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The next section will look at U.S. history from the late nineteenth century until World War II, an era that was defined by industrialization, massive waves of immigration, World War I, and the Great Depression.
The last lesson reviewed the causes and conflicts of the American Civil War. We also examined some of the events that followed the war.
As the postwar era gave way to a new century, the United States experienced dramatic growth—not only in population but also in industry and trade. The tens of millions of immigrants spilling into the country resulted in an increased workforce and key industries (such as those listed below) boomed.
Patented in the 1850s by its inventor Henry Bessemer, the Bessemer process was the first inexpensive way of making tons of steel from raw pig iron. In the last twenty years of the 1800s, production of steel in the United States skyrocketed from about 1.4 million tons to more than 11 million tons. During this era, the United States surpassed Britain’s iron and steel production.
In 1866, telegraph communications between Europe and the United States were established when the first transatlantic telegraph cable was installed. Other improvements to the telegraph were adopted during this era, and, in 1892, Thomas Edison patented the two-way telegraph.
Engineers and inventors like Nikola Tesla helped the world make huge leaps in technology during this period. Tesla’s work in developing AC (alternating current) power meant that electricity could be more easily transported (and for longer distances). The alternating current system was adaptable as well—its voltage could be changed by a transformer. George Westinghouse worked closely with Tesla and made the AC system the basis of his business.
In 1917 President Wilson declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary; the United States entered the war to end all wars, which had begun in 1914. While U.S. forces suffered major casualties, the United States’ trans-Atlantic location and late entry ensured that military losses did not match the number of Europeans injured and killed. U.S. industry kicked into high gear during World War I in an effort to produce supplies for the war; the economy boomed. The war also put the United States into a globally powerful position as the country became a creditor for many devastated European countries. After the war, Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts for peace. Click here to see more about Wilson and the League of Nations.
During this era, the United States began to extend its power overseas, economically, politically, and militarily. Below are some examples of U.S. involvement overseas:
Over the course of nineteen years (1915–1934), the U.S. military held sway over the Caribbean nation of Haiti. Ostensibly there in case German forces sought to gain a foothold in the Caribbean, the U.S. Marine Corps proved to be an unpopular governmental force over the course of its occupation.
When the United States defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War, it bought the Philippines from the Spanish. The United States intended to make the island nation a U.S. colony, but the Filipinos had declared their independence from Spain years earlier and were not going to become a colony again without a fight. The ensuing war left some 6,000 U.S. soldiers dead or wounded; the Filipinos suffered hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and some 18,000 military deaths.
After taking on the abandoned canal plans, the United States (under President Theodore Roosevelt) helped the Panamanians gain their independence from Colombia in exchange for control over a strip of land around the canal. Ten miles wide and fifty miles long, the strip of land was granted to the United States “in perpetuity.”
While the characterization of the early twentieth century as the Roaring ’20s is entrenched in the popular imagination, the reality of the time was more complex. Below are just a few of the cultural changes of the early twentieth century.
Founded in 1909, the NAACP is one of the nation’s oldest civil rights groups. Under the leadership of writer, poet, and activist W. E. B. DuBois, the association’s mission (as stated in its charter) was to “promote equality of rights and to eradicate caste or race prejudice among the citizens of the United States.”
The Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution prohibited the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages in the United States. Its passage was a response to the nation’s spirit of reformation at the time. While drinking was against the letter of the law, a healthy black market sprang up to provide those who wanted to drink with relatively easy access to alcohol. The Twenty-first Amendment (1933) put the power to legislate drinking back in the individual states’ hands.
Ratified in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment finally gave women the right to vote, the culmination of a century of struggle on behalf of the proponents of women’s suffrage.
The Harlem Renaissance refers to a period in the 1920s that saw incredible achievements in poetry, theater, music, and politics in the African American community. This period is perceived as the first time that African American cultural achievements were absorbed into the American mainstream.
While the causes and specific start of the Depression have been debated, the stock market crash on “Black Tuesday” (October 29, 1929) is a significant event at the start of the Depression. In the 1920s, many Americans put their faith in the stock market, and widespread investing drove share prices to artificially high levels. On Thursday, October 24, the bubble burst, and millions of shares were sold. Over the next several days, investors sold tens of millions of shares, and countless investors were ruined financially. This stock market crash led to banks closing, savings lost, and businesses closing. These events left large numbers of people unemployed.
Other hallmarks of the Depression included drops in the gross domestic product of several nations, a slowing of industrial production, small farm failure, and inflation.
With Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency in 1933, the federal government began intervening in the economy and promised the country a “New Deal.” Roosevelt’s administration, with strong congressional support, immediately began implementing measures that they thought would improve the economy and offer the country some relief from the grinding poverty that had taken hold. Roosevelt instituted the Emergency Banking Act, the Economy Act, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act, a system of farming subsidies.
FDR’s New Deal also led to the creation of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Civil Works Administration, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The federal government was fully involved in the financial dealings of the nation, and the United States began a slow rise out of the Depression. The New Deal has received mixed reviews historically; it wasn’t until the United States entered World War II that the U.S. economy fully recovered.
At first, the United States chose to simply support Britain and her allies against the Axis powers. However, after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7th, 1941), the United States declared war and entered World War II. Some estimates put the loss of life resulting from the war at 50 million. It was marked by atrocious acts of violence, including the Holocaust, the use of the atomic bomb, and the firebombing of Dresden. Covering even a fraction of World War II would take an entire course in itself (at the minimum), but to review the basics of this conflict, click here.
While Americans enjoyed a period of economic prosperity after the war, a new conflict was simmering, one that would last decades and feature many battles, both open and clandestine. The roots of the cold war go back to events several decades in the past: enmity about the U.S. involvement in the Russian civil war, unfulfilled promises from World War II, and, of course, the rise of capitalism in the United States and communism in the Soviet Union. The following are some of the events and policies that shaped the cold war.
In 1950, Stalin sent forces to invade the U.S.–backed country of South Korea. The United States had an agreement with Japan to house military bases in Japan, and southeast Asia quickly became an important area to both superpowers. The United States was worried about the spread of communism, and the Soviets were concerned about letting the United States establish a foothold in the region. China and the Soviet Union controlled and backed North Korea, and the resulting conflict cost tens of thousands of American lives and a million Korean lives on both sides of the war.
When the United States placed midrange nuclear missiles in eastern Europe, the Soviets responded by drawing up plans to house similar missiles in the socialist island nation of Cuba. President Kennedy called for a naval blockade around the island and readied the military for an assault on Cuba in the event that the Soviets refused to dismantle their missiles. Many historians see these tense days as the closest the superpowers ever got to nuclear war. The Soviets eventually agreed to remove the weaponry in exchange for a certain number of U.S. missiles being removed from Europe.
After World War II, the dividing line between East Germany and West Germany was established by the closure of the intracity border in 1953. One of the most well-known symbols of the cold war, the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and stood until it was dismantled in 1989.
The struggle for equality is an ongoing issue in American life. For the descendants of Africans brought forcibly to the American colonies, the struggle for civil rights has produced some of the country’s most notable events and figures such as:
Appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967, Marshall was the first African American on the Supreme Court. He served for more than twenty years until he retired in 1991.
This 1954 Supreme Court decision ended the idea of “separate but equal” education for African Americans and declared segregation in schools illegal. The court ruled that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
This landmark legislation made discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin illegal. It put new protections in place for African Americans and signaled the end of the Jim Crow laws in the South. President Johnson signed the act into law in early July 1964.
While the United States of America is a comparatively young nation, it’s an impossible task to compress the events and figures of the country into a handful of pages. This review has provided an annotated timeline of events from the colonies through the latter half of the twentieth century. It is recommended that you use outside readings if more in-depth coverage of certain events or eras is needed.
The following section will review America’s government and civic life.