 4 of this book that coincide with the material you are studying in class.

______ Begin to do outside reading on U.S. history topics (either topics of interest to you or topics that you know you need more background in).

______ In your study group, emphasize historical analysis and thematic and conceptual thinking.

FROM DECEMBER TO MARCH

______ Continue to meet with your study group and emphasize historical analysis and thematic and conceptual thinking.

______ Continue to study the review chapters in Step 4 of this book that coincide with the material you are studying in class.

______ Take the diagnostic test in Step 2 of this book to see what the test will be like and assess your strengths and weaknesses.

______ Learn the strategies discussed in Step 3 of this book. Practice applying them as you study and review for the AP U.S. History exam.

______ Carefully study the format and approach to document-based questions (DBQs). You will probably have one on your midterm exam in class.

______ Using the eras of U.S. history you have studied in class, create your own DBQ for two of the units and try to answer it.

______ Intensify your outside reading of U.S. history topics.

______ Take two U.S. history textbooks and compare and contrast their handling of three events of U.S. history. What do these results tell you?

DURING APRIL AND MAY

______ Continue to meet with your study group and emphasize historical analysis and thematic and conceptual thinking. Many study groups meet at additional times in the weeks leading up to the test.

______ Continue to study the review chapters in Step 4 of this book that coincide with the material you are studying in class.

______ Practice creating and answering multiple-choice and short-answer questions in your study group.

______ Develop and review worksheets of essential historical content with your study group.

______ Highlight material in your textbook (and in this manual) that you may not understand, and ask your teacher about it.

______ Write two or three essays as they would appear on the exam under timed questions and have a member of your study group (or a classmate) evaluate them.

______ Take the practice tests provided in Step 5 of this book. Set a timer and practice pacing yourself.

You are well prepared for the test. Go get it!

Plan B:
One-Semester Preparation for the AP U.S. History Exam

Besides doing all of the readings and assignments assigned by your teacher, you should do the following activities. (Check off the activities as you complete them.)

FROM JANUARY TO MARCH

______ Establish a study group of other students preparing in the same way that you are. In your study group you should review essential factual knowledge, but also analyze the essential themes and concepts in the course.

______ Study the review chapters in Step 4 of this book that coincide with the material you have studied or are studying in class.

______ Take the diagnostic test in Step 2 of this book to familiarize yourself with the test and assess your strengths and weaknesses.

______ Learn the strategies discussed in Step 3 of this book. Practice applying them as you study and review for the AP U.S. History exam.

______ Write two or three document-based and sample multiple-choice questions.

______ Read at least one outside source (historical essay or book) on a topic that you are studying in class.

______ In your study group, practice creating and answering short-answer and multiple-choice questions.

DURING APRIL AND MAY

______ Continue to meet with your study group, and review essential factual knowledge and essential themes and concepts of the course you have taken or are currently taking. Some study groups increase the amount of time that they meet together in the weeks right before the test.

______ Study the review chapters in Step 4 of this book that coincide with the material you have studied or are presently studying in class. Focus on weak areas you identified in the diagnostic test of Step 2 of this book.

______ Practice creating and answering sample essays with your study group.

______ Develop and review worksheets of essential historical content with your study group.

______ Ask your teacher to clarify things in your textbook or in this manual that you do not completely understand. If you have nagging questions about some specific historical details, get the answers to them!

______ Take the practice tests provided in Step 5 of this book. Set a timer and practice pacing yourself.

Plan C:
Four- to Six-Week Preparation for the AP U.S. History Exam

Besides doing all of the reading and assignments assigned by your teacher, do the following activities. (Check off the activities as you complete them.)

IN APRIL

______ Take the diagnostic test in Step 2 of this book to familiarize yourself with the test and assess your strengths and weaknesses.

______ Study the review chapters in Step 4 of this book that coincide with any weak areas you identified from the diagnostic exam.

______ Learn the strategies discussed in Step 3 of this book. Practice applying them as you study and review for the AP U.S. History exam.

______ Write one sample document-based question (DBQ) as modeled by samples in this manual.

______ Carefully review the sections of this manual that outline the essential content of each historical period.

______ If possible, create or join a study group with other students to help prepare for the exam.

IN MAY

______ Many teachers organize study sessions right before the actual exam. Go to them!

______ With your study group or individually, review essential content from the course and major concepts of each unit.

______ Complete another sample DBQ essay and analyze your results.

______ Review the glossary of this manual another time to help review essential content.

______ Be certain of the format of the test and the types of questions that will be asked.

______ Take the practice tests provided in Step 5 of this book. Set a timer and practice pacing yourself.

Take a Diagnostic Exam

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: In the following pages, you will find a diagnostic exam whose content and structure closely matches the “real” AP U.S. History exam. Use this test to familiarize yourself with the actual test and to assess your strengths and weaknesses.

How to Use the Diagnostic Exam

Section I of the AP U.S. History exam contains a multiple-choice section and a short-answer section. The test is now set:

Section II contains the document-based question (DBQ) and an essay question—you will need to pick one question to answer out of the two questions you are given.

55 minutes for 55 multiple-choice questions
50 minutes for 4 short-answer questions
55 minutes for one document-based question
35 minutes for one long essay question

The purpose of this chapter is to allow you to familiarize yourself with the test and to assess your test readiness in terms of both the skills and the content understanding needed. Try to take this test under testlike conditions; in other words, time yourself and do the test—or at least each section of the test—uninterrupted. Note that in Chapter 5 you will find strategies for each type of question that will allow you to more effectively and efficiently tackle the questions.

When to Use the Diagnostic Exam

This diagnostic test can be helpful to you regardless of whether you are following Plan A, B, or C. Those who chose Plan A should study this exam early in the year so that you will thoroughly understand the format of the test. Look for the types of multiple-choice and short-answer questions early and carefully study the format of the essay questions. Go back and look at this exam throughout the year: Many successful test-takers maintain that knowing how to tackle the questions that will be asked on any exam is just as important as knowledge of the subject matter.

Plan B students (who are using one semester to prepare) should also analyze the format of the exam. Plan B folks: as you begin using this book you might also want to actually answer the multiple-choice and short-answer questions dealing with content you have already studied in class and answer the document-based question and the free-response question and evaluate your results. This will help you analyze the success of your previous preparation for the test.

Plan C students should take this diagnostic exam as soon as they begin working with this manual to analyze the success of their previous preparation for the actual exam.

Conclusion (After the Exam)

After you have studied or taken the diagnostic exam, you will continue to Step 3 of your 5 Steps to a 5. Chapter 5 will provide you with tips and strategies for answering all of the types of questions that you found on the diagnostic exam.

Don’t be discouraged and if you answered a lot of questions on the diagnostic exam incorrectly. At this point, the main thing is that you get a feel for the types of questions that you will encounter on the real AP U.S. History exam.

AP U.S. HISTORY DIAGNOSTIC EXAM

Answer Sheet for Multiple-Choice Questions

AP U.S. HISTORY DIAGNOSTIC EXAM

Section I

Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes

Part A (Multiple Choice)

Part A recommended time: 55 minutes

Directions: Each of the following questions refers to a historical source. These questions will test your knowledge about the historical source and require you to make use of your historical analytical skills and your familiarity with historical themes. For each question select the best response and fill in the corresponding oval on your answer sheet.

Questions 1–4 refer to the following cartoon.

Political cartoon from 1807

1. This cartoon criticizes which policy of President Thomas Jefferson?

A. The Louisiana purchase

B. The Embargo Act

C. The War with Tripoli

D. Reductions in government spending

2. Jefferson was responding to what situation?

A. British interference with American shipping and trade

B. British support for Indians in the West

C. Aggressive actions by the French Emperor Napoleon

D. Electoral losses to domestic opponents

3. Which of the following reflects how many Americans responded to Jefferson’s policy?

A. Emigrating to other countries

B. Advocating military involvement in the Napoleonic Wars

C. Engaging in illicit trade with foreign countries

D. Moving to the Western frontier

4. Which of the following most closely resembles Jefferson’s policy?

A. The Open Door in China

B. The Good Neighbor Policy with South America

C. Manifest Destiny of the 1840s

D. Neutrality Laws of the 1930s

Questions 5–8 refer to the following quotation.

Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all those who live in that totalitarian darkness—pray that they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world.… But if history teaches anything, it teaches that simpleminded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly. It means the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom. So, I urge you to speak out against those who would place the United States in a position of military and moral inferiority.… So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride—the temptation of blithely … declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.

—Ronald Reagan, Address to the National Association of Evangelicals, March 8, 1983

5. The sentiments in the passage above most directly reflect which of the following?

A. A religious revival in the 1980s

B. An intensification of the cold war in the early 1980s

C. A desire to limit the size of government

D. A distrust of the American military

6. Which of the following would have been most likely to approve the sentiments expressed in the passage?

A. An antinuclear activist

B. An atheist

C. A Democrat

D. A Republican

7. The sentiments expressed in the passage are most closely linked to which of the following policies?

A. Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

B. Business deregulation

C. Encouraging prayer in the public schools

D. Military cutbacks

8. The sentiments in the passage best reflect which long-standing concern of American presidents?

A. Support for civil rights

B. Promoting the separation of church and state

C. Containment of communism

D. Expanding the welfare state

Questions 9–12 refer to the following quotation.

They were smart and sophisticated, with an air of independence about them, and so casual about their looks and manners as to be almost slapdash. I don’t know if I realized as soon as I began seeing them that they represented the wave of the future, but I do know I was drawn to them. I shared their restlessness, understood their determination to free themselves of the Victorian shackles of the pre-World War I era and find out for themselves what life was all about.

—Colleen Moore, movie star, writing about the 1920s

9. In this passage, Moore is writing about which of the following?

A. The Ku Klux Klan

B. Prohibitionists

C. Flappers

D. The Model T

10. Many young women of the 1920s expressed their freedom through which of the following?

A. Political activism

B. “Mannish” haircuts, new clothing styles, and cosmetics

C. Living amongst the poor in settlement houses

D. Rejection of marriage and child-rearing

11. The new freedoms for women in the 1920s were supported by which of the following?

A. Widespread economic prosperity

B. Growth in fundamentalist Christianity

C. A massive movement of women into political offices

D. Moral reforms like the temperance movement

12. The passage by Moore most directly reflects which of the following continuities in United States history?

A. Concerns about economic inequality

B. Efforts to expand civil rights

C. Worries about political radicalism

D. Concerns for individual liberty and self-expression

Questions 13–16 refer to the following quotation.

I am for doing good to the poor, but … I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed … that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

—Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography

13. In this passage, Franklin takes a position similar to which of the following?

A. Advocates of a market-driven economy like Adam Smith

B. Supporters of the First Great Awakening

C. Opponents of British rule in America

D. Believers in an extensive social welfare system

14. The idea that Franklin expresses in this passage most directly reflects which of the following continuities in U.S. history?

A. Concern about a religious foundation for society

B. Belief in individual self-reliance

C. A distrust of politicians

D. A desire to expand Social Security

15. Which of the following helped Franklin justify his position?

A. Strong class distinctions in colonial America

B. British efforts to tax Americans

C. A decline in religious beliefs

D. Social mobility in colonial America

16. Which of the following presidents would be most likely to share Franklin’s position?

A. Barack Obama

B. Lyndon Baines Johnson

C. Calvin Coolidge

D. Franklin D. Roosevelt

Questions 17–20 refer to the following cartoon.

Thomas Nast, Harper’s Weekly, June 10, 1871

17. Which of the following best expresses Nast’s perspective in this cartoon?

A. New York City is benefiting from the leadership of Tammany Hall boss William M. Tweed

B. New Jersey is unfairly exploiting New York City

C. The federal government is oppressing New York City

D. Tammany Hall boss William M. Tweed wields too much power in New York City

18. Urban political machines like Tammany Hall derived most of their support from which of the following?

A. Immigrants and lower-class voters

B. The wealthier classes of society

C. Patronage from the federal government

D. Rural voters from outside the city

19. Urban political machines endured for many years because they provided which of the following?

A. Honest and efficient government

B. Help and services for the poor

C. Rights and privileges unavailable outside the city

D. Opposition to the encroachments of the federal government

20. Nast’s journalistic perspective can best be compared to which of the following?

A. Progressive muckrakers exposing the business practices of the Standard Oil Company

B. Yellow journalists during the period of the Spanish-American War

C. Reporters investigating President Richard M. Nixon during the Watergate scandal

D. Newspaper coverage of World War II

Questions 21–24 refer to the following quotation.

At last they brought him [John Smith] to Werowocomoco, where was Powhatan, their emperor. Here more than two hundred of those grim courtiers stood wondering at him, as he had been a monster; till Powhatan and his train had put themselves in their greatest braveries. Before a fire upon a seat like a bedstead, he sat covered with a great robe, made of raccoon skins, and all the tails hanging by. On the other hand did sit a young wench of sixteen or eighteen years, and along on each side of the house, two rows of men, and behind them as many women, with all their heads and shoulders painted red, many of their heads bedecked with the white down of birds, but every one with something, and a great chain of white beads about their necks. At his entrance before the king, all the people gave a great shout.… Having feasted him after their best barbarous manner they could, a long consultation was held, but the conclusion was, two great stones were brought before Powhatan; then as many as could laid hands on him, dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being ready with their clubs to beat out his brains, Pocahontas, the king’s dearest daughter, when no entreaty could prevail, got his head in her arms, and laid her own upon his to save his from death; whereat the emperor was contented he should live to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads, and copper; for they thought him as well of all occupations as themselves. For the king himself will make his own robes, shoes, bows, arrows, pots; plant, hunt, or do anything so well as the rest.

—John Smith, The General Historie of Virginia, 1624

21. Which of the following best describes the perspective of Captain John Smith?

A. Powhatan and his followers were a backward people.

B. Europeans unfairly looked down on Indians.

C. Indians lacked the vices of the more technologically advanced Europeans.

D. Indian women were the dominant force in their society.

22. Smith’s account makes clear which of the following?

A. The people of Powhatan’s Confederacy were divided by strong class distinctions.

B. Powhatan’s people made important decisions by consensus.

C. Powhatan enjoyed the same sorts of power as a European king.

D. Powhatan’s people lived in poverty.

23. Smith’s story best illustrates which of the following?

A. Indians were unusually cruel.

B. Europeans were usually deceitful in dealing with Indians.

C. The English were foolish to venture into the American wilderness.

D. Indian-European relations often suffered from misunderstanding and suspicion.

24. In the context of this story, Pocahontas can best be compared to which of the following women?

A. Susan B. Anthony

B. Sally Ride

C. Jane Addams

D. Amelia Earhart

Questions 25–28 refer to the following quotation.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

—Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have a Dream” speech, Lincoln Memorial, August 28, 1963

25. Martin Luther King, Jr., in this passage is calling for which of the following?

A. Economic justice for the poor

B. Renewed commitment to the cold war struggle against communism

C. Equal rights for African Americans

D. Special privileges for African Americans

26. In this passage, King points out which of the following?

A. A contradiction between American ideals and American practice

B. A need to create new American ideals

C. The superiority of African American values

D. The futility of hoping for change

27. At the time of King’s speech, which of the following would be likely to oppose King’s message?

A. A Midwestern Republican Senator

B. A Southern Democratic Senator

C. A Northern liberal

D. A member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

28. In this passage, King is addressing which continuity in U.S. history?

A. The struggle for greater economic opportunity

B. A fear of sectionalism in the United States

C. Concerns about moral decline

D. The struggle for individual liberty

Questions 29–32 refer to the following cartoon.

War Department cartoon, 1943
Credit: U.S. Army

29. The message of the cartoon can be best described by which of the following?

A. The invasion of Europe is endangered by inferior weapons.

B. The war is being lost.

C. Too many American supplies have been given to allied nations.

D. Civilians play a vital role in the war effort.

30. Viewing this cartoon would encourage Americans to do which of the following?

A. Avoid the wasteful use of metal products

B. Plant a victory garden

C. Volunteer for military service

D. Build fewer ships and construct more tanks

31. This cartoon most directly refers to which aspect of the American war effort during World War II?

A. American efforts to launch a second front in Europe as early as possible

B. Military operations in the Mediterranean in 1942 and 1943

C. American industrial production

D. Efforts to create new and improved weapons systems

32. The message of the cartoon for Americans can best be compared to which of the following?

A. The environmental movement of the 1970s

B. The boycotts of British goods in the 1760s and 1770s

C. Abolitionism in the nineteenth century

D. Consumerism in the 1950s

Questions 33–36 refer to the following quotation.

That whereas your poor and humble Petition(er) being condemned to die, do humbly beg of you to take it into your Judicious and pious considerations that your poor and humble petitioner knowing my own innocence Blessed be the Lord for it and seeing plainly the wiles and subtlety of my accusers by my self can not but Judge charitably of Others that are going the same way of my self if the Lord steps not mightily in I was confined a whole month upon the same account that I am condemned now for and then cleared by the afflicted persons as some of your honors know and in two days time I was cried out upon by them and have been confined and now am condemned to die the Lord above knows my innocence then and likewise does now at the great day will be known to men and Angels I petition your honors not for my own life for I know I must die and my appointed time is set but the Lord he knows it is that if be possible no more Innocent blood may be shed which undoubtedly cannot be avoided In the way and course you go in I Question not but your honors does to the utmost of your Powers in the discovery and detecting of witchcraft and witches and would not be guilty of Innocent blood but for the world but by my own innocence I know you are in the wrong way the Lord in his infinite mercy direct you in this great work if it be his blessed will that no more innocent blood be shed.

—Mary Easty, petition to her judges, Salem, Massachusetts, 1692

33. Mary Easty in this passage is asking her judges to do which of the following?

A. Stop condemning innocent persons to death for witchcraft

B. Redouble their efforts to find the real witches in Salem

C. Separate church from state in their deliberations

D. Stop their oppression of women

34. Most historians believe that the Salem Witch Trials were the result of which of the following?

A. The activities of a coven of witches in Salem

B. Social tensions in Salem

C. English efforts to enforce religious conformity in Massachusetts

D. The ideas of the English political philosopher John Locke

35. The religious convictions of Mary Easty and the rest of Salem were shaped by which of the following?

A. Roman Catholicism

B. Anglicanism

C. Quakerism

D. Puritanism

36. Writers and intellectuals have often compared the Salem Witch Trials to which of the following?

A. The mistreatment of slaves in the South

B. Anti-immigrant rioting in the nineteenth century

C. Government actions in the Red Scares of the twentieth century

D. The suppression of strikers in the late nineteenth century

Questions 37–40 refer to the following quotation.

Companions in Arms!! These remains which we have the honor of carrying on our shoulders are those of the valiant heroes who died in the Alamo. Yes, my friends, they preferred to die a thousand times rather than submit themselves to the tyrant’s yoke. What a brilliant example! Deserving of being noted in the pages of history. The spirit of liberty appears to be looking out from its elevated throne with its pleasing mien and pointing to us saying: “These are your brothers, Travis, Bowie, Crockett, and others whose valor places them in the rank of my heroes.” Yes soldiers and fellow citizens, these are the worthy beings who, by the twists of fate, during the present campaign delivered their bodies to the ferocity of their enemies; who barbarously treated as beasts, were bound by their feet and dragged to this spot, where they were reduced to ashes. The venerable remains of our worthy companions as witnesses, I invite you to declare to the entire world, “Texas shall be free and independent or we shall perish in glorious combat.”

—Colonel Juan N. Seguin, Alamo Defenders’ Burial Oration, Columbia Telegraph and Texas Register, April 4, 1837

37. Colonel Juan N. Seguin honored the memory of the defenders of the Alamo because

A. they fought to the death for their cause

B. they defeated an invading Mexican army

C. they saved New Orleans from the British

D. they saved San Antonio from a large war band of Comanche

38. Colonel Seguin’s oration makes it clear that

A. he thought the defense of the Alamo was a strategic mistake

B. many Tejanos (Texans of Mexican descent) favored Texan independence

C. he thought the United States was imposing a tyranny on Texas

D. he opposed the movement of American settlers into Texas

39. The defenders of the Alamo gave their lives for what continuity in American history?

A. The quest for racial justice

B. The desire for political liberty

C. The search for social security

D. Opposition to gun control

40. A dispute over the boundary of Texas led to which of the following conflicts?

A. The War of Jenkins’ Ear

B. The Quasi-War with France

C. The Spanish–American War

D. The Mexican War

Questions 41–44 refer to the following quotation.

When we stormed the Pentagon, my wife and I we leaped over this fence, see. We were really stoned, I mean I was on acid flying away, which of course is an antirevolutionary drug you know, you can’t do a thing on it. I’ve been on acid ever since I came to Chicago. It’s in the form of honey. We got a lab guy doin’ his thing. I think he might have got assassinated, I ain’t seen him today. Well, so we jumped this here fence, see, we were sneaking through the woods and people were out to get the Pentagon. We had this flag, it said NOW with a big wing on it, I don’t know. The right-wingers said there was definitely evidence of Communist conspiracy ’cause of that flag.… So we had Uncle Sam hats on, you know, and we jumped over the fence and we’re surrounded by marshals, you know, just closin’ us in, about 30 marshals around us. And I plant the . . . flag and I said, “I claim this land in the name of free America. We are Mr. and Mrs. America. Mrs. America’s pregnant.” And we sit down and they’re goin’ . . . crazy. I mean we got arrested and unarrested like six or seven times.

—Abbie Hoffman, Yippie Workshop Speech, 1968

41. Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies were protesting which of the following?

A. McCarthyism

B. The Great Society

C. Legal acid

D. The Vietnam War

42. Which of the following most directly influenced the ideas of Hoffman and the Yippies?

A. Muckrakers

B. The New Deal

C. The New Left

D. The New Conservatism

43. Which of the following most directly influenced the tactics of Hoffman and the Yippies?

A. The Civil Rights Movement

B. The House Un-American Activities Committee

C. The Tea Party Movement

D. The Social Gospel

44. The counterculture of the 1960s sought which of the following?

A. Economic security for the Baby Boom generation

B. Political and military security against the threat of Communism

C. Greater freedom for personal self-expression

D. A return to traditional religious and family values

Questions 45–48 refer to the following image.

Amos Doolittle, “The Battle of Lexington,” 1775

45. The British decision to fire on American militiamen at Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775, led to which of the following?

A. A controversial court case

B. A series of uprisings against the British government across the colonies

C. A collapse in the support for the Sons of Liberty

D. An invasion by the French in Canada

46. British military commanders always assumed that they would benefit from which of the following?

A. Command of the sea

B. The support of the other European powers

C. Superior air power

D. The support of a majority of Americans for Parliament’s legislation

47. When the Americans rebelled against Great Britain, they benefitted from which of the following?

A. The enormous industrial productivity of the United States

B. Weapons that were technologically superior to those of the British

C. The support of most Native American peoples

D. The great geographical extent of the country

48. Militiamen played a key role during the American Revolutionary War by

A. repeatedly routing British Regulars in battle

B. waging a spectacular campaign of sabotage and commando raids

C. controlling populations not under the direct supervision of the British Army

D. buying out the contracts of Britain’s Hessian mercenaries

Questions 49–52 refer to the following quotation.

I arrived at Wichita the 28^th, the raid was postponed until the 29^th. I took hatchets with me and we also supplied ourselves with rocks, meeting at the M. E. church, where the W. C. T. U. Convention was being held. I announced to them what we intended doing and asked them to join us. Sister Lucy Wilhoite, Myra McHenry, Miss Lydia Muntz, and Miss Blanch Boies, started for Mahan’s wholesale liquor store. Three men were on the watch for us, we asked to go in to hold gospel services as was our intention before destroying this den of vice, for we wanted God to save their souls, and to give us ability and opportunity to destroy this soul damning business. They refused to let us come near the door. I said, “Women, we will have to use our hatchets,” with this I threw a rock through the front, then we were all seized, and a call for the police was made. There was of course, a big crowd. Mrs. Myra McHenry was in the hands of a ruffian who shook her almost to pieces. One raised a piece of a gas pipe to strike her, but was prevented from doing so. We were hustled into the hoodlum wagon, and driven through the streets amid the yell, execrations and grimaces of the liquor element.

—Carry A. Nation, The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation, Written by Herself, 1905

49. For which of the following causes was Carry A. Nation famous as an activist?

A. Temperance

B. Women’s suffrage

C. Trust busting

D. Muckraking

50. Nation can be compared most directly to which of the following?

A. Tecumseh

B. Abraham Lincoln

C. Rosa Parks

D. Hillary Clinton

51. Nation’s cause would attain a great victory with the enactment of

A. the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the vote

B. the Sherman Antitrust Ac

C. the Social Security Act

D. Prohibition

52. The major event that helped pave the way for the triumph of Nation’s cause was

A. the assassination of William McKinley

B. World War I

C. The Great Depression

D. World War II

Questions 53–55 refer to the following quotation.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there be granted to the several States, for the purposes hereinafter mentioned, an amount of public land, to be apportioned to each State a quantity equal to thirty thousand acres for each senator and representative in Congress to which the States are respectively entitled under the census of eighteen hundred and sixty.… And be it further enacted, That all moneys derived from the sale of the lands aforesaid . . . and the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated by each State which may take and claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life.

—Morrill Land-Grant Act, July 2, 1862

53. Which of the following was a major purpose of the Morrill Land-Grant Act?

A. To stimulate the excellence of American literature

B. To provide higher education to women

C. To provide support to farmers and working men

D. To address worries about the low educational level of soldiers in the Union Army

54. The Morrill Land-Grant Act reflected the governing philosophy of which political party?

A. The Federalist Party

B. The Republican Party

C. The Democratic Party

D. The Populist Party

55. The Morrill Land-Grant Act can be compared most directly to which of the following?

A. The Homestead Act

B. The Kansas–Nebraska Act

C. The Pure Food and Drug Act

D. The Agricultural Adjustment Act

Part B (Short Answer)

Part B recommended time: 50 minutes

Directions: Answer the following four questions. Carefully read and follow the directions for each question. Some will refer to historical sources. These questions will require you to make use of your historical analytical skills and your familiarity with historical themes. These questions do not require you to develop a thesis in your responses.

Question 1 is based on the following two passages:

I think, and shall try to show, that it is wrong; wrong in its direct effect, letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska and wrong in its prospective principle, allowing it to spread to every other part of the wide world where men can be found inclined to take it.

This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites; causes real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty—criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest.

—Abraham Lincoln

I will stand by that great principle of States’ rights, no matter who may desert it. I intend to stand by it for the purpose of preserving peace between the North and South, the free and slave States. If each State will only agree to mind its own business, and let its neighbors alone, there will be peace forever between us.… I hold that the people of the slaveholding States are civilized men as well as ourselves; that they bear consciences as well as we, and that they are accountable to God and their posterity, and not to us. It is for them to decide, therefore, the moral and religious right of the slavery question for themselves within their own limits. I assert that they had as much right under the Constitution to adopt the system of policy which they have as we had to adopt ours. So it is with every other State in this Union. Let each State stand firmly by that great Constitutional right, let each State mind its own business and let its neighbors alone, and there will be no trouble on this question. If we will stand by that principle, then Mr. Lincoln will find that this Republic can exist forever divided into free and slave States, as our fathers made it and the people of each State have decided.

—Stephen Douglas

1. Using the excerpts, answer A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of the political position supported by Abraham Lincoln.

B. Briefly explain ONE example of the political position supported by Stephen Douglas.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of a way one of these perspectives influenced American politics in the 1850s.

2. Answer A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain how ONE of the following reflected American expansionism.

The French and Indian War

The Louisiana Purchase

The Mexican War

B. Briefly explain how a SECOND of these options reflected American expansionism.

C. Briefly explain the perspective of someone opposed to ONE of the examples that you chose.

3. Answer A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain how ONE of the following was important in the formation of a distinctly American identity in the colonies.

The Great Awakening

The French and Indian War

Resistance to the Stamp Act and other examples of British taxation

B. Briefly explain how a SECOND of these options was important in the formation of a distinctly American identity in the colonies.

C. Briefly explain how ONE of these events influenced the American Revolution.

Question 4 is based on the following image:

Clifford Berryman, 1936

4. Using the 1936 image, answer A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain the subject matter of the image.

B. Briefly explain the political point of view of the image.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of a political perspective opposed to the political point of view of the image.

STOP. End of Section I.

Section II

Time: 90 minutes

Part A (Document-Based Question)

Part A recommended time: 55 minutes

Directions: Use the documents to answer the question. You may want to spend up to 15 minutes outlining your response and 40 minutes writing the essay that answers the question.

Be sure to provide a thesis that addresses all elements of the question.

Be sure to support your argument with evidence from at least six of the seven documents.

Be sure to support your argument by recognizing and explaining historical complexity, connecting different kinds of historical evidence in a coherent way.

Be sure to base your analysis of each document on at least one of the following: the point of view of the author, the purpose of the author, the intended audience of the document, the historical context of the document.

Be sure to support your argument by analyzing historical evidence that comes from outside the documents.

Be sure to connect historical evidence supporting your argument to broader historical events or processes.

Be sure to synthesize all the tasks above into a persuasive history essay.

1. To what extent did the Federalist administrations of George Washington and John Adams promote national unity and advance the authority of the federal government?

Document A

Source: George Washington’s First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789

I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views or party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over [Congress] so … that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world.

Document B

Source: Virginia Resolutions on the Assumption of State Debts, December 16, 1790

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia … represent [that] … in an agricultural country like this … to perpetuate a large monied interest, is a measure which … must in the course of human events produce … the prostration of agriculture at the feet of commerce, or a change in the present form of federal government, fatal to the existence of American liberty.

Document C

Source: Thomas Jefferson’s Opinion on the Constitutionality of the Bank, February 15, 1791

I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground—that all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power.

Document D

Source: Alexander Hamilton’s Opinion on the Constitutionality of the Bank, February 23, 1791

This restrictive interpretation of the word necessary is also contrary to this sound maxim of construction; namely, that the powers contained in a constitution of government, especially those which concern the general administration of the affairs of a country, its finances, trade, defense, etc., ought to be construed liberally in advancement of the public good.

Document E

Source: George Washington’s Proclamation on the Whiskey Rebellion, August 7, 1794

Whereas combinations to defeat the execution of the laws laying duties upon spirits distilled within the United States … have … existed in some of the western parts of Pennsylvania; and whereas the said combinations, proceeding in a manner subversive equally of the just authority of government and the rights of individuals; … it is in my judgement necessary under the circumstances to take measures for calling forth the militia in order to suppress the combinations aforesaid, and to cause the laws to be duly executed.

Document F

Source: The Sedition Act, July 14, 1798

That if any person shall write, print, utter, or publish, any false, scandalous, and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States … with the intent to defame the said government, … then such person, being convicted before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.

Document G

Source: Kentucky Resolutions, November 16, 1798

Resolved, that the several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; … that [the States] retain to themselves the right of judging how far the licentiousness of speech and press may be abridged without lessening their useful freedom … therefore [the Sedition Act], which does abridge the freedom of the press, is not law but is altogether void.

Part B (Long Essay)

Part B recommended time: 35 minutes

Directions: Answer one of the following questions. Develop a thesis and support it with appropriate historical evidence. This question will require you to make use of your historical analytical skills and your familiarity with historical themes.

1. Some historians have argued that mobilization for total war during World War I and World War II influenced American political and social development in the twentieth century. Support, modify, or refute this contention using specific evidence.

2. Some historians have argued that the role of the United States as a world power changed dramatically between the Spanish-American War and the coming of the cold war. Support, modify, or refute this contention using specific evidence.

STOP. End of Section II.

ANSWERS TO THE DIAGNOSTIC EXAM

Multiple Choice

1. B

2. A

3. C

4. D

5. B

6. D

7. A

8. C

9. C

10. B

11. A

12. D

13. A

14. B

15. D

16. C

17. D

18. A

19. B

20. C

21. A

22. B

23. D

24. C

25. C

26. A

27. B

28. D

29. D

30. A

31. C

32. B

33. A

34. B

35. D

36. C

37. A

38. B

39. B

40. D

41. D

42. C

43. A

44. C

45. B

46. A

47. D

48. C

49. A

50. C

51. D

52. B

53. C

54. B

55. A

Explanations for the Multiple-Choice Questions

1. B. The cartoon criticizes President Thomas Jefferson’s 1807 Embargo Act. Following a British naval attack on the American frigate U.S.S. Chesapeake that forced the ship to surrender and resulted in removal of four alleged British deserters, many Americans called for war. President Jefferson wanted to avoid war with Great Britain and believed that economic pressure could force the British to change their policy of interfering with American trade and ships. Jefferson persuaded Congress to pass the Embargo Act, which cut off the export of American goods to Europe. The embargo devastated American trade and was very unpopular with many Americans.

2. A. President Jefferson was responding to British interference with American shipping and trade. The British were at war with Napoleonic France and were trying to cut off trade with French-controlled parts of Europe. The British seized American ships that they thought were trading with their enemy, and also impressed American sailors to serve in their navy. Americans deeply resented these policies, which showed no respect for American rights or the flag of the United States.

3. C. Many Americans responded to Jefferson’s Embargo Act by ignoring it and engaging in illicit trade, especially with Canada. Jefferson convinced Congress to pass legislation rigorously enforcing the embargo. This made it even more unpopular.

4. D. The Neutrality Laws of the 1930s most closely resemble Jefferson’s policy. These laws also regulated American trade to achieve foreign policy objectives. The authors of the Neutrality Laws hoped to keep the United States out of another war by avoiding the conditions that led to American involvement in World War I. The Neutrality Laws stated that once the president recognized the existence of a foreign war, Americans could not make loans to or sell munitions to warring powers, or take passage on belligerent ships.

5. B. President Ronald Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech reflected an intensification of the cold war in the early 1980s. Concerned about Soviet actions in the 1970s, such as the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan, Reagan intensified an arms buildup begun by President Jimmy Carter. Convinced of the essential criminality of the Soviet Union’s totalitarian system, Reagan believed that the United States needed to wage the cold war from a position of strength.

6. D. A Republican would have been most likely to support President Reagan’s position. Ronald Reagan was a champion of conservative Republican ideas in both domestic and foreign policy.

7. A. The sentiments of the passage are most closely linked to the passage of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), popularly known as the “Star Wars” program. The SDI was a missile defense program proposed by President Reagan and intended to defend the United States by shooting down incoming nuclear missiles. Many critics thought the plan impractical, expensive, and too provocative to the Soviets. President Reagan believed that it offered a way out of the menace of nuclear annihilation. The SDI program, along with Reagan’s military buildup, put more pressure on the Soviet Union.

8. C. The sentiments in the passage best reflect the long-standing concern of American presidents to contain communism. The containment of communism had been a cornerstone of American foreign policy since the late 1940s. President Reagan was determined to halt and reverse what he believed was an expansion of Communist influence in the 1970s.

9. C. In this passage Colleen Moore is writing about flappers. Flappers were young women in the 1920s who cut their hair short in a bobbed style, wore shorter dresses, and often experimented with makeup and cigarettes. The flappers represented the growing freedom of women in the United States in the years after World War I and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the vote.

10. B. Many young women of the 1920s expressed their freedom through “mannish” haircuts, new clothing styles, and cosmetics. Rather than focusing on politics and social reform, many young women of this period explored their growing independence through an emphasis on social freedoms and self-expression.

11. A. The new freedoms for women in the 1920s were supported by widespread economic prosperity. Growing economic security gave many people more leisure time and the opportunity to explore greater personal freedoms. The general prosperity stimulated a vibrant cultural life that opened up new ways for women to express themselves.

12. D. The passage by Moore most directly reflects concerns for individual liberty and self-expression. Women in the 1920s took advantage of new opportunities to expand their personal freedoms and express themselves more openly.

13. A. In this passage, Benjamin Franklin takes a position similar to advocates of a market-driven economy like Adam Smith. The author of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith defended the principles of modern capitalism. Like Smith, Franklin believed that individuals operating freely in the market can accomplish more than paternalistic government policies can. Franklin believed that the best way to help the poor is to encourage them to help themselves.

14. B. The idea that Franklin expresses in this passage most directly reflects a belief in individual self-reliance. Franklin was himself a self-made man. He articulated the self-reliant ethos that became a long-standing American value.

15. D. A high degree of social mobility in colonial America helped Franklin justify his position. Most Americans were farmers, or in the few cities businesspeople or artisans. The ready availability of land and a prospering economy opened up many avenues for social advancement. The absence of a privileged aristocracy, along with plentiful avenues to accumulate wealth, made America a land of opportunity.

16. C. The president most likely to share Franklin’s position was Calvin Coolidge. A man who rose from modest circumstances to the presidency, Coolidge was a believer in hard work and thrift. He insisted on reducing government expenses and resisted interfering with business and the markets.

17. D. In this cartoon, Thomas Nast expresses his conviction that Tammany Hall boss William M. Tweed wields too much power in New York City. As the leader of the Tammany Hall political machine that dominated politics in New York City, Boss Tweed used his power to enrich himself and his cronies. Nast was a longtime opponent of Tweed and helped publicize the political boss’s misdeeds through his cartoons. Tweed eventually was sentenced to prison because of his crimes.

18. A. Urban political machines like Tammany Hall derived most of their support from immigrants and lower-class voters. When they controlled the political structure of a city, machines prospered through the control of city contracts for improvements like sewers and streets. Machine politicians would pocket kickbacks from contractors eager for the work. This money, in turn, funded a hierarchical machine structure that reached into every neighborhood. Local precinct captains would help turn out the vote on election day, keeping the machine in power.

19. B. Urban political machines endured for many years because they provided help and services for the poor. In an era before extensive social services and welfare, urban political machines assisted the poor with gifts of food and shelter, and sometimes jobs. In return, the machines expected these people to vote in their favor.

20. C. Nast’s journalistic perspective can best be compared to reporters investigating President Richard M. Nixon during the Watergate scandal. Nixon, like Tweed, was accused of misusing his office. As with Nast, reporters like Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post played a key role in exposing a political leader’s wrongdoing.

21. A. From the perspective of Captain John Smith, Powhatan and his followers were a backward people. Smith sees the Indians as “barbarous.” They wear animal skins and paint, and are cruelly ready to execute Smith. The fact that Powhatan makes his own clothes and tools would also lead Smith to see this as a primitive society.

22. B. Smith’s account makes clear that Powhatan’s people made decisions by consensus. After a feast, Powhatan consults with his people and there is a long discussion about what to do with Smith. When the decision is made to kill Smith, only the determined intervention of Pocahontas saves him.

23. D. Smith’s story illustrates that Indian-European relations often suffered from misunderstanding and suspicion. Smith did not appreciate the concerns of Powhatan’s people, and the Indians clearly were hostile to the newly arrived English. Only Pocahontas in this story attempts to bridge the divide between the Indians and English.

24. C. In the context of this story, the peace-making Pocahontas can best be compared to Jane Addams. In addition to being a founder of Hull House in Chicago and a pioneering social worker, Addams was also a vocal peace activist. Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

25. C. Martin Luther King, Jr., in this passage is calling for equal rights for African Americans. King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech during the August 28, 1963, march on Washington, when 250,000 people congregated in the nation’s capital to express their support for proposed civil rights legislation.

26. A. In this passage, King points out a contradiction between American ideals and American practice caused by racial discrimination. Invoking the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States, King in this speech called for all Americans, regardless of their color, to enjoy the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

27. B. A Southern Democratic Senator would be likely to oppose the message of King’s speech. The Democratic party in the South had dominated the region for over a century, and for the most part strongly supported the Jim Crow laws upholding racial segregation. The civil rights laws of the 1950s and 1960s were passed with the overwhelming support of Northern Democrats and Republicans.

28. D. In this passage, King is addressing the struggle for greater individual liberty in American history. As King pointed out in his “I Have a Dream” speech, Americans since the founding of the United States have been striving to achieve greater individual liberty for themselves and their families. King saw the civil rights movement as a continuation of that struggle.

29. D. The message of the cartoon can be best described as civilians playing a vital role in the war effort. Americans on the home front during World War II were encouraged to see themselves as active participants in the conflict. Food products like meat and sugar and consumer goods like gasoline were rationed. People raised victory gardens and bought war bonds. Many women and African Americans took jobs in war industries. What people did at home was seen as crucial to supporting the fighting men overseas.

30. A. Viewing this cartoon would encourage Americans to avoid the wasteful use of metal products. Metals were vital for the manufacture of weapons and ammunition. Civilians collected scrap metal that could be melted down and used for the war effort. Many consumer goods made of metal, most notably new automobiles, were not available during the war as industries focused on war production.

31. C. The cartoon most directly refers to American industrial production during World War II. The United States became what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the “arsenal of democracy” during the war, producing enough weapons and military supplies to equip Americans fighting a global war, while also providing great quantities of Lend-Lease aid to American allies. American industrial output was a major factor in winning World War II.

32. B. The message of the cartoon can be best compared to the boycotts of British goods in the 1760s and 1770s. In both cases, Americans were asked to give up goods and make sacrifices to help further a larger cause. In the 1760s and 1770s Americans gave up British goods to exert pressure on British policymakers. In World War II, Americans made sure most metals went to war production to ensure the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

33. A. Mary Easty in this passage is asking her judges to stop condemning innocent people to death for witchcraft. In 1692, a group of girls in Salem, Massachusetts, began acting as if they were possessed. They claimed that they were bewitched. This led to a witch-hunting hysteria that resulted in 20 executions, including the death of Mary Easty. Eventually, the governor of Massachusetts put an end to the witchcraft prosecutions. Years later, the convictions of the people executed and imprisoned during this hysteria were officially overturned.

34. B. Most historians believe that the Salem Witch Trials were the result of social tensions in Salem. Massachusetts was undergoing rapid political and social change in the early 1690s. Most of those accused of being witches came from more prosperous families associated with business and trade, while the accusers came from less well-off farming families. Fears about witchcraft probably also reflected anxieties about the shifting social and economic status of people in Salem.

35. D. The religious convictions of Mary Easty and the rest of Salem were shaped by Puritanism. Massachusetts was settled in the 1630s by Calvinist Puritans escaping the religious domination of the Anglican Church in England. They saw their new colony as an opportunity to create a truly godly community. Initially only members of Puritan congregations could vote. Concern that people were falling away from strict Puritan belief probably played a part in the Salem witch hysteria.

36. C. Writers and intellectuals have often compared the Salem Witch Trials to government actions in the Red Scares of the twentieth century. The investigations of Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950s were often compared to witch hunts. Arthur Miller’s play about the events in Salem, The Crucible (1953), was a critique of McCarthyism.

37. A. Colonel Juan N. Seguin honored the memory of the defenders of the Alamo because they had died for their cause. Seguin had served with Lieutenant Colonel William B. Travis at the Alamo. Seguin was sent with a message asking for help and so was not present when the Alamo garrison was overwhelmed on March 6, 1836.

38. B. Colonel Seguin’s oration makes it clear that many Tejanos favored Texan independence. Seguin was a native of San Antonio and had been active in politics. He favored a federal structure for Mexico and opposed the centralizing policies of Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Federalist Tejanos joined with American settlers to resist the Mexican government. After the Battle of the Alamo, Seguin organized a company of Tejano cavalry that helped protect the Texan army of Sam Houston and fought at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, which secured Texan independence.

39. B. The defenders of the Alamo gave their lives for the desire for political liberty. They were opposed to the efforts of Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to impose a stronger central government on the country. They wanted a return to the Mexican Constitution of 1824, which granted more powers to the Mexican states.

40. D. A dispute over the boundary of Texas led to the Mexican War. The Mexican government refused to recognize Texan independence and was deeply angered when the United States annexed Texas as a state in 1845. The Texans claimed that their southern boundary was the Rio Grande river; Mexico vehemently disputed this. In early 1846, President James K. Polk ordered an American army, under General Zachary Taylor, to the Rio Grande. Mexican troops attacked a detachment of American dragoons on April 25, 1846. The United States responded with a declaration of war.

41. D. Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies were protesting the Vietnam War. Hoffman helped lead the October 21, 1967, March on the Pentagon that drew some 50,000 protesters. Hoffman’s actions there were described in Norman Mailer’s book The Armies of the Night (1968). In August 1968, Hoffman and his Youth International Party (the Yippies) played a prominent role in protests at the Democratic National Convention. When police attacked protesters, riots broke out. Hoffman was one of seven protest leaders, known collectively as the Chicago Seven, who were subsequently indicted for conspiracy and incitement to riot. Hoffman’s conviction for incitement to riot was later overturned.

42. C. The New Left most directly influenced the ideas of Hoffman and the Yippies. Central to the formation of the New Left in the United States was the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) movement organized in 1962. The SDS rejected the old-style authoritarian leftism of the Communist Party. In the 1962 Port Huron Statement, the SDS called for “participatory democracy” that would build a broad social movement for change. Over time, the New Left in the United States would grow increasingly receptive to the countercultural ideals of personal self-expression.

43. A. The Civil Rights Movement most directly influenced the tactics of Hoffman and the Yippies. Civil rights protesters directly challenged racial discrimination by taking nonviolent actions, such as staging sit-ins at segregated drugstore lunch counters. Hoffman and the Yippies engaged in protest theater, such as tossing fake money from a balcony onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. What distinguished the Yippies from other protesters was their off-beat sense of humor, which involved such actions as nominating a pig for president in 1968.

44. C. The counterculture of the 1960s sought greater freedom for personal self-expression. Fueled by the great number of young people resulting from the Baby Boom and the disillusionment with authority born of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, the counterculture of the 1960s emphasized anti-establishment attitudes. People influenced by the counterculture looked for new ways to live a fulfilling life. Famously, the “hippies” rejected conventional middle class mores, growing their hair long, dressing differently, and experimenting with drugs to expand their consciousness. Books that influenced the counterculture were Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957) and Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962).

45. B. The British decision to fire on American militiamen on April 19, 1775, led to a series of uprisings against the British government across the colonies. As word of the fighting at Lexington and Concord spread across the colonies, British authority collapsed, and American rebels took control of governments, forcing out royal officials. The Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in May and in June appointed George Washington commander of the newly created Continental Army.

46. A. British commanders always assumed that they would benefit from command of the sea. The British Navy was the most powerful in the world. Command of the sea gave the British the strategic flexibility to range up and down the Atlantic coast of the colonies. Until near the end of the war, this was a great advantage. The successful intervention of a French fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake on September 5, 1781, made possible the isolation and defeat of Lord Charles Cornwallis’s British Army at the Battle of Yorktown. Cornwallis’s surrender on October 19, 1781, was decisive in convincing the British government to end the war.

47. D. When the Americans rebelled against Great Britain, they benefitted from the great geographical extent of the country. By European standards, the American colonies covered an enormous territory. Much of it was underdeveloped or wilderness. The British did not have the troops to cover all this ground. The British could control some major cities, but they often were isolated and defeated when they ventured into the countryside. A good example of this is the isolation and defeat of General John Burgoyne’s army at Saratoga on October 17, 1777.

48. C. Militiamen played a key role during the American Revolutionary War by controlling populations not under the direct supervision of the British Army. While the battlefield performance of militias could be spotty, the militias were very important in maintaining the authority of the American government wherever the British were not present, which meant most of the country. The militias intimidated Loyalists and ensured support for American policies.

49. A. Carry A. Nation was famous as an activist for temperance. After her first husband died of alcoholism, she became a supporter of temperance. Eventually, her methods became more direct and violent as she attacked saloons and their stocks of liquor with rocks and her trademark hatchet.

50. C. Nation can be compared most directly to Rosa Parks. They both took direct action to further their beliefs. While Parks did not act violently, as Nation did, she did sit in the whites-only section of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking a famous civil rights struggle.

51. D. Nation’s cause would attain a great victory with the enactment of Prohibition. A resolution calling for a constitutional amendment prohibiting intoxicating liquor in the United States passed Congress in December 1917 and was ratified by the states in January 1919. Congress passed the Volstead Act in October 1919, which provided an enforcement mechanism for the new amendment. The Eighteenth Amendment went into effect in January 1920.

52. B. The major event that helped pave the way for the triumph of Nation’s cause was World War I. The use of grain for alcoholic beverages was restricted by Congress as a war measure because the grain was needed for food. Thus, the consumption of intoxicating liquors was reduced through government action during the war. The spirit of wartime idealism and self-sacrifice also helped spur support for the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment.

53. C. A desire to provide support to farmers and working men was a major purpose of the Morrill Land-Grant Act. The act was the culmination of an effort to give practical assistance to farmers and various types of workers by giving them the most advanced technical education. Most land-grant universities sponsored programs in agriculture and engineering. Examples include Cornell University, Iowa State University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

54. B. The Morrill Land-Grant Act reflected the governing philosophy of the Republican Party. The Republican Party, with its slogan of “free labor, free land, and free men,” not only opposed the extension of slavery but also inherited the Whig Party’s willingness to use the government to stimulate economic opportunities. An earlier version of the Morrill Act was vetoed by Democratic President James Buchanan. In the absence of many Southern Democrats during the Civil War, the Republican-dominated Congress passed the Morrill Act. President Abraham Lincoln willingly signed the measure into law.

55. A. The Morrill Land-Grant Act can be compared most directly to the Homestead Act. Republicans supported the Homestead Act, which gave 160 acres of land in the west to Americans willing to settle on it and work it for five years as a way of offering opportunity to “free men.” Southern Democrats opposed the Homestead Act because they feared it would block the expansion of slavery. Like the Morrill Act, an early version of the Homestead Act was vetoed by Democratic President James Buchanan. Also like the Morrill Act, the Homestead Act was passed in 1862 and signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.

Explanations for the Short-Answer Questions

1. A. Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate from Illinois for the U.S. Senate in 1858, opposed the extension of slavery into the western territories. He referred to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, sponsored by Senator Stephen Douglas, that repudiated the 1820 Missouri Compromise and allowed settlers to exercise popular sovereignty on whether or not they wanted slavery in the Kansas and Nebraska territories. This led to bloody fighting between pro- and antislavery settlers in Kansas. Lincoln was also implicitly criticizing the 1857 Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which ruled that African Americans could not be citizens, and also stated that Congress could not bar slavery in the territories, another blow to the Missouri Compromise. Lincoln argues that slavery hurts the reputation of the United States in the world and forces people to repudiate American ideals, such as the rights listed in the Declaration of Independence.

B. Stephen Douglas, the Democratic candidate for reelection as U.S. senator from Illinois, stands by the principle of states’ rights. During the 1850s, he was a leading proponent of popular sovereignty, letting the people in a territory decide whether they would organize a free or slave state. Douglas believed that if the agitation over slavery ceased, the Union would flourish with a mix of free and slave states. This position was a repudiation of Lincoln’s argument that “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

C. Stephen Douglas’s perspective influenced politics in the 1850s in a variety of ways. Douglas was the author of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, which by overturning the Missouri Compromise inflamed sectional disputes over slavery. This act also led to fighting in Kansas between pro and antislavery forces. “Bleeding Kansas” accentuated the growing divide between the North and South over slavery. The Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court angered many Northerners because it seemed to make constitutional the importation of slaves into any part of the country. The sectional discord that followed the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act led to the dissolution of the Whig party. The Republican party emerged in the North and West. The Republicans opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories. They argued that slaves would constitute unfair competition for white farmers and laborers. A Republican slogan was “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men.” The Republicans were organized enough to nominate the western explorer John C. Fremont for president in 1856. Fremont lost, but carried 11 Northern states. Lincoln did not win his Senate race in 1858 because the Democrats won more districts in the Illinois legislature, and senators were still elected by state legislatures. Despite this, his strong performance in the debates with Douglas brought him to national prominence and helped win him the Republican nomination for president in 1860.

2. A, B. The French and Indian War began because of British and colonial concerns about French activity in the Ohio Valley and, in particular, the construction of Fort Duquesne on the site of what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The British claimed this territory, and many American colonists wanted to develop lands there. Once the French and Indian War was underway, the British leader William Pitt decided to commit resources to the eradication once and for all of French claims in North America. The French in Canada were decisively defeated outside Quebec at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, on September 13, 1759. At the 1763 Treaty of Paris, France signed away all of its North American lands. The British took control of Canada and all the lands east of the Mississippi River. The British also acquired Florida from Spain. The French and Indian War opened up vast lands for possible American settlement and removed the major military obstacle to moving westward.

The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 greatly expanded the United States. President Thomas Jefferson was very interested in western lands. He envisioned a great republic of independent yeoman farmers. To make this possible, he needed land. When Jefferson learned that the weak government of Spain had transferred the Louisiana Territory to the control of Napoleon’s France, Jefferson grew concerned that the French might try to reconstitute a strong empire in America. This disquietude was intensified when Spanish officials closed New Orleans to American trade, threatening the economic well-being of Americans living in the west. Jefferson sent James Monroe to join the American minister in France, Robert Livingston. They were to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans. By this time, Napoleon had decided that Louisiana was a liability. He had lost an army to disease trying to reconquer Haiti, and he assumed that he would be cut off from Louisiana by the British navy once war resumed with Great Britain. Napoleon offered to sell the whole Louisiana Territory to the startled American diplomats. For a purchase price of $15 million dollars, the size of the United States was doubled. Jefferson had some constitutional scruples about the purchase because there was nothing in the Constitution about acquiring territory. He swallowed his scruples, and the Senate quickly ratified the purchase.

The Mexican War took place at a time when many Americans were embracing the ideology of Manifest Destiny and arguing that it was inevitable that American settlements and free institutions would spread throughout North America. President James Polk was elected in 1844 on a platform of American expansionism in Texas and Oregon. Polk negotiated with the British on the Oregon border. Texas was annexed to the United States just before he became president. Mexico broke off diplomatic relations in protest. Polk sent the diplomat John Slidell to Mexico to resolve issues with the Mexicans. He also sent troops under General Zachary Taylor to the disputed border between Texas and Mexico along the Rio Grande. On April 24, 1846, Mexican forces attacked a troop of American soldiers. This began fighting between the United States and Mexico. Congress declared war on May 13. During the Mexican War, the United States won a series of victories that culminated in General Winfield Scott’s occupation of Mexico City. In the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico ceded over 500,000 square miles of territory to the United States in return for a payment of $15 million dollars. This included California, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona and set the border of Texas at the Rio Grande.

C. In the French and Indian War the expansionism of American colonists was obviously opposed by the French. Many Indians also opposed this expansionism, which came at their expense. Many Indians allied with the French realized that the defeat of the French would eliminate one of the great restraints on western settlement by the Americans. Following the conclusion of the French and Indian War, the Ottawa leader Pontiac led a brief war against the British, driving them from a number of western outposts. Some opposition to the Louisiana Purchase came from Federalist politicians, unenthusiastic about acquiring more western lands likely disposed to send Democratic Republicans to Congress. Some people, including for a time Jefferson himself, had doubts about the Louisiana Purchase for constitutional reasons, seeing it as an example of federal overreach. The American acquisition of Mexican territory was opposed by the Mexicans, including many settlers in places like California, who did not like seeing their lands overrun by American invaders. There was strong opposition to the Mexican War in the United States. Many Americans believed that the war was unjust and was an excuse to acquire territories for the expansion of slavery. Among the opponents of the war were Congressman Abraham Lincoln and writer Henry David Thoreau, who refused to pay his poll tax, was briefly arrested, and then wrote his essay “Civil Disobedience.”

3. A, B. The Great Awakening that began in the 1730s set off several decades of religious revivals in the American colonies. The preachers of the Great Awakening, such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Gilbert Tennent, emphasized the dependence of individuals upon God’s grace and the need for the individual to develop a personal relationship with God. Many religious congregations split between the “New Lights” who embraced the revival and “Old Lights” who preferred the traditional religious authorities. The Great Awakening was a phenomenon that united all the colonies. Many Americans contrasted the new religious fervor around them with the less godly state of affairs back in Britain. The French and Indian War saw the American colonies mobilize large forces to assist the British in the war effort. By the end of the war, 20,000 Americans had served in the military. The Americans cooperated in a joint effort that gave many young men like George Washington a more continental sense of American affairs. Following the conflict, Americans saw themselves as an important part of the growing British Empire. The resistance to the Stamp Act and other examples of British taxation was widespread throughout the American colonies. Opposition to the Stamp Act and other actions by Parliament forced the colonies to cooperate as never before. The 1765 Stamp Act Congress saw representatives from nine colonies meet to coordinate measures against the Stamp Act. Over time, organizations like the Sons of Liberty and Committees of Correspondence appeared across the colonies. In the crisis that followed the 1773 Boston Tea Party and the passage of the British Coercive Acts, the First Continental Congress met in 1774, bringing together such leaders as Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and George Washington. Americans were increasingly thinking of themselves as a united people.

C. The Great Awakening weakened Americans’ attachment to traditional religious authorities, making them also more inclined to question British political authority. The sense that Americans were a more religious people than the British also made them more inclined to strike out on their own. The French and Indian War helped prepare the way for the American Revolution by leading to the British financial crisis that led Parliament to attempt to tax the colonies. The defeat of the French removed the major threat to the Americans and made British military protection less important. The political and military lessons learned in the war would be important in shaping the decisions of many American leaders during the War for Independence. George Washington and a number of other American military commanders were veterans of the French and Indian War and used the experience they gained there against the British. The acts of resistance to British taxation led directly to the American Revolution. Between the Stamp Act Congress and the First Continental Congress, Americans across the colonies grew used to coordinating their actions. The First Continental Congress created the “Association,” an agreement to cease trading with Great Britain until the Coercive Acts were repealed. It also paved the way for the Second Continental Congress, which began meeting in May 1775. By then, fighting had begun outside Boston. The Second Continental Congress coordinated the American war effort and in July 1776 declared American Independence.

4. A. This cartoon concerns the “alphabet soup” of agencies that emerged during President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Early in the New Deal Roosevelt and Congress launched a number of new programs and agencies to promote economic recovery from the Great Depression and provide relief to jobless Americans. Pictured in the cartoon are the AAA, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which attempted to raise farm prices by paying farmers to take land out of production, the PWA, the Public Works Administration, which launched a series of public works to provide jobs, and the WPA, the Works Progress Administration, which directly hired unemployed workers and set them to work on projects ranging from construction to the creation of murals and plays.

B. The cartoon is sympathetic to Roosevelt and the New Deal, showing the various “alphabet soup” agencies as happy children dancing around a smiling father-figure president. The early New Deal was popular, leading to Roosevelt’s Democratic party winning a victory in the 1934 congressional elections. Despite this, challenges to the New Deal came from both the right and the left in American politics. In 1935, the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which had attempted to get industries to cooperate in setting standards on such things as prices and wages. Roosevelt responded with the Second New Deal and the passage of such laws as the Social Security Act (1935), which set up a system to provide pensions to the elderly, and the National Labor Relations Act (1935), which made it easier for workers to organize unions.

C. There were a number of critics of the New Deal. The Supreme Court invalidated some of the legislation of the First New Deal. Only after a bruising political battle in Roosevelt’s second term, during which he lost a lot of political support attempting to pass legislation that would have “packed” the court with his supporters, did the Supreme Court begin upholding New Deal legislation. Many conservatives opposed the New Deal. Former Democratic New York governor Al Smith was a member of the Liberty League, which believed that the New Deal undermined property rights. From the left, Louisiana Senator Huey Long did not believe that the New Deal was going far enough. He promoted a “Share the Wealth” plan that would give every American a home and a $2,500 income. The money from this would come from confiscating wealth from millionaires.

Explanation for the Document-Based Question

The thesis should focus on a historical analytical skill, in this case Identifying cause and effect. Support your thesis with evidence drawn from at least six of the seven documents. Analyze more fully at least four of the documents, discussing one or more of the following: the point of view of the author, the purpose of the author, the intended audience of the document, the historical context of the document. As you construct your argument, make connections between the documents. Note differences and agreements between them that help you strengthen your analysis. Be sure to bring in outside knowledge that you can relate to your analysis of the documents and that contributes to your argument. Simply dropping names is not enough. Demonstrate an understanding of the wider context of the subject of the question. With this question such context could include constitutional debates over the limits of federal power, the rise of American nationalism, and the development of the American two-party political system.

Although the Federalists intended to unify the nation and strengthen the federal government, their political and economic policies split the nation into rival partisan factions. Students might note that debates over ratification of the Constitution set the stage for the emergence of political parties by the end of the 1790s. They could briefly discuss the supporters and opponents of ratification, the anti-Federalists, and The Federalist Papers, particularly The Federalist, no. 10. Students should examine the ideological conflict between loose and strict interpretations of the Constitution, as well as federal versus state authority. They should identify the leading Federalists (Washington, Adams, Hamilton) and Republicans (Jefferson, Madison, Randolph). Document A indicates Washington’s desire that Congress may set policy without party division. Students may note, however, that friction stemmed from Hamilton’s financial program. They should examine his intention to establish a sound financial foundation for the new nation by creating a national bank, addressing the public debt (Assumption Act, Funding Bill), and raising revenue (excise taxes, tariffs). While Hamilton’s program strengthened the federal government, it fostered dissent among the Republicans. Document B reflects Virginia’s opposition to the assumption of state debts. Students will note that the conflict over the Bank of the United States in Documents C and D reflects Jefferson and Hamilton’s interpretations of the “necessary and proper clause” of the Constitution. Students may also contrast the Republican view of an agricultural economy in Document B, with Federalist support for the Tariff of 1789 and Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures. They may note that opposition to the excise tax led to the Whiskey Rebellion. In Document E, Washington states his intention to enforce federal law and implement powers granted under the Constitution. Washington demonstrated federal authority by calling forth the militias from three states to suppress the rebellion. Some students may refer to Shays’s Rebellion. Students may begin a discussion of diplomatic policy with Washington’s Neutrality Proclamation (1793) and Neutrality Act (1794). They may explain how the neutrality policy survived the challenge of “Citizen Genet.” However, Great Britain challenged the policy by seizing American ships. Students should discuss partisan perceptions of Jay’s Treaty. They may note that it achieved some of its nationalistic goals regarding the Northwest Territory and promoting commerce with Great Britain. However, they should also address Republican views of its shortcomings. Some students may address Pinckney’s Treaty. Students should discuss Washington’s views on parties in his Farewell Address. They will note how the election of 1796 yielded a Federalist president (Adams) and a Republican vice president (Jefferson). Students will note how the strife in the executive office reflected party differences in the United States. A discussion of the undeclared naval war with France will reveal the pro-British views of Federalists and pro-French sympathies of the Republicans. Students will discuss how opposing perceptions of the war and the XYZ Affair led to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 (Document F). Students will observe how Madison and Jefferson penned the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (Document G), which asserted the theory of nullification. They might conclude how the problems of the Adams’s administration led to the election of Jefferson in 1800.

Explanations for the Long-Essay Questions

1. You can construct an argument making use of information that can include the following:

The First World War saw the culmination of the Progressive Era’s movement toward greater government regulation of the economy. The federal government took unprecedented steps as it mobilized the American people and the American economy for total war against Imperial Germany. The administration of President Woodrow Wilson and Congress financed the war through the sale of Liberty Bonds to the American people and through steep rises in income taxes and taxes on corporate profits. A War Industries Board (WIB) coordinated the production of war materials, setting prices and allocating resources. A series of war boards supervised different aspects of the economy, such as fuel and railroads, which had come under federal control. Herbert Hoover headed the food board, encouraging Americans to conserve different types of foodstuffs. This organization of the economy had mixed results. Initially there was some confusion and missteps as the government sorted out its programs. The United States was still not producing all the military supplies and weapons that it needed when the war ended in November 1918, but during the brief period of its involvement in the war the United States had made impressive gains in organizing its enormous economic potential. Very important for the future, businessmen and government officials had learned the advantages of working together, establishing a longstanding cooperative relationship between big business and government.

In addition to organizing the economy, President Wilson attempted to mobilize public opinion during the war. He created the Committee on Public Information (CPI), headed by the journalist George Creel. The CPI worked to educate Americans about the war through books, pamphlets, posters, and movies. Although the original intent was to provide largely factual material, the CPI ended up producing a lot of overt propaganda. The government also acted to repress dissent. The Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 essentially criminalized public opposition to the war. The Socialist leader Eugene Debs was one of many who went to prison for criticizing the war. The government fomented an atmosphere of hysteria that stigmatized all things German, leading to such phenomena as the renaming of sauerkraut as “liberty cabbage,” and also promoted the suppression of radical groups like the International Workers of the World (IWW). This search for internal enemies eventually branched into the postwar First Red Scare.

In large part because of the excesses of this attempt to regiment American opinion, there was a reaction against the wartime policies of Woodrow Wilson that resulted in the election of Warren G. Harding to the presidency in 1920 with his promise of a return to “normalcy.” Despite this reaction, elements of the wartime mobilization persisted, especially in the relationship between government and business, fostered in the 1920s by Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover.

The New Deal was influenced by the example of World War I. Once again the federal government intervened heavily in the economy. President Franklin Roosevelt and a number of his subordinates, such as General Hugh Johnson, the head of the National Recovery Administration (NRA), were veterans of the First World War mobilization. The NRA, with its attempt to set up industry codes, echoed aspects of the WIB.

The mobilization of the United States for total war again in World War II unsurprisingly echoed that of World War I. The war was financed through a combination of loans and high taxes. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) worked to prevent inflation by controlling prices and wages. It also supervised an elaborate system of rationing resources and goods important to the war effort such as sugar, meat, rubber, and gasoline. A succession of federal agencies worked to coordinate industrial production. The War Production Board (WPB) was eventually replaced by the Office of War Mobilization (OWM). Despite this bureaucratic experimentation, the government successfully organized the American industrial base to produce massive amounts of war material, becoming the “arsenal of democracy” during the war. Though Roosevelt created the Office of War Information (OWI) to coordinate war information and propaganda, it never took on the importance of Creel’s CPI, and the Roosevelt administration studiously avoided launching the sort of political repression seen during World War I. The Roosevelt administration did make one notorious concession to wartime hysteria. In 1942, it rounded up Japanese and Japanese-American people living on the West Coast and sent them to internment camps.

By the end of World War II, after years of expanding federal power, Americans had become used to the government playing an important role in their lives and in the economy. The overall success of the American war effort in World War II would foster a confidence in the abilities of government to meet challenges that would undergird the policies of later presidents such as John F. Kennedy and his New Frontier and Lyndon B. Johnson and his Great Society.

2. Before the Spanish-American War, the United States did not play a prominent role as a great power, despite its burgeoning economic strength. Beginning in the 1880s the United States began building up a modern navy, leading to an interest in coaling stations in places like Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and Pago Pago in Samoa. Despite this, as late as 1893, President Grover Cleveland would refuse an opportunity to annex the Hawaiian Islands. The Spanish-American War of 1898 ushered the United States onto the world stage. After rapidly defeating the obsolescent naval forces of Spain, the United States became an imperial power. Though Cuba, the occasion of the war with Spain, would be given a measure of independence, the United States retained control of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The Philippines, with the magnificent harbor at Manila Bay, were seen as a way station to China, which many Americans hoped would become a major market for American goods. This interest in China led the United States in 1900 to join in the suppression of the antiforeigner Boxer Rebellion. The United States through its “Open Door” notes attempted to keep the Chinese market from being closed by colonial powers. This would be the keystone of American foreign policy in China through World War II.

In the early twentieth century the United States exerted its power in the Western Hemisphere, building the Panama Canal, and, through President Theodore Roosevelt’s corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, asserting a right to police the small republics of the Caribbean and Central America. American troops would be repeatedly sent to restore order in countries like Haiti and Nicaragua through the early 1930s.

Under Theodore Roosevelt, the United States was accepted into the club of great powers. Roosevelt won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for helping negotiate an end to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, and American delegates took part in the 1906 Algeciras Conference. The United States attempted to remain neutral during World War I, while maintaining a profitable trading relationship with Britain and France. Germany’s unrestricted submarine campaign brought the United States into the war in 1917. American troops helped turn the tide against Germany on the Western Front.

President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points became for many people around the world a blueprint for a better postwar world, for when the Treaty of Versailles was being negotiated at Paris in 1919, Woodrow Wilson seemed to be the most influential figure in the world. This power evaporated quickly. Wilson did not prevent the imposition of harsh peace terms on the Germans. His League of Nations failed to win ratification in the United States Senate.

The United States did not become isolationist in the 1920s. President Warren Harding hosted the 1921–1922 Washington Disarmament Conference. The 1924 Dawes Plan helped stabilize German and European finances. However, the Great Depression turned the United States inward. President Hoover did little to oppose Japanese aggression in Manchuria in 1931. President Franklin Roosevelt “torpedoed” the London Economic Conference attempting to stabilize the international economy so he could focus on fighting the depression in the United States. Both Hoover and Roosevelt improved relations with Latin America through the Good Neighbor policy, which rejected the role of the United States as “policeman” of the Western Hemisphere. The mid-1930s saw the height of American isolationism with the passage of the 1935, 1936, and 1937 Neutrality Laws, essentially designed to prevent another World War I by forbidding Americans to trade with warring countries or travel on belligerent ships.

During the late 1930s, President Roosevelt became increasingly alarmed at the aggressions of Japan, Italy, and Germany. Following the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he took steps to allow trade with Britain and France and began a major rearming program. This military buildup intensified after the defeat of France in 1940. Roosevelt assisted Britain with the Destroyers for Bases Deal, giving Britain old American destroyers in exchange for leases on British bases in the Western Hemisphere. In 1941, Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass the Lend-Lease Act, allowing him to give military supplies to Britain and other countries fighting Germany. By late 1941, the United States was waging an undeclared naval war on the Atlantic Ocean, as the United States Navy helped protect British convoys from German submarines.

In the Pacific, Japan launched an all-out war on China in 1937. Following the defeat of France in 1940, the Japanese moved into French Indochina. In 1941, the Japanese established fuller control over Indochina. The United States finally halted its trade in metals and oil with Japan and demanded that the Japanese end the war in China. The Japanese preferred to fight, hoping to conquer the resources they needed in the British and Dutch colonies of Malaysia and Indonesia. To do this safely, they had to neutralize the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. The December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the Second World War. American military and industrial power proved crucial in defeating Japan and Germany.

American policymakers, remembering the failure of Woodrow Wilson at the end of World War I, were determined that the United States would play a constructive role in the postwar world. The United States hosted the new United Nations. The United States played a key role in the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference that laid the foundations of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the postwar international economic order.

Complicating a postwar settlement was a growing conflict with the Soviet Union, an ally during World War II but a Communist totalitarian state run by the dictator Josef Stalin. At the end of World War II, the Soviets brutally established their control in Eastern Europe. There was fear that they might try to subvert the pro-American governments of Western Europe. The American policy of containment began to take shape. In 1947, President Harry Truman used a bill to provide support to Greece and Turkey to announce what became known as the Truman Doctrine: the United States would assist any nation threatened by communism, either by external attack or internal subversion. In 1949, after an abortive Soviet attempt to blockade West Berlin, the United States and 11 other countries formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO gave the signatories collective security against a Soviet attack. The United States for the first time since the end of the French alliance in 1800 had entered into an alliance with other countries. The United States was now committed to the defense of Western Europe. This would be a cornerstone of American policy for decades to come.

Mastering Skills and Understanding Themes for the Exam

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: The exam emphasizes historical analytical skills and a thematic approach to U.S. history. You will need to familiarize yourself with the specific skills and themes listed in this chapter and then be able to apply these skills and interpret these themes using your knowledge of U.S. history.

Key Ideas

Just memorizing facts will not be enough to do well on the new exam.

You should become familiar with nine historical analytical skills.

You should also become familiar with seven historical themes.

All the questions on the new exam will be based on one or more of these skills and themes.

The AP U.S. History Exam

If you have taken the diagnostic exam, it should be clear that it is very different from the exam taken by your older brother, sister, or friends. All the questions on the new exam—multiple choice, short answer, document-based question (DBQ), and long essay—require you to think in terms of specific historical analytical skills and historical themes. To do well, it is essential that you have a thorough understanding of the nine historical analytical skills and seven historical themes described in this chapter. You should try to regularly utilize them throughout your study of U.S. history. Your teacher will provide you with many activities that will allow you to work with these skills and themes. Whether you are part of a study group or studying alone, you should find additional opportunities to use them while reviewing major events in U.S. history. These skills and themes are the tools you should use to analyze—not just memorize—the information that you are introduced to in your classwork and reading.

Historical Analytical Skills, Historical Themes, and Exam Questions

Historical Analytical Skills

Questions on the AP U.S. History exam will all involve one or more of the historical analytical skills in the following list. Be sure you practice these skills as you review for the exam.

1. Identifying cause and effect. This involves establishing the relationships between events, determining the ways historical actions and forces influence each other.

2. Differentiating between change and continuity. This involves identifying patterns over periods of time and demonstrating how changes and continuities are related to broad historical forces.

3. Grouping events into periods. This involves organizing events and historical forces into meaningful stretches of time, distinguishing them from other possible models, and facilitating our ability to better understand the past.

4. Comparing historical events. This involves relating and contrasting events across time and space, creating contexts by which to evaluate them.

5. Connecting events to broader historical trends. This involves linking specific events to wider historical processes taking place around them, showing how they are related to similar occurrences taking place elsewhere.

6. Creating and assessing historical arguments. This involves understanding the components of an effective historical argument, recognizing these in the arguments of others, and utilizing them to craft persuasive arguments of your own.

7. Evaluating historical data. This involves assessing the significance of different forms of historical evidence and determining its appropriate value for a historical argument.

8. Interpreting the past. This involves understanding the ways that the perspective of historians is shaped by their particular circumstances and recognizing that there can be many models of historical interpretation.

9. Synthesizing historical evidence. This involves pulling together a variety of different types of evidence, both primary and secondary, to construct a compelling historical argument.

Historical Themes

All questions on the AP U.S. History exam will relate in some way to the following overarching themes of U.S. History. You’ll need to use your historical analytical skills to explain, interpret, and apply these themes of U.S. history.

1. American identities. This addresses the development of American nationalism, and within this larger national identity, the emergence of various group identities during the course of U.S. history.

2. American economies and technology. This addresses the ways that Americans have structured their economic systems over time, and how technological change has affected economic development in the United States.

3. American populations. This addresses the movements to and within the United States by various groups of people.

4. Political power in the United States. This addresses the role of government in American history, the understandings Americans have had about the nature of government, and the ways people in the United States have organized themselves to shape the political process.

5. The United States in world affairs. This addresses the ways in which the American colonies and the United States interacted with other peoples and governments, in North America and around the world.

6. The influence of American geography and environment. This addresses the ways the physical environment and geography of America, including such factors as climate, plants, animals, and natural resources, helped shape the history of the United States.

7. American culture and conviction. This addresses the significance of ideas, religious beliefs, and cultural values as formative influences in American history.

To illustrate the ways in which the questions on the new exam expect you to make use of these historical analytical skills and historical themes, let’s look at a few examples.

Sample Multiple-Choice Questions

Multiple-choice questions on the exam will often begin with a look at some historical document that you will be asked to read, analyze, and interpret. Following the document below, we’ll try some sample multiple-choice questions like those you’ll find on the actual test.

Everybody is talkin’ these days about Tammany men growin’ rich on graft, but nobody thinks of drawin’ the distinction between honest graft and dishonest graft. There’s all the difference in the world between the two. Yes, many of our men have grown rich in politics. I have myself. I’ve made a big fortune out of the game, and I’m gettin’ richer every day, but I’ve not gone in for dishonest graft—blackmailin’ gamblers, saloonkeepers, disorderly people, etc.—and neither has any of the men who have made big fortunes in politics.

There’s an honest graft, and I’m an example of how it works. I might sum up the whole thing by sayin’: “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em.”

Just let me explain by example. My party’s in power in the city, and it’s goin’ to undertake a lot of public improvements. Well, I’m tipped off, say, that they’re goin’ to lay out a new park in a certain place.

I see my opportunity and I take it. I go to that place and I buy up all the land I can in the neighborhood. Then the board of this or that makes its plan public, and there is a rush to get my land, which nobody cared for particular before.

Ain’t it perfectly honest to charge a good price and make a profit on my investment and foresight? Of course, it is. Well, that’s honest graft.

—William Riordan, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, 1905

Let’s look at a sample multiple-choice question based on this passage:

1. The perspective of George Washington Plunkitt expressed in the passage above most directly reflected the attitudes of which of the following?

A. Progressive political reformers

B. The owners of big businesses and trusts

C. Supporters of the Social Gospel

D. Urban machine politicians

The correct answer is D. George Washington Plunkitt was a leader in New York City’s Tammany Hall political machine, and his questionable distinction between “dishonest” and “honest” graft is a justification of the fact that, like many machine politicians, he used his position and insider knowledge to make money at the taxpayers’ expense. Note that you have to use historical analytical skills to answer the question, including evaluating historical data as you interpret the meaning of the passage, and comparing historical events as you weigh the correct answer against responses reflecting contemporary events, such as the rise of progressivism, the growth of big business, and the efforts of social workers and reformers to ameliorate conditions in the cities, including the Protestant leaders preaching the Social Gospel. The question also asks you to reflect on historical themes, such as political power in the United States, because of its obvious political content, and American populations, because the movement of masses of people into rapidly growing American cities in the late nineteenth century was the essential backdrop to the rise of the great urban political machines.

Let’s try another multiple-choice question:

2. Given the perspective expressed by George Washington Plunkitt in the preceding passage, which of the following reforms would he be most likely to oppose?

A. Civil service reform

B. Abolitionism

C. Dechartering the Bank of the United States

D. Creating Social Security

The correct answer is A. As a machine politician who used his position in the city to feather his nest, George Washington Plunkitt vehemently opposed civil service reform, which would replace machine workers on the city payroll with civil servants who would not owe their livelihood and loyalty to political bosses. A historical analytical skill useful in answering the question is connecting events to broader historical trends, necessary in relating Plunkitt’s concerns to the movement for civil service reform in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Grouping events into periods is essential because the other responses to the question date from other times in American history. Correctly answering the question requires you to connect Plunkitt to what was for him a contemporary reform movement. Historical themes that are important for this question are political power in the United States, because once again we are dealing with politics, and American culture and conviction, because this question asks you to reflect on important social ideas in U.S. history.

Sample Short-Answer Question

Now let’s try a short-answer question.

1. Answer A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of a group that contributed to the rapid settlement of the Trans-Mississippi West in the period 1865-1890.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of a group that contributed to the rapid settlement of the Trans-Mississippi West in the period 1865-1890.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of a way one of these groups influenced the activity of another of these groups during the rapid settlement of the Trans-Mississippi West.

This question asks you to discuss factors in the rapid opening of the West in the period following the Civil War. You can treat the impact of railroads, the emergence of the great open-range cattle empire, and the rise of a new farming frontier. To answer it, you need to use such historical analytical skills as differentiating between change and continuity when you relate one of the options to a broader historical pattern, and identifying cause and effect, as you explore how one of the options affected another. Relevant historical themes are American economies and technology and the influence of American geography and environment as you analyze economic development in the very distinctive climactic environment of the West in the late nineteenth century. The historical theme of American identities would come into play as you discussed the emergence of distinctive cultures among cattlemen and western farmers.

Sample Essay Question

Long-essay questions, including DBQs, can draw on all the historical analytical skills, but they often especially test your skill in (1) creating and assessing historical arguments, (2) interpreting the past, and (3) synthesizing historical evidence. Consider a DBQ that begins with the following statement:

Are historians Stephen Armstrong and Daniel P. Murphy correct in arguing that American involvement in World War I was a mistake that could have been avoided if the U.S. government had not insisted on an unrealistic understanding of the freedom of the seas?

In an essay dealing with this position, the three historical analytical skills identified above would need to be heavily utilized. Creating and assessing historical arguments and interpreting the past would be important as you weigh the argument of Armstrong and Murphy, putting it into context and evaluating its strengths and weaknesses. Synthesizing historical evidence would be crucial as you shape the documents provided into a persuasive argument of your own. As you do this, you will also rely on the historical theme concerning the United States in world affairs.

In Conclusion

What should be clear by now is that the historical analytical skills and historical themes discussed in this chapter are the intellectual framework of the new exam. You ought to be as familiar with these skills and themes as you are with the facts of U.S. history. Mastery of them will enable you to respond effectively to the questions you will encounter on the test next spring.

Strategies for Approaching Each Question Type

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: Knowing how to most efficiently and effectively attack each type of question on the test will help you score higher on the exam. Learn the question-answering strategies in this chapter and practice applying them to the test questions.

Key Ideas

Multiple-Choice Questions

Multiple-choice questions now relate to prompts such as historical texts and images.

The questions test analytical and interpretive skills as well as factual knowledge.

Intelligent guessing will improve your score on the test; there is no penalty for guessing.

There may be more than one possible “right” answer.

Memorizing the facts is not enough.

Short-Answer Questions

Short-answer questions ask you to make use of your historical analytical skills and thematic knowledge.

For short-answer questions, it is not necessary to develop a thesis statement.

Document-Based Essay Question

Use an appropriate organizational approach: create a thesis and support it.

It is not necessary to spend the entire time writing your answer.

There must be logic to your answer.

Make your essay as readable as possible.

Make sure to comment on all the quotes you include in your essay.

It is not necessary to use every single document, but you must use at least six of the seven documents to construct your argument in order to get the maximum number of points possible.

The document-based question will ask you to use your historical analytical skills and thematic knowledge while explaining and interpreting events over longer periods of time.

No document-based question will concentrate on material from before 1607 or after 1980.

Long-Essay Question

Use an appropriate organizational approach: create a thesis and support it.

Make an outline before you begin to write.

Pick the question you know the most about.

Watch your time!

The long-essay question will ask you to use your historical analytical skills and thematic knowledge while explaining and interpreting events over longer periods of time.

No long-essay question will concentrate on material from before 1607 or after 1980.

Reading and Interpreting Primary Source Documents

Be prepared to analyze a variety of primary source documents.

Taking the Exam

Come to the exam prepared but relaxed.

Multiple-Choice Questions

All multiple-choice questions will be tied to a prompt. These prompts may be primary source texts, secondary source texts, or images. For each prompt there will be two to six questions. These questions will require you to interpret source material and analyze it in conjunction with your broader historical knowledge. Remember, you will have 35 minutes to answer 35 to 40 questions. This does not give you a lot of time to ponder each question.

All questions on the test will have four possible answers. The following question is an example of the format of questions you may encounter on the exam:

The peace, the freedom and the security of ninety percent of the population of the world is being jeopardized by the remaining ten percent who are threatening a breakdown of all international order and law.… When an epidemic of physical disease starts to spread, the community approves and joins in a quarantine of the patients in order to protect the health of the community against the spread of the disease.… War is a contagion, whether it is declared or undeclared. It can engulf states and peoples remote from the original scene of hostilities. We are determined to keep out of war, yet we cannot insure ourselves against the disastrous effects of war and the dangers of involvement. We are adopting such measures as will minimize our risk of involvement, but we cannot have complete protection in a world of disorder in which confidence and security have broken down.… Most important of all, the will for peace on the part of peace-loving nations must express itself to the end that nations that may be tempted to violate their agreements and the rights of others will desist from such a course. There must be positive endeavors to preserve peace.

—Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Quarantine” Address, October 5, 1937

1. In the passage above, Franklin D. Roosevelt is expressing concern about which of the following?

A. The economic consequences of the Great Depression

B. The explosion of the U.S.S. Maine

C. American interventions in Central America and the Caribbean

D. Aggressive actions by Japan, Italy, and Germany

The correct answer is D. In the “Quarantine” Address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was warning his fellow Americans about the dangers posed by the military actions taken by Japan in China, Italy in Ethiopia, and Germany in the Rhineland and Spain. Note that to correctly answer this, you have to understand what President Roosevelt is saying in the passage and put it into the historical context of the 1930s, a time when war clouds were gathering because of the aggressions of the totalitarian states.

Sometimes multiple-choice questions will ask you to make connections between the topic discussed by a source and another historical period. Here is an example:

2. The policy being proposed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the passage above can best be compared to which of the following?

A. The Monroe Doctrine

B. The containment policy

C. George Washington’s policy of “no entangling foreign alliances”

D. Isolationism

The correct answer is B. President Roosevelt was calling for a policy in which the “peace-loving nations” combined to “quarantine” the warlike states, dissuading them from further aggressive action. This is similar to the containment policy of the cold war, in which the United States and its allies attempted to halt or “contain” the expansion of communism. Note that the question asks you to compare policies from a wide range of U.S. history.

Useful Hints for the Multiple-Choice Section

• Guessing: On the multiple-choice portion of the test, no points are deducted for incorrect responses. Therefore it is to your advantage to guess on every question when you are not sure of the correct answer.

• There may be more than one possible right answer. The directions ask you to “select the one that is best in each case.” Get rid of one or two responses that are obviously incorrect, and focus on the others. For example:

3. Which of the following would be most likely to support the perspective of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the passage above?

A. A believer in Manifest Destiny

B. An Isolationist

C. A supporter of collective security

D. A Democrat

Looking at the possible answers, let’s eliminate those that are obviously incorrect. Manifest Destiny was an ideology of American continental expansionism that flourished in the mid-nineteenth century; it is inapplicable to the situation Roosevelt was describing. Isolationists opposed American interventionism abroad; this runs counter to what Roosevelt was proposing. This leaves C and D. Roosevelt was a Democrat and obviously could normally expect heavy support from members of his party. But a number of Democrats were Isolationists. Supporters of collective security, regardless of party affiliation, believed that the United States should act with other countries to preserve international peace. Therefore, though D is a plausible answer, C is the best response.

• Memorizing the facts is not enough. Although you do need to have a good knowledge of the facts of U.S. history, these questions place a heavy emphasis on analysis and a thematic understanding of the American past.

• Don’t overlook the obvious. Questions on the AP U.S. History test emphasize major themes in U.S. history. Don’t overthink the question. If you think an answer is so obvious that it has to be right, it probably is! The questions in this exam are not designed to test you on obscure trivia.

• Use a good pencil with a good eraser. We know that this may seem a little far-fetched, but we have a colleague who is convinced that this is an approach to be emphasized. He maintains that many students get marked off because they don’t entirely fill in the bubbles or totally erase when they change their answers. He claims to have proof of this. Don’t take this lightly; be sure you don’t lower your score just because your eraser left a lot of smudges.

Short-Answer Questions

Short-answer questions require you to prepare brief responses to questions that ask you to address themes in U.S. history and utilize your historical analytical skills. Very important, short-answer questions do not require thesis statements. Short-answer questions may relate to prompts similar to those in the multiple-choice questions, or they may ask you to evaluate broad assertions about U.S. history. You will have 50 minutes to complete four short-answer questions.

The following question is an example of the format of questions you may encounter on the exam.

1. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain how one of the following reform movements transformed American life during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

• Populism

• Progressivism

• Feminism

B. Explain how your choice affected one of the other options.

C. Provide an example of opposition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to one of the options.

Useful Hints for the Short-Answer Section

• Don’t waste time! You should answer four of these in 50 minutes. Don’t get bogged down with an elaborate response—remember that these are short-answer questions.

• Just answer the question. You don’t have to develop a persuasive argument.

• Be sure to provide supporting facts. The directions may ask for ONE example or piece of evidence, but it would be to your advantage to provide a few more facts.

• Write in full sentences. To properly answer the question, responses need to be in the form of sentences. Fragments and phrases won’t cut it.

• Keep your response inside the box on the answer sheet. Many short-answer questions are scanned and scored online. Readers scoring online cannot see any writing that is outside the box.

Document-Based Question (DBQ)

During this essay section of the exam, you are required to use a number of documents and previously learned knowledge to answer a question. This question tests your historical analytical skills, your ability to interpret a variety of sources, and your ability to synthesize what you know into an effective response. You will need to craft a thesis that addresses a historical theme or a significant period in U.S. history. Not all of the information needed to earn a 5 is included in the documents. You need to bring what you know about the subject of the question to the table as well. In a typical question, you might be presented with a political cartoon, a graph, extracts from speeches and letters, and part of an editorial from the 1850s and asked to discuss the causes of the Civil War. By the time of the AP exam, your teacher will have probably provided you with numerous document-based questions. For a specific example of a DBQ, refer to the DBQ in the diagnostic test in the previous chapter. On the exam, the DBQ will contain no more than seven documents. No document-based question will concentrate on material from before 1607 or after 1980.

You’ll be given a total of 90 minutes to complete both Parts A and B of Section II. It is recommended that you spend 55 of the 90 minutes completing Part A, which is the document-based question.

The rubric used by the readers who will score your exam breaks the scoring into four parts with a possible highest score of 7 points:

A. How you develop your thesis and argument will be worth 2 points: 1 point for a thesis that addresses all aspects of the question and 1 point for the way you build a solid argument and demonstrate the varying interrelationships between the evidence provided by the documents and outside evidence that you supply yourself.

B. How you analyze your documents will be worth 2 points: 1 point for using at least six of the seven documents to support your argument and 1 point for explaining the point of view of the author, the author’s intention, the historical context, or the intended audience for at least four of the documents.

C. Making use of information outside the documents will be worth 2 points: 1 point for going beyond the documents by explaining the historical context of the question through describing relevant events and developments and 1 point for providing factual evidence not found in the documents.

D. Your ability to synthesize historical material, either by connecting your argument to a different period, issue, region, or country, or by connecting it to a different historical theme or type of history, will be worth 1 point. (For instance, in a question about the coming of the Civil War, you might compare the political disagreements of the 1850s to those that led to the American Revolution, or you could explain the connection between the political disputes of the 1850s and the forces that led to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.)

The detailed instructions concerning the DBQ that you will get when you take the AP U.S. History exam will remind you to address the points above in your essay. Note that all of these parts emphasize your use of historical analytical skills. You can place your thesis in the introduction or the conclusion of your essay, though it is usually a good idea to place it in your introduction. Don’t forget to demonstrate your skill at historical synthesis by connecting your argument to another historical theme or period at some point in your essay.

Useful Hints for the DBQ

• Be aware of the skills needed for the DBQ. The DBQ will focus on one of the following historical analytical skills: identifying cause and effect, differentiating between change and continuity, grouping events into periods, comparing historical events, and connecting events to broader historical trends. Answering the DBQ will test your effectiveness with the following historical analytical skills: creating and assessing historical arguments, evaluating historical data, interpreting the past, and synthesizing historical evidence.

• Use the standard essay format. This is the format that you have used for all historical essays. Start off with a thesis and then use analysis of individual documents to prove your thesis. If the documents are presented chronologically, then write about them in the same way.

• You don’t have to use all the documents, but it might be a good idea. According to the DBQ instructions, you must use at least six of the seven documents. If possible, use all seven. This way, if you use one document inaccurately you won’t lose a point. Also remember to provide information on the author’s point of view or intention, the audience, or the historical context of at least four of the documents. Doing this for more than four documents will help you avoid losing a point if you make a mistake “sourcing” one of the documents.

• You don’t need to keep writing on and on. It is not necessary to spend every second of the 55 minutes writing the essay. Answer the question, including what the documents say and what you can say about them, and be done with it. Remember, some of what you already know has to be included in your answer. You might want to spend up to 15 minutes outlining your answer and 40 minutes writing.

• There must be logic to your answer. Organization as well as knowledge is important. Please remember that there is no “right answer” to the DBQ.

• Spelling: Many students ask whether spelling counts. The answer is generally, no. Scorers know that you are rushed on these essays; in all probability, if you think your handwriting is bad they have likely seen worse. Nevertheless, do what you can to make your presentation as readable as possible. Avoid writing with a pencil. Avoid messiness—lots of scratch-outs, arrows going off in different directions pointing to material you forgot to insert—as much as is possible under the circumstances. Don’t write using extremely small script. We know from personal experience as instructors and scorers that it is hard to give a high score to a student if you can hardly read what the student wrote.

• Don’t waste time with direct quotes from the documents. It will not help your score to spend time or space including direct quotes from the sources in your DBQ essay. If you are going to quote your sources, it is perfectly acceptable to paraphrase your quote. It is much more important to be sure to comment on any and all quotes that you include in your essay.

• Answer the question. This generally involves analysis and interpretation. Simply quoting the documents without analyzing them is not answering the question. You need to relate the documents to each other and their time period. You should craft a sophisticated argument that explains historical complexity and places the material covered by the question into a broader historical context.

• Demonstrate your historical knowledge. To excel on the DBQ you must bring in outside information—the more the better. Don’t just mention nouns or proper nouns. This information must be put in context and used to support your argument.

• Watch the time! Don’t get so wrapped up in the DBQ that you forget that you still have to do a long-essay question.

Long-Essay Question

Immediately after writing the DBQ essay, you will have to answer a long-essay question. You will get to choose which of two questions you will answer. The long-essay question asks you to utilize higher-level thinking skills; which means you will be asked to analyze and interpret events and themes of the past rather than simply give some historical facts. It is recommended that you spend 35 of the 90 minutes you are given for Section II of the exam to answer the long-essay question.

The following question is an example of the format of questions you may encounter on the exam:

1. Some historians have argued that the development of different economic systems in the North and South was a major cause of the Civil War. Support, modify, or refute this contention using specific evidence.

The rubric used by the readers who will score your exam breaks the scoring into four parts with a possible highest score of 6 points:

A. Developing a thesis that deals with all parts of the question will be worth 1 point.

B. Developing an argument using historical analytical skills will be worth 2 points. If the question asks you to identify cause and effect, you’ll get 1 point for describing the causes and/or effects of a historical event and 1 point for explaining the reasons for the causes and/or effects of a historical event.

C. Supporting your argument with evidence will be worth 2 points: 1 point for using factual evidence that is relevant to the question and 1 point for effectively using factual evidence to defend your thesis.

D. Your ability to synthesize historical material, either by connecting your argument to a different period, issue, region, or country, or by connecting it to a different historical theme or type of history, will be worth 1 point. (Note that this is the same skill tested in the DBQ.)

The prompt for the question will indicate what historical analytical skills are being emphasized. Use of these historical analytical skills is just as important as the effective use of factual evidence. Be sure to demonstrate your skill at historical synthesis by connecting your argument to another historical theme or period at some point in your essay. The long-essay question will never focus exclusively on the periods before 1607 or after 1980.

Useful Hints for the Long-Essay Question

Use the organizational approach that you have probably utilized in answering long-essay questions all year. Specifically this means you should:

• Create a thesis. What will your essay say? Decide the position you will take and then clearly state that position.

• Write an effective opening statement. This is crucial. Your thesis should be part of your opening statement.

• Support your opening statement with historical facts. Don’t include facts for the sake of including them: make sure you use the historical facts you mention to support your opening argument.

• If you can, include a discussion of counterarguments. This shows that you thoroughly understand the issue at hand. This is usually done after you have supported your opening statement with sufficient evidence. This section often begins with “However, some historians believe …” and discusses and evaluates evidence that contradicts your thesis.

• Don’t forget a conclusion. An effective conclusion includes a restatement of your thesis.

• Make a rough outline before you begin to write. Make sure to answer the question. Don’t just go around in circles with information you know about the topic in question.

• Be sure to pick the question that you know the most about. We have known students who said they chose a specific question because it “looked easier.” Avoid that approach. You’ll do your best on the question about which you have the most historical knowledge.

• Watch your time! Finally, don’t spend too much time on your outline. If you decide to do the long-essay before the DBQ, don’t forget that you still have that task before you.

Using Primary Source Documents

As a student of AP U.S. History, you will undoubtedly be spending a lot of time this year analyzing primary source documents. Your teacher will probably give you a number of them to read during the year. The document-based question (DBQ) that is on every AP examination will most likely ask you to read and interpret a number of primary sources and then to make a historical argument based upon them.

Historical documents, accounts, and books can be either primary or secondary sources. A secondary source is an account written after the fact. A chapter in your textbook is a secondary source, as is a biography, for example, of Franklin D. Roosevelt written in 2005. However, when historians write secondary source accounts, their research should include a thorough study of the available primary sources. A primary source is a document from the era or person in question. A primary source relating to George Washington might be a letter that George Washington wrote when he was at Valley Forge, an account on Washington written by someone who knew him personally, or a portrait of Washington that was done when he was alive. Primary sources relating to the 1950s might be a speech made by Senator Joseph McCarthy, a recording of the song “Hound Dog” by Elvis Presley, or an episode of the television show “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” (Note that primary source documents are not limited to written documents.) Secondary source accounts such as your textbook usually have excerpts from various primary source accounts scattered throughout the chapters.

Analyzing primary source documents allows you to study history as a historian does. When you are analyzing, for example, the actual text of a fireside chat given by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, you are the one doing the historical analysis; no other historian or author is doing the work for you.

Types of Primary Source Documents

Types of primary source documents that you will be reading will likely include:

• Documents published during the time period. These will include magazine articles, newspaper accounts, official government documents, posters, Supreme Court decisions, novels written during the era, and countless other sources.

• Resources published after the fact. These will include letters and diaries written by historical (and nonhistorical) figures that were not originally meant for publication. These can be incredibly revealing; many politicians, for example, are much more honest in their diary entries than they are when they are giving speeches to the public. Oral histories are also very valuable and can be found at many local historical societies. A wonderful primary source, for example, would be the transcript (or audiotape) of a “common person” telling about the effects of the Great Depression on his or her family and community.

• Visual documents. Paintings and photographs can provide incredibly revealing details about any time period you may be studying. Recently, the photographs of people waiting for help after Hurricane Katrina told more about the suffering of New Orleans than a thousand-word article could have. In 1945, photographs from recently liberated Nazi concentration camps shocked the world. Newsreel and television footage of historical events can be invaluable.

• Films. Movies from any era can provide a fascinating window into the values and beliefs of that period. By watching a film from, for example, the 1980s, you can get an idea of how people talked, what they wore, and what they believed in that era. A 1967 movie, Bonnie and Clyde, glorified the lives of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, two small-time gangsters who continually flouted authority during the Great Depression. Although this film was about the 1930s, it perfectly reflected the disrespect for authority of many young people in the late 1960s.

• Songs, recordings, etc. Sources that one can listen to can also be valuable. As with films, songs are very valuable windows into the culture and values of a time period, whether it is “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy or “Masters of War” by Bob Dylan. Listening to speeches given by historical figures can also be a valuable historical tool.

Analyzing Primary Source Documents

It should be remembered that virtually every single primary source document contains some amount of bias. Memoirs written by many historical figures are generally self-serving and do not dwell on mistakes and problems from the writer’s past. It is virtually impossible to write about anything without bias; therefore, it is critical to consider this when evaluating primary sources. A source in which an observer discusses the impact that Theodore Roosevelt had on people when he met them would be influenced by preexisting judgments and opinions the author already had about Theodore Roosevelt. As a result, it is necessary to use a number of primary sources when evaluating a historical figure, event, or era.

There are many methods that historians and students can utilize when studying primary source documents. When looking at a document, try to find some information about its producer. What was the relationship of the author to the person or event being described? Did the producer have preexisting biases toward the subject of the document? How far after the events being described was the document written? Another important question is the audience; the historian/student should identify the target group at which the document was aimed, and whether or not this might have influenced what was stated by the author.

Students wanting more specific information on analyzing primary source documents can go to the Teacher Resources page at the Library of Congress and the Primary Sources and Research Tools page at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Settling of the Western Hemisphere (1491–1607)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: There were several reasons why Europeans became interested in the Americas during this period. Economic and political factors were most important. The Spanish originally viewed the Americas as a barrier to a direct route to the Indies. However, soon they developed a large empire in South and Central America and viewed the region as a potential source of tremendous wealth. Some Native American tribes had developed complex civilizations in the years before the Europeans arrived. The ecosystem of the Americas was drastically altered by the arrival of the Europeans.

Key Concept

On the North American continent, contact among the peoples of Europe, the Americas, and West Africa created a new world.

Keyword

Columbian Exchange: exchange of crops, animals, diseases, and ideas between Europe and colonies of the Western Hemisphere that developed in the aftermath of the voyages of Columbus.

Native America

The Europeans did not encounter a cultural or political vacuum when they arrived in the Americas. North and South America were populated by a great number of peoples, ranging in social complexity from hunter-gatherer groups to city-based empires. In Mexico, the warlike Aztecs carved out an empire centered on their magnificent city of Tenochtitlan, crisscrossed with canals and adorned with great temples and palaces. Here flowed the tribute of their subject peoples, and also long lines of captives fated to be bloodily sacrificed to appease the Aztecs’ gods. The Inca created the largest empire in the Americas; with its capital in Cusco, Peru, the Inca Empire stretched south to parts of what are now Chile and Argentina, and north to portions of modern Colombia. The Inca Empire was a highly organized state, held together by the most impressively developed road system in the Americas. Parts of this extensive network of roads still exist today.

In North America, the Mississippian culture arose in the Mississippi River Valley and then spread into what is now the Midwestern and southeastern United States. The Mississippian culture flourished from around A.D. 800 to 1600 and was notable for its urban development and the mounds it built, upon which temples and other buildings were erected. The great city of Cahokia, in Illinois, at its peak in the 1200s may have been home to 20,000 people. In the southwest, the Puebloans built villages and towns, sometimes in the faces of cliffs for greater protection. Many other North American peoples did not live in permanent settlements; instead they lived a nomadic existence, following the movement of fish and game. The first English settlers in North America encountered people collectively known as Woodland Indians. The tribes of Woodland Indians lived on the bounty of the eastern forests, hunting and gathering their food. Two of the major language groups among the Woodland Indians were Algonquian and Iroquoian.

The Europeans Arrive

In the late 1400s and early 1500s, Europe was going through a period of intense intellectual ferment. The Renaissance saw renewed interest in Europe’s Classical Greek and Roman heritage; this rediscovery of the past stimulated new ideas and perspectives on the world. The Scientific Revolution encouraged an exciting new experimental approach to the acquisition of knowledge about the natural environment; with more knowledge came the power to begin to alter that environment. The Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation inaugurated a period of religious upheaval leading to a flowering of religious fervor but also to intense religious conflict that would dominate international relations in Europe for more than a century. This period saw the inventions of technologies crucial to exploration. The Portuguese developed the caravel, a sailing ship capable of long ocean voyages. Improved navigational aids, such as the astrolabe and compass, made such voyages more practicable. Ever since the Crusades, which reintroduced Europeans to the markets of the East, demand had escalated for spices and other Asian goods. European merchants, blocked from the sources of these goods by the Islamic powers of the Middle East, yearned for different routes to Asia. As the medieval period drew to a close, states were growing more powerful; kings had the resources to finance overseas expeditions. All the pieces were coming together for an explosion of European exploration around the world.

Columbus

In this period of expanding intellectual horizons, many Europeans were looking beyond their traditional boundaries to the wider world. Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal sponsored voyages of discovery to the Azores in the Atlantic and along the coast of Africa in the mid-1400s. After Henry’s death, Portuguese mariners continued their explorations along the African coastline, reaching the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa in 1488. A decade later, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama led an expedition around the Cape of Good Hope and sailed on to India. Da Gama was the first person to succeed in opening a direct link between Europe and the markets of Asia.

Christopher Columbus was a Genoese navigator with a dream. He believed that by sailing due west across the Atlantic Ocean, he would reach China and open a trade route that would allow the treasures of the East to flow into Europe. He was not the first person to think of this. No serious scholar or navigator in the 1400s thought that the Earth was flat. But most scholars correctly believed that the Earth was so big that any ship sailing west into the Atlantic would run out of provisions before it reached Asia. Columbus’s enthusiasm for this voyage was based on a mistake; he believed that the globe was smaller than it actually is. Hoping to find a sponsor for his voyage, Columbus first approached the Portuguese. Confident in the prospects opening up as a result of their discovery of a sea route to India, the Portuguese turned him down. Columbus turned next to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, who had just unified their country. These monarchs decided to take a chance on this persuasive visionary and provided Columbus with the resources to outfit and crew three small ships. After a long voyage, Columbus sighted land on October 12, 1492. Columbus landed on an island in the Bahamas, which he named San Salvador. Believing that he had reached the East Indies, Columbus called the native people he met “Indians.” To his dying day, Columbus believed that he had reached the outer regions of Asia. In fact, he had reached a New World and had launched a new epoch in human history.

Columbus was a man of his time, not a modern anthropologist or social worker. He claimed his discoveries for Spain and regarded himself as the governor of the lands he had found. He hoped to convert the native people to Christianity; he also expected them to accept their new lot as subjects of the King and Queen of Spain. Beginning with Columbus, the Spanish colonists forced Native Americans to work for them. The encomienda system forced Native Americans onto Spanish plantations in exchange for the dubious benefit of Spanish “protection.” Those who refused were hunted down and often killed. However, many more Native Americans died of the diseases that the Europeans inadvertently brought with them. These diseases were the most lethal dimension of an immense transfer of plants and animals back and forth between the continents of Europe and North America. This flow of products across the Atlantic, known as the Columbian Exchange, permanently altered both continents. Another exchange was initiated in the 1500s. As new cash crops like sugar developed in the Americas, the European colonizers ran out of Native American labor. Beginning in the 1540s, African slaves were sold to colonists. This was the origin of the great African diaspora in the Americas.

Cortes in Mexico

The people whom Columbus first encountered lived in relatively simple societies. They possessed small amounts of gold, which greatly intrigued the Spanish, who wanted to find the source of this precious metal. The Spanish learned that on the mainland of Mexico, great Native American states existed, some possessing immeasurable wealth. In 1519, Hernan Cortes led a small army of 500 men from Cuba to Mexico. Here he encountered representatives of the great Aztec Empire. The Aztecs did not know what to make of Cortes; some thought that he was a god. Through a ruthless combination of force and diplomacy, Cortes made his way to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Here he was treated as a guest by the Aztec ruler, Montezuma. Relations soon deteriorated between the Spanish and the Aztecs. In the ensuing violence, Montezuma was killed, and Cortes and remnants of his army were forced from the city. Cortes rebuilt his forces and organized a coalition of tribes who hated their Aztec overlords. He besieged and overran Tenochtitlan in 1521, destroying the Aztec Empire. Cortes was one of the first and greatest of the Spanish conquistadors to overthrow the native states of Mexico, Central America, and Peru. The conquistadors incorporated the subjugated Native Americans into a vast new empire that was soon sending a glittering stream of gold and silver back home to Spain.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

• Economic difficulties in Europe, the desire for geographic knowledge, the desire to acquire lands, riches, and raw materials, and the desire to spread Christianity all caused Europeans to become interested in the Americas.

• Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, and other Spanish conquistadors entered much of Central America, South America, the southeastern section of North America, and the area now known as Florida, conquering the Aztecs, the Incas, and other Native American tribes. Guns, horses, and diseases brought from Europe all aided the Spanish in their efforts to defeat the native tribes.

• The Columbian Exchange was the exchange of animals, plants, diseases, and ideas that took place between the Western Hemisphere and Europe as a result of initial Spanish and Portuguese exploration.

Time Line

2500 BCE: Migration of Asians to the Americas across the Bering Strait begins

1492: Voyage of Columbus to the Americas

1519: Cortes enters Mexico

1520–1530: Smallpox epidemic devastates Native American populations in many parts of South and Central America, virtually wiping out some tribes

1542: Spanish explorers travel through southwestern United States

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Which of the following was not an initial result of interaction between Spanish explorers and Native Americans?

A. Diseases that killed many of the Native Americans

B. Domestication by Native Americans of animals brought by Spanish explorers

C. Spread of Catholicism among Native Americans

D. Plants from South and Central America being sent back to Europe

2. Slave labor was brought to the Western Hemisphere by colonists because

A. the region was lightly populated when the Spanish arrived.

B. Native Americans were unfamiliar with the tools and methods necessary to harvest sugarcane.

C. Aztec and Inca leaders had already begun to import slaves even before Spanish explorers arrived.

D. there was a lack of manpower to do the labor-intensive work of harvesting sugarcane.

3. North American Native American tribes

A. displayed a uniformity of lifestyle.

B. modeled themselves after tribes from Central America and Mexico.

C. were greatly varied in lifestyle and economic systems.

D. formed alliances on numerous occasions to fight competing tribes.

4. One factor not responsible for European expansion into the Western Hemisphere was

A. desire for economic expansion.

B. desire to expand Christianity.

C. democratization of European society.

D. better shipbuilding and navigational tools.

5. The very first Americans

A. were nomadic wanderers.

B. lived in permanent sites.

C. were subsistence farmers.

D. predated Spain’s arrival in the New World by only two centuries.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of how Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage of discovery transformed life for Native Americans and Europeans.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of how Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage of discovery transformed life for Native Americans and Europeans.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of another consequential European voyage of discovery in the period 1480 to 1600.

Answers and Explanations

1. B. It would take a long time before these animals were used by Native Americans; Native Americans were terrified of them and the Spanish explorers who rode on them.

2. D. Harvesting sugar took a massive amount of manpower. Since the Spanish had killed off a large number of native laborers and many more died from European diseases, slaves were needed.

3. C. There was a tremendous variety in the lifestyles and economic systems of Native Americans living in North America.

4. C. European expansion into the Western Hemisphere was supported and financed by European monarchs; no democratization of society or government was taking place at this time.

5. A. Almost all early Native American tribes were nomadic in nature.

6. Parts A and B: Columbus’s voyage opened up lands with vast resources to the Europeans. The Spanish found great supplies of silver and gold in Central and South America. The Europeans also found new crops such as potatoes, maize, and tobacco. For the Native Americans, Columbus’s voyage brought dramatic and often disastrous change. European diseases ravaged Native American populations. Europeans began conquering Native American lands, sometimes enslaving conquered populations. European missionaries brought Christianity to the New World. The Europeans also introduced new animals such as horses, pigs, and cattle.

Part C: The Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in Southern Africa in 1488. His countryman Vasco da Gama followed route and sailed on to India in 1497 to 1499. Ferdinand Magellan led a Spanish expedition that in 1519 to 1522 eventually circumnavigated the globe. In 1497, John Cabot led an English expedition that landed somewhere in modern Canada. The French explorer Jacques Cartier led expeditions that explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River in Canada.

Colonial America (1607–1650)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: The French settled in Canada and eventually turned to trapping and fur trading. Overcrowding in England and religious persecution were both factors in driving some Englishmen toward America. In the Jamestown colony indentured servants and the first slaves brought to the Americas made up a majority of the workforce. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was established in 1629 by the Puritans; Governor John Winthrop envisioned the colony as a “city upon a hill.” Religious dissent led to the founding of several more New England colonies. The ecosystem of the Americas was drastically altered by the Europeans.

Keywords

Puritans: group of religious dissidents who came to the New World so they would have a location to establish a “purer” church than the one that existed in England.

Separatists: religious group that also opposed the Church of England; this group first went to Holland, and then some went on to the Americas.

Indentured servants: individuals who exchanged compulsory service for free passage to the American colonies.

New France

French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence River in what is now Canada in the 1530s. Despite this early start, the French did little to colonize Canada until the arrival of Samuel de Champlain in the early 1600s. The “Father of New France,” Champlain founded the settlement of Quebec in 1608. Canada never attracted many French colonists. The wintry climate was uncongenial, and the prospect of living in a wilderness amidst tribes of sometimes hostile Native Americans did not appeal to most inhabitants of Ancien Régime France. Some of those who might have been willing to move to New France, such as members of the dissident Protestant Huguenot minority, were forbidden to settle there by the king. As a result, although farming communities did develop along the St. Lawrence River, key roles in New France were played by Catholic missionaries, fur traders, and soldiers.

Sometimes these missionaries, fur traders, and soldiers did double duty as explorers, striking out deeply into the interior of the continent. The Jesuit priest Jacques Marquette teamed with Louis Jolliet to discover the upper reaches of the Mississippi River. Robert La Salle expanded on these discoveries in the Great Lakes region and along the Mississippi River, establishing a series of forts that laid claim to the Mississippi River Valley for France.

For the most part, the French got along better with the Native American peoples than did the English or Dutch. The French did not need large amounts of land for farming, thus avoiding disputes over land with their Native American neighbors. The French were mainly interested in converting the Native Americans to Christianity and trading for furs. Beyond that, they were generally more respectful of Native American customs and traditions; many French traders and explorers married Native American women. The sometimes heroically self-sacrificing Jesuit missionaries were often keen students of Native American culture. As a result, the Jesuit missions were great successes. The Jesuits did better than their Franciscan competitors in Spanish North America; the Franciscans’ efforts were hurt by Spanish forced labor laws. With the important exception of the Iroquois Confederacy, most Native American tribes allied with the French in their wars with the British in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

At the same time that Samuel de Champlain was pioneering New France, the commercially entrepreneurial Dutch were laying the foundations of their own colonial experiment in North America. Henry Hudson explored the river that would be named after him in 1609. He set up the first Dutch trading posts on Manhattan Island and the site that would eventually become Albany. Here the Dutch bartered for beaver pelts. The settlement of New Amsterdam was officially established on Manhattan in 1625. Though the Dutch prospered with the fur trade, the struggling colony of New Netherland never attracted many settlers and territorially was hemmed in by hostile Native American tribes. Ultimately it was the power of England’s Royal Navy that doomed the Dutch colony. In 1664, New Amsterdam surrendered to an English fleet. From that time on, the bustling commercial center on Manhattan was known as New York.

English Interest in America

Population growth in England was spurred colonization. The government saw overseas settlements as a social safety valve, where jobless workers or landless farmers who might otherwise pose a threat to the established order might find new lives. Close to half the white immigrants to the British colonies before the American Revolution arrived as indentured servants, working for a set number of years in return for the price of their passage. A minority of these people were convicts, exported by the authorities to the colonies as a way of reducing the expense of confining them at home.

Another major impetus for English colonization was the quest of religious minorities to find a place where they could practice their faith undisturbed. During the English Reformation of the sixteenth century, the Church of England was established as the officially supported church of the kingdom. While the Church of England rejected the spiritual authority of the Pope in Rome and distanced itself from some Roman Catholic doctrines, it maintained an episcopal structure and liturgical practices rooted in the Catholic past. English Puritans, who adhered to the more radically Protestant doctrines of John Calvin intensely disliked what they saw as the Catholic tendencies of the Church of England. Under Queen Elizabeth I, the Puritans had been allowed to worship in their own way. Following the accession of James I to the English throne, the government began to crack down on the Puritan dissidents. By the 1620s and 1630s, many Puritans were looking to America as a refuge from the authorities.

Akin to the Puritans as religious dissenters were the Separatists. The Separatists were small groups of Calvinists who went beyond the practice of most Puritans by rejecting any association with the Church of England. One band of Separatists moved to the Netherlands hoping to find religious freedom but soon grew disillusioned as their children began to blend in with their Dutch neighbors.

Jamestown

In 1606, the London Company was given a charter by King James I to establish colonies in North America. The investors in this joint-stock company hoped to make a profit from the natural riches of the New World. In 1607, an expedition dispatched by the London Company founded Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America. Unfortunately, the site of Jamestown was swampy and unhealthy; disease and the distaste for agriculture on the part of the adventurers who made up the bulk of the early settlers led to the Starving Time, a period of starvation resulting in the deaths of almost two-thirds of the population. Arguably, only the leadership of Captain John Smith saved the struggling colony.

Relations with the nearby Native American Powhatan Confederacy were difficult. At one point, Smith was captured by the Powhatans and later claimed that he had been saved from execution by Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief. Smith eventually established trade relations with the Powhatans, which helped sustain Jamestown. Pocahontas later married John Rolfe, one of the ablest English settlers. Rolfe played a decisive role in the history of what would become the colony of Virginia by systematizing the cultivation of tobacco. Despite the opposition of King James, who abhorred smoking, tobacco became a highly lucrative cash crop, and guaranteed the future prosperity of the colony.

Tobacco was a labor-intensive crop. Initially, indentured servants were sent to Virginia to work on tobacco plantations. In 1619, a passing Dutch ship paid for a load of supplies with 19 African slaves. Because these slaves had been baptized, they were treated as indentured servants and freed after a period of service. Later in the seventeenth century, more Africans were brought to English America, and slavery became a vital economic institution in the Southern colonies.

Massachusetts

While a desire for riches drove the colonization of Virginia, a search for religious freedom spurred the initial settlement of New England. The Separatists who had settled in the Netherlands and grown unhappy there received a charter from the London Company to settle in America. In 1620, a group of them, led by William Bradford, set sail in the Mayflower. Because they were looking for a place to practice their faith, the settlers saw this voyage as a pilgrimage and became known to history as the “Pilgrims.”

After a stormy voyage, the Pilgrims made landfall at Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Before going ashore at a place they called Plymouth Rock, the men among the Pilgrims drew up and signed the Mayflower Compact, which established a representative government for the new colony. This is an early example of a social contract. Because the Pilgrims arrived late in the year and were unused to their new environment, they suffered many hardships and much loss of life. Eventually, with the help of Native Americans like Samoset and Squanto, the Pilgrims’ colony of Plymouth became self-sustaining. Though Plymouth endured, it never became a great economic success, and, in 1691, it was absorbed into the larger Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Puritans anxious about the deteriorating political and religious situation in England founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In America, they hoped to create a truly godly commonwealth, what their leader John Winthrop called a “city upon a hill.” In 1629, a large, well-financed, and well-organized expedition sailed to Massachusetts with more than 700 people. They suffered no “starving times” and soon were joined by thousands more settlers. By 1640, over 20,000 people had moved to Massachusetts, which had become a thriving colony with numerous chartered towns, such as Boston and Salem. In addition to farming, settlers engaged in lumbering, shipbuilding, and fishing. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was different from Virginia as most of its founders came over as members of family groups rather than as individual adventurers. Given its very different economy, slavery never took root in Massachusetts the way that it did in Virginia.

Most of the colonists were Puritans, and the only men who could vote were freemen who belonged to a Puritan congregation. The elected legislature was called the General Court. John Winthrop was elected governor in 1629 and would hold that office for 20 years. In some ways, Massachusetts was a democratically representative theocracy. While the Puritans were seeking religious freedom for themselves, they were not necessarily interested in it for others. They were creating a polity that reflected their vision of God’s commandments; this did not leave room for dissent.

Anne Hutchinson believed that she and others could experience direct revelations from the Holy Spirit and challenged the teaching authority of most of the colony’s ministers. This unorthodox position attracted the attention of Governor Winthrop. After a trial, Hutchinson was expelled from the colony. She and her family settled in what would become Rhode Island. Roger Williams criticized the religious establishment in Massachusetts and was forced to leave. He also settled in what would become the more theologically unconstrained colony of Rhode Island. Other offshoots of Massachusetts also sprang up. Thomas Hooker and John Davenport founded settlements that eventually merged in the colony of Connecticut.

New Southern Colonies

In the seventeenth century, English kings sometimes gave grants of land in America to individuals or groups of individuals. In 1632, King Charles I gave a charter to the Calvert family to found the colony that would become Maryland. The Calverts hoped that Maryland would become a refuge for Catholics, who were persecuted in England. Despite some difficulties with Puritan settlers, Maryland became a place where Catholics could worship in peace. Carolina, which later split into North and South Carolina, was a proprietary colony given by King Charles II to a group of aristocrats in the 1660s. Maryland and the Carolinas developed plantation-dominated economies dependent upon slave labor.

Effects of European Settlement

The advent of the Europeans had dramatic consequences for North America. The diseases inadvertently brought by the Europeans devastated the Native Americans. One reason that the Pilgrims were able to easily move into the lands that became Plymouth is that the previous inhabitants had been killed off by maladies brought by earlier visitors. The Europeans brought new plants and animals that reshaped the ecology of North America. The need for labor in the South contributed to an Atlantic slave trade primarily focused on the Caribbean and South America. In the English colonies, the growth of self-government and the gradual emergence of genuine freedom of religion created a society very different from Europe and the rest of the world.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• French settlers in Canada were less oppressive than the Spanish. Jesuit priests converted thousands of Native Americans to Christianity. French settlers became increasingly interested in fur trading.

• Puritans and other religious dissidents came to the Americas because they felt the Church of England was too close to Catholicism.

• The first English settlement in America was the Jamestown colony, founded in 1607. Tobacco became the main crop in Jamestown, and the first slaves arrived in 1619.

• A group of religious Separatists arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. The first year of settlement was difficult for these Pilgrims, who had to rely on help from the Native Americans to survive.

• The Massachusetts Bay Colony was established in 1629 by the Puritans. This colony was established as a “city upon a hill,” where the will of God could be manifested. A limited representative government was established. Religious dissent was not tolerated in this colony: Dissenters were thrown out, and they founded new colonies in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Portsmouth.

• The ecosystem of the Americas was tremendously altered by European settlement.

Time Line

1534–1535: French adventurers explore the St. Lawrence River

1607: The English settle in Jamestown

1619: Virginia establishes House of Burgesses (first colonial legislature)

1620: Plymouth colony founded

1629: Massachusetts Bay Colony founded

1634: Maryland colony founded

1636: Roger Williams expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony and settles in Providence, Rhode Island; Connecticut founded by John Hooker

1642: City of Montreal founded by the French

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Which colonists enjoyed the best relations with the Native Americans?

A. The Spanish

B. The French

C. The Dutch

D. The English

2. Who of the following was not a religious dissenter in Massachusetts Bay?

A. William Bradford

B. Roger Williams

C. Anne Hutchinson

D. Thomas Hooker

3. A colony designated as a refuge for English Catholics was

A. Pennsylvania.

B. South Carolina.

C. Maryland.

D. Virginia.

4. English people came to the New World because of

A. their dislike for the Church of England.

B. overcrowding in English cities.

C. economic opportunity.

D. All of the above

5. Most early English colonies were different from those of Spain and France because they

A. were not directly ruled by the crown.

B. granted rights to Indians.

C. were economic failures.

D. were more sparsely populated.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE reason why English colonies in the New World proved successful.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND reason why English colonies in the New World proved successful.

C. Briefly explain ONE advantage enjoyed by the rival French colonies.

Answers and Explanations

1. B. The French were mainly interested in fur trading rather than farming, and so posed less of a threat to Native American lands. French missionaries and fur traders were more respectful of Native American culture.

2. A. Bradford was a governor of Massachusetts Bay for 20 years; all of the others left for religious reasons and founded colonies elsewhere.

3. C. George Calvert settled this colony in 1632 for exactly that purpose.

4. D. The overcrowding of cities was an additional factor in convincing some English people to “try their lot” in the New World.

5. A. Most of the early English colonies were governed by companies or proprietors granted charters by the King.

6. Parts A and B: The English colonies early on developed institutions of self-government, such as the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619. The English colonists discovered and exploited valuable crops and natural resources such as tobacco, corn, fish, furs, and timber. The English colonies often provided refuges for religious dissenters back home—Puritans settled in Massachusetts and the New England colonies, Catholics in Maryland, and Quakers in Pennsylvania. Colonies such as Rhode Island and Pennsylvania were notable for their respect for religious freedom.

Part C: The French were more interested in converting the Native Americans to Christianity and fur trading than taking land for agriculture. As a result the French generally got along better with the Native Americans than the English. This proved an advantage to the French in times of war with the English. The centralization of power in the hands of the governor of New France also often proved an advantage during wars with the English.

British Empire in America: Growth and Conflict (1650–1750)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: The economic theory of mercantilism, which held that a state should be as economically self-sufficient as possible, helped to motivate England and other European powers to discover and develop colonies, as colonies could provide raw materials. The triangular trade system tied together the economies of Europe, the Americas, and Africa and brought slaves to the Americas. The Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts were a result of social unrest existing in the Massachusetts colony. Wars between the European powers spilled over into the Americas during this period, with Native American tribes cultivated as allies by either the English or the French.

Keywords

Mercantilism: economic system practiced by European powers in the late seventeenth century stating that economic self-sufficiency was crucial; as a result, colonial empires were important for raw materials.

Navigation Acts (1660): acts passed by the British Parliament increasing the dependence of the colonies on the English for trade; these acts caused great resentment in the American colonies but were not strictly enforced.

Triangular trade system: complex trading system that developed in this era between Europe, Africa, and the colonies; Europeans purchased slaves in Africa and sold them to the colonies, raw materials from the colonies went to Europe, while European finished products were sold in the colonies.

Middle Passage: voyage taken by African slaves on horribly overcrowded ships from Africa to the Americas.

Salem Witch Trials (1692): trials in Salem, Massachusetts, after which 19 people were executed as witches; historians note the class nature of these trials.

Salutary neglect: early eighteenth-century British policy relaxing the strict enforcement of trade policies in the American colonies.

Part of an Empire

European leaders in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries expected colonies to generate wealth for the mother country. Most European statesmen subscribed to the economic theory of mercantilism. The proponents of mercantilism believed that a state’s economic health depended upon a favorable balance of trade. Governments promoted this by regulating commerce, encouraging the export of goods while discouraging imports through high tariffs. Colonies served as the producers of cheap raw materials and staple products and as consumers of the mother country’s finished goods. An operative assumption of mercantilists was that the wealth of the world was finite and that a state had to maximize its share of that wealth through governmental action. The American colonies played their part in this mercantilist scheme by supplying England with valuable commodities like tobacco, rice, fish, and lumber.

The first law regulating American trade was passed by Parliament in 1651. Under King Charles II, the Navigation Acts were passed in 1660 and 1663, with later revisions in the 1670s. These acts were designed to strengthen English trade, while hurting that of competitors like the Dutch. These acts required that English goods be transported only on English ships with majority-English crews. Colonial products such as tobacco, sugar, and rice intended for European markets had to be shipped to England first where they would be taxed. European goods intended for the American colonies also had to first be shipped to England and taxed.

The Navigation Acts increased the cost of living and the cost of doing business for the colonists. Many colonists colluded with the Dutch and other trading partners to evade these regulations. This led to some of the first conflicts between the colonies and the government in London. Disregard for English trade regulations was so extensive in New England that, in 1684, an English court convicted the Massachusetts Bay Colony of violating the Navigation Acts. This, along with Puritan resistance to the royal government, led to the revocation of the colony’s charter. In 1686, King James II merged the New England colonies, New York, and New Jersey into the Dominion of New England. This new administrative structure increased royal authority under the King’s hand-picked governor, Sir Edmund Andros.

Trouble also flared up in the south. When the price of tobacco began to fall in the 1660s, many planters blamed the unpopular Navigation Acts. This grievance was joined by others. Virginians living in the western part of the colony believed that the well-connected royal governor Sir William Berkeley was more concerned with the profits that he reaped from his office than protecting the colonists from raids by Native Americans. In 1676, a landowner named Nathaniel Bacon raised the standard of rebellion. He gathered an army of between 400 and 500 men to attack Native American settlements, some of which had been living at peace with the colonists, and to overawe the colonial government in what became known as Bacon’s Rebellion. At one point, Bacon’s men burned down Jamestown. Bacon died of dysentery shortly thereafter, and Governor Berkeley routed the remainder of the rebels, hanging 23 of them. In later years, some historians chose to interpret this discreditable episode as a rising of the “little man” against the colonial elite. Royal reinforcements arrived after Berkeley had crushed the rebellion. The governor was recalled to England.

In subsequent years, the power of the larger landowners grew relative to that of the royal governors. Believing that white indentured servants were more politically fractious, the landowners increased the proportion of powerless slaves in their workforces.

Growth of Slavery

African slavery became increasingly widespread and institutionalized in the Chesapeake colonies during the 1670s and 1680s. In 1662, a law was passed in Virginia declaring that the child of a slave mother was also a slave. This nullified the English common law practice that one’s legal status came from that of the father and ensured that children born into slavery remained in that condition. The number of indentured servants decreased because of doubts of their political reliability after Bacon’s Rebellion and because fewer were willing to endure the hardship of agricultural labor in the south when more attractive working conditions could be found in the northern colonies. The Dutch had dominated the slave trade for many years. The end of their monopoly in 1682 led to lower prices for slaves in the English colonies. A labor force of enslaved Africans became increasingly attractive to prosperous planters. So as the number of indentured servants in the south dwindled, the number of African slaves greatly increased.

Europeans began to participate in the African slave trade when Portuguese explorers and merchants developed business contacts along the west coast of Africa in the 1440s. Once the Americas were opened up to European settlement in the sixteenth century and labor-intensive cash crops like sugar became enormously lucrative, African slaves became a valuable commodity. The burgeoning slave trade of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was an essential component of the triangular trade system. This was an Atlantic-wide system of trade and economic interdependence that knitted together Africa, the Caribbean islands, both South and North America, and Europe. Finished goods from Europe were traded for slaves in Africa, who were sold in the Western Hemisphere, where they helped produce staple products that were in turn shipped to Europe. The transportation of slaves from Africa to the Americas was known as the Middle Passage. Conditions for the people chained in the holds of the relatively primitive sailing ships of the day were horrifying. Disease in these confined quarters made the voyages deadly for both the slaves and the ships’ crews. The mortality rate among the imprisoned slaves often rose as high as 20 percent.

Only about 6 percent of the Africans shipped across the Atlantic arrived in the British colonies in North America. Most African slaves were sent to South America or the Caribbean. A healthier climate and a better balance between the sexes meant that slave populations in the British North American colonies grew through natural reproduction, unlike the situation in the Caribbean islands where high death rates demanded a continuous importation of new slaves. Until the rise of larger plantations in the south from the 1730s forward, most slaves worked on small farms in groups of two or three with their master. Over time, the slaves developed a unique culture that blended both African and European elements. Their religious beliefs also sometimes exhibited a syncretic merger of African traditions and Christianity.

Slaves sometimes rose up against their owners, and slave rebellions were a major fear for colonists in the south. The largest slave uprising in the British colonies was the Stono Rebellion, which took place in South Carolina in 1739. A group of about 100 slaves rose up and began killing isolated planters. They lost a pitched battle against a force of militiamen, and eventually most of the rebels were killed in the fighting or were executed after being captured. In the aftermath of this rebellion, regulations concerning the control and treatment of slaves were tightened. Most slaves did not launch violent but futile revolts; instead they protested their treatment through work slow-downs, breaking tools, and other acts of minor sabotage. Although most slaves lived in the southern colonies, slavery existed in the north as well, where slaves worked as farmhands and servants.

Political Unrest in the Colonies

Massachusetts and the other New England colonies resented the loss of their authority to Sir Edmund Andros, the governor of the newly created Dominion of New England. King James II was overthrown during the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in England. The new English monarchs, William of Orange and Mary, the daughter of James II, gained power by agreeing to respect the prerogatives of Parliament. This was the beginning of constitutional monarchy in England. The Glorious Revolution inspired political upheaval in the colonies. In Massachusetts, Governor Andros was turned out of office and jailed. Protestant rebels overthrew the Catholic leaders of Maryland. In New York, a militia officer named Jacob Leisler took control of the colony.

The rebellious colonists declared their loyalty to William and Mary. The new monarchs abolished the Dominion of New England and restored most representative institutions in Massachusetts, though it became a royal colony with a royally appointed governor. Because William and Mary were Protestants, whereas James II had been a Catholic, the new English government supported the protestants in Maryland. Jacob Leisler ran afoul of the new regime and was hanged as a rebel. This was a sign that the royal government intended to continue to play an important role in colonial affairs.

Salem Witch Trials

Rapid political change was only one of the stresses the colony of Massachusetts underwent during the late seventeenth century. The dominance of traditional Puritanism began to break down. Economic tensions developed between small farmers and a flourishing class of merchants and business entrepreneurs. For many, John Winthrop’s godly commonwealth seemed to be a thing of the past. Anxieties associated with this religious and social change probably played a key role in the still controversial Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

Accused witches had been prosecuted and executed before in the colonies, but never on the scale that exploded in Salem, Massachusetts. A group of girls began to experience inexplicable seizures and complained of attacks by invisible forces. The girls accused people of persecuting them through witchcraft, which began an expanding series of judicial investigations. Before the hysteria abated, over 100 people had been jailed and 20 executed. Nineteen men and women were hanged, and one man was pressed to death. Five other people, including an infant, died in prison. Eventually, the accusers began to lose their credibility, and people began to question the likelihood that so many people were engaged in witchcraft. A new governor put an official end to the proceedings. Historians have noted that social tensions may have fueled the accusations of witchcraft; the accusers came from economically marginal farming families, whereas the accused were members of the better-off “commercial” class.

Imperial Wars

Louis XIV, the “Sun King” of France, attempted to establish his nation as the dominant power in Europe in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. England, a growing maritime power, resisted this. Beginning in 1689, the English and French fought a long series of wars that would culminate in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Early on, the American colonies of England and France became involved in these wars. The War of the League of Augsburg was known as King William’s War in America and lasted from 1689 to 1697. War parties of French and Native Americans raided the frontier and destroyed the town of Schenectady, New York. In turn, colonists assisted the Iroquois tribe in attacking Canada. A force largely recruited in Massachusetts captured the French base of Port Royal in Acadia. The war ended without any decisive results in America.

Just a few years later, England and France were at war again. The War of the Spanish Succession, called Queen Anne’s War in America, was waged from 1702 to 1713. Because Spain was allied with France, an English force from South Carolina attacked and burned St. Augustine in Florida. They armed local Native Americans, who then attacked Spanish missions. In the north, it was the English who suffered from Native American raids on the frontier. The most spectacular of these raids occurred in 1704, when a force of French and Native Americans devastated the town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 48 people and taking 112 into captivity. As in King William’s War, no decisive battles took place in America. English victories in Europe, under the great general the Duke of Marlborough, compelled the French to surrender Newfoundland, Acadia, and other territories in America at the Treaty of Utrecht.

American Self-Government

England and Scotland were formally united with the Acts of Union of 1706 and 1707. From this point on, the united kingdoms were known as Great Britain. In the early eighteenth century, the British encountered some limits to their control of the North American colonies. Because of the various ways the colonies had been formed, there was no consistent method of governance across the colonies. While most colonies were royal colonies with governors appointed by the monarch, some, such as Connecticut and Rhode Island, elected their own governors; in proprietorships, such as the Carolinas, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, governors were appointed by the proprietors who held title to the colony.

Despite this, everywhere in British North America, the principle of self-government had taken hold. However governors were appointed, colonial assemblies were elected by the people. The “people” of this time were men who owned a certain amount of property. This electorate was broader than that back in Great Britain or in any other of the great European powers, however. Though the assemblies were usually composed of substantial landowners, to some degree they did reflect public opinion, especially in New England, with its vital institution of town meetings. The colonial assemblies, beginning with Massachusetts in the 1720s, resisted pressure from Great Britain to regularize the payment of salaries to royal governors. This gave the assemblies powerful financial leverage in disputes with their governors and familiarized the assemblies with “the power of the purse.”

Salutary Neglect

During the reigns of George I (1714–1727) and George II (1727–1760), the British government was preoccupied with international relations and the balance of power in Europe. Having come from the Electorate of Hanover, these kings were especially concerned with affairs in Germany and central Europe. The British government’s chief goal in dealing with its colonies was furthering Great Britain’s economic interests. Pursuant to their mercantilist worldview, British officials attempted to prevent Americans from manufacturing their own textiles (1699), hats (1732), and iron goods (1750). Because the Navigation Acts allowed the colonists as Englishmen to own ships and carry on trade, a vibrant merchant class emerged in America. These merchants followed their own interests, evading the Navigation Acts by doing business with the French West Indies and other non-British colonies. The British government became so concerned about the American sugar trade with the French in the Caribbean that Parliament passed the Molasses Act of 1733, raising duties on foreign sugar. Many American shippers continued to ignore British regulations. By 1750, a new generation of British colonial administrators was anxious to tighten the government’s control over its insubordinate American subjects.

First Great American Religious Revival

The First Great Awakening was a religious revival that profoundly influenced spiritual and intellectual values in America. Beginning in the 1720s and lasting through the 1740s, the First Great Awakening challenged the established religious authorities and called for a personal and more emotional approach to divine worship. Exponents of the Great Awakening criticized traditional, overly intellectual sermonizing by ministers. Jonathan Edwards reduced his congregation to tears by preaching on “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” vividly describing the yawning pit of hell and the horrors awaiting sinners there. The dynamic Anglican preacher George Whitefield attracted crowds of thousands to his sermons as he travelled through the colonies in the 1740s.

By scorning the “establishment” and emphasizing fervor over traditional ministerial learning, the Great Awakening encouraged a greater sense of personal equality in the American colonies. A growing number of people became accustomed to thinking for themselves rather than deferring to authority. A people willing to question religious leaders soon proved ready to challenge political figures as well.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• The dominant economic theory of the era was mercantilism; British mercantilist measures such as the Navigation Acts created resentment in the American colonies.

• The importation of African slaves became increasingly important for the continued economic growth of several southern colonies.

• The Salem Witch Trials demonstrated the social conflict present in the American colonies.

• Eighteenth-century European wars between the British and the French spilled over into the Americas, with British and French colonies becoming involved.

• In the early eighteenth century, colonial assemblies became increasingly powerful and independent in several colonies, including Massachusetts.

• Even during the era of “salutary neglect,” the British attempted to increase their economic control over the colonies.

• The religious revival called the Great Awakening caused some colonists to question many of the religious, social, and political foundations on which colonial life was based.

Time Line

1651: First of several Navigation Acts approved by British parliament

1676: Bacon’s Rebellion takes place in Virginia

1682: Dutch monopoly on slave trade ends, greatly reducing the price of slaves coming to the Americas

1686: Creation of Dominion of New England

1688: Glorious Revolution in England; James II removed from the throne

1689: Beginning of the War of the League of Augsburg

1692: Witchcraft trials take place in Salem, Massachusetts

1702: Beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession

1733: Enactment of the Molasses Act

1739: Stono (slave) Rebellion in South Carolina

1740: George Whitefield tours the American colonies—the high point of the Great Awakening

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. The creation of the Dominion of New England

A. increased democracy in the colonies.

B. increased the power of the governor of the area.

C. allowed New England colonies to discuss common grievances.

D. guaranteed direct control of the king over affairs in the New England colonies.

2. A major effect of the Stono Rebellion was

A. an increase in the number of slaves brought into the Southern colonies.

B. increased fortifications around several southern cities.

C. an attempt by slave owners to lessen the horrors of the Middle Passage.

D. harsher treatment of slaves in many parts of the South.

3. The growth of colonial assemblies alarmed the British for all of the following reasons except

A. assemblies holding the “power of the purse” could ultimately undermine British control.

B. assemblies increased democratic tendencies in the colonies.

C. assemblies occasionally ignored or resisted instructions from Great Britain.

D. governors appointed in Britain had little control over these assemblies in most colonies.

4. For the British, the major economic role of the American colonies was

A. to produce manufactured goods the English did not want to produce.

B. to produce crops such as tobacco.

C. to produce raw materials such as lumber.

D. B and C above

5. What changes in the slave system of the southern colonies began in the 1730s?

A. The Dutch lost the monopoly on slave trading, thus increasing the number of slaves being brought into the Americas.

B. Conditions during the Middle Passage began to slightly improve.

C. More slaves began to live and work on larger plantations.

D. A series of slave rebellions created much harsher treatment for slaves.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE way the British imperial system affected the colonies.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND way the British imperial system affected the colonies.

C. Briefly explain ONE way the colonies resisted greater British control.

Answers and Explanations

1. B. This occurred after resistance in Massachusetts to the Navigation Acts, and it gave increased power to Sir Edmund Andros.

2. D. Many plantation owners were fearful of additional rebellions and felt that harsh treatment of slaves would prevent rebellious behavior.

3. B. These assemblies were in no way democratic, as in every colony they were dominated by the landowning elite.

4. D. The role of the colonies under mercantilism was to provide England with crops and raw materials.

5. C. Before the 1730s, most slaves worked on small farms. The Dutch lost their monopoly on slave trading back in 1682. The Stono Rebellion was the first major slave rebellion and occurred in 1739.

6. Parts A and B: The American colonies were affected by the British government’s mercantilist policies. In 1660 and 1663 Parliament passed Navigation Acts compelling colonists to ship tobacco, rice, sugar, and other crops to England. Goods bound to the colonies had to go through English ports. The British continued to pass other financial regulations for the colonies, such as the 1733 Molasses Act. At times, the English attempted political reorganizations of the colonies, revoking their charters, as with Massachusetts in 1684. In 1686, the English government attempted to group New York, New Jersey, and the New England colonies into the Dominion of New England. This fell apart in 1689 after the overthrow of King James II. Another way the British imperial system affected the colonies was by involving them in imperial wars with the French and Spanish. Americans were involved in King William’s War (1689-1697) and Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713).

Part C: Colonists resisted greater British control by violating the Navigation Acts and later economic regulations. The colonists overthrew the Dominion of New England. In the period of “salutary neglect” colonial legislatures increased their independence and resisted efforts to strengthen the power of royal governors.

Resistance, Rebellion, and Revolution (1750–1775)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: Tensions between the British and the French intensified in the 1740s; a result of this tension was the Seven Years’ War, in which colonial militias were involved. The French were defeated in this war, essentially ending their political influence on the Americas. During and after this war the British imposed a number of taxes and duties on their colonies, creating unrest. The Stamp Act created great resentment in the colonies. The results of this resentment included the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, the Boston Massacre of 1770, and the Boston Tea Party of 1773. The First Continental Congress met in 1774 and resolved that the colonies would resist efforts to tax them without their consent.

Keywords

French and Indian War (1756–1763): also known as the Seven Years’ War, a conflict between the British and the French that also involved Native Americans and colonial militias. French defeat in this war greatly decreased their influence in the colonies.

Stamp Act (1765): imposed by the British, this act dictated that all legal documents in the colonies had to be issued on officially stamped paper. This act created strong resentment in the colonies and was later repealed.

Townshend Acts (1767): British legislation that forced colonies to pay duties on most goods coming from England; these duties were fiercely resisted and finally repealed in 1770.

Boston Massacre (1770): conflict between British soldiers and Boston civilians on March 5, 1770; five colonists were killed and six wounded.

Sons of Liberty: radical group that organized resistance against British policies in Boston in the 1760s and 1770s. This was the group that organized the Boston Tea Party.

Committees of Correspondence: created first in Massachusetts and then in other colonies, these groups circulated grievances against the British to towns within their colonies.

Boston Tea Party (1773): in response to British taxes on tea, Boston radicals disguised as Native Americans threw 350 chests of tea into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773; important symbolic act of resistance to British economic control of the colonies.

First Continental Congress (1774): meeting in Philadelphia at which colonists vowed to resist further efforts to tax them without their consent.

War in the West

In 1750, the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains were inhabited by Native American tribes eager to trade with the Europeans but determined to maintain their independence. Both the British and French wanted to lay claim to this expansive territory. Ambitious speculators from Virginia began to purchase land in the Ohio Valley. The French, resolved to uphold their own interests in the area and to protect the tenuous lines of communication between Canada and Louisiana, responded by beginning construction on Fort Duquesne on the site of what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Now it was the turn of the British to be concerned about developments in the Ohio Valley. In 1754, Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia dispatched a small force to the Ohio Territory to uphold British interests and persuade the French to leave. This detachment was commanded by a young militia officer named George Washington. After an initial success, Washington and his men were defeated and captured. The next year, the British responded by sending General Edward Braddock and a large force of British Regular troops to destroy Fort Duquesne. The French and Native American allies ambushed and destroyed Braddock’s army near the fort. The frontier fighting of 1754 and 1755 began the French and Indian War, merging in 1756 with the much larger European Seven Years’ War.

As fighting began with the French, the colonies and the British government found it difficult to coordinate their policies. In 1754, delegations from seven of the more northern colonies gathered for the Albany Congress. Benjamin Franklin and others hoped that the colonies and the British government could work out common measures for dealing with the Native Americans and the threat posed by the French. Franklin proposed a plan of union that would have created a colonial council with a president appointed by the king. Franklin’s plan was rejected by both the colonial assemblies and the British government.

Defeat of New France

Despite the British and American advantages in numbers and sea power, the French won a series of impressive victories in North America from 1756 to 1758. The Native American allies of the French ravaged the western frontier. The turning point in the war came in 1757, when William Pitt rose to power in the British government. Pitt devised a strategy that focused on capturing French colonial possessions around the world. He poured resources into North America, including a fleet and 25,000 Redcoats. Willing to spend freely to get what he wanted, Pitt paid all expenses in raising colonial troops. Eventually 24,000 Americans fought with the British against the French. Faced with such overwhelming force, the French retreated back into Canada. The British followed them there in 1759, and at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham on September 13 defeated their main army and captured the city of Quebec. Montreal fell in 1760, completing the British conquest of Canada.

The war between Great Britain and France ended officially with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The war made Britain the dominant power in North America. Britain retained Canada and had conquered Florida from Spain; thus, the British controlled the entire eastern seaboard. The war also eliminated France as a power in North America; driven from Canada, France gave Louisiana to its ally, Spain, as compensation for the loss of Florida.

The American colonists took pride in the important role that they had played in defeating the French. They were proud to be part of the victorious British Empire. At the same time, the French and Indian War had exposed differences between the colonists and the British. Many British soldiers and officials believed that the colonists could have done more to contribute to the war effort, both financially and in terms of fighting. In turn, many colonists resented what they believed was British condescension directed toward them. They disliked what they saw as the brutal and authoritarian behavior of the British military. They were outraged when British troops were quartered in their homes. The seeds had been planted for later divisions.

The British Need Money

Wars are expensive. War in the wilderness of America was especially expensive. William Pitt had focused on victory, not finances. Now his successors in office had to find the money to pay off an enormous government debt.

In 1763, King George III supported the rise of George Grenville to the position of prime minister. Grenville knew that one of his most important tasks as the head of the government would be to address the debt. He believed that the American colonies should pay a greater share of the cost of maintaining the empire. Like a growing number of British leaders, he was angered by American defiance of the Navigation Acts and wanted to bring an end to the period of salutary neglect in the British administration of the colonies.

Grenville began his campaign to bring the colonies to heel with the Currency Act of 1764. This act prohibited the colonies from issuing their own paper money. This forced the cash-strapped American colonists to pay British merchants in hard currency. Grenville followed this up with the Sugar Act, which lowered the duties on molasses imported to the colonies but strengthened the measures taken to ensure that the colonists would pay what they owed. Both laws added to the economic woes of the colonists, who were suffering from a post-war business slump. Many colonists criticized Grenville’s acts, and some began to question the nature of the relationship between the colonies and their mother country.

Stamp Act Crisis

Grenville overplayed his hand with the Stamp Act of 1765. This was the first time that Parliament imposed a direct tax on the colonies, rather than a customs duty on imported goods. Colonists now had to purchase paper with a revenue stamp for such common documents and printed items as wills, newspapers, and playing cards. To pay this tax, the colonists had to use scarce hard currency rather than local issues of paper money. Not only was the British government raising money from the colonies, something Americans grudgingly accepted when it came to trade regulation, but the British revenue service was now reaching into the colonists’ domestic affairs, taxing elements of their everyday lives. Americans across the colonies reacted to the Stamp Act with fury. They were being taxed without representation, in violation of more than a century of precedent during which they had managed their own internal finances. In July 1765, Samuel Adams played a leading role organizing the Sons of Liberty in Boston. Riots led by the Sons of Liberty intimidated the stamp agent for Massachusetts into surrendering his office. Branches of the Sons of Liberty sprang up in other colonies, and other stamp agents were compelled to resign. In the Virginia House of Burgesses, Patrick Henry made a name for himself denouncing the tyranny of George III.

Across the colonies, leaders looked for a constructive response to what they regarded as the overreaching of the British government. Since the colonies were being taxed without representation, James Otis in Massachusetts and Benjamin Franklin in Pennsylvania argued that Americans should be elected to Parliament. In October 1765, delegates from nine colonies gathered at the Stamp Act Congress held in New York City. The Congress issued a Declaration of Rights and Grievances affirming that, as Englishmen, the colonists could not be taxed by a body that did not represent them. Colonists began talking about economic boycotts against British goods as a way of protesting against the Stamp Act.

Adding to the anger of the colonists was the passage of the Quartering Act requiring that the colonies house and feed the British troops stationed in America. Supporting soldiers whose only role after the defeat of the French seemed to be as enforcers of unpopular laws struck Americans as the height of tyranny.

Grenville left office in July 1765 and was replaced by Lord Rockingham. The new prime minister was anxious to calm the uproar in the colonies. British business owners, worried about a loss of trade with the colonies, lobbied effectively against the Stamp Act. Rockingham persuaded Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act early in 1766. Repeal of the Stamp Act delighted Americans and led to celebrations in the colonies. This self-congratulatory mood ended, however, when word came that Parliament, as a face-saving measure, had also passed the Declaratory Act, which asserted its right to legislate for the colonies “in all cases whatsoever.”

Townshend Acts

In 1766, an ailing William Pitt returned as prime minister. Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, became the dominant figure in formulating policy toward the colonies. Like Grenville before him, Townshend was driven by the need to raise revenue. As the Americans had objected to the Stamp Act because it taxed transactions within the borders of the colonies, Townshend assumed that the colonists would not object to taxes on British goods that they imported. In 1767, the Townshend Acts placed new duties on lead, paper, glass, and tea, all goods that the colonists bought from British merchants. In order to strengthen the position of the British authorities in America, Townshend used some of the money raised by the taxes to pay the salaries of royal governors and other British office holders, which weakened the power of the colonial assemblies. Townshend also tightened up the enforcement of British tax collection and trade regulations with the creation of an American Customs Board and new admiralty courts whose purpose was to try smugglers.

Townshend soon learned that the distinction that he made between “internal” and “external” taxes did not wash with most American colonists. The Americans believed that Parliament could not tax them without their consent. Soon a number of American leaders eloquently expressed this point of view. In his Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1767), John Dickinson argued that Parliament could regulate the empire’s trade but lacked the authority to raise revenue from colonists. When some defenders of the Townshend Acts pointed out that the taxes were low, Dickinson responded, “If they have a right to levy a tax of one penny upon us, they have a right to levy a million upon us; for where does their right stop?” In an article about American opposition to taxation without representation, Benjamin Franklin warned British readers that “this unhappy new system of politics tends to dissolve those bands of union and to sever us forever.”

Samuel Adams organized opposition to the Townshend Acts in Massachusetts. Early in 1768, he wrote a letter urging other colonies to join Massachusetts in resisting Parliament. In the letter, he declared that “taxation without representation is tyranny.” The Massachusetts Assembly endorsed this Circular Letter and forwarded it to the other colonial assemblies. The British authorities were outraged, and the colonial secretary urged royal governors to dissolve any assemblies that joined with Massachusetts. Despite this, five other colonies issued similar documents. Boycotts of British goods became widespread across the colonies. Once again, American economic power made itself felt in Britain. Lord North became prime minister in 1770. He led Parliament in repealing all Townshend duties except that on tea, which was left as a reminder that the British government maintained its power to tax the colonies.

Boston Massacre

Boston, Massachusetts, became a flashpoint for tensions between British officials and colonists. Boston merchants defied British trade regulations, much to the fury of customs officers. In 1768, the British seized a smuggling ship belonging to John Hancock. American mobs retaliated by assaulting British officials. The British responded to this by stationing two regiments of British soldiers in Boston. The Redcoats soon became very unpopular as a symbol of British repression. Many working-class Bostonians hated the soldiers because, in their spare time, they took on part-time jobs that had once gone to local workers. Harassing soldiers became a sport for some Bostonians. On March 5, 1770, a mob started throwing snowballs laced with ice and rocks at a group of soldiers standing guard. The infuriated soldiers fired a volley at their tormentors, killing five men and wounding eight others. Samuel Adams turned the Boston Massacre into a public relations disaster for the British, propagandizing the event as a demonstration of British brutality. Despite this, many Americans who opposed British policy also deplored mob violence. John Adams undertook the defense of the British soldiers when they went on trial; of the eight accused, six were acquitted and two received the relatively mild punishment of a brand on their thumbs.

Tensions between the colonies and Britain seemed to subside a bit between 1770 and 1773. Business appeared to go on as usual. But fundamental issues had not been resolved. Samuel Adams formed a Committee of Correspondence in Boston to share news and coordinate protests against the British. Committees of Correspondence quickly spread across Massachusetts and throughout the colonies. These committees provided an essential organizational framework for American resistance to British policy.

Boston Tea Party

One British tax still remained, that on tea. Some Americans expressed their opposition to the tax by boycotting British tea. The boycott had an effect, hurting the British East India Company, which was in dire financial straits because of troubles in India. In an effort to provide assistance to the East India Company, Lord North’s government sponsored the Tea Act of 1773. This legislation allowed the East India Company to market its tea to the Americans without having to go through middlemen in England; the tea tax stayed the same, but the price of high-quality British tea went down.

Lord North thought that the Tea Act was a win for everyone; the East India Company would be saved and the Americans would get cheaper tea, despite the tax. The Americans saw things differently. They saw the Tea Act as an insidious way of reaffirming Parliament’s power to tax the colonies. They distrusted the special privilege granted the well-connected East India Company. At several ports, popular gatherings ensured that the East India Company tea stayed aboard ship. Things went further in Boston. On the evening of December 16, 1773, men dressed as Mohawk Indians swarmed onto the East India Company’s ships and tossed some 350 chests of tea into the dirty waters of the harbor. The Boston Tea Party was an act of defiance that quickly focused the wrath of the British government on the city.

Intolerable Acts

The Intolerable Acts, also known as the Coercive Acts, were passed by Parliament early in 1774. They were designed to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. The British closed the port of Boston to all but military or officially approved traffic. The British took control of government in Massachusetts, giving the royal governor the authority to appoint most officials in the state and limiting town meetings to just once a year. Finally, the unpopular Quartering Act was reimposed on all colonies. Although Massachusetts was the focus of the Intolerable Acts, Americans living elsewhere recognized that the British could just as easily impose coercive laws in their own colonies. Spontaneously, legislators in different colonial legislatures began calling for a gathering of colonial representatives to address the crisis in Massachusetts.

The passage of the Quebec Act of 1774 was associated in the minds of American colonists with the Intolerable Acts. In many ways an enlightened approach to governing the French population of Canada, the Quebec Act angered Americans because it included the western territories in an expanded province of Quebec and guaranteed freedom of worship to French Catholics. To the American colonists, it seemed as if the British were cutting them off from the west and surrounding them with their hereditary enemies.

First Continental Congress

The Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774. Fifty-six delegates from every colony but Georgia took part. The delegates were undecided about what to do. Samuel Adams wanted a complete boycott of British trade, whereas others urged a diplomatic approach to Parliament. John Adams united Congress with his Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which reiterated the American position that Parliament could regulate the trade of the colonies but could not tax the colonies without representation.

Congress also adopted the Suffolk Resolves, a declaration that originated in Massachusetts. The Suffolk Resolves defied the Intolerable Acts by refusing to recognize the changes that the British had made to the Massachusetts government. They also imposed a boycott of British products. Recognizing the increasing seriousness of the political situation, the Suffolk Resolves called on the colonies to see to the readiness of their militias.

Before adjourning on October 26, 1774, Congress drew up a petition to George III requesting the repeal of the Intolerable Acts. Congress also set May 10, 1775, as the date for the convening of a Second Continental Congress. As 1774 drew to a close, Americans pondered what the British government would do next.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• Tensions between the British and the French intensified in the 1740s when land speculators from English colonies began to acquire land in the Ohio Valley.

• The Seven Years’ War (the French and Indian War in American textbooks) was between the English and colonial militias and the French; Native Americans fought on both sides.

• The defeat of the French in this war largely ended their influence in the Americas; after the war, the British attempted to make the colonies pay their fair share for the war effort.

• Parliamentary efforts during this era to produce money for Great Britain by imposing various taxes and duties on the colonies resulted in great unrest in the colonies.

• The impact of the Stamp Act on the colonies was great; as a result, nine colonies met at the 1765 Stamp Act Congress and the Sons of Liberty formed in Boston.

• Boston remained a center of opposition to British policy; the Boston Massacre in 1770 and the Boston Tea Party in 1773 helped to create resistance to the Crown in other colonies as well.

• The 1774 Intolerable Acts that closed the port of Boston and curtailed freedom of speech in Massachusetts outraged many in the colonies.

• The 1774 First Continental Congress passed a resolution that firmly stated the colonies would firmly resist measures that taxed them without their consent. At this meeting it was also decided that individual colonies should start to raise and train state militias.

Time Line

1754: Representatives of colonies meet at Albany Congress to coordinate further Western settlement

1756: Beginning of Seven Years’ War

1763: Signing of Treaty of Paris ending Seven Years’ War

1764: Parliament approves Sugar Act, Currency Act

1765: Stamp Act approved by Parliament; Stamp Act Congress occurs and Sons of Liberty is formed, both in opposition to the Stamp Act

1766: Stamp Act repealed, but in Declaratory Act, Parliament affirms its right to tax the colonies

1767: Passage of the Townshend Acts

1770: Boston Massacre occurs

1773: Boston Tea Party takes place in December in opposition to the Tea Act

1774: Intolerable Acts adopted by Parliament

First Continental Congress held in Philadelphia

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. William Pitt was able to convince the colonies to fight in the Seven Years’ War by

A. threatening military reprisals by the British army.

B. threatening to make the colonists fight the French by themselves.

C. putting the recruiting of troops in the colonies totally in the hands of the colonies themselves.

D. paying colonial soldiers generous bonuses to fight against the French.

2. The Stamp Act created great fury in the colonies because

A. it imposed massive duties on the colonies.

B. it was the first time Parliament had imposed a duty on the colonies.

C. it took badly needed revenue away from colonial legislatures.

D. this was the first time that Parliament imposed a direct tax on the colonies.

3. The statement “taxation without representation is tyranny” was first proclaimed by

A. Benjamin Franklin.

B. John Hancock.

C. Samuel Adams.

D. Patrick Henry.

4. After the Seven Years’ War, resentment between the British and the colonists existed for all of the following reasons except

A. the British resented the fact that few colonists had actually helped them in the war against the French.

B. British soldiers had been quartered in colonial homes.

C. the British resented the fact that some colonists continued to trade with the French at the beginning of the war.

D. colonial militiamen felt the British exhibited a patronizing attitude toward them.

5. Most delegates at the First Continental Congress of 1774

A. felt that there should be a total boycott of British goods by the colonies.

B. felt that the colonies should firmly resist measures to tax them without their consent.

C. felt that it was time to seriously consider military measures against the British.

D. wanted the British to totally refrain from regulating trade to the colonies.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE reason for conflict between the colonies and the British government in the 1760s and 1770s.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND reason for conflict between the colonies and the British government in the 1760s and 1770s.

C. Briefly explain ONE way the colonists expressed their opposition to the actions of the British government.

Answers and Explanations

1. C. Pitt put the recruiting of colonial troops totally in local hands and agreed to reimburse the colonies for all their expenses during the war.

2. D. All previous taxation of the colonies had been self-imposed.

3. C. This statement was first made by Adams in 1768 in an article he wrote opposing the Townshend Acts.

4. A. The colonies contributed nearly 24,000 men to the war effort—while the British contributed 25,000.

5. B. Although some, including Sam Adams, wanted a boycott of all British goods, John Adams crafted a compromise that called for the colonies to oppose “taxation without representation.”

6. Parts A and B: Victory in the French and Indian War eliminated the serious military threat posed by the French. The colonists now had much less need for the military security provided by Great Britain. The French and Indian War had been enormously expensive for the British government. The British attempted to meet a budget deficit by taxing the American colonies. This conflicted with the American opposition to taxation without representation; the Americans believed that they should be taxed only by their own elected representatives. Successive British taxes—the Sugar Act (1764), the Stamp Act (1765), the Townshend Acts (1767), the Tea Act (1773)—were opposed and resisted by the colonists. The Americans also resented the Quartering Act (1765), which forced them to find housing and provisions for British troops stationed in their colonies. Many Americans were outraged by the Intolerable Acts (1774), imposed on Massachusetts following the Boston Tea Party; the port of Boston was shut down, and British officials were given the power to appoint all officials in the colony, and citizens had to ask British permission to hold town meetings.

Part C: Americans expressed their opposition in a variety of ways. A Stamp Act Congress composed of representatives from nine colonies organized resistance to the Stamp Act. Sam Adams founded the Sons of Liberty in 1765. In 1768, Sam Adams issued the Circular Letter opposing the Townshend Acts. Other colonists published works criticizing British policy, such as John Dickinson’s Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1767). Sam Adams set up a Committee of Correspondence in Boston; soon similar committees of correspondence appeared across the colonies to exchange ideas and information. The 1773 Boston Tea Party was a protest against the Tea Act; men dressed as Indians dumped British tea into Boston Harbor. Following the imposition of the Intolerable Acts on Massachusetts in 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to coordinate resistance to British policy. It issued the Declaration of Rights and Grievances. The Suffolk Resolves called for a boycott of British goods until the Intolerable Acts were repealed. Militia began training across the American colonies.

American Revolution and the New Nation (1775–1787)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: The Second Continental Congress, meeting in May 1775, began to prepare the American colonies for war. The impact of Common Sense by Thomas Paine and other documents continued to fan anti-British sentiment in the colonies, although there were still a number of Loyalists who supported British policies. As commander of the colonial army, George Washington practiced a defensive strategy, which, along with invaluable assistance from the French, helped to defeat the British army. The first government of the new nation was established by the Articles of Confederation, which created a weak national government.

Keywords

Second Continental Congress (May 1775): meeting that authorized the creation of a Continental army; many delegates still hoped that conflict could be avoided with the British.

Common Sense (1776): pamphlet written by Thomas Paine attacking the system of government by monarchy; this document was very influential throughout the colonies.

Battle of Yorktown (1781): defeat of the British in Virginia, ending their hopes of winning the Revolutionary War.

Treaty of Paris (1783): treaty ending the Revolutionary War; by this treaty Great Britain recognized American independence and gave Americans the territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.

Articles of Confederation (ratified 1781): document establishing the first government of the United States; the federal government was given limited power and the states much power.

Northwest Ordinances (1784, 1785, 1787): bills authorizing the sale of lands in the Northwest Territory to raise money for the federal government; bills also laid out procedures for these territories to eventually attain statehood.

Lexington and Concord

King George II and the British government headed by Lord North did not respond favorably to the petition of the First Continental Congress. The British government saw no reason to compromise with the American colonists. They failed to comprehend that events were moving out of their control. The Americans were rapidly establishing a unified front against the Intolerable Acts and British attempts to weaken colonial self-government. In Massachusetts, the assembly met in defiance of the orders of General Thomas Gage, the acting governor; it became in effect a shadow government, exerting its influence over most of the colony outside of Boston, where Gage sat with his small army of Redcoats.

Pursuant to the Suffolk Resolves’ call for the colonies to upgrade their militias, the Massachusetts assembly created a militia system independent of General Gage’s control. Arms and munitions for these men were stored at the town of Concord. In February 1775, the British government declared Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion. On the night of April 18–19, Gage sent a force of 700 men to destroy the militia arsenal at Concord. Word of this expedition soon leaked to the Americans, and Paul Revere and William Dawes rode out of Boston to spread the word that the Redcoats were coming. As the sun rose on April 19, the British vanguard encountered a force of 80 militiamen gathered on the town common at Lexington. The British ordered the militia to disperse; the American militia commander ordered his men to fall back, but not everyone heard him. At this moment of uncertainty, someone fired a shot. More shots followed, and the British charged with bayonets. Within minutes, eight colonists were dead and ten wounded.

The British continued their advance to Concord. The Americans were ready for them; more and more militiamen were gathering. The British found and destroyed some military supplies but did little significant damage. A large group of militiamen advanced on the British troops guarding the North Bridge on the outskirts of the town and after an exchange of fire drove them away. The British began to march back to Boston; along the way, they were attacked by groups of angry militiamen. Only the timely arrival of reinforcements sent by Gage saved the column. In this fighting, the British lost 275 men; 93 Americans were killed.

In May, Ethan Allen and his Vermont Green Mountain Boys seized Fort Ticonderoga from its tiny British garrison. Almost a year later, in March 1776, cannon dragged through the snow from Ticonderoga would persuade the British to evacuate Boston.

Second Continental Congress

When the Second Continental Congress assembled in May, it faced unprecedented challenges; the colonies were in rebellion and engaged in a war with the greatest maritime empire in the world. As word of Lexington and Concord spread, British authority in the colonies rapidly collapsed. Colonial legislatures assumed local power, but the Second Continental Congress would have to guide the united destinies of the colonies in the coming conflict.

Congress acted with decisiveness. It created the Continental Army and appointed the experienced soldier George Washington of Virginia its commander. Congress created a committee to formulate and conduct foreign policy; it also began issuing paper money to finance the war.

Even as it prepared for military operations, Congress made a last effort at peace. Congress sent the “Olive Branch Petition” to George III, asking the king to mediate a “happy and permanent reconciliation” to the conflict between the colonies and the British government. George II was in no mood to offer concessions to the Americans. He and his government were determined to quell the rebellion in the colonies by force. British intransigence forced even political moderates in the colonies to consider the possibility of American independence.

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense

Although Thomas Paine had only emigrated to America from England in 1774, he warmly embraced the cause of the colonists. In January 1776, he published Common Sense, one of the most influential political works in American history. Paine’s pamphlet struck a nerve and sold phenomenally. Within three months, over 100,000 copies were printed, and by the end of the Revolutionary War, some 500,000 copies had been distributed in a country with a population of around two million. Paine managed to reach almost everyone who was literate in America; it was an extraordinary mass media success for the eighteenth century.

Paine wanted the colonies to separate themselves from Great Britain. He argued that the colonies would prosper once freed from the political and economic shackles imposed by the British. He attacked the institution of the monarchy, to which many Americans were still attached. He declared that “monarchy and hereditary succession have laid the world in blood and ashes.” Paine’s Common Sense played an important role in persuading many Americans of the necessity of independence. The Loyalist minority recognized the power of Paine’s pamphlet; one New Yorker observed that “the unthinking multitude are mad for it.…”

Declaration of Independence

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia placed a motion before Congress resolving “that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.…” Lee also called for Congress to consider a governmental framework through which the states could address continental issues. While the congressional delegates discussed independence with each other and communicated with the legislatures in their home states, a committee including Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson was appointed to draft a declaration of independence. The committee gave Thomas Jefferson the task of producing a first draft. Jefferson had a reputation of being a gifted writer, and he was well read in the writings of the great political philosophers of the Enlightenment.

Jefferson’s text evoked the natural rights theory of John Locke, asserting that men have “certain unalienable rights,” and “that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Jefferson also echoed Locke in arguing that when a government “becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.” Jefferson embraced the notion of government as a social contract, writing that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The bulk of Jefferson’s text was a long list of the wrongs that the colonies had suffered at the hands of the British. Jefferson attributed these to George III rather than Parliament, accentuating a tyrannical view of British rule. After some changes at the hands of the committee and in Congress, the Declaration of Independence was debated on July 1. The next day, July 2, Congress voted for independence. This decision was announced on July 4.

Reactions to Independence

The Declaration of Independence was greeted with celebrations throughout the newly minted states. While supporters of independence were in the ascendency and controlled the state governments, not all Americans wanted to renounce their allegiance to the mother country. Although sometimes caricatured as wealthy grandees with close economic and political ties to the British colonial administration, Loyalists in fact came from all economic strata. Many valued the economic and cultural connections to Great Britain; others doubted the legality and good sense of challenging Great Britain’s power.

Many African Americans greeted the Declaration of Independence with hope. The strong affirmation of natural rights in the document seemed to challenge the institution of slavery. (In fact, Jefferson had blamed American slavery on the British in his first draft; this section of the text was removed by Congress.) In the short run, independence would not lead to emancipation for slaves. Some slaves fled to the British, and a few were recruited into special “Ethiopian” units fighting with the British Army. Some slaves in the northern states won their freedom by serving in the militia or the Continental Army. Free blacks saw the ideals of the American Revolution as supporting their attempts to claim their rights as citizens.

Native Americans saw nothing for themselves in the Declaration of Independence or a free United States. While some Native Americans fought with the Americans, most supported the British because they feared the land hunger of the new nation.

Balance of Forces

Great Britain possessed an overwhelming military advantage over the colonies. The British Navy controlled the seas. The British Army was a highly regarded professional force. The British supplemented their Redcoat Regulars with thousands of German troops, known collectively as Hessians. The British could also rely on the services of American Loyalists, many of whom joined the British army or formed their own military units. In contrast, the Americans had no navy at the outset of the war. The Continental Army was poorly paid and supplied by Congress and the states; it had to address an initial lack of discipline and training while engaging in military operations against the British. The Continental Army was supported in the field by units of inexperienced militiamen who often proved unreliable under fire.

Despite their military superiority, the British faced serious problems in combatting the American rebellion. British forces were a long way from home, at the end of a supply line that stretched across the Atlantic Ocean. Because it could take months to sail back and forth between America and Great Britain, it was very difficult for British commanders to communicate with the government in London. America was a vast place, much of it wilderness; the British could not hope to occupy it all with the troops that they had available, and they ended up occupying only a few cities along the coast. The new United States had no capital or decisive point at which capture would force an American surrender. British armies would march through the American countryside hoping to force a battle that would end the war; sometimes they would not return.

On the other hand, the Americans were fighting on their home ground. George Washington proved to be an able strategist, who realized that the United States would win the war if it simply avoided defeat; as a result, he made the survival of his army a priority, making it a rallying point for American resistance. American spirits were lifted early in the war when, in June 1775, American militiamen fought the British at Bunker Hill outside Boston. The Americans were forced from their position, but before this happened, they shot down almost 1,000 British soldiers. This gave the impression that American citizen soldiers could easily defeat British Regulars. However, subsequent experience would demonstrate that this was not the case.

The War in the North

The British were forced out of Boston in March 1776, when cannon dragged from Fort Ticonderoga threatened their ships in Boston Harbor. The British retreated to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to regroup. At the end of June, the British general William Howe arrived at New York City with a massively reinforced army. That summer, Howe defeated Washington’s army and maneuvered it out of New York, chasing the Americans across New Jersey into Pennsylvania.

That winter, the prospects for the American cause seemed bleak. Washington’s army suffered from low morale and was dwindling due to desertions and expiring enlistments. Washington retrieved the situation with a brilliant counterstroke. On the evening of December 25, he led his men across the Delaware River, surprising and capturing the Hessian garrison of Trenton, New Jersey. A few days later, Washington defeated a British detachment at Princeton. As a result, the British hastily evacuated their outposts in New Jersey, surrendering much of the gains of their summer campaign. Washington had reversed the momentum of the war and given American morale a much needed boost.

The Saratoga Campaign

The fighting of 1776 resulted in failure for the British. The following year, they attempted to cripple the rebellion with an ambitious strategy of cutting the colonies in two. British forces from Canada, New York City, and the Great Lakes would drive toward Albany, New York, and the Hudson River. With the Hudson River Valley under firm British control, the New England colonies would be divided from the colonies to the south. With different sections of the country isolated, the British believed that they could then suppress the rebellion.

Unfortunately for the British, difficulties in communication and the ambitions of generals upset the plan before it began. Instead of marching up the Hudson River to Albany, General Howe in New York City instead set sail for Philadelphia, hoping to capture the American capital and destroy Washington’s army. Howe defeated Washington and captured Philadelphia, but as Washington demonstrated with an attack on British forces in the Philadelphia suburb of Germantown, his army was anything but destroyed. Howe’s Philadelphia gambit not only failed to achieve any decisive results, but it deprived General John Burgoyne’s army, advancing toward Albany from Canada, of desperately needed support. Burgoyne’s army bogged down in the New York wilderness and was surrounded at Saratoga by hard-fighting American forces. Burgoyne surrendered on October 17, 1777.

This defeat was disastrous for the British. Not only was an entire British army eliminated, but the American victory at Saratoga convinced the French to declare war on Great Britain in 1778. Until this point, the French had been assisting the Americans only with covert shipments of arms and military supplies. The French did this not because of any love for the Americans or their principles, but because they wanted to weaken their long-time enemy, Great Britain. Saratoga convinced the French government that the Americans could win and that the British were vulnerable. French intervention changed the nature of the war, which now became an international conflict with French and British forces clashing around the world. Later, the Spanish and Dutch would join the fight against Great Britain. French naval and military support would prove crucial for the Americans in the final campaign of the war.

While American men served in militias or Continental Army, American women also played a vital role in sustaining the war effort. They ran farms and businesses while men were away and provided many needed services for the Army. Some women hoped that revolutionary ideals would lead to an improvement in their legal status. In March 1776, Abigail Adams urged her husband, John Adams, to “Remember the ladies.… Do not put such unlimited power in the hands of the husbands.”

The War in the South

Facing a new war after Saratoga and the American alliance with France, the British reassessed their strategy. A new British commander, General Henry Clinton, abandoned Philadelphia and marched overland to New York City. Along the way he encountered Washington’s Continental Army. During the winter of 1777–1778, Washington’s men suffered terribly from cold and famine at Valley Forge. Washington supported the efforts of a German officer, Baron von Steuben, to improve the training of his troops. Steuben’s labors paid off when Washington’s and Clinton’s armies faced each other at the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778. Although Clinton was able to continue his retreat to New York, Washington’s Continental troops more than held their own in very hard fighting.

The British now decided to focus their increasingly stretched military resources on the south, which they believed to be a hotbed of colonists with Loyalist sympathies. Initially, all went well for the British. They reoccupied Georgia, and Clinton forced the surrender of Charleston and a garrison of 5,000 men in May 1780. After General Charles Cornwallis defeated the remaining American army in the south a few months later, it appeared that the British southern strategy had succeeded.

The tide soon turned. George Washington sent General Nathanael Greene south to rally what was left of the Continental forces. Although he never won a battle, Greene waged a brilliant campaign that left British forces in the Carolinas confined to a few cities and outposts.

After winning a bloody battle with Greene, General Cornwallis marched his battered Redcoats into Virginia to rest and resupply. He stationed his army at Yorktown. Learning of this, Washington marched his army and a force of French troops, led by the Comte de Rochambeau, south. The British hoped to evacuate Cornwallis’s army by sea, but a French fleet, under the Comte de Grasse, arrived in Chesapeake Bay before them. On September 5, 1781, the French fleet held off the British at the Battle of the Virginia Capes. This left Cornwallis trapped. Late in September, Washington began a formal siege of Yorktown. His situation hopeless, Cornwallis surrendered on October 19. Yorktown was the last major battle of the war; with another army captured, the British realized that they had lost America.

The Treaty of Paris

Peace negotiations began in Paris in 1782. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay represented the United States in these talks. Negotiations were protracted because fighting was still going on between the British and the French and their allies. Finally, the American delegation signed a treaty with the British on September 3, 1783.

In the Treaty of Paris, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States. The British retained Canada but ceded to the United States the lands between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. For the new nation, the western boundary of the Mississippi River in part reflected the wartime victories of George Rogers Clark in the Ohio River Valley. The Americans won lucrative fishing rights off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, while promising the British that prewar debts to British merchants would be paid and that Loyalists would have confiscated property returned.

New State Constitutions and the Articles of Confederation

Independence meant that old colonial charters had to be replaced by new state constitutions. Ten states had drawn up new constitutions by the end of 1777. These documents reflected a suspicion of executive power borne of the years of struggle with Great Britain, so most governors were given limited authority. All states but Pennsylvania and Vermont instituted bicameral legislatures. Many states ensured the freedoms of their citizens with bills of rights. Most states broadened their electorates by lowering the property qualification to vote.

The Continental Congress completed work on a constitution for a limited national government by the fall of 1777. The Articles of Confederation were sent to the state legislatures for ratification. As with the state constitutions, this constitution for the new nation was a reaction against the overly powerful government the Americans had rebelled against. The Articles of Confederation created a very weak continental government.

The centerpiece of the new government was a unicameral legislature in which each state would have one vote. Limited executive authority was vested in a Committee of Thirteen, in which each state would have a representative. There was no national judiciary. To ratify the Articles of Confederation or to amend them, all 13 state legislatures would have to vote affirmatively. This held up ratification for almost four years. Because of disputes over western lands, Maryland did not ratify the Articles of Confederation until 1781, finally allowing the new form of government to take hold.

As a governmental framework designed to avoid governmental tyranny, the Articles of Confederation gave Congress few powers. The national government could carry on foreign relations, manage the western territories, and make treaties with Native Americans. The national government could not regulate trade or interstate commerce or impose taxes; it remained financially dependent upon financial contributions from the states.

Financial Problems

During the Revolution, Congress never found a way to effectively finance the war effort. The government resorted to issuing large amounts of unsecured paper money. Rampant inflation soon ate away the value of these so-called “Continentals.” Because of its financial embarrassment, Congress never paid many soldiers who had served in the Continental Army. Only loans from France and other European countries kept the government operating. Conditions did not improve for the government after the war; it had many debts and no way to raise enough money to pay them. Efforts to place tariffs on imports failed to get a unanimous vote in Congress. The nation’s financial woes were multiplied by a postwar economic depression.

Northwest Ordinances

The government did have one potential source of income open to it, the sale of western lands. Settlers were pouring into the territories west of the Appalachian Mountains. By 1790, 110,000 Americans had moved into Kentucky and Tennessee. The Northwest Ordinances of 1784, 1785, and 1787 established regulations for the sale of land and territorial organization of the Northwest Territory, which would become the foundation for the government’s policy toward all western lands that it acquired in the future.

The 1784 Ordinance determined that the western territories would be organized as new states. The Land Ordinance of 1785 established a system for selling western lands and also ensured that a section of land in every township would be reserved for the support of public education. The Ordinance of 1787 ceded all state claims to western lands to the national government; created the Northwest Territory, a jurisdiction expected to eventually be divided into three to five states; and established a procedure for a territory to apply for statehood. The Ordinance prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory, making the Ohio River a dividing line between eventual slave and free states. Taken together, the Northwest Ordinances were the most consequential legislation passed during the period of the Articles of Confederation.

Shays’ Rebellion

Farmers in western Massachusetts had suffered in the bad economic times that followed the Revolution. Many suffered from heavy loads of debt and the scarcity of hard currency that creditors demanded. Adding to their burdens were heavy taxes imposed by the Massachusetts legislature. In 1786, groups of protesters began to forcibly stop foreclosures on bankrupt farms and disrupt court proceedings. The rebellion was named for Daniel Shays, a veteran of the Continental Army who had experienced the financial hardships that drove the uprising.

At one point, it seemed as if a force led by Shays might seize the unguarded national armory at Springfield. However, a force of privately funded militia dispersed the rebels. A timely decrease in taxes helped pacify the situation. The most important result was that Shays’ Rebellion highlighted for many people the need for a stronger central government in the United States.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• The first armed resistance to the British army occurred at Lexington and Concord.

• The Second Continental Congress began to prepare the American colonies for war against the British, but by passing the Olive Branch Petition, they tried to accommodate colonial interests with those of the Crown.

• The impact of the message presented in Common Sense by Thomas Paine was widespread throughout the colonies.

• Many Loyalists lived in the colonies at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War; many were members of the economic elite.

• Blacks and women played large roles in the war effort of the colonies.

• The defensive tactics of George Washington as leader of the Continental forces proved decisive, since a longer war was disadvantageous to the British army.

• French assistance to the Continental war effort proved invaluable; the French navy proved to be especially critical as the war progressed.

• The Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War. In this treaty, American independence was recognized by the British and large amounts of territory west of the Appalachians became American territory.

• The Articles of Confederation created a weak national government, partially to avoid replicating the “tyranny” of the Crown in England.

• To many colonial observers, Shays’ Rebellion demonstrated that a stronger national government was needed.

Time Line

1775: Battles of Lexington and Concord

Meeting of Second Continental Congress

1776: Common Sense published by Thomas Paine

Declaration of Independence approved

Surrender of British forces of General Burgoyne at Saratoga

1777: State constitutions written in 10 former colonies

1777–1778: Continental army encamped for the winter at Valley Forge

French begin to assist American war efforts

1781: Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown

Articles of Confederation ratified

1783: Signing of the Treaty of Paris

1786–1787: Shays’ Rebellion in Massachusetts

1787: Northwest Ordinance establishes regulations for settlement of territories west of the Appalachian Mountains

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. The purpose of the Olive Branch Petition was to

A. rally colonial support for war against Great Britain.

B. petition the king for redress of economic grievances suffered by the colonies.

C. ask the king to craft a solution to end the tensions between Great Britain and the colonies.

D. ask the king to grant independence to the colonies.

2. At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the British were extremely confident of victory because all of the following reasons except

A. they had outstanding generals that would be commanding British forces in the Americas.

B. there were many Loyalists throughout the American colonies.

C. the Continental army suffered from poor discipline.

D. the British had an outstanding navy.

3. All of the following were contained in the Treaty of Paris of 1783 except

A. territory west of the Appalachian Mountains was ceded to the Americans.

B. American independence was recognized by Great Britain.

C. Quebec and the area immediately surrounding it was ceded to the Americans.

D. former Loyalists in the colonies could retrieve property seized from them during the Revolutionary War.

4. Women were important in the war effort because they

A. provided much of the financial backing for the colonial cause.

B. wrote influential articles in colonial newspapers urging the colonies to resist the British.

C. provided clothing and blankets for the frozen troops at Valley Forge.

D. maintained economic stability in the colonies by managing households across the colonies while men were off fighting the British.

5. The weakness of the national government created by the Articles of Confederation was demonstrated by the fact that it was not given the power to

A. mediate disputes between states.

B. raise an army.

C. conduct foreign relations.

D. print money.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE reason for American victory in the Revolutionary War.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND reason for American victory in the Revolutionary War.

C. Briefly explain ONE advantage that the British enjoyed in the Revolutionary War.

Answers and Explanations

1. C. Although the Second Continental Congress began to prepare the colonies for war against Great Britain, the delegates also voted to send this petition to George III, asking him to create harmony between Great Britain and the colonies.

2. A. Several of the main generals commanding British troops in the Revolutionary War proved early on to be quite ordinary in tactical and leadership skills.

3. C. None of the British territory in Canada was taken from them as a result of the treaty.

4. D. Although women assisted the war effort in many ways, they made an important contribution by managing estates and farms while their husbands were serving in the colonial militias or in the Continental army.

5. B. The national government was not given the power to issue taxes, regulate commerce, or raise an army.

6. Parts A and B: America was a very big place, much of it wilderness, with few roads and major cities. This made it difficult for British armies to win decisive victories against the Americans. The United States under the Second Continental Congress and then the Articles of Confederation was able to create a government that maintained an impressive degree of unity among the states while waging the war. The United States brought forward skillful military commanders like George Washington and Nathanael Greene. Despite many hardships, thousands of Americans served bravely in the Continental Army and militias. Thanks to the training efforts of men like the Baron von Steuben, the Continental Army eventually became capable of meeting the British army on equal terms. The United States conducted an effective foreign policy, bringing France into the war in 1778. Spain and the Netherlands also joined in the war against Great Britain. French naval and military support helped George Washington win the decisive victory at Yorktown in 1781.

Part C: The British enjoyed the advantage of possessing a large professional military. To supplement these forces, the British were able to hire the services of thousands of German troops, known collectively as Hessians. The British were able to rally many Native American tribes to their side. They were also able to count on the loyalty of about a fifth of the American population, and many loyalists served in British military units. The royal navy gave the British the command of the sea.

Establishment of New Political Systems (1787–1800)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: In 1787 the Articles of Confederation were discarded and the Constitution of the United States was created, establishing a stronger federal government. The Constitution established a bicameral legislature, three branches of government, and the division of power between the states and the federal government. The Bill of Rights also established many basic freedoms central to the identity of the United States. During the presidency of George Washington, different visions of America were expressed by Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.

Keywords

Virginia Plan: during debate over the Constitution, the plan proposing a bicameral legislature with representatives determined by proportional representation.

New Jersey Plan: during debate over the Constitution, the plan proposing one legislative body for the country, with each state having one vote.

Great Compromise: Connecticut plan that stated that one house of the Congress would be based on population (the House of Representatives) while in the other house all states would have equal representation (the Senate).

Electoral College: procedure for electing the president and vice-president of the United States as outlined in the Constitution; electors from each state, and not the popular vote, ultimately elect the president.

Three-Fifths Compromise: as the Constitution was being created, the plan that stated that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a free person; this was used to determine eventual membership in the House of Representatives.

Federalists: party in the first years of the republic that favored a larger national government; was supported by commercial interests. Federalists were opposed by Jeffersonians, who wanted a smaller national government.

Alien and Sedition Acts: proposed by President John Adams, gave the president power to expel “dangerous” aliens and outlawed “scandalous” publications against the government.

The Constitutional Convention

The financial frustrations of the national government and episodes like Shays’ Rebellion convinced a number of American leaders that a stronger national government was a necessity. They believed that the loose system of the Articles of Confederation was inadequate to the needs of a potentially powerful nation. Some of the advocates for changes, such as Alexander Hamilton, had served in the army during the Revolutionary War and had developed a “continental” perspective that transcended loyalties to particular states.

In the wake of Shays’ Rebellion, the nationalists were able to persuade Congress to authorize a convention to explore revisions to the Articles of Confederation. On May 25, 1787, delegates from all 13 states gathered in Philadelphia. Among the delegates were George Washington, who was elected president of the convention; Benjamin Franklin; Alexander Hamilton; and James Madison. Two prominent leaders who missed the convention were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom were serving as ambassadors in Europe. Early on, it was decided to abandon efforts to reform the Articles of Confederation and instead craft a new governing document.

A consensus emerged that the new government needed more powers, such as the ability to tax, regulate trade and interstate commerce, and create a military. Where the delegates disagreed was on just how powerful the central government should be. Although the current government was clearly too weak, the delegates did not want to lay the foundations of a tyranny, in which small cliques of men could wield influence at the expense of the majority.

A major division emerged between the large states and small states over representation in a prospective national legislature. Small states wanted to retain the practice of the Articles of Confederation, wherein each state received one vote in Congress. Large states wanted representation determined by population. Sectional divisions between north and south over issues such as slavery came to the fore. Also controversial was the proper balance of power between the central government and the states.

Contention and Compromise

The basis for much of the discussion at the Constitutional Convention was the Virginia Plan devised by James Madison. Madison’s framework called for a federal government with three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. He also proposed a bicameral congress, with its membership determine by proportional representation. Madison played a leading role at the Convention and is often called the “Father of the Constitution.” Madison’s notes on the debates at the Convention are a vital historical source for understanding the constitutional thinking of the founding fathers.

The delegates from smaller states opposed the Virginia Plan because they feared that the larger states would dominate the national government. Instead, they rallied behind the New Jersey Plan, which proposed a Congress similar to that of the Articles of Confederation: unicameral and with each state having one vote. Arguments between the advocates of the two competing plans continued until delegates from Connecticut outlined a third possibility that became known as the Great Compromise. The Connecticut proposal stipulated that each state would have two members in the upper house of the new legislature, while the members of the lower house would be chosen through proportional representation.

The delegates at the Constitutional Convention were not believers in pure democracy. They believed that an unchecked majority could be just as tyrannical as a king. To guard against this, they decided that the president would be elected by an Electoral College, the composition of which would be determined by the states. State legislatures elected senators; only the members of the House of Representatives would be directly elected by the people. The framers of the Constitution were intent on creating a government that would be strong enough to do the nation’s business, but not so mighty that it could oppress the people. As a result of this, they crafted a government of checks and balances, carefully balancing the powers of the three branches of government.

Slavery

The issue of slavery was debated at the Constitutional Convention. Many Americans in the 1780s believed that, for economic reasons, the institution of slavery would gradually disappear. Many southerners, still heavily invested in slaves and dependent on them for their livelihood, defended slavery.

The delegates compromised on the slavery issue to ensure southern support for the Constitution. The ability of the federal government to regulate or outlaw the slave trade was postponed for 20 years, until 1808. Southerners wanted slaves to count toward congressional representation; northern delegates resisted this. In the end, the delegates agreed to the Three-Fifths Compromise, counting three-fifths of a state’s slave population when allocating seats in the House of Representatives.

The Ratification Battle

The finished Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787. The delegates decided that the new Constitution would go into effect if ratifying conventions in nine states approved the document. Because the Constitution increased the strength of the national government, its supporters became known as Federalists. The Federalists were confident that the new federal structure of the government would meet the needs of the nation, while the balance of powers among the three branches of government would protect American liberties. Anti-Federalists were unwilling to trust a stronger central government. They remembered the tyrannical behavior of the British and believed that a powerful national government would inevitably diminish the authority of the states, which they saw as the best defenders of the people’s rights.

The anti-Federalists highlighted the fact that the proposed Constitution lacked a bill of rights. The two sides were well matched, and the voting in some state conventions was quite close. To win in crucial states like Virginia and New York, Federalists signaled a willingness to accept amendments to the Constitution protecting the rights of American citizens.

When New York voted to ratify the Constitution on July 26, 1788, it was the eleventh state to throw its support behind the new governing document. On September 13, Congress certified the ratification of the Constitution. Rhode Island, the last state to ratify the Constitution, did so on May 29, 1790.

George Washington was the inevitable choice to be the first president. He was elected unanimously by the Electoral College. Washington established crucial precedents as chief executive, helping define the role of president in the new government. He upheld the dignity of his office and emphasized his duties as an administrator of government policies.

The Bill of Rights

While helping draft the Constitution, James Madison did not believe that it needed a bill of rights; he thought its outline of powers sufficiently protected people’s liberties. During the ratification debates, however, he changed his mind. While running for a seat in the first Congress, he promised to sponsor a bill of rights as a series of amendments to the Constitution. This way, Madison could both address the fears of the anti-Federalists and protect his constitutional handiwork. Once in Congress, he submitted 12 amendments; by 1791, 10 of these had been ratified by the states.

The Bill of Rights reconciled anti-Federalists to the Constitution. Over time, the Bill of Rights has become a cherished guarantee of such fundamental American values as freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly. The Bill of Rights ensured the right to bear arms and prohibited the quartering of soldiers in citizens’ homes. It also ensured crucial protections to people caught up in the judicial system, such as trial by jury and a ban on “cruel and unusual punishments.”

The last two amendments of the Bill of Rights offered broad support to the Revolutionary War principle that rights reside in the people and the vitality of federalism in the new governmental system. The Ninth Amendment states that the listing of rights in the Constitution does not “disparage” any others held by the people. The Tenth Amendment reserves all powers not given to the federal government by the Constitution, or forbidden to the states by it, for the states and the people. Taken together, the Amendments of the Bill of Rights reinforced the balance of powers so important to Madison and the other Founding Fathers.

The Birth of the Party System

Washington staffed his cabinet with brilliant men. Thomas Jefferson served as secretary of state and Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the treasury. These two men had competing visions of America’s future. Out of their differences would come the first party system in the United States.

Alexander Hamilton wanted the United States to become a great commercial and manufacturing power. He wanted to emulate British economic practices, including mercantilist policies to support American trade. To do this, he supported a “loose” interpretation of the Constitution, which argued that the federal government had powers not specified in the document.

Thomas Jefferson favored an agrarian America, predominantly made up of independent yeoman farmers. He believed that manufacturing would be economically secondary in America, “a handmaid to agriculture.” Instead of Hamilton’s system of protective tariffs, he supported free trade, which would keep the price of manufactured goods low for farmers. Jefferson called for a “strict” interpretation of the Constitution, which held that the federal government had only the powers listed in its text. James Madison joined Jefferson in his opposition to Hamilton’s program.

As Hamilton and Jefferson articulated their disagreements and gathered supporters, a two-party system emerged. Hamilton’s followers called themselves Federalists. Jefferson’s followers called themselves Democratic-Republicans, or simply Republicans. Federalists argued for an activist government that created a favorable economic climate for business. Commercially expansive cities and ports provided the strongest support for the Federalists. Republicans focused on agriculture and defended laissez-faire economic principles. Their appeal was especially strong in the rural areas of the south and west.

Hamilton’s Economic Program

Hamilton realized that if the United States was going to become a great commercial and manufacturing power, the nation’s chaotic finances had to be addressed. He laid out an ambitious program to put the United States on a sound financial footing in his Report on the Public Credit. Hamilton proposed that all notes issued by the national government under the Articles of Confederation be redeemed at face value. He also proposed that the federal government assume the outstanding debts of the states. He argued for the formation of a national bank; this would both facilitate financial transactions with the federal government and stimulate investment in American businesses. Hamilton wanted the federal government to actively support business expansion through its policies. He proposed a high tariff on foreign goods to pay for his economic program.

Jefferson and Madison were repelled by Hamilton’s activist vision of government and disliked his partiality for business. They believed that Hamilton was sacrificing America’s agrarian majority to commercial interests. They were able to block some of Hamilton’s initiatives, but Hamilton was still able to set up his system of public credit with a national bank and tariffs.

Effects of the French Revolution

The French Revolution erupted in the summer of 1789, just a few months after George Washington took office as president. Americans watched the evolution of the French Revolution from a constitutional monarchy to the Reign of Terror with a mixture of fascination and horror. Jefferson and the Republicans tended to favor the progress of the revolutionaries because of their professions of support for democracy and their celebration of Enlightenment ideals. Hamilton and the Federalists disdained the Revolution’s contempt for established authorities and its descent into mass violence. By 1793, revolutionary France was at war with most of Europe. Great Britain was once again France’s most implacable foe. British and French naval forces fought each other at sea, endangering American shipping. President Washington issued a Declaration of Neutrality. He hoped that the United States could avoid entanglement in what had become a world war.

Washington also faced troubles at home. The easiest way for western farmers to get their grain to market in a period of poor roads and difficult transportation was to distill it into alcohol. Hamilton placed a tax on whiskey to help pay for his economic program. This angered the western farmers, who already sympathized with Jefferson’s agrarian outlook. A group of farmers in western Pennsylvania rebelled, evoking the egalitarian principles of the French Revolution. Angered and alarmed, Washington gathered a large force of militia and easily suppressed the rebellion.

Washington’s Foreign Policy

Professing neutrality, American merchants attempted to trade with both Great Britain and France; this angered both combatants. In 1794, the British began searching and seizing American ships trading with the French West Indies. The British were also plotting with Native Americans in the Northwest Territory.

Washington attempted to settle these problems by sending Chief Justice John Jay on a diplomatic mission to London. The British were not in the mood to make concessions on American trade; they refused to recognize the principle of the freedom of the seas and insisted on removing French products from American ships. The British did agree to withdraw from military posts that they held in the American west. These posts were soon rendered untenable anyway by General Anthony Wayne’s defeat of a Native American coalition at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Jay’s Treaty proved to be widely unpopular in the United States. The Senate ratified the treaty after a protracted debate and much political maneuvering in its favor by Alexander Hamilton.

Thomas Pinckney negotiated a treaty with Spain that opened up the Mississippi River to American navigation. Pinckney’s Treaty proved popular because it gave western and southern farmers a vital waterway to transport their crops to the markets of New Orleans.

Washington decided against running for a third term as president, establishing a long-lasting precedent. Before he left office, he released his Farewell Address. In it, he gave policy advice to his fellow citizens. Washington was dismayed by the intensifying acrimony between Federalists and Republicans and warned against the divisive dangers of political parties. He also urged the United States to avoid “foreign entanglements” and alliances with other nations. For 150 years, America would follow Washington’s advice on foreign affairs.

The Presidency of John Adams

John Adams served two terms as Washington’s vice-president. In the election of 1796, he ran as a Federalist. His opponent was Thomas Jefferson, the Republican candidate. Adams received the most votes in the Electoral College, but under the rules of the time, Thomas Jefferson, who came in second, became the vice-president. This created an awkward situation in which the president and vice-president belonged to different political parties.

Adams lacked Washington’s public stature, but he proved to be an effective president who successfully managed a major crisis during his term of office. Adams spent many months of his presidency at his home in Quincy, Massachusetts, leading by letter. In 1800, he would be the first president to take up residence in the Executive Mansion.

Crisis with France

The French resented the fact that the United States did not maintain the 1778 alliance that had been signed with the royal government that was overthrown in the French Revolution. Jay’s Treaty led the French government to believe that the Americans were tilting toward the British. The French responded by capturing American ships. In 1798, Adams sent three diplomats to France to attempt a negotiated settlement. The French foreign minister, Talleyrand, was notoriously corrupt. He sent three agents to the Americans demanding a bribe before he would talk with them. The Americans indignantly refused and were supported by public opinion back in the United States. This became known as the “XYZ Affair” after the code names of Talleyrand’s emissaries.

The breakdown in diplomacy led to limited hostilities. The Washington administration had begun the construction of a small but efficient navy. From 1798 to 1800, the United States and France fought an undeclared naval war. American vessels won most of the war’s ship-to-ship battles. By 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte had taken control of France, and diplomacy resumed. In the Convention of 1800, the French compensated the Americans for the merchant ships that they had seized, and the alliance of 1778 was officially terminated.

The Alien and Sedition Acts

Partisan politics continued unabated during the undeclared war with France. Some Republican journalists still sympathetic to the French Revolution published virulently worded attacks on the Adams administration. A few French immigrants joined in the verbal assault. Many Federalists saw the conflict with France as an opportunity to crush the Republican party. They reacted to the intemperate journalism of their opponents with two laws in 1798. The Alien Act gave the president the authority to imprison or deport any alien who was thought to be “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.” The Sedition Act enabled the president to prosecute persons who published “malicious” criticisms of his administration.

These laws proved very controversial. The Sedition Act led to the prosecution and jailing of a number of journalists and other citizens. Republicans denounced the Alien and Sedition Acts. The state legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia passed the Kentucky and Virginia Resolves, which maintained that states had no obligation to respect unconstitutional laws. Thomas Jefferson authored the Kentucky Resolves, and James Madison wrote the Virginia Resolves. These resolves helped lay the foundation for the doctrines of nullification and states’ rights that would play an important role in later American history. The Alien and Sedition Acts became an important issue in the election of 1800. Their unpopularity hurt the candidacy of John Adams.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• The 1787 meeting on amending the Articles of Confederation turned into a historical session when the Constitution of the United States was drafted.

• The importance of James Madison in the formulation of the Constitution cannot be overemphasized.

• The format of the bicameral legislature, the branches of power established at the federal level, and the division of powers between federal and state governments made the U.S. Constitution a unique document for its time.

• The division between Federalists and anti-Federalists demonstrated that very different visions of America and the scope of the federal government existed in the United States at this time.

• The Bill of Rights established the basic freedoms that Americans cherish today.

• During the Washington administration, very different visions of America were expressed by Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. The ideas of Hamilton helped spur American economic growth during the Washington administration.

• The United States had a great deal of trouble convincing the British and the French that the United States was a major power during this era.

• Many critics viewed the Alien and Sedition Acts of John Adams as gross overextensions of the power given to the federal government by the Constitution.

Time Line

1787: Constitutional Convention ratifies U.S. Constitution

1788: U.S. Constitution ratified by states

1789: Washington sworn in as first president

1790: Hamilton issues plans proposing to protect infant U.S. industries

1791: Establishment of First National Bank

Ratification of the Bill of Rights

1793: Democratic-Republican clubs begin to meet

1794: Whiskey Rebellion begins

1795: Jay’s Treaty with England/Pinckney’s Treaty with Spain

1796: John Adams elected president, Thomas Jefferson, vice-president (each from a different political party)

1798: XYZ Affair

Sedition Act of John Adams issued

Kentucky and Virginia Resolves

1800: Convention of 1800

Thomas Jefferson elected president

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. The Connecticut Plan presented to the Constitutional Convention of 1787a

A. proposal for a two-house legislature based on proportional representation.

B. proposal for a one-house legislature based on proportional representation.

C. proposal for a two-house legislature, with one house based on proportional representation.

D. proposal for a balance of power between executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

2. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolves

A. expressed support for the new U.S. Constitution.

B. stated that individual states do not have to enforce laws the states consider unconstitutional.

C. were written to support John Adams’s support of the Sedition Act.

D. were written in opposition to the economic policies of Alexander Hamilton.

3. Many in America felt that the English and the French failed to treat the United States as a major power in this era. All of the following are evidence of that except

A. the Convention of 1800.

B. Jay’s Treaty.

C. the treatment of American ships by the British during the 1790s.

D. the XYZ Affair.

4. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton had different views on all of the following except

A. the amount of power the federal government should have.

B. the tariff policy of the United States.

C. the importance of a national bank.

D. their belief in the power of the U.S. Constitution.

5. Under the Electoral College system

A. voters directly elect the president of the United States.

B. voters approve electors, who elect the president of the United States.

C. it is possible to win the popular vote and lose the election in the Electoral College.

D. B and C above

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of debate over constitutional principles in the United States in the period 1786 to 1800.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of debate over constitutional principles in the United State in the period 1786 to 1800.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of a political leader taking a policy stance based on constitutional principle.

Answers and Explanations

1. C. The Connecticut Plan, also called the Great Compromise, was ratified by the delegates. Under this plan, representation in the House of Representatives would be by population, while all states would have equal representation in the Senate.

2. B. After the passage of the Sedition Act, legislatures in Kentucky and Virginia passed resolutions stating that states do not have to enforce laws they consider to be unconstitutional.

3. A. As a result of the Convention of 1800, the French agreed to compensate the United States for ships seized during the previous decade. Events mentioned in all of the other choices demonstrate that the French and English had little respect for American rights in diplomatic matters and on the high seas during this era.

4. D. Both believed in the power of the Constitution, although their interpretations of the Constitution were different. Jefferson believed in a strict interpretation of the Constitution, while Hamilton believed in a broad interpretation.

5. D. As demonstrated in the presidential election of 2016, it is possible to get the most number of votes nationwide but to lose the presidential election in the Electoral College. This also occurred in the presidential elections of 1876, 1888, and 2000.

6. Parts A and B: Delegates debated constitutional principles at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Issues included the type of state representation in Congress; this was resolved by the Great Compromise, which provided for two senators for each state, while members of the House of Representatives were allocated by population. A debate over ratification ensued. The Federalist Papers, authored by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, made a powerful case for ratifying the new Constitution. Once the new government was launched, there were debates over the powers of the new central government and about how to interpret the Constitution. The Bank of the United States became a centerpiece of this debate, with supporters of a limited government and strict interpretation of the Constitution opposing the Bank, and supporters of a stronger government and a looser interpretation of the Constitution in favor of it. In 1798, the Federalist-dominated federal government passed the Alien and Sedition Acts giving the president power to deport certain immigrants and to regulate the press. Democratic-Republican critics of these measures passed the Kentucky and Virginia Resolves, arguing that the states could nullify laws that they believed were unconstitutional.

Part C: George Washington staked his prestige in supporting the new Constitution. James Madison fulfilled promises made during the ratification debate by sponsoring the amendments that became the Bill of Rights. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton built his economic program, including the Bank of the United States, around his vision of a strong central government. Thomas Jefferson led the opposition to Hamilton’s plans. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Kentucky Resolves, and James Madison wrote the Virginia Resolves.

Jeffersonian Revolution (1800–1820)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: The election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800 was a critical election in American history; Jefferson’s view of America differed greatly from that of the Federalists. Alexander Hamilton and other Federalists envisioned America as a future industrial power. For Jefferson, the independence and pride of the yeoman farmer would guide America into the future. During the time when John Marshall was chief justice of the Supreme Court, the power of the federal courts increased. The overall size of America also increased in this era as a result of the Louisiana Purchase. The War of 1812 was fought over continued tensions between the Americans and the British. Many Americans in this era envisioned massive economic growth in the United States; this was the focus of Henry Clay’s “American System.”

Keywords

Marbury v. Madison (1803): critical Supreme Court decision that established the principle of judicial review, stating that the Supreme Court has the right to review all federal laws and decisions and declare whether or not they are constitutional.

Louisiana Purchase (1803): massive land purchase from Emperor Napoleon of France that virtually doubled the size of the United States.

Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804): expedition that discovered much about the western part of the North American continent and the economic possibilities there.

War of 1812: war between the British and the Americans over British seizure of American ships, connections between the British and Native American tribes, and other tensions. The British sacked Washington, DC, in 1814. The treaty ending the war merely restored diplomatic relations between the two countries.

American System: plan proposed by Senator Henry Clay and others to make America economically independent by increasing industrial production in the United States and by the creation of a Second National Bank.

Missouri Compromise (1820): political solution devised to keep the number of slave states and free states equal; Missouri entered the Union as a slave state and Maine entered as a free state. Potential states in the northern part of the Louisiana territory would also come in as free states in the future.

Election of 1800

John Adams decided to run for a second term as president in 1800. Charles Pinckney of South Carolina ran as the Federalist candidate for vice-president. Thomas Jefferson was again the Republican candidate for president. Aaron Burr of New York was the Republican running for the vice-presidency. Jefferson edged out Adams in the Electoral College with 73 votes to Adams’s 65. However, because the Constitution made no distinction in the Electoral College between presidential and vice-presidential candidates, Aaron Burr also received 73 votes, throwing the election to the House of Representatives for a decision. Burr was an ambitious and unscrupulous politician and did not concede to Jefferson. Instead, he garnered substantial votes from Federalists who detested Jefferson. The election in the House of Representatives, where each state cast one vote, was a cliffhanger, with the voting going through 35 ballots without a victor. Ironically, Jefferson owed his victory on the thirty-sixth ballot to Alexander Hamilton, who told supporters that Burr was “the most unfit man in the United States for the office of president.” This political crisis led to the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804, which allowed members of the Electoral College to cast separate ballots for the president and vice-president.

The election of 1800 was the first time that control of the presidency passed from one party to another. Because of this, it has sometimes been called the “Revolution of 1800.” Thomas Jefferson brought remarkable abilities and a wealth of experience to the presidency. He was an Enlightenment man, fascinated by the latest scientific and political ideas, and a gifted writer. He was an able political leader who had built a successful party, yet as a former diplomat and secretary of state, he also had extensive experience in foreign affairs.

As a strict constitutional constructionist, Jefferson was determined to reverse the policies of the Federalists and scale back the reach of the federal government. Once in office, he and his secretary of the treasury, Albert Gallatin, cut taxes like that on whiskey. He allowed the hated Alien and Sedition Acts to lapse. Jefferson did not wipe out all the legislative achievements of the Washington and Adams administrations, however. At his inaugural, he had reached out to the political opposition by declaring, “We are all Republicans; we are all Federalists.” Jefferson had opposed the creation of Hamilton’s national bank; once in office, he accepted its economic usefulness and left it alone.

An Assertive Supreme Court

Until the 1930s, there was a long interval between presidential elections and the new president’s inauguration in March of the following year. In 1801, the outgoing Federalists took advantage of this period to pass the Judiciary Act, creating many new federal circuit and district courts. Outgoing president Adams appointed Federalist judges to these courts. These were known as “midnight appointments,” because President Adams was erroneously believed to be signing these many commissions on his last night in office.

Jefferson and his partisans were outraged by this effort to pack the federal bench with Federalists. The new Republican Congress promptly repealed the Judiciary Act and launched the impeachment of a pair of Federalist judges. One of John Adams’s last-minute judicial appointees was John Marshall, whom Adams nominated to be chief justice of the Supreme Court. Marshall was an able lawyer and Federalist politician who served as secretary of state in the last year of Adams’s presidency. Marshall would become the longest-serving chief justice, heading the Court from 1801 to 1835. He would also be the most influential. His judicial rulings profoundly shaped American law. Federalist in principle, he asserted the supremacy of federal over state law. Marshall also elevated the stature and political significance of the Supreme Court.

One of Marshall’s most important rulings came early, in the 1803 Marbury v. Madison decision. William Marbury was a Federalist whom John Adams appointed to be a justice of the peace in the District of Columbia. Marbury’s letter of appointment was not delivered to him, and James Madison, secretary of state in the new Jefferson administration, refused to deliver it to him. Marbury sued for his letter. Marshall disliked Madison’s action but ruled against Marbury anyway, arguing that the provision of the Judiciary Act of 1789 that enabled Marbury to sue was itself unconstitutional. This established the principle of judicial review, which gives the courts the ability to rule on the constitutionality of legislation. Marshall’s assertion of judicial prerogative laid the foundation for the Supreme Court’s later political influence.

A New Frontier

Thomas Jefferson envisioned a republic of independent farmers. He believed that only self-sufficient, property-owning citizens would be able to resist corruption and tyranny. To ensure such a future for the United States, Jefferson needed land. He became fascinated with the west. Settlers were already streaming into the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. By 1800, one million Americans lived there. The Jefferson administration encouraged western settlement by easing the terms to purchase land; a down payment of $80 gave a purchaser rights to 160 acres of land. The movement west accelerated.

This massive influx of settlers inevitably led to conflict with the Native Americans who lived and hunted on these western lands. Jefferson believed that the Native American way of life must inevitably give way to the march of American civilization. He hoped that the Native Americans would eventually assimilate into American society and become farmers themselves, but he doubted that this would happen any time soon. As a result, Jefferson believed that the best thing for the Native Americans would be to remove them to a more distant territory, where, over time, they could adapt to American ways. Jefferson thus laid the foundation of the policy of Indian removal that would come to a head in the later presidencies of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren. Unsurprisingly, many Native Americans resisted American expansionism, including the brilliant Shawnee diplomat and soldier Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, a religious visionary called the “Prophet” by the Americans.

The Louisiana Purchase

The French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte forced the Spanish government to secretly cede Louisiana to France in 1800. Napoleon was hoping to recreate a French empire in the Americas. The American government learned that the French intended to return to Louisiana in 1801. The prospect of a militarily powerful and aggressive neighbor bordering the United States worried President Jefferson. He decided to attempt a diplomatic resolution to the problem and sent William Livingstone to France with an offer to purchase New Orleans. Livingston was later joined by James Monroe. In the meantime, Napoleon’s dreams of a North American empire faded as an army dispatched to recapture the Caribbean island of Haiti perished of disease. War also loomed between France and Great Britain, and Napoleon knew that any French possessions in North America would be cut off by the British Navy. In 1803, Napoleon startled Livingston and Monroe by offering to sell the entire Louisiana territory for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase was a financial bargain for the United States. The Americans had been willing to offer $10 million for New Orleans alone; the purchase price for the entire territory worked out to roughly 3 cents an acre. The acquisition of the Louisiana Territory doubled the size of the United States.

Jefferson had some legal scruples about the federal government’s ability to purchase such an expanse of territory since no such power is explicitly mentioned in the Constitution; he set these concerns aside because the Louisiana Purchase was so obviously in the interest of the United States and because the accession of so much new land in the west greatly strengthened his dream of an agrarian republic. Although some Federalists opposed the Louisiana Purchase because it reinforced Jefferson’s political base in the west, the Senate ratified the treaty with France, and the House of Representatives quickly approved the expenditure of the purchase price.

Jefferson was anxious to know more about the interior of the North American continent, its flora and fauna, the peoples living there, and its economic potentialities. Even before the Louisiana Purchase, he had been contemplating sending mapping expeditions west. Once Louisiana was acquired, Jefferson sponsored the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the new lands that had been added to the United States. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Louis with a party of nearly 50 men in 1804. Over the course of a two-year journey, they made their way to the Pacific Ocean and back. The voluminous records of Lewis and Clark’s trip provided Americans with a wealth of information about the lands that the pair had traversed and whetted the appetite for further western exploration and settlement.

Burr’s Conspiracy

Political strife did not abate during Jefferson’s presidency. The Federalists were declining but continued to oppose Jefferson’s policies. The Essex Junto, a group of extreme Federalists based in New England, denounced what they saw as a “decline in public virtue” with Jefferson in office. Massachusetts senator Thomas Pickering believed that the president was a “Parisian revolutionary monster.” In 1804, the Federalists nominated Charles C. Pinckney to run against Jefferson, but the Federalist candidate was overwhelmed in the election, winning only 14 electoral votes.

More problematic for Jefferson than the Federalist opposition was the challenge posed by his vice-president. After demonstrating his disloyalty during the electoral crisis of 1800, Aaron Burr recognized that he had lost any hope of playing an influential role in the Jefferson administration. A wily schemer, Burr was accused of negotiating with secessionist Federalists. Alexander Hamilton believed the charge and criticized Burr in a letter. Learning of this, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel. Hamilton agreed to the encounter, and on July 11, 1804, he was shot and killed by Burr.

Under indictment for murder in New York and New Jersey, Burr completed his term as vice-president and then traveled to the West. Here he launched a conspiracy with the equally unscrupulous general James Wilkinson and others to foment a rebellion against Spanish rule in Mexico. Burr hoped to restore his fortunes by conquering lands for himself in the southwest. Wilkinson betrayed Burr’s scheme to both the Spanish and American governments. President Jefferson ordered Burr’s arrest on a charge of treason. Jefferson hoped to see the conviction of his old rival, but Chief Justice John Marshall, who presided over the trial, was unsympathetic to the arguments of the prosecution, and Burr was acquitted.

Renewal of War in Europe

The resumption of war between France and Great Britain in 1803 had far-reaching effects on the United States. Once again, the United States attempted to maintain its neutrality while finding itself caught between the competing ambitions of two great powers. American merchants hoped to trade freely with all countries, but Great Britain imposed a blockade on all French-controlled Europe, seizing ships that did not have expensive British licenses. Napoleon created his Continental System, which placed an embargo on trade with Great Britain. As a result, the French Navy captured American ships doing business with the British. In addition to interfering with American commerce, the British Navy, short on manpower, instituted the practice of impressment. After stopping American ships on the high seas, British naval officers kidnapped American sailors and forced them to serve on their ships. The British claimed that the men they seized were British subjects; some probably were, but many were naturalized or American-born citizens. British warships ranged up and down the American seacoast, interfering with American shipping and impressing American sailors. The most notorious incident occurred in 1807, when a British warship fired on the unsuspecting U.S.S. Chesapeake, forcing it to strike its colors before taking off four members of its crew.

Most Americans were outraged by the Chesapeake incident. President Jefferson could have led a largely united nation to war. Instead, he decided to try a peaceful means of resolving the crisis. Jefferson believed that the United States could change British and French policy through an economic boycott. He persuaded the Republican-dominated Congress to pass the Embargo Act of 1807, which prohibited American exports. Unfortunately, the Embargo Act at first seemed to have a greater effect on the American economy than on the British and French. Seaborne trade largely dried up, hurting merchants and putting sailors out of work. Planters and farmers were hurt because they could not get their products to foreign markets. Economically disastrous, the Embargo Act became deeply unpopular, especially in the Federalist bastion of New England, where ocean-going commerce was especially important. Jefferson’s economic policy failed to have its intended effect and divided the American people.

The Democratic-Republican Party was still strong enough to elect James Madison as president in 1808. Madison recognized that the Embargo Act had to be abandoned in order to restore American prosperity. As a replacement, he supported the Non-Intercourse Act, which allowed Americans to trade with all countries except Great Britain and France. Congress continued to pass bills through 1810, attempting to put enough economic pressure on Great Britain and France to compel them to stop interfering with American trade.

The War of 1812

Years of humiliation at the hands of the British led a group of young Republicans in Congress to call for war. Henry Clay of Kentucky was one of the leaders of these “War Hawks.” He believed that if the United States did not resist British policies, it could not honorably call itself an independent nation. The War Hawks were also concerned about the situation in the west. Tecumseh and the Prophet were rallying the Native Americans of the trans-Appalachian region against further American settlement. Tecumseh hoped to organize a confederacy of tribes powerful enough to resist the American military. The Americans believed that Tecumseh was allied with the British in Canada. In 1811, the governor of Indiana, William Henry Harrison, led a force of 1,000 men against Prophetstown, which had been built by Tecumseh and his brother. Tecumseh was away, and the Prophet unwisely attacked the Americans and defeated at the Battle of Tippecanoe. Harrison’s army burned Prophetstown and dispersed its inhabitants, dealing Tecumseh’s cause a severe blow. The War Hawks believed that a war with Britain would enable the United States to break what was left of Tecumseh’s power. They also hoped to conquer new lands in Canada.

President Madison asked for war in June 1812. The enthusiasm of the War Hawks was not matched by everyone in the country. Many Federalists loathed Napoleonic France and believed that it would be economically advantageous to reach a diplomatic accommodation with Great Britain. Federalist New England would show little support for the war, and many New Englanders traded with the British in Canada.

Despite their bellicosity, the War Hawks had done little to ready the United States for a war against Great Britain. The army was tiny and untried, and the navy possessed just 17 ships. The weaknesses in the American army were exposed as attempts to invade Canada ended in ignominious failure. The navy did better, winning a number of ship-to-ship combats, but the British soon bottled up most American warships in their harbors. In 1813, an American naval victory on Lake Erie paved the way for William Henry Harrison to defeat a force of British and Indians at the Battle of the Thames near Detroit. The most significant result of the battle was the death of Tecumseh. In the south, members of the Creek tribe, allied with the British, attacked American settlers. Andrew Jackson at the head of a force of Tennessee militiamen crushed the Creeks in a series of bloody battles.

The End of the War

Napoleon’s enemies forced him to abdicate in 1814. This freed up large numbers of British troops who were then deployed to America. The United States had to withstand major British attacks. A British invasion from Canada was turned back by an American naval victory on Lake Champlain. Another British army landed in Chesapeake Bay and captured the city of Washington, burning the Presidential Mansion and the Capitol. A follow-up attack on Baltimore was repulsed, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Andrew Jackson became a national hero in January 1815, when he handily defeated a British army attempting to seize the city of New Orleans. Jackson’s victory actually took place after a peace treaty had been signed between the United States and Great Britain, but that news hadn’t yet reached New Orleans.

In late 1814, negotiators gathered in Ghent, in what is now Belgium. Both sides were tired of the war, and the defeat of Napoleon put an end to the British blockade and impressment. The Treaty of Ghent ended the war on the basis of the status quo ante, the situation before the war. Aside from breaking the power of the Native Americans living east of the Mississippi, the United States gained nothing tangible from the war. Militarily, the war had been at best a draw with the British. But the culminating victory at New Orleans and the fact that the United States held its own against Great Britain enabled Americans to see the war as a success, a veritable second war of American independence.

A Federalist Debacle and the Era of Good Feelings

During the war, many Federalists remained outspoken in their opposition to the conflict. While American diplomats were negotiating at Ghent, a number of New England Federalists gathered at the Hartford Convention. Here they denounced the war and debated topics including the nullification of laws, such as the embargo that they regarded as unconstitutional. Some delegates advocated the secession of New England from the union, although the convention as a whole never endorsed this.

The timing of these Federalists was bad. The end of the war and Jackson’s victory at New Orleans left them looking both unwise and unpatriotic. The Federalist party never recovered from this embarrassment and faded away over the next few years. For a time, the triumphant Democratic-Republicans led a unified country in which they faced no significant political opposition. James Monroe was easily elected president in 1816 and served for two terms. The period from 1816 to 1823 became known as the Era of Good Feelings.

Henry Clay and the American System

Taking advantage of the confident post-war mood, Henry Clay publicized an economic program that he termed the American System. Clay expressed the reinvigorated nationalist spirit of the time by aiming to make the United States economically independent of Europe by encouraging American industry. President Madison and then President Monroe supported the plan. The failures of the War of 1812 had convinced many Republicans that the government should play a more vigorous role in the economy; in effect, they adopted important elements of Alexander Hamilton’s economic vision.

In 1816, Congress created the Second National Bank to facilitate credit and financial transactions across the United States. The Tariff of 1816 increased the tariff rate on foreign goods to 22 percent in order to encourage domestic manufacturers. The revenue from the tariff was earmarked for roads and other internal improvements to help American farmers, industrialists, and merchants get their products to markets. These policies helped spur a post-war economic boom that lasted until the onset of an economic depression in 1819.

Missouri Compromise

Slavery became a major political issue for the first time in 1819, when Missouri asked to enter the Union as a slave state. At this time, the number of free and slave states was equal at 11 each. In earlier years, slavery had seemed to be a declining institution. The Northwest Ordinance barred slavery from the Northwest Territory. In 1808, the importation of slaves from overseas was outlawed. But Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin had made cotton a lucrative cash crop. The demand for slave labor increased, making slaves much more valuable to their masters.

The expansion of slavery into the western territories suddenly became a heated issue. The balance of slave and free states gained new political urgency. The possibility of Missouri tipping this balance in favor of the slave states outraged many in the north. Acrimonious political debate ensued. Henry Clay, the speaker of the house, resolved the issue in 1820 with the Missouri Compromise. Clay paired the admission of Missouri to the Union with the admission of Maine as a free state. To prevent further disputes, he drew a line through the Louisiana Territory at 36 degrees, 30 minutes; states admitted south of that line would be slave states, whereas states admitted north of the line would be free states. Clay and many contemporaries hoped that the Missouri Compromise had put an end to the contentious issue of slavery.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• The election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800 is called the “Revolution of 1800,” as the new president had a completely different vision of America from the Federalists whom he replaced.

• Thomas Jefferson was one of the most brilliant men ever to serve as president, and he instituted many “Republican” policies during his eight years in office.

• The role of the federal courts was greatly strengthened during the tenure of John Marshall as chief justice of the Supreme Court.

• The Louisiana Purchase more than doubled the size of the United States and allowed the “empire of liberty” to continue to expand.

• The case of Aaron Burr showed the deep political divisions that existed in the United States during this period.

• The Napoleonic Wars greatly impacted the relationship between the United States, England, and France.

• America entered the War of 1812 because President Madison convinced the nation that America’s rights as a neutral power had been violated and because many in Congress felt that the British were encouraging the resistance by Native American tribes.

• The American System of Henry Clay and others was proposed after the War of 1812 and outlined a plan for broad economic growth for the United States.

• The Missouri Compromise temporarily solved the issue of the number of slave states versus the number of free states.

Time Line

1800: Thomas Jefferson elected president in “Revolution of 1800”

1801: John Marshall named chief justice of the Supreme Court

Alien and Sedition Acts not renewed

1803: Louisiana Purchase

Marbury v. Madison established federal judicial review

1804: Alexander Hamilton killed in duel with Aaron Burr

Thomas Jefferson reelected

Twelfth Amendment ratified (separate voting for president, vice president)

Beginning of Lewis and Clark expedition

1807: Embargo Act greatly harms foreign trade

1808: James Madison elected president

Further importation of slaves into the United States made illegal

1812: Beginning of the War of 1812

1814: British army sacks Washington

Treaty of Ghent formally ends the War of 1812

Indian removal from Southern territories begins in earnest

1814–1815: Hartford Convention (meeting of Federalists)

1815: Victory of Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans (after the War of 1812 was officially over)

Henry Clay proposes the American System

1816: James Monroe elected president

1816–1823: Era of Good Feelings

1820: Missouri Compromise

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. The Marbury v. Madison decision

A. gave powers to the president that the Republicans of Thomas Jefferson claimed he didn’t have.

B. gave broad judicial power to the state courts.

C. declared that the Alien and Sedition Acts were constitutional.

D. established the principle of judicial review.

2. As a result of the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800,

A. more assistance was given to the commercial sector.

B. American foreign policy became more pro-British.

C. the federal debt rose dramatically.

D. federal excise taxes were eliminated.

3. All of the following are reasons why America entered the War of 1812 except

A. the impressment of American naval crews.

B. the existence of a strong American navy ready to demonstrate its capabilities.

C. the relationship between the British and Native American tribes in the western territories of North America.

D. the desire of American leaders to acquire additional western territories.

4. The Hartford Convention demonstrated that

A. the Federalist party had remained a dominant party in American political life.

B. the War of 1812 brought political union to the United States.

C. the concept of nullification was not exclusively a Southern one.

D. the Treaty of Ghent was a controversial treaty.

5. The American System of Henry Clay

A. favored strong economic growth and a Second National Bank.

B. wanted to make the United States the military equivalent of Great Britain or France.

C. favored lowering tariffs so that more goods could be purchased from abroad.

D. advocated the elimination of slavery.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of the influence of foreign wars on American policy during the period 1801 to 1812.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of the influence of foreign wars on American policy during the period 1801 to 1812.

C. Briefly explain ONE consequence of the War of 1812.

Answers and Explanations

1. D. The decision stated that the Supreme Court had the right to decide on the constitutionality of federal rulings and laws.

2. D. All of the remaining answers would have been true if a Federalist had been elected president. Jefferson favored lessening the power of the federal government, and eliminating federal excise taxes was one way in which he did so.

3. B. The United States had an army of 6,000 men and 17 ships when war began. All the other choices are reasons why Americans supported the War of 1812.

4. C. Kentucky and Virginia spoke of nullification after the Sedition Act. New England Federalists saw the War of 1812 as a disaster and at the Hartford Convention also spoke of nullification.

5. A. The American System favored American economic growth, a National Bank, and increased tariffs to protect American businesses and finance new transportation systems within the United States.

6. Parts A and B: The 1803 Louisiana Purchase was made possible by the imminence of foreign war. Napoleon Bonaparte’s hopes of reviving a French empire in America were foiled by the failure of a French army to subdue the slave rebellion in Haiti and by the prospect of renewed war in Europe. Napoleon knew that the British navy would cut Louisiana off from France, so he decided to sell the territory to the United States and acquire some funds for the coming war. Once the European war resumed in 1803, both the British and French interfered with American trade. The British sometimes stopped American ships and seized sailors, forcing them to serve in the British navy. This practice was known as impressment. In 1807, a British warship suddenly fired on the American warship the USS Chesapeake, before boarding it and taking away four sailors. President Thomas Jefferson responded with the Embargo Act of 1807, which cut off American trade with Europe. This effort at economic coercion failed to hurt the British and French, but badly hurt American shippers and traders. The Embargo Act was repealed in 1809 and was replaced by the Non-Intercourse Act, which prohibited trade just with Britain and France. Tired of British interference with American trade, the United States declared war in 1812.

Part C: Though essentially a military draw, the War of 1812 did have important consequences. The military power of the Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River was broken. The great Shawnee military leader and orator Tecumseh was killed in the war. The remains of the Federalist party was discredited by the 1814 Hartford Convention, which had briefly discussed the secession of New England. Following the conclusion of the war and the great 1815 victory at the Battle of New Orleans, a renewed spirit of nationalism dominated the country. This period of political dominance by the Democratic-Republican party became known as the Era of Good Feelings. In 1816, the government created the Second Bank of the United States and passed the Tariff of 1816 to foster American business growth.

Rise of Manufacturing and the Age of Jackson (1820–1845)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: Large-scale textile production began in the United States during this era of factories in places like Lowell, Massachusetts. As America grew economically, it also began to assert its authority in the Western Hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine boldly stated that the hemisphere was offlimits to European intervention. Beginning in 1824, the United States began the resettlement of Native American tribes east of the Mississippi. The era of “Jacksonian Democracy” was one where many say that the values of the “common man” reigned supreme. In the 1830s, the Whig party emerged as an opposition party to the Democratic party of Jackson. Several state legislatures began to claim that they could nullify federal laws that were not in the interests of their individual states.

Keywords

Monroe Doctrine (1823): proclamation that countries of the Western Hemisphere “are not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.”

Removal Act of 1830: Congressional act that authorized the removal of all Native American tribes east of the Mississippi to the west. The Trail of Tears and other forced migrations caused the deaths of thousands.

The Liberator: abolitionist newspaper began by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831.

Spoils system: system used heavily during the presidency of Andrew Jackson whereby political supporters of the winning candidate are given jobs in the government.

Nullification: in reaction to tariff legislation passed in 1828, the South Carolina legislature explored the possibility of nullification, by which individual states could rule on the constitutionality of federal laws. Other Southern legislatures later discussed the idea of nullifying federal laws in their own states.

Whig party: political party that emerged in the 1830s in opposition to the Democratic party; Whigs favored policies that promoted commercial and industrial growth.

The Rise of Manufacturing

The end of the War of 1812 saw efforts to boost American manufactures and stimulate the economy. Henry Clay’s American System was a conspicuous manifestation of this. The Tariff of 1816 protected domestic industries by placing a 25 percent duty on imports. States took the lead in internal improvements to spur commerce. New York State constructed the Erie Canal between 1817 and 1825, providing a waterway to allow goods to be easily transported between New York City and the Great Lakes.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, most manufacturing was done through the putting-out system. Merchants provided raw materials to families, who then did the manufacturing work in their homes. A merchant might have dozens or hundreds of families working for him, producing textiles or making shoe components, for example.

The factory system in the United States began in the 1790s. The beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain had seen the creation of power-driven machinery to produce textiles. Manufacturers in New England used this new technology to turn southern cotton into cloth. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin made it possible for southern planters to greatly increase their production of cotton. This in turn spurred an acceleration of the Industrial Revolution in the United States and Great Britain. Over 75,000 workers, nearly half of whom were women, were employed in American textile mills by the early 1840s.

Lowell, Massachusetts, was a center of the American textile industry. Here mill owners developed the “Lowell System.” They drew their workforce from young women in the surrounding areas. These young women worked in the mills for up to a few years, living in dormitories provided by the mill owners. Though the wages were poor, the employment gave these young women an income they might not otherwise have had. Some of them saw their time in the mills as an opportunity to build up a small nest egg before they returned home and married. The mill owners in turn benefitted from a low-cost and continually replenished supply of workers. In Lowell and other industrial towns, a new middle class of white-collar workers associated with the factories emerged. They joined the manufacturers and bankers in bringing a new commercial prosperity to these cities.

A labor movement among industrial workers was slow to develop. The Panic of 1819 was a financial crisis caused by changes in the international economy following the Napoleonic Wars and inflationary policies spurred by branches of the Second Bank of the United States speculating in land sales. Labor unrest emerged later, in the 1830s, with a call for state legislatures to limit working hours. In the 1840s, the textile industry saw increased demands by workers for better pay and working conditions.

The Monroe Doctrine

In the early 1820s, President James Monroe and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams became concerned that Spain and its ally France would attempt to reconquer the Latin American republics that had gained independence during the Napoleonic Wars. The British, worried about the loss of new markets in South America, shared this concern. The British proposed that they and the United States jointly guarantee the sovereignty of the new Latin American states. Reluctant to be seen acting in the shadow of the British, Monroe and Adams instead issued their own statement in 1823. The Monroe Doctrine declared that the United States would resist new European colonization in the Western Hemisphere. In turn, Monroe pledged that the United States would not interfere in European affairs. The Monroe Doctrine became a key tenet of American foreign policy for more than a century.

Native American Removal

Since the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, American political leaders had been convinced that the only solution to conflict with the Native Americans was to move all tribes to new lands west of the Mississippi. In 1824, the last year of his presidency, James Monroe called for the implementation of this removal policy. Monroe, like Jefferson before him, convinced himself that this exile to unfamiliar territory in the west would be good for Native Americans, giving them time to learn how to farm and adjust to the ways of the “white man” without interference by land-hungry settlers. Monroe ignored the fact that some Native Americans, such as the Cherokee, were already successfully adapting to a settled agricultural lifestyle.

The pressure to remove the Native Americans intensified during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Congress passed and Jackson signed the Removal Act of 1830, which enabled the federal government to negotiate the removal of tribes living east of the Mississippi. Jackson had made his reputation as a military commander fighting Native Americans during the War of 1812, crushing the powerful Creek tribe and forcing the remaining Creeks to cede to the United States 60 percent of their land. Although professing to have no animus toward Native Americans, Jackson moved against them as efficiently and brutally as he had in the days when he had been a soldier.

The Cherokee fought removal in the courts. In 1831, in the Supreme Court case Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, Chief Justice John Marshall raised questions about the legal standing of the Cherokee in American courts. A year later, in Worcester v. Georgia, Marshall nevertheless confirmed the right of the Cherokee to the land they held by treaty with the United States. President Jackson responded by refusing to implement Marshall’s ruling. Jackson declared, “John Marshall has made his decision; let him enforce it.”

Tribes began to be moved west in 1831. The Cherokee were compelled to leave their land in 1838, during the presidency of Jackson’s chosen successor Martin Van Buren. The Cherokee were rounded up and escorted west by detachments of the Army. Along the way, the Cherokee suffered great privations from disease and inadequate provisions. About a third perished. In Florida, the Seminole resisted removal in a series of wars that lasted into the 1850s.

The Transportation Revolution and Religious Revival

Following the War of 1812, the American economy was transformed by rapid urbanization, the growth of industry, and the rapid settlement of the west. Facilitating this economic expansion was a transportation revolution. The federally constructed National Road connected the Potomac and Ohio Rivers. Steamboats traveled up and down America’s great rivers. The construction of the Erie Canal inspired a spurt of canal building. Some states drove themselves into bankruptcy financing the construction of ill-conceived canals. Challenging the economic viability of canals in the 1840s was the rapid expansion of railroads. The transportation revolution stimulated American commercial development and ensured that more and more Americans were participants in a growing market economy.

While the economy of the United States expanded, a tremendous outpouring of religious feeling was shaping American culture. The Second Great Awakening stressed a personal, more emotional approach to traditional religion. The fervor that it stirred strengthened many existing Christian denominations, among them the Baptists and Methodists, and led to the creation of others such as the Adventist movement. Popular preachers such as Charles Grandison Finney and Timothy Dwight traveled the country spreading their evangelism to large gatherings. Revival meetings flourished throughout the country, where fervent sermonizing inspired some congregants to engage in public conversions, emotional outbursts, and speaking in tongues. The Second Great Awakening flourished in both the countryside and cities. Women played a growing role in their churches as volunteers in evangelical Christianity’s “Benevolent Empire” of missionary organizations. The need to read and understand scripture stimulated efforts to provide women with education.

An Age of Reform

Economic and religious upheaval spurred an era of reform. Often motivated by religious ideas, reformers attempted to address a wide range of social problems. Dorothea Dix became famous in the 1830s and 1840s for her efforts to persuade states to provide better treatment for the mentally ill. Horace Mann campaigned for universal public education and improvements in teacher training. Other activists worked to improve prisons and conditions for the urban poor. One of the most influential reform causes was the temperance movement which attempted to combat the widespread problem of alcoholism. Temperance crusaders persuaded many localities to go “dry.”

The evangelical Christian fervor that drove the temperance movement also empowered a growing opposition to the institution of slavery. The Abolitionist movement became a major social and political force in the 1820s and 1830s. One of the most conspicuously vocal abolitionists was William Lloyd Garrison, the founder and editor of the Liberator, an uncompromisingly abolitionist newspaper. Some abolitionists opposed slavery because they believed that it was sinful for people to own other human beings. Other abolitionists were motivated by concerns about the perceived dangers of racial mixing and conflict in the United States. The American Colonization Society, founded in 1817, encouraged the settlement of freed slaves in Africa.

African Americans played a leading role in abolitionism and the resistance to slavery. Frederick Douglass, a former slave from Maryland, became a powerful abolitionist speaker and in 1845 published his antislavery memoir Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Very different was Nat Turner, a slave in Virginia who led a violent slave insurrection that killed 60 white men, women, and children. White citizens and state authorities responded by killing some 200 African Americans. Turner and 56 others were captured and executed. Frightened by the rebellion, slave owners imposed harsh Black Codes that further restricted the activities of their slaves.

Jacksonian Democracy

Politically, the 1820s inaugurated an era of the “common man.” By the 1820s, property qualifications for voting had been eliminated or lowered in most states. In 1800, only five states allowed the selection of electors to the Electoral College by popular vote; in 1824, 18 of 24 states did so. By the end of the Era of Good Feelings in 1824, politics had become a popular pastime, complete with parades, buttons, and posters.

Alexis de Tocqueville, an aristocratic visitor from France, noted this egalitarian spirit and was inspired to write his classic Democracy in America (1835, 1840). Andrew Jackson dominated this period politically and encouraged the ascendency of the “common man.” As a result, these years are often termed the era of “Jacksonian democracy.”

The Election of 1824

Four Democratic-Republican leaders contended for the presidency in 1824. John Quincy Adams was secretary of state, William Crawford was secretary of the treasury, Henry Clay was speaker of the house, and Andrew Jackson was the leading military hero of the War of 1812. In the four-way race, Jackson won the most popular votes but failed to get a majority in the Electoral College. This threw the election to the House of Representatives. Henry Clay, effectively out of the race, instructed his supporters to vote for John Quincy Adams, who had come in second place to Jackson. This enabled Adams to edge out Jackson and win the presidency.

Adams promptly appointed Clay his secretary of state. Andrew Jackson was outraged at losing the election after having won the most popular and electoral votes. He denounced what he believed was a “corrupt bargain” between Adams and Clay. Jackson immediately began preparing the ground for a rematch in 1828, becoming a spokesman for the democratic assault on “privilege” in American politics.

The Election of 1828

John Quincy Adams was an able chief executive, but his presidency was blighted by the implacable opposition of the Jacksonians, who were coming to be known as the Democratic Party. The election of 1828 was bitterly contested, with defamation and mudslinging on both sides. The Jacksonians portrayed Adams as a thief who had stolen the election of 1824 and as an aristocrat with effete habits. Adams’s supporters described Jackson, who had fought duels, as a violent killer. Because Jackson and his wife had unwittingly married before her divorce had become finalized, they were condemned as adulterers. Mrs. Jackson died soon after the election, and Jackson blamed her demise on the attacks on her character. Jackson decisively won the election, inaugurating a new political era.

President Jackson

Andrew Jackson had been born in a log cabin, but by the time he became president, he was a wealthy landowner and slaveholder in Tennessee. Although famous as a general, he had been active in politics for decades and had served as a congressman and senator from Tennessee. Positioning himself as the political champion of the people, Jackson cultivated an aura of stern democratic rectitude. He was affectionately called “Old Hickory” by his followers.

As both a Democrat and a democrat, Jackson believed that his supporters should take over federal offices held by the partisans of John Quincy Adams. He did not believe that any special expertise was necessary to hold a government job; he believed that any reasonably capable and well-informed citizen could perform these duties. Jackson consequently became a champion of the spoils system, appointing loyal Democrats to positions in the federal government. Jackson came to distrust his cabinet; instead he relied on the advice of his “Kitchen Cabinet,” a group of his most trusted political cronies.

Jackson subscribed to the Jeffersonian ideal of a United States dominated by self-sufficient yeoman farmers. He was also a traditional Jeffersonian, believing in limited government and opposing federal involvement in the economy. He repeatedly vetoed bills calling for federal support for internal improvements. As a slave owner, Jackson opposed the abolitionist ferment in the country. Following the death in 1835 of John Marshall, Jackson appointed Roger B. Taney as chief justice of the Supreme Court. The Taney Court would become a stalwart defender of states’ rights. Although Jackson advocated limited government, by sheer force of personality, he paradoxically strengthened the presidency. He would take actions that led his opponents to call him “King Andrew I.”

The Nullification Controversy

The first crisis Jackson faced ironically forced him to assert the primacy of federal over state power. In 1828, during the waning days of the Adams administration, Congress passed a tariff bill designed to protect northern manufacturing interests. The increase in the cost of imported manufactured goods hurt southern and western farmers confronted with higher prices. Southern leaders termed the Tariff of 1828 the “Tariff of Abominations.” The South Carolina legislature asserted the right of nullification, whereby states could refuse to enforce federal laws that they held to be unconstitutional. The chief theorist behind this new version of nullification was John C. Calhoun, a South Carolinian who had been elected Jackson’s vice-president. Calhoun believed that the states needed a defense against the power of the federal government. He was worried that the more populous north would eventually force abolitionism on the south.

In 1830, a famous debate over nullification erupted in the U.S. Senate. In the Webster-Hayne Debate, Daniel Webster eloquently declared that if nullification were allowed, the consequence would be “states dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched . . . in fraternal blood!”

President Jackson supported states’ rights but resolutely opposed nullification. He took decisive action to demonstrate this. In 1832, after the passage of new tariffs, a convention in South Carolina voted to nullify this legislation. Jackson responded by preparing to send troops and federal marshals to South Carolina to enforce the law. Congress passed a Force Act supporting this action. Calhoun resigned as vice-president, while Jackson told confidantes that he would cheerfully send his former running mate to the gallows. The crisis was defused when Henry Clay helped engineer a bill that lowered the tariffs. Satisfied by this, the South Carolinians rescinded their act of nullification.

The Bank War

President Jackson’s next great crisis involved the Second Bank of the United States, which had been chartered in 1816. The Bank was a vital component of Henry Clay’s American System; it issued bank notes that served as a de facto national paper currency and played a key role in regulating credit and the activities of the state banks. The Bank was partly owned by the United States government and partly owned by private investors. Nicholas Biddle had managed the Bank since 1823. As a Jeffersonian, Jackson disliked the Bank on principle. He believed that the Bank had helped bring on the Panic of 1819. He was convinced that Biddle and the directors of the Bank enjoyed a power that was both unchecked and undemocratic.

Henry Clay ran against Jackson in the election of 1832. He used the Bank as an election issue, calling for it to be rechartered early. Clay saw to the passage of a rechartering bill, which Jackson promptly vetoed. Clay misjudged public opinion, believing that the electorate would support the Bank because of its obvious economic utility. Instead, Jackson portrayed the Bank as a sinister special interest. His attack on economic privilege resonated with voters, and he easily won reelection.

By now, Jackson regarded Biddle as a personal enemy and the Bank as a corrupt institution that had to be destroyed. In 1833, he withdrew federal money from the Bank and placed the funds in state banks, which were termed “pet banks” by his opponents. Biddle responded by calling in loans in an effort to keep his bank afloat. Jackson’s Bank War and economic policies like the Specie Circular, which required gold or silver coins to purchase federal land, contributed to the onset of the Panic of 1837. This in turn led to an economic depression that carried into the 1840s.

The Whig Party and the Second Party System

In the 1830s, the opponents of Andrew Jackson gradually coalesced into the Whig party. The Whigs would form the primary opposition to the Democrats into the 1850s. This period of party politics is known as the Second Party System.

While the Democrats maintained the Jeffersonian tradition of standing by limited government, the Whigs believed in a more active government. The Whigs supported Henry Clay’s vision of the American System and supported a national bank, tariffs, and internal improvements. The Whigs wanted a government that would foster commerce, industry, and better markets for farmers. Because of their belief in the efficacy of governmental action, Whigs were more likely to favor reform legislation than were the Democrats. More oriented to business and commerce, Whigs were less land hungry and expansionist than the Democrats, and the Whigs were more cautious about calls for America’s Manifest Destiny. Many wealthy businessmen and planters supported the Whig party, but so too did many young men anxious to better themselves, such as Abraham Lincoln.

Andrew Jackson’s chosen successor, Martin Van Buren, won the election of 1836. The Panic of 1837 undermined support for Democratic economic policy. In 1840, the Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison, another hero of the War of 1812, as their candidate for president. After a colorful campaign, which included the catchy slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too,” Harrison was elected. Harrison died a month after taking office, the victim of pneumonia contracted at his inauguration. John Tyler became the first vice-president to succeed to office after the death of a president.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• A new production system developed in textile mills such as those that existed in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the early nineteenth century.

• The Monroe Doctrine boldly proclaimed that the Western Hemisphere was off limits to European intrusion.

• Beginning in 1824, it was official American policy to move Native American tribes west of the Mississippi; the horrors of many of these relocations are well documented.

• The Second Great Awakening influenced many to become involved in reform movements, including the Abolitionist movement.

• The presidency of Andrew Jackson is celebrated as an era when the “common man” reigned supreme, although Jackson greatly expanded the powers of the presidency.

• The Democratic party of Andrew Jackson was the first real political party in American history.

• Jackson’s tariff policy caused a renewal of interest in the policy of nullification in several Southern state legislatures.

• In the 1830s, the Whig party emerged as the major party opposing the Democratic party of Jackson.

Time Line

1790s: Beginning of Second Great Awakening

1816: Second bank of United States chartered

Tariff of 1816 imposes substantial import tariffs

Election of James Monroe

1819: Panic of 1819 (unemployment lasts until 1823)

1820: Missouri Compromise

Reelection of James Monroe

1820s: Growth of New England textile mills

1823: Monroe Doctrine

1824: Proposal by President Monroe to move Native Americans west of the Mississippi River

1825: John Quincy Adams elected president by House of Representatives (no candidate had won a majority in Electoral College)

1828: Andrew Jackson elected president

1830: Passage of Indian Removal Act in Congress

Webster-Hayne Debate

1830s: Growth of the Whig party

1831: Cherokee nation goes to court to defend tribal rights in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia

First issue of William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator published

1832: Andrew Jackson reelected

Nullification crisis after nullification of tariffs by South Carolina

1834: First strike of women textile workers in Lowell, Massachusetts

1836: Democrat Martin Van Buren elected president

1840: Whig William Henry Harrison elected president

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. President Monroe claimed that westward relocation of Native Americans would be to the advantage of the Native Americans because

A. they would not be bothered west of the Mississippi.

B. the American military would protect them during the journey.

C. they would be well compensated for the tribal lands that they were leaving.

D. settlers west of the Mississippi were receptive to Native American settlement there.

2. The concept of nullification became an issue during this period when

A. Georgia opposed congressional legislation concerning slavery.

B. South Carolina nullified congressional legislation concerning the removal of Native Americans.

C. South Carolina nullified congressional tariff bills.

D. Southern representatives to the Electoral College switched their votes in the 1824 election.

3. Critics of Andrew Jackson would make all of the following claims except that

A. he was a very common man and not fit to be president.

B. he gave too much power to the presidency.

C. he lacked experience in governmental affairs.

D. he relied too much on his “Kitchen Cabinet.”

4. The following are true about the textile mills of New England in the early nineteenth century except

A. a large percentage of their workforce was made up of women.

B. they depended on water for power.

C. they used a system called the putting-out system.

D. there was little labor unrest in the mills until the 1830s and 1840s.

5. Horace Mann is associated with

A. abolitionism.

B. the temperance movement.

C. prison reform.

D. educational reform.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of how Andrew Jackson fostered the growth of “Jacksonian democracy” in the United States.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of how Andrew Jackson fostered the growth of “Jacksonian democracy” in the United States.

C. Briefly explain ONE policy promoted by Andrew Jackson’s political opponents.

Answers and Explanations

1. A. Monroe stated that Native Americans could not avoid being continually harassed if they lived east of the Mississippi, but that this would not happen after they moved.

2. C. Because the tariff bills increased the prices of cloth and iron, the South Carolina legislature first nullified the Tariff of 1828.

3. C. All of the other criticisms were often made against Jackson. However, he did have an impressive background: before becoming president, he had served as a congressman and a senator from Tennessee and as the territorial governor of Florida.

4. C. It was the putting-out system that these mills replaced.

5. D. Horace Mann wrote and spoke about the need to improve schools and to improve teacher training methods.

6. Parts A and B: Andrew Jackson supported the lowering of property qualifications that allowed more men to vote. In 1824, Jackson won the popular vote and the largest number of electors, but not enough to claim the presidency; after the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, he was defeated by John Quincy Adams when Henry Clay gave his support to the former secretary of state. Jackson denounced what he called a “corrupt bargain,” and called for a more democratic and anti-elitist politics. As a Jeffersonian, he opposed government intervention in the economy, believing that “big” government would favor special interests. Once elected to the presidency in 1828, Jackson filled government jobs with his supporters. He defended this “spoils system” by arguing that any man should be able to carry out the duties of a government post. At his inauguration, Jackson invited the public to a reception at the White House, a gesture never made before. Jackson vetoed a bill re-chartering the Bank of the United States. He believed that the bank served the interests of the moneyed elite rather than the common man. Initially, Jackson’s “Bank War” enhanced his image as a champion of the “common man.”

Part C: President Jackson’s opponents coalesced into the Whig party. Whigs tended to support a greater government role in the economy. Most opposed Jackson’s “Bank War.” Many subscribed to Henry Clay’s “American System,” which called for a national bank to facilitate commerce, internal improvements to help farmers and businessmen get their goods to markets, and a tariff to help protect American industry.

Union Expanded and Challenged (1835–1860)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: Guided by the principle of “Manifest Destiny,” Americans began to stream westward in the 1830s. By the mid-1840s settlers were entrenched in the Oregon and California territories. Adventurers also settled in Texas and helped the Texans defeat the Mexican army in 1836. The Mexican-American War took place between 1846 and 1847. By the terms of the treaty ending this war the United States paid Mexico $15 million dollars; in return the United States acquired the northern part of the Texas territory and New Mexico and California. The pivotal issue for Americans remained whether newly acquired territories would enter the Union as slave states or as free states. Under the Missouri Compromise a line was drawn westward to the Pacific Ocean; all territories north of the line would enter the Union as free states and all territories south of the line would come in as slave states. The issue of whether California would enter the Union as a free or slave state necessitated the Compromise of 1850. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 stated that settlers living in those territories could vote on whether they would become slave states or free states. The Dred Scott Supreme Court decision of 1857 stated that Congress had no right to prohibit slavery in the territories and that even though Scott, an ex-slave, had spent time in a free state and a free territory this did not make him a free man. Tensions between the North and the South remained high. In the 1860 presidential election, Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln campaigned on the need to contain slavery in the territories. After his election, representatives of seven Southern states met to create the Confederate States of America, with Jefferson Davis as the first president of the Confederacy.

Keywords

Manifest Destiny: concept that became popularized in the 1840s stating that it was the God-given mission of the United States to expand westward.

Mexican-American War: war fought over possession of Texas, which was claimed by both Mexico and the United States; the settlement ending this war gave the United States the northern part of the Texas territory and the territories of New Mexico and California.

Compromise of 1850: temporarily ending tensions between the North and the South, this measure allowed California to enter the Union as a free state but also strengthened the Fugitive Slave Law.

Fugitive Slave Act: part of the Compromise of 1850, legislation that set up special commissions in northern states to determine if accused runaway slaves were actually that. Commissioners were given more money if the accused was found to be a runaway than if he/she was not. Many northern state legislatures attempted to circumvent this law.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854): compromise that allowed settlers in Kansas and Nebraska to vote to decide if they would enter the Union as free states or slave states. Much violence and confusion took place in Kansas as various types of “settlers” moved into this territory in the months before the vote in an attempt to influence it.

Dred Scott case: critical Supreme Court ruling that stated that slaves were property and not people; as a result they could not seek a ruling from any court. The ruling also stated that Congress had no legal right to ban slavery in any territory.

Manifest Destiny

Americans had always dreamed of expanding their settlements westward. The acquisition of new lands to the west had been a core component of Thomas Jefferson’s vision of an agrarian republic. In the 1840s, the age-old American urge to push against the line of the frontier became a clearly articulated ideology. In 1845, the journalist John O’Sullivan coined the term Manifest Destiny. He called for the United States “to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for free development of our yearly multiplying millions.”

In the 1830s Americans began taking the long and arduous Oregon Trail west to the Williamette Valley of the Oregon territory. Tales of rich soil, plentiful wildlife, and a salubrious climate attracted settlers from the east. In the early 1840s people talked of “Oregon Fever.” More than 5,000 Americans had made their way to Oregon by 1845. Among them was the missionary Marcus Whitman. He, his family, and 12 others were murdered by Indians in 1847. Despite the dangers, Americans were determined to settle and control the Oregon territory. The United States shared sovereignty in Oregon with Great Britain. American expansionists demanded all of Oregon, making their rallying cry “Fifty-four Forty or Fight.” President James K. Polk decided to pursue diplomacy rather than conflict with the British. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 awarded most, though not all of the Oregon territory to the United States. Proponents of Manifest Destiny also called for the United States to acquire California. American settlers began to arrive in California in the 1830s. Like with Oregon, expansion into California became a political issue in the 1840s.

The Alamo and Texas Independence

American expansionism helped spur conflict with Mexico. Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, but entered into a protracted period of political instability. Hoping to develop its underpopulated northern province of Texas, Mexican officials encouraged an influx of American settlers, who in return for accepting Mexican citizenship and adopting the Roman Catholic religion were provided with extensive grants of land. By 1836, there were 30,000 American settlers in Texas.

These American settlers soon found themselves at odds with the Mexican authorities. In the early 1830s they became caught up in Mexican political struggles between supporters of a federal system of government and those who wanted a stronger central government. The Texans favored the federalist cause. Centralizers won control of the Mexican government and began tightening their control over Texas. Most of the American settlers and many Mexicans in Texas responded by revolting. On March 2, 1836, the rebels proclaimed Texan independence. The Mexican president, General Antonio López de Santa Anna led an army into Texas. On March 6, his troops overwhelmed a garrison of 180 to 250 men, including Davey Crockett and Jim Bowie, at the Alamo in San Antonio. All the defenders of the Alamo died, but their heroic resistance inspired the Texan war-cry “Remember the Alamo!” The remaining Texan forces, aided by volunteers from the United States, rallied under General Sam Houston. On April 21, Houston’s army surprised and routed Santa Anna’s command at San Jacinto. Santa Anna was captured and forced to order all Mexican soldiers out of Texas.

The newly independent Texas became the Lone Star Republic, with Sam Houston as its president. Most Texans wanted their republic to be annexed by the United States. The politics of slavery prevented this. Many Northerners opposed the acquisition of a territory that would become another slave state. The admission of Texas into the Union would also lead to inevitable conflicts with Mexico, which refused to officially recognize the independence of Texas. President Andrew Jackson sympathized with the aspirations of the Texans, but was unwilling to risk the electoral prospects of his protégé Martin Van Buren in the presidential election that fall. He contented himself with extending diplomatic recognition to the Lone Star Republic.

The American annexation of Texas remained a political nonstarter until 1844. President John Tyler and his secretary of state, John C. Calhoun, both Southerners, worked to negotiate a treaty that would bring Texas into the Union as a slave state. Until the election of 1844, their efforts proved unavailing in the Senate.

Expansion and the Election of 1844

The election of 1844 proved to be the political high tide of Manifest Destiny. James K. Polk won the Democratic nomination for the presidency. He was the first American dark horse candidate to win a major party nomination; he was not put forward as a candidate until the Democratic nominating convention. Polk was hardly a political nonentity. A protégé of Andrew Jackson, he had served as Speaker of the House and as governor of Tennessee. Polk warmly embraced American expansionism. He called for the annexation of Texas and of all of the Oregon Territory. The nomination of Polk also demonstrated the growing dominance of the South in the Democratic Party. Polk would later sign the 1846 Walker Tariff that angered Northern manufacturing interests by lowering the tariff on imported products.

The Whig nominee in 1844 was Henry Clay, making his third run for the presidency. In an effort to conciliate all sectional interests, Clay refused to embrace expansionism. He hoped that his long experience in American politics and personal popularity would carry him through to victory. Clay’s hopes would be frustrated by political abolitionism. The new anti-slavery Liberty party ran James Birney for the presidency in 1844. Though the Liberty party failed to attract widespread support (only 62,000 votes in total), its presence on the ballot probably cost Clay the electoral votes of New York and the election.

Polk’s expansionism proved popular enough for him to win a close election. Before Polk’s inauguration in March 1845, the outgoing president, John Tyler, secured the annexation of Texas through the unusual method of a joint resolution of Congress. Once in office, Polk began the diplomatic negotiations with Great Britain that resulted in the successful resolution of the Oregon boundary dispute. Polk’s efforts to acquire more land from the Mexicans would not be resolved peacefully.

The Mexican War

Polk hoped to obtain all of his expansionist goals with Mexico through diplomacy. He wanted the Mexicans to accept the Rio Grande River as the southern boundary of Texas, rather than the more northerly Nueces River, which the Mexicans argued was the Texas border. Dreaming of trade on the Pacific Ocean, Polk wanted the superb harbor of San Francisco and all the California Territory around it. In October 1845, he sent the diplomat John Slidell to Mexico with a proposal to purchase the territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers for $5 million, California for $25 million, and $5 million for the Mexican lands between Texas and California. The Mexican government refused to see Slidell. It took more emphatic action against an army led by General Zachary Taylor that Polk had provocatively posted along the Rio Grande River. In April 1846, Mexican troops attacked a patrol of American soldiers. This began hostilities between Mexico and the United States. Once Polk learned of the outbreak of fighting, he asked Congress for a declaration of war. The United States declared against Mexico on May 13, 1846.

The Mexican War was controversial, and opposed by many Americans. Many Whigs believed that Polk had forced the war on Mexico, without fully exploring a diplomatic solution. Many Northerners assumed that the war was a scheme by Southern Democrats to conquer new territories for the institution of slavery.

Although some contemporary observers predicted a Mexican victory because of the large number of men Mexico had under arms, the American army soon proved its military superiority. General Taylor defeated the Mexican forces confronting them along the Rio Grande and advanced into Northern Mexico. There he repulsed a Mexican counterattack at the hard-fought Battle of Buena Vista. In California, the United States fomented an uprising of American settlers. Supported by a small force of soldiers led by the explorer John C. Fremont, the rebels declared California independent on July 4, 1846, renaming the province as the Bear Flag Republic. Detachments of American troops conquered New Mexico and the rest of the Mexican lands Polk wanted for the United States. Territorially satisfied, Polk was ready to make peace. The Mexicans spurned his overtures, refusing to submit. To compel a Mexican surrender, Polk dispatched an army led by General Winfield Scott to the Mexican port of Vera Cruz. On March 8, 1847, Scott supervised the first major amphibious landing in American military history. Scott abandoned his lines of communication and supply and marched into the heart of Mexico. After winning several battles, Scott’s army captured Mexico City on September 13, 1847. This effectively ended the war, though Mexican partisans continued to harass American troops.

Political Consequences of the Mexican War

The Mexican War was ended by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in Mexico on February 2, 1848. The United States paid Mexico $15 million for the territory in Texas north of the Rio Grande, New Mexico, and California. The United States also agreed to pay all the claims that American citizens had against the Mexican government. While some Americans criticized the treaty for being too lenient with the Mexicans and argued that even more Mexican territory should have been taken, the spoils of the Mexican War increased the territory of the United States by one-third. Much of the dream of Manifest Destiny had been realized. The United States now truly was a continental nation.

The expansion of American territory inevitably raised the question of the expansion of slavery. In the summer of 1846, David Wilmot, a Democratic representative from Pennsylvania ignited a political firestorm. He attached an amendment to a military appropriations bill that prohibited slavery in any territory taken from Mexico during the war. The Wilmot Proviso outraged Southerners. It was passed by the House four times, but was defeated in the Senate. Wilmot’s amendment forced a political debate that further polarized sectional tensions over slavery. Northerners argued that slavery should not be introduced where it had been illegal under Mexican rule. John C. Calhoun eloquently articulated the Southern position that an institution that was legal in many American states could not be prohibited in federal territories held in common by all the states. President Polk attempted to forge a compromise settlement by extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean.

Both major parties attempted to avoid the issue of slavery in the election of 1848. The Whigs attempted to replicate their previous winning strategy of running a war hero and nominated General Zachary Taylor. Lacking a suitably famous general, the Democrats nominated Lewis Cass, a senator from Michigan. Members of the Liberty party and dissident Whigs and Democrats coalesced into the Free-Soil party dedicated to opposing the extension of slavery into the western territories. Former president Martin Van Buren accepted the Free-Soil nomination and received 10 percent of the popular vote. Taylor’s military charisma trumped all other considerations and he won the election.

The Political Crisis of 1850

The need to organize the territories won from Mexico would not allow the issue of slavery to be set aside or postponed. Americans had to make a decision about slavery in the West. Heightened passions over the morality of slavery made normal political compromises more difficult to achieve.

In January 1848, gold was discovered in California. Within a year, the ensuing California “gold rush” brought more than 80,000 “forty-niners” into the territory. By late 1849 there were enough settlers in California to apply for statehood. Settlers in New Mexico also petitioned for statehood. Gatherings in both territories drafted constitutions that prohibited slavery. President Taylor encouraged the Californians in their efforts and was willing to allow them to enter the Union as a free state. In doing this, he roused the anger of many Southerners. Much of California lay below the extended Missouri Compromise line. Both the western territories and the balance of power in the Senate seemed to be slipping away from the South. Calls were made for a convention in the South to discuss secession. John C. Calhoun spoke for many Southerners when he declared, “I trust we shall persist in our resistance until restoration of all our rights or disunion, one or the other, is the consequence.”

Henry Clay criticized talk of Southern secession. Known as the “great pacificator” for having engineered the Compromise of 1820, the aging Clay hoped to fashion one more great compromise to hold the Union together. He packaged a series of resolutions designed to give both Northern and Southern legislators victories to take home to their constituents. The provisions of the Compromise of 1850 included the admission of California as a free state, the freedom of the residents of New Mexico and Utah to decide if they wanted slavery in their territories, the ending of slave-trading in the District of Columbia, and a strengthened Fugitive Slave Act. Clay could not get his compromise passed as an omnibus bill because of the opposition of President Taylor and the unwillingness of congressmen to vote for elements of the bill that went against their sectional interests. Following Taylor’s unexpected death, his successor Millard Fillmore expressed support for the compromise. Senator Stephen A. Douglas, a Democrat from Illinois, shepherded the compromise through Congress, passing each element separately with the crucial support of moderate Southern Whigs and Northern Democrats.

Aftermath of the Compromise of 1850

For a time the Compromise of 1850 brought a degree of sectional harmony. Beneath the surface profound differences between Northern and Southern interests simmered. The entrance of California into the Union tilted the balance of the Senate against the South. The admission of Minnesota and Oregon later in the decade made the South’s dwindling legislative influence more worrisome to extremist defenders of slavery. The Fugitive Slave Act, which increased the federal role in apprehending runaway slaves, was deeply unpopular in the North. African Americans accused of being escaped slaves were denied normal judicial due process, making it obvious that the new federal system was stacked against anyone with a dark skin. Northerners who were caught helping escaped slaves were heavily fined. The Fugitive Slave Act proved counterproductive for Southern interests by inflaming abolitionist sentiment in the North. The most powerful expression of this was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), which powerfully dramatized the evils of slavery. Stowe’s novel helped crystallize antislavery feelings in the North, selling almost 275,000 copies within a year.

In the election of 1852, the major political parties hoped that the slavery issue had been laid to rest. The Whigs nominated yet another war hero, General Winfield Scott. The Democrats turned to another dark horse candidate, Franklin Pierce. The strength of the Democratic Party carried Pierce to victory.

Franklin Pierce in the White House

Pierce reverted to the expansionist policies of James K. Polk. His administration negotiated the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico, which gave the United States a strip of territory that would facilitate the construction of a transcontinental railroad routed through the South. Pierce sent a naval expedition commanded by Commodore Matthew C. Perry to open up trade and diplomatic relations with Japan. The president fostered Northern suspicions that he was Southern in his sympathies by attempting to buy Cuba from Spain. When this failed, members of his administration discussed a military occupation of the island. The main impetus behind talk of acquiring Cuba, and also behind privately run expeditions to seize territory in Central America, was a Southern desire to open up new lands to slavery.

Following its failure in 1852, the Whig party fell apart. Many Whigs drifted into the newly emergent American or Know-Nothing party, which capitalized on anti-immigrant feeling. Large numbers of Irish and German immigrants had flooded into the United States during the 1840s. This spurred a nativist reaction. The Know-Nothings were especially hostile to the Roman Catholicism practiced by many of the immigrants. During its brief moment of popularity the Know-Nothing party tried to restrict further immigration and prevent recent immigrants from voting. The Know-Nothing party faded away when slavery once again became the leading political issue.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

Stephen A. Douglas reignited sectional conflict because of his dream of running a transcontinental railroad from Chicago to California. To do this, the territories of Kansas and Nebraska had to be politically organized. According to the terms of the Missouri Compromise, slavery was banned in these territories. Douglas needed Southern support to begin the process of organizing Kansas and Nebraska. The price for this support was abandoning the Missouri Compromise and allowing the people living in Kansa and Nebraska to decide whether they would allow the introduction of slavery. Douglas embraced the bargain and became a spokesman for popular sovereignty in the territories. In 1854, President Pierce signed Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act into law.

The immediate result was a political uproar in the North. Many Northerners regarded the bill as an outrageous attempt to spread slavery into free territory. Free-Soilers, former Whigs, and defecting Democrats joined in launching the Republican party. Drawing its strength from the North and West, the new party vehemently opposed the extension of slavery into the western territories. The Republican party swiftly replaced the Know-Nothings as the most significant political rival to the Democrats.

“Bleeding Kansas”

There was never any realistic prospect that Nebraska would become a slave state. Kansas, with its long border with Missouri, was another story. Elections in Kansas were scheduled for 1855. Knowing this, supporters and opponents of slavery worked to send settlers into the territory. When the election was held, illegal voting by Missourians who flocked across the border helped the proslavery side to victory. The resulting proslavery legislature crafted the “Lecompton Constitution” that legalized slavery in Kansas. Outraged antislavery settlers elected their own legislature and wrote a constitution that banned slavery. With two legislatures and two constitutions, Kansas was locked into conflict. The differences between the two sides escalated into bloodshed. In 1856, a band of proslavery gunmen shot up or burned much of Lawrence, Kansas, a community founded by abolitionists. In retaliation, the fiercely antislavery fanatic John Brown led a gang that butchered five proslavery settlers. The ongoing violence led newspapermen to term the stricken territory “Bleeding Kansas.”

In the 1856 presidential election the Democrat, James Buchanan, won in a three-way race with John C. Fremont, the first Republican presidential candidate, and former president, Millard Fillmore, running as a Know-Nothing. Buchanan won 45 percent of the popular vote and only triumphed because of his support in the “Solid South.”

The Dred Scott Decision

Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri who went to court and sued for his freedom. Scott’s master had taken him to live for several years in the free state of Illinois and the free territory of Wisconsin. Scott argued that his residence for a time in free territory made him free. Scott’s case made its way to the Supreme Court in 1856. In the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court ruled that Scott was still a slave. The Court majority went beyond the specifics of the case and declared that African Americans were inherently inferior and could not be granted citizenship. It also ruled that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories because this violated constitutionally protected property rights.

The Dred Scott decision further inflamed sectional tensions. Southerners felt vindicated by the Supreme Court’s ruling on slavery in the territories. Northerners were infuriated at the prospect of a panel of mostly Southern judges justifying the spread of slavery throughout the Union.

President Buchanan proved just as politically tone deaf as the Supreme Court. Ignoring the illegality surrounding the Lecompton Constitution, and a growing majority of free-soil settlers in Kansas, he urged Congress to recognize the territory as a slave state. Congress refused his recommendation. Kansas would enter the Union as a free state in 1861.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Stephen A. Douglas ran for reelection to the Senate in 1858. He was opposed by Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of the Republican party. Lincoln had been an admirer of Henry Clay and a longtime Whig. He served a term in Congress in the 1840s and criticized the Mexican War. Lincoln was drawn back into politics by the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision. Because of Douglas’s political prominence, his series of debates with Lincoln received national attention. These debates became a landmark of political oratory. They all centered on the issue of slavery and the territories. At the debate at Freeport, Illinois, Lincoln asked Douglas how he could continue to promote popular sovereignty after the Dred Scott decision. Douglas replied with what came to be known as the Freeport Doctrine. He argued that the people of a territory could keep out slavery by legislating rules and regulations that would make it too difficult to maintain slaves. Douglas’s position satisfied enough voters in Illinois, ensuring the retention of his Senate seat in the fall, but it won him many enemies in the South. Lincoln’s brilliant performance during the debates marked him as a rising leader of the Republican party.

John Brown and Harpers Ferry

John Brown left Kansas and returned to the East dreaming of leading a great slave insurrection. He persuaded a few wealthy Northern abolitionists to fund his scheme. On October 16, 1859, Brown and 18 followers attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He hoped to use the rifles that he captured there to arm slaves. Brown’s raid proved to be a fiasco. He and his men were quickly surrounded and then captured by federal troops led by Colonel Robert E. Lee. Brown was convicted of treason and publically hanged. Some Northerners saw Brown as a martyr. Henry David Thoreau called him “the bravest and humanest man in all the country.” Southerners were appalled by this sympathy for a man they regarded as a terrorist.

The Election of 1860

As the presidential election of 1860 approached, the Democratic party divided along sectional lines. Stephen A. Douglas was the frontrunner for the nomination, but many Southern Democrats could not forgive him for the Freeport Doctrine. These Southerners walked out of the Democratic convention and nominated John Breckinridge. In the ensuing election campaign, Douglas defended the principle of popular sovereignty, while Breckinridge took the position that slavery should be allowed in all the territories. The Democratic split helped persuade John Bell, a former Whig from Tennessee, to run as the candidate of a new Constitutional Union party that appealed to sectional moderates. The divided political field opened up an electoral opportunity for the Republicans. Out of a crowded field of candidates, Abraham Lincoln emerged as the Republican nominee. He attempted to reassure Southerners that slavery would not be molested in the slave states, but adamantly opposed permitting the introduction of slavery into the western territories. When the final votes were tallied, Lincoln received 40 percent of the popular vote, but won decisively in the Electoral College, carrying all the Northern and Western states.

The election of Abraham Lincoln was a Southern nightmare come true. Lincoln had triumphed at the head of a party that received virtually no votes in much of the South. Southerners now faced the prospect of a party hostile to slavery controlling Congress and the presidency.

South Carolina led the way in seceding from the Union on December 20, 1860. Within six weeks Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana followed. Representatives from the seceded states met at Montgomery, Alabama, in February 1861. They formed the Confederate States of America. The men gathered at Montgomery elected Jefferson Davis as the president of the new Confederacy. Davis’s experience as a soldier and secretary of war were points in his favor. Few expected the Union to break up peacefully.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• The concept of Manifest Destiny spurred American expansion into Texas and the far West.

• American settlers much more loyal to the United States than to Mexico entered Texas in large numbers and encouraged Texas to break away from Mexico and eventually become an American state.

• The issue of slavery in the territories came to dominate American political debate more and more in the 1840s and 1850s.

• California entered the Union as a free state under the Missouri Compromise, upsetting the balance between free and slave states and intensifying the conflict between them.

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act created violence in these territories as they “decided” on whether they would be slave or free; both Abolitionists and proslavery forces shipped in supporters to help sway the elections in these territories.

• The Dred Scott decision only intensified tensions between the North and the South.

• The election of 1860 was seen as an insult to many in the South, and after its results were announced, the secession of Southern states from the Union was inevitable.

Time Line

1836: Texas territory rebels against Mexico; independent republic of Texas created

1841: Beginning of expansion into Oregon territory

1844: James K. Polk elected president

1845: Texas becomes a state of the United States

1846: Oregon Treaty with Britain gives most of Oregon to United States

War with Mexico begins

Wilmot Proviso passed

1848: Gold discovered in California; beginning of California gold rush

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Formation of Free-Soil party

Zachary Taylor elected president

1850: Passage of Compromise of 1850

1852: Franklin Pierce elected president

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe published

1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act passed

Formation of the Republican party

1856: Democrat James Buchanan elected president

“Bleeding Kansas”

1857: Dred Scott decision announced

1858: Lincoln-Douglas debates

Freeport Doctrine issued by Stephen Douglas

1859: Harper’s Ferry raid of John Brown

1860: Abraham Lincoln elected president

South Carolina secedes from the Union (December)

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Northerners approved all of the provisions of the Compromise of 1850 except

A. the section of the document concerning slavery in California.

B. the section of the document concerning the Fugitive Slave Law.

C. the section of the treaty on slave trading in Washington, DC.

D. the section of the document concerning slavery in New Mexico.

2. During the presidential election of 1860

A. the Democratic party had split and was running two candidates.

B. the new president was someone whom almost no one in the South had voted for.

C. the issue of the future of slavery in the territories was a major issue.

D. all of the above

3. According to the concept of Manifest Destiny

A. it was primarily economic factors that caused Americans to expand westward.

B. it was primarily political factors that caused Americans to expand westward.

C. westward expansion was the fulfillment of America’s destiny.

D. overpopulation on the eastern seaboard forced westward expansion.

4. American settlers first came to Mexico in the early 1830s

A. to avenge the attack on the Alamo.

B. for political reasons; most who came were disenchanted with American policy toward Native Americans.

C. out of personal loyalty to Davey Crockett or Jim Bowie.

D. because they could receive a large plot of land for next to nothing.

5. The political party of the era that supported nativist policies was the

A. Free-Soil party.

B. Democratic party.

C. Know-Nothing party.

D. Whig party.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of an issue leading to sectional hostility between the North and South in the period 1840 to 1860.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of an issue leading to sectional hostility between the North and South in the period 1840 to 1860.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of an effort to achieve compromise between the North and South in the period 1840 to 1860.

Answers and Explanations

1. B. In the Compromise of 1850, provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law were made tougher. California was to enter the Union as a free state, the residents of New Mexico and Utah could decide if they wanted to be slave or free, and slave trading was outlawed in Washington, DC.

2. D. All of the factors mentioned concerning the 1860 election are true.

3. C. The concept of Manifest Destiny stated that social, political, and economic factors all came together to encourage western expansion, and that western expansion was actually “God’s plan” for America.

4. D. Settlers who came and became Mexican citizens and Catholics could receive very large plots of land for almost nothing. The incident at the Alamo did not occur until 1836.

5. C. The Know-Nothing party, a popular party in the early 1850s, supported a number of anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic policies.

6. Parts A and B: The rise of abolitionism in the North angered many in the South. The House of Representatives imposed a gag rule on antislavery petitions that lasted from 1836 to 1844. Many opponents of slavery believed that the expansionism that resulted in the Mexican War of 1846 to 1848 was an attempt to create more slave states. The 1846 Wilmot Proviso in the House of Representatives calling for the prohibition of slavery in territory taken from Mexico angered many Southerners. The Fugitive Slave Act, part of the Compromise of 1850, offended Northerners who did not want escaping slaves hunted in their states. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) was a powerful literary indictment of slavery. The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act inflamed sectional tensions by overturning the Missouri Compromise and raising the prospect of slavery in these two territories. Kansas became known as “Bleeding Kansas” because of the violence between proslavery and antislavery settlers. The 1856 Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court decision, which ruled that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories, outraged many in the North. John Brown’s unsuccessful attempt to start a slave rebellion by attacking the Harpers Ferry federal arsenal in 1859 terrified many Southerners. The election of the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860 on a purely sectional vote convinced many Southerners that they had to secede from the Union.

Part C: President James K. Polk tried to ensure both Northern and Southern support for American expansionism by seeing to it that both sections benefitted. In his 1844 presidential campaign he called for the annexation of slaveholding Texas and all of the Oregon Territory. Henry Clay tried to solve sectional tensions with his Compromise of 1850, which, among other provisions, saw California enter the Union as a free state and imposed a strong Fugitive Slave Law. During the 1850s, Senator Stephen A. Douglas believed he could reconcile sectional disputes over the western territories with his doctrine of “popular sovereignty,” which would allow the settlers of territories decide whether they wanted slavery or not.

Union Divided: The Civil War (1861–1865)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: The Civil War was the culmination of nearly 40 years of tensions between the North and the South. Northern Abolitionists looked forward to the war with great anticipation: victory over the South would finally allow the dreaded institution of slavery to be eliminated. Northern industrialists saw the war as an opportunity, at long last, to expand their control of American industry. The majority of Southerners rejoiced at the onset of war; they perceived that victory would allow the “Southern way of life” to continue without constant criticism from the North. As in many wars, politicians and generals on both sides predicted a quick victory. Newspapers in both the North and the South declared that the war would be over by Christmas of 1861.

To state that the Civil War was just about slavery is an oversimplification. Certainly, criticism by Northern Abolitionists of the “peculiar institution” of slavery, and Southern responses to that criticism, were important factors. However, other tensions between the North and the South also existed. The future of the American economy as seen by Northern industrialists differed drastically from the desires and needs of the leaders of Southern plantation societies. Most important, the Southern view of “states’ rights” differed most dramatically from the view of the Union held in the North. By 1861, many political leaders in the South fervently espoused the views that John C. Calhoun had formulated decades earlier. It was up to the individual state to decide on the validity of any federal law or federal action for that state. This position was intolerable to President Lincoln and most political leaders in the North. If anything, it was debate over the state’s rights issue that made the Civil War inevitable.

Other factors increased the animosity between the North and the South. By this point, slavery was synonymous with Southern identity; in Southern eyes, any attack on slavery was an attack on the South as a whole. The fact that this struggle between the North and the South had gone on for 40 years served to harden positions on both sides. In addition, by this point the population of the North was greater than the population of the South, and the number of free states was greater than the number of slave states. As a result, Southerners knew that Northern antislave interests would control the Congress (and the ability to influence Supreme Court appointments) and the Electoral College for the foreseeable future.

Keywords

First Battle of Bull Run (1861): early Civil War engagement ending in defeat for the Union army; this battle convinced many in the North that victory over the Confederacy would not be as easy as they first thought it would be.

Emancipation Proclamation: January 1, 1863, proclamation that freed slaves in Southern territories was controlled by the Union army; this executive proclamation by President Lincoln also committed the Union to the abolition of slavery.

Battle of Gettysburg (1863): bloodiest overall battle of the Civil War; many historians claim that the Southern defeat in this battle was the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.

Appomattox: Virginia courthouse where General Robert E. Lee surrendered Confederate forces on April 9, 1865.

North and South on the Brink of War

The North brought a number of advantages to a military struggle with the seceded states. Most of the nation’s wealth was concentrated in the North. The North housed the largest banks and financial markets in great cities like New York and Chicago. The Northern states were far more industrialized and were connected together by an extensive network of railroads. The North was in a much better position to manufacture and transport weapons and other war supplies. The North also had an edge in manpower, with a population three times that of the South. Despite this, Southern supporters of the Confederacy still believed that they could win a war with the North. Many in the agrarian South overvalued the importance of cotton to international markets, believing that the great European powers of Great Britain and France would intervene to protect their textile industries. Southerners also saw themselves as enjoying a moral advantage; they would be fighting a defensive war to protect their homes and institutions. Southerners also realized that geography posed a problem for the North; the South was a huge territory that would require an enormous expenditure of resources to capture and hold.

Searching for Compromise

In the aftermath of the creation of the Confederate States of America in February 1861, there was no immediate rush of slave states in the upper South to secede. They had fewer slaves and were reluctant to leave the union. Leaders in these states attempted to formulate a compromise that would end the secession crisis. Congressional representatives from Kentucky and Maryland urged the passage of legislation that would guarantee the continued existence of slavery in states and territories where it was already established. President James Buchanan, very much a lame duck, provided little leadership. In December 1860, he declared that secession was illegal, but he also believed that there were no constitutional grounds to compel states to remain in the Union.

The leaders of the Confederacy grew confident that they had nothing to fear from Buchanan. Confederates occupied most federal installations in the seceded states. In South Carolina, the new authorities demanded that federal troops evacuate Fort Sumter, a fortress situated on an island in Charleston harbor. In January 1861, Buchanan attempted to resupply the fort by sending south an unarmed merchant ship. When the Confederates drove the supply ship off with gunfire, Buchanan refused to use the navy to protect another supply run. This emboldened the Confederates in Charleston.

While Fort Sumter was the center of most Americans’ attention, Senator John Crittenden of Kentucky proposed another compromise. The Crittenden Plan called for an assurance of federal protection of slavery where it already existed, and the formal extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific; territory to the south of the line would be open to slavery, while that north of the line would be free. Crittenden’s compromise failed because Republicans refused to surrender their free-soil position on slavery in the territories that had just won them the national election.

Gunfire at Fort Sumter

Abraham Lincoln had to be politically circumspect in the long interval between his election in November 1860 and his inauguration in March 1861. Though all looked to him, he was not yet the president. He attempted to reassure Southerners that he would not interfere with slavery in the slave states, while holding firm to his position on slavery in the territories. He affirmed federal authority, while saying nothing to provoke a war. At his inauguration, Lincoln stated his desire for conciliation with the seceded states, but declared that if necessary he would use the military to restore the Union.

Lincoln knew that to rally opinion for a war against the secessionists he could not fire the first shots. He used the Fort Sumter crisis to maneuver the Confederates into doing that. In April 1861, Lincoln dispatched another supply ship toward Fort Sumter. Aware of the ship’s impending arrival, Jefferson Davis and the Confederate authorities in Charleston decided to strike. The Confederates began a bombardment of the fort on April 12, and two days later the federal garrison surrendered.

Davis hoped that the attack on Fort Sumter would demonstrate Confederate strength and rally support for the secessionist cause. Once Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas did secede and join the Confederacy. But by various means Lincoln was able to keep the slave states of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri in the Union; control of these states greatly improved the strategic position of the federal government.

Opening Strategies

Southerners sincerely claimed to be defending the principle of states’ rights. What drove this concern was a resolute attachment to the institution of slavery, despite the fact that the great majority of Southerners owned no slaves. The centrality of slavery to secession undercut Confederate attempts to use cotton to win diplomatic support from Britain and France. These European powers were not particularly friendly to the U.S. government, and they wanted Southern cotton. But both Britain and France had long since outlawed slavery and were wary of being seen as supporting the “peculiar institution.” Early in the war, a Confederate decision to embargo cotton exports to Europe backfired. President Davis and his advisors hoped that this would hurt Britain and France enough economically that their governments would be pressured into offering diplomatic recognition to the Confederacy. Instead, the Europeans discovered other sources of cotton, with disastrous long-term consequences for the South.

In 1861, great numbers of volunteers joined the Union and Confederate armies. In the first flush of enthusiasm, both sides predicted a quick and easy victory. President Lincoln rallied Northern public opinion for a war to preserve the Union; he argued that to allow the rebellion to succeed would be to undermine the foundations of representative government. The Confederate capital was moved to Richmond, Virginia, once that populous and prestigious state seceded. Northern newspapers editorialized “On to Richmond!” because they believed that the capture of this city within striking distance of Washington D.C. would end the war. The only important official who believed that the war would be long and hard was General Winfield Scott, the elderly commander of the U.S. Army. Lincoln urged the federal forces gathering outside Washington to attack. A half-trained army set off for Richmond. On July 21, 1861, this force was defeated by an equally green Confederate army at the First Battle of Bull Run. The Union troops retreated to Washington in disorder. The victorious Confederates were too disorganized to pursue them.

The Loss of Illusions

The heavy casualties at First Bull Run shocked both sides. President Lincoln began to realize that the war would be a hard one and studied the strategy proposed by General Scott. Termed the Anaconda Plan by uncomprehending journalists, Scott proposed a strict blockade of the southern coastline and the seizure of the Mississippi River; the Confederacy would be economically strangled before well-trained federal armies moved in to finish it off. Lincoln ordered the Navy to close off all Southern ports. This took time, but as the war went on, the blockade grew increasingly effective. By the end of the conflict, the South was economically crippled; it could not export cotton or import manufactured goods. The U.S. Navy captured New Orleans in April 1862, a vital first step in closing off the Mississippi River to the Confederacy.

Jefferson Davis also realized that he faced a long and difficult war. In April 1862, he persuaded the Confederate Congress to institute the first national draft in American history. Davis’s efforts to bring more focus and efficiency to the war effort were hampered by the states’ rights principles built into the Confederacy. Southern governors resisted the president’s efforts to get more control over their states’ troops and resources. Davis never solved the economic challenges facing the Confederacy. Repeating the mistake made by American leaders during the Revolutionary War, he printed paper money with no gold reserves to back the currency. The result was an inflation that eventually made Confederate money worthless.

Union Victories in the West

While often frustrated militarily in the East, the Union armies made steady progress in the West. In February 1862, a promising young federal general named Ulysses S. Grant captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee, taking many prisoners and driving back Confederate forces in the Mississippi Valley. On April 6, the Confederates counterattacked Grant at Shiloh. The fighting was the bloodiest yet seen in the war, but in the end the Confederates were forced to retreat. Federal forces advanced further south after Shiloh, leaving them poised to attack Vicksburg, the last important Confederate bastion in the Mississippi River.

General George McClellan was appointed commander of the Union army in November 1861, displacing General Scott. McClellan was an able strategist, but proved extremely cautious; he always believed, erroneously, that the enemy outnumbered him. His job was to take Richmond, and he tried President Lincoln’s patience with many delays. He finally moved in the spring of 1862, approaching Richmond from a different direction than Bull Run. Unfortunately for his army, he moved so slowly that the Confederates, under a new commander named Robert E. Lee, drove him back in a series of hard-fought battles. Lee proved his mastery of battle tactics by whipping another federal army at the Second Battle of Bull Run.

In an innovative attempt to frustrate the Union blockade, the Confederates constructed an ironclad ship, originally named the Merrimack. In March 1862, after sinking some federal ships, it fought an inconclusive battle with the Monitor, a hastily launched federal ironclad. The Confederates could not construct enough ironclads to make a difference in the war, but the new ships pointed the way to the future of all navies.

The Home Fronts

The states’ rights ethos of the South posed challenges for the men charged with running the war. Many Southerners volunteered to serve for a year in 1861. By 1862, these men were looking forward to returning home. Concern about the effects of these departures upon the muster rolls of the Confederate armies led Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee to support the conscription law. This Confederate draft required three years of military service from all white men between the ages of 18 to 35. The ages were later extended from 17 to 50. The draft proved to be very unpopular. The exemptions granted to some large slave owners to keep a watch on their slaves led to cries that the conflict was “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” Efforts to obstruct the law by state leaders meant that in parts of the Confederacy up to 60 percent of the military aged men did not serve in the army.

Southerners began to experience serious economic hardships in late 1862. Inflation drove up prices. Food shortages became common. Desertion from the army became a problem as men headed home to provide support for their families. In another measure that defied states’ rights principles, the Confederate government imposed an income tax. This effort to bring in much-needed revenue met limited success in an increasingly poverty-stricken South; by the end of the war, the government was accepting payments in grain and livestock rather than money.

Unlike the South, the North prospered economically during the war. A positive balance sheet could not alleviate all the tensions resulting from the waging of a bloody and destructive war. Northern leaders were also worried about military manpower. In 1863, Congress passed a draft law that called up men between the ages of 20 and 45. The law was intended to stimulate voluntary enlistments, often accompanied by financial bounties. Relatively few men were drafted. Despite this, the law was widely condemned. Especially reviled was a provision that allowed wealthier citizens to avoid the draft by hiring a substitute or buying themselves out by paying the government a $300 fee. In July 1863, the law led to riots in New York City. Irish immigrants and others who felt threatened by the draft went on a rampage that destroyed property and resulted in 200 deaths; many of the victims were African Americans whom the rioters unfairly blamed for the war.

Though much more financially secure than the South, the North also faced challenges in funding an expensive war. The federal government passed an income tax law in 1861. The next year, the government issued “greenbacks,” paper money that was not backed by gold. Because of the superior credit of the United States, this paper money was accepted by the people and worked well through the end of the war.

President Lincoln expanded the power of the presidency during the war. He issued an executive order that put portions of Kentucky under martial law. He took vigorous action against Northern Democrats who publicly opposed the war. These antiwar Democrats were popularly known as Copperheads. During the war, 14,000 Copperheads were imprisoned without facing trial. Three men were deported into the Confederacy. Several times Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus when Copperheads were arrested.

The Emancipation Proclamation

At the outset of the war, President Lincoln’s only goal was to restore the Union. He resisted abolitionist appeals, fearing that talk of freeing slaves would cost the government support in the crucial border states. As the war dragged on, Lincoln realized that slavery was helping sustain the Southern war effort. He decided to free the slaves in the territories still controlled by the Confederacy as a war measure. He realized that he had to do this after a federal victory, to avoid it seeming an act of political desperation. Lincoln received his victory on September 17, 1862, where on the bloodiest single day of the Civil War, General McClellan’s army turned back an invasion of Maryland by Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Antietam.

The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863. It changed the nature of the war. For the North the war was now about extending freedom as well as ending a rebellion. Initially, many Northerners were dubious about this, and the Democrats did well in the 1862 elections. Over time, the logic of ending slavery proved more compelling. This new moral purpose of liberating slaves ended any possibility of the European powers intervening to save the Confederacy. The problem of slaves living in Union territory remained to be settled at the end of the war. Southerners were outraged by the Emancipation Proclamation and vowed defiance.

The Turn of the Tide

The Confederacy remained formidable in late 1862 and early 1863. Robert E. Lee won impressive victories on December 13, 1862, at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and on May 1 to 3, 1863, at the Battle of Chancellorsville. For all his battlefield successes, Lee realized that Northern superiority in men and material could not be resisted forever. He convinced President Davis that the best way to end the war would be to crush the enemy’s morale by winning a great victory on Northern soil.

In June 1863, Lee led his army north. A federal army commanded by General George Meade moved to intercept him. The two armies grappled with each other in a small town in Pennsylvania at the Battle of Gettysburg. From July 1 to July 3, Lee unsuccessfully attacked Meade’s well-sited defenses. He was forced to retreat, having lost 28,000 men, a third of his army. The federal forces lost 24,000 men, and were too bloodied to quickly follow up on their victory. Lee was still a masterful tactician and his weakened army remained dangerous, but never again would he be able to take the initiative in the fighting. The war had reached a turning point.

That the balance of the war had shifted against the Confederacy was reinforced by important events in the West. Even as combat raged at Gettysburg, General Ulysses S. Grant was completing a long-drawn-out campaign to isolate and capture Vicksburg. The Battle of Vicksburg culminated in the surrender of the city on July 4, 1863. This gave Union forces control of the entire span of the Mississippi River, splitting the Confederacy. In November, President Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address while dedicating a national cemetery at the battle site. On November 23 to 25, General Grant won the Battle of Chattanooga in southeastern Tennessee, opening up an invasion route into Georgia. Because of his outstanding successes, Grant was put in charge of the Union army in early 1864. He brought a new sense of energy and direction to federal military strategy. He devised a coordinated assault on the Confederacy. In May 1864, Grant traveled with Meade’s army as it advanced toward Richmond, while General William Tecumseh Sherman aimed another army at the vital Southern railroad hub of Atlanta, Georgia.

War Weariness

Already by early 1864 some Confederate officials were calling for peace talks. Economic conditions continued to deteriorate. The Confederate army fought on, but under enormous strain. Once Grant’s forces attacked in Virginia, they never broke contact with Lee’s army. Showing his customary brilliance, and well-acquainted with the terrain, Lee inflicted heavy casualties on the invaders, but suffered irreplaceable losses as well. Grant knew that he could sustain an unequal exchange of casualties; he also knew that as he tied down and wore down Lee’s army, other federal forces were knifing into the overstretched Confederacy. In Georgia, Sherman slowly maneuvered toward Atlanta, held back by a determined Confederate defense.

1864 was an election year. As the death toll mounted, President Lincoln’s reelection prospects dimmed. The Democrats nominated General George McClellan, proclaiming their patriotism while hoping to capitalize on antiwar sentiment. By late summer, even Lincoln thought that he would be defeated. Battlefield victories changed the momentum of the campaign. Dissatisfied with the defense of Atlanta, Jefferson Davis appointed a more aggressive commander. The Confederates attacked Sherman and were badly defeated. Their losses were so great they had to evacuate Atlanta. The fall of Atlanta was a clear indication that the Confederacy was tottering. In Virginia, Grant forced Lee into a sustained defense of the town of Petersburg outside Richmond. Both sides settled down to trench warfare. Lee’s devoted army was all but trapped. With victory in sight, Lincoln won reelection.

The End of the War

Determined to wreck what was left of Southern morale, General Sherman burned the militarily useful parts of Atlanta in November 1864. Then, living off the land, he marched an army across Georgia and captured the port of Savannah on the coast. Along the way, his men left a swathe of destruction. This made it clear that the Confederate army could no longer protect civilians in the Southern heartland. Desertions from Confederate forces mounted as men went home to protect their families. In early 1865, Sherman launched an equally devastating invasion of the Carolinas. In Virginia, Lee’s position at Petersburg gradually grew worse. In early April, Grant threatened to encircle his army. Lee tried to escape but was cornered by Grant at Appomattox. On April 9, Lee surrendered his army. By the beginning of June, all other Confederate forces had laid down their arms.

President Lincoln hoped for a peace of reconciliation. On April 14, he was assassinated while attending a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater. The assassin was John Wilkes Booth, a failed actor and Southern fanatic who organized a conspiracy to kill Lincoln, the vice president, and the secretary of state. Booth was the only conspirator to succeed in his mission. He escaped, but was hunted down and killed a few days later by federal troops. Most of the other conspirators were captured, and after a trial by a military tribunal, several were hanged. For the 1864 election, Lincoln had chosen Andrew Johnson, a rough-hewn Unionist Democrat, to be his running mate. Now president, Johnson would have to lead the nation as it attempted to heal the wounds of a civil war.

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. The North held many advantages at the beginning of the Civil War except

A. the North occupied more territory than the South.

B. the North had more railroad lines.

C. the North had more factories.

D. the North had a larger population.

2. European states did not aid the Confederacy in the Civil War because

A. there were alternative sources of cotton and other crops that they could turn to.

B. they opposed the Confederacy’s position on slavery.

C. they did not believe that the Confederacy could win.

D. all of the above.

3. The military draft was unpopular to many in the North because

A. the draft allowed blacks to enter the armed forces.

B. the draft allowed Irish-American immigrants to enter the army.

C. the draft allowed those drafted to hire “replacements.”

D. martial law was needed in many locations to enforce the draft provisions.

4. The Battle of Vicksburg was an important victory for the Union because

A. it reversed several Union defeats in the same year.

B. it gave the Union a pathway to Atlanta.

C. it gave the Union virtual control of the Mississippi River.

D. it demonstrated that General Lee could, in fact, be beaten.

5. Copperheads were

A. Democrats in the North who opposed the war.

B. Republicans in the North who suggested that Lincoln be replaced.

C. Democrats in the North who switched alliance to Lincoln.

D. Southern Democrats who wanted negotiations with the North as early as 1863.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of why the Civil War went on longer than people initially expected.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of why the Civil War went on longer than people initially expected.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of an important turning point in the Civil War.

Answers and Explanations

1. A. All of the others were major advantages for the Union war effort.

2. D. All of the reasons given helped convince the Europeans not to assist the Confederacy. The Confederacy’s position on slavery proved to be especially troublesome, since slavery had long been outlawed in Europe.

3. C. The fact that replacement soldiers, usually immigrants, could be hired or that a payment of $300 to the government could get a man out of the draft made the system very unpopular to many.

4. C. The six-week Battle of Vicksburg occurred in 1863 and helped turn the war in the Union’s favor. As a result of Vicksburg, the Mississippi River was virtually in the hands of the Union. Lee did not command the Confederate forces at Vicksburg.

5. A. Copperheads were Democrats in the North who claimed that the war would bring economic ruin to the North, with freed slaves taking jobs that whites now had. Some were arrested and deported.

6. Parts A and B: Although the North had significant advantages going into the war, such as a larger population, more railroads and industry, and greater financial resources, the South also possessed advantages. The South was a very large territory with 3,500 miles of coastline. To effectively occupy this territory and blockade this coastline would require large Northern army and naval forces. Technology helped prolong the war. Weapons such as the rifled musket made close encounters between troops more deadly. The rifled musket, and later repeating rifles, gave the defense an advantage over the offense. Battles became longer range firefights and less decisive. Both sides developed excellent generals whose skill helped frustrate the strategies of their opponents. Great Southern generals included Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Great Northern generals included Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Philip Sheridan. Another factor that prolonged the war was the political determination of citizens on both sides to support their cause; the Civil War was a conflict between two popularly supported governments.

Part C: The Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, was enough of a Northern victory to enable President Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which made freeing slaves a federal war objective. General George Meade’s defeat of General Lee at Gettysburg on July 1 to 3, 1863, ended the last major Southern offensive of the war. General Grant’s victory at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, gave the North control over the Mississippi River, splitting the Confederacy. General Sherman’s capture of Atlanta on September 2, 1864, led Northerners to believe that the end of the war was in sight and ensured the reelection of President Lincoln. Sherman’s subsequent “March to the Sea” from November 15 to December 21 demonstrated the inability of the Confederate government to prevent federal forces from operating in the heartland of the South.

Era of Reconstruction (1865–1877)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: Postwar plans for assimilating the South back into the Union provoked strong resentment among many white Southerners. In addition, the plans of President Abraham Lincoln, the Radical Republicans in the Congress, and President Andrew Johnson all contained significant differences. Policies enacted that improved the political and economic position of former slaves were opposed by many Southern whites. The impeachment of Andrew Johnson demonstrated the disagreements over Reconstruction policy between Johnson and the Radical Republicans. Congressional passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments outlawed slavery, established the rights of blacks, and defined the framework by which Southern states could rejoin the Union. Passage of these amendments, profits made by carpetbaggers and scalawags, and the increased economic and political power held by some Southern blacks all caused some elements of traditional Southern society to feel long-lasting anger and resentment. The Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction, bringing another reordering of the political, economic, and social structures of the South.

Keywords

Reconstruction Era (1865–1877): period after the Civil War during which Northern political leaders created plans for the governance of the South and a procedure for former Southern states to rejoin the Union; Southern resentment of this era lasted well into the twentieth century.

Radical Republicans: congressional group that wished to punish the South for its secession from the Union; pushed for measures that gave economic and political rights to newly freed blacks in the South and that made it difficult for former Confederate states to rejoin the Union.

Reconstruction Act (1867): act placing Southern states under military rule and barring former supporters of the Confederacy from voting.

Carpetbaggers: northerners who moved to the South during the Reconstruction Era; traditional elements of Southern society were deeply resentful of profits made by carpetbaggers during this period.

Scalawags: term of derision used in the South during the Reconstruction Era for white Southern Republicans.

Ku Klux Klan: this group was founded in Tennessee in 1866; its oftentimes violent actions during the Reconstruction Era represented the resentments felt by many Southern whites toward the changing political, social, and economic conditions of the Reconstruction Era.

Compromise of 1877: political compromise ending the disputed presidential election of 1876. By the terms of this compromise Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the electoral votes of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, thus giving him the presidency; in return, all federal troops were removed from the South and Congress promised to stop enforcing much Reconstruction Era legislation concerning the South.

“Some men are born great, some achieve greatness and others lived during the Reconstruction period”

—Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1903

Lincoln and Reconstruction

The end of the Civil War raised difficult questions about what to do with the defeated South. On what terms would the seceded states be reintegrated into the Union? What would be done with Confederate military and political leaders? What should be done for the newly liberated slaves? Issues such as these tested a federal government that up to the Civil War had played a limited role in most Americans’ lives.

Adding to the difficulty of rehabilitating the South was wartime devastation. Virtually the entire Southern railway net had been destroyed. Countless farms and plantations had been ruined. Several cities had been sacked and burned. Almost one-third of adult white males had been killed or wounded. Southern landowners lacked the capital to restore their property. Freed slaves and poor whites needed employment. The white workers feared economic competition from the freedmen, the name given to the former slaves.

The murder of Abraham Lincoln further confused the situation. Lincoln had long pondered the problem of restoring the Union. He laid the foundations of the Reconstruction Era. In 1863, Lincoln formulated the Ten Percent Plan. This plan allowed Southerners who had not held important Confederate military or political positions to swear their allegiance to the United States. Once 10 percent of registered voters in a seceded state did this, they could form a new state government loyal to the Union.

Radical Republicans in Congress opposed this plan. When Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas attempted to resume their participation in the government on Lincoln’s terms, the politically powerful Radical Republicans turned them down. The Radical Republicans included congressmen and senators who had been ardent abolitionists. They were determined to protect the freed slaves and push for their social and political equality. The Radical Republicans did not believe that the Southern states could truly be reintegrated into the Union until the freedmen participated politically in Reconstruction. They were well aware that the freedmen offered an enormous pool of Republican votes in the South. The Radical Republicans also hated and distrusted the old Southern political elite, and thought that the South should be punished for its rebellion. They countered Lincoln’s plan with their own. The Wade-Davis Act passed Congress in 1864. It required a majority of voters in the Southern states to take an “ironclad” oath proclaiming their current and past loyalty to the Union. The only way that a Southern state could reenter the Union on these terms would be by enfranchising large numbers of African American voters. President Lincoln contained this congressional challenge to his policy with a pocket veto.

The Southern legislatures later fed the Radical Republican’s suspicions of them by passing Black Codes, which imposed such strict regulations of the freedmen that they appeared to be a step back toward slavery. The Black Codes denied African Americans free choice in employment, restricted their movements, and outlawed interracial marriage.

Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction

Andrew Johnson attempted to continue what he believed were the policies of his predecessor. He offered lenient terms to the South. Most Southerners would receive “amnesty and pardon” for swearing an oath to defend the Union and the Constitution. The exceptions would be former Confederate leaders and people whose property was valued over $20,000. As a man who had worked his way up from poverty, Johnson was hostile to the old planter elite and blamed them for secession. All that he demanded of states to resume their place in the Union was to acknowledge the illegality of secession, repudiate Confederate debt, and recognize the abolition of slavery. A Southerner himself, he turned a blind eye to the Black Codes that had emerged by 1866.

The Southern states had reorganized themselves on these terms by the end of 1865. The prospect of Southern representatives, many of them ex-Confederates, swiftly returning to Congress dismayed many in the North. The indifference of the Southern state legislatures to the rights of the freedmen outraged the Radical Republicans.

Efforts to Help the Freedmen

The Radical Republicans rejected President Johnson’s Reconstruction program. Though they had many leaders, they were united by their desire to improve conditions for the freedmen in the South. In early 1865, Congress passed a bill establishing the Freedman’s Bureau. This federal agency was responsible for assisting the freed slaves, helping them get an education and find employment. The Freedman’s Bureau faced a daunting task. By 1866, most freed slaves were working on the plantations of their former masters as tenant farmers.

Opinions varied on the best way to help the freedmen. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts believed that the surest guarantee of a better status for the freedmen would be the vote and political influence. Congressman Thaddeus Stevens argued that the freedmen needed economic independence, and advocated confiscating land from wealthy Confederates and distributing it to their former slaves. In late 1865, Congress created a Joint Committee on Reconstruction to investigate conditions in the South and make recommendations on the reintegration of the Southern states.

The Joint Committee persuaded Congress to renew the authorization of the Freedman’s Bureau. It also proposed a Civil Rights bill. Unhappy with Congressional interference with his Reconstruction policies, Johnson vetoed both these bills, declaring them unconstitutional. Johnson’s sympathy for former Confederates and growing political combativeness began to alienate moderates in Congress and across the North. He did not help himself by giving a Washington’s Birthday speech in which he denounced the Radical Republicans as traitors and charged that they wanted to murder him.

Moderate Republicans joined with their radical colleagues to override Johnson’s vetoes. The life of the Freedman’s Bureau was extended, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 granted the rights of citizenship to the freedmen. The freedmen could look to the federal courts and the U.S. military to enforce these rights. This act also provided support for the Thirteenth Amendment. Ratified in December 1865, this amendment to the Constitution outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude. The Thirteenth Amendment confirmed the effects of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and freed all the slaves living in what had been Union territory.

Congress also passed the Fourteenth Amendment. This amendment defined national citizenship and gave the federal government the responsibility to protect equal rights for all Americans. It also contained measures aimed at the Southern states. Former Confederate leaders could not hold federal office, and states that denied freedmen the vote would have their congressional representation reduced. Anti-black riots in New Orleans and Memphis helped the amendment pass Congress. President Johnson spoke out against the Fourteenth Amendment. He was rebuked by Northern voters in the 1866 congressional elections, which returned a Radical Republican majority.

Radical Reconstruction

The Radical Republicans now had the political power to assert their Reconstruction agenda. They could override any presidential veto. In 1867, Congress passed a Reconstruction Act that put the former Confederacy under military rule. The South was divided into five regions, and army generals were placed in command of each. The Southern states had to hold new constitutional conventions. They were required to provide freedmen equal rights and the vote. Former Confederates lost their franchise. To be officially recognized, the Southern states had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment. Congress also enacted two laws designed to weaken the recalcitrant President Johnson. The Army Act limited his ability to interfere with the army in the South. The Tenure of Office Act removed the power of the president to dismiss a cabinet secretary without the concurrence of the Senate. This measure was designed to protect the position of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, an ally of the Radical Republicans.

The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

President Johnson believed that the Tenure of Office Act was an unlawful infringement of his powers. In the fall of 1867, he attempted to fire Secretary Stanton. This precipitated a constitutional crisis. The Radical Republicans, anxious to be rid of Johnson, declared that he had violated the Constitution and launched an impeachment process. The House of Representatives voted articles of impeachment on February 24, 1868. No president had been impeached before. In May, Johnson was tried in the Senate. A vote of two-thirds of the Senate was necessary to convict him and remove him from office. He escaped conviction and removal by a one vote margin.

Though Johnson remained as president, he had become politically irrelevant. (He would briefly return to Washington as a senator from Tennessee before his death in 1875.) In the presidential election of 1868, the Republicans nominated General Ulysses S. Grant, the preeminent Union hero of the Civil War, who swept to an easy victory.

Final Phase of Radical Reconstruction

President Grant supported the goals of Radical Reconstruction. He advocated for the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which was ratified in March 1870. The Fifteenth Amendment protected African American voting rights, stating that no American could be prevented from voting “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” In the elections of 1870, many freedmen voted for the first time. They helped elect 630 African Americans to Southern state legislatures. Sixteen African Americans were elected to the House of Representatives, and one was elected to the Senate. P.B.S. Pinchback was elected governor of Louisiana.

Grant had to deploy federal troops to protect African American voters in this election. White Southerners profoundly resented a political milestone that challenged their deeply held beliefs. They regarded the Reconstruction authorities as an oppressive and illegitimate occupation. Many did not bother to vote because of their anger over the process. They called Northerners who had moved south to assist with Reconstruction carpetbaggers. They dismissed Southerners who cooperated with the Republicans as scalawags.

Some Southerners resisted Reconstruction through violence. The Ku Klux Klan was founded in Tennessee in 1866. The Klan terrorized freedmen and their white allies, intimidating voters and burning schools. Their vigilante actions included torture and murder. Congress passed “Force” acts to make the interference with voting a crime. President Grant sent soldiers and federal marshals to pursue the Klan, and in parts of the South a low-intensity guerilla war festered for years.

The End of Reconstruction

Grant was reelected in 1872. He continued to support the rights of the freedmen and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 that called for equal treatment for African Americans in public accommodations, public transportation, and on juries. Despite this Northern enthusiasm for Reconstruction waned in the face of obdurate Southern opposition. A major recession in 1873 focused most peoples’ attention on economic concerns. Scandals in the Grant Administration further diverted attention away from the South. Federal troops were gradually withdrawn from the South, allowing Southern whites to begin recapturing control of state governments.

In the presidential election of 1876, the Democrats nominated Samuel Tilden, the governor of New York. Tilden had become famous for his opposition to the Tammany Hall political machine in New York City and its corrupt boss William M. Tweed. The Republican candidate was Rutherford B. Hayes, the governor of Ohio. Hayes had served as a Union general during the Civil War. The election was close. Tilden won the popular vote, and once voting concluded, he seemed just one vote short of an Electoral College majority. The electoral votes of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina remained in dispute. These Southern states were still controlled by Republican reconstruction administrations. If Hayes received these electoral votes, he would win the election by one vote. To resolve this situation, Congress created a special commission with an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, and one independent. When the independent resigned to run for office, he was replaced by a Republican. The commission duly awarded all the contested electoral votes to Hayes, making him the prospective president. Democrats in and out of Congress protested loudly. To ease the contention and smooth Hayes’ path to power, Democratic and Republican leaders worked out the Compromise of 1877. The Democrats did not attempt to block Hayes from becoming president. In return, the Republicans pulled the last federal troops out of the South and withdrew support for the remaining Republican state governments. Democratic “redeemer” regimes took over across the South. African Americans were quickly deprived of hard-won social and political rights. Southerners would write an early and highly critical history of Reconstruction that portrayed it as a colossal and misguided failure. The “Solid South” would remain Democratic and starkly racially segregated for almost a century.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• Any plan to assimilate the Southern states back into the Union after the Civil War would have major difficulties; a problem was determining the appropriate postwar status of former supporters of the Confederacy.

• The plans for Reconstruction proposed by Abraham Lincoln, the Radical Republicans, and Andrew Johnson all varied dramatically.

• Radical Republicans instituted policies to improve the political and economic status of former slaves; this created great resentment in other segments of Southern society.

• The impeachment of Andrew Johnson went forward because of major disagreements over policy between Johnson and the Radical Republicans in Congress.

• The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments outlawed slavery, established the rights of blacks, and established the framework by which Southern states could rejoin the union.

• Profits made by carpetbaggers and scalawags further angered the traditional elements of Southern society. Many in the South, including members of the Ku Klux Klan, felt great resentment toward the carpetbaggers and scalawags and toward the political and economic power now held by some Southern blacks.

• The Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction in the South; as Union troops left, blacks were again reduced to the status of second-class citizens.

Time Line

1865: Andrew Johnson institutes liberal Reconstruction plan

Whites in Southern legislatures pass Black Codes

Thirteenth Amendment ratified

1866: Civil Rights Act, Freedmen’s Bureau Act approved by Congress (vetoed by Johnson)

Fourteenth Amendment passes Congress (fails to be ratified in Southern states) Antiblack riots in New Orleans, Memphis

Republicans who favor Radical Reconstruction win congressional elections, in essence ending Johnson’s Reconstruction plan

Ku Klux Klan founded

1867: Tenure of Office Act approved by Congress (Congress had to approve presidential appointments, dismissals)

Reconstruction Act approved by Congress (Southern states placed under military rule)

Constitutional conventions called by former Confederate states

Johnson tries to remove Edwin Stanton as secretary of war, leading to cries for his impeachment

1868: Impeachment of Andrew Johnson: Johnson impeached in the House of Representatives, not convicted in the Senate

Southern states return to Union under policies established by Radical Republicans

Final ratification of Fourteenth Amendment

Former Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant elected president

1870: Amendment ratified

Many blacks elected in Southern state legislatures

1872: Confederates allowed to hold office

Ulysses S. Grant reelected

1876: Disputed presidential election between Tilden, Hayes

1877: Compromise of 1877 awards election to Hayes, ends Reconstruction in the South

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Radical Republicans favored all of the following except

A. the governing of the South by military generals.

B. the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

C. the return of former Confederate leaders to positions of power in the South.

D. the election of newly enfranchised blacks to positions in Southern state legislatures.

2. The official reason for impeachment proceedings against Andrew Johnson was

A. he had violated the Tenure of Office Act.

B. he had violated the Reconstruction Act.

C. his Reconstruction policies were much too lenient to the South.

D. he had failed to enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

3. Black Codes were instituted to

A. increase black participation in Southern politics during Reconstruction.

B. increase the effectiveness of the Freedmen’s Bureau.

C. prevent blacks from having certain jobs.

D. maintain slavery in some sections of the Deep South.

4. Reconstruction ended as a result of the Compromise of 1877 because

A. a presidential mandate ordered that Reconstruction end.

B. by the provisions of the compromise, the U.S. Army was removed from Southern states.

C. the new president, Rutherford B. Hayes, was strongly against the existing Reconstruction policy.

D. many blacks were now in positions of power in the South, and Reconstruction policies were no longer needed.

5. The Fifteenth Amendment

A. allowed Southern states to reenter the Union.

B. outlawed slavery.

C. stated that a person could not be denied the vote because of his color.

D. said that former Confederate officials could not hold public office.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of a way that the federal government attempted to assist African Americans in the South during Reconstruction.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of a way that the federal government attempted to assist African Americans during Reconstruction.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of a way white Southerners resisted the federal government’s attempts to assist African Americans during Reconstruction.

Answers and Explanations

1. C. All of the other choices were favored by Radical Republicans. The Reconstruction Act of 1867 placed the former Confederate states under military rule.

2. A. By attempting to remove Edwin Stanton as secretary of war, many in Congress stated that Johnson had knowingly violated the Tenure of Office Act, thus violating provisions of the U.S. Constitution.

3. C. Black Codes were adopted by Southern legislatures in 1866 and limited movement by blacks, prevented them from having certain jobs, and prohibited interracial marriage.

4. B. After Hayes was given the presidency by the Compromise of 1877, the U.S. Army left control of the South to the South. Without the army present to enforce Reconstruction policies, these policies ended. Blacks were soon second-class citizens again.

5. C. The Fifteenth Amendment stated that no American could be denied the right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

6. Parts A and B: Congress passed and the states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, which ended slavery. In 1865, Congress also created the Freedmen’s Bureau, which was charged with helping the freed slaves get employment and an education. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, guaranteed the citizenship rights of African Americans. The Radical Republicans in Congress passed the 1867 Reconstruction Act, putting the Southern states under military rule until they revised their state constitutions and recognized the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified giving African American men the right to vote.

Part C: Many white Southerners resisted Reconstruction policies designed to help the freedmen. Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Southern legislatures passed Black Codes, which severely restricted the ability of African Americans to move about and freely contract for their labor. Interracial marriages were prohibited. In addition, Southerners elected many former Confederate officials and military leaders to high office, helping inspire Radical Reconstruction. Beginning in 1866, some Southerners joined the Ku Klux Klan and other secret organizations to terrorize African Americans and keep them from voting and asserting their rights. Once Reconstruction ended in 1877, Southerners gradually stripped African Americans of most of the rights that they had won after the Civil War.

Western Expansion and Its Impact on the American Character (1860–1895)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: Settlers were encouraged to move westward after the Civil War by federal legislation such as the Homestead Act, which gave 160 acres of land to American citizens who were committed to settling on the land and who could pay the $10 registration fee. However, farming on the plains proved much more difficult than many settlers thought it would be. Thousands of blacks moved west after the Civil War to escape life in the South; mining, ranching, and lumbering also attracted settlers to the West. This westward expansion greatly affected the lives of Native Americans, who were removed to Oklahoma and South Dakota. Farmers in the West began to organize; Farmers’ Alliances and the Grange were established to protect farmers’ rights. The 1893 Turner Thesis (a well-known theory promulgated by a distinguished historian) proposed the idea that settlers had to become more adaptable and innovative as they moved westward and that these characteristics would slowly become ingrained into the very fabric of American society.

Keywords

Homestead Act (1862): bill that did much to encourage settlers to move west; 160 acres of land were given to any settler who was an American citizen or who had applied for citizenship, who was committed to farming the land for six months of the year, and who could pay the $10 registration fee for the land.

Massacre at Wounded Knee (1890): battle that was the last large-scale attempt by Native Americans to resist American settlement in the Great Plains region. Federal soldiers opened fire on Native Americans, killing more than 200.

Dawes Act (1887): act designed to break up Native American tribes by offering individual Native Americans land to be used for either farming or grazing.

Farmers’ Alliances: organization that united farmers at the statewide and regional levels; policy goals of this organization included more readily available farm credits and federal regulation of the railroads.

Populist party: formed in 1892 by members of the Farmers’ Alliances, this party was designed to appeal to workers in all parts of the country. Populists favored a larger role of government in American society, a progressive income tax, and more direct methods of democracy.

Turner Thesis (1893): thesis by the historian Frederick Jackson Turner suggesting that the innovations practiced by western settlers gradually became ingrained into the fabric of American society; democracy and self-improvement were also central to western expansion, Turner claimed. In short, Turner suggested that many of the characteristics of the “American character” were created by westward expansion. Later historians questioned parts of this thesis.

Government Encouragement of Western Settlement

Americans were moving into the lands west of the Mississippi River well before the Civil War. Beginning in 1862, actions taken by the federal government spurred a surge of settlement that rapidly transformed the West.

The Homestead Act encouraged farmers to move west. This legislation provided a settler 160 acres of land; to be eligible for this land, the settler had to be an American citizen, or, if an immigrant, to have applied for American citizenship; the settler had to be the head of a family and at least 21 years old; the settler had to commit to improving the property, building a house or other structures there, and residing on the property for at least six months during the year; and the settler needed to be able to pay a $10 registration fee for the land. The farmer would receive the title to the 160 acres after working it for five years. Homesteaders flooded into the western lands. By 1900, 610,000 plots of land had been distributed to settlers; this resulted in the transfer of 85 million acres of public land into private hands. Also passed in 1862 was the Morrill Land Grant Act. This bill was intended to stimulate higher education in the states. The federal government gave hundreds of thousands of acres of public land to state governments; this land was sold to support the establishment of “land grant” colleges. This land was often sold to settlers and land speculators for 50 cents an acre or less.

The federal government strongly supported the expansion of railroads into the western territories. Congress passed bills in 1862 and 1864 to assist the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways in constructing a transcontinental railroad. These companies received 10 square miles of land on either side of every mile of track that they laid down. The railroads often sold some of this land to settlers.

Challenges for Western Farmers

The yeoman farmer had long been celebrated by Thomas Jefferson and others as the backbone of the American nation. The farmer was seen as the paradigmatic citizen, self-sufficient and independent. This idealized vision of the farmer would be severely tested on the Great Plains.

Conditions on the western plains were harsh. Winters were bitterly cold, and in the summers temperatures frequently rose above 100 degrees. Because of the lack of trees and wood, many settlers had to build their homes out of sod. These sod houses were less comfortable than more traditionally constructed homes, both in the winter and summer. Water was often in short supply, and tainted sources of water spread diseases such as typhoid. The pleasantly bucolic image of western farming purveyed by Currier and Ives prints and other popular media sources in the East was very different from the experience of settlers battling hordes of locusts, dust storms, and deadly blizzards. Most homesteaders failed. By 1900, two-thirds had given up on their farms. Many former homesteaders headed to a new life in the cities or returned East.

The only way to survive the conditions farmers faced on the arid Great Plains was to cooperate with neighbors. Barn-raising and fencing were collective enterprises. Farm women helped each other with chores and children. Rugged individualism was not a recipe for success on this new agricultural frontier.

Agricultural Innovation

The farmers who thrived on the Great Plains relied on new technologies and business methods. The U.S. Department of Agriculture was established in 1862, and it distributed information on new agricultural developments to farmers. The 1860s and 1870s saw the introduction of new and better plows and threshers, some of them steam-powered.

In many places on the Great Plains, small family farms were displaced by much more extensive bonanza farms. These larger agricultural concerns grew only one or two cash crops. Genuine agribusinesses, bonanza farms benefited from economies of scale, and sold produce in bulk to Eastern or foreign markets. The owners of bonanza farms could afford the latest and best technologies to help maximize their yields.

The growing prevalence of bonanza farms by the 1870s reflected larger changes in the American economy. They were the agricultural equivalent of the big businesses that were beginning to dominate American industry. Bonanza farms operated more efficiently than smaller farms and helped account for a significant rise in agricultural production. Because of these larger farms, the number of farmers fell even as agricultural output rose. Between 1860 and 1900, the percentage of Americans working on farms fell from 60 percent to 37 percent.

The productivity of American agriculture led to problems for farmers, both big and small. An oversupply of grain at different points in the 1880s and 1890s led to sharp drops in price. Most farmers responded to this decrease in their income by increasing their crop production, which just exacerbated the problem. Many farmers fell into debt. Those who could not pay their mortgages had their farms foreclosed by banks. Distressed farmers looked for explanations of their difficulties and began to organize politically.

Women and Minorities on the Agricultural Frontier

Most farms on the Great Plains were worked by families. While the men labored in the fields, diaries and letters left by western women show that they were often beset by loneliness in a world where neighbors might be miles away. O. E. Rolvaag’s novel Giants of the Earth (1927) describes how the bitter struggle for existence on the prairie drives the wife of an immigrant settler to insanity and death. Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! (1913) provides a more positive picture of farming life in Nebraska. Though the immigrant protagonists of the novel suffer many hardships as they build up their farms, they eventually prosper and partake of the American dream. A female character holds the family together and guides them to their material success.

Perhaps because of the important role played by women on the farm, it was in the West that they first began to receive the right to vote. In 1887, two towns in Kansas allowed women to vote in local elections, and one elected a woman mayor. Wyoming led the way in giving women the right to vote in statewide elections.

Following the Civil War, many African Americans moved west to escape the oppressive life that they faced in the South. Few of these African American emigrants were able to start profitable farms; they often lacked financial reserves and still encountered racial discrimination. Some African Americans did become successful western farmers. The most famous group of African Americans to leave the South for the West were the Exodusters. These people modeled their journey on the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land. Unfortunately the West did not prove to be a land of milk and honey for most of the Exodusters; fewer than 20 percent were able to establish themselves as farmers.

The Mining and Lumbering Frontier

Farmers were not the only people traveling west. People hoping to strike it rich flocked to the many places where gold and silver were reputed to have been discovered. Miners sought gold at Pike’s Peak, Nevada, or the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory, and silver at Comstock, Nevada. A heterogeneous group of people, including Chinese laborers who had abandoned their jobs working on the railroads, crowded into mining towns that boomed for a time and often went bust. These towns had a deserved reputation for extravagance and lawlessness. Most prospectors never found anything of value. Those who did rarely had the means to fully exploit and profit from what they found. Eventually mining came to be dominated by large Eastern-based mining corporations like the Anaconda Copper Company. Like Anaconda, these firms discovered that they could profit just as much by mining copper and tin for industrial purposes as digging up precious metals.

Lumber companies moved into the Northwest in the 1870s. These companies reaped great rewards from the 1878 Timber and Stone Act, which allowed them to purchase government land that was unsuitable for farming at bargain rates. Lumber companies also hired front men to buy up woodlands inexpensively and then transfer the land titles to them. Fortunes were made providing lumber to a nation that was building at a frantic pace.

The Ranching Frontier

Western settlers inherited a cattle-ranching culture from the Mexicans. Following the Civil War, Texas ranchers had plenty of cattle, but no easy way of getting them to Eastern markets. In 1866, some Texas ranchers drove their herds of cattle overland to the nearest railroad in Kansas. This began the era of the “long drive” celebrated in countless westerns, as bands of cowboys, up to a third of whom may have been Mexican or African American, braved bandits, hostile Indians, stampedes, and bad weather, and moved vast numbers of cattle across the plains to an ever-growing number of rail depots. The cattle were then shipped by rail to Chicago or other cities where they were slaughtered and processed. The beef could then be sent on for marketing in cities further east because of newly invented refrigerated rail cars.

Cattlemen grazed their animals on the “open range,” unsettled public lands. As homesteaders moved into these lands, conflicts arose between farmers and ranchers. Farmers were planting crops on land where ranchers wanted to drive their cattle. Joseph Glidden’s invention of barbed wire in 1873 enabled farmers to protect their land. The weather dealt another blow to traditional “open range” ranching. The exceptionally severe winters of 1885 to 1887 killed up to 85 percent of the cattle grazing on the plains. The ranchers who survived this disaster turned to new methods, enclosing their land and utilizing scientific techniques of improving their stock.

The End of Native American Independence

The Native American tribes that lived west of the Mississippi River were overwhelmed in a very short period of time. Within two decades of the end of the Civil War the Plains tribes had lost their independence.

The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 helped facilitate a massive wave of western settlement. Native American tribes could not pursue their traditional way of life as farmers, miners, and ranchers encroached on their lands. Whether tribes cooperated with the settlers or attacked them, the results were the same; they lost most of their lands and were relegated to reservations and government supervision. The federal government did not aim for the extermination of the Plains tribes, but it did not intend to allow them to stand in the way of settlement and economic development. The government hoped that a combination of missionaries and schools would “civilize” the Native Americans and integrate them into American society.

The tribe that most famously fought back against the tide of settlers was the Sioux. In 1865, the government declared that it was going to build a road through Sioux lands. This started a war that the Sioux waged very effectively. In one engagement in 1866, they killed 88 soldiers who fell into an ambush. The government began negotiations. In 1868, the Sioux accepted a reservation in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Unfortunately for them, gold was discovered in the Black Hills and miners poured into their lands. This led to a resumption of war. Chiefs including Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse led the Sioux off the reservation. The government dispatched columns of federal troops to round up the Sioux and their Cheyenne allies. One of these columns, a force of the Seventh Cavalry led by General George Custer, found the main Sioux encampment in June 1876. Not realizing how many Sioux warriors had gathered there, Custer attacked without waiting for reinforcements. He and more than 200 of his men were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. This unusually decisive victory did not change the outcome of the war. More soldiers arrived, forcing the Sioux back onto their reservation. Other tribes such as the Nez Perce attempted to escape their reservations, but invariably were defeated and compelled to return.

Even had the Native Americans won more battlefield victories, they would have been forced to rely on government support because of the disappearance of the buffalo. The Plains tribes depended on the buffalo for food and much else; their lives were organized around the pursuit of buffalo herds. With government approval and support, settlers hunted the buffalo to near extinction. In doing so, they destroyed the foundation of Native American life on the Great Plains.

By the late 1880s, most Native Americans in the West lived on reservations, subsisting on rations provided by the government. Eastern humanitarians, hoping to improve the lot of these people and help them become self-sufficient, provided the impetus behind the passage of the 1887 Dawes Act. This legislation assumed that Native Americans would be better off if they emulated their white neighbors and became farmers. The Dawes Act broke up the reservations and divided the land among the individual members of the tribes. Ironically, this well-intentioned bill hurt the Native Americans. Few Native Americans became thriving farmers. Many sold their farms to settlers or land speculators. Much Native American land was permanently lost as a result.

The despair of the Plains Indians was reflected in a religious movement that emerged in 1890. Participants believed that Ghost Dances would lead to the disappearance of white settlers, the return of the buffalo, and the resurrection of dead warriors. The military authorities grew alarmed when Sitting Bull sponsored the Ghost Dance religion among the Sioux. Sitting Bull was killed when Indian Police attempted to arrest him. A band of Ghost Dancers fled the reservation. They were surrounded by troops of the Seventh Cavalry. As soldiers disarmed the Sioux camp, someone fired a shot. The troops unleashed a barrage of fire that killed over 200 men, women, and children in what came to be known as the Massacre at Wounded Knee.

On April 22, 1889, the “Indian territory” of Oklahoma was opened to settlement. A great land rush took place as “boomers” raced to place their stakes on unclaimed land. People who had entered Oklahoma a day early to grab land were called “sooners.” The opening of Oklahoma was the last act in a process that saw settlers displace the Native Americans on the Great Plains.

Agrarian Anger and Populism

By the 1880s many Western farmers faced severe economic problems. Many Southern farmers were in a similar situation. These farmers blamed government policies for their troubles. Since the Civil War, the federal government had imposed high tariffs on imported goods to protect American industries. The farmers believed that these high tariffs hurt their ability to export their products abroad. Farmers were also angered by government fiscal policy and the state of the currency.

The Gold Standard

After the Civil War, the federal government took the wartime “greenbacks” out of circulation and pursued a “tight money” policy. The men driving government economic policy believed in a solid and stable currency, which they believed was best for business. They put the United States on the gold standard, where every dollar in circulation could in theory be exchanged for an equivalent value in gold held in reserve by the government. This restricted the amount of money available in the country and prevented inflation. In fact, as the country grew, the currency saw some deflation, as its limited supply made it more relatively valuable. Distressed farmers saw their debts grow more expensive because of deflation at the same time that the prices for their crops declined. They called for various measures to increase the money supply and drive up the price of their produce. Fiscally conservative presidents did little to expand the amount of currency.

The Grange and Farmers’ Alliances

Western farmers founded the Grange in 1867. By 1875, over 800,000 farmers had joined the organization. Grangers formed farmer cooperatives to enable members to enjoy economies of scale by buying and marketing products. Members of the Grange also organized politically and sponsored state legislation to regulate railroads and grain elevators. In 1878, many of these farmers supported the Greenback party, which called for the printing of paper money to inflate the currency. The Greenback party elected some congressmen and local officials, but was unable to change American fiscal policy.

The Grange usually organized farmers on the local level. The Farmers’ Alliances linked farmer associations on a statewide and regional level. In 1889, the Southern Alliance represented a million members. An African American association, the Colored Farmers National Alliance also had a million members. Two million farmers joined Farmers’ Alliances in the Plains states. The Farmers’ Alliances demanded federal regulation of the railroads, currency reform, easily accessible farm credits, and agriculture departments in every state. Another proposal called for federal warehouses where farmers could store grain for credit when prices were too low. In 1890, this program was summarized in the Ocala Platform, which was issued at an Alliance Convention held in Ocala, Florida.

By 1890, leaders of the Farmers’ Alliances were exploring ways to exert their political power on the national level. In the South, the Alliance had helped elect four governors and forty-seven congressmen. In the West the Farmers’ Alliances were flexing their political muscles as well. Women played an important role in the Farmers’ Alliances. Mary Lease became a popular speaker, telling farmers to “raise less corn and more hell.”

The federal government did respond to the unrest amongst farmers. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 created the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate railroads, though initially, this did not prove effective. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 outlawed any business that exercised a “restraint of trade.” As with the Interstate Commerce Act, it would take some time for this legislation to produce results.

The Populist Revolt

On July 4, 1892, a convention of Farmers’ Alliances launched the People’s party. Supports of the party became known as Populists. Its founders hoped that the Populist party would unite all working people across the country. Breaking from a century of tradition, Populists argued that because of the powerful forces transforming the economy, the federal government had to play a more active role in American life. The Populist platform called for increasing the amount of currency, a progressive income tax aimed at the wealthy, the direct election of senators, government ownership of railroads, as well as the telegraph and telephone systems, the eight-hour day for workers, and restrictions on immigration. James Weaver, who had served as a Union general during the Civil War and long been involved in the currency issue, was nominated for president.

The Populists received a million popular and 22 electoral votes in the 1892 election. Most of these came from the West. The Populists could not make headway in the Northeast, and the Democrats still dominated the South.

Populism and the Election of 1896

The Populists remained a political force after 1892. They opposed President Grover Cleveland because he was a strong defender of the gold standard. The great depression that began in 1893 spread deep hardship across the country. The Populists responded by continuing their criticism of government fiscal policy and the influence of Eastern business interests.

In 1896, the Republicans nominated William McKinley, who aligned himself with the industrial economy, calling for the gold standard, a high tariff, and a “full dinner pail” for industrial workers. The Democratic candidate was William Jennings Bryan, who won the nomination after giving an eloquent speech at the convention when he declared, “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!” Bryan’s fervent support for coining more silver to expand the currency won him the Populist nomination as well. In a bellwether election, Bryan won the South and West but lost to McKinley, who carried the Northeast and Midwest. The new urban and industrial order had triumphed over the agrarian vision of Bryan and the Populists.

Prosperity returned in the late 1890s. The economic problems of the farmers eased. It became clear that American society was changing as the great cities grew in population. The Populist party faded away, but most planks of their 1892 platform were eventually enacted into law.

The Idea of the West

The settlement of the trans-Mississippi West coincided with the growth of the modern mass media. Inexpensive and popular dime novels made millions familiar with western figures such as trappers, miners, and cowboys. One of the most prolific dime novel authors was Edward L. Wheeler. In works such as Deadwood Dick: The Prince of the Road, Wheeler romanticized a Wild West of gamblers and gunmen. Traveling Wild West shows started touring the country in 1883. Buffalo Bill Cody, a former buffalo hunter and Army scout, became world famous as the impresario of a show that featured cowboys doing rodeo tricks, staged battles between Indians and cavalry, and trick shooting by stars like Annie Oakley. Cody even persuaded Sitting Bull to tour with his show for a season. The West that Cody and others dramatized would be immortalized in the movies and on TV.

Another influential interpretation of the West would be provided by the historian Frederick Jackson Turner. In an 1893 paper he asserted that the American national character was shaped by the move west. He argued that American democracy and self-reliance were products of the frontier experience. The Turner Thesis proved to be enormously influential. It also raised serious questions for Turner’s contemporaries. The 1890 census had recently declared the frontier closed. How, wondered some, could Americans maintain their democratic traditions in an increasingly urban and industrial nation?

Neither Cody nor Turner fully captured the full range of the Western experience. They both left out important perspectives and voices as they strove to explain the West. Yet they were correct in highlighting the historical importance of what was passing away.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• The Homestead Act and the Morrill Land-Grant Act encouraged thousands to go westward to acquire land for farming.

• Farming on the Great Plains proved to be very difficult and was oftentimes accomplished by help from one’s neighbor; many farmers were not successful on the Great Plains.

• Bonanza farms were part of a transformation of agriculture that began in the late 1860s.

• Western states were the first states where women received the vote.

• Mining and lumbering also attracted many settlers to the West.

• Native American tribes were gradually forced off their lands because of American expansion to the West; some resistance to this by Native Americans did take place, such as at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and through the Ghost Dances.

• The 1887 Dawes Act did much to break up the remaining Native American tribal lands.

• American farmers organized beginning in the late 1860s through the Grange, through the Farmers’ Alliances, and eventually through the Populist party.

• Dime-store novels of the era and the Turner Thesis presented contrasting views of western settlement and its overall impact on American society.

Time Line

1848: California Gold Rush

1859: Silver discovered in Comstock, Nevada

1862: Homestead Act, Morrill Land-Grant Act

Department of Agriculture created by Congress

1867: Founding of the Grange

1869: Transcontinental Railroad completed

1870s: Popularity of Deadwood Dick stories by Edward L. Wheeler and other dime-store novels on the West

1874: Barbed wire invented by Joseph Glidden

1876: Battle of the Little Bighorn

1879: Exoduster movement leaves the South for the Great Plains

1880s: Large movement of immigrants westward

1883: “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show” begins

1886: Beginnings of harsh weather that would help destroy the cattle industry

1887: Dawes Act

1889: Indian territories open for white settlement

1890: Massacre at Wounded Knee

Wyoming women get the vote

High point of political influence of the Farmers’ Alliances

1893: Beginning of great depression of the 1890s

Publication of the Turner Thesis

1896: William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Those farmers who were successful on the Great Plains

A. came to the West as single men, without families.

B. utilized many farming techniques they had learned in the East.

C. personified the spirit of rugged individualism.

D. relied on the assistance of other settlers around them.

2. Exodusters were

A. newly arrived miners in Oregon.

B. Southern blacks who went west to settle.

C. those who “dusted” or cleaned crops on bonanza farms.

D. immigrants who went west to farm.

3. The Dawes Act

A. tried to turn Native Americans into farmers who would farm their own individual plots only.

B. protected Native American land from further encroachment.

C. broke up large Native American reservations into smaller ones.

D. made Ghost Dances illegal.

4. The organization that expressed the views of farmers to the largest national audience was the

A. Greenback party.

B. Populist party.

C. Grange.

D. Farmers’ Alliances.

5. The Turner Thesis

A. agreed with accounts of the West in the dime-store novels of the 1870s concerning the character of western expansion.

B. took into account the massacre of Native Americans.

C. noted the impact of western expansion on the American character.

D. emphasized the “hard living” that went on in many western settlements.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of a way that American settlement rapidly transformed the West in the 25 years following the Civil War.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of a way that American settlement rapidly transformed the West in the 25 years following the Civil War.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of a way that Native Americans attempted to resist American settlement in the West in the 25 years following the Civil War.

Answers and Explanations

1. D. Almost every diary from individuals who lived on the plains noted that rugged individualism was not enough to be successful.

2. B. This group went west to farm in 1879 and modeled their journey after the journey of the Israelites fleeing Egypt to the Promised Land.

3. A. The Dawes Act tried to “civilize” Native Americans and destroy their tribal lands.

4. B. The Populist party platform was intended to appeal to all workers in society, including those in the city. The policies of the Populist party were heard nationwide in the 1892 presidential election; however, because of the power of the Democratic party in the South, the Populist presidential candidate received only 1 million votes in the election.

5. C. Turner himself would later revise his thesis based on some of the characteristics of western expansion noted in the other possible answers.

6. Parts A and B: The federal government provided support for western settlement by encouraging the building of a transcontinental railroad. The Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads finally met at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869. The rapid expansion of railroads in the west facilitated settlement. The federal government encouraged farmers to move west with the 1862 Homestead Act, which gave 160 acres to farm families that worked this land for five years. In addition to many family farms, large bonanza farms expanded through the west. Bonanza farms were an early form of agribusiness and grew only a few staple crops for the market. The lumber industry benefitted from the 1878 Timber and Stone Act, which offered land unsuitable for agriculture in the Northwest to “settlers.” Miners followed strikes of gold at places like Pike’s Peak Nevada and the Black Hills in the Dakota Territory, and silver at Comstock, Nevada. Individual prospectors were replaced by large corporations. The Anaconda Copper Company became powerful mining minerals other than gold and silver. In the postwar years ranching became a big business in the west, raising cattle to feed people in the Eastern cities. Beginning with a cattle drive from Texas to Sedalia, Kansas, in 1866, cowboys drove herds across the open range to towns with railroads that enabled the cattle to be shipped east. The era of the great cattle drives ended in the middle 1880s, as ranchers turned to new ways of raising and marketing their herds.

Part C: Many Native American attempted to resist American settlement by waging war against the newcomers. The Battle of the Little Bighorn was a notable victory won by the Sioux against a force of U.S. Cavalry commanded by General George A. Custer on June 25 to 26, 1876. Ultimately the Native Americans could not prevail militarily against the U.S. government, and were forced onto reservations. Some Native Americans hoped for a miracle to restore their old way of life. In 1889, a Paiute prophet named Wovoka began preaching that if the Native Americans danced Ghost Dances they could bring back their dead ancestors, and the great herds of buffalo; the white men would also disappear from the West. The Ghost Dance phenomenon disturbed federal authorities. An attempt by U.S. Cavalry to round up Sioux Ghost Dancers leaving their reservation led to the tragic Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890.

America Transformed into the Industrial Giant of the World (1870–1910)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: During this era, there was massive industrial growth in the United States, making America the major industrial producer of the world. This growth was largely a product of the expansion of heavy industry; steel was an important component of this industrial growth. The development of the assembly line and Taylorism, which encouraged efficiency in the workplace, created a factory setting where skilled workmanship was de-emphasized. Horizontal and vertical integration allowed major American businesses such as Standard Oil and United States Steel to expand greatly. American workers began to unionize in this era through labor organizations such as the Knights of Labor, the American Federation of Labor, and the Industrial Workers of the World. “New” immigrants from eastern and southern Europe took unskilled jobs in many of the expanding factories but were not wanted by some labor organizations. The American city was also greatly transformed in this era. Political machines dominated many city governments, although efforts took place at the federal level to create a professional civil service system.

Keywords

Taylorism: following management practices of the industrial engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor, the belief that factories should be managed in a scientific manner, utilizing techniques that would increase the efficiency of the individual workers and the factory process as a whole.

Horizontal integration: strategy of gaining as much control over a single industry as possible, often by creating trusts and holding companies; this strategy was utilized by John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil.

Vertical integration: strategy of gaining as much control over a single industry as possible by controlling the production, marketing, and distribution of the finished product. Andrew Carnegie and United States Steel are the best examples from the era of this approach.

“Gospel of Wealth”: philosophy of Andrew Carnegie who believed that wealthy industrialists had an obligation to help local communities and philanthropic organizations.

Knights of Labor: established in the 1880s, this was the major union of that decade. It was made up of unions of many industries and accepted unskilled workers.

American Federation of Labor: national labor union formed by Samuel Gompers in 1886; original goal was to organize skilled workers by craft.

Industrial Workers of the World: more radical than the American Federation of Labor, this union was formed in 1905 and attempted to unionize unskilled workers not recruited by the AFL. Members of this union were called “Wobblies.”

Gilded Age: depiction of late nineteenth-century America that emphasizes a surface of great prosperity hiding problems of social inequality and cultural shallowness.

Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883): federal act that established a civil service system at the federal level. For the first time, not all government jobs would be political appointments.

Tammany Hall: political machine that ran New York City Democratic and city politics beginning in 1870; became a model for other urban political machines in the late 1800s.

An Industrial Revolution

By the early 1890s the United States had supplanted Great Britain as the leading industrial nation in the world. American industrial growth after the Civil War was spectacular. In 1860, almost one out of four Americans worked in industry; by 1900, it was one out of two. The size of the factories in which these workers were employed changed dramatically; by the turn of the century some industrial plants were huge, with thousands of laborers. This rapid industrialization had profound effects on people’s ordinary lives. Large numbers of Americans left their farms for the cities. They left behind rural rhythms of life and had to grow accustomed to time clocks and whistles indicating changing shifts. Instead of being able to wander from place to place and task to task, they had to stay put in a work station, engaged in the same repetitive motions for hours.

These Americans were part of the Second Industrial Revolution, which saw the emergence of new industries such as steel and chemicals, new sources of power such as electricity and petroleum, and new forms of business organization such as the trusts. Something that facilitated the early growth of American industry was a lack of involvement by the government. In the late nineteenth century, most American leaders believed in laissez-faire economics and left American business development to the “invisible hand” of the market.

Changes in American Industry

American industrial expansion was driven by the growth of heavy industry. Before the Civil War, American factories turned out consumer goods such as food products and textiles. These industries continued to be important, but in the post-war years industries emerged that produced goods for other industries, such as steel, petroleum products, and machinery. The steel industry thrived by supplying railroads, builders, and other industries. The oil industry provided fuel to factories as well as homes. High-grade machine products enabled businessmen to launch new industries.

In 1860, most American factories relied on water power. The opening of anthracite coal mines in Pennsylvania and West Virginia led to a drop in coal prices that made possible a speedy transition to steam power.

Industrial development occurred outside the Northeast and Midwest. Apostles of the New South promoted industrialization in their predominantly agrarian region. Steel production flourished around Birmingham, Alabama. Textile mills with modernized machinery took advantage of the proximity to raw materials and the availability of cheap labor in the South. The American Tobacco Company produced machine-made cigarettes, launching a new industry in the land of Dixie.

A Changing Workplace

As business became bigger in America, industrialists looked for ways to compete more efficiently and maximize profits. Consultants known as efficiency experts advised factory owners on the best ways to produce their goods. The most famous of these was Frederick W. Taylor, a mechanical engineer who pioneered a discipline that he called “scientific management.” He timed the movements of workers and machines, and redesigned work spaces to eliminate unnecessary and time-consuming motions. He had no use for traditional ways of working that got in the way of speedy and efficient production. Taylorism could be hard on workers. Some jobs were lost as tasks were combined for efficiency. Taylor advocated paying workers “by the piece” so they would be incentivized to produce more.

One expression of the drive for efficiency was the development of the assembly line. The assembly line embodied the combination of new business organization and the application of new technologies that made the United States the world’s industrial leader. Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903. In 1910, using a more traditional “craft” approach to manufacturing automobiles, his company turned out 12,000 vehicles. Ford introduced the assembly line to his factories in 1913; that year his company produced 250,000 cars. New manufacturing methods led to similar bursts of productivity in other industries.

The role of workers changed in this period. Most no longer needed to be skilled craftsmen. Instead, as critics of the new industrial order put it, they became “one more cog in the machine.” Workers in Henry Ford’s assembly line might spend their entire day repeating the same task, such as attaching a door or a lamp. Ford compensated his workers for the monotony of their labor by paying them the groundbreaking wage of five dollars a day. Few other assembly line workers did so well at that time.

Since most factory jobs came to involve the repetition of simple motions, they could be easily learned by unskilled workers. Immigrants became a major source of industrial labor in the late nineteenth century. In some industries such as textiles, women continued to make up a large part of the workforce. Many children were employed in factories, especially in shoe manufacturing and in textile mills. In 1900, 20 percent of children aged 10 to 15 worked. Some states attempted to regulate child labor, but with limited results.

Employers saw no reason to pay men and women the same wages. Men were paid more because they were often regarded as the heads of households, and were believed to be stronger and able to work harder. Unskilled male workers might make eight dollars a week, compared to five dollars a week for skilled female workers. Despite these inequities, many working class women regarded factory work as preferable to the even lower pay of maids and household servants. Some women with educational attainments found work in offices. Others worked as shop clerks. The difficulty of supporting themselves on low wages drove many women into prostitution.

The cultural expectation of the time was that women would leave their jobs once they married; they and their children would be supported by the husband. This was more an ideal than a reality for poor women. Some married women continued to work outside the home, or supplemented their family incomes by sewing or laundering for others.

Big Business

The period after the Civil War saw a period of intense creativity in business organization as new industries emerged and all industries grew larger. A dynamic generation of business tycoons built huge companies that required new corporate structures to be effectively managed. Some of these entrepreneurs became enormously wealthy and world famous. Andrew Carnegie embodied the classic American success story; arriving in the United States as a penniless eight-year old, he made his fortune manufacturing steel and retired one of the richest men in the world. John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil and at one time had a near monopoly of the American oil business.

Some of these industrialists could be quite ruthless in their pursuit of wealth. They saw themselves operating in a business climate where only the strong survived. Sometimes companies attempted to reduce this competition by agreeing to fix prices and production quotas. This collusion amongst businesses could hurt consumers and was outlawed by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. This act was primarily intended to regulate the railroads, but proved ineffective for many years because the Interstate Commerce Commission that it established was staffed by men sympathetic to business interests.

As businesses grew larger in the postwar years, they faced legal complications because state laws made it difficult to run interstate businesses or for corporations to own other corporations. An early legal response to this was the formations of trusts. This form of corporate organization was pioneered by John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil. The creation of a trust allowed the stockholders of a subsidiary company to place control of their shares of that company “in trust” to the corporate board of Standard Oil. This organizational technique made it possible for Rockefeller to expand Standard Oil through horizontal integration by purchasing control of many smaller oil companies.

Trusts were eventually declared illegal. This led to the emergence of holding companies. In 1889, New Jersey became the first state to allow businesses incorporated there to own the stock of other corporations. This allowed the shareholders of Standard Oil to buy up the stock, and thus control of other oil companies. Rockefeller and his management team used the holding company model to merge 43 oil companies into Standard Oil of New Jersey. By the 1890s, Rockefeller produced 90 percent of the oil used in the United States. Rockefeller next aimed at vertical integration by buying up oil fields and moving from the refining and distribution of oil products into marketing them. He would then be able to control every phase of the oil business, from drilling for crude oil to selling refined oil products in stores and gas stations. Other practitioners of vertical integration were Gustavus Swift in meat-packing and Andrew Carnegie in steel.

The gap between rich and poor grew dramatically as great industrialists accumulated vast fortunes. The wealth of these businessmen was justified by the popular and influential ideology of Social Darwinism. Proponents of Social Darwinism, such as the philosopher William Graham Sumner, believed that human interactions reflected Charles Darwin’s evolutionary principle of “natural selection.” Those better suited to succeed because of intelligence, determination, and strength would thrive, while those less fit would fall behind. By this logic, the money and power accumulated by the rich was the just reward of their superiority and a manifestation of the working out of nature’s plan. Andrew Carnegie softened some of the harder edges of Social Darwinism with his “Gospel of Wealth.” He wrote that the great industrialists were the “guardians” of American wealth. He believed that the industrialists should not pass on all their fortunes to their children, but should devote much of it to improving the community. One manifestation of this on Carnegie’s part was his enthusiasm for building libraries across the country so that able young people could improve themselves and rise in the world. Both Carnegie and Rockefeller created foundations that over the years have dispensed over $650 million to educational and artistic causes. Carnegie and Rockefeller were not alone. Many industrialists endowed universities and museums. Despite this record of charitable giving, many of the industrialists of this period have been criticized as “Robber Barons” because of their Social Darwinist attitude toward their workers.

The Emergence of Labor Unions

Craft unions existed before the Civil War. Because of the relatively small size of businesses, they did not have a major impact on society. As industry grew, so did the unions. Strife between workers and industrialists became a major issue in the postwar years. In July 1877, railroad workers launched the first nationwide strike. Because of hard economic times the railroads were cutting back at their workers’ expense, and the strikers were protesting layoffs and reduced wages. Violence marred the strike. Railroad property was destroyed in various parts of the country. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 30 strikers were killed in clashes with militiamen. President Hayes eventually deployed federal troops to stop the violence and break the strike. Though he sided with the owners, the president did call on them to “remove the distress which afflicts laborers.”

The most influential union to arise in the 1870s was the Knights of Labor. Instead of being a craft union that protected the interests of one type of worker, such as shoemakers, the Knights of Labor attempted to represent all workers, skilled and unskilled. They encouraged immigrants, African Americans, and women to join their union. At its height in the mid-1880s, the Knights of Labor had 750,000 members. The leaders of the Knights of Labor dreamed of a more cooperative society in which working people would more fully share in the fruits of their labor. Their peaceableness made them reluctant to call strikes; this, in turn, made them less effective in dealing with hard-nosed employers. The Knights of Labor faded away as more confrontational labor unions captured the loyalties of workers.

The Knights of Labor were also blamed for radical actions over which they had no control. In the spring of 1886, workers went on strike at the McCormick reaper plant in Chicago. On May 1, 100,000 people gathered at a rally to show their solidarity with the workers. The next day, a smaller demonstration was scheduled at Haymarket Square. A few of the people supporting the strike were radicals and anarchists influenced by violent social strife in Europe. When police arrived to break up the demonstration, someone set off a bomb. Seven policemen were killed. In the chaotic aftermath of the explosion, a gun battle erupted that left four civilians dead. Scores of police and citizens were injured by the bomb and bullets. Eight anarchists were arrested and convicted of the bombing. The Haymarket Square tragedy convinced many Americans that labor organizations like the Knights of Labor were breeding grounds for violent extremism. It fed antipathy toward immigrants and radical political beliefs.

The American Federation of Labor (AFL) proved more successful than the Knights of Labor. The AFL was an association of craft unions composed of skilled workers. For many years, the AFL was headed by Samuel Gompers, a tough and wily leader who carefully dissociated his unions from political or social radicalism. Instead, Gompers emphasized “bread and butter issues,” and focused on achieving higher wages and shorter hours rather than remaking American society. The AFL was prepared to use strikes to attain its goals. A strike against the Carnegie Steel Company at Homestead, Pennsylvania, in 1892, and the American Railway Union’s strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1894 received national attention. The leader of the American Railway Union was Eugene V. Debs. The suppression of the Pullman strike convinced him to embrace socialism. Debs would run for president several times as head of the Socialist party. Despite the failure of some strikes, the AFL grew more powerful and influential; by 1917, the AFL claimed 2.5 million members.

A very different labor organization was the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). This union originated amongst industrial miners in the West, who faced very difficult working conditions. The IWW embraced a radical social vision; it called for revolutionary violence and the imposition of socialism. Members of the IWW were nicknamed “Wobblies.” The leader of the IWW was Big Bill Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners. “Mother” Jones worked with coal miners. The IWW did not shy away from strikes and bloodshed. Because of its extremist reputation, the union was brutally quashed by the federal government during World War I.

Unions helped some workers raise their wages and improve their working conditions. Many workers were unable to effectively organize themselves. The most successful labor organization, the AFL, focused only on skilled workers. The AFL resisted organizing women, African Americans, and other unskilled workers, believing that the presence of these groups in the workforce undercut the bargaining power of its members. Some women formed their own unions. In 1909, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union launched a notable strike in New York City.

Organized labor faced other challenges. Most industrialists discouraged their workers from joining unions. Many people associated unionism with radicalism, while others thought that unions weakened American individualism and self-reliance. The government generally supported business owners during strikes and occasionally used the military to break up strikes. Businessmen could also usually rely on the support of state and local governments and their police forces. Factory owners could also hire Pinkerton detectives to guard their plants and intimidate strikers.

Uneven Affluence

Many Americans prospered in the new industrial economy. They were able to take part in the emergence of a consumer society in which ordinary Americans were able to buy goods such as tea and silk stockings that had earlier been luxury items for the rich. The proliferation of department stores symbolized the new possibilities for American consumers. Many middle-class Americans could buy what they wanted, not just what they needed. The average life expectancy increased by six years between 1900 and 1920. A growing number of middle-class homes now benefited from indoor plumbing and electricity.

Not all shared in this new affluence. Large numbers of Americans, from rural sharecroppers to immigrants living in overcrowded urban neighborhoods, could not afford to join in the new consumer society. A majority of working-class homes did not get flush toilets until the 1920s and 1930s. Higher wages were counterbalanced by increases in the cost of living that kept many consumer goods priced out of the reach of most workers.

The New Immigration

The late 1880s and early 1890s saw a significant change in the pattern of immigration to the United States. Prior to this period, most immigrants came from Northern Europe, usually from the British Isles and Germany. Assimilation was easier for the Irish and English because they shared a common language with Americans; Germans may have spoken a different language, but they came from a society with many cultural similarities to the United States. This was not the case with the “new immigrants” who began pouring into the United States in the late 1880s. These people came from Italy, Eastern Europe, and Russia. They did not speak English. Most were very poor, and looked and sounded very different from the Northern European immigrants Americans had grown used to. Many were Roman Catholic or Jewish, which made them seem even more alien in what was still a largely Protestant America.

This new immigration was alarming to some Americans because of the sheer numbers of arriving immigrants. Between 1870 and 1920, 28 million immigrants entered the United States. The high point of this immigration came between 1900 and 1910. The federal government opened Ellis Island in New York City harbor as a reception center in 1892. Here immigrants had to pass rudimentary health and security testing. Angel Island in San Francisco was opened as a similar reception center for the Pacific Coast.

14,000 Chinese workers were brought to the United States to help complete the construction of the transcontinental railroad. These Asian immigrants faced intense hostility from “native” workers who feared that they would depress wages by working for less. This anti-Chinese sentiment found political expression in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which restricted the entrance of Chinese laborers into the United States. To protect themselves from racial animosity, many Chinese moved to ethnically homogenous “Chinatowns” in large cities. The annexation of Hawaii in 1898 opened the way for Japanese living there to move to California and work on farms. This Japanese immigration reignited the same sorts of concerns and prejudices that the Chinese had encountered. In 1906, the San Francisco Board of Education segregated Asian students in separate schools. In 1913, the persistently anti-Japanese Californians passed the Webb Alien Land Law which prohibited Asians who were noncitizens from owning land in the state. Because Japan was a proud and powerful nation, these initiatives in California cause severe diplomatic trouble for the United States.

Most immigrants at first settled in the big coastal cities. Many of the Eastern and Southern European immigrants were fleeing religious persecution and economic hardship at home. They faced a wrenching process of acculturation in the United States as most of them transitioned from rural to urban life, and found work in large factories. Like the Chinese, many sought the comfort of living with their compatriots in ethnic neighborhoods in the cities, where they could speak their language and more easily practice their religion. There they were jammed into teeming tenement houses. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Lower East Side of New York City was the most densely populated place in the world.

Many immigrants planned to work in the United States for a period of years and then return to their homelands. Some did go home, but most remained and played a critical role in American economic expansion. Many of the new immigrants worked in factories on the East Coast and in the Midwest. A number of immigrants joined the movement west and farmed. Some became miners. The one region that did not see a significant influx of immigrants was the South, where its relatively depressed agrarian economy offered newcomers few opportunities.

The Rise of the Modern American City

American cities grew dramatically after the Civil War because of industrialization and immigration. The newcomers to the cities were not all from overseas. Many people were leaving their farms as mechanization encouraged consolidation in agriculture. The booming cities beckoned as sources of economic opportunity. Not everyone in the cities prospered, and the poor found themselves crowded into slums.

Before the Civil War, most American cities were small enough that people could walk to where they wanted to go. As the cities grew, new forms of transportation allowed people to traverse the growing urban landscape. New York City unveiled elevated trains in 1867, and Boston opened a subway in 1897. Many cities installed cable cars and electric trolleys. This public transportation made it possible for upper- and middle-class commuters to live farther away from their workplaces in the city. In the early nineteenth century, the well-to-do built their homes in the center of town; now they began a movement to suburbia. City centers became business districts, dominated by banks, department stores, and office buildings. Factories and warehouses were located just outside the central business district. Blocks of inexpensive housing clustered around the factories, so workers could easily get to their jobs. The rich and the poor were increasingly far apart, geographically as well as in their incomes.

Housing was often in short supply for the working class. Older middle-class apartment buildings were divided and subdivided to house more and more poor families. Tenement houses were specially constructed to provide rooms for large numbers of people. They afforded their residents few amenities. Bathrooms were located outdoors. Many rooms had no windows for ventilation, much less a view. There were no elevators. These buildings were dingy and dirty. Because of poor plumbing and inadequate sewers, disease was rampant. Poverty bred crime, and gangs often terrorized neighborhoods. Gradually conditions improved. Building codes helped clean up the worst tenements. Some buildings began to offer running water, gas, and electricity.

The skylines of American cities changed dramatically. Before the Civil War, buildings rarely rose above four of five stories. New construction materials and methods led to an architectural revolution. The production of strong and durable Bessemer steel girders allowed builders to construct taller buildings around a steel framework. The introduction of elevators in the early 1880s provided a practical means to move people up and down these taller buildings. Architects like Chicago’s Louis Sullivan began designing the first “skyscrapers.” The Home Insurance Company building in Chicago, completed in 1885, was an early example of the new style of office building. It was ten stories high and had four elevators conveying passengers up and down.

American cities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were ongoing construction sites. In addition to office buildings, factories, and apartments, public works such as schools, roads, sewers, and parks were being built or extended. City planners began to seek ways to bring some order to the frantic pace of development.

Gilded Age Politics

Mark Twain popularized the term “Gilded Age,” which refers to the period between 1875 and 1900. For Twain, it was an expression that satirized the political corruption and crude money-grubbing that he thought characterized contemporary American society. (Something that is gilded has only a thin layer of gold over a baser metal.) It was an era of striking contrasts, politically and economically, that left many observers bewildered.

Modern commentators often criticize the politics of the Gilded Age as being much ado about nothing much. They find debates over the tariff and the currency superficial, and condemn the politicians of the day for not intervening more actively as the country industrialized and urbanized. What these commentators forget is that nineteenth-century Americans had different ideas about politics and government. They believed that the role of government was strictly limited, and after the crisis of the Civil War and Reconstruction, they wanted to restore what they believed was a more normal political equilibrium. President Grover Cleveland was widely commended for saying that “the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government the Government should not support the people.”

Politics was a popular avocation for Americans in the Gilded Age. They took a deep interest in political issues and party identification was high. Often nearly 75 percent of registered voters participated in presidential elections, a far higher rate than today.

The Democratic and Republican parties were very evenly balanced. Elections were close and control of Congress regularly passed back and forth. This had a moderating effect on political positions because the parties feared alienating swing voters. The Republicans could usually count on the support of the industrial Northeast, while the Democrats relied on the “Solid South.” Most elections hinged on the results in a few swing states like New York, Indiana, and Ohio.

In the postwar period, Congress grew more important as presidents took a more restrained view of their powers. An issue that came to the forefront was the spoils system. This practice dated back to the days of Andrew Jackson and held that after an election the victorious party should reward its supporters by giving them government jobs. This often meant turning members of the opposing party out of their government positions and became a major burden for presidents as heads of the office-rich executive branch.

President Rutherford B. Hayes tried to reform this patronage system. He attempted to appoint officials for their qualifications rather than their political connections. He angered his own party’s political bosses in Congress by removing some men from office who had benefited from the spoils system, including Chester A. Arthur, the Collector of the Port of New York.

Hayes’s actions led to divisions in the Republican Party and ensured that he would not be renominated for the presidency in 1880. The eventual Republican nominee, Congressman James Garfield of Ohio, also called for reform of the spoils system. Garfield won the election, but in July 1881, only a few months after taking office, he was assassinated by a deranged man who believed that he should have been given a government job.

Garfield’s assassination convinced Congress that something had to be done about the spoils system. President Chester A. Arthur, ironically a man associated with the spoils system, threw his support behind reform. In 1883, Congress passed the Pendleton Civil Service Act, which took a number of government jobs out of political control. It established the Civil Service Commission, which administered these positions. Applicants for these jobs had to demonstrate their fitness by passing examinations. The Pendleton Act also prohibited government officials from contributing to political campaigns, a practice that had been routine when officeholders were openly political functionaries. These reforms were the beginning of a professional bureaucracy in the legislative and executive branches. Initially only a few jobs were covered by the new civil service regulations, but the number grew over time. Even today, there are many managerial positions in the federal bureaucracy that are filled by political appointees.

The election of 1884 was dominated by the personal issues of the candidates. The Republicans nominated Senator James Blaine of Maine. He was accused of taking gifts of stock in exchange for supporting bills favorable to railroads. The Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland, the governor of New York. As a younger man, Cleveland accepted responsibility for an illegitimate child. During the election, Republicans chanted, “Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa!” Despite this scandal, Cleveland won a close election.

Along with concerns about the currency, tariffs were one of the most prominent political issues of the Gilded Age. Generally Republicans supported high tariffs to protect American industry and jobs. Most Democrats, with their party base in the agrarian South and West, wanted to lower tariffs. Complicating matters were Eastern Democrats and Western Republicans who voted with the economic interests of their region. President Cleveland wanted to lower tariffs and made this the central issue of the 1888 presidential campaign. The results showed how closely divided Americans were politically. Cleveland won the popular vote, but lost in the Electoral College. His Republican opponent Benjamin Harrison became president. Cleveland came back to defeat Harrison in 1892, becoming the only president elected to two nonconsecutive terms.

Soon after Cleveland’s second inauguration, the United States fell into one of the worst depressions in its history. Many factories closed their doors and millions of workers lost their jobs. The economic downturn aggravated the problems facing farmers. The Populists took the lead in calling for governmental relief. A Populist leader in Ohio named Jacob Coxey led a column of unemployed workers to Washington. President Cleveland and Congress ignored Coxey’s Army. Pressure intensified to loosen the currency supply by coining more silver. Cleveland, an economic conservative, held to the gold standard.

This currency debate framed the election of 1896. William McKinley’s decisive victory ended the period of political parity between the Democrats and Republicans, and began an era of Republican electoral dominance. McKinley was an able president, who is seen by some historians as the first “modern” chief executive because of the way that he organized and concentrated authority in his office. McKinley’s campaign manager, Mark Hanna, is credited with pioneering the modern presidential campaign.

The governments of many cities were controlled by political machines. These were highly structured organizations designed to keep a leader, the “boss,” and his associates in political power. Machines often relied on immigrants for their electoral strength; they provided working class citizens jobs, loans, and other favors in exchange for their votes. Once in control of city hall, the machine generated funds by extorting kickbacks from contractors doing city business. Machine operatives who received city jobs often paid back a percentage of their salary to the organization. This cash helped provide the funds that kept the machine well-oiled and running smoothly. The most famous political machine was Tammany Hall in New York City. In the 1860s and 1870s, the Tammany boss William M. Tweed and an unscrupulous group of officials embezzled millions of dollars from City Hall. Tweed was mercilessly lampooned by the political cartoonist Thomas Nast and eventually was investigated and jailed for his crimes. Despite Tweed’s incarceration, Tammany Hall lived on and dominated New York City politics for decades. Though corrupt, machines did provide rudimentary social relief for the poor. Some machine politicians supported reforms in education and social services.

Social Criticism in the Gilded Age

Beginning with Mark Twain, a number of writers criticized American society during the Gilded Age. Edward Bellamy achieved a surprising literary success with Looking Backward (1888), which envisioned a socialist future for the United States. The hero of the book finds himself transported to Boston in 2000 and learns that peaceful economic “nationalism” has replaced the unfettered capitalism of his day. The journalist Jacob Riis published a groundbreaking study of the poor in New York City entitled How the Other Half Lives (1890). Riis described the appalling conditions in the tenement houses of the Lower East Side and documented this with evocative photographs that pioneered modern photo-journalism. Upton Sinclair created a sensation in 1906 with The Jungle, a searing indictment of conditions in Chicago’s meatpacking industry. Sinclair hoped to make the case for socialism, but most readers focused on his graphic descriptions of unsanitary practices in the meatpacking plants.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• The industrial growth that occurred in the United States during this era made the United States the major industrial producer of the world.

• The industrial growth was largely based on the expansion of heavy industry; the availability of steel was critical to this expansion.

• Taylorism and the assembly line created major changes in the workplace for factory workers.

• Horizontal and vertical integration allowed businesses to expand dramatically during this era; Standard Oil (John D. Rockefeller) and United States Steel (Andrew Carnegie) are the best examples of this type of expansion.

• Andrew Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” proclaimed it was the duty of the wealthy to return large amounts of their wealth back to the community.

• American workers began to unionize in this era by joining the Knights of Labor, the American Federation of Labor, and the Industrial Workers of the World. Because of intimidation by company bosses and the publicity that came from several unsuccessful strikes, union membership remained low, even into the twentieth century.

• The impact of the “new immigrants” from eastern and southern Europe on American cities and in the workplace was immense.

• The American city became transformed in this era, with new methods of transportation allowing many from the middle and upper classes to move to suburbia and still work in the city.

• Political life at the state and city levels during this era was dominated by various political machines, although reforms were instituted at the federal level and in some states to create a professional civil service system.

Time Line

1869: Knights of Labor founded in Philadelphia

1870: Beginning of Tammany Hall’s control over New York City politics

1879: Publication of Progress and Poverty by Henry George

1881: Assassination of President James Garfield

1882: Chinese Exclusion Act passed by Congress

1883: Pendleton Civil Service Act enacted

1885: Completion of Home Insurance Company building in Chicago, America’s first skyscraper

1886: Haymarket Square demonstration and bombing in Chicago

1887: Interstate Commerce Act enacted

Major strike of railroad workers; President Hayes sends in government troops to break up strike in Pittsburgh

1888: New Jersey passes legislation allowing holding companies

Publication of Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy

1890: Publication of How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis

1892: Ellis Island opens to process immigrants on the East Coast

1893: Beginning of major depression in America

1894: March of Coxey’s Army on Washington, DC

United States becomes world’s largest manufacturing producer

1896: Decisive victory of Republican William McKinley breaks decades-long deadlock between Democrats and Republicans

America begins to recover from great depression of early 1890s

1897: America’s first subway begins regular service in Boston

1901: Assassination of President William McKinley

1903: Ford Motor Company established

1905: Industrial Workers of the World formed

1906: Publication of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

1909: Strike of International Ladies Garment Workers Union in New York City

1910: Angel Island opens to process immigrants on West Coast

Number of American children attending school nears 60 percent

1913: Webb Alien Land Law enacted, prohibiting aliens from owning farmland in California

Ford Motor Company begins to use assembly line techniques; 250,000 automobiles produced in one year

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. The practices championed by Frederick W. Taylor that were championed by many factory owners of the era

A. made it easier for immigrant workers to assimilate into the American working class.

B. ensured that all workers would receive higher wages and conditions in the factories would improve.

C. emphasized the need for greater efficiency in factory operations.

D. reemphasized the need for extensive training before the worker could do almost any job in the factory.

2. Many citizens became involved in the political process by actively supporting the Republican and Democratic parties for all of the reasons listed except

A. the parades, rallies, and campaigns of the era provided an exciting entry into the American political system.

B. the strength of the two parties was roughly identical in this era, thus creating close and interesting races.

C. the expansion and spread of newspapers in this era made more people aware of political developments.

D. candidates for president from both parties in almost every race of this era were dynamic and very popular campaigners, thus energizing the forces of both parties.

3. An analysis of the march on Washington by Coxey’s Army in 1894 demonstrates that

A. large segments of the unemployed in America were willing to become involved politically to protest their situation.

B. all classes in American society were deeply affected by the depression of the early 1890s.

C. the policies of dealing with the depression in the 1890s were somewhat similar to policies championed by Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1932.

D. the march was extremely well covered by the press.

4. The following statements are true about the new industrial city of the late nineteenth century except

A. the working class lived around the factories, usually somewhat near the center of the city.

B. the factories of the city were almost always found near a source of water, since water power was common.

C. the central area of the city usually consisted of offices, banks, and insurance buildings.

D. many saloons existed in working-class neighborhoods.

5. Evidence that the standard of living for the working class improved in this era could be found by carefully analyzing all of the following except

A. a comparison of increased wages with increased living costs for factory workers.

B. an analysis of the increased diversity of foods available for purchase by factory workers.

C. an analysis of the growth of amusement parks, sporting events, and movie theaters in the major cities.

D. a comparison of the wages of most immigrant workers with the wages of workers who remained to work in the “old country.”

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of a way in which American political leaders responded to rapid industrial growth in the late nineteenth century.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of a way in which American political leaders responded to rapid industrial growth in the late nineteenth century.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of a way that American workers responded to rapid industrial growth in the late nineteenth century.

Answers and Explanations

1. C. Taylorism made efficiency in the workplace a science and set the stage for assembly line production techniques.

2. D. Most of the presidential candidates—and presidential winners—of this era were nondescript men, thus allowing much power to go over to Congress.

3. C. The march had little effect on government policy. Coxey’s Army was relatively small by the time it got to Washington. Official policy of the time was that it was not the job of the federal government to actively intervene during hard times, a policy similar to that supported by Herbert Hoover in the first years of the Great Depression.

4. B. By 1890, most American industry had converted to steam power.

5. A. Many diverse foods were available for purchase by factory workers, but few could afford them. For many workers, wages did go up in this period; however, increased living costs often outstripped higher wages.

6. Parts A and B: Most American political leaders did very little about the rapid industrial growth in the late nineteenth century. They believed in laissez-faire economics and did not believe in extensive government regulation of business. Popular concerns about the differences between what railroads charged individual consumers and big businesses led Congress to pass the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887. This created the Interstate Commerce Commission, which was charged with monitoring railroad rates. The emergence of “trusts,” large businesses that owned more than one company, worried many people. Congress responded by passing the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890, which outlawed trusts. Big business found a way around this. In 1888, the New Jersey legislature passed a law legalizing holding companies. A holding company owned a controlling interest in the stock of other companies. Soon many big corporations such as Standard Oil had reorganized themselves as holding companies.

Part C: One way that American workers responded to rapid industrial growth and the rise of large corporations was by organizing unions. The Knights of Labor was founded in 1869 and by the mid-1880s had a membership of 750,000 people. The Knights of Labor had both skilled and unskilled workers in its membership. It declined after being blamed for radical outrages like the 1886 Haymarket Square Bombing. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was a grouping of unions that organized skilled workers. Under its longtime president Samuel Gompers, the AFL became the leading labor organization in the United States, with a membership of 2.5 million in 1917. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was founded in 1905. The IWW was a radical union that emphasized class conflict. It organized skilled and unskilled workers.

Rise of American Imperialism (1890–1913)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: Beginning in the 1890s, the United States began to practice some of the same imperialistic policies that it had previously criticized major European powers for. Spurred on by sugar planters, America expanded its influence in Hawaii and in 1896 annexed the islands. Americans also pushed for an “Open Door” trading policy with China. Efforts to expand American influence abroad were motivated by economic, political, religious, and social factors; the “white man’s burden” argument was influential in both Europe and the United States. There were also opponents to imperialism who often based their opposition on moral grounds. American imperialistic impulses flourished during the Spanish-American War; newly created American naval power was one important factor in the defeat of Spain. After contentious debate within the United States, America finally decided to annex the Philippines; it took three years for American forces to defeat Filipino rebels, who instead of fighting the Spanish now resisted their new occupiers, the Americans. Americans finished building the Panama Canal in 1914; the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine further increased American influence in Latin America.

Keywords

Open Door policy: policy supported by the United States beginning in 1899 that stated that all major powers, including the United States, should have an equal right to trade with China.

Social Darwinism: philosophy that emerged from the writings of Charles Darwin on the “survival of the fittest”; this was used to justify the vast differences between the rich and the poor in the late nineteenth century as well as American and European imperialistic ventures.

Spanish-American War: war that began in 1898 against the Spanish over treatment of Cubans by Spanish troops that controlled the island. As a result of this war, the United States annexed the Philippines, making America a major power in the Pacific.

Yellow journalism: method of journalism that utilized sensationalized accounts of the news to sell newspapers. This approach helped to whip up nationalistic impulses that led to the Spanish-American War.

U.S.S. Maine: U.S. naval ship that sank in Havana harbor in February 1898 following an explosion. The incident was used to increase calls for war against Spain. It was never definitively determined why or how the ship was sunk.

Panama Canal: canal across the Panama isthmus that was begun in 1904 and completed in 1914; its opening enabled America to expand its economic and military influence.

Roosevelt Corollary (1904): policy that warned Europeans against intervening in the affairs of Latin America and that claimed the right of the United States to intervene in the affairs of Latin American nations if “chronic wrongdoing” was taking place.

Dollar Diplomacy: foreign policy supported by President William Howard Taft and others that favored increased American investment in the world as a way of increasing American influence.

Postwar Diplomacy

Even before the Civil War, the U.S. government was interested in opening up new overseas markets for American goods and seeking sources of raw materials for American factories. These efforts continued in the postwar years. In 1867, Secretary of State William Henry Seward successfully orchestrated the purchase of Alaska from Russia. Initially termed “Seward’s Folly,” it soon became recognized that Alaska was rich in resources. Also in 1867, the United States acquired the Midway Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Midway could serve as a stopping point on the way to China and Japan. Changes in marine technology during this period saw ships shift from sails to coal-powered steam engines. The United States began seeking coaling stations in the Pacific, where American ships could refuel.

Initially, the United States did not join the great European powers in establishing colonies in Africa and Asia. Americans were still busy filling in the western frontier. Rapid industrialization and urbanization also absorbed much American energy. Only when the frontier was declared closed in the 1890s did a new generation of leaders like Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge begin calling for American expansion overseas. These men were too young to have experienced the horrors of the Civil War and were willing to fight to secure the United States an empire of its own.

The United States was not prepared for imperial adventures. The State Department employed fewer than 100 people in the 1870s and early 1880s. The army was tiny by European standards; most of its troops were scattered across the West in small forts and engaged in patrolling the frontier. The navy had been allowed to deteriorate after the Civil War. Only during the presidency of Chester Arthur was there an effort to rebuild the navy, equipping it with modern all-steel ships.

Acquiring Hawaii

American missionaries arrived in Hawaii during the 1820s. The island chain was a port of call for American whalers and merchant ships. American entrepreneurs began cultivating sugar cane on the islands and their plantations became highly lucrative businesses. In 1887, Congress allowed the importation of Hawaiian sugar duty-free. This enhanced the influence of the sugar planters in Hawaii, and they pressured King Kalakaua into promulgating a constitution that gave them greater political power.

In 1891, Queen Liliuokalani ascended to the Hawaiian throne. She was determined to reassert royal control over Hawaii and resist the political encroachments of people she saw as outsiders, such as the American planters. For their part, the sugar magnates feared the queen’s nationalist program and wanted to convert Hawaii into a protectorate of the United States. This embrace of the United States flag was also spurred by changes in American trade policy; only if Hawaii was an American colony could its sugar be considered domestic produce and compete effectively in American markets. In 1893, the planters staged a coup that overthrew the queen. They were assisted by a small detachment of Marines provided by an American diplomat. The planters proclaimed a Hawaiian republic and immediately asked to be annexed by the United States.

Despite the intervention of the diplomat, Washington was not a party to the coup. President Cleveland sent a commission to Hawaii to investigate the attitudes of the Hawaiian people toward the new regime. When the commission reported back that a majority still supported Queen Liliuokalani, Cleveland refused to annex the islands. The United States took no action to restore the queen and eventually extended diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Hawaii. William McKinley did not share Cleveland’s qualms about acquiring Hawaii and in the 1896 election declared that it was America’s “Manifest Destiny” to possess the islands. Congress finally approved the annexation of Hawaii in 1898, against the backdrop of the Spanish-American War. American policymakers realized that Pearl Harbor provided the Navy with a strategically valuable base on the Pacific Ocean.

The New Imperialism

In the 1890s, American attitudes toward imperialism began to change. Though industrialists and businessmen generally feared that war would disrupt markets, they did begin to worry that they would need to find places to sell their goods overseas. Some sought sources of raw materials, such as rubber, that were unavailable in the continental United States.

Strategists such as the naval officer Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan argued that the United States needed to expand in order to protect its international position as a major economic and political power. One of history’s most influential military theorists, Mahan published The Influence of Sea Power upon History in 1890. In this work, Mahan persuasively made the case that naval power was necessary to acquire markets overseas and to protect continued access to them. Mahan’s writings were studied by naval officers around the world. They inspired the naval enthusiasms of American leaders like Theodore Roosevelt and helped justify legislation like the Naval Act of 1900 that rapidly expanded the United States Navy.

The idea of Social Darwinism that rationalized economic inequality in the United States was also used to justify imperialism. This view of international relations held that nations, like people, struggled for survival, and the strong would rule the weak. Social Darwinism was easily harmonized with contemporary racial ideas and convictions about the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon “race.” In 1885, the well-known minister Josiah Strong asserted that God had made the Anglo-Saxons their “brother’s keepers” in his book Our Country. This same vision was conveyed in Rudyard Kipling’s poem “White Man’s Burden,” in which he urged Americans to accept the mission of ruling and civilizing “inferior races.” American missionaries embraced imperialism because it offered them an opportunity to convert “heathens” in Africa and Asia. Some intellectuals like the scholarly Senator Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana saw imperialism overseas as a way for Americans to open a new frontier and recapture the pioneer spirit of their forebears.

The Spanish–American War

The United States burst onto the world scene as an imperial power in the Spanish-American War. Short, and relatively bloodless, this “splendid little war” ended a century of American noninvolvement in overseas affairs. The issue that brought on the war began close to home. The island of Cuba lies 90 miles off the coast of Florida. In 1868, some Cuban colonists launched a revolt against the Spanish authorities that governed the island. Though the revolt failed, it began a long period of unrest in Cuba. In 1895, an economic depression caused by falling sugar prices led to another revolt. Many Americans owned sugar plantations or had other financial investments in Cuba; they did not support the revolutionaries.

The U.S. government was initially indifferent to the situation in Cuba. This began to change when the Spanish government used ruthless methods to quell the insurrection. The Spanish sent 150,000 troops to Cuba and began a policy of reconcentration, which attempted to deny the rebels support by rounding up rural civilians and placing them in government-controlled camps. The Spanish concentration camps bred disease, and 225,000 people died. Cuban exiles in the United States implored Presidents Cleveland and McKinley to intervene in the war and end Spanish rule. Neither president showed any enthusiasm for a war in Cuba. McKinley had fought in the Civil War and had vivid memories of the human cost of battle. The rebels began burning American-owned plantations and sugar mills to intensify interventionist pressure on the U.S. government.

An emerging mass media pushed public opinion in favor of war. Large circulation newspapers like Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Morning Journal attracted readers with boldly headlined news stories that privileged sensationalism over accuracy. This new style of newspapering became known as yellow journalism. Both Pulitzer and Hearst sent teams of reporters to Cuba charged with getting stories that would sell newspapers. Soon these papers were publicizing lurid, and often fanciful, accounts of Spanish misdeeds. These stories were widely reprinted across the United States and outraged Americans who believed what they read. The yellow press encouraged jingoism, a belligerent patriotism that demanded war with Spain.

President McKinley recognized the political power of the anti-Spanish sentiment whipped up by the newspapers. War became inevitable after the U.S.S. Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898. The Maine had been sent to Cuba after riots in the capital seemed to threaten American lives and property. The Maine probably blew up because of a failure with its boilers; the yellow journalists loudly declared that the Spanish had sunk the ship and demanded that readers “Remember the Maine!” A subsequent naval investigation failed to conclusively explain the explosion; the naval authorities were reluctant to blame a technical fault with their own ship. A foolish gaffe by a Spanish diplomat further inflamed American public opinion. In a letter stolen by Cuban revolutionaries the diplomat called McKinley “weak.”

Combat in the Philippines and Cuba

Theodore Roosevelt, the assistant secretary of the navy, was an ardent imperialist who assumed that the United States would go to war with Spain. On February 25, while the secretary of the navy was out for the day, Roosevelt cabled American commanders in the Pacific to be ready to strike against the Spanish. President McKinley and the navy secretary later confirmed that in the event of war, Commodore George Dewey should attack the Spanish fleet in the Philippines.

By April, both expansionists dreaming of empire and humanitarians shocked by newspaper reports of Cuban suffering were calling for war. McKinley attempted to defuse the crisis with diplomacy. The Spanish were prepared to meet most of McKinley’s conditions for a settlement in Cuba. The Spanish concessions were not enough. McKinley decided that war had become a political necessity. He sent a message to Congress recommending an intervention in Cuba. The next day, Congress authorized the use of force to drive the Spanish from the island.

While the small but modern American navy was ready for war, the army was not. It took time to gather an invasion force at Tampa, Florida. The war would be over before the army’s supply services fully organized themselves. Fortunately for the Americans, the Spanish in Cuba were equally disorganized and had become demoralized by years of guerilla warfare. A small American army landed in Cuba in June. The main fighting took place on July 1, when the Americans seized high ground outside the city of Santiago. Theodore Roosevelt, who had resigned his post in the Navy Department, became a national hero because of the courage he showed leading his regiment of volunteer “Rough Riders” up San Juan Hill. Two days later, the aged Spanish warships in Santiago harbor made a dash for the open sea and were annihilated by better-armed American warships. This ended the fighting in Cuba. The war cost 2,500 American lives, most of them to disease. Fewer than 400 Americans died in combat.

On the other side of the world, the U.S. Navy seemed to justify Mahan’s theories about the importance of maritime power. Commodore Dewey sailed a small American squadron into Manila Harbor on May 1 and destroyed the decrepit Spanish fleet anchored there. This one-sided battle gave the United States a claim to the Philippines. The war officially ended with the Treaty of Paris. Spain granted Cuba independence and for $20 million ceded the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico to the United States.

The Cuban Conundrum

Almost immediately after ensuring Cuban independence, some American policymakers began to have doubts about the ability of the Cubans to govern themselves and safeguard American interests. Concerns about imperial temptations had led a majority in Congress to insert the Teller Amendment in the April war resolution. This amendment declared that the United States had no intention of annexing Cuba. Postwar reconsiderations led Congress to soften its support for full Cuban autonomy.

Immediately following the defeat of the Spanish, President McKinley created a military government to rule Cuba. This regime lasted until 1901 and had some notable successes in improving public health and combating yellow fever. In the meantime the Cubans worked on a constitution. Reflecting the new imperial mood in Washington, the American government compelled the Cubans to integrate the Platt Amendment into their new constitution. This prohibited the Cubans from making treaties without American approval. It also gave the United States the power to intervene in Cuban politics “when necessary.” The Platt Amendment limited full Cuban independence until the United States withdrew it in the 1930s.

The Debate over Empire

Cuba was next door to the United States. The acquisition of the Philippines, an extensive and heavily populated island chain thousands of miles away, spurred controversy. This debate was intensified as the Filipinos organized a government and demanded independence. Americans prided themselves on their revolutionary struggle for independence against Great Britain. Did traditional American political values sanction the United States becoming a colonial power?

The Anti-Imperialist League was founded in 1898 to oppose a colonial adventure in the Philippines. Eminent Americans such as Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, and William Jennings Bryan spoke out against imperialism. Arguments against empire ranged from the idealistic to the practical. Anti-imperialists condemned the hypocrisy of Americans forcing their rule on peoples overseas, while the United States still faced many social and economic challenges at home. Some opposed imperialism for racial reasons, fearing that it would facilitate a flood of “inferior races” into the United States.

The defenders of American policy in the Philippines had their own arguments. An empire was an extension of the American frontier, allowing modern-day Americans to maintain pioneer virtues. Control of the Philippines helped establish the United States in Asian markets. There was a strong likelihood that if the United States withdrew from the Philippines, the Germans or the Japanese would move in and colonize the islands. Finally, many ministers supported keeping the Philippines so missionaries could convert the people to Christianity, heedless of the fact that most Filipinos were already Catholic.

After wrestling with the issue himself, President McKinley decided that the United States had to rule the Philippines for practical and moral reasons. He believed that the Filipinos were “unfit for self-government.” If left alone they would fall into civil war and some predatory imperial power would gobble them up. The Filipinos did not acquiesce to American control easily. The United States fought a war against Filipino rebels from 1899 to 1902. This war was much bloodier than the better-known Spanish-American War; around 4,500 Americans and 200,000 Filipinos were killed. The fighting in the Philippines was brutal, and both sides occasionally committed atrocities. The Americans eventually won the war because they employed the skills that they had learned fighting Indians against the Filipinos. They ensured their victory by combining military measures with an effort to win hearts and minds by building schools and encouraging local self-government.

One reason for American interest in the Philippines was a desire to trade in what they hoped would be a lucrative market in China. The weakness of the Chinese government made that nation vulnerable to partition by imperial powers. In 1899, to prevent this, Secretary of State John Hay promoted an Open Door policy that would allow all nations equal access to trade in China. The next year, the United States joined with the European powers and Japan to suppress the Boxer Rebellion in China. The Boxers resented foreign influence in China and attacked missionaries, merchants, and diplomats. An international army that included a contingent of American troops bloodily defeated the rebels.

The Panama Canal

The election of 1900 was a rematch of 1896. Once again McKinley defeated William Jennings Bryan, who this time unsuccessfully campaigned on a platform of anti-imperialism. McKinley’s running mate was Theodore Roosevelt, who had parlayed his wartime heroism into the governorship of New York. When McKinley was assassinated in 1901, Roosevelt succeeded him. McKinley’s friend Mark Hanna lamented “now that damned cowboy is president of the United States.” Roosevelt was still determined to expand America’s global influence. He strongly supported the construction of the Panama Canal, which would provide merchant ships and American warships an easier and more rapid connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Control of this canal would help ensure American dominance of the Western Hemisphere.

A French company had attempted to construct a canal through Panama, but failed. The United States made arrangements to buy out the French and negotiated for rights to build a canal with Colombia, which owned the Panamanian isthmus. When the Colombian Senate rejected a treaty because it felt that the United States was not offering enough money, President Roosevelt lost patience with the Colombians. In 1903, agents of the French company organized a rebellion in Panama. The United States immediately recognized the new government and stationed warships off Panama to prevent the Colombians from sending troops to crush the rebellion. The 1904 Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, signed with the new Panamanian regime, gave the United States permanent sovereignty over a 10-mile-wide strip of land across the country. For this, the Panamanians received $10 million.

Construction of the canal began immediately, and it was opened for business in 1914. The Panama Canal was a technological, economic, and strategic success. This sophisticated engineering project facilitated trade, and made it much easier to shift American naval vessels between the oceans. The United States did pay a diplomatic price for this success in Latin America. The American collusion in the dismemberment of Colombia convinced many Latin Americans that the United States was a bullying power. Further actions taken by Roosevelt reinforced this view.

The Roosevelt Corollary

President Roosevelt’s belief that military power was the final arbiter of international affairs was reflected in his recommendation to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” In 1904, the Dominican Republic defaulted on its debts to Europeans during an economic crisis. Angry European powers threatened to collect these debts through military force. This inspired Roosevelt to declare the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. This asserted the right of the American government to police any country in the Western Hemisphere that acted in ways “harmful to the United States” and risked the intervention of outside powers. In the Dominican Republic, Roosevelt took over the Dominican customs service and arranged for the orderly payment of that nation’s foreign debt. In the years to come, the United States intervened in other Central American and Caribbean countries. Though this promoted the political stability the American government desired, it also intensified anti-American feelings.

President Roosevelt played an important role on the world stage. In 1905, Roosevelt mediated a peace treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese War. For this, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. Also in 1906, the United States participated in the Algeciras Conference that addressed colonial disputes between France and Germany.

William Howard Taft, Roosevelt’s hand-picked successor, shied away from the “big stick” and preferred “dollars over bullets.” During his administration he pursued a policy of extending American influence abroad through investment and economic engagement. Taft’s critics called this financial approach to foreign relations “Dollar Diplomacy.”

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve a perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• America became the economic and imperialistic equal of the major European powers by the beginning of the twentieth century.

• The United States acquired territory in the years immediately following the Civil War, but then entered a period where little foreign expansion took place.

• Americans and natives friendly to America increased the economic and political control of Hawaii by the United States, signaling a new trend in foreign policy.

• America desired trade in China; these desires were represented in John Hay’s Open Door policy.

• Economic, political, and strategic motives pushed America to pursue imperialist goals in the 1890s.

• Many in this era also opposed imperialism, often on moral or humanitarian grounds.

• The Spanish-American War allowed American imperialistic impulses to flourish; religious figures also supported imperialism in this era.

• Spanish incompetence and the strength of the American navy were important factors in the American victory in the Spanish-American War.

• America was deeply conflicted but finally decided to annex the Philippines, with three years of fighting between Americans and Filipino rebels to follow.

• The Panama Canal was built by the United States for military, strategic, and economic reasons; its construction began in 1904 and was completed in 1914.

• The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine increased American control over Latin America.

Time Line

1867: United States purchases Alaska from Russia

United States annexes Midway Islands

1871: Beginning of European “Scramble for Africa”

1875: Trade agreement between United States and Hawaii signed

1885: Publication of Our Country by Josiah Strong; book discusses role of Anglo-Saxons in the world

1890: Captain Alfred T. Mahan’s The Influence of Sea Power upon History published

1893: Pro-American sugar planters overthrow Queen Liliuokalani in Hawaii

1895: Revolt against Spanish in Cuba; harsh Spanish reaction angers many in United States

1898: Explosion of U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor; beginning of Spanish-American War

Annexation of Hawaii receives final approval from Congress

Anti-Imperialist League formed

1899: Secretary of State John Hay asks European leaders for an Open Door policy in China

First fighting between American army forces and Filipino rebels in Manila

1900: Naval Act of 1900 authorizes construction of offensive warships requested by navy

1901: Assassination of President McKinley; Theodore Roosevelt becomes president

1904: Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine announced

United States begins construction of Panama Canal

1905: Roosevelt mediates conflict between Japan, and Russia in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

1914: Completion of the Panama Canal

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. The intent of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine was

A. to prevent European powers from becoming directly involved in affairs of the Western Hemisphere.

B. to allow the United States to “assist” countries in the area that demonstrated economic or political instability.

C. to allow the United States to remove “unfriendly governments” in the Western Hemisphere.

D. all of the above.

2. Many humanitarians in the United States initially supported the Spanish-American War because

A. they were appalled at the Spanish policy of reconcentration in Cuba.

B. they were able to ignore editorial comments found in most American newspapers.

C. they desired to assist the Filipino natives.

D. of American economic interests in Cuba.

3. The major criticism that some Americans had concerning the construction of the Panama Canal was that

A. the canal would force America to have a navy in both the Pacific and the Atlantic.

B. the canal would be outlandishly expensive to build.

C. the tactics that the Americans used to get the rights to build the canal were unsavory at best.

D. American forces would have to be stationed indefinitely in Panama to guard the canal.

4. The United States was able to annex Hawaii because

A. Queen Liliuokalani desired increased American investment in Hawaii.

B. pro-American planters engineered a revolt in Hawaii.

C. public opinion in Hawaii strongly favored annexation.

D. Hawaii felt threatened by other Pacific powers.

5. American missionary leaders supported imperialism in this era because

A. they thought their involvement would temper the excess zeal of other imperialists.

B. they admired the “pureness of spirit” found in the Filipinos and other native groups.

C. religious leaders in Europe favored imperialism.

D. they saw imperialism as an opportunity to convert the “heathens” of newly acquired territories.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of the United States asserting itself as a world power in the period 1890 to 1913.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of the United States asserting itself as a world power in the period 1890 to 1913.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of Americans rejecting the assertion of the United States as a world power in the period 1890 to 1913.

Answers and Explanations

1. D. The Roosevelt Corollary allowed the United States to intervene in affairs of Latin American countries under several circumstances, but was also intended to keep the European powers out of Latin America.

2. A. The Spanish policy of placing civilians in camps horrified many Americans. Most American newspapers initially supported the war as well. Concern for the Filipinos only became an issue during the debate over whether or not the United States should annex the Philippines.

3. C. The United States acquired the rights to build the canal through the encouragement of a “revolt” by Panamanians against Colombia. The American navy wanted the canal.

4. B. The United States was able to annex Hawaii after pro-U.S. planters led a rebellion against Queen Liliuokalani, who had opposed U.S. influence.

5. D. Missionary leaders worked in conjunction with other imperialists in this era. Little admiration of the natives was demonstrated by missionary leaders; the possibility of conversions was the major reason for religious support for imperialism.

6. Parts A and B: In 1893, American sugar planters with the help of local U.S. officials overthrew the queen of Hawaii and declared the islands a republic. The United States officially annexed Hawaii in 1898. After a rebellion against Spanish rule in Cuba broke out in 1895, the American public grew increasingly sympathetic to the Cubans because of an exaggerated press campaign by “yellow journalists.” The unexplained explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbor intensified calls for war. The United States declared war on Spain in April 1898. In the brief Spanish-American War that ensued, the United States drove Spain out of Cuba and annexed Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. From 1899 to 1902, the United States fought a successful war to suppress a Filipino insurrection against American rule. In 1899, the U.S. secretary of state, John Hay, circulated an Open Door Note amongst the great powers calling for all countries to have equal access to Chinese markets. In 1900, American forces joined an international army in crushing the Boxer Rebellion, an anti-foreigner uprising in China. President Theodore Roosevelt supported a revolution that separated Panama from Colombia in 1904. That same year the United States signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty with Panama, making possible the construction of the Panama Canal. Also in 1904, Roosevelt issued his Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the United States had the right to intervene in Latin American countries if their actions threatened to precipitate European interventions in the Western Hemisphere. President William Howard Taft promoted “Dollar Diplomacy,” which promoted American economic investment as a way of encouraging stability in foreign countries.

Part C: Following the overthrow of the Queen of Hawaii in 1893, President Grover Cleveland refused to annex the Hawaiian Islands because he believed that most Hawaiians still supported the monarchy. Many Americans opposed the annexation of the Philippines as a colony following the Spanish-American War. An Anti-Imperialist League was formed in 1898. Andrew Carnegie and Mark Twain were prominent anti-imperialists. After being re-nominated as a candidate for the presidency by the Democratic party in 1900, William Jennings Bryan made anti-imperialism a central part of his platform during the presidential campaign.

Progressive Era (1895–1914)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: Progressivism began in the 1890s as a movement that attacked the political, social, and political inequalities of the age. Many Progressives blamed capitalism for the evils of society. However, unlike the Socialists, who wanted to destroy the capitalist system, the Progressives wanted to fix that system. Many Progressives were tied to the Social Gospel movement of the Protestant church; others wanted to reform city governments, while still others desired to instill even more democracy in the electoral process (direct primaries, more use of the referendum, etc.). Many Progressives launched projects to aid the immigrant population that existed in America’s cities. One example was Hull House, a settlement house that aided Chicago’s poor. The high point of the Progressive movement was the “Square Deal” of the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Progressives did much to reform America’s cities but were less effective in aiding America’s farmers and minorities.

Keywords

Social Gospel movement: movement originating in the Protestant church that aimed to help the urban poor; many Progressives were influenced by this movement.

Muckrakers: writers who exposed unethical practices in both government and business during this era; newspaper editors discovered that these types of stories increased circulation.

Seventeenth Amendment (1913): U.S. Constitutional amendment that allowed voters instead of state legislatures to elect U.S. senators; this amendment had been championed by Progressives.

Initiative process: this Progressive-supported process allowed any citizen to propose a law. If enough supporters’ signatures could be procured, the proposed law would appear on the next ballot.

Referendum process: this process allowed citizens (instead of legislatures) to vote on proposed laws.

Recall process: this process allowed voters to remove an elected official from office before his or her term expired.

Direct primary: this process allowed party members to vote for prospective candidates; previously most had been chosen by party bosses.

Hull House: Settlement house in Chicago founded by Jane Addams; Hull House became a model for settlement houses around the country.

National American Woman Suffrage Association: created in 1890 by a merger of two womens’ suffrage organizations and led in its early years by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony; was instrumental in demanding women’s right to vote.

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (1911): fire in New York City that killed 146 female factory workers. It was later found that the workers had been locked in the factory; as a result, many factory reforms were enacted.

The Jungle: Novel written by Upton Sinclair that highlighted numerous problems of the meatpacking industry and inspired the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.

Roots of Progressivism

Progressivism was a complicated social and political phenomenon. There never was a unified Progressive movement. Progressives could be found in both major parties, and in both urban and rural settings; they often disagreed on the role of government and on the ideal size of American businesses. What all Progressives shared was a desire for reform.

Progressivism was rooted in many late-nineteenth century ideas and social causes. Many Progressives were influenced by books such as Henry George’s Progress and Poverty (1879) and Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward (1888). Taylorism and the ideal of a “scientific” approach to work and social organization inspired some Progressives.

Progressives joined with Socialists in criticizing the excesses of big business. This did not mean that all Progressives wanted to overthrow the capitalist system as the Socialists did. Most Progressives believed in the economic benefits of capitalism; they intended to reform and regulate business and the markets to prevent the wealthy from abusing their power. Some Socialists played important roles in the Progressive movement. Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle (1906), believed that Progressive reforms could lay the foundation for a democratic socialism.

Many Progressives were influenced by religious convictions. The Social Gospel movement reflected a growing desire amongst some liberal Protestants to apply Christian principles in the quest for social justice. These church-based reformers worked to improve conditions for the working class poor. Proponents of the Social Gospel sometimes came into conflict with their coreligionists because they emphasized political and economic reforms over efforts to achieve personal salvation. Jane Addams was a reformer whose Progressivism was driven by her religious beliefs.

Progressivism derived much of its energy from the emerging mass media. Newspapers and magazines published many investigative reports on political corruption and the iniquities of business monopolies. These articles proved very popular, boosting circulation for the publishers of these exposés and disseminating Progressive ideas to a wide public. Theodore Roosevelt thought the writers of these investigations went too far in their criticisms; he called them muckrakers, and the term stuck. There were many well-known muckrakers. Upton Sinclair became famous for his indictment of the meatpacking industry. Ida Tarbell wrote a critical history of Standard Oil. Lincoln Steffens denounced machine politics in The Shame of the Cities (1904). Jacob Riis publicized the depth of urban poverty in How the Other Half Lives (1890). These muckraking works became calls to action for Progressives.

Progressive Objectives

Most Progressives came from the middle class. Many came from the upper class. Because of their social background, very few Progressives wanted revolutionary changes in the United States. They wanted to reform society, not blow it up. Some Progressives such as Theodore Roosevelt saw themselves as conservatives working to head off potential uprisings by correcting abuses and improving social and political efficiency. Progressives wanted to help the lower classes, but they wanted power to remain in the hands of the middle and upper classes. This would be achieved by creating a regulatory state, with power shifting into the hands of a highly educated and professional bureaucratic elite. Increasingly, Progressives saw a powerful government as the answer to many of the challenges facing Americans.

Not everyone embraced Progressive goals. Many poor people resented the paternalistic approach of Progressive reformers and new government agencies. In the name of democracy Progressives attacked political machines and worked to weaken the power of the political parties, yet these machines and the parties had fostered a vibrant political culture; ironically the robust voter participation rates of the Gilded Age began to decline during the Progressive Era.

Because of the multifaceted complexity of the Progressive movement, it has been difficult for historians to assign an overall goal to Progressivism. Some see Progressivism as an attempt to resist the social forces transforming American life. Others see Progressivism as a means of adapting Americans to conditions in the new urban and industrialized social system.

Urban Progressivism

Progressive reforms were launched at every level of American politics. In many American cities, Progressives challenged the power of the political machines. In some cases, reform politicians built their own machines. In a few instances, traditional machines sponsored reforms to protect their power. “Reform mayors” such as Tom Johnson in Cleveland received national attention for their efforts to clean up local government and improve city services. In Cleveland, the city took over municipal utilities, believing that this would make these services more efficient. Some reform mayors established relief programs for the poor. A number of cities dispensed with politics altogether in crucial areas, replacing elected mayors with city managers and making elected utility commissioners appointed positions. By taking these offices out of political contention, Progressives reduced the power of urban politicians, but also that of the working class voters who had elected them. Almost invariably, the “professionals” who filled these ostensibly depoliticized positions came from the same middle class background as the Progressive reformers.

State-Level Progressivism

Important Progressive initiatives were launched at the state level. Progressive governors such as Robert La Follette in Wisconsin and Hiram Johnson in California sponsored measures to constrain the power of political parties and their state legislatures. Progressive political measures that were adopted in many states included the following:

1. The initiative process. The initiative enabled a citizen to propose a law and get it on the ballot during the next election.

2. The referendum process. A referendum allowed citizens to vote for the adoption of a proposed law during an election.

3. The recall process. The recall made it possible for voters to remove an elected official from office.

4. The direct primary. Traditionally party nominees had been picked at political conventions dominated by the party leadership. The direct primary allowed rank and file party members to pick a nominee through a public vote.

A national measure that diminished the influence of state legislatures was the Seventeenth Amendment, which was adopted in 1913. The Seventeenth Amendment changed the method of electing U.S. senators from election by state legislatures to direct election by the voters.

Progressivism and Women

Women played important roles in the Progressive movement. Women enjoyed an influence in progressive organizations that they could not have in the political parties. Florence Kelley founded the National Consumers League, which promoted legislation protecting women and children in both the workplace and the home. Kelley’s organization, run mostly by women, was a conspicuous voice calling for laws limiting child labor and establishing minimum wages for female workers. From 1911 on, such laws began to be passed in various states.

Women were leaders in starting settlement houses in the slums of American cities. In 1889, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr began serving the poor at Hull House in Chicago. Hull House became a model that was imitated in other cities. Settlement houses helped immigrants acculturate to life in the United States. They provided space for classes aimed at both children and adults. Often settlement houses ran kindergartens to prepare children for school. Settlement houses also sponsored clubs and recreational activities. Assisting poor women was a special focus with programs on child care and family health.

Progressive women did not have a single approach to helping the poor. Some focused on improving conditions for working men and women so they could better support their families. Others tackled social problems such as prostitution and alcoholism. The Anti-Saloon League argued that alcoholism was a major contributor to poverty as working men spent their paychecks in bars. The prohibition movement became increasingly powerful during the Progressive Era. Many women believed that economic and social issues would be better addressed if women got the vote. Beginning with Idaho, western states began giving women the vote in local elections during the Gilded Age. Colorado and Utah did so in the 1890s. In 1890, two women’s suffrage organizations merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. At first, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony led this influential women’s group. In 1916, Alice Paul founded the National Woman’s Party, a more aggressive organization that was influence by the radical British suffragette movement. Both groups played important roles in winning the vote for women in the aftermath of World War I.

Some women went beyond advocating the vote and began discussing feminism, which envisioned far-reaching changes in women’s lives. The term feminism was first used by a group of women who gathered in New York City in 1914. Feminists no longer wanted to live with the restraints society placed upon women. A reality few women could avoid in the early twentieth century was the possibility of pregnancy. Margaret Sanger, who had worked with the poor of New York City as a nurse, became a well-known advocate of birth control. She scandalized many people by attempting to make such information readily available. Sanger was an enthusiast of eugenics and believed in fewer but better babies. She also thought birth control offered women greater personal freedom.

Laws designed to protect working women were passed during the Progressive Era. The Supreme Court provided sanction for this effort in Muller v. Oregon. This decision ruled that it was constitutional for states to limit the number of hours women could work. This reflected contemporary ideas about women. It was thought that working too long would overtax women’s limited strength. It was also believed that overlong shifts would interfere with women’s most important duty as mothers.

Workplace Reform

Industrial accidents were commonplace in the early twentieth century, leading to the death or injury of many workers. The tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, where 146 workers were killed when a fire swept through a badly maintained factory, convinced many Progressives that safety regulations were needed in the workplace. Progressives also sought accident insurance programs for workers. Between 1910 and 1917, many states passed legislation to provide relief to the families of people killed or injured in workplace or mining accidents.

Progressives and labor unions had a complicated relationship. Progressives were not wholehearted supporters of union activity; some union members worried about Progressive interference in the workplace. One Progressive initiative that the unions endorsed was restricting immigration. It is a measure of the complexity of Progressivism that many of these middle-class reformers distrusted Southern and Eastern European immigrants who were “unlike ourselves” and tended to vote for machine politicians. Union members wanted to reduce immigration because recent immigrants avoided unions; unionists also believed that the influx of large numbers of immigrants drove down wages. Progressives laid the groundwork for the immigration restrictions of the 1920s.

Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal

Theodore Roosevelt became president because of the assassination of William McKinley in 1901. Despite his unexpected ascent to power, Roosevelt aggressively used the powers of his office. He also was a master of public relations. This, and his exuberant personality, made him a larger-than-life figure on the American scene. Unlike the chief executives of the Gilded Age, Roosevelt believed that government should take the lead in reforming society. Roosevelt’s activist approach to the presidency set a new standard for the presidents who would follow him.

In 1902, Roosevelt played an unprecedented role in negotiating an agreement between mine operators and the striking United Mine Workers union. He declared that the resulting contract was a “Square Deal” for both management and the workers. This term was later used to describe Roosevelt’s policy of using the government to protect the interests of all members of society.

Roosevelt was easily elected president in 1904, defeating the Democratic candidate Judge Alton B. Parker. He used his victory as a mandate to press for Progressive legislation in Congress. 1906 was an active legislative year for him. The Hepburn Act strengthened the Interstate Commerce Act, giving the Interstate Commerce Commission more authority to regulate railroads. The Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act gave the government power to regulate food products and medicine and addressed concerns raised by Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.

President Roosevelt reinvigorated the Sherman Antitrust Act. Though passed in 1890, little had been done to use the law to break up illegal trusts or monopolistic holding companies. Concern about the burgeoning power of big business was a driving force in the Progressive movement. Roosevelt decided to demonstrate that the people, through their government, still wielded final authority in the land. He ordered the Justice Department to use the Sherman Antitrust Act to sue for the breakup of the Northern Securities Company, a holding company that controlled most of the railroads in the northwest. The Supreme Court eventually upheld the Justice Department’s suit. Roosevelt had the Justice Department sue to break up 45 corporations, including Standard Oil, and the American Tobacco Company. Roosevelt acquired the reputation of a “trustbuster,” but, in fact, he was not anti-big-business. Roosevelt applied the Sherman Antitrust Act to corporations that he believed had used their size and power to exploit consumers.

Roosevelt made conservation of the nation’s resources a major Progressive cause. An avid hunter and outdoorsman, as well as a gifted naturalist, he set aside 200 million acres of land for national forests and increased the national park system. In 1905, he established the U.S. Forest Service to protect the nation’s woodlands.

Taft and Progressivism

William Howard Taft was Theodore Roosevelt’s chosen successor. Originally a judge, he was Roosevelt’s friend and a member of his cabinet. In 1908, Taft defeated William Jennings Bryan, running for the third time as the Democratic presidential candidate. Taft attempted to follow in Roosevelt’s Progressive footsteps, in some ways even going beyond his mentor. Taft was a far more aggressive trustbuster than Roosevelt; in four years he brought suit against 95 corporations.

Unfortunately, Taft lacked Roosevelt’s political and public relations skills. He also was much more deferential to Congress. This led him to support the Payne-Aldrich Tariff of 1909, which angered many Progressives because it kept tariffs unnecessarily high on many products, which hurt consumers. Taft found it impossible to reconcile the conservative and Progressive wings of the Republican party. Taft also ran afoul of Progressives in the Ballinger-Pinchot Affair. Richard A. Ballinger was Taft’s secretary of the interior. He allowed businesses to purchase a million acres of public land in Alaska. This enraged Gifford Pinchot, the head of the Forest Service. He publically accused Ballinger of corruption. Taft investigated and fired Pinchot. This episode began to alienate Taft from many Progressives who accepted Pinchot’s allegations that Taft was undermining conservation. Pinchot, a good friend of Roosevelt’s, complained about his treatment to the former president. Relations between Taft and Roosevelt began to cool.

By 1910, Taft was relying for support on the Republican “Old Guard.” He opposed some of his Progressive critics in the 1910 primaries. Theodore Roosevelt was back in the United States after a much-publicized safari in Africa. He vigorously campaigned for some of the Progressives that Taft opposed. As he barnstormed across the country, Roosevelt proposed an ambitious series of reforms to protect workers and consumers that would be implemented by a bigger and stronger federal government. Roosevelt called his plan the New Nationalism. Progressive candidates made gains in the 1910 elections, reflecting a reformist mood in the country. This paved the way for the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment, which gave the federal government the power to collect income taxes. President Taft and a broad cross-section of the public supported this as a way to collect revenue and balance the fiscal cost of lowering tariffs. Initially it was thought that only the wealthy would pay an income tax. This amendment proved consequential for the future because it gave Congress the means to pay for expanded government and more government programs.

The Election of 1912

Many factors contributed to the breakdown of relations between President Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. Taft’s decision to launch an antitrust suit against U.S. Steel over an acquisition that Roosevelt had approved in 1907 deeply angered the former president because it made it look as if he had colluded in an illegal action. Roosevelt also was frustrated on the political sidelines and wanted to be president again. He threw his “hat into the ring” in 1912. In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Roosevelt won most of the primaries in states where these were held, but Taft controlled the party machinery and was supported by most of the delegates from nonprimary states. This allowed Taft to edge Roosevelt out for the Republican nomination.

Roosevelt believed that he had been robbed; his delegates withdrew from the Republican convention. Roosevelt and his supporters formed the Progressive party, popularly known as the Bull Moose party. The Progressives nominated Roosevelt for president and California governor Hiram Johnson for vice president. The new party called for the eight-hour day, women’s suffrage, and the end of child labor. Many women were Bull Moose activists. The Progressives shied away from championing the cause of African Americans because Roosevelt hoped to win Southern support for the party.

The split in the Republican party was an electoral gift to the Democrats. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Democrats turned to a fresh face and nominated Woodrow Wilson, a first-term governor of New Jersey. Wilson was a Progressive who had sponsored many reforms in his two years as governor. Wilson proposed the New Freedom policy, which reflected what had long been a traditional Democratic suspicion of a powerful federal government. Wilson was more hostile to the bigness of business than Roosevelt. Instead of government regulating business, he called for the dismantling of monopolistic corporations. With Taft and Roosevelt dividing the once-ascendant GOP, Wilson easily won the election, even though he won only 42 percent of the popular vote. Roosevelt came in second with 27 percent, and Taft received 23 percent. Eugene Debs, running as the head of the Socialist party, won 6 percent of the popular vote. Given the records of the candidates, 1912 was the electoral high-water mark of the Progressive Era.

Wilson and Progressivism

President Wilson immediately set to work to enact the New Freedom into legislation. He was just as much an activist president as Roosevelt and devoted much effort to marshalling his allies in Congress. The Underwood Tariff Act of 1913 imposed the greatest tariff reductions since the Civil War; the resulting loss of revenue was compensated for by the new income tax. The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 extended the prohibitions of the Sherman Antitrust Act by outlawing price discrimination and a list of other corporate abuses. The Clayton Act was a great victory for organized labor because it legalized strikes. In office, Wilson began to move from the New Freedom toward the New Nationalism. He decided to pursue a regulatory approach to government dealings with big business. The legislative manifestation of this new perspective was the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914, which created the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC was a bipartisan agency that regulated business activity by working closely with companies to help them avoid illegal activities. This began a relationship between business and government that would grow closer during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Wilson also addressed the perpetual problem of currency supply and financial panics with the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which created the Federal Reserve System. This set up a system of twelve regional banks that could lend money to commercial banks in their districts. A Federal Reserve Board in Washington oversaw the system and controlled the issuing of a new form of paper money, the Federal Reserve notes that we use today. The authors of the Federal Reserve Act hoped that it would strengthen the American economy by establishing a decentralized support system for banks and by providing the country with a stable, yet flexible, currency.

Assessing Progressivism

Progressives could point to many achievements. On all levels of government a flood of legislation attempted to improve the efficiency of government and improve conditions for the disadvantaged. In the name of democracy, the Progressives attacked political machines and weakened political parties, though at the cost of shifting a growing amount of power to unelected bureaucrats and administrators. The enforcement of antitrust laws against some corporations had the important symbolic effect of affirming the people’s authority to regulate big business. Progressivism ended the unfettered laissez faire of the Gilded Age.

Progressives were primarily interested in urban issues; they did little to address the problems of the rural poor. Predominantly members of the middle class, most Progressives were uninterested in aggressively championing social equality. Many distrusted recent immigrants. Few wanted to assist African Americans. Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to a meal at the White House, but received so much criticism from Southerners over this that he never did so again. Woodrow Wilson was born in the South. When he and the Democrats took over the executive branch in 1913, Wilson allowed members of his cabinet to resegregate the workers in their departments. D. W. Griffith’s 1915 film Birth of a Nation was an epic tale of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Technically and artistically a landmark in the history of film, Griffith’s movie reflected a Southern view of Reconstruction that had become dominant among historians, and celebrated the Ku Klux Klan’s suppression of the freedmen. Woodrow Wilson had written a history that was referenced in the film, and he said that its portrayal of Reconstruction was “truthful.” The Progressive movement did not promote progress for African Americans. As a result, African Americans organized to help themselves. In 1909, a group of African American and white reformers founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to combat racism and advocate equal rights for all.

American intervention in World War I marked the beginning of the end of the Progressive Era. Supporters of reforms such as women’s suffrage and prohibition would achieve important victories during the war. But the war would turn the attention of many leaders to foreign affairs. The way the government conducted the war would exhaust many people’s patience for reform and government activism.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• Political, economic, and social inequities and problems existed in America in the late 1890s, and the Progressive movement developed to attempt to address some of those problems.

• The Progressive movement did not have a unifying set of goals or leaders.

• Progressives shared some of the same critiques of American society as the Socialists, but wished to reform and not attack the American system.

• Progressive reformers were closely tied to the Social Gospel movement of the Protestant church; progressivism and religious fervor often marched hand in hand.

• Muckraking magazines and newspapers of the era often created and published the Progressive agenda.

• Many Progressives were determined to reform city government and the services provided by city government.

• Progressive political reforms included the initiative, the referendum, and the recall processes, and the direct primary.

• Hull House was an example of a settlement house copied by reformers across the country.

• The presidency of Theodore Roosevelt was a high point of progressivism; Roosevelt’s “Square Deal” included many progressive measures.

• Progressive policies were sometimes challenged by Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft; the advent of World War I blunted the Progressive reform impulse for many.

• Progressivism succeeded in achieving some of its goals but fell short in aiding farmers and minorities in America.

Time Line

1879: Progress and Poverty by Henry George published

1888: Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy published

1889: Formation of National Consumers League

1890: National American Woman Suffrage Association founded

1901: Theodore Roosevelt becomes president after the assassination of William McKinley

Progressive Robert La Follette elected as governor of Wisconsin

Progressive Tom Johnson elected as mayor of Cleveland, Ohio

1903: Founding of Women’s Trade Union League

1904: The Shame of the Cities by Lincoln Steffens published

1905: IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) established

Establishment of U.S. Forest Service

1906: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair published

Meat Inspection Act enacted

Pure Food and Drug Act enacted

1908: William Howard Taft elected president

1909: Foundation of the NAACP

1910: Ballinger-Pinchot controversy

1911: Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire

1912: Progressive party (Bull Moose party) founded by Theodore Roosevelt

Woodrow Wilson elected president

Establishment of Industrial Relations Committee

1913: Establishment of Federal Reserve System

Ratification of Sixteenth Amendment, authorizing federal income tax

Ratification of Seventeenth Amendment, authorizing direct election of senators

1914: Clayton Antitrust Act ratified

Outbreak of World War I in Europe

1915: First showing of D. W. Griffith’s film Birth of a Nation

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Successful reforms initiated by the Progressives included all but which of the following:

A. Governments became more efficient in American cities such as Cleveland.

B. Health and safety conditions improved in some large factories.

C. The conditions of migrant farmers improved to some degree.

D. The federal government began to collect a national income tax.

2. Theodore Roosevelt ran for president in 1912 because

A. the policies of William Howard Taft’s administration were almost exclusively antiprogressive.

B. he desired to split the Republican party and give the election to the Democrats.

C. he was appalled by the results of the Ballinger-Pinchot Affair.

D. of the Taft administration’s decision to apply the Sherman Antitrust Act to United States Steel.

3. American blacks were discouraged by their lack of racial progress during the Wilson administration. Which of the following is not true?

A. The film Birth of a Nation presented a positive view of blacks in Reconstruction states after the Civil War.

B. Black and Progressive leaders forged tight political bonds during the Wilson administration and battled for many of the same causes.

C. Booker T. Washington and Theodore Roosevelt developed close political ties after their two meetings together.

D. All of the above.

4. Many Progressives agreed with Socialists that

A. capitalism had created massive inequality in America.

B. the American factory system had to be fundamentally altered.

C. labor unions were inherently evil.

D. revolutionary tactics were needed to reform the economic and social systems.

5. Which of the following was least likely to be a Progressive in this era?

A. A member of the Protestant Social Gospel movement

B. A large stockholder in United States Steel

C. A follower of Eugene Debs

D. A member of the Bull Moose party

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of Progressive actions aimed at reforming the American economy.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of Progressive actions aimed at reforming the American economy.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of Progressive actions aimed at reforming American politics.

Answers and Explanations

1. C. Progressives did much less for workers in the agricultural sector than they did for factory workers.

2. D. The Taft administration enacted many important progressive measures. Roosevelt considered the actions against United States Steel to be a personal affront to him.

3. D. D. W. Griffith’s film presented a very negative view of blacks during Reconstruction. Progressives and black leaders never worked closely together. Theodore Roosevelt met twice with Booker T. Washington but did little to help the conditions of blacks.

4. A. Progressives and Socialists were both critical of the effects of capitalism in the United States. Progressives, however, were intent on reforming that system.

5. B. Progressives were insistent that corporations like United States Steel be made to reform. Members of the Social Gospel movement and Socialist followers of Eugene Debs shared goals with the Progressives.

6. Parts A and B: Progressive mayors like Tom Johnson in Cleveland took over utilities in an attempt to provide better service to their constituents. Progressive governors like Robert La Follette in Wisconsin worked to regulate railroads and other businesses. President Theodore Roosevelt intervened to mediate the 1902 coal strike. That same year, Roosevelt also directed the Justice Department to launch an antitrust suit against the Northern Securities Company, a large railroad corporation. Roosevelt would follow this up with more “trust-busting” suits. The Elkins Act of 1903 and Hepburn Act of 1906 strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission. The Pure Food and Drug and Meat Inspection Acts of 1906 provided for federal regulation of food and medicines. The Sixteenth Amendment, adopted in 1913, allowed Congress to levy income taxes. In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Federal Reserve System, which created the modern American central banking system. He also promoted the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, which was intended to strengthen antitrust laws. The Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 created a new federal agency to regulate business and trade practices.

Part C: In an effort to combat political corruption and inefficiency, many cities replaced elected mayors with appointed city managers. Other Progressive reforms on the local and state level included the initiative, which allowed citizens to propose laws, the referendum, which allowed citizens to vote on proposed laws, the recall, which allowed citizens to remove elected officials, and the direct primary, which allowed party members rather than bosses to pick political candidate. The seventeenth Amendment, adopted in 1913, provided for the direct election of U.S. senators.

United States and World War I (1914–1921)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: The United States was officially neutral in the first two years of World War I. In 1916, one of President Woodrow Wilson’s campaign slogans was “he kept us out of war.” However, America was soon drawn into this conflict on the side of the British and French against the Germans (and the Austro-Hungarians). The 1915 sinking of the British passenger ship the Lusitania infuriated many Americans, as did the publication of the Zimmerman Note, in which Germany tried to entice Mexico to go to war against the United States. In January 1917, Germany announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, and several American ships were sunk. These events caused President Wilson to call for a declaration of war against Germany. American entry into the war was a tremendous psychological lift for the British and the French. On the American home front, the government imposed unprecedented controls on the economy and on the spreading of news. The war ended with an armistice in November 1918. At the subsequent Paris Peace Conference, Wilson attempted to convince the Allies to accept his peace plan, called the “Fourteen Points.” Britain and France were generally not enthusiastic about Wilson’s proposals, but they did support the creation of a League of Nations. However, the League was opposed by isolationist members of the U.S. Senate, and the United States never became a member of the League. Instead, U.S. foreign policy became isolationist and remained largely so through the 1930s.

Keywords

American Expeditionary Force: American force of 14,500 men that landed in France in June 1917 under the command of General John J. Pershing. Both women and blacks served in the American army during the war, although black units were segregated and usually had white officers.

War Industries Board: board that regulated American industry during World War I; it attempted to stimulate war production by allocating raw materials to factories that aided the war effort.

Committee on Public Information: agency created during the war whose mission was to spread pro-Allied propaganda through the press and through newsreels; newspapers were asked to print only articles that were helpful to the war effort.

Fourteen Points: plan for the postwar world that Woodrow Wilson brought to the Paris Peace Conference; Wilson’s plan proposed open peace treaties, freedom of the seas, arms reductions, and a League of Nations. Britain and France were openly suspicious of these plans, but they supported the creation of a League of Nations.

League of Nations: world body proposed by Woodrow Wilson as part of his 14-point peace plan. The League was created but without the participation of Germany, the Soviet Union, and the United States (isolationists in the Senate ensured that the treaty creating the League was never signed). As a result, the League remained a relatively ineffective body throughout its existence.

War and American Neutrality

Although few expected war in Europe in the summer of 1914, conditions were ripe for an explosion of violence. The growth of aggressive nationalisms set various countries against each other and threatened the stability of multinational states like the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Competition over colonial possessions and conflicts over spheres of influence in places like the Balkans further complicated relations between the great European powers. Most dangerous of all, the most important European states were grouped into two alliance systems. This meant that a conflict between two countries would likely entangle their allies and lead to a European-wide war. The assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian terrorists on June 28, 1914, sparked a diplomatic chain reaction that in August resulted in a war involving most of the European powers. Great Britain, France, and Russia comprised the Triple Entente, or Allied Powers, and Germany and Austria-Hungary made up the Central Powers. Turkey later joined the Central Powers, and Italy later became one of the Allied Powers.

Great numbers of Americans had emotional ties to the warring powers. In 1914, over one-third of the American population were first- or second-generation immigrants. Many Americans felt an affinity for Great Britain because of long-standing cultural connections. Most German-Americans sympathized with their former fatherland.

President Wilson deeply admired the British and their political system, and distrusted German militarism. Despite this, he officially proclaimed American neutrality on August 4, 1914. Whatever their individual sympathies, Americans overwhelmingly wanted to stay out of the war. Americans also wanted to maintain their trade relationships with both warring parties. The war consumed enormous amounts of resources, and the United States became a desirable source of raw materials and manufactured goods. European war orders helped pull the United States out of a recession that began in 1913. In the competition for American trade, Great Britain and France had the advantage, because their navies controlled the Atlantic. The British used their naval power to prevent American ships from carrying goods to Germany. The Germans retaliated by using a new weapon, the submarine, to sink Allied ships carrying American goods to Britain and France.

Growing Ties to the Allies

Increasing economic ties drew the United States closer to the Allies. By 1916, almost all trade with the Central Powers had ceased, while trade with the Allies had gone up 400 percent. When the Allies ran out of cash in 1915, the Wilson administration allowed Wall Street banks to lend the Allies the money they needed to continue purchasing American products. This meant that many in the United States were literally banking upon an Allied victory. Some interest groups called on the federal government to prepare for war with the Central Powers. Beginning in late 1914, the National Security League launched an information campaign to convince Americans that war was necessary. By 1915, Congress began to take steps to strengthen the army and navy. Countering this, organizations promoting peace sprang up across the United States. Many of these were headed by women.

What decisively turned the American people against the Central Powers was German submarine warfare. Given that Allied warships dominated the surface of the sea, the only way that the Germans could strike at ships carrying supplies to Britain and France was with undersea or U-boats. Initially U-boats followed international law and warned ships before sinking them. Then the Allies armed their merchant ships with guns that could sink the unarmored submarines. From that point on, U-boats torpedoed ships without warning; this inevitably led to loss of life among the crew and passengers. Unsympathetic to the difficulties facing submariners, Americans found this form of warfare barbarous, and many began referring to Germans as the “Hun.”

American opposition to the German submarine campaign came to a head with the sinking of the Lusitania on May 7, 1915. The Lusitania was a passenger liner that carried munitions as well as people. The Germans had printed notices warning passengers against traveling on the ship. None of this mattered to American public opinion; Americans were horrified by the shocking casualties, with almost 1,200 men, women, and children dead, including 128 Americans. President Wilson lodged a strong diplomatic condemnation of the sinking, but resisted calls for war.

In August, the Germans struck again at a passenger liner, sinking the Arabic. President Wilson strongly protested this attack. Anxious to placate the Americans, the German government announced that their submariners would not sink passenger ships without warning if they were allowed to search these vessels for military contraband.

Relations between the United States and Germany continued to deteriorate. On March 24, 1916, a U-boat sank the Sussex, a French ship carrying passengers and supplies. Among the injured were seven Americans. President Wilson sent an ultimatum to the Germans declaring that the United States would sever diplomatic relations if they persisted in attacking nonmilitary ships. The German government was anxious to avoid a possible American entrance into the war. The Germans backed down and subscribed to the Sussex Pledge, declaring that they would not sink any more ships without warning. This was a perilous diplomatic victory for Wilson; if the Germans resumed full submarine warfare, he would have few options other than war.

The Breakdown of German-American Relations

For a time it looked as if President Wilson had secured peace. In the election of 1916, he ran as the peace candidate, and the Democrats popularized the slogan “He kept us out of war.” This enabled Wilson to win a narrow reelection victory over the reunited Republicans and their candidate, former New York governor and Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes.

Ironically, Wilson would take the country to war soon after his second inauguration. The war in Europe was a bloody stalemate. In an effort to achieve victory, the Germans announced unrestricted submarine warfare on January 31, 1917. From that point on, they would sink any ship carrying supplies to the Allies. Neutral flags would be no protection. The Germans realized that this would likely lead to war with the United States. They calculated that they could starve Britain and France into submission before the Americans could intervene effectively. Wilson ended diplomatic relations with Germany on February 3. He urged Congress to legalize the arming of merchant ships. As war loomed between Germany and the United States, Arthur Zimmermann, the German foreign minister foolishly sent an inflammatory diplomatic note to the Mexican government. In the event of a German-American war, he encouraged the Mexicans to attack the United States and promised German support for a Mexican reconquest of the American Southwest. British intelligence intercepted the Zimmermann Telegram and passed it on to the Americans. Publication of the Zimmermann Telegram infuriated Americans and helped prepare them for war.

As they had promised, the Germans began sinking American ships headed to Britain and France. This violated the traditional American conviction that neutrals should have the freedom of the seas to sail wherever they wanted. On April 2, President Wilson made the short trip to Capitol Hill and in person asked Congress to declare war against Germany. The following day, Congress acceded to Wilson’s request and voted for war. Though the overwhelming majority in Congress supported the war, six senators and 50 representatives voted against intervening in the conflict. Wilson had tried to preserve American neutrality, though by the time the United States entered the war it was effectively a supply depot for the Allies. The German submarine campaign proved unacceptable to many Americans; given the German conviction that it was essential for victory, war was hard to avoid. Once the United States became a combatant, Wilson looked forward to playing a major role in shaping the eventual peace.

America in the War

The war was not going well for the Allies in early 1917. Russia had been unable to effectively wage modern war. After a long series of defeats and growing domestic chaos, the tsar was overthrown in March 1917. The liberal government that succeeded the tsar hoped to stay in the war and sustain a relationship with the western Allies. The crumbling of Russian armies as soldiers deserted and went home put this in doubt. It appeared that the Germans might be able to transfer large numbers of troops from Russian to the western front. The British and French were strained to their limits. After a disastrous offensive that ended in bloody failure, large numbers of disgusted French soldiers mutinied, decrying callous leadership and calling for better treatment.

President Wilson decided to send American troops to fight in Europe. Their commander would be General John J. Pershing. The first contingent of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) arrived in France in June. Though numbering only 14,500 men, a paltry figure by World War I standards, this first detachment of the AEF helped revive Allied morale. In this handful of “doughboys” lay the promise of many more American soldiers to come.

One reason Pershing initially led so few men to France was the small size of the American army. To fight a modern total war, the American armed services would have to be massively increased. The most efficient way to do this was through a draft. Congress passed a Selective Service Act in May. All men between the ages of 21 and 30 could be drafted; the age limits were later extended to 17 and 46. Eventually 400,000 African Americans served in the military, though in segregated units with mostly white officers. 11,500 women wore a uniform; most served as nurses and office staff.

The U.S. Navy was better prepared to take immediate action than the army. In the Atlantic, German U-boats were sinking enough ships to cause the Allies real hardship. The Americans navy took a leading role in organizing a convoy system in May 1917. Ships traveling in convoys protected by the navy were much more secure from submarine attack. Only two American troop transports were sunk during the war. A combination of convoys and better patrolling greatly reduced shipping losses. By the end of the war, the German submarines had failed in their strategic mission.

The American Expeditionary Force in France

Thanks to volunteers and the draft, the size of the American army increased to 4 million men by the end of the war; 2 million of these men were in France. They were needed. The Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917 ended Russian participation in the war. The Germans were able to transfer large numbers of soldiers to France. Beginning in March 1918, they launched a series of offensives that battered the Allied lines; by June the Germans were 50 miles from Paris.

American troops played an important role in stopping the Germans. At the Battle of Chateau-Thierry, Americans blunted the German drive on Paris. The AEF launched a successful offensive of its own in September and erased a German salient at St. Mihiel. In late September, the Americans began the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which lasted into November. This massive offensive involved a million American soldiers, cut a vital German supply line, and helped convince the enemy that they had lost the war.

The Germans signed an armistice that ended the fighting on November 11, 1918. Around 115,000 Americans died in the war; roughly half of these lost their lives in battle, and the rest perished of disease, including the great flu epidemic of 1918. These losses were light compared to the 8 million European dead. Americans who returned home as heroes included Eddie Rickenbacker, the leading American flying ace, and Alvin York, who during the Meuse-Argonne fighting killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 more.

The Home Front

For Americans the war was a conflict fought far away “over there.” The government looked for ways to give Americans a sense of personal involvement in the war. Ordinary citizens could help finance the war by buying Liberty Bonds. Celebrities like the movie star Charlie Chaplin demonstrated their patriotism by promoting the purchase of these bonds.

In a vast expansion of regulatory power, the federal government took over much of the economy. The Lever Food and Fuel Control Act, passed in August 1917, gave the government the power to regulate the production and consumption of food. Herbert Hoover, who had become famous for feeding European refugees, headed the Food Administration. Here he worked to increase food production, and encouraged Americans to conserve food with voluntary “Wheatless Mondays” and “Meatless Tuesdays.” Daylight saving time was an innovation designed to give farmers more time to bring in their crops. A Fuel Administration was charged with conserving fuel supplies. It encouraged Americans to help with this through “Fuelless Mondays” and “Gasless Sundays.” The War Industries Board (WIB) was given the power to support war production by allocating industrial resources. Under the leadership of the Wall Street tycoon Bernard Baruch, the WIB was beginning to harness the industrial might of the nation by the end of the war. The government also controlled the railroads, allowing it to set priorities in transportation.

This unprecedented control of the economy has led some historians to see World War I as the high-water mark of progressivism. The wartime emergency allowed the government to exercise powers that would have been unthinkable a few years before. Thanks to the skill of administrators like Baruch and Hoover, much of this was accomplished with the cooperation of business and farm leaders. The mobilization of the economy during World War I would become a model for the later New Deal and government agencies during World War II. But such an aggrandizement of governmental power also raised concerns about freedom. This triumph of Progressivism would lead to a reaction against it.

Regulating Thought

Nothing did more to eventually discredit the extension of governmental power than efforts to regulate what people could think and express publically. In 1917, the government established the Committee on Public Information (CPI). Headed by the journalist George Creel, the CPI was tasked with providing information about the war to the American people. Explanation soon became propaganda. In lectures, books, posters, and films, the Germans were depicted as bestial barbarians. Creel encouraged newspapers to censor stories that did not follow the government’s line on the war. Liberty Leagues were organized across the United States; their members were tasked with spying on their neighbors, and reporting any suspicious activity or disloyal talk to the authorities.

The war led to a heightened distrust of immigrants and “hyphenated-Americans,” especially German Americans. The National Security League persuaded Congress to impose a literacy test on immigrants. In various communities anti-German hysteria led to the banning of German music and foods, and the teaching of the German language in high schools. Individual German Americans were often subject to harassment or worse. In a notorious incident that took place in April 1918, a German-American man was mobbed and lynched in St. Louis; the victim had just enlisted in the navy.

The federal government added legal muscle to the suppression of dissent. The 1917 Espionage Act outlawed interfering with the draft and gave postal authorities the power to seize any publications sent through the mail that they considered treasonous. The 1918 Sedition Act went further and outlawed criticism of the government, the Constitution, or the armed forces. Thousands of Americans were charged with violating these laws, and over 1,000 were convicted. The Socialist leader Eugene Debs was sent to prison for speaking against the war. Robert Goldstein, a movie producer, was sentenced to three years in prison for making a movie about the American Revolution in which the British were portrayed as the villains; this previously unexceptionable view of the struggle for American independence was deemed seditions because the British were currently allies in the war. The government used these laws to break up radical organizations such as the IWW.

Social Change

The war opened up economic possibilities for African Americans. With millions of men entering the military and wartime demands on their capacity, northern industries needed workers. African Americans living in the South moved north in the Great Migration. 600,000 African Americans made this journey during the war. The war also made it possible for women to step into jobs that had not been open to them before the war. Although most would leave these positions once the soldiers began returning home, their efforts during the war would help make the case for women’s suffrage.

Wilson and the Peace

President Wilson was determined to play a leading role in shaping the new postwar international order. While the war was still in progress, he published his Fourteen Points, an idealistic program to lay the foundations for a peaceful world, which included open diplomacy (no more secret military treaties), freedom of the seas, national self-determination, and a league of nations. Defying presidential precedent, Wilson sailed to France to take part in the Paris Peace Conference, which began on January 12, 1919. The peacemaking would be driven by the leaders of the “Big Four” allies—Britain, France, Italy, and the United States. While the ordinary people of Europe greeted Wilson as a hero for his inspiring vision of a better future, the other allied leaders were less impressed by his ideas and were determined to press their national interests. Wilson wanted a peace based on the Fourteen Points, but the French in particular were set on punishing Germany.

During the hard negotiating that took place in Paris, Wilson had to make many concessions. Harsh terms were imposed on Germany, which had to accept guilt for starting the war and pay reparations to France and Britain. Germany also lost its colonies, 10 percent of its territory, and most of its military. German diplomats were not allowed to discuss the terms of the Treaty of Versailles; they had to sign the document or face an Allied invasion. German bitterness over this treatment planted the seeds of World War II. Though disappointed by aspects of the Treaty of Versailles, Wilson believed that its establishment of a League of Nations would make it possible to rectify the treaty’s errors in the future.

Americans and the Middle East

Aside from Theodore Roosevelt’s diplomatic involvement in the 1905–1906 Moroccan crisis, the United States had shown little interest in the Middle East. Great Power rivalries during and after World War I focused American attention on the region.

Prior to the war, much of the Middle East was controlled by Turkey, or the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish empire had been declining for over a century. The leaders of the empire hoped that they could arrest this decline by entering the war on the side of the Central Powers. This proved a grave mistake. Defeat in the war brought on the final collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Since the late nineteenth century, Jews inspired by the Zionist movement had been settling in Ottoman-ruled Palestine. In 1917, in an effort to weaken the Turks, the British issued the Balfour Declaration, which expressed support for an independent Jewish state in Palestine. President Wilson also favored the creation of a Jewish state. Many American Jews provided financial assistance to the Zionists.

As the war turned against them, the Turkish authorities grew suspicious of the Armenian minority who lived within the empire. In 1915, the Turks launched a bloody progrom against the Christian Armenians, massacring thousands and killing many more by starvation and ill-treatment. American missionaries and diplomats helped get word of these atrocities to the outside world. In 1916 and 1917, thousands of Americans rallied to protest the slaughter of the Armenians and to support Armenian relief organizations. (To this day, the Turkish government refuses to acknowledge that the Armenian massacres took place.)

President Wilson made the breakup of the Ottoman Empire American policy. (He also wanted to dismantle the German and Austro-Hungarian empires.) He called for the peoples of all the territories ruled by the Central Powers to work towards “autonomous political development.” At the Paris Peace Conference, the United States was authorized to form the King-Crane Commission to study the political aspirations of the people living in the Middle East.

What the King-Crane Commission found was that the Middle Easterners wanted to be free from foreign control. They deeply distrusted the intentions of the British and French who had defeated the Turks. If any of the Allies were to be given a mandate to control territory in the Middle East, the people there preferred it to be the Americans, who they believed had no long-term interests in the region. The findings of the King-Crane Commission ran counter to the imperial ambitions of Britain and France. These Allied powers saw to it that the commission’s report was buried. The British and French divided up most of the Middle East. The British received mandates in Palestine, Transjordan, and Iraq, and the French accepted mandates in Lebanon and Syria. By the early 1920s, only Saudi Arabia was independent.

Woodrow Wilson’s Defeat

According to the Constitution, all treaties must be ratified by a two-thirds vote of the Senate. President Wilson did not appoint a senator to the delegation that he brought with him to Paris. Compounding this error, he failed to bring with him a leading Republican politician, despite the fact that the Republicans had won control of both houses of Congress in 1918. Having given the Republicans no reason to rally to his support, Wilson faced predictable opposition to the Treaty of Versailles when he returned to the United States. The most controversial element of the treaty was the League of Nations; most Republican and some Democratic senators worried that the league’s collective security provisions threatened to embroil the United States in more conflicts. Twelve senators declared themselves “irreconcilables” and refused outright to vote for the treaty and the League. Most of the Republicans followed the lead of Henry Cabot Lodge, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Lodge wanted to incorporate a series of reservations about the League into the American ratification of the treaty. As a result of this, his supporters were known as “reservationists.” Lodge wanted to ensure that the League of Nations would not invalidate the Monroe Doctrine; he also wanted assurance that only Congress would authorize American military actions on behalf of the League.

Lodge was willing to guarantee the Senate’s ratification of the treaty with his reservations. Important European leaders made it clear that they preferred the passage of the treaty with reservations to the failure of the treaty in the Senate. Despite this, Woodrow Wilson refused to compromise. The president had invested too much of himself into the struggle for the League to concede anything to his critics. Wilson’s health had been failing for some time. Disregarding this, in September 1919 he set off on a strenuous speaking tour, hoping to make his case about the League to the American people. On October 2, Wilson suffered an incapacitating stroke. The president eventually made a partial recovery, but the stroke left him less willing to compromise on anything, including the League. Wilson ordered loyal Democratic senators to vote against the League with reservations. Given the equally firm positions of the reservationists and the irreconcilables, the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations were rejected by the Senate in successive votes in 1919 and 1920. The United States never joined the League of Nations. This gravely weakened the League, which proved ineffectual in preventing a second world war. The rejection of the League did not mean an American turn to isolationism, and the United States would play an important role in world affairs during the 1920s.

In 1921, President Wilson left office a physically broken man. That year his successor, Warren G. Harding, officially ended America’s participation in World War I by signing separate peace treaties with the former member countries of the Central Powers.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• World War I greatly impacted the American mind-set and America’s role in world affairs; this was the first time that America became directly involved in affairs taking place on the European continent.

• Many Americans expressed support for the Allied Powers from the beginning of the war; German U-boat attacks solidified American support for Britain and France.

• The sinking of the Lusitania and the Zimmermann Telegram did much to intensify American anger against Germany.

• Germany’s decision to utilize unrestricted submarine warfare caused President Wilson to call for war in 1917; Wilson claimed that this policy violated America’s rights as a neutral power.

• The American Expeditionary Force did much to aid the Allied war effort, both militarily and psychologically.

• The federal government did much to mobilize the American population at home for the war effort; Liberty Bonds were sold, voluntary rationing took place, and propaganda was used to encourage Americans to oppose the “Hun” however possible.

• Many blacks moved to northern cities to work in factories during World War I; this migration would continue through the 1920s.

• Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points met with opposition from French and English leaders at the Paris Peace Conference; many of them had to be abandoned to secure the creation of the League of Nations.

• The Treaty of Versailles was opposed by U.S. senators who felt that America should pursue an isolationist policy after the war. As a result, the treaty was never signed by the United States and the United States never joined the League of Nations.

• Many European leaders expected America to be active as a leader in world affairs after World War I. Instead, America adopted neo-isolationist policies that lasted until America entered World War II.

Time Line

1914: Outbreak of World War I in Europe

Woodrow Wilson officially proclaims American neutrality in World War I

National Security League founded to prepare America for war

1915: Sinking of the Lusitania by German U-boat

1916: Germany torpedoes Sussex, then promises to warn merchants ships if they are to be attacked

Woodrow Wilson reelected with campaign slogan of “He kept us out of war”

1917: Zimmermann Telegram

Germany declares unrestricted submarine warfare

United States enters World War I, stating that U.S. rights as a neutral had been violated

Russian Revolution; Russian-German peace talks

Conscription begins in United States

War Industries Board formed to create a war economy

Espionage Act passed

American Expeditionary Force lands in France

1918: Military success by American Expeditionary Force at Chateau-Thierry

Sedition Act passed; free speech limited (illegal to criticize government or American military forces)

Wilson announces the Fourteen Points

Armistice ends World War I (November 11)

1919: Paris Peace Conference creates Treaty of Versailles

Race riots in Chicago

Wilson suffers stroke during speaking tour promoting Treaty of Versailles

Senate rejects Treaty of Versailles; United States does not join the League of Nations

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. All of the following events prepared America for war against Germany except

A. the Sussex Pledge.

B. German policy concerning use of U-boats in 1917.

C. the sinking of the Lusitania.

D. the Zimmermann Telegram.

2. The French were opposed to many of Wilson’s Fourteen Points because

A. they were fundamentally opposed to the creation of a world body such as the League of Nations.

B. they were angry that Wilson had insisted that the Germans not take part in the creation of the treaty.

C. French diplomats had little respect for Wilson and his American counterparts.

D. the Fourteen Points disagreed fundamentally with what the French felt should be contained in the Treaty of Versailles.

3. After America declared war in 1917

A. ration cards were issued to all families.

B. camps were set up to detain “troublesome” Americans of German background.

C. drills took place in American cities to prepare Americans for a possible attack.

D. movie stars and other celebrities helped sell Liberty Bonds to the American public.

4. Some critics maintained that the United States had no right to be outraged over the sinking of the Lusitania because

A. the Lusitania was carrying contraband, which meant that it could legally be sunk.

B. the Germans had sunk passenger ships before.

C. the Germans had placed advertisements in American newspapers warning Americans not to travel on the Lusitania.

D. all of the above.

5. Many senators were opposed to American entry into the League of Nations because

A. they feared that the United States would end up financing the organization.

B. they feared the U.S. Army would be sent into action on “League of Nations business” without congressional authorization.

C. American opinion polls demonstrated that the American public was almost unanimously opposed to American entry into the League.

D. they feared that the Germans and Russians would dominate the League.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of the steps the American government took to mobilize the American people during World War I.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of the steps the American government took to mobilize the American people during World War I.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of a military contribution that the United States made to Allied victory in World War I.

Answers and Explanations

1. A. In the Sussex Pledge, the Germans actually promised not to sink American merchant ships without warning. All of the other choices deeply angered many in America.

2. D. While Wilson saw the treaty as a chance to create a democratic world free of old diplomatic entanglements, the French saw it as an opportunity to punish the Germans, as much of the fighting of the war had taken place on French territory.

3. D. Charlie Chaplin and others appeared at rallies and urged Americans to buy Liberty Bonds. Rationing during World War I was voluntary.

4. D. Many maintain that the advertisements the Germans put in American newspapers were strong enough warnings that the ship was going to be sunk.

5. B. A major fear was that U.S. entry into the League would cause Congress to lose its right to declare war and approve American military actions. Germany and the Soviet Union were not initially members of the League of Nations.

6. Parts A and B: The American government helped finance the war by encouraging citizens to purchase Liberty Bonds. The Lever Food and Fuel Control Act of 1917 gave the government regulatory authority over the production and consumption of food and fuel. Herbert Hoover headed the Food Administration, which promoted “Wheatless Mondays” and “Meatless Tuesdays.” A Fuel Administration instituted similar attempts at rationing coal and gasoline. The government took control of the nation’s railroads during the war. The War Industries Board, headed by Wall Street financier Bernard Baruch, controlled the allocation of raw materials and set production goals in industry. The government also moved to control the flow of ideas. Newspaperman George Creel headed the Committee on Public Information (CPI), which disseminated information about the war and worked to build American support for the war effort. The CPI employed thousands of “Four Minute Men,” who gave brief pro-war addresses while reels were being changed in movie theaters. The Espionage Act of 1917 prohibited interference with military recruitment or operations. The 1919 Supreme Court decision Schenck v. United States upheld the constitutionality of the Espionage Act. The Sedition Act of 1918 outlawed criticisms of the government, the military, and the Constitution. Hundreds of people were charged with and convicted of violations of the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act.

Part C: The U.S. Navy played an important role in defeating the German submarine campaign. In addition to providing reinforcements to the British Navy, the American began organizing a convoy system that offered better protection to merchant ships. The U.S. Navy also mined the routes the German submarines followed when leaving their home ports. Losses from submarine attacks dropped dramatically. The U.S. Army organized the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) of American troops that fought in France. General John J. Pershing was appointed the commander of the AEF. He and the first soldiers of the AEF landed in France in June 1917. The presence of the American troops bolstered Allied morale and provided important reinforcements at a time when the Allied armies were worn down from years of fighting. The AEF was eventually built up to a force of 2,000,000 men. In June and July 1918, American troops help stop German offensives at the Battles of Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thierry. American forces erased the German salient at Saint-Mihiel in September. One million American soldiers participated in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which lasted from September 26 to November 11, 1918. This attack cut crucial German supply lines. American forces played a vital role in defeating Imperial Germany on the Western Front.

Beginning of Modern America: The 1920s

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: During the 1920s, Americans created a consumer culture in which automobiles, home appliances, and other goods were purchased at an unprecedented rate. Advertising helped to fuel this desire to purchase, and the popularity of radio and motion pictures helped to create a more uniform national culture. However, many small-town and rural Americans never felt totally comfortable with the values of the consumer-oriented, more urban “modern” America that they saw threatening their way of life. The conflict between urban and small-town American values was manifested in numerous ways: many in small-town America supported the Prohibition amendment banning alcohol, while many in America’s cities tried to get around it. Many in small-town America feared immigration, while many American cities contained immigrant enclaves. Many in small-town America still opposed the teaching of evolution, while many urban newspapers mocked their views. The flapper and a more relaxed sense of morality were symbols of the Jazz Age; generally, these symbols were harder to find in small-town America. All Americans did rally around the two heroes of the age: aviator Charles Lindbergh and home run hitter Babe Ruth.

Keywords

Teapot Dome Scandal: major scandal in the scandal-ridden administration of President Warren Harding; Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall had two oil deposits put under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior and leased them to private companies in return for large sums of money.

Red Scare: after World War I, the fear of the spread of communism in the United States.

Palmer Raids: as part of the Red Scare, in these 1919 to 1920 raids thousands of Americans not born in the United States were arrested, and hundreds were sent back to their countries of origin. Today many view the raids as a gross violation of the constitutional rights of American citizens.

National Origins Act (1924): anti-immigration federal legislation that took the number of immigrants from each country in 1890 and stated that immigration from those countries could now be no more than 2 percent of that. In addition, immigration from Asia was halted. The act also severely limited further immigration from eastern and southern Europe.

Scopes Trial (1925): trial of teacher John Scopes of Dayton, Tennessee, for the teaching of evolution. During this trial, lawyers Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan squared off on the teachings of Darwin versus the teachings of the Bible.

Jazz Age: image of the 1920s that emphasized the more relaxed social attitudes of the decade; F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is seen by many as the novel that best depicts this view.

Flapper: “new woman” of the 1920s, who was pictured as having bobbed hair, a shorter skirt, makeup, a cigarette in her hand, and somewhat liberated sexual attitudes. Flappers would have been somewhat hard to find in small-town and rural America.

“Lost Generation”: group of post–World War I writers who in their works expressed deep dissatisfaction with mainstream American culture. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is a novel that is representative of the works of these writers.

Harlem Renaissance: 1920s black literary and cultural movement that produced many works depicting the role of blacks in contemporary American society; Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes were key members of this movement.

The Prosperous Twenties

Following the end of World War I, the American economy experienced some difficulties as it transitioned back from a wartime to a peacetime footing. It suffered a major downturn in 1920–1921. Then the economy took off. The 1920s were one of the most prosperous decades in American history. Not everyone shared equally in this prosperity. Many farmers did not do as well as some urban dwellers. The wealthy benefitted more than the working class. Nevertheless, a remarkably broad swathe of Americans saw their living conditions improve. A 1924 study showed that industrial workers had almost doubled their 1914 wages. Good times reduced industrial strife and the number of strikes declined. Though businessmen still generally opposed unions, many were increasingly open to heading off labor organization by providing their workers better pay and benefits.

Business, which had been demonized in the Progressive Era, was celebrated in the 1920s. American industry became an increasingly dominant force in the world economy. At the forefront of this phenomenon was the American automobile industry. Competition left Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler dominating the car-making business; between them, these three corporations controlled 85 percent of the American market. Improved assembly line techniques make affordable cars readily available. In 1925, a Ford Model T was rolling off the factory floor every 24 seconds.

American industrialists had embraced Frederick W. Taylor’s program of “scientific management.” Efficiencies in production were bringing down the costs of consumer goods. This made it possible for growing numbers of Americans to purchase radios, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, and a range of new electric appliances. What had once been luxuries were now readily available on the “installment plan,” a marketing innovation that enabled consumers to buy goods over the course of 36 to 48 monthly payments. By 1928, 65 percent of all cars were being bought this way. Eventually this marketing reliance on credit would cause problems, but these were difficult to anticipate in the boom years of the twenties.

This decade saw the exuberant dawning of the advertising age. The inventive promoters of Madison Avenue worked to convince consumers that the “good life” was only possible with a particular model of car or refrigerator. Advertising became a common cultural bond for all Americans, whether they lived in the city or the country. Everyone was being sold the same commercial dreams in print and radio ads.

The Republican “New Era”

The Republicans dominated the national government during the 1920s, controlling both houses of Congress and the presidency. Even the Supreme Court was headed by a Republican, Chief Justice William Howard Taft, who had served as president from 1909–1913. The Republicans of the “New Era” believed in limited government and supported free enterprise. In their hands the regulatory state became an exercise in government and business partnership. This was best exemplified by the creative statesmanship of Herbert Hoover, who as secretary of commerce under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, helped organize a national radio system and encouraged industries to standardize parts and procedures.

Warren G. Harding as President

Warren G. Harding was not a frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 1920. A U.S. senator from Ohio, he ran a clever dark horse campaign in which he attempted to make himself the second choice of most convention delegates. When the leading candidates deadlocked, he became an easy compromise choice as the nominee.

The Democrats nominated Governor James Cox as their presidential candidate. Cox’s young running mate was Franklin D. Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson’s assistant secretary of the navy. Cox had to defend the Wilson administration and supported American entry into the League of Nations. Harding realized that Americans were tired of the stress and tumult associated with the war and Wilson. He waged an old-fashioned front-porch electoral campaign that evoked memories of the days of William McKinley. He promoted a traditional Republican platform of higher tariffs and lower taxes. Above all, Harding called for a “return to normalcy,” a sentiment that resonated with millions of voters. On the first national election in which women could cast ballots, Harding won in a landslide, getting 61 percent of the popular vote. Harding saw his victory as a repudiation of Wilsonian idealism and the “social experiments” of Progressivism.

Harding’s first order of business upon taking office was addressing the economy. He encouraged Congress to authorize a Bureau of the Budget to better manage the government’s revenues and expenditures; he named Charles Dawes as the bureau’s first head. Harding cut federal spending and persuaded Congress to cut taxes. Within a year, the United States had recovered from the postwar depression. Unemployment fell from 12 percent in 1921 to a little over 3 percent for most of the decade. The economic boom economy of the twenties had been launched.

Harding wanted to surround himself with the “best minds” that he could find for his cabinet. Some of his cabinet appointees proved particularly distinguished. Former Supreme Court Justice and presidential candidate Charles Evans Hughes served as secretary of state. Hughes played a leading role in the 1921 Washington Conference, which was intended to head off a naval arms race. The United States invited diplomatic and military representatives from Great Britain, France, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and China to Washington. Here Hughes proposed the scrapping of many tons of battleships and a 10-year freeze on further construction of these expensive warships. The Five Power Agreement among the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy acceded to this and set ratios for relative sizes of their navies. All the invited powers agreed to recognize Chinese sovereignty and uphold the Open Door in China. In the early 1920s, these agreements seemed to herald a period of peace and international cooperation. In the longer term, they failed to prevent the outbreak of World War II. Another notable American diplomatic success was the 1924 Dawes Plan. Charles Dawes persuaded the Allies to reduce the amount of German reparations. American banks provided loans to the Germans, which facilitated their reparations payments. This in turn gave the Allies funds to repay some of their war debts to the United States. This injection of American capital into the European economy helped spur an economic recovery there in the second half of the 1920s.

Harding chose Andrew Mellon as his secretary of the treasury. Mellon would serve in this position all through the rest of the 1920s. Mellon had headed the aluminum company Alcoa and was one of the richest men in America. Mellon believed in traditional Republican economics; he argued that limiting the size of government and cutting taxes would free up money for investment in business, which would then lead to more jobs. Over the course of the decade, Mellon worked to reduce tax rates. The immediate beneficiaries of his policies were the rich and corporations that paid the highest taxes. During the prosperous 1920s, Mellon’s financial policies were regarded as successful, and he was hailed as a great secretary of the treasury.

Mellon also wanted to protect American industries and jobs with high tariffs. The 1922 Fordney-McCumber Tariff raised tariff rates on manufactured goods. Agricultural interests were still formidable in Congress, and a farm bloc composed of both Democrats and Republicans could not be ignored. To reconcile the farmers to the new tariff, rates also went up on imported agricultural products. The business-friendly Harding administration did not see a need to promote organized labor. The twenties were a period of doldrums for unions. The courts generally ruled in favor of employers and even sometimes ruled in favor of child labor.

President Harding struck some blows for civil liberties and civil rights. He freed Eugene Debs and other political dissidents imprisoned during World War I by the Wilson administration for violations of the Espionage and Sedition Acts. In October 1921, Harding made an unprecedented trip to Birmingham, Alabama, and gave a speech calling for political equality between the races.

Scandal and the Ruin of Harding’s Reputation

Along with the “best minds,” Harding also appointed to office men who betrayed his trust. Some of them were men that he had met during his rise in Ohio politics. Harding himself was not involved in their wrongdoing. The discovery of their corruption probably contributed to his death.

One of the worst of these malefactors was Charles Forbes, who as head of the Veteran’s Bureau misappropriated $250 million dollars. Harding fired Forbes when he learned what he had done, but let him flee abroad for a time, before he returned home to a prison sentence. Attorney General Harry Daugherty, Harding’s former campaign manager, was accused of taking bribes from bootleggers and others wanting government favors; a hung jury saved him from conviction and imprisonment.

The Teapot Dome Scandal became the best known malfeasance of the Harding administration. Prior to being appointed Harding’s secretary of the interior, Albert Fall had been a well-regarded U.S. senator from New Mexico. Once in office, Fall experienced financial difficulties; in exchange for bribes, he leased the federal oil reserve in Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and other oil lands to private companies. Fall would become the first cabinet secretary to be convicted of a felony and was ordered to prison in 1929.

Harding was just beginning to become aware of the corruption in his administration in 1923. This knowledge greatly distressed him, and he was pondering what steps to take. He already suffered from bad health, and this stress aggravated his condition. On August 2, 1923, Harding died while on a political trip through the western states.

President Calvin Coolidge

Harding was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge. The new president had grown up in New England and was a man of simple tastes. He had come to national prominence in 1919, when as governor of Massachusetts he had quelled a strike by Boston policemen, declaring, “There can be no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime.” At the time Coolidge assumed the presidency, little was known of the scandals afflicting the administration. Once they became public, Coolidge cleaned up the mess so thoroughly and efficiently that in 1924 he easily won the presidential election.

Coolidge was a more articulate advocate of limited government than Harding. He was an eloquent defender of free enterprise and became famous for the phrase “the business of the United States is business.” As president, Coolidge worked with treasury secretary Mellon to reduce federal spending, the national debt, and taxes.

The Coolidge years were peaceful and prosperous. It ran against Coolidge’s philosophy of government to launch major government programs or initiatives. During World War I, the federal government had built a dam on the Tennessee River at Muscle Shoals, Alabama; Coolidge proposed privatizing this public facility, but Congress rejected his plan. Coolidge and Mellon did convince Congress to pass the Revenue Act of 1926, which further reduced taxes. The president was willing to take unpopular stands in defense of his principles. Coolidge vetoed a bill providing a bonus to World War I veterans because he believed that it would cost too much; Congress overrode his veto.

The Election of 1928

Coolidge was popular enough to have run for another term as president. He chose not to and distributed a statement to the press stating, “I do not choose to run.” This left the Republican field clear for Herbert Hoover. The Republican nominee was the embodiment of his party’s economic philosophy. Orphaned and rendered penniless at an early age, Hoover worked his way through Stanford University and then made a fortune as a mining engineer. During World War I, he acquired an international reputation as an effective philanthropist for organizing relief for starving European civilians. He ran the Food Administration for President Wilson and was present at the peacemaking in Paris. He was a remarkably dynamic secretary of commerce for Harding and Coolidge, pioneering new levels of government cooperation with private industry. During the 1928 election campaign, Hoover defended the Republican economic record and extolled “American individualism.”

During the 1920s, the Democrats had been divided between Northern urban politicians and Southerners, often heavily influenced by the Ku Klux Klan. In 1928, the Northerners were able to nominate New York Governor Al Smith. A product of New York City’s Tammany Hall machine, Smith seemed to embody the spirit of America’s bustling metropolis. This did not endear him to the many Americans who distrusted urban values. For these rural voters, his opposition to Prohibition and his Roman Catholicism disqualified him for the presidency. As a result, Smith lost to Hoover in a landslide; the popular vote margin was almost 60 to 40 percent, and Smith won only eight states in New England and the Deep South.

The City Versus the Country in the 1920s

Though Smith was heavily defeated in 1928, he did carry the 12 largest cities in the country. The rural and urban divide that brought him electoral disaster reflected a larger cultural divide of the 1920s. According to the census, the United States became a predominantly urban country at the beginning of the decade. This did not mean that most Americans lived in big cities, but the momentum was moving in that direction. More important, with the rise of the modern mass media, urban values were being disseminated across the country. Many rural and small-town Americans resented this influx of unfamiliar and unpalatable manners and mores.

Race Relations

One manifestation of a resistance to social and cultural change came in race relations. During the war years, many African Americans had moved to the North looking for work; they took jobs in urban factories. Once the war ended, these African Americans were seen as an economic threat by many returning soldiers who feared that they would prevent them from returning to their prewar positions. Other Northern workers did not want to compete for jobs with these migrants. In 1919 bloody race riots erupted in Washington, D.C.; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Omaha, Nebraska; and other cities. In Chicago, the rioting went on for two weeks. Thousands of African Americans saw their homes go up in flames; 15 whites and 23 African Americans were killed.

Southern repression of African Americans intensified, perhaps in reaction to the return home of black veterans. In 1919, 70 African Americans were lynched. Against this backdrop of renewed racial violence, Marcus Garvey started the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1920. Garvey wanted to lead African Americans back to Africa, where he would found a new state. Eventually a half million people joined his association. Garvey’s dream eventually fell apart. He was convicted of mail fraud in 1925. Few African Americans were actually prepared to embrace racial separatism, and Garvey’s projected migration to Africa never took place. Garvey himself was deported to Jamaica in 1927.

In part inspired by the cinematic heroics of The Birth of a Nation, in part the beneficiary of modern marketing techniques, the Ku Klux Klan became a political and cultural phenomenon in the early 1920s; by 1925, it boasted a membership of over 5 million. This modern Klan was not an exclusively Southern organization. It gained recruits from across the country and was especially popular in small-town America. The Klan briefly controlled the politics of Indiana in the mid-1920s. This latter-day Klan opposed any concessions to African Americans, but it was equally driven by an animus against immigrants and Catholics, who were associated with the big cities. For a time, the Klan was a political force to be reckoned with.

The decline of the Klan was almost as rapid as its rise. In the Hoosier state, the head of the Indiana Klan was convicted of rape and second-degree murder. Other Klan leaders were credibly accused of sexual and financial corruption. Amidst this atmosphere of scandal, support for the Klan ebbed away. The prejudices it had championed remained.

Immigration and the Red Scare

Since the 1886 Haymarket Square bombing, many Americans had associated immigrants with political radicalism. Following the Bolshevik Revolution that imposed communism on Russia, there were concerns that agitators would try to import communism to the United States. These fears were intensified by a series of anonymous terrorist bombings in 1919. These outrages convinced many people that a communist revolution was coming and led to the Red Scare.

One of the bombs went off at the house of Woodrow Wilson’s attorney general, A. Mitchell Palmer, and destroyed his front porch. Palmer responded by launching a roundup of suspected radicals. The Palmer Raids led to the arrest of thousands of people, most of them immigrants. In what was still a wartime atmosphere, little attention was paid to the civil rights of the people Palmer incarcerated. Hundreds of the accused were summarily deported. Palmer genuinely believed that the nation was threatened by a communist conspiracy. He also hoped his vigorous actions would further his political career. The Red Scare began to recede after Palmer erroneously predicted a radical uprising on May 1, 1920. When a bombing on Wall Street killed 33 people and wounded over 200 in September, most Americans attributed the atrocity to deranged zealots rather than a widespread communist plot. The Red Scare was over.

Suspicions about foreigners and radicals remained. This played a part in the 1921 trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, two immigrant Italian anarchists who were convicted of robbing a shoe factory and murdering two employees. Although some observers questioned the fairness of their trial, the men were executed in 1927.

Following the war, the massive flow of immigrants into the United States resumed. Many Americans worried that this influx would lower wages. The Red Scare had left a sense that immigrants could bring with them subversive and dangerous political ideas. Eugenicists like Madison Grant published works that warned of the dangers of Americans mixing with “lesser breeds.” Small-town Americans continued to associate immigrants with the urban culture that threatened their values. The result of all this was legislation restricting immigration.

In 1921, Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which restricted new immigration to 3 percent of the population of a given nationality living in the United States in 1910. The effect of these quotas was to reduce the number of immigrants coming from Southern and Eastern Europe. In 1922, this cut the number of immigrants by 60 percent. The National Origins Act of 1924 imposed even stricter limits on immigration. This law set the immigration quota for every nationality at 2 percent of the population from that country living in the United States in 1890. A cap of 150,000 was set on all immigrants coming from outside the Americas. Immigration from Asia was prohibited. This act achieved the goal of the lawmakers to end the flow of immigrants from places like Italy, the Balkans, Poland, and Russia. The National Origins Act created a pause in mass immigration to the United States that would last for over forty years.

Prohibition

Another major flashpoint in the confrontation between rural and urban America was Prohibition. Rural America largely supported Prohibition. In 1924 it was estimated that 95 percent of the people in Kansas were respecting Prohibition, as opposed to only 5 percent in New York State. Many rural Americans associated liquor consumption with the big cities, with their immigrants, political machines, and gangsters. They saw alcohol as the “instrument of the devil,” and the cities were the devil’s playground. Prohibition certainly did unleash monsters in urban America. The high-minded attempt to ban alcohol consumption was a gift to organized crime.

When the government passed Prohibition in 1919, it did very little to ensure enforcement of the law. In cities like New York where few people supported full compliance with the law, efforts to enforce Prohibition failed. Illegal bars known as speakeasies proliferated in the cities. Often speakeasies were covertly protected by the local authorities, who would collect a cut of the profits. Sometimes speakeasies would sell “bathtub gin,” liquor so bad it tasted like what an enterprising individual might distill in a bathroom. A demand for better liquor was met by bootleggers, criminals who organized the production and distribution of alcohol. This became a very big and profitable business, and bootleggers like Al Capone in Chicago became notorious. Capone controlled hundreds of gunmen and fought bloody turf wars with other gangsters. This street warfare culminated with the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929, when some of Capone’s men executed rival gangsters in a garage.

Religion and the Theory of Evolution

Rural and urban sensibilities also clashed over religion and the theory of evolution. Many fundamentalist Christians rejected Darwinian evolution, which contradicted the Bible. Other Christians worried about the implications of the theory of evolution for the traditional understanding of human beings as a special creation of God. These predominantly small-town Americans found a leader in William Jennings Bryan, who three times had been the Democratic presidential candidate. Bryan helped Tennessee legislators pass a law outlawing the teaching of evolution in the state’s schools. In 1925, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced that it would support any teacher who defied the law. John Scopes, a high school teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, took them up on their offer. The resulting Scopes Trial, popularly known as the “Monkey Trial,” attracted national attention.

Clarence Darrow, one of the nation’s most famous defense attorneys represented Scopes. William Jennings Bryan assisted the prosecution. Scopes was found guilty, though his conviction was later overturned on a technicality. The real point of the trial was a debate over the conflicting claims of science and religion, and the ability of rural Americans to resist ideas they found objectionable. The dramatic highpoint of the trial came when Bryan took the stand as an “expert on the Bible” and was cross-examined by Darrow. To the dismay of his supporters, Bryan revealed that he was not a full adherent of creationism and the literal accuracy of everything in the Bible, when he admitted that the world was not created in six days. The ailing Bryan died shortly after the conclusion of the trial.

Popular Culture in the 1920s

The mass media came of age in the 1920s. Americans in both the city and country were exposed to a glittering roster of heroes whose exploits were vigorously publicized in newspapers and magazines. It took an effort for Americans in the new media environment to be ignorant of athletes like the baseball home run king Babe Ruth, college football star Red Grange, or boxing champion Jack Dempsey. The faces of movie stars like Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Clara Bow, and Rudolph Valentino became familiar to millions. Favored actors and actresses enjoyed large followings of devoted fans. The most dramatic media event of the decade was the reaction to Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in his plane The Spirit of St. Louis. The undeniably brave, handsome, and modest aviator was lionized as the quintessential American hero, a modern exemplar of the pioneer spirit. To his great regret, Lindbergh became an international celebrity.

The mass media promoted ideas and attitudes as well as individuals. In the 1920s the media embraced the business culture at the center of the New Era. It affirmed the pursuit of wealth and spread the message that with smarts and hard work anyone could become a millionaire. The media even contributed to financial boondoggles, most notably in booming a Florida real estate bubble that burst with disastrous results for many investors. The popular culture of the day did nothing to put a damper on Wall Street speculations.

Jazz Age Experimentation and Rebellion

In the postwar years many Americans were ready to reject traditional attitudes toward personal expression and sexuality. They believed that the manners and morals of the previous generation had been discredited by the war and become out of date in the more fast-paced modern America. Younger Americans in particular enthusiastically danced to jazz music. Doing so was pleasingly rebellious because this form of music had originated among African Americans and lower class whites, and was associated with uninhibited sexuality. The more traditionalists denounced jazz as “the devil’s music,” the more popular it became, much like rock and roll three decades later. Jazz music became the soundtrack of the decade, giving it its nickname as the Jazz Age.

Young women placed themselves on the cutting edge of social change in the 1920s. They shed the long hair and voluminous skirts that had been associated with prewar femininity. The flapper emerged—a girl with bobbed hair, short dress, de-emphasized bust-line, and a powder case, cigarette, or drink in hand, an emancipated companion for equally carefree young men. Having won the vote with the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919, young most women pursued personal self-expression rather than political influence. Compared to later years, the sexual revolution of the 1920s was fairly tame, but it shocked defenders of tradition at the time. Thanks to the efforts of Margaret Sanger and other advocates, birth control was more readily available. Automobiles revolutionized dating and courtship, enabling young people to escape the supervision of their elders. Drinking and premarital sex increased in the 1920s, but most young people were far from the giddy “flaming youth” who fascinated and appalled contemporary social critics.

Although women did not move into politics en masse and failed to vote as a bloc, they did continue the gradual movement away from the cult of domesticity. More women entered the workforce, though most of these were single; married women were still expected to focus on the home. Though the numbers of working women rose, their labor was concentrated in traditionally female categories such as teachers, nurses, clerks, and, increasingly, secretaries. Women’s wages typically remained lower, and women rarely ascended to the managerial rank. A rise in the number of divorces was a measure of the growing personal freedom of women and the weakening of traditional social structures.

The Growth of the Mass Media

Undergirding the influence of the mass media in the 1920s was a massive growth in the number of people exposed to the press and popular entertainment. Newspaper reading was ubiquitous in this prosperous decade as most families could afford to subscribe to one or more newspapers. Movie attendance skyrocketed as the movie industry took shape and Hollywood became the center of American filmmaking. In 1922, 35 million people went to the movies every week; by 1929, the number had increased to 90 million. Films were silent for most of the 1920s. In 1927 moviemaking was altered forever by The Jazz Singer, a “talking” feature starring the popular entertainer Al Jolson. Silent movies, and along with them many famous silent stars, were quickly superseded by sound technology.

Possibly even more pervasive than movies in the 1920s was the new medium of radio. The commercial development of radio was explosive. In 1920, Station KDKA was the first radio station to get a license. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover helped establish regulations for the new industry. In 1926, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) organized the first radio network. By the end of the decade, listeners across the country had access to a wide range of news, entertainment, and sports programming.

A Lost Generation?

Many books celebrated the dominant business culture of the 1920s. One of the most popular, and to some egregious, was advertising executive Bruce Barton’s The Man Nobody Knows (1925). Here Barton envisioned Jesus Christ as a dynamic businessman, whose leadership skills and gift for promotion enabled Him to build the most successful organization in history. Very different in spirit were the writers Gertrude Stein termed the “Lost Generation.” Several of these writers had been heavily influenced by the disorienting experience of World War I. Most scorned the business, political, and cultural values of Republican “New Era” America. Some joined Stein in Paris, which became a rallying point for expatriate American writers. Others headed for the big cities, especially New York.

Sinclair Lewis achieved fame and financial success attacking what he perceived as the crass materialism and cultural philistinism of middle America. In Main Street (1920) and Babbit (1922) he produced devastating satires of small town life and the people who lived by small town values. Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio (1919) was a similarly bleak portrayal of desperate people trapped in the social prison of a remote Midwestern community.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was critical of but also fascinated by Jazz Age materialism. In The Great Gatsby (1925) he brilliantly depicted the spiritual emptiness of upper-class characters living a life of decadent self-indulgence in the environs of New York City. Ernest Hemingway painted a similar picture of expatriate writers and artists journeying between France and Spain in The Sun Also Rises (1926). Hemingway was especially eloquent about the disillusioning impact of World War I. His A Farewell to Arms (1929) centers on a character who rejects the false idealism and brutal hypocrisy of the conflict and attempts to walk away from the war with the woman that he loves. At the time, the most influential critic of American society was the journalist H. L. Mencken. Gifted with a brilliant literary style and a taste for invective, Mencken heaped scorn on ordinary Americans, terming them the “ignorant mob” and the “booboisie.” Mencken was a favorite with college students hoping to be fashionable in their opinions.

The 1920s saw a flowering of African American artistic expression in the Harlem Renaissance. Centered on, but not limited to, the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, African American intellectuals wrestled with the challenges of their American identity in a land where they were still second-class citizens. Many members of the Harlem Renaissance immersed themselves in African American folk art and Negro spirituals, looking for an authentic form of expression to convey the black experience. Leading writers of the Harlem Renaissance were the poet Langston Hughes and the novelist Zora Neale Hurston. The popularity of jazz music opened up opportunities for African American musicians. Amongst many others, musicians like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington achieved great success; through performances in clubs and in recordings they reached a mainstream audience.

As the decade of the 1920s neared its end, many believed the era of prosperity would continue indefinitely. Early in 1929, the stock market reached an all-time high. Herbert Hoover, inaugurated as president in March, spoke of ending poverty. Given his stellar record as a philanthropist and administrator, this did not seem to be empty posturing. For a moment, all the promise of the American dream seemed possible. The contrast between the hopes of early 1929 and what followed the events of October intensified the inexplicable cruelty of the ensuing Great Depression.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• A consumer economy was created in the 1920s on a level unprecedented in American history.

• Advertising, newspapers, radio, and motion pictures provided new forms of entertainment in the 1920s and helped create a uniform national culture.

• The changes of the 1920s were resisted by many in small-town/rural America, creating many of the cultural conflicts of the decade.

• Assembly line techniques and the ideas of scientific management of Frederick W. Taylor helped make industrial production in the 1920s quicker and more efficient, ultimately creating cheaper goods.

• Installment buying helped fuel consumer buying in the 1920s.

• The Republican party controlled the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court in the 1920s, generally sponsoring government policies friendly to big business.

• The scandals of the Harding administration were among the worst in history.

• Resentment against blacks existed in both the American South and North in the years after World War I, resulting in race riots in the North and lynchings and the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan in the South.

• The Red Scare of 1919 and 1920 resulted in the suspension of civil liberties and deportation of hundreds of immigrants, the vast majority of whom had committed no crime.

• Nativist fears also resulted in restrictive quota legislation passed in the early 1920s.

• Cultural conflicts between urban and rural America also developed over the issues of Prohibition and the teaching of evolution in schools (resulting in the Scopes Trial).

• During the Jazz Age, many Americans rejected the prominent business values of the decade and turned to jazz, alcohol, and looser sexual mores for personal fulfillment.

• The flapper was the single most prominent image of the Jazz Age.

• Writers of the Lost Generation expressed extreme disillusionment with American society of the era; writers of the Harlem Renaissance expressed the opinions of American blacks concerning American culture.

Time Line

1917: Race riots in East St. Louis, Missouri

1918: Armistice ending World War I

1919: Race riots in Chicago

Major strikes in Seattle and Boston

Palmer Raids

1920: Warren Harding elected president

First broadcast of radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh

Publication of Main Street by Sinclair Lewis

Arrest of Sacco and Vanzetti

Prohibition takes effect

1921: Immigration Quota Law passed

Disarmament conference held

1922: Fordney-McCumber Tariff enacted

Publication of Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

1923: Teapot Dome scandal

Death of Harding; Calvin Coolidge becomes president

Duke Ellington first performs in New York City

1924: Election of Calvin Coolidge

Immigration Quota Law enacted

Ku Klux Klan reaches highest membership in history

Women governors elected in Wyoming and Texas

1925: Publication of The Man Nobody Knows by Bruce Barton

Publication of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Scopes Trial held in Dayton, Tennessee

1926: Publication of The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

1927: The Jazz Singer, first movie with sound, released

Charles Lindbergh makes New York to Paris flight

Execution of Sacco and Vanzetti

15 millionth car produced by Ford Motor Company

$1.5 billion spent on advertising in United States

Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs

1928: Election of Herbert Hoover

1929: Nearly 30 million Americans have cars

Stock market crash

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Many in rural/small-town America would support legislation that

A. increased immigration from Eastern Europe.

B. mandated the teaching of creationism in schools.

C. lessened the penalties for those who sold illegal alcohol.

D. made it harder to deport immigrants who might have “Red” ties.

2. The novel that supported the business philosophy of the 1920s most definitively was

A. Main Street.

B. The Great Gatsby.

C. The Man Nobody Knows.

D. Babbitt.

3. In 1928, in most Eastern cities, one could find

A. a speakeasy.

B. a continual flow of immigrants from Northern, Southern, and Eastern Europe.

C. large numbers of supporters of the Ku Klux Klan.

D. the first bread lines.

4. Republican leaders of the 1920s believed all of the following except

A. “the business of government is business.”

B. the government should do as little as possible.

C. labor unions should be strengthened through legislation.

D. immigration should continue to be restricted.

5. The election of Herbert Hoover in 1928 demonstrated all of the following except

A. most Americans believed that Republican policies had been responsible for the prosperity of the 1920s.

B. fewer divisions existed between the urban and rural populations than had existed at the beginning of the decade.

C. Prohibition was still a “hot-button issue” for many Americans.

D. America was not ready for a Catholic president.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of social and cultural change in the 1920s.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of social and cultural change in the 1920s.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of resistance to social and cultural change in the 1920s.

Answers and Explanations

1. B. All of the other “causes”—more immigration, the lessening of Prohibition, and the lessening of methods to deport potential Communists—were vehemently opposed by most in small-town America. They would, however, support the elimination of the teaching of evolution, and the continued teaching of creationism in American schools.

2. C. All of the other novels are unsympathetic to the world of business—both A and D are by Sinclair Lewis. In The Man Nobody Knows, Jesus Christ is portrayed as a businessman.

3. A. The influx of immigrants had been greatly reduced by immigration legislation passed in the first half of the decade. Supporters of the KKK were largely not city dwellers; the KKK had also lessened in importance by 1928. Bread lines were not found until the beginning of the Great Depression.

4. C. All of the other answers are solid beliefs of Republican leaders of the 1920s. Republicans did very little for labor unions in the decade.

5. B. Hoover’s overwhelming election demonstrated the appeal of his business background and the fact that many Americans credited the Republicans for prosperity. The fact that Al Smith was defeated in this election demonstrated that his anti-Prohibition statements definitely hurt him. However, many in urban centers voted for him; this demonstrated that the divisions between urban and rural America were still wide at the end of the decade.

6. Parts A and B: The 1920s was a decade of prosperity for most Americans. Consumer goods such as refrigerators and radios became readily available; they could be purchased on installment plans. Sales were encouraged by a proliferation of the new advertising industry. Automobile ownership became widespread, with most Americans owning cars made by Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. The United States experimented with Prohibition during the 1920s. The mass media helped drive a flourishing popular culture in the 1920s. Sports and movie stars became widely known celebrities. Many people in the 1920s began to reject traditional values. They embraced the rebellious spirit of the Jazz Age, with a soundtrack of raucous jazz music often associated with African Americans. Many young women shed the inhibitions of the past, wearing short dresses, smoking and drinking with their male friends, and bobbing their hair. The “Lost Generation” of American writers wrote critically of American society in the postwar years.

Part C: Many American resisted social change. Concern about mass immigration and the possibility of imported political radicalism helped spur the Red Scare. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the National Origins Act of 1924 greatly restricted immigration, especially from Southern and Eastern Europe. The Ku Klux Klan grew influential in the early 1920s by agitating against immigrants and Catholics, as well as maintaining hostility toward African Americans. Many rural people rejected ideas that they associated with the Jazz Age. A law in Tennessee outlawing the teaching of evolution in public schools led to the Scopes Trial in 1925, and a famous forensic duel between the well-known lawyer Clarence Darrow criticizing the law and William Jennings Bryan defending it. Many Americans refused to adhere to Prohibition. The illicit sale of liquor led to the rise of organized crime and famous gangsters like Al Capone in Chicago. People patronized “speakeasies,” where illegal alcohol could be found in great supply.

Great Depression and the New Deal (1929–1939)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: The Great Depression had a monumental effect on American society, and its effects are still felt today. Franklin Roosevelt, the architect of the New Deal, is considered by many to be one of America’s greatest presidents, and he was the model for activist presidents who desired to utilize the power of the federal government to assist those in need. The origins of the Great Depression can be found in economic problems in America in the late 1920s: “installment buying” and buying stocks “on the margin” would come back to haunt many homeowners and investors. The stock market crash of 1929 was followed by bank failures, factory closings, and widespread unemployment. President Herbert Hoover believed that voluntary action by business and labor interest could pull America out of its economic doldrums. Franklin Roosevelt was elected president in 1932 with the promise of a “New Deal” for the American people. During his first hundred days in office, Roosevelt acted forcefully to restore confidence in the banks, stabilize prices, and give many young people work through the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps. During the Second New Deal later in the 1930s, measures such as the Social Security Act were enacted to provide a safety net for Americans in need. Some critics of the New Deal branded it socialism; others said it didn’t go far enough to fight poverty in America. New Deal policies never ended the Great Depression; America’s entry into World War II did.

Keywords

Hoovervilles: settlements of shacks found on the outskirts of many American cities beginning in the early 1930s.

Dust Bowl: name given in the 1930s to regions of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Texas, where severe drought and poor farming practices caused massive dust storms. By the end of the decade, nearly 60 percent of all farms there were either ruined or abandoned. Many from the Dust Bowl ended up moving westward in search of jobs.

Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930): tariff act that imposed severe tariffs on all incoming goods; European countries responded with their own high tariffs. Most historians say this tariff did little to help the American economy.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): federal agency established during the “First Hundred Days” of the New Deal in 1933 in an effort to halt panic over bank closings. The FDIC insures the bank deposits of individual citizens.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): also established in 1933, the CCC eventually provided jobs for 2.5 million young Americans in forest and conservation programs.

National Industry Recovery Act: New Deal legislation requiring owners and labor unions in various industries to agree upon hours, wages, and prices; as a result, wages did go up for many workers but so did prices.

Tennessee Valley Authority: agency created in the New Deal to oversee the construction of dams, providing electricity and flood control for many in the Tennessee River Valley; for many in the region, this was the first time their homes had electricity.

Works Progress Administration (WPA): New Deal program that employed nearly 8 million Americans; WPA projects included the construction of schools and roads. Unemployed artists and musicians were also employed by the WPA.

Wagner Act: critical piece of New Deal legislation that protected the right of workers to form unions and utilize collective bargaining.

Social Security Act (1935): New Deal legislation providing pensions for workers reaching retirement age. Both workers and employers pay into the fund that provides this benefit. Initially, farm workers and domestic workers were not covered by Social Security.

New Deal Coalition: The political coalition created by Franklin Roosevelt that, by and large, kept the Democratic Party in power from the 1930s through the 1960s. This coalition consisted of workers in American cities, voters in the South, labor unions, and blacks.

Scottsboro Boys: nine black defendants in a famous 1931 case; they were accused of raping two white women on a train, and despite the lack of evidence, eight were sentenced to death. The American Communist party organized their defense.

American Economy of the 1920s: Roots of the Great Depression

The vast majority of Americans in 1929 foresaw a continuation of the dizzying economic growth that had taken place in most of the decade. In his inauguration speech, newly elected president Herbert Hoover reemphasized his campaign promise that it was the goal of the Republican party to permanently wipe out poverty in America. In early September 1929, the average share of stock on the New York Stock Exchange stood near 350, a gain of nearly 200 points in a little over a year.

However, careful observers of the American economy noticed several disturbing trends that only seemed to be increasing. These included the following:

1. Agricultural problems. Farm prices were at a record high during World War I, dropped after the war, and never recovered. Many farmers were unable to pay back bank loans they had acquired to purchase land, tractors, and other equipment; many farms were foreclosed, and, in farm states, over 6,200 banks were forced to close. Legislation to help farmers had been passed by Congress, but bills to help the farmers were vetoed by President Coolidge on two occasions.

2. Installment buying. As stated in the previous chapter, large numbers of Americans purchased automobiles, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, and similar household products on credit. Many Americans simply did not have anywhere near enough cash to pay for all they had purchased. The money of many families was tied up making installment payments for three or four big-ticket items; this prevented them from purchasing many other items available for sale. In 1928 and 1929, new goods continued to be produced, but many people simply could not afford to buy them. As a result, layoffs began occurring in some industries as early as 1928.

3. Uneven division of wealth. America was wealthy in the 1920s, but this wealth did not extend to all segments of society. The gains made by wealthy Americans in the 1920s far outstripped gains made by the working class. By the time of the stock market crash, the upper 0.2 percent of the population controlled over 40 percent of the nation’s savings. On the other hand, over three-quarters of American families made less than $3,000 a year. Problems that could develop from this situation were obvious. The bottom three-quarters of families were too poor to purchase much to help the economy to continue to flourish. Furthermore, at the early signs of economic trouble, many of the wealthiest Americans, fearing the worst, curtailed their spending.

4. The stock market. There were cases in the late 1920s of ordinary citizens becoming very wealthy by purchasing stock. Some of these people were engaged in speculation, meaning that they would invest in something (like the previously mentioned Florida lands) that was very risky, but that they could potentially “make a killing” on. Another common practice in the late 1920s was buying shares of stock “on the margin.” A stockbroker might allow a buyer to purchase stock for only a percentage of what it was worth (commonly as low as 10 percent); the rest could be borrowed from the broker. As long as stock prices continued to rise, investors would have no trouble paying brokers back for these loans. After the stock market crash, brokers wanted payment for these loans. Countless numbers of investors had no way to make these payments.

Stock Market Crash

The prices of stock crested in early September 1929. The price of stock fell very gradually during most of September and early October. Some investors noted that some factories were beginning to lay workers off; whispers were heard around Wall Street that perhaps the price of stock was too high, and that it might be good to sell before prices began to fall.

The first signs of panic occurred on Wednesday, October 23, when in the last hour of trading, the value of a share of stock dropped, on average, 20 points. On October 24 a massive amount of stock was sold, and prices again fell dramatically. Stockbrokers told nervous investors not to worry; Herbert Hoover announced that the stock market and the economy “is on a sound and prosperous basis.”

A group of influential bankers and brokers pooled resources to buy stock, but this was unable to stop the downward trend. Prices fell again on Monday, October 28, and on the following day, Black Tuesday, the bottom fell out of the market. Prices fell by 40 points that day; it is estimated that total losses to investors for the day was over $20 million. Stockbrokers and banks frantically attempted to call in their loans; few investors had the money to pay even a fraction of what they owed.

How the Stock Market Crash Caused the Great Depression

In the weeks immediately following the crash, important figures from the banking world and President Hoover all assured the American people that America was still economically sound, and that the crash was no worse than other stock downturns that had had little long-term effect on the economy. In retrospect, it can be seen that through both direct and indirect means, the stock market crash was a fundamental cause of the Great Depression. As a result of the crash:

1. Bank closings increased. As stated previously, many banks in rural America had to close when farmers couldn’t repay loans. The exact same thing happened to many city banks after 1929 when investors could not repay their loans. In addition, the news of even a single bank closing had a snowball effect; thousands of people went to banks across the country to withdraw their life savings. Banks did not have this kind of money (it had been given out to investors as loans); soon urban banks began to fail as well. It is estimated that by 1932 approximately 5,000 banks fell, with the life savings of over 5 million Americans gone forever

2. Income fell for industrialists. Many large industrialists invested heavily in the stock market. They had less available cash, and some started to close or reduce the scale of their factory operations. Workers were laid off or made much less money; as a result, they were able to buy fewer products made in other industrial plants, causing layoffs there as well. By 1933, nearly 25 percent of the labor force was out of work.

3. Effect on the world. Many European countries, especially Germany, utilized loans from American banks and investment houses in the 1920s and 1930s to remain viable. When American financial institutions were unable to supply these loans, instability occurred in these countries. Some historians make the argument that, perhaps indirectly, the American stock market crash opened the door for Hitler to come to power in Germany.

Social Impact of the Great Depression

Many Americans felt a huge sense of uprootedness in the 1930s. By late 1932, virtually all sectors of American society were affected in some way by the depression. Both professional men and common laborers lost their jobs. It was not uncommon during the depression for two people to share a job, or for a man who had lost his job to continue to put his suit on every morning and pretend to go to work, somehow averting the shame he felt for being unemployed. Women and minorities were often the first to lose their jobs, although women in certain “female” occupations (such as domestic work) were almost never uprooted by men. “Respectable” white men were willing to take jobs that had been previously seen as fit only for minorities. Many behaviors of the 1920s, such as buying on credit, were forgotten practices by 1932.

Many private agencies established soup kitchens and emergency shelters in the early 1930s, but many more were needed. Many couples postponed marriage and having children. Those with nowhere to live in cities often ended up in Hoovervilles, which were settlements of shacks (made from scrap metal or lumber) usually located on the outskirts of cities. Many unemployed young people, both men and women, took to the road in the 1930s, often traveling in empty railroad cars.

The greatest human suffering of the depression era might have existed in the Dust Bowl. For most of the decade, massive dust storms plagued the residents of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Texas; farm production in this area fell drastically for much of the decade. A severe drought was the major cause of the dust storms, although poor farming practices (stripping the soil of any topsoil) also contributed to them. By the decade’s end, nearly 60 percent of all farms in the Dust Bowl were either ruined or abandoned. Many Dust Bowlers traveled to California to get agricultural jobs there, and discovered that if an entire family picked grapes from sunup to sundown, it might barely scrape by. (John Steinbeck’s book The Grapes of Wrath, as well as the film version, are highly recommended for further study of Dust Bowlers and their move to California, as are the recordings of Woody Guthrie entitled “Dust Bowl Ballads” and the depression-era photos taken by Dorothea Lange.)

The behavior and attitudes of many who lived through the depression changed forever. Many would never in their lives buy anything on credit; there are countless stories of depression-era families who insisted on paying for everything, including automobiles, with cash. Depression-era shortages led many in later life to be almost compulsive “savers” of everything and anything imaginable. Many who lived through the depression and had children in the 1950s were determined to given their kids all that they had been deprived of in the 1930s.

Hoover Administration and the Depression

To state that Herbert Hoover did nothing to stem the effects of the Great Depression is not entirely accurate. Nevertheless, he did believe that this crisis could be solved through voluntarism. Hoover urged Americans to donate all they could to charities, and held several conferences with business leaders where he urged them not to reduce wages or lay off workers. When it became obvious that these measures were not enough, public opinion quickly turned against Hoover.

The Hoover administration did take several specific measures to offset the effects of the depression. Even before the stock market crash, the Agricultural Marketing Act created a Federal Farm Board that had the ability to give loans to the agricultural community and buy crops to keep farm prices up. By 1932, there was not enough money to keep this program afloat. In 1930, Congress enacted the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, which to this day is the highest import tax in the history of the United States. In response, European countries drastically increased their own tariffs as well; some historians maintain that this legislation did little to improve the economy of the United States, but that its effects did much to ensure that the American Depression would be a worldwide one.

Hoover did authorize more money for public works programs, and, in 1932, he authorized the creation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. This agency gave money to banks, who were then authorized to loan this money to businesses and railroads. Another bill authorized loans to banks to prevent them from failing. To many in America, these bills were merely signs that Hoover was only interested in helping those at the top of society and that he cared little about the common person. Hoover vetoed legislation authorizing a federal relief program, although in 1932 he did sign legislation authorizing federal loans to the states; states could then administer relief programs with this money.

Those Americans who felt that Hoover was unconcerned about the plight of the common man had their views seemingly confirmed by federal actions against the Bonus Army that appeared in Washington in the summer of 1932. This group of nearly 17,000 unemployed World War I vets came to ask the federal government to give them the bonuses that they were supposed to get in 1945 immediately. At Hoover’s urging, the Senate rejected legislation authorizing this. Most of the Bonus Army then went home, but a few thousand stayed, living in shacks along the Anacostia River. Hoover ordered them removed; military forces led by Douglas MacArthur used tear gas and cleared the remaining bonus marchers from their camp and burned down the shacks they had been living in.

1932 Presidential Election

The two candidates in the 1932 presidential election could not have been more different in both content and style. In a joyless convention, the Republicans renominated Herbert Hoover. In newsreels seen by Americans across the country, Hoover came across as unsmiling and utterly lacking in warmth. He insisted that his policies would eventually lead America out of the depression, stating that history demonstrated that lulls in the American economy are always followed by upturns. Hoover warned against “mindless experimentation” in the creation of government policies. It should be noted that Hoover was echoing the standard economic and political theory of the era.

Hoover’s opponent in the election was the governor of New York, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt was a man of wealth. After serving as assistant secretary of the navy under Woodrow Wilson, Roosevelt unsuccessfully tried to get the vice presidential nomination in 1920. During the summer of 1921, he came down with polio, which left him unable to walk for the rest of his life. Several of Roosevelt’s biographers maintain that the mental and physical anguish caused by his polio made Roosevelt much more sensitive to the sufferings of others.

Franklin Roosevelt married a distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt, in 1905. While Franklin spent much of the 1920s attempting to recover from polio in Warm Springs, Georgia, Eleanor became a tireless worker in New York state politics, pushing for governmental reform and better conditions for working women. The role that Eleanor Roosevelt played during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt cannot be overestimated. FDR (this shortening of his name was done by a reporter in 1932) often stated that Eleanor served as his “legs,” visiting miners, schools, and countless other groups. Eleanor also discussed policy with Roosevelt and continually urged him to do more to offset the effects of the depression.

As governor of New York during the first years of the Great Depression, Roosevelt instituted relief programs that became models for others across the country. During his campaign Roosevelt promised the “New Deal” for the American people; unlike Hoover, he also promised to experiment to find solutions to America’s problems. Roosevelt’s broad smile and personal demeanor contrasted drastically with the public image of Herbert Hoover; Americans were convinced that Roosevelt cared (this would be demonstrated during his presidency by the hundreds of letters that both Roosevelt and his wife received during the presidency, asking for things such as small loans, money to pay doctors, and old clothes; it should also be noted that many Americans had a picture of Franklin Roosevelt on display somewhere in their living quarters during the depression).

The 1932 presidential election was easily won by Roosevelt, who won by over 7 million votes. Hoover’s only strength was in the Northeastern states. In addition, the Democrats won control of both houses of Congress. Some had feared (or hoped) that the depression would radicalize the American working class, yet the Socialist candidate for president, Norman Thomas, received considerably less than 1 million votes.

First Hundred Days

Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration speech in 1933 was one of optimism; the most quoted line of this speech is “… so first of all let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Within a week of taking office, Roosevelt gave the first of his many fireside chats. During these radio addresses, Roosevelt spoke to the listening audience as if they were part of his family; Roosevelt would usually explain the immediate problems facing the country in these speeches and outline the reasons for his decided solutions.

Roosevelt surrounded himself with an able cabinet, as well as a group of unofficial advisors called Roosevelt’s “brain trust.” In dealing with the problems of the depression, Roosevelt urged his advisors to experiment. Some programs thus failed, some were continually reformed, and several conflicted with each other. The key, insisted Roosevelt, was to “do something.”

During the first Hundred Days of the Roosevelt administration, countless programs were proposed by the administration and passed by Congress that attempted to stimulate the American economy and provide relief and jobs. A very popular act, for psychological reasons if nothing else, was the repeal of Prohibition, which was actually voted on by Congress in February 1933.

Roosevelt’s economic advisor told him that his first priority should be the banking system. On March 5, 1933, he officially closed all banks for four days and had the federal government oversee the inspection of all banks. By March 15, most banks were reopened; this cooling-off period gave people a renewed confidence in the banks, and slowly people started putting back into banks instead of taking out. The Banking Act of 1933 created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insured the bank deposits of individual citizens.

During the hundred days, large amounts of federal money were handed down to local relief agencies, and a Federal Emergency Relief Administration (led by Harry Hopkins) was also established. Efforts were also made to help people find work. Thousands were hired from funds distributed to states by the Public Works Administration; many schools, highways, and hospitals were built under this program.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was founded during this period and would eventually employ over 2.5 million young men. Under this program, forest and conservation programs were undertaken. CCC workers were only paid a small amount (this money was actually sent to their families), but in a period where little work was available, many veterans of CCC programs later perceived the program as a godsend.

Roosevelt considered the bolstering of the industrial sector of the American economy to be a top priority. Falling prices had caused layoffs and the failure of many businesses. The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was established to try to stop falling prices in industry. Under this act, committees of both owners and union leaders in each industry would meet to set commonly agreed-on prices, wages, working hours, and working expectations. Unions and collective bargaining were accepted in industry as a result of the NIRA. Wages in many industries rose as a result of this; the thinking in the creation of the NIRA was that as wages rose, workers would then buy more, stimulating the economy and stopping the fall of industrial prices. The goals of this program were not largely met; as wages rose so did prices. As a result, many workers did not buy more, negating any benefit that rising wages were supposed to have.

Another body created by the NIRA was the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which was supposed to enforce the decisions of the NIRA. The entire process of the NIRA was declared unconstitutional in the 1935 Supreme Court case Schechter v. United States, although the agency had largely lost its effectiveness by then.

Two other important programs developed during the first hundred days. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) attempted to stop the sharp decline in farm prices by paying farmers not to produce certain crops and livestock. It was hoped that this would cause the prices of these goods to rise. The Tennessee Valley Authority authorized the construction of a series of dams that would ultimately provide electricity and flood control to those living in the Tennessee River Valley. Thousands who had not had electricity in their homes now did.

The hundred days and the months that followed it provided some relief to those affected by the depression, but by no means solved the basic economic problems facing the United States. The 1934 midterm congressional elections showed that most Americans favored FDRs policies, yet even in 1935 some 20 percent of all Americans were still out of work.

Second New Deal

Many wealthy members of American society were appalled by the actions that Roosevelt took during his first year in office; he was called a traitor to his class, a Communist, and far worse. Other elements of Roosevelt’s brain trust (as well as his wife Eleanor) were advising Roosevelt to do even more to help the unemployed of America. As a result, the Second New Deal, beginning in 1935, included another flurry of legislation.

It was obvious that even more dramatic measures were needed to help farmers; many farms were still being foreclosed on because farmers could not make necessary payments on their lands. The Resettlement Administration, established in May 1935, offered loans to small farmers who faced foreclosure. In addition, migrant farmers had not been affected by previous New Deal measures dealing with agriculture; funds to help them find work were included under the Resettlement Administration.

One of the outstanding achievements of the Second New Deal was the creation of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA took people who were on relief and employed them for 30 or 35 hours a week. On average, 2 million people per month were employed by the WPA. By 1941, well over 8 million people had worked for the WPA. WPA workers were usually engaged in construction projects, building schools, hospitals, and roads across the country. In addition, unemployed musicians, artists, and actors were all employed by the WPA. WPA artists painted many of the murals found in public buildings, concerts were given for both urban and rural audiences, and plays were performed for audiences who had never seen one before.

Another important piece of legislation from this period was the Wagner Act, which reaffirmed the right of workers to organize and to utilize collective bargaining. These rights had been guaranteed by provision 7a of the NIRA guidelines, but when the NIRA was declared to be unconstitutional, additional legislation protecting workers was needed. The Wagner Act also listed unfair labor practices that were outlawed and established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to enforce its provisions.

The most important legislation passed during the Second New Deal was the 1935 Social Security Act. The critical provision of this act was the creation of a retirement plan for workers over 65 years old. Both workers and employers paid into this retirement fund; the first payments were scheduled to be made in January 1942. It should be noted that the initial social security legislation did not cover agricultural and domestic workers.

Other provisions of this act established a program that provided unemployment insurance for workers who had lost their jobs; this was paid for by a payroll tax that was imposed on all employers with more than eight workers. The federal government also provided financial support to programs at the state level that provided unemployment insurance. The federal government also gave money to the states to provide aid programs for dependent children, for the blind, and for the physically challenged.

As stated previously, some Americans were exempt from the provisions of the Social Security Act. Nevertheless, this act fundamentally changed the relationship of the federal government with American citizens. At the root of the Social Security Act was the concept that it was the job of the federal government to take care of those who couldn’t take care of themselves. This was a fundamentally new role for the federal government to have, and it justified the worst fears of many opponents of the Roosevelt administration.

Presidential Election of 1936

The 1936 election was the first true national referendum of the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. In his campaign speeches, Roosevelt often railed against the business class; according to Roosevelt, they opposed many of his policies only so they could continue to get rich. The Republicans nominated Governor Alfred Landon of Kansas as their presidential candidate. Landon never actually repudiated the programs of the New Deal, but he stated that a balanced budget and less expensive government programs should be top priorities.

The election was one of the most one-sided in American history. Roosevelt won the electoral college 523 to 8, with Landon only winning the states of Maine and Vermont. Roosevelt was able to craft a New Deal Coalition, which made the Democrats the majority party in America throughout the rest of the 1930s and all the way into the 1980s. The fact that white urban dwellers supported the Democrats in large numbers was noted during the 1928 defeat of Smith; whites in the Solid South had largely voted Democratic since the nineteenth century. The two groups that joined the Democratic coalition in this era were labor unions and blacks (this was a dramatic shift, as most blacks had voted Republican since the period of Emancipation). Roosevelt enjoyed support in the agricultural community as well.

Opponents of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal

Despite the overwhelming electoral success of Franklin Roosevelt, many Americans vehemently disagreed with his programs. Some wealthy Americans called him a traitor to his class, while some businessmen called him a Socialist or a Communist. To others, the programs of Roosevelt were perceived as being designed to benefit the business interests of America and never truly addressed the human suffering of the country. Some of these Americans felt that neither the Democratic nor the Republican parties were really concerned with helping the average American, and perceived socialism as the only viable solution. Many idealistic Americans dabbled with socialism in the 1930s; for some the one- or two-party meetings they attended became career-threatening during the McCarthy era of the 1950s.

One group that thought the New Deal had gone too far was the American Liberty League. This group was led by former presidential candidate Al Smith and several very influential business figures, including prominent members of the Du Pont family. The membership of this organization was largely relatively wealthy Republicans; they were particularly incensed by the Revenue Act of 1935, which considerably increased the tax rate for those making over $50,000. The American Liberty League equated the New Deal with “bolshevism” in much of their literature.

The majority of those opposing the New Deal felt that it didn’t go far enough. Dr. Francis Townsend of California proposed an Old Age Revolving Pension Plan; under this plan, a national sales tax would pay for a pension of $200 per month for all retired Americans. Townsend maintained that the benefit would be that more and more money would be put into circulation. In 1934, Upton Sinclair, author of The Jungle, ran for governor of California on the Democratic ticket and announced his “End Poverty in California” (EPIC) plan. Under this plan, California factories and farms would be under state control. Sinclair was defeated by the Republican candidate and was also sabotaged by members of his own party; the Democratic smear campaign against Sinclair was approved of by Franklin Roosevelt.

The two most vicious opponents of the New Deal were Father Charles Coughlin and Louisiana senator Huey Long. Millions of people listened to Coughlin on the radio. Originally a supporter of Roosevelt, by the mid-1930s he told his listeners that Roosevelt was a “liar” and “the great betrayer.” By the late 1930s, Coughlin was praising Mussolini and Hitler on his broadcasts, and making increasingly anti-Semitic statements. By order of the church, Coughlin was pulled off the air during World War II.

As governor and later senator from Louisiana, Huey Long instituted many New-Deal-type programs in Louisiana, and also developed the most effective and ruthless political machine in the entire South. By 1934, Long felt that Franklin Roosevelt was not committed to doing enough to end the depression. Long called for a true redistribution of wealth in his “Share the Wealth” program, which would have allowed no American to make over a million dollars a year (the rest would be taken in taxes). From these taxes, Long proposed to give every American family $5,000 immediately and an annual income of $2,000. Long talked of running against Roosevelt in 1936, but was assassinated by the relative of a Louisiana political enemy in 1935.

Last Years of the New Deal

Franklin Roosevelt was frustrated that the United States Supreme Court had struck down several New Deal programs. In early 1937, he proposed the Justice Reorganization Bill, which would have allowed him to appoint an additional Supreme Court justice for every justice over 70 years old (nothing in the Constitution stated that there had to be only nine Supreme Court justices). Roosevelt would have been able to appoint six new judges under this scheme. Roosevelt claimed that the purpose of this plan was to help the older judges with their workload, but many Republicans and Democrats in Congress believed that Roosevelt was altering the balance of power between branches of government just to get his ideas enacted into law. Newspaper editorial writers and cartoonists compared Roosevelt to the dictators of Europe, Hitler and Mussolini. Many Southern Democrats joined with the Republicans to defeat this bill; the aftereffects seriously damaged Roosevelt’s relationship with Congress. Ironically, without the bill, several justices retired in the next two years, allowing Roosevelt to appoint justices who would approve his programs anyway.

Any hopes that the New Deal was actually ending the depression were dashed by a fairly large recession that occurred in mid-1937. Once again, factories began major layoffs. Critics of the New Deal blamed Roosevelt’s programs for this recession. Many in the administration were worried that the national debt was too high, and urged Roosevelt to cut programs. The WPA was drastically scaled back, putting some that had worked for it out of work. In addition, a part of every worker’s salary was now deducted to be put into the Social Security fund; critics charged that this money would have been better utilized if it was actually being spent on goods and services. By 1940, the administration restored some of the cutbacks made to government programs, slightly improving the economy again.

Effects of the New Deal

The Wagner Act and other New Deal legislation permanently legitimized labor unions and collective bargaining. Some unions became emboldened by the Wagner Act, and several sit-down strikes occurred in the late 1930s. The most famous occurred at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, in December 1936. Workers refused to leave the plant; by February, management had to give in to the worker’s demands. Other strikes of the era turned bloody; in a 1937 strike at Republic Steel in Chicago, 10 strikers were killed. Nevertheless, union membership rose dramatically in the 1930s.

Another development was the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The American Federation of Labor, founded in the 1880s, was made up mostly of skilled workers. The first president of the CIO was John L. Lewis; the goal of this union was to organize and represent unskilled factory and textile workers. By 1938, this organization represented over 4 million workers. CIO members were on the front lines of the strikes mentioned in the previous paragraph.

The burden on women and blacks was great during the New Deal. As men lost their jobs, more and more women were forced to take meager jobs to support their families (despite the fact that women workers were often criticized for “stealing” the jobs of men). It should be noted that Frances Perkins was the secretary of labor during the 1930s; Roosevelt employed a number of women in influential roles during his presidency.

Blacks were especially oppressed during the New Deal. Often, they were the first to be fired from a factory or business; relief programs in Southern states sometimes excluded blacks from receiving benefits. Lynchings continued in the South throughout the 1930s; Roosevelt never supported an antilynching bill for fear of alienating Southern Democrats. The Scottsboro Boys trial received national attention. In 1931, nine black young men were accused of raping two white women on a train. Without any real evidence, eight of the nine were sentenced to die. It is ironic that the American Communist party organized the appeals of the Scottsboro Boys; in the end, some of their convictions were overturned.

Nevertheless, blacks did support Franklin Roosevelt, as they felt that he was generally supportive of their cause. Roosevelt did hire blacks for several policy posts in his New Deal administration. Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of the National Council of Negro Women, was appointed in 1936 as director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration. Bethune lobbied Roosevelt on the concerns of blacks, and also worked to increase the support of influential black leaders for the New Deal.

New Deal Culture

Many authors attempted to capture the human suffering that was so pronounced in the 1930s. Zora Neale Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God about growing up black in a small Florida town. Studs Lonigan by James T. Farrell depicted the lives of the Irish in Chicago. The previously mentioned The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck tells the story of Dust Bowlers moving to California for survival, while Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road describes the suffering of sharecroppers in Georgia. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell offered a romanticized tale of survival from another period of crisis, the Civil War.

Most Americans of the 1930s got their entertainment through radio. Radio in the 1930s offered soap operas, comedies, and dramas. Americans were also offered “high culture” on most radio stations, as symphonic music and operas were standard fare. The response to H. G. Well’s dramatization of “War of the Worlds” demonstrated the power of radio in American life.

Going to the movies provided a way for Americans to escape the sufferings of their daily lives; by 1939, nearly 70 percent of all adults went to the movies at least once a week. Lavish sets and dancing in movies such as Gold Diggers of 1933 allowed people to leave their cares behind, at least for a couple of hours. Shirley Temple charmed millions, and movies such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington showed audiences that in the end, justice would prevail. Promoters attempted to make movie-going itself a special event in the 1930s; theaters were designed to look like palaces, air conditioning was installed, and dishes and other utensils were often given away as theater promotions.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• The Great Depression had numerous long-lasting effects on American society.

• Franklin Roosevelt was the first activist president of the twentieth century who used the power of the federal government to help those who could not help themselves.

• The Great Depression’s origins lay in economic problems of the late 1920s.

• The 1929 stock market crash was caused by, among other things, speculation on the part of investors and buying stocks “on the margin.”

• The stock market crash began to affect the economy almost immediately, and its effects were felt by almost all by 1931.

• Herbert Hoover did act to end the depression, but believed that voluntary actions by both business and labor would lead America out of its economic difficulties.

• Franklin Roosevelt won the 1932 election by promising the New Deal to the American people and by promising to act in a decisive manner.

• Suffering was felt across American society; many in the Dust Bowl were forced to leave their farms.

• During the first hundred days, Roosevelt restored confidence in the banks, established the Civilian Conservation Corps, stabilized farm prices, and attempted to stabilize industry through the National Industrial Recovery Act.

• During the Second New Deal, the WPA was created and the Social Security Act was enacted; this was the most long-lasting piece of legislation from the New Deal.

• Roosevelt was able to craft a political coalition of urban whites, Southerners, union members, and blacks that kept the Democratic party in power through the 1980s.

• The New Deal had opponents from the left who said it didn’t do enough to alleviate the effects of the depression and opponents from the right who said that the New Deal was Socialist in nature.

• Roosevelt’s 1937 plan to pack the Supreme Court and the recession of 1937 demonstrated that New Deal programs were not entirely successful in ending the Great Depression.

• Many Americans turned to radio and the movies for relief during the depression.

Time Line

1929: Stock market crash

1930: Hawley-Smoot Tariff enacted

1931: Ford plants in Detroit shut down

Initial trial of the Scottsboro Boys

1932: Glass-Steagall Banking Act enacted Bonus marchers routed from Washington

Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president

Huey Long announces “Share Our Wealth” movement

1933: Emergency Banking Relief Act enacted

Prohibition ends

Agricultural Adjustment Act enacted

National Industrial Recovery Act enacted

Civilian Conservation Corps established

Tennessee Valley Authority formed

Public Works Administration established

1934: American unemployment reaches highest point

1935: Beginning of the Second New Deal

Works Progress Administration established

Social Security Act enacted

Wagner Act enacted

Formation of Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO)

1936: Franklin Roosevelt reelected

Sit-down strike against GM begins

1937: Recession of 1937 begins

Roosevelt’s plan to expand the Supreme Court defeated

1939: Gone with the Wind published

The Grapes of Wrath published

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Which of the following was not a cause of the stock market crash?

A. Excessive American loans to European countries

B. Uneven division of wealth

C. Installment buying

D. Purchasing of stocks “on the margin”

2. Wealthy businessmen who objected to the New Deal programs of Franklin Roosevelt claimed that

A. they unfairly aided the many who did not deserve it.

B. New Deal programs smacked of “bolshevism.”

C. New Deal programs unfairly regulated businesses.

D. all of the above.

3. The purpose of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was to

A. ensure that poor Americans had something to fall back on when they retired.

B. inspect the financial transactions of important businesses.

C. insure bank deposits of individual citizens.

D. increase governmental control over the economy.

4. One group of women who were able to keep their jobs during the Great Depression were

A. schoolteachers.

B. clerical workers.

C. domestic workers.

D. government employees.

5. The popularity of Huey Long and Father Coughlin in the mid-1930s demonstrated that

A. most Americans felt that the New Deal had gone too far in undermining traditional American values.

B. more Americans were turning to religion in the 1930s.

C. most Americans favored truly radical solutions to America’s problems.

D. many Americans felt that the government should do more to end the problems associated with the depression.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of a way that government was expanded to combat the effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of a way that government was expanded to combat the effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of resistance to the expansion of government in the 1930s.

Answers and Explanations

1. A. All of the others were major underlying reasons for the crash. American loans to Europe benefited both European countries and American banking houses until the crash.

2. D. All of the criticisms listed were heard throughout the 1930s.

3. C. The FDIC was established after the bank holiday to insure individual accounts in certified banks and to increase confidence in the banking system. Americans began to put money back into banks after its institution.

4. C. In the other occupations, women were often fired before men, or had their hours drastically reduced. Those women who were employed as domestic workers were relatively safe, as this was one occupation that men, as a whole, rejected.

5. D. Many Americans wanted more New Deal–style programs and felt that Roosevelt should have gone even further in his proposed legislation. Many may have listened to Long and Coughlin, but when the time to vote came, cast their ballots for Roosevelt—thus negating answer C. The idea that the New Deal went too far in destroying American capitalism was popular in the business community, but was not widely shared in mainstream America.

6. Parts A and B: President Herbert Hoover took vigorous measures to combat the Great Depression. He urged business leaders to avoid wage reductions and employee layoffs. He organized charitable giving to help the unemployed. In 1932, he supported the establishment of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) to lend money to banks and businesses. President Franklin Roosevelt launched his First New Deal to combat the Depression. Among the many programs authorized by Congress in 1933 were the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which employed young men in conservation work, and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which constructed a series of dams to provide electricity to people living in the Tennessee River Valley. The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) created the Public Works Administration (PWA), which provided jobs constructing public works, and the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which encouraged industries to set standards for prices and wages. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) attempted to revive agricultural prices by compensating farmers for limiting production. Roosevelt’s Second New Deal in 1935 created more government agencies. The Resettlement Administration helped farmers facing foreclosure. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided jobs to people who were on relief. The Wagner Act protected workers’ right to organize unions and bargain collectively. It created the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to ensure that collective bargaining rights were enforced. The Social Security Act created a pension program for workers over 65 years old. It also set up a system to fund unemployment insurance. The Social Security Act is seen as a landmark in the development of the welfare state in the United States.

Part C: Herbert Hoover became a leading critic of the New Deal’s expansion of the government. Former New York governor and Democratic presidential candidate Al Smith led the American Liberty League, which opposed the New Deal, especially its increases in taxation on people making more than $50,000. In 1937, following the Supreme Court’s striking down of some parts of the First New Deal, President Roosevelt attempted to “pack” the Supreme Court with supporters through his proposed Justice Reorganization Bill. This effort to expand the Supreme Court generated much opposition from both Republicans and conservative Democrats. From this point on, a coalition of Republicans and conservative, mostly Southern, Democrats blocked further New Deal legislation.

World War II (1933–1945)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: Throughout the 1930s the United States followed a foreign policy based on isolationism, which emphasized noninvolvement in European affairs. After Adolph Hitler became the Nazi dictator of Germany, some Americans believed that he was a reasonable man who could serve as a European bulwark against Stalin and the Soviet Union. After World War II began in Europe, President Roosevelt sensed that America would eventually be drawn into it and began Lend-Lease and other measures to help the British. The December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor mobilized American public opinion for war. Americans fought on two fronts during the war: against the Germans and the Italians in Europe and against the Japanese in the Pacific. In Europe, U.S. forces and their British and Soviet Allies eventually invaded Germany and crushed the Nazis. In the Pacific, superior American air and sea power led to the defeat of the Japanese. The decision to drop the atomic bomb on two Japanese cities is still considered controversial by some historians today. At the time, President Truman decided to drop the bomb based on calculations of the human cost of an American invasion of Japan. Americans contributed greatly to the war effort at home through rationing, working extra shifts, and the purchase of war bonds. As a result of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the two major world powers.

Keywords

Isolationism: American foreign policy of the 1920s and 1930s based on the belief that it was in the best interest of the United States not to become involved in foreign conflicts that did not directly threaten American interests.

Yalta Conference: meeting held at Yalta in the Soviet Union between President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in February 1945; at this meeting critical decisions on the future of postwar Europe were made. At Yalta it was agreed that Germany would be divided into four zones, that free elections would take place after the war in Eastern Europe, and that the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.

Bataan Death March: after the Japanese landed in the Philippines in May 1942, nearly 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners were forced to endure a 60-mile march; during this ordeal, 10,000 prisoners died or were killed.

Manhattan Project: secret project to build an atomic bomb that began in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in August 1942; the first successful test of a bomb took place on July 16, 1945.

Rosie the Riveter: figure that symbolized American working women during World War II. After the war, women were expected to return to more traditional roles.

Double V campaign: campaign popularized by American black leaders during World War II emphasizing the need for a double victory: over Germany and Japan and also over racial prejudice in the United States. Many blacks who fought in World War II were disappointed that the America they returned to still harbored racial hatreds.

Internment camps: mandatory resettlement camps for Japanese Americans from America’s West Coast, created in February 1942 during World War II by executive order of President Franklin Roosevelt. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled that the camps were legal.

American Foreign Policy in the 1930s

As Italy, Germany, and Japan all expanded their empires in the 1930s, most Americans favored a continuation of the policy of isolationism. An isolationist group, the America First Committee, attracted nearly 820,000 members by 1940. Isolationists believed that it was in America’s best interests to stay out of foreign conflicts that did not directly threaten American interests. A congressional committee led by Senator Gerald Nye investigated the origins of America’s entry into World War I and found that bankers and arms manufacturers did much to influence America’s entry into the war. On a practical level, Americans were consumed with the problems of the Great Depression and were generally unable to focus on overseas problems.

Congressional legislation passed in the period attempted to keep America out of future wars between other powers. The Neutrality Act of 1935 stated that if countries went to war, the United States would not trade arms or weapons with them for six months; in addition, any nonmilitary goods sold to nations at war would have to be paid for up front and would have to be transported in non-American ships (this was called “cash-and-carry”).

German expansionism in Europe convinced Franklin Roosevelt that the United States, at some point, would have to enter the war on the side of Great Britain (even though public opinion strongly opposed this). On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and two days later England and France declared war on Germany. Within three weeks, Roosevelt asked Congress to pass the Neutrality Act of 1939, which would allow the cash-and-carry sale of arms to countries at war (this legislation was designed to facilitate the sale of American arms to Britain and France). The bill passed on a party-line vote.

News of rapid German advances in Europe began to change American attitudes, with more and more people agreeing with Roosevelt that the best course of action would be to prepare for eventual war. The rapid defeat of France at the hands of the Nazis was stunning to many Americans. In September of 1940, Roosevelt gave Great Britain 50 older American destroyers in return for the rights to build military bases in Bermuda and Newfoundland.

United States and the Middle East in the Interwar Era

In the 1920s, the United States rejected Woodrow Wilson’s vision of the United States as an active leader on the world stage and instead turned to a twenty-year period of isolationism. As a result, American political involvement in the Middle East became minimal, leaving France and Great Britain to exert tremendous influence in the region. As previously noted, France had a mandate to control Syria and Lebanon, while the British controlled Iraq, Transjordan, and Palestine. In 1932, the British granted Iraq independence, although the British continued to have major influence on government officials and their actions in Iraq.

In the 1920s, the Middle East remained a romantic and idealized region of the world to most Americans. They became fascinated with the adventures of T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) leading and uniting Arab tribesmen against the Turks in World War I and went in droves to see romantic movies set in the deserts of the region, starring Rudolph Valentino. The appeal of Zionism for many American Jews waned in the post–World War I years as stories of the sufferings of Jews that were so widespread in the World War I era declined.

However, the concern among Jews in the United States for the plight of European Jews increased with the ascension of Adolf Hitler to power in Germany in 1933. With the increased persecution of the German Jews in the mid-1930s, pressure began to be exerted on European countries as well as on the United States to allow more German Jews to immigrate. In the 1930s, there was increased hope that a Jewish homeland could be established in Palestine, but this hope was dashed by a White Paper issued by the British government in 1939, which seriously limited the number of Jews who could immigrate to Palestine.

There are historians who are very critical of the conscious decision of the United States in the 1930s not to allow more Jewish refugees into the country. These critics state that if the United States had opened its shores to more Jews in the 1930s, their lives could have been saved. Provisions of the National Origins Act of 1924 limited the number of Germans who could enter the country to slightly over 25,000 per year. In addition, immigrants from all countries were refused admission if they could not prove that they could support themselves once they arrived in the United States, thus further limiting the number of Jewish immigrants who could settle in the United States. As a result, an average of fewer than 9,000 Jews from Germany entered the United States annually during the 1930s.

It should be noted that American public opinion in the decade was decidedly against allowing more immigrants to enter the country, especially immigrants who were Jewish. America was in the midst of the Great Depression; editorial page writers, politicians, and many average citizens stated that under these circumstances the last thing America needed was immigrants competing for precious jobs that existed there. Unfortunately, anti-Semitism did not exist only in Germany; anti-Semitic sentiment in the United States strongly opposed allowing any more Jewish immigrants into the country.

The one resource from the Middle East that attracted great interest from American investors in the 1920s and 1930s was oil. As more and more Americans began to drive automobiles in the 1920s, reliable sources of petroleum products were needed outside of the United States. In 1928, British, French, Dutch, and American oil companies agreed to the Red Line Agreement, in which they agreed to act together to export oil from the region; as a result, America began to export oil from Iraq in late 1928.

In 1933, the King of Saudi Arabia granted Standard Oil of California the right to export Saudi Arabian oil. Five years later, geologists working for Standard Oil of California discovered major oil reserves in Saudi Arabia.

During World War II, the United States would have to move to actively protect its oil reserves in Saudi Arabia from attack by the Axis powers. Thus began the trend, which has lasted into the twenty-first century, of the United States depending on the Middle East region for oil and using its military to protect its oil interests there.

Presidential Election of 1940 and Its Aftermath

No president in American history had ever served more than two consecutive terms. Just before the Democratic National Convention, Roosevelt quietly stated that if he was nominated, he would accept. Roosevelt was quickly nominated; his Republican opponent was Wendell Wilkie, an ex-Democrat. Roosevelt emerged victorious, but by a smaller margin than in his two previous victories. A number of those who voted against Roosevelt did so as a protest against the widerspread poverty and unemployment that still existed in America.

Roosevelt interpreted his victory as a mandate to continue preparations for the eventual U.S. entry into World War II. By early 1941, Roosevelt proposed giving the British aid for the war effort without getting cash in return (it was stated that payment could be made after the war). By the terms of the Lend-Lease Act, Congress gave the president the ability to send immediate aid to Britain; Roosevelt immediately authorized nearly $7 billion in aid. As Roosevelt had stated in a 1940 speech, the United States had become an “Arsenal of Democracy.”

In August 1941, Roosevelt secretly met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill off the coast of Newfoundland. The two agreed that America would, in all probability, soon be in the war and that the war should be fought for the principles of democracy. Roosevelt and Churchill authorized the publication of their commonly held beliefs in a document called the Atlantic Charter. In this document, the two leaders proclaimed that they were opposed to territorial expansion for either country, and they were for free trade and self-determination. They also agreed that another world organization would have to be created to replace the League of Nations and that this new world body would have the power to guarantee the “security” of the world. Roosevelt also agreed that the United States would ship lend-lease materials bound for Britain as far as Iceland; this brought the United States one step closer to full support for the Allied cause.

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The Japanese desire to create an Asian empire was the prime motivation behind their invasion of Manchuria in 1931, attacks on eastern China in 1937, and the occupation of much of French Indochina in 1941. As a result of Japanese actions in Southeast Asia, Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets in the United States, cut off the sale of oil to Japan, and closed the Panama Canal to Japanese ships.

From July 1941 until the beginning of December, near-constant negotiations took place between diplomats of Japan and the United States. The Japanese desperately wanted to regain normal trade relations with the United States, but American diplomats insisted that the Japanese leave China first, which the Japanese were unwilling to do. Most Japanese military and civilian leaders were convinced that the Japanese could never achieve their goal of a Pacific empire as long as the United States was militarily active in the region. By December 1, the planning was complete for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

A few revisionist historians believe that Franklin Roosevelt knew of the impending attack on Pearl Harbor. These historians maintain that Roosevelt was acutely aware that many Americans were still opposed to American entry into war, but that an event such as Pearl Harbor would put the entire country squarely behind the war effort. The vast majority of historians believe that American intelligence knew the Japanese were going to attack somewhere, but didn’t know that the attack would be at Pearl Harbor; many in American military intelligence believed the Dutch East Indies would be the next target of the Japanese. The “Roosevelt Knew” thesis might be good for a documentary film or two but little else.

On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, 190 Japanese warplanes attacked the American Pacific fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor. When the attack was done, 150 American airplanes were destroyed (most of them never left the ground), six battleships were sunk, as were a number of smaller ships, and nearly 2,400 Americans were killed. Luckily for the American navy, the aircraft carriers based at Pearl Harbor were out at sea on the morning of the attack.

The next day Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war, stating that December 7 was “a date which will live in infamy.” On December 11, Germany and Italy (who had signed a Tripartite Pact with Japan in 1940) declared war on the United States.

America Enters the War

In September of 1940, the President had authorized the creation of a system for the conscription of men into the armed forces; in the months immediately after Pearl Harbor, thousands were drafted and countless others volunteered for service. Soldiers in World War II called themselves “GIs”; this referred to the “Government Issued” stamp that appeared on the uniforms, tools, weapons, and everything else the government issued to them. A Council for National Defense had also been created in 1940; this body worked rapidly to convert factories over to war production. Additional legislation was also needed to prepare the country for war. In early 1942, the General Maximum Price Regulation Act immediately froze prices and established the rationing system that was in place for most of the war. The Revenue Act of 1942 greatly expanded the number of Americans who had to pay federal income tax, thus increasing the amount of federal revenue.

America was forced to fight a war in Europe and a war in the Pacific. In the European theater of war, American naval forces first engaged the Germans as they attempted to protect convoys of ships taking critical food and supplies to Great Britain. These convoys were often attacked by German submarines. In this Battle of the Atlantic, German torpedoes were dreadfully accurate (even though sonar was being used by the Americans). Between January and August 1942, over 500 ships were sunk by German submarines.

American infantrymen were first involved in actual fighting in North Africa. American and British forces joined to defeat French North Africa in late 1942. American troops also played a role in the battles that eventually forced General Rommel’s Africa Korps to surrender in May 1943. American and British soldiers also began a difficult offensive into Sicily and Italy two months later; by June 1944, Rome had surrendered.

Ever since 1941, the Soviet Union had been the only power to consistently engage the Nazi army (the Soviet Union lost 20 million people in World War II). Stalin had asked on several occasions that a second front be opened in Western Europe; by early 1944, an invasion of France by water was being planned by Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander of all Allied forces (who would become president in 1953).

The D-Day invasion took place on the morning of June 6, 1944. The initial Allied losses on Omaha Beach were staggering, yet the D-Day invasion was the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany. By the end of July, over 2 million Allied soldiers were on the ground in France, and the final squeeze of Nazi Germany began. American and British forces liberated French cities and towns as they moved eastward; at the same time, Russian troops were rolling westward. By August, Paris had been liberated.

The last major German offensive of the war was the Battle of the Bulge. Nearly 85,000 American soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured in this battle. The German attack moved the Allied lines back into Belgium, but reinforcement led by General George S. Patton again forced the Germans to retreat. When the German general staff learned that they had not been victorious at the Battle of the Bulge, most admitted that Germany would soon be defeated. American and British bombings did much to destroy several German cities.

Advancing American, British, and Russian troops were horrified to find concentration camps or the remnants of them. These camps were integral parts of Nazi Germany’s Final Solution to the “Jewish problem.” Between 1941 and 1945, over 6 million Jews were killed in the event now referred to as the Holocaust. Historians maintain that if the war continued for another two years, all of European Jewry might have been eliminated. Advancing troops were outraged at what they saw in these camps, and on several occasions shot all of the Nazi guards on the spot. Why the Holocaust occurred, and why it was endorsed by so many Germans, is the subject of hundreds of books and articles in scholarly journals.

Some historians are critical of the diplomatic and military actions of the United States both before and during the Holocaust. During the mid- to late 1930s, the State Department made it very difficult for European Jews to immigrate to the United States; with alarming unemployment figures in the United States because of the Great Depression, American decision makers felt it unwise to admit large numbers of immigrants to the country. Franklin Roosevelt knew of the existence of the concentration camps as early as late 1943, yet chose not to bomb them (which many in the camps say they would have welcomed). Roosevelt maintained that the number one priority of America had to be winning the war. Nevertheless, historians note that concern for the plight of the Jews caused a number of world leaders to support the creation of the state of Israel in the years immediately following the war.

In March 1945, Allied troops crossed the Rhine River, and met up with advancing Russian troops at the Elbe River on April 25. After a fierce battle, the Russians took Berlin. Deep in his bunker, Hitler committed suicide on May 1, and Germany unconditionally surrendered one week later. Celebrations for V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day) were jubilant in London and Paris, but were more restrained in American cities, as the United States still had to deal with the Japanese.

In February 1945, Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill met at the Yalta Conference. Franklin Roosevelt had been elected to a fourth term in 1944, but photos revealed him to be very ill at Yalta (he would live only another two months). At Yalta, the three leaders made major decisions concerning the structure of postwar Europe. It was agreed that Germany would be split into four zones of occupation (administered by England, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union), and that Berlin, located in the Soviet zone, would also be partitioned. Stalin promised to allow free elections in the Eastern European nations he had freed from Nazi control, and said that the Soviets would join the war against Japan after the surrender of Germany. Many historians consider the decisions made at the Yalta Conference (and the failure of the Soviet Union to totally adhere to them) to be major reasons for the beginning of the cold war.

Some historians are critical of Franklin Roosevelt for “giving in” to Stalin at Yalta. It should be remembered that, at the time of this meeting, Roosevelt had only two months to live. In addition, in February 1945, the atomic bomb was not yet a working weapon. American planning for the defeat of Japan was for a full attack on the Japanese mainland; in Roosevelt’s eyes, Soviet participation in this attack was absolutely crucial (in return for this support, Roosevelt made concessions to Stalin on Eastern Europe and supported the Soviet acquisition of ports and territories in Korea, Manchuria, and Outer Mongolia). Winston Churchill had strong reservations about the ultimate goals and conduct of Stalin and the Soviet Union at Yalta; these reservations would later intensify, and were articulated by Churchill in his “iron curtain” speech of March 1946.

Role of the Middle East in World War II

The Middle East played an important strategic role in Allied military planning during World War II. Some historians argue that this is the first time American political leaders appreciated the true significance of the region in world affairs. The Americans and the British both thought it absolutely crucial that oil resources in the region not fall into German hands, and that these resources continue to be available for the Allied war effort. In addition, there were fears that the Germans and the Japanese might link up and cut off British access to India; control of the Middle East would be central to this plan.

Many of the efforts to maintain control of the Middle East for the strategic interests of the Allies fell on the Americans. The United States established diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and gave the Saudis large amounts of economic aid to ensure the continued flow of Saudi oil supplies. American diplomats in both Washington and Turkey worked to convince the Turks to stay neutral in the war, which would allow the Allies continued access to the Mediterranean Sea. In addition, American and British forces landed in Morocco and Algeria in 1942. Military planners placed Allied troops in the region to prepare for an eventual invasion of Italy. In 1943, British and American forces occupied Tunisia (which was controlled by the Germans), and from there began their assault on Sicily and eventually Italy itself.

American Lend-Lease efforts extended aid to both Great Britain and the Soviet Union by late 1941, and American efforts to assist the Soviet war effort also went through the Middle East. The Americans established large port facilities in Iran, where the parts for trucks, airplanes, weapons, and other war material were landed, assembled, and then sent by train to the Soviet armies fighting the Germans on the Eastern front. History of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union points to this assistance being absolutely indispensable for the eventual Soviet victory over the Nazis. The thousands of Iranians employed by the Americans in this effort were thankful for the additional income these jobs provided them, but sometimes complained about the arrogance and total disregard for local manners and customs exhibited by their employers and the majority of American soldiers stationed in Iran.

War Against Japan

In the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan advanced against British controlled islands and territories in the Pacific. By April 1942, Hong Kong and Singapore were both in Japanese hands. General Douglas MacArthur controlled a large American and Filipino force in the Philippines. A large Japanese force landed there, and in March MacArthur was forced to abandon his troops and go to Australia. On May 6, 1942, Americans holding out on the Bataan Peninsula were finally forced to surrender. About 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners were forced to endure the 60-mile Bataan Death March, during which over 10,000 prisoners were executed or died from weakness (it was several years before Washington became aware of this march).

Just two days later, the Americans won their first decisive victory at the Battle of the Coral Sea. American airplanes launched from aircraft carriers were able to stop the advance of several large Japanese troop transports. Troops on these ships were to be used for an attack on Australia. After this defeat, the Japanese could never again mount a planned attack there. American airplanes also played a crucial role in the Battle of Midway. This battle took place in early June 1942; in it, the Japanese lost 4 aircraft carriers and over 200 planes. Many military historians consider the battle to be the turning point of the Pacific War; after this, Japan was never able to launch a major offensive. By mid-1942, American industrial might became more and more of a factor; the Americans could simply produce more airplanes than the Japanese could.

The Japanese were again halted at the Battle of Guadalcanal, which began in August 1942 and continued into the following year. American marines engaged in jungle warfare and even hand-to-hand combat. On many occasions Japanese units would fight nearly until the last man. Beginning in 1943, the Allies instituted a policy of island-hopping; by this policy, key Japanese strongholds would be attacked by air and sea power as American marines would push on around these strongholds. By late 1944, American bombers were able to reach major Japanese cities, and unleashed massive bombing attacks on them.

By 1944, the war had clearly turned against the Japanese. In late October, General MacArthur returned to the Philippine island of Leyte (although the city of Manila was not totally liberated until the following March). The Japanese began to use kamikaze pilots in a desperate attempt to destroy Allied ships. Several more bloody battles waited ahead for American forces. America suffered 25,000 casualties at the Battle of Iwo Jima, and another 50,000 at the Battle of Okinawa. After these battles, however, nothing was left to stop an Allied invasion of Japan.

Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb

The incredibly bloody battles described in the preceding section greatly concerned military officials who were planning for an invasion of Japan. Japanese resistance to such an attack would have been fanatical. Franklin Roosevelt had suddenly died in April 1945; the new president, Harry Truman, was then informed about the atomic bomb. The actual planning for this bomb was the purpose of the Manhattan Project, begun in August 1942. Construction of this bomb took place in Los Alamos, New Mexico, under the direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer. The bomb was successfully tested in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945.

Much debate had taken place over the American decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japanese cities. For Harry Truman, this was not a difficult decision. Losses in an invasion of Japan would have been large; Truman later admitted that what had happened at Pearl Harbor and on the Bataan Death March also influenced his decision. Some historians also claim that some in both the State Department and the War Department saw the Soviet Union as the next potential enemy of the United States and wanted to use the atomic bomb to “show them what we had.” After the atomic bombs were dropped, American public opinion was incredibly supportive of Truman’s decision. It should be noted that movies, newsreels, and even comic books made the eventual decision to drop the bomb easier by turning the war against the Japanese into a race war. The Japanese, referred to as “Japs,” were portrayed with crude racial stereotypes, and were seen as sneaky and certainly not to be trusted (it is interesting to note that the war against Germany was usually portrayed as a war against “Hitler” or against “the Nazis” and almost never as a war against the German people).

On August 6, 1945, the airplane Enola Gay dropped a bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Over 75,000 were killed in the attack. Three days later another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Some historians are especially critical of the dropping of the second bomb; there is evidence that the Japanese were pursuing a surrender through diplomatic circles on the day of the attack. Japan surrendered one day later, and V-J celebrations took place in many American cities the following day.

Home Front During the War

As previously stated, the federal government took action even before the war began, to prepare the American economy for war. Thousands of American businessmen also went to Washington to take on jobs relating to the war effort. These were called “dollar-a-year” men, as almost all still received their regular salary from wherever they worked.

The demand for workers increased dramatically during the war years, thus increasing wages for workers as well. Union membership increased during the war; unions generally honored “no-strike” agreements that were made in the weeks after Pearl Harbor. Beginning in 1943, some strikes did occur, especially in the coal mines.

The government needed money to finance the war effort. As stated previously, more money was raised by expanding greatly the number of Americans who had to pay income taxes. In addition, America followed a policy begun in World War I and sold war bonds.

During both wars, various celebrities made public appearances to encourage the public to buy these bonds.

Average Americans were asked to sacrifice much during the war. Goods such as gasoline, rubber, meat, sugar, and butter were rationed during the war; American families kept ration cards to determine which of these goods they could still buy during any given period. Recycling was commonplace during the war, and many had to simply do without the goods they desired. Women, for example, were desperate for silk stockings; some took to drawing a line up the back of their legs to make it appear that they had stockings on. City dwellers had to take part in “blackouts,” where they would have to lower all shades to make any enemy airplane attacks more difficult. Men and boys both took turns at lookout stations, where the skies were constantly scanned for enemy bombers. Many high schools across the country eliminated vacations during the year; by doing this, school could end early and students could go off and do essential work. Many workers stayed for extra shifts at work, called “victory shifts.”

Popular culture also reflected the necessities of war. Many movies during the war were light comedies, designed to keep people’s minds off the war. Other movies, such as Casablanca, emphasized self-sacrifice and helping the war effort. “White Christmas” (sung by Bing Crosby) was a favorite during the war, evoking nostalgia in both soldiers abroad and those on the home front. Professional baseball continued during the war, but rosters were made up of players who had been classified 4-F by local draft boards (unfit for military service). The All-American Girls’ Baseball League was founded in 1943 and also provided a wartime diversion for thousands of fans.

Women also entered the American workforce in large numbers during the war. Many women working in “traditional women’s jobs” moved to factory jobs vacated when men went off to fight. The figure of Rosie the Riveter symbolized American working women during the war. In the 1930s, women were discouraged from working (the argument was that they would be taking jobs from men); during World War II, many posters informed women that it was their patriotic duty to work. Problems remained for women in the workplace, however. For many jobs, even in the defense industry, they were paid less than men. It is also ironic that when the war ended, women were encouraged that it was now their “patriotic duty” to return home and become housewives.

Discrimination During the War

Many blacks also took important factory jobs and eagerly signed up for military service. However, discrimination against blacks continued during the war. Black military units were strictly segregated and were often used for menial chores instead of combat. Some American blacks at home began the Double V campaign. This pushed for the defeat of Germany and Japan but also the defeat of racial prejudice. CORE (the Congress for Racial Equality) was founded in 1942, and organized the very first sit-ins and boycotts; these actions would become standard tactics of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

Many on the West Coast feared that the Japanese who lived there were sympathizers or even spies for the Japanese cause (even though many had been born and brought up in the United States). On February 19, 1942, Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans to internment camps. American public officials told the Japanese that this was being done for their own protection; however, many Japanese noted when they got to their camps that the guns guarding these relocation centers were pointed inward and never outward. Many businesses and homes were lost by Japanese citizens.

Influential Japanese Americans were outraged by these actions, and a legal challenge was mounted against the internment camps. In a 1944 decision, Korematsu v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that the internment camps were legal, since they were based “on military necessity.” In 1988, the United States government formally apologized to those who had been placed in camps and gave each survivor $20,000. It should be noted that American units of soldiers of Japanese descent were created during the war, and that they fought with great bravery in the campaign against Hitler.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• War production for World War II pulled America out of the Great Depression.

• World War II turned America into one of the two major world powers.

• America continued to pursue a foreign policy of isolationism throughout the 1930s.

• Lend-Lease and other measures by Franklin Roosevelt brought America into the war on the side of England one year before America actually entered the war.

• The Pearl Harbor attack was part of an overall Japanese strategy, and it mobilized American public opinion for war.

• Battles fought by American GIs in Africa, Italy, and Western Europe were crucial in creating a “second front” and important in the eventual defeat of Hitler.

• Decision made at the Yalta Conference did much to influence the postwar world.

• Superior American air and sea power ultimately led to the defeat of the Japanese in the Pacific.

• The decision to drop the atomic bomb was based on the calculations of the human cost of an American invasion of Japan and as retaliation for Japanese actions during the war.

• Americans sacrificed greatly during the war and contributed to the Allied victory through rationing, extra work, and the purchase of war bonds.

• American women contributed greatly to the war effort, especially by taking industrial jobs that had been held by departed soldiers.

• Blacks continued to meet with discrimination both in and out of the armed services, as did the Japanese. Japanese citizens from the West Coast were forced to move to internment camps. The American government in 1988 issued a formal apology for these actions.

Time Line

1933: Hitler comes to power in Germany

1935: Neutrality Act of 1935

1938: Hitler annexes Austria, Sudetenland

1939: Nazi-Soviet Pact

Germany invades Poland/beginning of World War II

1940: Roosevelt reelected for third term

American Selective Service plan instituted

1941: Lend-Lease assistance begins for England

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor/United States officially enters World War II

Germany declares war on United States

1942: American troops engage in combat in Africa

Japanese interment camps opened

Battle of Coral Sea, Battle of Midway

Casablanca released

1943: Allied armies invade Sicily

United Mine Workers strike

1944: D-Day Invasion

Roosevelt defeats Thomas Dewey, elected for fourth term

Beginning of Battle of the Bulge

1945: Yalta Conference

Concentration camps discovered by Allied forces

FDR dies in Warm Springs, Georgia; Harry Truman becomes president

Germany surrenders unconditionally

Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Japan surrenders unconditionally

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. The internment of Japanese Americans began for all of the reasons listed except

A. it was felt that Japanese living in California had divided loyalties when war began.

B. newspapers on the West Coast reported incidents of Japanese Americans aiding the Japanese military effort.

C. Japanese Americans needed protection, and the camps would provide it for them.

D. the portrayal of the Japanese in American films and magazines.

2. Which was not a reason for the hatred many felt toward the Japanese during the war?

A. The bombing of Pearl Harbor

B. The fact that they were physically different in appearance from most Americans

C. The outrage over the Bataan Death March as soon as Americans first learned of it in late 1941

D. The portrayal of the Japanese in American films, magazines, and newspapers

3. Many observers would later be critical of the Yalta Conference for all of the following except

A. at the conference the Soviet Union was given control over more of Germany than the other Allied powers.

B. the Soviet Union did not promise to join the war against Japan immediately.

C. Franklin Roosevelt was near death at the time of the conference.

D. all of the countries liberated by the Soviet Union would remain at least temporarily under Soviet control.

4. The United States did little to stop the spread of Hitler and Nazi Germany in the 1930s because

A. the United States was much more concerned with diplomatic and political affairs in the Pacific than in Europe in the 1930s.

B. the United States was more interested in solving domestic problems in the 1930s.

C. the findings of the Nye commission did much to sour Americans on future military involvement.

D. B and C

5. Americans continued to crave diversions during World War II and went in large numbers to see all of the following except

A. auto racing.

B. professional baseball.

C. movies.

D. big band concerts.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of an American military contribution to Allied victory in World War II.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of an American military contribution to Allied victory in World War II.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of an effect of World War II on the American home front.

Answers and Explanations

1. C. Although this was the official reason given at the time, the other reasons listed were the actual reasons. California newspapers reported fabricated stories of Japanese Americans assisting the Japanese war effort.

2. C. The Bataan Death March did not occur until 1942, and most Americans did not know about it until 1945.

3. A. At the conference, the Soviet Union, England, France, and the United States were all to administer parts of Germany; the Soviets did not get more than anyone else. Criticism existed because by the decisions made at Yalta, the Soviet Union joined the war against Japan only days before Japan was defeated. In addition, “temporary” Soviet control over Eastern Europe allowed Communist governments to be set up there. Other historians question the decisions Franklin Roosevelt made at Yalta; many wonder if his physical and mental condition were adequate for such a conference.

4. D. American policies in the 1930s were largely concerned with solving the problems of the Depression, and the Nye commission reported that arms manufacturers, looking for profits, were largely responsible for pushing America into World War I.

5. A. Because of shortages of gasoline and rubber for tires, auto racing was almost totally eliminated for much of the war.

6. Parts A and B: Because of its industrial might, the United States became the “Arsenal of Democracy.” The United States provided tanks, trucks, and other military supplies to its allies through the Lend-Lease program that began in 1941. American military forces played an important role in defeating the Axis powers. In the Battle of Midway, fought on June 4 to 7, 1942, the U.S. Navy turned the tide of the war in the Pacific, decisively defeating the Japanese fleet, sinking four Japanese aircraft carriers. In August, the American troops landed on the island of Guadalcanal, beginning a campaign of island-hopping toward Japan that culminated in the bloody battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945. In the European theater of war, the U.S. Navy helped defeat the German submarine threat. Bombers of the Army Air Force weakened German industrial production. American and British forces landed in North Africa in 1942, and Sicily and Italy in 1943. On June 6, 1944, the Allies invaded France, landing at beaches in Normandy. In December, American forces turned back a desperate German counterattack in the Battle of the Bulge. American forces helped force Germany to surrender on May 8, 1945. The Japanese Empire was still fighting on. The United States had been working on an atomic bomb since August 1942, in a top-secret program code-named the Manhattan Project. An atomic bomb was successfully tested at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. On August 6 an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki three days later. The Japanese surrendered soon afterward.

Part C: The Revenue Act of 1942 greatly increased the number of Americans who paid income tax. The government raised more money selling Americans war bonds. Goods such as gasoline, meat, and sugar were rationed during the war. Families received ration cards that indicated what they could purchase at any given time. Many women replaced male workers who had joined the military. “Rosie the Riveter” symbolized the important contributions that women made to war industries. Most Americans supported the war effort following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Many songs and movies expressed patriotic themes.

Origins of the Cold War (1945–1960)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: Even before the end of World War II, strains began to develop in the wartime alliance between Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. At the Yalta conference, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had promised free elections in eastern European countries the Soviet Union liberated from nazism; in the months after the war it became obvious that these elections would not take place. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill warned that the Soviet Union was creating an “iron curtain” between Eastern and Western Europe; the United States began to follow a policy of containment to stop the spread of communism. Through the Marshall Plan, the United States spent millions to rebuild Western Europe after the war. Stalin tested Western will by enforcing a blockade of Berlin in 1948. Western anxieties increased in 1949 when the Soviets announced that they had an atomic bomb and when Communist forces led by Mao Zedong took power over mainland China. The cold war had a major impact at home; the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) began to search for Communists in the entertainment industry, State Department official Alger Hiss was accused of being a Communist spy, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for giving atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. During the Korean War, United Nations and American forces were severely tested as they attempted to “contain communism” in Korea. Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed knowledge of Communists in the State Department, the army, and in other branches of government. Both the United States and the Soviet Union built up their military arsenals in the 1950s; by the end of the decade, President Eisenhower warned of the spreading “military-industrial complex.”

Keywords

Satellite countries: Eastern European countries that came under the control of the Soviet Union after World War II; the Soviets argued that they had liberated these countries from the Nazis and thus they had a right to continue to influence developments there.

Iron Curtain: Term coined by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in a March 1946 speech in Fulton, Missouri; Churchill forcefully proclaimed that the Soviet Union was establishing an “iron curtain” between the free countries of Western Europe and the Communist-controlled countries of Eastern Europe.

Containment Policy: policy devised by American diplomat George F. Kennan; Kennan believed that the United States needed to implement long-term military, economic, and diplomatic strategies in order to “contain” the spread of communism. Kennan’s ideas became official U.S. government policy in the late 1940s.

Truman Doctrine: articulated in 1947, this policy stated that the United States would support any democratic nation that resisted communism.

Marshall Plan: American plan that spent $12 billion for the rebuilding of Western Europe after World War II; the plan produced an economic revival and helped stave off the growth of Communist influence.

Berlin Airlift: American effort that flew in supplies to West Berlin after the Soviet Union and the East German governments blocked the roads to that city beginning in June 1948; American airplanes flew in supplies for 15 months, causing the Soviet Union to call off the blockade.

NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alliance between the United States and Western European countries that was formed in April 1949.

Warsaw Pact: military pact formed in 1955 between the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite countries.

HUAC: House Un-American Activities Committee; in 1947 this committee began to investigate the entertainment industry for Communist influences.

Blacklist: list created by HUAC and various private agencies indicating individuals in the entertainment industry who might be Communists or who might have been influenced by Communists in the past; many individuals named in the blacklist could not find work in the industry until the 1960s.

McCarthyism: term used to describe the accusations by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy and his supporters in the early 1950s that certain people in government, academia, and the arts were secret Communists. McCarthy’s charges were largely unsubstantiated.

Domino theory: theory that if one country in a region fell under Communist rule, then other countries in the region would follow; this theory would be used to justify American involvement in Vietnam.

Sputnik: first artificial satellite, launched in 1957 by the Soviet Union; the fact that the Soviets launched a satellite before the United States shocked many in the American scientific community.

Winning the cold war was the central goal of the United States from 1945 all the way until the fall of communism in 1990 to 1991. Almost all domestic and foreign policy decisions made in this era related in some way to American efforts to defeat the Soviet Union and their Allies. A large part of the success of many sectors of the American economy in the post–World War II era was related to defense and defense-related contracts. Some politicians lost their careers in this era if they were perceived to be “soft on communism.”

Exactly whose fault was the cold war? Hundreds of books and articles have been written about that very subject. American historians assigned blame to the Soviet Union for aggressive actions on their part in the period immediately following the end of World War II. “Revisionist” American historians have claimed that the Soviets were forced into these actions by the perceived aggressiveness of the United States and its Allies. What actually happened in those years immediately following World War II is the subject of this chapter.

First Cracks in the Alliance: 1945

The alliance that proved victorious in World War II began to show strains even before the end of the war. In the preceding chapter, it was mentioned that tough decisions were made at the Yalta Conference, including allowing elections in Eastern European nations. Stalin was especially reluctant to allow free elections in Poland; as Hitler demonstrated, it provided a perfect invasion route into Soviet territory.

The United States would be somewhat handicapped diplomatically by the death of Franklin Roosevelt in April 1945. Roosevelt had excellent personal relations with Winston Churchill and felt that he could at least “understand” Stalin. When Harry Truman took over the presidency, he had little experience in foreign affairs, and Roosevelt had met with him only a few times, sharing little about the appropriate way to deal with America’s wartime allies.

Truman met Soviet diplomats for the first time at the initial session of the United Nations, which was held in San Francisco two weeks after he took over as president. His first face-to-face meeting with Stalin took place at the Potsdam Conference, held at the end of July 1945. Truman, Stalin, and Clement Atlee (who had just replaced Churchill as prime minster) represented the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain, respectively, at this meeting. Again, the future of Eastern Europe was discussed. It was also decided to hold war-crimes trials for top Nazi leaders (the most famous of these would be known as the Nuremberg Trials). At this meeting, Truman announced to Stalin the existence of the atomic bomb (ironically, Stalin had learned of it some two weeks earlier from Soviet spies in the United States).

Great philosophical differences between the two sides were apparent at this meeting. Truman expressed the view that free elections should be held in all Eastern European countries. Stalin, on the other hand, expressed the desire to have Eastern European satellite countries that would act as buffers to potential future invasions of the Soviet Union.

The Iron Curtain

During 1946 and 1947, the Soviet Union tightened its hold on Eastern Europe (Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany). Promised elections in Europe did not actually take place for two years. In some cases, Communists backed by Stalin forced non-Communists, who had been freely elected, out of office.

In March 1946, Winston Churchill made a speech at a college in Fulton, Missouri, where he noted that the Soviet Union had established an iron curtain that divided the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites from the independent countries of Europe. This speech is often viewed as the symbolic beginning of the cold war.

Another key document from this era was written by American diplomat and expert in Soviet affairs, George F. Kennan. Kennan wrote an anonymous article in Foreign Affairs magazine in July 1947 (the author was only identified as “Mr. X”), stating his opinion that Soviet policymakers were deeply committed to the destruction of America and the American way of life. The article maintained that the USSR felt threatened by the United States and felt that it had to expand for self-preservation. Kennan stated that a long-range and long-term containment policy to stop communism was needed. According to Kennan, if communism could be contained, it would eventually crumble under its own weight. The policy of containment was central to most American policy toward the Soviet Union for the next 45 years.

If President Truman was looking for an opportunity to apply the containment policy, opportunities soon presented themselves in Turkey and Greece. The Soviets desperately desired to control the Dardanelles Strait; this Turkish-controlled area would allow Soviet ships to go from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean. In addition, Communists were threatening the existing government in Greece. In February 1947, the British (still suffering severe economic aftershocks from World War II) stated that they could no longer financially assist the Turkish and Greek governments, and suggested that the United States step in (some historians maintain that this symbolically ended Great Britain’s great power status and demonstrated that now the United States was one of the two major players on the world stage). In March 1947, the president announced the Truman Doctrine, which stated that it would become the stated duty of the United States to assist all democratic nations of the world who resisted communism. Congress authorized $400 million in aid for Greece and Turkey. The policies outlined in the Truman Doctrine and in George Kennan’s article can be found embedded in American foreign policy all the way through the 1980s.

Marshall Plan

Most Americans applauded Truman’s decision to help countries resisting communism. Others wanted to see a much larger American role in Europe in the postwar era. Several observers stated that Hitler was able to rise to power because of the lack of stability in both the German government and economy in the era following World War I, and that such a situation should never be allowed to develop again.

Many felt that it was the duty of the United States to rebuild the devastated countries of Europe after World War II; it was felt that, in the long run, this would bring both political and economic benefits to the Western world.

By the terms of the Marshall Plan, the United States provided nearly $12 billion in economic aid to help rebuild Europe. This assistance was of a strictly nonmilitary nature, and was designed, in large measure, to prevent Western Europe from falling into economic collapse. Seventeen Western European nations received aid under the Marshall Plan; several of them became valuable trading partners of the United States by the early part of the 1950s. The Soviet Union was invited to apply for aid from the Marshall Plan. Stalin refused and ordered the Soviet satellite countries to do the same.

Berlin: The First Cold War Crisis

In 1948, the Americans, French, and British announced that they were to combine their areas of occupation in Germany and create the Federal Republic of Germany. West Berlin (located within the eastern zone of Germany) was supposed to join this Federal Republic. Berlin was already a “problem city” for Communist authorities. Many residents of East Berlin (and other residents of Eastern Europe) escaped communism by passing from East Berlin to West Berlin.

In June 1948, Soviet and East German military units blocked off transportation by road into West Berlin. Historians of Soviet foreign policy note that this was the first real test by Stalin of Western cold war resolve. Truman authorized the institution of the Berlin Airlift; for nearly 15 months, American and British pilots flew in enough food and supplies for West Berlin to survive. The Americans and British achieved at least a public relations victory when Stalin ordered the lifting of the blockade in May 1949. Shortly afterward, the French, English, and American zones of occupation were joined together into “West Germany,” and the Americans stationed troops there to guard against further Soviet actions.

One month earlier, the United States, Canada, and 10 Western European countries had announced the formation of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The main provision of the NATO treaty was that an attack on one signatory nation would be considered an attack on all of them. The NATO treaty placed America squarely in the middle of European affairs for the foreseeable future. NATO would expand in the early 1950s, and, as a response to NATO, the Soviet Union and its satellite countries created the Warsaw Pact in 1955.

1949: A Pivotal Year in the Cold War

In 1949, two events occurred that rocked American postwar confidence. In September, the Soviets announced that they had exploded an atomic bomb. The potential threat of nuclear annihilation was an underlying fear for many Americans throughout the 1950s. Truman quickly gave authorization for American scientists to begin work on the hydrogen bomb, a bomb much more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

An equally horrifying event occurred shortly after the successful Soviet atomic test. Since 1945, the United States had been a major financial backer of Nationalist China, led by Chiang Kai-shek. Communist guerrilla forces under Mao Zedong were able to capture much of the Chinese countryside. In 1949, Mao’s forces captured Peking, the capital city. The People’s Republic of China was established by Mao. Nationalist forces were forced to flee to Formosa (now Taiwan). From Formosa, Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists maintained that they were the “true” government of China, and continued to receive a very sizable aid package from the United States. The question of “who lost China” would be repeatedly asked over the next 10 years in the United States, usually to attack the president, Harry Truman, and the Democratic party, who were in power when Nationalist China fell.

Middle East in the Early Years of the Cold War

In the years immediately after World War II, the United States continued to take a back seat to the British in terms of influencing leaders and events in the Middle East. It was the 1947 decision by the British to stop assisting the Turks and Greeks (followed by the articulation of the Truman Doctrine by the president) that drastically increased the role of the United States in the region.

Since the 1920s, a major reason for American interest in the region was oil: this certainly did not decline in the cold war era. It should be noted that in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the United States itself was not dependent on oil from the region; however, two regions that the United States was trying to rebuild, Western Europe and Japan, desperately needed Middle Eastern oil. In the late 1940s, the Truman administration cemented relations with Saudi Arabia, America’s major trading partner for oil since the 1930s. Tax policies encouraged American oil companies to do business with the Saudis, and the Americans pledged to assist Saudi Arabia if it was attacked by the Soviets. The fact that the United States was establishing a seemingly close relationship with a completely undemocratic regime was largely unnoticed by American commentators at the time; observers today note that in their quest for oil, Americans have developed these same “close relationships” with countless despotic kings and other authoritarian rulers in the region.

In addition, sections of the Middle East were very close to the U.S. new enemy, the Soviet Union. American planners and decision makers wanted to: (1) ensure that the region would not be vulnerable to potential attacks by the Soviets and (2) utilize the region as a staging point for potential military advances against the Soviet Union (American missiles placed in Turkey were as close to some of their targets as Soviet missiles in Cuba were to their targets in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis).

Role of the United States in the Creation of Israel

The entire dynamic of the Middle East was changed by the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. The United States played a key role in this pivotal event. The pressure for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine increased enormously as a result of the Holocaust in Europe. Great Britain had governed Palestine by mandate since the 1920s, but stated in 1947 that the United Nations should decide the future of the region. The UN announced its support for a plan that would divide Palestine into Jewish and Arab sections.

The Arab states unanimously rejected this plan, noting that countless non-Jewish residents of Palestine would be uprooted if it were implemented. The U.S. State Department opposed the partition plan, noting that it went against long-standing American support of the principle of “self-determination” in regions such as this. Nevertheless, President Truman announced his support of the plan and instructed American diplomats to “twist some arms” to get other countries to support it.

After the United Nations narrowly supported the plan, fighting began between Jews and Arabs living in Palestine. Countless Arabs were forced to flee the Jewish-controlled regions. Throughout the Arab world, the United States began to be blamed for the bloodshed in Palestine; President Truman and others in the American government were perceived as the ones who had forced this “solution” through the United Nations. In 1948, the independent state of Israel was proclaimed and was immediately recognized by the United States (some historians maintain that the main reason for this was to recognize Israel before the Soviets could). The Arab states surrounding Palestine immediately attacked the new state of Israel, but were defeated.

Conflict between Israel and its neighbors has remained a constant ever since, with Israel winning two more major wars with its neighbors. Another constant is the “special relationship” that will continue to exist between the United States and Israel. Israel’s strongest backer in virtually every crisis has been the United States. Americans have given millions of dollars of military aid to the Israelis. There have been situations where virtually the entire world has condemned the Israelis for its actions against its neighbors; in almost every case, the United States has continued to back Israel. There are countless reasons why the United States and Israel have developed this special relationship. However, this relationship is also the reason for the animosity that exists in much of the Arab world toward the United States.

United States and the Shah of Iran

When Dwight Eisenhower became president in 1953, he faced a new and potentially more volatile force in the Middle East: Arab nationalism. In an early press conference, Eisenhower stated that he favored political independence for the peoples of the region. Nevertheless, he stated, this could not be done “too quickly,” as a power vacuum might develop that would allow the Soviets an opportunity to expand into the region.

In 1951, Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq of Iran announced a plan to nationalize the British oil facilities in the country. Many in Iran viewed him as a hero for opposing British imperialism in the region. The British imposed an oil embargo on Iranian oil and proposed military action against Mossadeq (which was opposed by the United States). The Shah of Iran, who was actually in charge of the government, was a favorite of American officials; Washington became increasingly concerned when Mossadeq began to quietly question the Shah’s relationship with the United States.

With Eisenhower’s approval, the CIA went to Iran and financed anti-Mossadeq demonstrations, which eventually led to his downfall. Mossadeq was replaced by a prime minister who was loyal to the Shah (and not opposed to American influence in the country). In the long run, the American role in the removal of Mossadeq from power would prove detrimental to the image of the United States in the region. After the events of 1953, the Shah ruled as a brutal autocrat; the perception was that the Shah’s actions were sanctioned by the United States. When the American embassy in Tehran was occupied by Islamic militants in 1979, the actions by the CIA in Iran in 1953 were long-forgotten by virtually everyone in the United States; to many Iranians, the effects of American actions in Iran in 1953 were still very much alive.

As this section demonstrates, anti-American sentiment in the Middle East did not begin with the Iranian hostage crisis or with Saddam Hussein. In reality, resentment of the United States began to brew in the early years of the cold war and intensified over the years as countless American officials have been pictured smiling and shaking hands with rulers in the region who have little or no regard for the people whom they govern.

Cold War at Home

During 1949 and 1950, many Americans felt a sense that the tides of the cold war were somehow shifting over in favor of the Soviet Union. Many felt that the Soviet Union could never do this alone, and that they had to have a large number of spies within the United States helping them. Thus, under President Truman and later under President Eisenhower, there was a tremendous effort made to rid the United States of a perceived internal “Communist menace.” As stated in Chapter 21, on the depression, many idealists had dabbled in communism in the 1930s; this “dabbling” would now come back to haunt them.

The Truman administration began by jailing the leaders of the American Communist party under the provisions of the 1940 Smith Act. This document stated that it was illegal to advocate the overthrow by force of the American government. When some Republicans claimed that the Truman administration was “soft on communism,” Truman ordered the creation of a Loyalty Review Board, which eventually had the legal jurisdiction to investigate both new and experienced federal workers. Three or four million federal workers were examined by the board; as a result of these investigations, slightly over 100 workers were removed from their jobs. Investigations revealed that some of those investigated were homosexuals, who were often hounded out of office as well.

While the Truman administration was investigating the executive branch of government, Congress decided to investigate Communists in the government and in the entertainment industry. The congressional committee overseeing these investigations was the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee). In 1947, the HUAC began to investigate the movie industry in earnest. Committee investigators relentlessly pursued actors, directors, and writers who had attended Communist party meetings in the past. Directors of movies made during World War II who cast the Soviet Union in a favorable light (such as Mission to Moscow and North Star) were brought in for questioning. Dozens of writers, actors, and directors were called in to testify about their political orientation. The Hollywood Ten was an influential group of writers and directors who refused to answer questions posed to them by members of the HUAC in an open congressional session. Members of the Hollywood Ten were all sentenced to jail time.

The effects on Hollywood were major. Some Hollywood movies of the late 1940s dealt directly with the problems of society (such as The Best Years of their Lives). As a result of pressure from the HUAC, Hollywood movies became much more tame. In addition, a blacklist was made of actors, directors, and writers who were potentially Communist and whom the major studios should not hire. Many Hollywood careers were ruined by the blacklist; some writers wrote under false names or had “fronts” turn in their screenplays for them. Some of those blacklisted were unable to get work until the early 1960s.

On the Senate side, Senator Pat McCarran sponsored several bills to “stop the spread of communism” in the United States. The McCarran Internal Security Act was enacted in 1950; under this bill, all Communist or Communist-front organizations had to register with the government, and members of these organizations could not work in any job related to the national defense. The McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 greatly limited immigration from Asia and Eastern Europe; this would hopefully limit the “influx of communism” into the United States. President Truman vetoed both these bills, but Congress passed both of them over the president’s veto.

Were There Spies in America?

The trials of Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs indicated to many Americans that there just might be Communist spies infiltrating America. In 1948, the HUAC began an investigation of Hiss, a former official in the State Department and an advisor to Franklin Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference. An editor of Time magazine, Whitaker Chambers, had previously been a Communist and testified to the HUAC that Hiss had been a Communist too. After several trials, Hiss was finally convicted for perjury and spent four years in jail. To this day, the guilt or innocence of Alger Hiss is still debated.

In 1950, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were charged with passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. The government had much more evidence on Julius than on his wife, but they were both found guilty of espionage in 1952 and executed. Considerable debate has also taken place on the guilt of the Rosenbergs, although materials released from the Soviet archives after the fall of communism strongly implicated Ethel. Material from these archives demonstrated that some Communists in the United States had closer ties to Moscow than was previously believed.

Heating of the Cold War: Korea

After World War II, Korea was divided into a Communist North Korea and a non-Communist and pro-American South Korea, divided along the 38th parallel. In late June 1950, North Korea invaded the south. The Security Council of the United Nations voted to send in a peacekeeping force (the Soviet Union was protesting the UN’s decision not to allow Communist China in as a member and failed to attend the Security Council session when this was discussed). Douglas MacArthur was appointed to lead the UN forces, and the Korean War began.

UN forces under MacArthur drove northward into North Korea. In late November, forces from Communist China forced MacArthur’s troops to retreat, yet by March 1951, his troops were on the offensive again. MacArthur was very critical of President Truman’s handling of the war, demanding a greatly intensified bombing campaign and suggesting that Truman order the Nationalist Chinese to attack the Chinese mainland. In April 1951, Truman finally fired MacArthur for insubordination. Armistice talks to end the war dragged on for nearly two years; in the end, it was decided to divide North and South Korea along the 38th parallel (along virtually the same line that divided them before the war!). More than 57,000 Americans died in this “forgotten war.”

Rise of McCarthyism

The seeming inability of America to decisively defeat communism both abroad and at home led to the meteoric rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. In a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, on February 9, 1950, McCarthy announced that he had a list of 205 known Communists who were working in the State Department. McCarthy’s list was sometimes longer and sometimes smaller, and often also included prominent diplomats, scholars, and Defense Department and military figures. McCarthyism was the ruthless searching out of Communists in the government that took place in this period, largely without any real evidence.

For four years, McCarthy reigned supreme in Washington, with few in power or in the news media being willing to challenge him. McCarthy offered a simple reason why the United States was not conclusively winning the cold war: because of Communists in the government. The Republican party was a semireluctant supporter of McCarthy in this era; a number of Republicans were skeptical of many of McCarthy’s charges, but realized that anticommunism was a “winner” for Republicans politically. McCarthy even accused Harry Truman and former Secretary of State Marshall of being “unconscious” agents of the Communist conspiracy.

In March 1954, McCarthy claimed in a lengthy speech that the U.S. Army was full of Communists as well. It was at this point that McCarthy began to run into major opposition; Republican President Eisenhower (a former general) stated privately that it was definitely time for McCarthy to be stopped. Tensions between the army and McCarthy increased when it was announced that McCarthy had asked for special privileges for an aide of his that had been drafted.

The Army-McCarthy Hearings appeared on network television, and thousands found themselves riveted to them on a daily basis. Over the course of the hearings, it was discovered that McCarthy had asked for special favors for his aide, had doctored photographs, and had used bullying tactics on a regular basis. The end was clearly in sight for McCarthy when Joseph Welch, attorney for the army, received loud applause when he asked McCarthy if he had any “sense of decency” and when reporter Edwin R. Murrow went on CBS News with a negative report about McCarthy and his tactics. In late 1954, McCarthy was formally censured by the Senate. His power gone, McCarthy died only three years later. The McCarthy era is now remembered as one in which attack by innuendo was common and where, during the investigations to “get at the truth” about communism, the civil rights of many were violated. It should be noted that several biographies have been published in the last few years exonerating McCarthy and his tactics.

Cold War Policies of President Eisenhower

Foreign policy decisions of the Eisenhower administration were often crafted by the Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles. Dulles felt that the policy of containment was not nearly aggressive enough; instead of merely containment, Dulles often spoke of “massive retaliation” against Communist advances anywhere in the world. Dulles also spoke of the need to use nuclear weapons if necessary. At one press conference, Dulles stated that instead of containing communism, the goal of the United States should be to “make communism retreat” whenever and wherever possible.

Eisenhower hoped that the death of Stalin in 1953 would allow a “new understanding” between the United States and the Soviet Union. In some ways, Nikita Khrushchev was different from Stalin, speaking about the possibilities of “peaceful coexistence” with the United States. However, when Hungary revolted in 1956, Khrushchev ordered this to be brutally stopped by the Soviet army.

The fate of the Hungarian leader Irme Nagy was sealed when the United States failed to assist the anti-Soviet rebellion of his government. Despite the tough talk of John Foster Dulles, who had boldly proclaimed that the United States would come to the aid of any in Eastern Europe who wanted to “liberate” themselves from communism, it was determined that U.S. forces could not be used to help the Hungarian rebels (despite the fact that the CIA operatives in Hungary had promised Nagy this aid), because this might provoke war with the Soviets. Eisenhower was also reluctant to get militarily involved in Southeast Asia, even though he believed in the domino theory, which proclaimed that if one country in Southeast Asia fell to the Communists, others would follow. In 1954, French forces in Vietnam were being overrun by nationalist forces under the control of Ho Chi Minh. The French desperately asked for aid. Despite segments of the American military who pushed for assisting the French, Eisenhower ultimately refused.

As a result, the French were finally defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. After they left, an international conference took place and the Geneva Accords established a North Vietnam under the control of Ho Chi Minh and a South Vietnam under the control of the Emperor, Bao Dai. From the beginning, the United States supplied military aid to South Vietnam. By the terms of the Geneva Accords, a national election was scheduled for 1956 on the potential unification of the entire country. However, a coup in South Vietnam overthrew the emperor and sabotaged the election plans. Nevertheless, the United States continued to support South Vietnam.

The major Middle Eastern crisis during the era was the Suez Canal crisis. The United States had helped Egyptian leader Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser build the Aswan Dam. The Egyptians wanted to purchase arms from the United States as well. When the Americans refused, the Egyptians went to the Soviets with the same request. When the United States (and Great Britain), in response, totally cut off all loans to Egypt, Nasser nationalized the British-owned Suez Canal. The British and the French attacked Egypt. In response to Soviet threats that they might join the conflict on the side of the Egyptians, the Americans got the British and French to retreat from Egypt.

Eisenhower and Dulles desperately wanted to prevent the spread of communism in the Middle East. In January 1957, the Eisenhower Doctrine was formally unveiled, which stated that Americans arms would be used in the region to prevent Communist aggression. The Americans invoked the Eisenhower Doctrine when they landed troops in Beirut, Lebanon, in mid-1958 to put down a rebellion against the government.

The Americans were equally concerned with the spread of communism in Latin America, where America had numerous economic interests. A defensive alliance of most nations of the Western Hemisphere was signed as the Rio Pact in 1947. Critics would argue that the United States was never shy about throwing its weight around in the region. In 1954, the CIA helped orchestrate the overthrow of the president of Guatemala on the grounds that his administration was too friendly with the Soviet Union; during this coup, property that had been seized from American businesses was restored to American hands.

In 1959, Fidel Castro orchestrated the removal of dictator Fulgencio Batista from power. Castro soon seized American businesses located in Cuba and began trade negotiations with the Soviet Union. Thus, beginning in late 1960, the United States cut off trade with Cuba, and eventually cut off diplomatic relations with the island (a situation that still exists today).

Dangerous Arms Buildup

During the Eisenhower administration, both the United States and the Soviet Union built up their nuclear arsenals to dangerously high levels. By August 1953 both countries had exploded hydrogen bombs, which made the bomb used at Hiroshima look primitive in comparison. Both countries carried out nuclear tests, although in 1958 Eisenhower and Khrushchev both agreed to suspend further atomic tests in the atmosphere.

The Soviets concentrated on building up their missile capabilities in this period, causing some Americans to fear that they were falling behind, and that a “missile gap” was developing. The startling fact that the Soviets might be ahead in technology was demonstrated by their 1957 launching of Sputnik, the first man-made satellite that could orbit the earth. Americans were shocked as they could look up in the sky and see the satellite whiz by (in the next two years, many American high schools and colleges increased the number of math and science courses students had to take so that Americans could “keep up” with the Soviets). Even more troubling was the fact that American tests to create a man-made satellite had failed.

A final humiliation for the United States came in May 1960, when the Russians shot down an American U-2 spy plane. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured and taken prisoner by Soviet forces. For several days, the Americans refused to admit that an American plane had even been shot down; Eisenhower eventually took full responsibility for the incident.

Toward the end of his term in office, Eisenhower warned of the extreme challenge to peace posed by the massive “military-industrial complex” that existed in America in the 1950s. The size of the military-industrial complex would certainly not decline in the 1960s.

Chapter Review

Rapid Review

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• Winning the cold war was the central goal of American policy for 45 years.

• Economic impact of the cold war on American industry was enormous; many plants continued making military hardware throughout the cold war era.

• Debate over who “started” the cold war has occupied the minds of historians since 1945.

• Decisions made at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences ushered in cold war tensions between the World War II victors.

• Concept of the “iron curtain” was first articulated by Winston Churchill in 1946.

• American strategy of containment motivated many foreign policy decisions in the cold war era.

• The Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and NATO united America and Western Europe both militarily and economically against the Soviet Union and its satellites.

• America’s resolve to oppose communism was tested during the Berlin Crisis and the Korean War.

• 1949 was a critical year in the cold war, as the Soviet Union got the atomic bomb and mainland China turned Communist.

• Some Americans feared that Communists had infiltrated the American government and the entertainment industry; investigations by the House Un-American Activities Committee and Senator Joseph McCarthy were dedicated to “rooting out” Communists in America.

• Under President Dwight Eisenhower, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles formulated an aggressive foreign policy that would not just contain communism but also attempt to roll communism back whenever possible.

• During the Eisenhower administration, crises in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America further tested American resolve.

• Both the Soviet Union and the United States built up their nuclear arsenals to dangerous levels in this era.

Time Line

1945: Yalta Conference

Harry Truman becomes president

Potsdam Conference

1946: Winston Churchill gives “iron curtain” speech

Article by George Kennan on containment

1947: HUAC begins probe into movie industry

Introduction of Federal Employee Loyalty program

President Truman articulates Truman Doctrine

1948: Berlin Airlift

Implementation of Marshall Plan

Creation of nation of Israel

Alger Hiss implicated as a Communist

1949: NATO established

Soviet Union successfully tests atomic bomb

Mainland China turns Communist

1950: Joseph McCarthy gives speech on Communists in the State Department

Alger Hiss convicted of perjury

McCarran Internal Security Act enacted

Beginning of Korean War

1952: Dwight Eisenhower elected president

1953: CIA orchestrates return of Shah of Iran to power

Death of Joseph Stalin

Execution of the Rosenbergs

1954: Army-McCarthy hearings

Government in Guatemala overthrown

French defeated at Dien Bien Phu

Geneva Conference

1955: Creation of the Warsaw Pact

1956: Hungarian Revolt suppressed by Soviet Union

Suez crisis

1957: Sputnik launched by Soviet Union

1959: Castro comes to power in Cuba; United States halts trade with Cuba

1960: U-2 incident

John Kennedy elected president

Review Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. The Army-McCarthy hearings proved

A. that Americans were largely uninterested in the issue of communism.

B. that Eisenhower would support McCarthy at any cost.

C. that McCarthy had little proof for his claims.

D. the massive popularity of Joseph McCarthy.

2. The policy of containment stated that

A. America should go out and attempt to dislodge Communist leaders wherever possible.

B. America should hold firm against Communist encroachment in all parts of the world.

C. America should not hesitate to use atomic weapons against the Soviet Union.

D. the United States should depend on its Western European Allies for help against the Soviet Union.

3. America was especially interested in stopping Communist expansion in Latin America because

A. the United States had many economic interests in the region.

B. both presidents Truman and Eisenhower were close to many of the Latin American leaders.

C. the Soviet Union expressed a special interest in expanding in this region.

D. the CIA had repeatedly failed in operations in Latin America in the past.

4. When the HUAC began their investigation of the movie industry, they looked with suspicion at writers, actors, and directors who

A. attended Communist party meetings in the 1930s.

B. wrote or appeared in World War II–era films that were sympathetic to the Soviet Union.

C. invoked the Fifth Amendment when testifying before the HUAC.

D. all of the above

5. Republicans claimed that the Democrats were “soft on communism” for all of the following reasons except

A. during the Truman administration mainland China had gone Communist.

B. Alger Hiss was an advisor to Franklin Roosevelt at Yalta.

C. the Truman administration failed to establish a system to check on the possibility of Communists working for the federal government.

D. decisions made by Roosevelt and Truman at the end of World War II made it easier for the Soviet Union to control Eastern Europe.

Short-Answer Question

6. Answer Parts A, B, and C.

A. Briefly explain ONE example of an American effort to contain communism overseas during the period 1945 to 1960.

B. Briefly explain a SECOND example of an American effort to contain communism overseas during the period 1945 to 1960.

C. Briefly explain ONE example of an effort to combat communism within the United States during the period 1945 to 1960.

Answers and Explanations

1. C. The hearings did much to discredit McCarthy. By this point, Eisenhower had broken from McCarthy, and many Americans watched these hearings from beginning to end.

2. B. Containment emphasized stopping communism whenever it attempted to expand; containment did not emphasize attacking communism where it already existed.

3. A. The United States had factories in and active trade relationships with many Latin American countries, and feared that communism would destroy American economic interests in the region. The CIA had actually been quite successful in their operations in the region in the past—witness their role in Guatemala.

4. D. As a result of the HUAC hearings, the American movie industry changed dramatically.

5. C. All of the other three were used by Republicans to say that the Democrats were indeed “soft on communism.” Truman instituted a Loyalty Review Board to verify that nearly 4 million federal workers were “true Americans.”

6. Parts A and B: Inspired by the writings of the American diplomat George Kennan, the U.S. government began to develop a containment policy to limit the expansion of communism in 1947. President Harry Truman formulated the Truman Doctrine, which stated that the United States would assist any country threatened by Communist aggression or internal Communist subversion. In an effort to prevent the spread of communism in Europe, the United States launched the Marshall Plan, a program of economic assistance to Western Europe designed to help the European democracies recover economically from World War II. In 1948, when the Soviet Union cut off access to West Berlin, the United States and Great Britain supplied the city through the Berlin Airlift. In 1949, the United States, Canada, and 10 Western European countries formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); this military alliance confronted the Soviet Union and its allies for the next 40 years. In 1950, the United States came to the assistance of South Korea after it was invaded by Communist North Korea. The Korean War lasted until 1953. Following the defeat of French forces in Vietnam at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower provided support to the new country of South Vietnam. Eisenhower believed in the domino theory, arguing that if one country in Southeast Asia fell to communism, others would soon follow. In 1957, the president announced the Eisenhower Doctrine, which stated that the United States would provide support to any Middle Eastern country being threatened by other Middle Eastern countries associated with the Soviet Union. The United States engaged in an arms race with the Soviet Union, building atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, and nuclear-armed guided missiles. The United States used U-2 spy planes to monitor nuclear missile sites in the Soviet Union; in 1960, the Soviets shot down a U-2 plane and captured its pilot, embarrassing the American government.

Part C: The revelation that Communist spies had penetrated the U.S. government and even acquired information about the atomic bomb contributed to the Second Red Scare. President Truman created a Loyalty Review Board to remove security risks from the federal workforce. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) launched investigations into the infiltration of communists into the government and the entertainment industry. This contributed to a growing hysteria about communist activities in the United States. Many Hollywood and Broadway actors, writers, and directors were blacklisted because of their supposed Communist sympathies. The McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950 compelled Communist and Communist associated organizations to register with the government; the act also provided for the investigation of people suspected of subversive activities. In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin accused the State Department of harboring large numbers of Communists. Following this, McCarthy launched a number of investigations of supposed Communists in the U.S. government. McCarthy became very popular. He was finally censured by the Senate in 1954 after he was deemed to have gone too far in an investigation of the U.S. Army.

Prosperity and Anxiety: The 1950s

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: In the 1950s, many middle-class, white American families experienced a prosperity they had never known before. Many young couples moved to the suburbs and purchased their first home (for veterans, this could be partially financed by the GI Bill). Observers noted that Dwight Eisenhower was the perfect president for the seemingly placid 1950s. Many commentators wrote on the conformity of American suburban life in the period. However, there were also many Americans pushing for change. Proponents of civil rights for black Americans were heartened by the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in public schools, yet found that their struggles would continue throughout this decade and all through the next. Many women felt frustrated in the role of housewife that they were expected to play in suburban America. Many teenagers rebelled in the decade as well, by emulating the “rebellious” movie star James Dean, by dabbling in Beat poetry, or by listening to the new rock ‘n’ roll music.

Keywords

Brown v. Board of Education (1954): Supreme Court decision stating that “separate but equal” schools for white and black students were unconstitutional and that school districts across America must desegregate with “all deliberate speed”; controversy over enforcement of this decision was to last for more than a decade.

Montgomery bus boycott (1955): effort by blacks in Montgomery, Alabama, to have the local bus company end discriminatory seating and hiring policies. The movement started with the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man; the boycott was later led by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Baby boom: from 1947 to 1962 Americans married and had children at a record pace; the “high point” of the baby boom was 1957.

The Feminine Mystique: book written by Betty Friedan describing the frustration felt by suburban women in the 1950s; this book was a landmark for feminists of the 1960s and 1970s.

James Dean: young actor whose character in the film Rebel Without a Cause inspired many rebellious young people of the 1950s.

Beat Generation: literary movement of the 1950s; writers of this movement rejected the materialistic American culture of the decade. Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs were key writers of this movement.

Economic Growth and Prosperity

Some economists feared that the ending of World War II would lead to economic recession. Instead, the American economy enjoyed tremendous growth in the period between 1945 and 1960. In 1945, the American gross national product (GNP) stood at just over $200 billion; by 1960, the GNP had grown to over $500 billion.

A significant reason for this growth was the ever-growing spending on defense during the cold war era. The “military-industrial complex” (a term coined by Dwight D. Eisenhower) was responsible for billions of dollars of new spending during the 1950s (and far beyond). Millions were spent on technological research throughout the era.

Other significant factors were responsible for the economic growth of the era. Consumers had accumulated significant amounts of cash during World War II, but had little to spend it on, as the production of consumer goods was not emphasized in the war era. With the war over, consumers wanted to spend. Credit cards were available to consumers for the first time; Diner’s Club cards were issued for the first time in 1950. Two industries that benefited from this were the automobile industry and the housing industry.

Many American households had never owned a new automobile since the 1920s, and in the postwar era, demand for cars was at a record high. If consumers needed assistance in deciding on which automobile to buy, they could receive assistance from the advertisers who were working for the various automobile companies (advertising reached levels in the 1950s equal to the 1920s). As the 1950s wore on, consumers could buy cars with bigger and bigger fins and fancier and fancier interiors. President Eisenhower and Congress encouraged America’s reliance on the automobile when they enacted legislation authorizing the massive buildup of the interstate highway system (at the expense of the construction of an effective mass transit system). The highway system was a by-product of national defense plans of the cold war; planners thought they would be ideal for troop movements and that airplanes could easily land on the straight sections of them.

The other industry that experienced significant growth in the postwar era was the housing construction business. There was a dire shortage of available housing in the immediate postwar era; in many cities, two families living in an apartment designed for one was commonplace. Housing was rapidly built in the postwar era, and the demand was insatiable. The GI Bill of 1944 authorized low-interest mortgage loans for ex-servicemen (as well as subsidies for education).

William Levitt helped ease the housing crises when he built his initial group of dwellings in Levittown, New York. Several other Levittowns were constructed; homes were prefabricated, were built using virtual assembly line practices, and all looked remarkably the same. Nevertheless, William Levitt and developers like him began the move to the suburbs, the most significant population shift of the postwar era.

The economy was also spurred by the mass of appliances desired by consumers for their new homes in the suburbs. Refrigerators, televisions, washing machines, and countless other appliances were found in suburban households; advertising helped ensure that the same refrigerator and television would be found in homes across the nation. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith noted that, by the 1950s, America had become an “affluent society.” It should be noted, however, that even though the economy of the era enjoyed tremendous growth, the wages of many workers lagged behind spiraling prices. For many workers, real income declined; this led to labor unrest in the postwar era.

Political Developments of the Postwar Era

It would have been difficult for anyone to follow Franklin Roosevelt as president, and Harry Truman, in the opinion of many, definitely suffered in comparison. Although Truman stated that “the buck stops here” when decisions were made, many critics felt that he had no consistent set of beliefs to guide him as he decided policy. Truman was considered antiunion by much of organized labor, yet he vetoed a key piece of legislation designed to take power away from labor unions. There were many strikes in 1946 and 1947, and the Taft-Hartley Act was passed by Congress in 1947 over the president’s veto (several biographers claim that Truman’s veto was primarily symbolic and was done for political reasons). This bill stated that if any strike affected the health and safety of the country, the president could call for an 80-day cooling off period, during which negotiations could take place and workers would go back to work, that the union contributions of individuals could not be used in federal elections, and that union leaders had to officially declare they were not Communists. Unions were furious at these and other restrictions the bill imposed on them.

Truman declared a Fair Deal policy, in which he tried to expand the principles of the New Deal. Included in Truman’s Fair Deal were plans for national health care and civil rights legislation; Truman also wanted to repeal the Taft-Hartley Act and increase government spending for public housing and education. In early 1948, he sent a civil rights bill to Congress (the first civil rights bill sent to Congress by a president since the Reconstruction). Nevertheless, Truman’s popularity in early 1948 was low. Republicans rallied behind second-time candidate Thomas Dewey (who had been defeated by Franklin Roosevelt in 1944) and felt that victory would be theirs. Truman’s chances seemed especially dim when Strom Thurmond also ran as a Dixiecrat candidate (in opposition to a civil rights plank in the 1948 Democratic platform) and Henry Wallace, Truman’s secretary of commerce, ran as a Progressive. The highlight of Truman’s political career was his eventual victory over Dewey; Truman’s success is attributed to the fact that he campaigned more against the “do-nothing” Republican Congress than he did against Dewey. Truman could never capitalize on his 1948 victory; in the years after this victory, charges of being “soft on communism” plagued the administration.

Truman decided not to seek reelection in 1952, and former general Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson in the general election. As president, Eisenhower saw his role as a crafter of compromise, and not as a creator of new policies. He tried to oversee a scaling back of government shift of power to the courts and to Congress. Eisenhower also shifted much of the power traditionally held by the president to his cabinet and other advisors. He was similar to the Republican presidents of the 1920s in that he was extremely friendly to business interests; most members of his cabinet were businessmen. At many levels, Dwight Eisenhower was the perfect president for the 1950s.

Eisenhower’s vice president was Richard Nixon, a former member of the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate from California. Nixon had first made a political name for himself in the Alger Hiss case, and his role in the 1952 campaign was largely as an anti-Communist hatchet man. Midway through the campaign, it was charged that supporters had set up an illegal campaign fund for his personal use. Candidate Eisenhower gave Nixon the opportunity to give a public speech to try to save himself. During the Checkers Speech, Nixon declared that he had done nothing wrong, that his wife Pat wore a “very respectable Republican cloth coat,” and the only thing given to him had been a dog, Checkers. Nixon remained on the ticket, thus saving a political career that would make him one of the most dominant figures in American politics for the next 25 years.

Civil Rights Struggles of the Postwar Period

Many black veterans who had gone overseas to fight for democracy were appalled to find that conditions for blacks had remained largely unchanged during the war years. After speaking to many leaders from NAACP and CORE in early 1948, Truman outlawed discrimination in the hiring of federal employees and ordered the end to segregation in the armed forces. Change in both the federal government and the armed forces was slow.

Black athletes had often been heroes for large segments of the black population. In the 1930s and early 1940s, it had been Joe Louis; starting in 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first black to play major league baseball, wearing the uniform of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson had to endure threats and racial slurs throughout his first season. Nevertheless, Robinson maintained his dignity and was named National League Rookie of the Year in 1947.

Black leaders had long wanted to strike down the 1896 Plessy v. Feguson case, which stated that as long as black and white schools or facilities were “equal,” it was not unconstitutional that they were separate. In reality, schools in many districts were separate, but they were in no way equal; white schools would get 80 or 85 percent of the financial allocations in some Southern cities and towns. The case that challenged the 1896 law came from Oliver Brown from Topeka, Kansas, who sued the Topeka school district because his daughter had to walk by an all-white school to get to the bus that took her to an all-black school on the other side of town.

The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court and was argued there by NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall (later a U.S. Supreme Court justice). The case was heard by a court presided over by Earl Warren, former governor of California and appointed chief justice by Eisenhower in 1953. By a unanimous decision, the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision stated that “separate but equal” was unconstitutional, and that local districts should desegregate with “all deliberate speed.” Parents, government officials, and students in many districts in the South responded: “2, 4, 6, 8. We don’t want to integrate!” Earl Warren was chief justice from 1953 to 1969, during which the Court practiced “judicial activism,” making important decisions on topics such as the rights of the accused and prayer in schools.

The main battlefield for civil rights in 1955 was in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks, a secretary for the Montgomery NAACP, refused to give up her seat for a white man to sit in, and was arrested. Civil rights leaders in Montgomery began the Montgomery bus boycott, during which blacks in the city refused to ride the city buses; instead, they carpooled or walked. The bus company refused to change its policies; finally, the Supreme Court stepped in again and stated that segregation on city buses (like in schools) was unconstitutional. A 27-year-old minister by the name of Martin Luther King, Jr., became the main spokesperson for the blacks of the city.

Another major battle for civil rights took place in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. A small number of black students were set to enroll in Central High School in Little Rock in the fall of 1957. The governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, sent the National Guard to Central High School to keep the black students out. President Eisenhower had personally been opposed to the Brown v. Board of Education decision, but saw this as a direct challenge to a Supreme Court decision and to the authority of the federal government. Eisenhower sent in federal troops and federalized the National Guard; under armed guard, the black students attended Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, that year. Decisions by the federal courts outlawing various forms of segregation, and federal troops in Southern states enforcing these federal court orders, would become an increasingly common sight in the early 1960s.

Conformity of the Suburbs

Many young people who had grown up during the Great Depression and had come of age during World War II decided in the postwar era to move to the suburbs and to have families. It was decided by many that domesticity would be the avenue to happiness in the postwar world. As a result, the baby boom ensued, during which the birthrate soared beyond all expectations. The baby boom lasted from 1945 until 1962; during the peak of the baby boom, 1957, nearly 4.5 million babies were born.

The perfect place for large numbers of newly married couples to have