3/12/2023

Chapter 2
Lecture III

Civil War
 The biggest issue dividing the country was slavery.
 By the mid-1800s, the country was deeply divided, with Southerners fearing the end of slavery, and Northerners
concerned over its expansion west. The growth of the country also gave rise to doubts about whether one
government could represent such a vast land.
 In the Supreme Court, Dred Scott appealed for his freedom from slavery, having lived previously in a free
territory; the Court ruled that a Black man did not have the rights of a citizen. Finally, after the Presidential
Election of 1860,when antislavery candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected, Southern states left the Union to
secure their economic system and rights to property. The secession or separation of the Confederate States
ignited the Civil War.
 The first shots were fired when Confederates attacked Fort Sumter.
Name one problem that led to the Civil War.
 slavery
 economic reasons
 states’ rights
What group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves?
 Africans
 people from Africa

 The Civil War was fought in places all over the country, although
Virginia and Tennessee were the major battleground states. One in
fifty Americans died during the war. Homes, fields, and entire towns
were destroyed.

1
 3/12/2023

Reconstruction
The Union may have declared victory in the Civil War in April 1865, but reunifying the country would be a continuing
battle during the period of Reconstruction (1865–1877).
Lincoln’s 10% Plan required 10 percent of the voters in a Southern state to swear an oath of allegiance before it
could rejoin the Union. But it is impossible to know what he would have done further, as Lincoln’s assassination cut
short his plans for Reconstruction.
Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, took over the process of Reconstruction. Putting states’ rights first, Johnson
wanted to let Southern landowners and state governments rebuild themselves. For example, he returned all land that
had been seized during the war to its original owners, even property that had already been redistributed through the
Freedmen’s Bureau, a temporary relief organization for assisting formerly enslaved and other poor or displaced
people after the Civil War.
What was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did?
 freed the slaves (Emancipation Proclamation)
 saved (or preserved) the Union
 led the United States during the Civil War

What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?

 freed the slaves
 freed slaves in the Confederacy
 freed slaves in the Confederate states
 freed slaves in most Southern states

Amendments
Under Johnson’s administration, many Southern states passed laws to restrict the rights of formerly enslaved people.
Some of these “black codes” prohibited Black people from owning property, owning firearms, testifying in court, or
simply occupying certain places. One such law justified the arrest of Black people for vagrancy—loitering, wandering,
or homelessness. Once arrested, they could be forced to work for punishment in prison or back on plantations; this
exception to the 13th Amendment, which ended slavery except as penalty for a crime, enabled slavery to continue
through the penal labor system. Formerly enslaved people also sought work through sharecropping, a system in
which families rented land from owners who took a share of their crops in exchange.
Northern members of Congress rejected Johnson’s policies and used their majority to pass laws despite the
President’s veto; these include the Civil Rights Act of 1866, affirming that all citizens have equal protection under
the law, and the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which divided the South into five districts under military control and
prepared the way for freedmen to vote. To rejoin the Union, Southern states were required to ratify the 14th
Amendment to the Constitution, granting the rights of citizenship and equal protection under the law to formerly
enslaved people. By 1870, the right to vote regardless of race would be protected by the 15th Amendment.

2
 3/12/2023

THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

 From the 1890s to the 1920s, social activism and political reform define the Progressive Era in the United States.
The main goal of the Progressive Era was to improve the conditions for a democratic society, either by creating
solutions or getting rid of corruption. These efforts took many different targets and forms of effort.
 Progressive Era activists responded to the living and working conditions of urbanization. As American workers and
immigrant laborers moved into cities for jobs in factories, they often ended up living in overcrowded tenement
houses. Jane Addams’s Hull House in Chicago is the most famous example of an urban housing solution from this
time. Activists also took on unsafe and unfair practices in factories.

Labor unions
Labor unions formed to push for changes by organizing individual workers. Union-organized strikes were one tactic
used to bargain with industry leaders; by refusing to work, employees showed the value of their labor to employers
and, in many cases, won better pay and safer working environments. Other activists called muckrakers used
journalism to expose corruption. The first “trust-busting” law, the Sherman Antitrust Act, banned monopolies, or
companies so large that they exclude any competition. Congress also promoted a fair market through the Federal
Trade Commission Act, which outlawed other anticompetitive practices. With the regulation of corporate bosses
came other changes to support more direct democracy: the 16th Amendment created the income tax based on a
percentage of one’s earnings to fund the government, and the 17th Amendment established the direct election of
senators.
The Temperance movement, led by a majority of women, resulted in the Prohibition, the time period when alcohol
was illegal in the United States under the 18th Amendment. In 1920, the 19th Amendment finally granted women
suffrage, or the right to vote. Other major changes to the political system cleaned up corruption and strengthened
American democracy.

3
 3/12/2023

The United States Becomes a World Power

 At the start of the 20th century, the United States was a wealthy and strong nation, but not a world power. Occupied
with internal issues such as the Civil War, Reconstruction, industrialization, and westward expansion, the United
States had taken very little active interest in world affairs.
 In 1900, Western Europe dominated world politics and the world economy. Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary,
Russia, and the recently unified Germany were the great powers of the world.
 The United States had several motives for acquiring colonies.
 The first was to gain trade partners on favorable terms—partners that could supply natural resources the United
States could not, such as sugar, rubber, and coffee.
 The second was to establish naval bases.
 The third was simply to prove to the world that the United States was a great power—a force other nations
would have to reckon with. Between 1898 and 1903, the United States annexed Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and
the Philippines, made Cuba a protectorate, and took control of the construction of the Panama Canal.
 The United States would retain control of this important trade route for most of the 20th century.

Imperialism, Militarism and Nationalism

Another trend paving the way for conflict was imperialism, or the growth of empires by taking over new lands and their
resources. Several European countries were fighting over claims in Africa and Asia before WWI. This tension pushed
the competing countries toward confrontation. Along with these imperialist tendencies, countries had begun competing
to develop their military power, beefing up their armies and battleships, developing new weapons and defense
methods, as if preparing for war.
Through this military buildup or militarism, powerful nations set course for WWI.
The desire to increase the power of one’s nation through military might and expansion is an expression of
nationalism. WWI became an opportunity for nations to try proving their greatness.

4
 3/12/2023

Nationalism also motivated the event that sparked off the war: the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of
Austria-Hungary, which was committed by a Serbian Nationalist group protesting the control of Austria-Hungary. This
assassination led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia, drawing Russian into the conflict, and thus Germany,
and so on, according to the lines drawn by alliances.
World War I began in 1914, but the United States would not enter the conflict until 1917. As a nation of immigrants, the
United States was a refuge for many Europeans who had fled increasing tensions. Americans were also not interested
in getting involved in foreign interests. President Woodrow Wilson had just won re-election in 1916 with the campaign
slogan “He Kept Us Out of War.” The United States sought to maintain neutrality until hit directly by Germany’s
actions: first, Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare and sank a British ship, the Lusitania, carrying over
a hundred Americans; secondly, in the Zimmermann Telegram discovered by British allies, Germany had asked
Mexico to join the war in exchange for the lands it had lost to the United States. The United States declared war on
Germany on April 6, 1917. In addition to over a million Americans who joined the armed forces, citizens participated in
the war effort by producing war materials, rationing supplies, and purchasing bonds to fund the war. U.S. government
propaganda appealed to citizens’ patriotism and sense of duty, linking domestic efforts to the defense of democracy.

World War I
 World War I—called at the time the “Great War”—marked the United States’ first major entry into world affairs.
 The war began in 1914 as a territorial conflict among European nations, with the Central Powers (Austria and
Germany) on one side and the Entente or Allied Powers (Britain, Russia, and France) on the other.
 By 1916, the United States was supplying money and arms to the Allied Powers; U.S. troops joined the fight in late
1917, and the Central Powers surrendered in November 1918.
 Despite its late entry into the war, the United States was treated as an equal partner at the peace conference,
marking the first time in history that a non-European nation had played a major role in the peace settlements of a
European war.
 The United States had played a small but crucial role on the battlefield, and it ended the war in a much stronger
military and economic position than the European nations, which had suffered much greater losses.
 Ironically, President Woodrow Wilson’s dream of the League of Nations— an international organization to settle
differences over a conference table, taking up arms only as a last resort—was realized without American
participation.

Who was President during World War I?

Woodrow Wilson

5
 3/12/2023

The Great Depression

 The Great Depression began with the crash of the stock market in October 1929. Although the United States had
weathered several financial panics since the 1790s, this one was nicknamed “great” because it was the worst,
longest-lasting economic crisis in U.S. history.
 The simple cause of the stock market crash was the practice of margin buying, which had become common
during the 1920s. Banks failed because people could not repay their loans.

 The failure of businesses and banks coincided with many months of drought in the Great Plains, turning the 50-
million-acre Breadbasket into the Dust Bowl. The topsoil in this region was a thin layer over hard, dry dirt. With no
rain to keep it moist and anchored in place, the thin topsoil blew away during dust storms, and the crops failed.
 These “Okies” (nicknamed for the state of Oklahoma, although they were from several neighboring states as well)
migrated westward, hoping for a fresh start in the favorable climate of California.
 Many Americans blamed the Depression on President Herbert Hoover, who had failed to predict it.
 People who had lost their homes built shantytowns called “Hoovervilles” in ironic tribute to the president. In the
1932 presidential election, Hoover lost in a landslide to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt immediately took
action to address the financial crisis.
 His New Deal programs created millions of jobs and restored the nation’s banks to a sound financial footing. During
Roosevelt’s first term, unemployment dropped by about 8 percent. Unsurprisingly, he was reelected in 1936 in the
greatest landslide in 100 years.

Shantytowns, “Hoovervilles

6
 3/12/2023

World War II (US+Allied Power)Vs Axis Power (Germany, Italy,Japan)

 Adolf Hitler, started attacking smaller nations in Europe in the mid-1930s. Italy fought to take over Ethiopia, in Africa.
Japan attacked China. Hitler built an alliance with Italy and Japan, which came to be called the Axis. By 1939, war again
broke out between the Axis and the Allies.
 The United States did not enter World War II until 1941, when the Japanese bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl
Harbor in Hawaii. This time, Americans fought not only in Europe but also in Africa and Asia as well.
 With its horrific battles, the fire-bombing of cities, the Holocaust, and the dropping of two atomic bombs on
Japan, World War II led to massive destruction. The United States, which played a major part in the Allied victory
in World War II in 1945, also played a major part in helping to rebuild war-scourged nations after the war was
over.
 Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general in World War II

Postwar America
 Following World War II, Americans enjoyed an era of prosperity and plenty after the hard times of the Great
Depression.
 In 1944, the GI Bill, also known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, was passed in Congress.
 This bill provided benefits to veterans to help them transition back into civilian life after serving their country. Under
this act, assistance was provided immediately to servicemen and women.
• Subsidized education or career training
• Guaranteed low-interest loans for homes, businesses, or agriculture
• One year of unemployment benefits if the veteran was unable to obtain work
 The GI Bill gave veterans the chance to get a college education, buy a house or a farm, attend training school for a
particular profession, or start a business. This enabled many to marry, start families, and move to the newly built
suburbs.

7
 3/12/2023

The Cold War

After World War II ended, the capitalist and communist nations soon began engaging in a power struggle called the
Cold War.
 Leading the capitalist nations was the United States; leading the communist nations was the Soviet Union.
 The Cold War never led to direct fighting between these two superpowers, although there was a constant threat of
nuclear war.
 Clashes between communism and capitalism did lead to numerous smaller conflicts.
 To counter the Soviet threat, the United States and its European allies created a military alliance called the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
 In 1947, President Harry Truman called for immediate economic and military support for Greece and Turkey to
protect those countries from a possible Soviet-backed Communist takeover. Under the Truman Doctrine, the
United States promised similar help to all countries threatened by Communism.

End of Cold War

 In 1948 the Soviet Union attempted to force the United States and its allies to leave West Berlin by blocking
access to the city. The allies responded by delivering supplies to Berlin by airplane in what was called the Berlin
Airlift.
 In 1961 the East Germans built the Berlin Wall to separate their part of the city from the part controlled by the
allies. In the meantime, the Soviet Union joined with East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and
Czechoslovakia to form the military alliance called the Warsaw Pact.
 When civil wars erupted in Korea and Vietnam, the Soviets backed one side and the United States the other. The
Korean War ended in a stalemate and the Vietnam War in a Communist victory.
 The Cold War started to break down during the 1980s when Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet
Union. Gorbachev relaxed controls over Soviet society and over the Warsaw Pact countries.
 In 1989 those countries overthrew their Communist governments and broke free of Soviet control, and East
Germany and West Germany were soon reunited. In 1991 the Soviet Union itself collapsed as Communism
proved to be economically unsustainable. The Soviet government was replaced by a non-Communist Russia and
other independent republics. The Cold War was over.

8
 3/12/2023

The Civil Rights Movement

 In postwar America, racial discrimination remained a major problem. In many states, particularly in the South, so-
called “Jim Crow laws” dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries enforced a system of legal segregation,
or separation of the races. Laws providing for “separate but equal” accommodations for different races had been
upheld by the Supreme Court in a case called Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
 After World War II, a Civil Rights movement took root. Americans eager to claim the leadership of the “free
world” against Communist foes began to realize that the legal segregation of African Americans seriously
undermined that claim. Furthermore, African Americans who had fought for freedom overseas were no longer
willing to accept legal restrictions when they returned home. President Harry S. Truman ordered the integration of
the U.S. military.
 In 1954, a milestone decision was made in the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. The court,
led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, ruled it unconstitutional to separate children in public schools based on race.
Through the decade that followed, African Americans used nonviolent protests and civil disobedience to protest
against racial discrimination.
 Black students across the South staged a series of sit-ins that ended segregation in many public places. Martin
Luther King Jr., a clergyman from Georgia, organized and led many of these protests, which were often met with
violence.

Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for civil rights worked for equality for
all Americans.

The Women’s Movement

In response to growing public sympathy for the protesters, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which
outlawed discrimination in schools, colleges, places of employment, and public accommodations such as restaurants
and public transportation.
Susan B. Anthony fought for women’s rights and fought for civil rights
 This was followed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed restrictions that had been used to prevent
African Americans from voting. In postwar society, women also began protesting against discrimination.
 Women had won the right to vote in 1919 through the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, but they were still kept out of many jobs and positions of influence in society.
 During World War II, many women had gone to work in traditionally male jobs (including military service) and
proved very capable. After the war, women were no longer content with the old assumption that they should have
no ambitions beyond marriage and children.
 By the 1960s, more and more women were getting college educations and competing for skilled professional jobs.
A proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution failed to pass, but American women made great strides
toward social and legal equality during the last decades of the 20th century.

9
 3/12/2023

The Great Society, the Vietnam War, and Watergate

 When Lyndon B. Johnson became president in 1963 following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy,
he persuaded Congress to pass not only the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (see the previous section) but also the
Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and other measures intended to alleviate poverty and boost employment.
 Johnson declared his intention to create a Great Society in which poverty would be eliminated. However, starting
in 1965, Johnson’s administration became increasingly embroiled in the Vietnam War, an effort to prevent a
Communist takeover of a country in Southeast Asia. Eventually more than 600,000 U.S. troops were sent to
Vietnam, but victory over Vietnamese guerrilla fighters proved elusive.
 President Richard M. Nixon, continued the peace talks but also pursued the war for another four years. U.S. troops
were not finally withdrawn from Vietnam until 1973. During the 1972 presidential campaign, burglars were arrested
in the Democratic National Committee’s office in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. Eventually it was
revealed that the burglars had ties to the Nixon administration and that White House officials were attempting to
cover up their involvement.
 Faced with the threat of impeachment over this Watergate Scandal, Nixon resigned the presidency in 1974.

Presidencies in the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries

 Former Hollywood actor and California Republican governor Ronald Reagan served two terms as president in
1980–1988.
 Politics in the 1990s were dominated by the Democrat Bill Clinton, who served as president from 1992 to 2000.
Clinton’s achievements were primarily domestic. Customs barriers between the United States, Canada, and
Mexico were dramatically lowered by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
 Republican George W. Bush succeeded Clinton in 2001 and served two terms in office. His presidency was
controversial from the beginning because the 2000 presidential election.

10
 3/12/2023

9/11 or War on Terror

 On September 11, 2001, terrorists from an ultra-Islamist group called Al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial
jetliners, crashing two into the World Trade Center towers in New York City and one into the Pentagon. The fourth
crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3000 people died in the attacks, now referred to collectively as 9/11.
 In response, Bush launched what he called a War on Terror, which included:
• The passage of the USA Patriot Act, which gave intelligence organizations broad surveillance power
• The War in Afghanistan, a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan prompted by its government’s support of Al Qaeda.

 The war began in October 2001, and the United States military withdrew in December 2014.
• The Iraq War, a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq prompted by intelligence reports that the country’s leader, Saddam
Hussein, had weapons of mass destruction that could be used against the United States and its allies.
The invasion began in 2003, and the United States withdrew in 2011.

Affordable Care Act of Barack Obama

 Bush was succeeded in 2009 by Barack Obama, the country’s first African-American president.
 Obama was reelected in 2012. Before Obama took office, the 2008 global financial crisis pushed countries
around the world into deep recession and nearly destroyed the international banking system.
 Obama’s first years in office were focused on economic recovery efforts. His signature piece of legislation was the
Affordable Care Act (often called “Obamacare”) of 2010.
 This major overhaul of the healthcare system was designed to lower the number of Americans without health
insurance.

11
 3/12/2023

Issues Facing the United States at the Start of the 21st Century
 The first decade of the 21st century was a time of crisis and dramatic changes. In the presidencies of George W.
Bush (2000–2008) and Barack Obama (2008–2016), the United States faced several major challenges.
Economic issues. Following a crisis in the financial markets and the collapse of several major financial institutions in
2008, the United States and other industrial countries entered a prolonged period of slow economic growth and high
unemployment. This worsened a long-term trend toward increasing economic inequality, which saw a growing share
of the country’s wealth and profits flow to those in the highest income brackets.

Technology. At the turn of the 21st century, a technological revolution swiftly changed the way Americans
communicate. The advent of e-mail, cell phones, personal computers, online social networks, and portable Internet
access made sweeping changes to society, both at home and on the job. Financial security and personal privacy
became major social and legal concerns due to a rise in hacking, the practice of illegally breaking into electronic
data systems.

12
 3/12/2023

Immigration. A great wave of Latin American immigration to the United States began in the late 20th century
and continued into the 21st century. For the first time, American culture began changing to meet the needs of the
immigrants, rather than expecting the immigrants to assimilate. One result was a nativist backlash among some
groups of non-Hispanic Americans, who called for increased border security and the deportation of immigrants who
lacked proper documentation.

Climate change. Scientists have become increasingly concerned that human activities, especially the burning
of fossil fuels, are changing the climate of the planet. Anticipated changes include droughts, severe storms, and
significant rises in sea level that will likely flood coastal areas. Opinion remains divided regarding the most effective
response to these threats.
Overseas military operations. After Arab terrorists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001,
destroying the World Trade Center in New York and damaging the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., there was a
violent breach in U.S.-Arab relations. U.S. troops attacked the fundamentalist Islamic group Al Qaeda and its local
allies in Afghanistan, and in 2003, U.S. forces invaded Iraq and toppled its government. After an occupation marked
by violence, the United States withdrew from Iraq in 2011. Fighting by U.S. forces continues against Al Qaeda
forces in Afghanistan and in other Arab countries.

13
 3/12/2023

Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s.

1) World War I
2) World War II
3) Korean War
4) Vietnam War
5) (Persian) Gulf War

14