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Australian/Secret Ballot; Direct Primaries, Initiative, Referendum, Recall
The secret ballot allowed voting to be done in secret and gave voting power back to the people. Formerly senators were elected by State Legislators, but progressives pushed for their direct election, which was achieved through the 17th amendment. Initiative meant voters required legislators to consider bills, referendum meant voters could vote on adoption of proposed laws, and recall was established as a way to remove a corrupt politician before their term was complete. -
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Scientific Management
Frederick Taylor published the book, Scientific Management, in 1909. This book established ideas to make factory work more efficient. Taylor went to factories with a stopwatch and timed every detail of a person's workflow and went back to the management of the factory in order to provide recommendations to save time, increase productivity, and earn more profits. -
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Muckrackers
These were Progressive Era journalists who sought to expose American corruption. Teddy Roosevelt dubbed them "muckrackers" as a reference to a character in John Bunyan's Pilgrim Process who neglected his salvation in order to focus on raking up muck on the ground. This term was not meant as a compliment, however, the moniker was embraced by journalists. The most well known muckrackers were Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, and Jacob Riis. -
Atlanta Compromise
In a speech at the International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia on September 18,1895 Booker T. Washington asserted that vocational education, which gave African Americans an opportunity for economic security, was more valuable to them than social advantages, higher education, or political office. -
Annexation of Hawaii
The US needed a set of islands in the Pacific that was halfway between the US and the Philippines, which was Hawaii. American settlers had overthrown Queen Liliuokalani in 1893. -
Spanish-American War
In 1898 the U.S.S. Maine, an American battleship at the naval base in Cuba, exploded in Havana Harbor. Yellow journalists immediately claimed it was caused by the Spanish. President McKinley gave Spain the ultimatum off backing off or the US would declare war. Spain agreed, thus beginning the very short war the America won. In the treaty that ended the war, the Philippines was ceded from Spain to the US for $20 million. The US also received Puerto Rico and Guam as a result of the war. -
Open Door Policy
China was heavily under European influence politically and economically due to the industrial strength of European nations. President McKinley's Secretary of State, John Hay, sent the Open Door Note to European powers in China, which asked for them to observe an open door of trading privileges in China. The European powers did not reject this request. -
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Philippine-American War
The Filipinos had the notion that the US was intervening in order to grant them independence, but this was a misconception as they were then ruled by yet another imperial power. Filipinos gathered under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo in order to rebel against US rule. This war lasted three years with more limited conflicts stretching out for ten years. This war resulted in the US holding on to the territory until after World War II. -
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Square Deal
This program was run by Teddy Roosevelt and it aimed to create a square deal for both workers and business leaders. This posture was also applied to many domestic issues. -
Roosevelt Corollary
This stated that the US would intervene only as a last resort to ensure that other nations in the Western Hemisphere fulfilled their obligations to international creditors and did not violate the rights of the United States. -
Niagara Movement
Led by W.E.B. DuBois who organized this group with other African American intellectuals and they met frequently to plan protests and acts that would secure rights for the African American population. -
Pure Food and Drug Act
Roosevelt led Congress to pass this in response to Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle, and the public outcry after finding thumbs in their food. The Pure Food and Drug Act assured that food must meet a certain health standard in order to be sold for consumption. -
Meat Inspection Act
Roosevelt led Congress to pass this in response to Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle, and the public outcry after finding thumbs in their food. The Meat Inspection Act assured consumers that meat packing plants would conform to a minimum standard of sanitation. -
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Dollar Diplomacy
This was meant to secure the financial prosperity of the US and secure its superiority over other nations. In this foreign policy, the US lent money to foreign countries in return for the ability to make decisions for the governments of those countries. -
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Great Migration
This was where large portions of the southern African American population migrated to the urban industrial centers of the North. This was done in order to escape the oppressive atmosphere of the south in which they were treated as second class citizens. -
Election of 1912
In the Presidential Election of 1912, democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson defeated Bull Moose, the progressive candidate, and former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt. -
Seventeenth Amendment
Constitutionally, senators were elected by state senators, but during the Gilded Age they were elected based on their value to big business not the people. As a result, Progressives pushed for the direct election of senators by the people. The 17th Amendment transferred the responsibility of electing senators from the state legislators into the hands of the people. -
Federal Reserve Act
Due to the rise of industry in America, forests and natural resources were disappearing. Roosevelt used this act to reserve 150 million acres of unspoiled land. -
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Moral Diplomacy
This term was coined during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson and means that the US aimed to spread democracy and moral progress by influencing and aiding countries with similar governing ideals. -
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission enforced Regulations and busted trusts. -
Clayton Antitrust Act
The Clayton Antitrust Act banned price discrimination and interlocking directorates, protected labor unions from antitrust actions, and gave "teeth" to the Sherman Antitrust Act. -
Panama Canal
The completion of the Panama Canal symbolized US technological prowess and economic power. The US control of the canal was a major foreign policy achievement. -
Lusitania
A passenger ship, the Lusitania, entered a war zone around the British Isles in 1915 and was sunk by German submarines. Most of the civilian passengers on board were killed, 128 of them were American. This enraged the American public and the US threatened to break diplomatic relations with Germany. This was the step before the declaration of war by the US, so Germany backed off so that the US would not enter the war. -
Zimmerman Telegram
Germany sent a telegram to Mexico soliciting them to go to war with the US and that when the war in Europe was done, Germany would help Mexico regain the land lost in the Mexican American War. The US intercepted this telegram and Woodrow Wilson asked congress for a declaration of war against Germany, which was granted on April 2, 1917. -
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American Expeditionary Force
This was commanded by John J. Pershing and at first it plugged up the weaknesses in French and British lines. Soon hundreds of thousands of American troops started on the western front of the war. -
Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition)
This established the American Prohibition. This amendment was largely fought for by women and many societies were a part of this movement including the Anti-Saloon League and the American Temperance Society. The 18th amendment forbade the manufacture and sale of alcohol. -
Treaty of Versailles
This officially ended the war on November 11, 1918. Woodrow Wilson proposed his vision for a post-war world, which was the Fourteen Points. These points included the freedom of the seas and the self-determination of nations. It would also establish a League of Nations, which would be a worldwide representative body where countries could negotiate their problems instead of going to war. Britain and France got what they wanted and punished Germany in the treaty. -
Schenck v. United States
Charles Schenck and other members of the Socialist Party wrote pamphlets urging young men to resist the draft, which was done in response to the passing of the Espionage Act and Sedition Act. Shhenck was arrested for violating the espionage act and the case made it to the Supreme Court. The court upheld the restriction of civil liberties as freedom of speech is not absolute. When speech constitutes a "clear and present danger" then it was constitutional for peoples' voices to be silenced. -
First Red Scare
An anti-communist sentiment in the US began in 1919. Americans began to fear a communist infiltration after the Russian Revolution. This led to further xenophobia, a fear and distrust of those from other countries, which led to further immigration restrictions. The Palmer raids also occurred in which Mitchell Palmer tasked J. Edgar Hoover with gathering information on suspected radicals. This led to the mass arrest of 6000 socialists, radicals, and labor union leaders and over 500 deportations. -
Nineteenth Amendment
This amendment was a part of the Progressive movement and officially recognized women's right to vote, meaning that it granted women's suffrage. -
Ku Klux Klan
The KKK was a hate group driven by religious and racial hatred. The main groups targeted by the KKK included Catholics, Jews, and African Americans. These groups were often the victims of hate crimes and lynching. -
Lost Generation
Gertrude Stein dubbed a group of writers to be the "Lost Generation." These writers included F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, whose themes involved the pervasive materialism of the American culture and the waste of life and resources expended in WWI. -
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Harlem Renaissance
This was the influence of the culture of Harlem, New York being spread across the county by journalists and radio broadcastings. These media platforms portrayed the distinctive regional cultures, specifically the experiences of Harlem. This area of New York was home to poets, singers, performers, and musicians who used their art to express what it was like to be an African American living in the US. -
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Jazz Age
This term was coined by author F. Scott Fitzgerald. It referred to the 1920s as an age with earthy rhythms, fast beat, improvised style, and and Jazz symbolized the decade's spirit of liberation. -
Emergency Quota Act
The wave of immigrants during the Gilded Age began nativist sentiments regarding the fact that many of the immigrants were not protestant. This sentiment led to immigration quotas in the form of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921. This set the quotas for accepting new immigrants very low, especially immigrants from Southern/Eastern Europe and Asia. This limited immigration to 3% of the population measured by the 1910 census. -
Sacco and Vanzetti Trial
Sacco and Vanzetti were charged with committing robbery and murder at the Slater and Morrill shoe factory in South Braintree. On the afternoon of April 15, 1920 payroll clerk Frederick Parmenter and security guard Alessandro Berardelli were shot to death and robbed for over $15,000. The conviction of Sacco and Vanzetti was seen as the result of prejudice against immigrants. -
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Washington Conference
The world's largest naval powers met in Washington D.C. to discuss naval disarmament and ways to relieve growing tensions in East Asia. -
Dawes Plan
This provided short-term economic benefits for the German economy and softened the burden of war reparations and stabilized currency. It also made the German market dependent on foreign markets, especially the US. -
National Origins Act
The wave of immigrants during the Gilded Age began nativist sentiments regarding the fact that many of the immigrants were not protestant. This sentiment led to immigration quotas in the form of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the National Origins Act of 1924. This set the quotas for accepting new immigrants very low, especially immigrants from Southern/Eastern Europe and Asia. -
Scopes Trial
In Tennessee it was illegal to teach Darwin's theory of evolution. John Scopes began teaching the theory and was arrested. The case became highly publicized and Clarence Darrow defended Scopes and the prosecuting attorney was William Jennings Bryan. In the end, Scopes was convicted of breaking the law, but was overturned on a technicality. The general sentiment of the case was that modernism had triumphed over fundamentalism. -
Kellogg-Briand Treaty
This was a pact signed by 63 nations, including the US, which tried to make war illegal, or to renounce it in principle. However, this pact was negotiated and signed outside the authority of the League of Nations and was impossible to enforce. It was an example of isolationist foreign policy, but this was basically useless. -
Wall Street Crash
October 29, 1929, or Black Tuesday, was the day the stock market crashed. This was caused by farmers across the nation overproducing food and being in severe debt. The overproduction combined with high tariffs caused the economic depression. Additionally, the stock market was artificially inflated during the 20s due to risky investment behavior, like buying on margin. -
Dust Bowl
There was a large drought in the 1930s across the southwestern Great Plains region of the US. The over farmed and overgrazed land began to blow away, causing large clouds of dust to form. This led to a mass migration of people out of the area, as their income depended on farming. -
Election of 1932
Previously, Hoover had believed that the economy would correct itself given enough time, but the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt opposed Hoover. This led to his winning of the presidential election, as he campaigned on the promise of heavy government intervention. Once he came into power he did more to expand the size and scope of the federal government than any president before him. -
Bonus March
This march consisted of a group of men presumed to be a part of the "Bonus Army." This group of roughly 43,000 marchers gathered on the US Capitol steps to demand redemptions by cash payments for their service certificates, as many were veterans from WWI who had been out of work since the Great Depression began. -
CCC
This was a part of the New Deal and was meant to provide relief for the unemployed. The Civilian Conservation Corps employed young men between the age of 18-24 to manage soil conservation and forestry projects. -
TVA
This was a part of the New Deal and was meant to provide relief to the unemployed. the Tennessee Valley Authority hired people to run electric power plants, which worked to control flooding and erosion. -
AAA
This was the Aid to Farmers Agricultural Adjustment Act. This act had the government pay farmers to plant fewer crops and helped by loaning money to farmers. -
NRA
This organization sought to correct workers' low wages. They did this by establishing a set of codes agreed upon by representatives from the laboring community and representatives from competing corporations. These codes created security for workers by establishing minimum wage levels, shorter working hours, and the regulation of the prices of certain petroleum products. -
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Good-Neighbor Policy
This was suggested by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and rests on the principle that nations should not intervene in the affairs of other nations and that their relations should be to the benefit of both nations. -
Social Security Act
This act was established in the second phase of the New Deal. The law provided for a safety net of income for workers over the age of 65. Part of the worker's wages were withheld by the federal government and then paid back to them when they reached retirement age. -
Wagner Act
The Wagner Act was also called the National Labor Relations Act. This act declared that workers had a right to form labor unions, elect representatives, and bargain collectively. This led to an increase in Union membership. -
PWA
This was part of the New Deal and was meant to provide relief for the unemployed. The Public Works Administration employed Americans to do federal infrastructure work like building roads, dams, and bridges. -
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Neutrality Acts
This Act allowed any belligerent in the war to purchase armaments from the US as long as they paid in cash and use their own ships to transport them. This was also known as the Cash and Carry Program and was mainly meant to aid Britain. -
Court Reorganization Plan
Conservatives had criticized the New Deal because of the Federal Overreach that it represented, so this was taken to the Supreme Court. Roosevelt was not happy with this, which led to his proposal of the judicial reorganization bill, also known as the Court Packing Scheme. The concept of this was that the president would appoint new Supreme Court Justices for every justice that was older than 70.5 years old. This Court Packing Scheme did not work. -
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Recession of 1937-1938
This recession occurred during the recovery from the Great Depression and was caused by federal contradictory fiscal policies. The recession ended after the reserve requirements were rolled back and the Roosevelt administration began pursuing expansionary fiscal policies. -
Fair Labor Standards Act
This bill provided for a 40-cent-an-hour minimum wage, 40 hour maximum work week, and a minimum working age of sixteen, with the exception of certain industries outside of mining and manufacturing. -
Four Freedoms
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Four Freedoms speech called for freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. -
Pearl Harbor
On the morning of December 7, 1941 Japanese planes flew over the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii and released bombs. Over 2,400 Americans died in the attack and that evening President Roosevelt addressed Congress to request a declaration of war against Japan. Upon granting it, Hitler declared war on America, thus enters America into WWII. -
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Braceros
An executive order called the Mexican Farm Labor Program established the Bracero Program in 1942. This series of diplomatic accords between Mexico and the United States permitted millions of Mexican men to work legally in the US on short-term labor contracts. -
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Double V Campaign
The NAACP encouraged African Americans to work for victory in the war and victory against racism at home. -
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Manhattan Project
In April of 1945, Franklin Roosevelt died in his fourth term in office. His VP, Harry Truman, took his place and discovered that the US and its collaborators had developed and tested nuclear bombs in a secret experiment known as the Manhattan Project. One atomic bomb has the destructive power equivalent to 15 kilotons of dynamite. -
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Island-Hopping
After the Allied victory at the Battle of Midway, US forces engaged in this campaign. In this strategy the US bypassed heavily fortified Japanese occupied islands in favor of smaller and less strategic islands. This was done in order to effectively cut off the Japanese supply line. -
Korematsu v. United States
Fred Korematsu refused to comply with Executive Order 9066, which authorized the federal government to relocate over 100,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps. The American Civil Liberties Union represented him and argued his removal was a violation of the 5th amendment. The Supreme Court ruled it was a "martial necessity arising from the danger of espionage and sabotage." In 1988, the Federal Government officially apologized to the citizens interned and offered reparation payments. -
D-Day
The D-Day Invasion was on the Normandy beaches of Northern France. At this point the German forces had conquered and occupied France. On June 6, 1944 the largest amphibious invasion in world history began. Over 200,000 Allied troops landed and in the following weeks more than a million more arrived. A month later the Allied Forces pushed the German forces back and liberated France. -
Hiroshima
Truman made the decision to use nuclear weaponry against Japan in order to force their surrender. On August 6, 1945 the US dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
Nagasaki
Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, the city of Nagasaki was bombed. Over the course of two months conservative estimates place the death toll for the two bombs at 140,000, half of which died the moment of the blast while the others died of injuries and radiation poisoning. -
Yalta
The Yalta Conference was held right before the official end of WWII. Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt were all present at this conference, at which they decided Germany would be jointly occupied by Soviet, American, British, and French forces. Additionally, eastern European nations would have the ability to choose their leaders through free elections after the war was over. -
United Nations
The League of Nations failed because the US Congress would not allow America to join and the League had no ability to enforce resolutions. The UN was formed in its image with similar goals. It meant to prevent wars and had the infrastructure for peacekeeping. The UN had peacekeeping soldiers that were supplied by member nations and whose mission was to stabilize unstable environments when they arise. -
Potsdam
The Potsdam Conference announced it was the intention of the Allied powers that the German people be given the opportunity to prepare for the eventual reconstruction of their life on a democratic and peaceful basis. This conference also acted upon the terms agreed to at the Yalta Conference and divided Germany into four zones monitored by nations of the Allied Powers. Its policies were demilitarization, denazification, democratization, decentralization, and deindustrialization.