HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

OUTLINE
1.Sectional conflict
2.Civil war
3.Reconstruction
4.Moving west
5.Industrial growth

OUTLINE
6.Overseas expansion
7.World War I
8.Isolation and prosperity
9.Great Depression

RECOMMENDED LITERATURE
This lecture has been prepared on the basis of the US Information Agency handout by Jonathan Rose History: 1865 to 1929 (1986)
Any source available on the topic under study

Sectional conflict
Slavery – social contradiction of 1830s-1850s, point of dispute
Importation of slaves outlawed in 1808, many Northern states abolished slavery
Southern economy = large plantations (cotton, rice, tobacco, sugar), supported slavery

Sectional conflict
1820 – western territories and slavery (permitted in Missouri and Arkansas, but not permitted north and west of Missouri)
Another burning issue – high tariff, which protected Northern industries and raised prices for Southern agricultural consumers

Sectional conflict
1845 – war with Mexico+$15 mln – Texas added, +California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado
1846 – Oregon, Washington and Idaho acquired
1850 – Congress voted: California – a free state; Utah and New Mexico – decide themselves
Fugitive Slave Act; Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Sectional conflict
1854 – Senator Stephen Douglas – Kansas and Nebraska resolve the question of slavery themselves – violent dispute in those states
1858 – senatorial election (Douglas-Democrat v Abraham Lincoln- Republican)
Lincoln demanded to stop slavery (the country can’t be half slave and half free)

Civil War
1860 – Presidential election (Douglas and Lincoln)
Tension between North and South – extreme by that moment
North supported Lincoln and he won
S.Carolina voted to leave the Union, joined by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina

Civil War
11 states – Confederate States of America – independent nation – beginning of the Civil War
South – second American revolution
North had more soldiers, Southern railroad network and industry could not support the war
Union (northern) navy imposed a blockade
Civil liberties postponed, lots of paper money, conscription

Civil War
Abraham Lincoln
(1809-1865)
The 16th US President
Regarded by many as America’s greatest President
Referred to as Honest Abe

Civil War
Lincoln’s priorities: US – one country, get rid of slavery
1863, Jan 1 – Emancipation Proclamation (freedom to the slaves in areas of Confederacy)
Summer 1863 – Gettysburg – three days of the largest battle on American soil
General Robert Lee (Confederate) v Ulysses Grant (Union forces);

Civil War
Vicksburg captured - Union forces controlled the entire Mississippi Valley, splitting the Confederacy in two
April 1865 – confederate forces surrendered
C.W. – most traumatic episode in American history, devastated the South, subjected it to military occupation; many soldiers died
2 results: 1865 - 13th Amendment – abolition of slavery; US – one country

Reconstruction
After the war South devastated and economically destroyed
Legal abolition of slavery and no real freedom for former slaves, attempts to block blacks from voting
“Reconstruction” = reform of the Southern states
By 1870 – South governed by groups of blacks, whites and transplanted Northerners

Reconstruction
New state governments improved education, social services, protected civil rights
Ku Klux Klan – violent secret society to protect white interests by terrorizing blacks; by 1872 KKK suppressed
1877 – Reconstruction ended (new state constitutions ratified, northern troops withdrawn from the South)
Constitutional guarantees & “second class citizens” (legal freedom – slaves treatment)

Reconstruction
Racial segregation in schools & hospitals; trains, parks, other public places – not segregated
1896 – Supreme Court permitted separate facilities and services, if equal
Segregation grew more severe (public transport, theatres, sports, elevators, cemeteries
Lost right to vote (paying poll taxes, literacy tests)

Moving west
After 1865 – western half of the US settled
Battles with Indians (7,000 whites and 5,000 Indians killed)
Buffalo destroyed (food and hides for Indians of the Great Plains); diseases, hunger

Moving west
Buffalo

Moving west
Great Plains Indians

Industrial Growth
End of the 19th c-beg of the 20th c – US became world’s leading industrial power
1869 – first transcontinental railroad completed
Standard Oil Company – John D.Rockefeller – petroleum industry
Steel mills & iron mines – Andrew Carnegie (sold in 1901 for $500 000 mln)

Industrial Growth
John Davison Rockefeller (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937), anAmerican industrialist and philanthropist, first American billionaire, and the richest person in history
His fortune was mainly used to create the modern systematic approach of targeted philanthropy with foundations that had a major effect on medicine, education, and scientific research

Industrial Growth
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)
Carnegie donated nearly $350 million to education, research, and art institutions, founded the Carnegie Technical Schools to make a contribution to both research and education; built Carnegie Hall, a grand concert hall, in New York City. Carnegie also founded a number of libraries throughout the US

Industrial Growth
Inventions in electric industry – telephone, phonograph, light bulb, motion pictures, alternating current motor and transformer)
Chicago – Louis Sullivan – steelframe construction – skyscraper
US – hospitable to inventors, free enterprise

Industrial Growth
Sullivan and Adler
Auditorium Building,
Chicago, 1887-89

Industrial Growth
“Trusts” – huge combinations of corporations – monopolies (oil industry)
Efficient production and cheap goods, but destroyed smaller competitors and set high prices for transportation of agricultural produce
1890 – government regulation – Sherman Antitrust Act (banned trusts, mergers and business agreements)

Overseas Expansion
1867 – Alaska bought (from Russia)
“Anglo-Saxon duty” - benefits of Western civilization to Asia, Africa, Latin America
1895 – revolt against Spanish colonialism in Cuba – Spanish-American war
USA acquired Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam + Hawaiian Islands
1902 – US left Cuba (naval bases); 1959 – Hawaii – 50th state of USA;

World War I
WW I – President Wilson – policy of strict neutrality
America sold munitions and goods to the allies (on credit)
April 1917 – Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war; US took part in it
Wilson – the Fourteen Points (open diplomacy, freedom of the seas, free international trade, disarmament, just settlements of colonial disputes)- view of a post-war world that could avoid another terrible conflict

World War I
Thomas Woodrow Wilson
(December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924)
28th President of the USA
Awarded with the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.

World War I
Armistice declared on Nov 11, 1918
1919 – Wilson took part in drafting the peace treaty in Versailles
League of Nations was established, but USA never ratified Versailles treaty and never joined the League of nations for fear of being dragged into another foreign war

Isolation and Prosperity
After 1920 USA turned inward and withdrew from European affaires
1919 – Red Scare bombings (anarchists, socialists and communists deported or arrested)
1920 – Prohibition –alcoholic beverages outlawed; speakeasies (illegal bars)
Ku Klux Klan -1915 – terrorized blacks, Catholics, Jews and immigrants

Isolation and Prosperity
Flowering of black literature = the “Harlem Renaissance”; jazz – George Gershwin
1925 – “monkey trial” –John T.Scopes prosecuted for teaching Darwin’s theory in Tennessee public school (clash between modern ideas and traditional values)

Isolation and Prosperity
1920s – golden years for prosperity for business; businessman – a popular hero
Henry Ford – assembly line in automobile production – Model T
Fatal mistakes: overproduction of crops depressed food prices, not enough purchasing power to buy goods, prices of shares higher than their real value

Isolation and Prosperity
Henry Ford
and
his Model T car

Great Depression
Oct 29, 1929 – “Black Tuesday” – New York Stock Exchange lost $9 billion – the beginning of Great Depression – worst economic crisis of modern times
By 1932 many banks and businesses failed, industrial production cut in half, farm income had fallen by more than half, wages decreased 60%, one out of every four workers - unemployed

Great Depression
1932 – Democrat Franklin D.Roosevelt (FDR) – 32 President –elected 4 times
A New Deal Program; “The only thing to fear is fear itself”; fireside chats on the radio; “Hundred Days” (laws to recover economy)
WPA (Works Progress Administration) – one of the most effective measures – Puritan ideas of work as honorable occupation
Full economic recovery – defense buildup before WW II

Great Depression
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)
(1882-1945)
32 President of the USA
Elected 4 times