Key Points 5-9 Flashcards
The United States became
more connected with the world, pursued an expansionist foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere, and emerged as the destination for many migrants from other countries.
Popular enthusiasm for U.S. expansion, bolstered by economic and security interests, resulted in
the acquisition of new territories, substantial migration westward, and new overseas initiatives.
The desire for access to natural and mineral resources and the hope of many settlers for economic opportunities
or religious refuge led to
an increased migration to and settlement in the West.
Advocates of annexing western lands argued that
Manifest Destiny and the superiority of American institutions compelled the United States to expand its borders westward to the Pacific Ocean.
The U.S. added large territories in the West through victory in the Mexican– American War and diplomatic negotiations, raising questions about
the status of slavery, American Indians, and Mexicans in the newly acquired lands.
Westward migration was boosted during and after the Civil War by
the passage of new legislation promoting western transportation and economic development.
U.S. interest in expanding trade led to
economic, diplomatic, and cultural initiatives to create more ties with Asia.
In the 1840s and 1850s, Americans continued to debate questions about
rights and citizenship for various groups of U.S. inhabitants.
Substantial numbers of international migrants continued to arrive in the United States from Europe and Asia, mainly from
Ireland and Germany, often settling in ethnic communities where they could preserve elements of their languages and customs.
A strongly anti-Catholic nativist movement arose that
was aimed at limiting new immigrants’ political power and cultural influence.
U.S. government interaction and conflict with Mexican Americans and American Indians increased in regions
newly taken from American Indians and Mexico, altering these groups’ economic self- sufficiency and cultures.
Intensified by expansion and deepening regional divisions, debates over slavery and other economic, cultural, and political issues led the nation into
civil war.
Ideological and economic differences over slavery produced
an array of diverging responses from Americans in the North and the South.
The North’s expanding manufacturing economy relied on
free labor in contrast to the Southern economy’s dependence on slave labor. Some Northerners did not object to slavery on principle but claimed that slavery would undermine the free- labor market. As a result, a free-soil movement arose that portrayed the expansion of slavery as incompatible with free labor.
African American and white abolitionists, although
a minority in the North, mounted a highly visible campaign against
slavery, presenting moral arguments against the institution, assisting slaves’ escapes, and sometimes expressing a willingness to use violence to achieve their goals.
Defenders of slavery based their arguments
on racial doctrines, the view that slavery was a positive social good, and the belief that slavery and states’ rights were protected by the Constitution.
Debates over slavery came to dominate political discussion in the 1850s, culminating in
the bitter election of 1860 and the secession of Southern states.
The Mexican Cession led to
heated controversies over whether to allow slavery in the newly acquired territories.
The courts and national leaders made a variety of attempts to resolve the issue of slavery in the territories, including
the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision, but these ultimately failed to reduce conflict.
The Second Party System ended when
the issues of slavery and anti-immigrant nativism weakened loyalties to the two major parties
and fostered the emergence of sectional parties, most notably the Republican Party in the North.
Abraham Lincoln’s victory
on the Republicans’ free-soil platform in the presidential election of 1860 was accomplished without
any Southern electoral votes. After a series of contested debates about secession, most slave states voted to secede from the Union, precipitating the Civil War.
The Union victory in the Civil War and the contested reconstruction of the South settled the issues of slavery and secession, but
left unresolved many questions about the power of the federal government and citizenship rights.
The North’s greater manpower and industrial resources, the leadership of Abraham Lincoln and others, and the decision to emancipate slaves eventually led to
the Union military victory over the Confederacy in the devastating Civil War.
Both the Union and the Confederacy mobilized their economies and societies to
wage the war even while facing considerable home front opposition.
Lincoln and most Union supporters began the Civil War to preserve the Union, but Lincoln’s decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation reframed
the purpose of the war
and helped prevent the Confederacy from gaining full diplomatic support from European powers. Many African Americans fled southern plantations and enlisted in the Union Army, helping to undermine the Confederacy.
Lincoln sought to
reunify the country and used speeches such as the Gettysburg Address to portray the struggle against slavery as the fulfillment of America’s founding democratic ideals.
Although the Confederacy showed military initiative and daring early in the war, the Union ultimately succeeded due to
improvements in leadership and strategy, key victories, greater resources, and the wartime destruction of the South’s infrastructure.
Reconstruction and the Civil War
ended slavery, altered relationships between the states and the federal government, and led to debates over new definitions of citizenship, particularly regarding the rights of African Americans, women, and other minorities.
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, while the 14th and 15th amendments granted African Americans
citizenship, equal protection under the laws, and voting rights.
The women’s rights movement was both emboldened and divided
over the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.
Efforts by radical and moderate Republicans
to change the balance of power between Congress
and the presidency and to reorder race relations in
the defeated South yielded some
short-term successes. Reconstruction opened up political opportunities and other leadership roles to former slaves, but it ultimately failed, due both to determined Southern resistance and the North’s waning resolve.
Southern plantation owners continued to own the majority of the region’s land even after
Reconstruction. Former slaves sought land ownership but generally fell short of self-sufficiency, as an exploitative and soil-intensive sharecropping system limited blacks’ and poor whites’ access to land in the South.
The Union victory in the Civil War and the contested reconstruction of the South settled
the issues of slavery and secession, but left unresolved many questions about the power of the federal government and citizenship rights.
Segregation, violence, Supreme Court decisions, and local political tactics progressively stripped away
African American rights, but the 14th and 15th amendments eventually became the basis for court decisions upholding civil rights in the 20th century.
Technological advances, large-scale production methods, and the opening of new markets encouraged .
the rise of industrial capitalism in the United States
Large-scale industrial production—accompanied by massive technological change, expanding international communication networks, and pro-growth government policies—generated
rapid economic development and business consolidation.
Concept Outline
Following the Civil War, government subsidies
for transportation and communication systems helped
open new markets in North America.
Businesses made use of technological innovations, greater access to natural resources, redesigned financial and management structures, advances in marketing, and a growing labor force to dramatically
increase the production of goods.
As the price of many goods decreased, workers’ real wages increased, providing
new access to a variety of goods and services; many Americans’ standards of living improved, while the gap between rich and poor grew.
Many business leaders sought increased profits by
consolidating corporations into large trusts and holding companies, which further concentrated wealth.
Businesses and foreign policymakers increasingly looked outside U.S. borders
in an effort to
gain greater influence and control over markets and natural resources in the Pacific Rim, Asia, and Latin America.
A variety of perspectives on the economy and labor developed during a time of
financial panics and downturns.
Some argued that laissez- faire policies and competition promoted
economic growth in the long run, and they opposed government intervention during economic downturns.
The industrial workforce expanded and became more diverse through
internal and international migration; child labor also increased.
Labor and management battled over wages and working conditions, with workers organizing
local
and national unions and/or directly confronting business leaders.
Despite the industrialization of some segments of the Southern economy—a change promoted by Southern leaders who called for a
“New South”—agriculture based on sharecropping and tenant farming continued
to be the primary economic activity in the South.
New systems of production and transportation enabled
consolidation within agriculture, which, along with periods of instability, spurred a variety of responses from farmers.
Improvements in mechanization helped
agricultural production increase substantially and contributed to declines in food prices.
Many farmers responded to the increasing consolidation in agricultural markets and their dependence on the evolving railroad system by creating
local and regional cooperative organizations.
Economic instability inspired agrarian activists to create the People’s (Populist)
Party, which called for
a stronger governmental role in regulating the American economic system.
The migrations that accompanied industrialization transformed
both urban and rural areas of the United States and caused dramatic social and cultural change.
International and internal migration increased
urban populations and fostered the growth of a new urban culture.
As cities became areas of economic growth featuring new factories and businesses, they attracted immigrants from
Asia and from southern and eastern Europe, as well as African American migrants within
and out of the South. Many migrants moved to escape poverty, religious persecution, and limited opportunities for social mobility in their home countries or regions.
Urban neighborhoods based on particular ethnicities, races, and classes provided
new cultural opportunities for city dwellers.
Increasing public debates over assimilation and Americanization accompanied t
he growth of international migration. Many immigrants negotiated compromises between the cultures they brought and the culture they found in the United States.
In an urban atmosphere where the access to power was unequally distributed, political machines thrived, in part by
providing immigrants and the poor with social services.
Corporations’ need for managers and for male and female clerical workers as well
as increased access
to educational institutions, fostered the growth of a distinctive middle class. A growing amount of leisure time also helped expand consumer culture.
Concept Outline
Larger numbers of migrants moved to the West in search of
land and economic opportunity, frequently provoking competition and violent conflict.
The building of transcontinental railroads, the discovery of mineral resources, and government policies promoted
economic growth and created new communities and centers of commercial activity.
In hopes of achieving ideals of self-sufficiency and independence, migrants moved to both
rural and boomtown areas of the West for opportunities, such as building the railroads, mining, farming, and ranching.
As migrant populations increased in number and the American bison population was decimated, competition for land and resources in the West among white settlers, American Indians, and Mexican Americans led
to an increase in violent conflict.
The U.S. government violated treaties with American Indians and responded to resistance
with military
force, eventually confining American Indians to reservations and denying tribal sovereignty.
Many American Indians preserved their cultures
and tribal identities despite
government policies promoting assimilation, and they attempted to develop self-sustaining economic practices.
The Gilded Age produced
new cultural and
intellectual movements, public reform efforts, and political debates over economic and social policies.
New cultural and intellectual movements both buttressed and challenged
the social order of the Gilded Age.
Social commentators advocated theories later described as Social Darwinism to justify
the success of those at the top of the socioeconomic structure as both appropriate and inevitable.
Some business leaders argued that the wealthy had a moral obligation to help
the less fortunate and improve society, as articulated in the idea known as the Gospel
of Wealth, and they made philanthropic contributions that enhanced educational opportunities and urban environments.
A number of artists and critics, including agrarians, utopians, socialists, and advocates of the Social Gospel, championed a
lternative visions for the economy and U.S. society.
II.
Dramatic social changes in the period inspired
political debates over citizenship, corruption, and the proper relationship between business and government.
The major political parties appealed
to lingering divisions from the Civil War and contended over tariffs and currency issues, even as reformers argued that economic greed and self- interest had corrupted all levels of government.
