The Imperialist Vision - Madison

        Several European nations were expanding overseas in a development called the New Imperialism.  The reason for this expansion included how factories depended on raw materials, but no single country could supply all of the resources.  The Imperialism and Anglo-Saxonism beliefs had started to gain popularity, and so the United States increased its involvement in foreign affairs to have more influence over the other countries.  There were three international crises that illustrated this new approach.  The first, in 1888, the country risked a war in order to prevent Germany from taking control of Samoa in the south Pacific.  Three years later, an infuriated mob in Chile attacked American sailors.  Lastly, in 1895, the U.S. backed up Venezuela against Great Britain in a border dispute with British Guiana.

The Spanish-American War - Isaac

The Spanish-American war was fought from April 25, 1898 – August 12, 1898 (3 months, 2 weeks and 4 days). It was fought over the freedom of Cuba because America wanted Spain to release its control over the small nation. Before the war, America supported Cuba in its rebellion against Spain because their economies had become intertwined.  Cuba eventually succeeded and became the Republic of Cuba in 1895, but Spain refused to let this be the end.  They sent in 200,000 troops to take back power, and President McKinley decided that he did not want to be involved in this war. 

In January 1898, McKinley grew worried about the Americans stationed in Cuba, so he ordered the USS Maine to go pick them up in case of an emergency.  In February, the USS Maine exploded in the Havana Harbor, and the Americans blamed the Spanish for it.  “Remember the Maine!” was the new slogan that was shouted among the Americans who wanted to go to war with Spain.  This put McKinley under a lot of pressure, and he eventually had no choice but to agree to go to war or else he would lose his job.  The troops on both sides of the war were not prepared for the intense battles and the new tropical diseases.  The Americans eventually prevailed and protected Cuba, and they helped out Puerto Rico too.  

An American Empire - Jenn

             At the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, America had acquired the islands of Guam and Puerto Rico.  The Philippines remained a gray area because America could not decide what to do with them.  If they annexed them, then that would mean that America would lose its republican ideals and gain imperial control over a country forcefully without agreement with its people.  People who supported the annexation thought that having control over the Philippines would give economic and militaristic benefits.  Some of them also believed that it was imperative to help the “less civilized” country.  On the opposite side of the totem pole were the anti-imperialists, which included a few notable people including Andrew Carnegie and Mark Twain.  Carnegie spawned an excellent argument that seizing control of the Philippines would cost more money than what would be profited from the economic benefits of selling and distributing goods there.   In the end, President McKinley agreed to annex the Philippines by paying Spain $20 million and became an imperial power. 

                Another problem faced by the United States was Cuba.  With the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the United States reluctantly granted Cuba their independence, but in a way they had to keep Cuba linked to them for political purposes.  President McKinley allowed them to write their own constitution with the exception of an added amendment.  This amendment, called the Platt Amendment, required Cuba to keep its ties with other nations limited to the United States,  gave the United States the right to buy and lease naval stations there, kept Cuba’s debt low, and allowed the U.S. to intervene when Cuba’s independence was threatened.  Soon after, Congress passed the Foraker Act to establish a civil government for Puerto Rico.  Things were peaceful, for a short time.

                The Philippines were not content with the new annexation, so they rebelled in the Philippine-American War.  This war lasted for around three years, and there were 4,300 American casualties and 50,000-200,000 Filipino casualties.  The United States turned to hypocrisy and used the same military tactics that they had convicted Spain for when they used them on Cuba.  They established reconcentration camps and separated the guerrillas (Filipino soldiers) from the innocent civilians.  Many people died from disease and starvation.  William Howard Taft, the future president and the first governor of the islands, tried to win back the respect of the people by implementing education, transportation, and health care into their society.  A month after America captured the leader of the guerrillas, they surrendered, and the war ended.  It wasn’t until 1946 that the Philippines were granted independence from the U.S. 

New American Diplomacy - Maija

In 1894 China and Japan broke into a war over Korea. The war showed Japan mastered the western technology and industry. Germany, France, Britain, and Russia wanted “leaseholds” with China. President McKinley and John Hay were opposed to this but both of them still supported the “Open Door Policy” meaning all countries could trade with China. In 1899 John Hay sent notes to the 4 countries asking them not to discriminate against nations that were interested in doing business with them. The Society of Harmonious Fists (The Boxers) destroyed “Foreign Devils” and “Chinese Christian Coverts” in 1900. The boxers killed more than 200 foreigners and took others as their prisoners.

       After the German ambassador of China was killed eight nations: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the U.S. began to intervene. Together they all formed an international force of nearly 50,000 troops. Of those troops 3,400 of them were American. The force landed in China to rescue foreigners that had been captured and to destroy the Boxers. The U.S. retained access to China’s trade of tea, spices, and silk. In 1901 President McKinley was attacked by a man named Leon Czolgosz and died a few days after the attack. Theodore Roosevelt then took over the presidency. He was 42 years old and the youngest President to ever take office. The people didn’t like the idea of Roosevelt being anything more than the Vice President. They feared he was too young to know what was best for the people.

The Roots of Progressivism - Isaac

The roots of progressivism arise from a mixture of things.  Intelligent women wanted the government to step in and make a bunch of regulations for children, work places, and food processing.   Middle class workers were a big part of it too because they had the most time on their hands, a decent sum of money, and a well-rounded education.  The catalyst for all this was a terrible fire in which 100+ people died in and a book called The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, which talked about how horrible the meat-packing industry was. 

Muckrakers were the people who spoke out about these ideas in the first place.  They were influential journalists who uncovered political corruption and problems with the workforce.  People began to form ideas about how to stop the political machines and reform the government.  There were so many problems that the progressives wanted to stop, and they thought that they would all get better if they pushed for prohibition, the banishment of alcohol in their society.  Women and African Americans took advantage of this period of reform and started protesting for the rights and suffrage that they deserved.  

Roosevelt and Taft - Jenn

                Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest president to win an election, and he believed in the rising philosophy of Social Darwinism.  Roosevelt formed a reform program called the Square Deal, in which he tried to keep the “common” people safe from the supremacy of big business.  He was a strong believer of regulating big businesses; he didn’t believe it would be for the benefit of the nation as a whole to eradicate them.  The Sherman Antitrust Act was put into effect on behalf of this argument to regulate trusts and prevent these businesses from turning into monopolies.  Another problem that presented itself during his presidency was the Coal Strike of 1902.  A group of labors called the United Mine Workers went on strike in the eastern mines of Pennsylvania, demanding increased pay with better working conditions, less hours, and the right to establish an effective union.  He reasoned with them, and they finally agreed upon arbitration, which was the interference by an outside party to negotiate a settlement.  In this case, the outside party was the federal government, and this became one of the first steps in letting the national government act as an advisor in uncontainable situations like this. 

                In this time period, consumer protection was of the utmost importance.  Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle had many people outraged and sick of what was happening in the meatpacking industry.  In order to ease and retain the citizens’ piece of mind, Roosevelt helped pass the Meat Inspection Act, which required that the government inspects the meat being sold, and that the Agriculture Department is in charge of setting what rules and criteria that the companies must abide by.  On the same day, the Pure Food and Drug Act was also passed to ensure that all labels on drug containers and food packages are authentic.  Another situation that Roosevelt became passionate about was the conservation of nature.  He implemented around 100 million acres of forests to the national reservations and set up five new national parks.  Roosevelt really did what he could to please the “common” folk.

                William Howard Taft was the next president in office after Roosevelt.  Taft had made some dumb decisions during his presidency, but nothing was more obstructive than the Payne-Aldrich Tariff.  This tariff was a compromise between two contradictory acts that cut and raised taxes.  Naturally, this tariff didn’t solve anything, and caused more problems than it did solutions.  Roosevelt had warned that something like this might cause the Republican Party to split, and later on they did.  It is said that Taft had abandoned the application of progressivism by doing many things Roosevelt disagreed with.  One of the most important things that he wanted was to completely break apart trusts, and he had launched an antitrust lawsuit against U.S Steel.  This completely went against Roosevelt’s ideals, and so he eventually lost his support.  Taft did complete a few good actions during his presidency though.  He established the Children’s Bureau to investigate the injustices of child labor and present evidence of this publically to raise awareness.

The Wilson Years - Maija

         The election of 1912 was a competition between two candidates; Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Taft failed to live up to progressive ideals. Woodrow Wilson was the former governor of New Jersey and lived by what he called “New Freedom”. Woodrow Wilson won the election with 435 votes. Wilson signed laws introducing the direct primary, establishing utility regulatory boards, and gave the people a voice. He believed in destroying monopolies and signed laws to levy income tax. He signed the Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission, Unfair Trade Practices, Clayton Antitrust Act, and the first law against child labor. The law made it impossible to have children under the age of 14 working in factories.