Fourth Party System [1890s–1932] III

Question 1

Review - Timeline: Industrialization and the Rise of Big Business, 1870-1900

Answer 1

1870: John D. Rockefeller founds ‘Standard Oil’. 1873: Andrew Carnegie founds ‘Carnegie Steel’; ‘Panic of 1873’ triggers extended depression. 1876: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone. 1877: ‘Great Railroad Strike’ lasts forty-five days. 1879: Thomas Edison invents the light bulb. 1886: Labor rally at Haymarket Square erupts in violence; ‘American Federation of Labor’ is founded. 1892: ‘Homestead Steel Strike’.

Question 2

Review - Timeline: The Growing Pains of Urbanization, 1870-1900

Answer 2

1876: Professional baseball begins with the founding of the National League. 1885: Chicago builds first ten-story skyscraper. 1887: Frank Sprague invents electric trolley. 1889: Jane Addams opens ‘Hull House’ in Chicago. 1890: Jacob Riis publishes ‘How the Other Half Lives’; ‘Carnegie Hall’ opens in New York. 1893: ‘City Beautiful’ movement begins. 1895: Coney Island amusement parks open.

Question 3

Timeline: Politics in the Gilded Age, 1870-1900

Answer 3

1873: Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner publish ‘The Gilded Age’. 1877: ‘Compromise of 1877’ results in Rutherford B. Hayes presidency. 1881: Charles Guiteau assassinates President James Garfield. 1883: Congress passes ‘Pendleton Civil Service Act’. 1891: Populist Party emerges out of Alliance movement. 1894: Coxey’s Army marches on Washington; Pullman Strike paralyzes railroad traffic. 1896: William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan for president.

Question 4

Timeline: Age of Empire - American Foreign Policy, 1890-1914

Answer 4

1893: Turner presents ‘Frontier Thesis’. 1898: U.S. fights Spanish-American War; U.S. annexes Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. 1899: Hay drafts Open Door policy regarding trade in China. 1900: Boxer Rebellion erupts in China. 1901: Congress approves ‘Platt Amendment’ regarding Cuba. 1903: U.S. obtains rights to build Panama Canal. 1904: Theodore Roosevelt announces ‘Roosevelt Corollary’.

Question 5

A New American Consumer Culture

Answer 5

While tensions between owners and workers continued to grow, and wage earners struggled with the challenges of industrial work, the culture of American consumerism was changing. Greater choice, easier access, and improved goods at lower prices meant that even lower-income Americans, whether rural and shopping via mail order, or urban and shopping in large department stores, had more options. These increased options led to a rise in advertising, as businesses competed for customers. Furthermore, the opportunity to buy on credit meant that Americans could have their goods, even without ready cash. The result was a population that had a better standard of living than ever before, even as they went into debt or worked long factory hours to pay for it.

Question 6

Urbanization and Its Challenges

Answer 6

Urbanization spread rapidly in the mid-nineteenth century due to a confluence of factors. New technologies, such as electricity and steam engines, transformed factory work, allowing factories to move closer to urban centers and away from the rivers that had previously been vital sources of both water power and transportation. The growth of factories—as well as innovations such as electric lighting, which allowed them to run at all hours of the day and night—created a massive need for workers, who poured in from both rural areas of the United States and from eastern and southern Europe. As cities grew, they were unable to cope with this rapid influx of workers, and the living conditions for the working class were terrible. Tight living quarters, with inadequate plumbing and sanitation, led to widespread illness. Churches, civic organizations, and the secular settlement house movement all sought to provide some relief to the urban working class, but conditions remained brutal for many new city dwellers.

Question 7

The African American “Great Migration” and New European Immigration

Answer 7

For both African Americans migrating from the postwar South and immigrants arriving from southeastern Europe, a combination of “push” and “pull” factors influenced their migration to America’s urban centers. African Americans moved away from the racial violence and limited opportunities that existed in the rural South, seeking wages and steady work, as well as the opportunity to vote safely as free men; however, they quickly learned that racial discrimination and violence were not limited to the South. For European immigrants, famine and persecution led them to seek a new life in the United States, where, the stories said, the streets were paved in gold. Of course, in northeastern and midwestern cities, both groups found a more challenging welcome than they had anticipated. City residents blamed recent arrivals for the ills of the cities, from overcrowding to a rise in crime. Activist groups pushed for anti-immigration legislation, seeking to limit the waves of immigrants that sought a better future in the United States.

Question 8

Relief from the Chaos of Urban Life

Answer 8

The burgeoning cities brought together both rich and poor, working class and upper class; however, the realities of urban dwellers’ lives varied dramatically based on where they fell in the social chain. Entertainment and leisure-time activities were heavily dependent on one’s status and wealth. For the working poor, amusement parks and baseball games offered inexpensive entertainment and a brief break from the squalor of the tenements. For the emerging middle class of salaried professionals, an escape to the suburbs kept them removed from the city’s chaos outside of working hours. And for the wealthy, immersion in arts and culture, as well as inclusion in the Social Register, allowed them to socialize exclusively with those they felt were of the same social status. The City Beautiful movement benefitted all city dwellers, with its emphasis on public green spaces, and more beautiful and practical city boulevards. In all, these different opportunities for leisure and pleasure made city life manageable for the citizens who lived there.

Question 9

Change Reflected in Thought and Writing

Answer 9

Americans were overwhelmed by the rapid pace and scale of change at the close of the nineteenth century. Authors and thinkers tried to assess the meaning of the country’s seismic shifts in culture and society through their work. Fiction writers often used realism in an attempt to paint an accurate portrait of how people were living at the time. Proponents of economic developments and cultural changes cited social Darwinism as an acceptable model to explain why some people succeeded and others failed, whereas other philosophers looked more closely at Darwin’s work and sought to apply a model of proof and pragmatism to all ideas and institutions. Other sociologists and philosophers criticized the changes of the era, citing the inequities found in the new industrial economy and its negative effects on workers.

Question 10

Describe the concept of urbanization and apply it to the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Answer 10

Urbanization is the concentration of people into cities. This process took place in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s and was accompanied by a corresponding shift in social, cultural, and economic power. Some of the expansion was due to migration from rural to urban areas, but most of the growth in Northern population centers was a result of immigration. Cities offered greater opportunities for work and leisure than the places they left behind.

Question 11

Identify some of the problems created by the massive influx of people into cities during this time.

Answer 11

Cities offered greater opportunities for work and leisure than the places they left behind. But, the infrastructure was insufficient to provide basic services, such as clean water, sanitation, and adequate housing, for all of the newcomers.

Question 12

Explain the contribution of muckrakers during this time, including that of Jacob Riis.

Answer 12

Muckrakers revealed many urban problems through their investigative journalism. Jacob Riis increased awareness of the tenements, unsanitary and unsafe housing for the poor, through the publication of his book, “How the Other Half Lives”, in 1890. From efforts like his, concerned citizens and politicians embarked on long-range urban planning to solve these issues.

Question 13

Summarize how cities like New York began implementing public services to combat the problems caused by overcrowding.

Answer 13

In New York, concerned citizens and politicians embarked on long-range urban planning. They passed building regulations to make housing safer, cleaned up the streets and water to stop the spread of disease, and implemented public service departments. Public transportation advanced and parks were established to improve the quality of life.

Question 14

Rookery

Answer 14

A “rookery” is a colloquial English term given in the 18th and 19th centuries to a city slum occupied by poor people and frequently also by criminals and prostitutes. Such areas were overcrowded, with low-quality housing and little or no sanitation. Poorly constructed dwellings, built with multiple stories and often crammed into any area of open ground, created densely-populated areas of gloomy, narrow streets and alleyways.

Question 15

Define the urbanization of America at the end of the 1800s.

Answer 15

In the decades following the Civil War, America was transformed from a collection of regions and rural farming communities into a unified, urban, industrial power. The second industrial revolution formed white collar workers and a middle class. This literate and curious urban workforce had more money and more time to enjoy all that the cities had to offer: new technology, experiences, and opportunities.

Question 16

Recognize the influence of better communication - Telephone.

Answer 16

The most revolutionary new communication technology was the telephone, which allowed the population to control the flow of information, changed business and society, and introduced new careers for women as operators and in offices. When Alexander Graham Bell introduced the telephone, he literally put control of information back into the hands of the people, opposed to being controlled by Western Unions monopoly of the telegraph.

Question 17

Recognize the influence of better communication - Printing Press

Answer 17

New printing methods resulted in a literate, informed population. Improved printing methods slashed the cost of publication, leading to record-high readership for magazines and newspapers. To increase sales, newspapers commonly embellished or even invented stories. Despite this so-called ‘yellow journalism’, the result of this print revolution was a more informed public and increased literacy, and advertising would never be the same.

Question 18

Recall the entertainment growth through professional sports, stage, and cinema.

Answer 18

Urbanites also enjoyed many new forms of entertainment and leisure. They went to amusement parks, zoos and circuses, museums and sideshows. They shopped in brightly lit department stores. Fairs became major events. A cycling craze ignited in the 1890s. They went to the theater to enjoy concerts, operas and plays, and minstrel and burlesque shows. Vaudeville acts were the most popular. The most popular spectator sport was baseball.

Question 19

Remember that literature brought more realism to the masses and had an influence as well.

Answer 19

Despite the glamour of the cities, most of the urban workforce lived in desperate poverty. A new artistic movement, known as Realism, emerged. Realism was an attempt to capture what people were actually doing and experiencing and feeling. Popular novels by Mark Twain satirized life in the antebellum South. ‘The Birth of a Nation’ portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as heroic.

Question 20

Remember that literature brought more realism to the masses and had an influence as well - Mart Twain.

Answer 20

Realism also influenced literature, and no one made fiction seem as lifelike as Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. It was Mark Twain who first coined the term Gilded Age to aptly describe the Second Industrial Revolution before the Progressive Era began. Twain is best known for two novels, ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’, which used colloquial speech to successfully capture the local color of various people and places along the Mississippi River. Many readers have criticized the books as racist, but the novels are, in fact, satire of the antebellum South.

Question 21

Turner, Mahan, and the Roots of Empire

Answer 21

In the last decades of the nineteenth century, after the Civil War, the United States pivoted from a profoundly isolationist approach to a distinct zeal for American expansion. The nation’s earlier isolationism originated from the deep scars left by the Civil War and its need to recover both economically and mentally from that event. But as the industrial revolution changed the way the country worked and the American West reached its farthest point, American attitudes toward foreign expansion shifted. Businesses sought new markets to export their factory-built goods, oil, and tobacco products, as well as generous trade agreements to secure access to raw materials. Early social reformers saw opportunities to spread Christian gospel and the benefits of American life to those in less developed nations. With the rhetoric of Fredrick J. Turner and the strategies of Alfred Mahan underpinning the desire for expansion abroad, the country moved quickly to ready itself for the creation of an American empire.

Question 22

Remember that literature brought more realism to the masses and had an influence as well - The Birth of a Nation.

Answer 22

Some film critics have suggested that the controversial silent movie ‘The Birth of a Nation’ (released in 1915) was the meeting point of Realism and cinema. The racist film was a fictionalized dramatization of the Civil War and Reconstruction as ample justification for the Ku Klux Klan. Unfortunately, many people mistook the dramatic new art form for non-fiction, and the KKK experienced a resurgence that lasted nearly three decades.

Question 23

Explain what imperialism is and what factors contributed to its rise in America.

Answer 23

Imperialism is a policy or ideology of extending a country’s rule over foreign nations, often by military force or by gaining political and economic control of other areas. Imperialism was both normal and common throughout recorded history, the earliest examples dating from the mid-third millennium BC.

Question 24

Trace the rise of imperialism in America.

Answer 24

The realization of U.S. manifest destiny left a hole for Americans’ need for expansion. In 1893, a financial panic led to Americans experiencing a major economic depression. The government had been run by conservatives and riddled with corruption for years. After 1890, the Progressive Movement got a foothold in the government. The ‘Panic of 1893’ (1893-1897) was a serious economic depression in the U.S., which caused the Progressive Movement to get a foothold in a realigning election in 1896 and the presidency of William McKinley. Social Darwinism encouraged the idea that caucasians were superior and basically destined to dominate what they considered the inferior races or nations.

Question 25

Discuss Alfred Thayer Mahan's influence on global imperialism.

Answer 25

Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914) and his proponents' call for naval dominance laid the groundwork for America's ability to build a naval empire. He argued that a modernized navy and greater world naval presence were necessary for America to holds its place in the world. Without a great navy, the U.S. would not be able export goods to all the possible customers in the world. Mahan's writings sparked a naval arms race, which included Europe, the U.S., and Japan. Mahan even suggested building a canal through Central America.

Question 26

Understand the causes of the Spanish-American War.

Answer 26

The Spanish-American War (1898) was a new kind of war involvement for the U.S. It was not for freedom, it was not an internal conflict. It was fought over expansion and the idea of spreading American influence in the Caribbean and in the Philippines. ‘Yellow journalism’, notably from Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, exaggerated the already very brutal actions of Spanish General Valeriano Weyler in relocating Cuban rebels to 're-concentration camps' that were cesspools of hunger and disease. Additionally, Hearst’s New York Journal published the ‘De Lome Letter’ in which the Spanish Minister to the United States, Enrique Dupuy de Lome, reported that President McKinley was weak and could not control the jingos in his party. Finally, the U.S.S. Maine, which was deployed to protect Americans, exploded from design flaws in Havana, Cuba killing 268 sailors. All these factors put pressure on McKinley and he sent an armistice to Spain demanding it close its re-concentration camps and that Spain grant Cuba its independence. It is argued how much Spain did or did not agree to, but the U.S. declared war anyway.

Question 27

American Imperialism - Spanish-American War: Remember the exploits of Teddy Roosevelt and the Buffalo Soldiers.

Answer 27

On April 25, 1898, war was declared by Congress and 17,000 troops were deployed. The U.S. sent Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders, and the Buffalo Soldiers to fight the war, with the latter being largest group in the conflict. The U.S. had a larger navy than Spain and a geographical advantage. About 2,400 troops died in the war, but only about 400 of them died in battle. The majority died from malaria and yellow fever. The Treaty of Paris, signed December 10, 1898, officially ended the war. The terms of the treaty annexed Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. Cuba was officially awarded independence. Under the Platt Amendment, Cuba was considered a protectorate of the U.S., and since it was under U.S. protection, a military base was constructed at Guantanamo Bay.

Question 28

Define “Jingo”.

Answer 28

A jingo is basically an extremely patriotic person who is likely to favor an aggressive foreign policy.

Question 29

*The Spanish-American War and Overseas Empire*

Answer 29

In the wake of the Civil War, American economic growth combined with the efforts of Evangelist missionaries to push for greater international influence and overseas presence. By confronting Spain over its imperial rule in Cuba, the United States took control of valuable territories in Central America and the Pacific. For the United States, the first step toward becoming an empire was a decisive military one. By engaging with Spain, the United States was able to gain valuable territories in Latin America and Asia, as well as send a message to other global powers. The untested U.S. Navy proved superior to the Spanish fleet, and the military strategists who planned the war in the broader context of empire caught the Spanish by surprise. The annexation of the former Spanish colonies of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, combined with the acquisition of Hawaii, Samoa, and Wake Island, positioned the United States as the predominant world power in the South Pacific and the Caribbean. While some prominent figures in the United States vehemently disagreed with the idea of American empire building, their concerns were overruled by an American public—and a government—that understood American power overseas as a form of prestige, prosperity, and progress.

Question 30

Yellow Journalism

Answer 30

Yellow journalism is journalism that exploits, distorts or exaggerates in order to attract readers. It particularly existed in the late 1800s. Widespread support for the Spanish-American War can be attributed to yellow journalism. President McKinley wanted to avoid a war, but sensationalized articles portrayed him as weak and encouraged the war in order to give Cubans independence.

Question 31

Muckrakers

Answer 31

Our nation's first investigative journalism, Muckrakers were a group of journalists who exposed injustices and political corruption in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In fact, the muckraking tactics of two young Washington Post reporters exposed the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, and muckraking is common today.

Question 32

*Economic Imperialism in East Asia*

Answer 32

The United States shifted from isolationism to empire building with its involvement—and victory—in the Spanish-American War. But at the same time, the country sought to expand its reach through another powerful tool: Its economic clout. The Industrial Revolution gave American businesses an edge in delivering high-quality products at lowered costs, and the pursuit of an “open door” policy with China opened new markets to American goods. This trade agreement allowed the United States to continue to build power through economic advantage.

Question 33

Spanish-American War: Rough Riders

Answer 33

The Rough Riders was a nickname given to the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish–American War and the only one to see action. The United States Army was small, understaffed, and disorganized in comparison to its status during the American Civil War roughly thirty years prior. Following the sinking of the U.S.S Maine President William McKinley needed to muster a strong ground force military group swiftly, which was done so by calling upon 125,000 volunteers to assist in the war efforts. The U.S. was fighting against Spain over Spain's colonial policies with Cuba. The regiment was also called "Wood's Weary Walkers" in honor of its first commander, Colonel Leonard Wood. This nickname served to acknowledge that despite being a cavalry unit they ended up fighting on foot as infantry.

Question 34

American Imperialism - Hawaii

Answer 34

In Hawaii, American businessmen basically overthrew Queen Lili'uokalani and established their own government. The Cleveland administration said the actions were illegal, but Hawaii was annexed by the U.S. under President McKinley in 1897.

Question 35

American Imperialism - China

Answer 35

In China, the imperial world powers agreed to an 'Open Door Policy', meaning no single foreign nation would get sole rites to China. Angered by the foreign imperialists, the 'Righteous Harmony Society', or Boxers, rebelled. The Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) was crushed by the foreign powers, but it led to a buildup in Chinese nationalism.

Question 36

American Imperialism - Japan

Answer 36

Japan and The United States entered into the 'Gentlemen's Agreement of 1908'. In the agreement, Japan agreed to curb Japanese emigration to the U.S., and the U.S. agreed to curb discriminatory policies toward Japanese living in the States. The U.S. mostly did not hold to its end of the bargain.

Question 37

American Imperialism - Philippines

Answer 37

The U.S. helped the Philippines defeat Spain in rebellion, and then after Spain ceded the Philippines to the U.S., they entered into the Philippine-American War. The result was that the Philippines did not gain independence from the U.S. until 1946.