American Identity and Culture: Americans were new to world, finally gaining their independence from Britain and after shedding off their British influence were they now allowed to be called Americans. Americans have now gained their independence from Great Britain and are now able to be their own country along with the leadership from George Washington. Washington helped American identity by leading armies which helped win the American Revolution and allow Americans to be free. Slaves were also now brought into society as they now counted for 3/5 of a vote which even though was still demoralizing, was still progress.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: A huge economic and financial advancement was made during this time period in the 1790's by Alexander Hamilton, George Washington's secretary of treasury. Alexander Hamilton provided a plan for the American Economy in which he proposed a national bank, excise tax and an assumption of the states' debts and also an increase in tariff. This plan which he proposed would fix the American economy and allow it to pay some of the promises it made to American soldiers. This plan was a necessity because America had just finished fighting in a war and needed a way to pay for all of the expenses.
Environment: Territorial expansion was one of the most important factors during this time period, which ultimately led to the independence of America from Britain. This led to America's independence because without Britain trying to expand to find gold and increase their territory, America would have never been founded, at least not by the British. Territorial expansion was also very important as it determined the relationship between the Native Americans and the Americans, which later proved to be very important as some of them assisted the Americans in the war against the British. Population growth was also affected as more people wanted to come to the colonies as they began to be very inviting and ideal.
Politics and Citizenship: Politics developed a lot during this time period and instituted some rights in politics that are still instilled today. Some of those rights included women's suffrage which was very important as it was a big step for society. Women's suffrage was important even though only instituted for a small amount a time propelled women to fight for more rights because now they knew they could gain some rights if they fought enough for them. During this time two new groups in society were also formed, the Democratic - Republican Party and the Federalist Party. These two parties had opposing views on the government and now created a separation in politics.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: Slavery in North America also began to change drastically as slaves were now being emancipated and slaves also gained new rights in politics, mainly the right to vote. Although they were not completely counted as a white person's vote, they were allowed 3/5 of a vote. Slaves also began to be emancipated because of the many anti-slavery movements happening during the 18th century. Women were also needed more and were being used as indentured servants as there were a lot of women needed to work in textile factories.
War and Diplomacy: War was a very prevalent theme during this time period as America had just finished fighting a war which game them their most important factor which is still the most important today; independence. The war economically affected American society by putting them in a lot of debt. Politics were also affected by the war as the American leaders needed to find a new form of government that would be more beneficial to the colonies and more effective if every confronted with another war. War also brought together France and America but after the war the colonies were advised by George Washington to not establish foreign alliances with other countries in order to not have any problems or instigate any other problems that are not needed.
John Adams (1797-1801)
American Identity and Culture: Americans now began to have faith in their constitution and their government by the election of 1800 and they also saw a change for America as it entered the industrial age and got up to speed with the rest of the world and their main competition at the time, Europe. Americans now saw the difference that was going to happen in their nation which was the difference between state and federal powers. This issue of state and federal powers was brought up to the American people with the Alien and Sedition acts which were deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme court. The Alien and Sedition acts were brought to the attention of the supreme court because the Virginia and Kentucky legislatures said that they could nullify laws that were instituted by the federal government.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: In 1789 Moses Brown moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island and began a factory system with some old outdated machinery, at least from Samuel Slater’s point of view. This new relationship that began to grow in between Moses Brown and Samuel Slater led to 11 years later, the first water run mill which marked the beginning of the American industrial revolution. This small relationship soon became the plunge of Americans into the modern age and encouraged entrepreneurship in America. Samuel Slater was also no ordinary man, he was seen as the father of the industrial revolution as he brought along from England the secrets and instructions in order to make new technology and allow America to enter the industrial age.
Environment: The restrictions brought upon slavery in the nation also affected many other factors in America like the value of them and the power in the country was now switched to farmers with large plantations and a lot of slaves. These new farmers became the elite and they had a lot of influence on the Democratic Republicans and the politics of America. Many small yeoman farmers now became tenants of larger more elite farmers which had more land. Many yeoman farmers also left the large plantations to the back country near the mountains with one goal in mind, to their children up as farmers when they were growing up.
Politics and Citizenship: During the last year of John Adam’s Presidency, 1801 a strange and revolutionary action took place in American politics. This was the Revolution of 1800. This revolution marked the end of the Federalist Party and its influence in America, now power in the house was transferred to the democratic republicans. This was very strange because power in the house was not only given up but this also happened without bloodshed, it was a “peaceful revolution”. This was not an actual revolution but it was more of an awakening and understanding by the American people and faith in their constitution and government. The American people now realized that their constitution would be able to withhold all of the political turmoil and changes that would happen in the country.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: During the first year of John Adam’s presidency the Philadelphia Convention was held which discussed new restrictions and views on slavery, this convention was also made to secure the accession of South Carolina and Georgia into the union. Delegates at this convention now accepted slavery as a normal addition of daily American life. These same delegates also added restrictions to slavery, they said that the importation of slaves was now restricted for 20 years. This convention also added a fugitive slave clause for the state governments that said they could not provide safe havens to runaway slaves.
War and Diplomacy: During John Adam's presidency there was the covert operation from France demanding for the United States to pay a bribe to some French ministers in order to enter negotiations on settling a claim that French privateers and warships were seizing American merchant ships. The reason that this was dubbed the XYZ affair was because the three French ministers that were sent by France in order to initiate the negotiations were just dubbed X, Y and Z because their names were never brought out to the public. The reason why this blew up in America was because the French ministers wanted bribes and even though the use of bribes was not totally uncommon but the price and circumstances that the French ministers asked for were too large. This affair influenced the popular American belief that war with France was now necessary but John Adams knew that the US’ military and defense systems were too young and inexperienced in order to go to war.
Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809)
American Identity and Culture:
The widespread idea that was brought to the American people during this time period was the Jeffersonian way of thinking in politics and other factors of the government and the nation. The emphasis of the Jeffersonian was to be on the regular everyday person and the yeoman farmer. This changed the emphasis on the elite farmers that took place during President John Adam’s term to the common person. The Jeffersonian ideas also included the citizens playing a big part in the state as they were there to serve and air the state in whatever way necessary and they were supposed to resist monarchial type governments and also corruption in the state. Citizens and qualified voters were also encouraged to vote in order to preserve democratic ideals in the nation.
Economic Transformations and Globalization:
Jefferson relied very much on the actual land and the farmers to support and be the backbone of the economy. He did not believe in spreading east towards Europe in order to make America’s economy successful. He saw that Americans who worked in factories would prove to be dangerous to the Republican ideals in the country. If Americans were to rely on wages from a factory they would be under the influence of the owner and their ideas would also be influence which could also influence their political views and turn the American into a disaster.
Environment:
The United States during this time of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency was very much influenced by the idea of manifest destiny which was also backed up with the Jeffersonian ideals of thinking. Manifest destiny was the thought and belief that United States were destined to expand westward towards the Pacific Ocean. The Louisiana Purchase coincided with the idea of manifest destiny and as well as the Jeffersonian ideals. They purchased the Louisiana territory from France for 15 million dollars. The negotiation for this territory was particularly important not only because the Louisiana territory doubled the size of the United States but because the United States gained control of the port of New Orleans which was previously controlled by France so the US’ occupation of this port stopped all of France’s aspirations to begin an empire in North America.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America:
Slavery was a big component of the country at this time because the United States had barely acquired the Louisiana Territory and there was a lot of land that was unexplored and was seen as opportunities to white farmers. Along with this all of these new opportunities that opened up to white men there was a large demand for slaves to work the field since the poor white population of America was still too small to work such a large piece of land. Jefferson’s purchase of the Louisiana territory further implied the Jeffersonian ideals which included “manifest destiny” and with this new acquisition of land they were close of completing that idea. This new piece of land would present problems for the people and government in America over debates on whether slavery should be instituted and legal in these parts of the country.
War and Diplomacy:
During Jefferson’s presidency he instituted the embargo act of 1807 in order to prohibit American ships entering foreign waters and ports. This Embargo act was instituted by Jefferson because of the treatment that the Americans had received from the British like impressments and incidents such as the Chesapeake-Leopard affair in which a British ship opened fire on the American warship the Chesapeake and killed four American soldiers. This embargo act was supposed to stop the British from treating the Americans bad because the United States and Britain were big trading partners but this act backfired and brought more hardships to the American economy. This embargo act was also implied because the United States declared neutrality in the Napoleonic war which included Britain and France. Staying out of this war and not involving themselves in it also coincided with George Washington’s plan for having a successful country and government.
During Jefferson’s presidency he instituted the embargo act of 1807 in order to prohibit American ships entering foreign waters and ports. This Embargo act was instituted by Jefferson because of the treatment that the Americans had received from the British like impressments and incidents such as the Chesapeake-Leopard affair in which a British ship opened fire on the American warship the Chesapeake and killed four American soldiers. This embargo act was supposed to stop the British from treating the Americans bad because the United States and Britain were big trading partners but this act backfired and brought more hardships to the American economy. This embargo act was also implied because the United States declared neutrality in the Napoleonic war which included Britain and France. Staying out of this war and not involving themselves in it also coincided with George Washington’s plan for having a successful country and government.
James Madison (1809-1817)
American Identity and Culture:
During this time the American people were split almost in half. Sections began to arise between the North and the South over their views on whether the United States should engage in war with Britain. The north, mostly the New England states were opposed going to war mainly because of their economic interests with them. The southern and western states had a completely opposite way of thinking and urged for America to go to war with Britain. There was also a group of republicans who had barely entered office in 1810 who became dubbed the war hawks. The war hawks earned their name by being so eager to go to war with Britain; many of these congressmen dubbed the war hawks were from the Border States such as Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Economic Transformations and Globalization:
The northerners had a very different view on going to war with Britain when compared to the southern and western views which were influenced by one thing only, the difference in economies. The North was mostly in the business of manufacturing and industrial commerce. The reason that this type of economy influenced their war views is that the north was benefitting from the Embargo Act of 1807 instituted by Thomas Jefferson in order to avoid war because they were manufacturing goods that they could sell not only to the American people for a high price but also to the foreign countries because it was in one way their only option. The Northerners were benefitting largely from the war while the south was being abused economically because the own goods that they were producing were being sold back to them at higher prices.
Environment:
Much of the American’s point of view on the war came from the treatment of Americans during their trade and when Americans were in foreign waters. The British had already been abusing the American war ships and their people, they also hadn’t been respecting the right of free trade in the waters. Even though neither the French nor the British were being respectful of the principle of free trade the British were seen as the aggressors because of their use of impressments on Americans and because Americans reminisced about the revolution and Britain’s cruelty towards America when the country was barely growing. The foreign waters became the cause of the war, because American feelings towards the British grew after the Chesapeake-Leopard incident.
Politics and Citizenship:
Madison’s view on the war was very strange as he urged America to go to war even though America was still young and its country’s military and army were barely gaining recognition. Most of the country was split into two groups, pro-slavery and anti-slavery which grew into being the north versus the south and the west. The United States’ foolishness came to light when Napoleon promised to president Madison that he was going to respect the United State’s free trade rights and Madison took to that promise and continued to repeal an act that passed which would make things with France more peaceful. After Macon’s Bill No.2 was repealed France continued to seize the American ships and the United States’ government showed how inexperienced it was.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America:
Slavery in America still continued even after the illegal importation of slaves was in place. Slavery was still in place because Americans saw no other way of having the workforce that was available to them in any other war than using slaves for work. The illegal importation of slaves was mostly disregarded in the south where slavery was most necessary. The reason that slavery in the south still continued after the importation of slavery became illegal is because the south’s economy was primarily based on agriculture. This made slavery a very important factor in their economy because without the slaves, the American farmers had a lot of land that they simply couldn’t take care of and they couldn’t turn to get white people to do the work because working the land was already seen primarily as a slave position unless the person working the land was an indentured servant.
During this time period of Madison’s presidency tension with Britain finally exploded and the United States declared war in 1812 and entered the “War of 1812”. After both of the countries tried to avoid war they ended up pushing each other into it. The War of 1812 was due to American treatment in foreign waters and problems on the frontier of America. The Americans had been harassed by the British in the water and their maritime war ships had been damaged along with the seamen aboard. The frontiers of America also added to the problem as America’s greed brought it into international problems and sparked the war as well. The Americans wanted to expand their territory not only west but they also wanted Canada which was to the North of them. This became a problem for Americans because in between them and Canada were the British, Spanish and the Native American forces that stood in their war of conquering territory to the north of them. In 1814 both sides grew weary of war and signed the Treaty of Ghent to stop the war.
James Monroe (1817-1825)
American Identity and Culture: James Monroe’s entire presidency was dubbed the Era of Good Feeling due to the amount of pride Americans had for their country at the time and at the amount of optimism shown by the citizens and the country as a whole. This Era of Good Feelings had mostly a positive outlook on the future and the Americans felt very strong and powerful at the moment, they had just came out of the War of 1812 with Great Britain and they didn’t come out losing entirely. All of this gave Americans a lot of moral and gave them a sense of power. This had also shown America and it’s citizens the potential of America and its government and military, it gave Americans a sense of security and trust in their country. Although this time period is dubbed the era of good feelings there was a lot of problems underlying during this time period and topics of the government that were pushed aside for quite some time were brought out into the open and led to heated debates between the people and created a lot of differences between the citizens and legislators.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: During President James Monroe’s presidency Henry Clay presented his American system and the requirements needed in order to have a positive economic outcome and economic growth for America. In this system Henry Clay proposed 3 main parts in order to have a successful economy which were, internal improvements, a national bank and protective tariffs. Internal improvements are roads and canals; institutions to better society. This was particularly debated because the use of federal money on internal improvements was not stated directly in the constitution so legislatures wanting internal improvements were always being vetoed. Protective tariffs were supposed to be in place in order to protect American goods from foreign competitions; these tariffs did so by adding tariffs to imported goods which made the price higher than American goods. The tariffs were adopted by the United States. The national bank was also charted by the government and the Second bank of the United States was created; the previous charted had expired in 1811.
Environment: The Missouri Compromise was instituted in 1820, 5 years before James Monroe’s last year in office. Missouri was a threat to the house of representatives because there was a balance in the house and the addition of Missouri into the union could imbalance it and therefore cause senators to pass legislations that would just benefit their sectional interests. The north was primarily worried about Missouri being admitted into the union as a state because even though it did not have the large slave population like the south it did have slavery as a pretty prominent institution. If the south would enter the union as a slave state it would tip the balance to favor the south and if it entered the union as a north it would also tip the balance but to favor northern policies and legislations. The Missouri Compromise cause a lot of debate and called for many proposals and amendments such as the Tallmadge amendment and the proposal by Henry Clay.
Politics and Citizenship: During President Monroe’s term people in America were now able to move around the country and didn’t have to be static in one place of the country for the rest of their lives. They were now able to move around the country and explore new places and new opportunities. This was accomplished by the roads that were now installed in America. Pennsylvania’s Turnpike, the Lancaster Turnpike connected Philadelphia with the farm land around Lancaster. The addition of roads was very important to the citizens not only because it was strange but because it connected them to other parts of the United States. It was strange to have roads since federal money wasn’t approved for internal improvements since it was not clearly stated in the constitution. The only time that federal money was approved for building roads was with the Cumberland road which still had money from states in it. The Cumberland road stretched from Maryland to Illinois and was finished in 1850.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: Slavery during this time period exploded with the inventions that were entering and growing in America such as the Cotton Gin in 1793, invented by Eli Whitney. These types of new inventions could produce massive workloads with natural resources. The main natural resource that these new machines used was cotton which was very important and widely grown in the south. These new machines could do the work that humans could do but at a faster, efficient rate. Even though this was good for the factory owners because they could produce more products this was particularly bad for the slaves because the demand for their cotton went up and they had to produce more. Even though slavery was dying out little by little after the ban on importation of slaves into the country in 1808, these new inventions added to the necessity of slaves in the union.
War and Diplomacy: On December 2 of 1823 President James Monroe during a message to congress included a policy towards Latin America and Europe which became known as the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine was supposed to stop the European Nations from interfering with any land in the western hemisphere. This was seen as being heroic by the American people but it was not viewed the same by the rest of the world. The European nations became enraged that America would institute something of this degree towards them. Britain was especially enraged because it understood that the Monroe Doctrine also applied to them, they were also mad because they noticed that they couldn’t really do anything about it because Britain’s navy was weary of war since, it hadn’t stopped getting in conflicts since the Napoleonic wars.
John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)
American Identity and Culture: James Monroe’s entire presidency was dubbed the Era of Good Feeling due to the amount of pride Americans had for their country at the time and at the amount of optimism shown by the citizens and the country as a whole. This Era of Good Feelings had mostly a positive outlook on the future and the Americans felt very strong and powerful at the moment, they had just came out of the War of 1812 with Great Britain and they didn’t come out losing entirely. All of this gave Americans a lot of moral and gave them a sense of power. This had also shown America and it’s citizens the potential of America and its government and military, it gave Americans a sense of security and trust in their country. Although this time period is dubbed the era of good feelings there was a lot of problems underlying during this time period and topics of the government that were pushed aside for quite some time were brought out into the open and led to heated debates between the people and created a lot of differences between the citizens and legislators.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: During President James Monroe’s presidency Henry Clay presented his American system and the requirements needed in order to have a positive economic outcome and economic growth for America. In this system Henry Clay proposed 3 main parts in order to have a successful economy which were, internal improvements, a national bank and protective tariffs. Internal improvements are roads and canals; institutions to better society. This was particularly debated because the use of federal money on internal improvements was not stated directly in the constitution so legislatures wanting internal improvements were always being vetoed. Protective tariffs were supposed to be in place in order to protect American goods from foreign competitions; these tariffs did so by adding tariffs to imported goods which made the price higher than American goods. The tariffs were adopted by the United States. The national bank was also charted by the government and the Second bank of the United States was created; the previous charted had expired in 1811.
Environment: The Missouri Compromise was instituted in 1820, 5 years before James Monroe’s last year in office. Missouri was a threat to the house of representatives because there was a balance in the house and the addition of Missouri into the union could imbalance it and therefore cause senators to pass legislations that would just benefit their sectional interests. The north was primarily worried about Missouri being admitted into the union as a state because even though it did not have the large slave population like the south it did have slavery as a pretty prominent institution. If the south would enter the union as a slave state it would tip the balance to favor the south and if it entered the union as a north it would also tip the balance but to favor northern policies and legislations. The Missouri Compromise cause a lot of debate and called for many proposals and amendments such as the Tallmadge amendment and the proposal by Henry Clay.
Politics and Citizenship: During President Monroe’s term people in America were now able to move around the country and didn’t have to be static in one place of the country for the rest of their lives. They were now able to move around the country and explore new places and new opportunities. This was accomplished by the roads that were now installed in America. Pennsylvania’s Turnpike, the Lancaster Turnpike connected Philadelphia with the farm land around Lancaster. The addition of roads was very important to the citizens not only because it was strange but because it connected them to other parts of the United States. It was strange to have roads since federal money wasn’t approved for internal improvements since it was not clearly stated in the constitution. The only time that federal money was approved for building roads was with the Cumberland road which still had money from states in it. The Cumberland road stretched from Maryland to Illinois and was finished in 1850.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: Slavery during this time period exploded with the inventions that were entering and growing in America such as the Cotton Gin in 1793, invented by Eli Whitney. These types of new inventions could produce massive workloads with natural resources. The main natural resource that these new machines used was cotton which was very important and widely grown in the south. These new machines could do the work that humans could do but at a faster, efficient rate. Even though this was good for the factory owners because they could produce more products this was particularly bad for the slaves because the demand for their cotton went up and they had to produce more. Even though slavery was dying out little by little after the ban on importation of slaves into the country in 1808, these new inventions added to the necessity of slaves in the union.
War and Diplomacy: On December 2 of 1823 President James Monroe during a message to congress included a policy towards Latin America and Europe which became known as the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine was supposed to stop the European Nations from interfering with any land in the western hemisphere. This was seen as being heroic by the American people but it was not viewed the same by the rest of the world. The European nations became enraged that America would institute something of this degree towards them. Britain was especially enraged because it understood that the Monroe Doctrine also applied to them, they were also mad because they noticed that they couldn’t really do anything about it because Britain’s navy was weary of war since, it hadn’t stopped getting in conflicts since the Napoleonic wars.
John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)
American Identity and Culture: John Quincy Adams already had some confidence in him when he came into office because he was involved in politics for many years before he entered presidency. He was also widely known in American because he was the son of John Adams, the second president of the United States. He was also fairly popular in America because he did not really focus on one section of America but was more focused on the greater good of the whole nation. Even though he may have not been widely seen as warm as inviting John Quincy Adams still did a lot of things for the people of America and bettered the everyday life of it’s citizens.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: The Tariff of 1828 was a tariff that was supposed to protect American good from foreign competition. This tariff was extremely important now because during the War of 1812 and the time that the embargo act was in place the American people and industrialist began to make their own good in order to not be dependent of foreign items since they could not get them. All of these new products by the American people became important and they wanted them to be protected from foreign competition. This tariff was also called the tariff of Abominations mostly by southern plantation owners because they saw the tariff as being bias and benefitting the north at the expense of the south because the south had to pay more money for the items and good that weren’t produced in the United States.
Environment: During John Quincy Adam’s presidency he was faced with problems that many presidents before him didn’t have to deal with. He had to face the Native Americans of newly acquired territory like the territories of Florida and the Native Americans that still existed in the semi-new Louisiana Territory. The Native Americans during this time period were enraged and disgusted at the Americans because the Americans were coming to settle right where the Native Americans were and they weren’t always treated right and as equals to the Americans. They were also very enraged at the Americans because they were settling and claiming lands that they had already been living on and that they had already came but since the Americans came with more modern technology and good they somehow felt superior to the Native Americans.
Politics and Citizenship: This period of politics in American history was full of corruptness, much like it is today. During John Quincy Adams’ election there were four candidates which were mostly all from the republican house. This proposed a problem to the candidates because it was harder for them to gain a lot of votes since there was so much competition. None of the candidates won the majority of the votes so the voting for the president went into the House of Representatives in order to come to a decision. In the House of Representatives the election turned because Henry Clay used his influential power in the House in order to make John Quincy Adams promise to make him secretary of state. This whole process in politics was dubbed the corrupt bargain by the other candidates because of the corruptness of what happened in this election.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: Slavery in the country during John Quincy Adams’ was starting to take a turn in favor for the slaves because the president who was now in office opposed slavery and he always brought it up to congress in order to abolish it since he saw it as unconstitutional and saw it as immoral. Bringing this issue up to congress is very important because as well as before he took office and after he left office congress always pushed the issue of slavery aside because they didn’t really find a solution that would favor both the north and the south and in order to prevent upheaval and riots they just pushed it aside until issue in the country brought it up to the supreme court.
War and Diplomacy: John Quincy Adams was a very prominent and important figure in America’s diplomatic policies because he assisted many treaties and processes that helped America stay with his head above water in foreign policies. John Quincy Adams drafted the Treaty of Ghent which ultimately ended the War of 1812 and neutralized the problems that America had with Europe and especially the United Kingdom. He also helped with the Monroe Doctrine which helped America exclude the possibility of European powers going into North America and re-conquering land that now belonged to Americans.
Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)
American Identity and Culture: The presidency of Andrew Jackson has often been given a special name, The age of the common man, or the Era of Jacksonian Democracy. In the years during the 1830s people of the likes of Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat, came to the United States only to be amazed at how Americans of all classes were coming together and at the attitudes they had towards democracy. An example of how these classes became closer is how on common ways of transportation, steamboats, trains, and coaches, there was only one class for passengers, forcing both rich and poor to share the common ways of living. Equality was slowly becoming an American principle. Men wore the same types of clothes and women relied on magazines such as Godey’s Lady’s Book for how to dress. Another American identity that was becoming a problem solver in the United States was the way in which leaders began to give their own time and effort to deal with problems such as mental illness, women’s rights, public schools, abolition movements, temperance movements, and health movements.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: Jackson did not sign the re-charter of the second bank of the United States because he believed that it was unconstitutional and it would only help out the wealthy and leave the poor to worse conditions. He was the protector of the common man and would not let the rich and the privileged abuse the poor and disabled. Jackson was against increasing federal spending thinking it would increase the national debt. Jackson withdrew all the federal funds from the national bank and transferred them into state banks which were given the name “pet banks” by Jackson’s critics. As a result of Jackson’s policies prices became inflated and Jackson passed the specie secular to try and control this inflation. The specie secular required buyers to pay in gold and silver rather than in paper money.
Environment: Jackson became famous as an Indian fighter. Jackson was in favor of taking over lands that were previously settled by Indians and believed that the most humane solution was to move the Native Americans out of their lands and place them west of the Mississippi. In 1830 Jackson signed the law of the Indian Removal act which forced the Native Americans to take their resettle west of the Mississippi. Jackson’s leadership led other states such as Georgia to pass laws that made Native Americans, in particular the Cherokees, to migrate west. This sprouted the Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and Worcester v. Georgia court cases. In the trail of tears where Native Americans were escorted out of their lands to move west, more than four thousand Cherokees died.
Politics and citizenship: During the Jacksonian era voters had a much bigger opinion and say in government since more state and local officials were elected by the people instead of being appointed. Political offices could now be held by people from the lower and middle classes. In states that were barely admitted to the union, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri this led people’s interest to participate in elections rise since they could express their own opinions and ideas by voting for the person whom they preferred. States began to eliminate restrictions such as qualifying to vote by having property or any religious affiliation. The two-party system began to lose its power since now it was not only the Whigs and the Democrats, but new parties such as the Anti-Masonic party and the Workingmen’s party began to rise. Jackson vetoed twelve bills which were more than the bills that were vetoed by the six previous presidents put together.
Slavery and its legacies in North America: Jackson was in favor of keeping slavery since he came to live in a mansion in Tennessee where he was a planter and a slave owner. He did not want to come in between the slavery institution and he agreed to slavery since he could not deny that he owned slaves himself.
War and Diplomacy: Jackson was well known as a war hero and his most famous war was the war of New Orleans.
American Identity and Culture: During Van Buren’s presidency the want to create a system of learning such as free schools for the public grew widely. One of the main leaders that took a stand in the making of public schools was Horace Mann. He took the leadership to begin a trend of schools that were run by the government supported with taxes. The idea behind creating all these schools was teaching children how to be better people by giving them the essentials of morality as well as how to be hard workers. The American way of living during Van Buren’s presidency was getting children to have a better education and this was well established in American culture up to this day.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: Taking on the presidency after Jackson was a tough task for Van Buren since Jackson had plunged the Nation’s economy into a depression. When Van Buren took office the Panic of 1837 was happening as one bank after another began to close down. Jackson’s veto of the re-charter of the bank of the United States was only one of the many causes that led to the economic depression. The Whigs blamed the democrats for having the laissez-faire economy which did not allow federal involvement in the economy. During the Panic of 1837 prices fell by a stunning twenty five percent, businesses failed, and many farmers could not pay their mortgages and lost their lands. People in urban areas saw their jobs turn to nothing. Van Buren decided to remove the federal money from the pet banks and set it in the Treasury Department in Washington. It was until 1840 that congress approved this and called it the Independent Treasury which separated the federal government from the nation’s banking system.
Environment: Martin Van Buren had inherited the Jacksonian view of annexing Texas. He did not want to annex Texas because he believed that if he added it to the country as a new state it would want to keep slavery but Van Buren did not want to spread slavery farther west. Van Buren also continued on Jackson’s views of making Native Americans move west of the Mississippi river. This was done so that the lands that were previously occupied by Native Americans would be settled by whites and would create a bigger country and new opportunities for whoever settled there.
Politics and citizenship:
Slavery and its legacies in North America: Van Buren’s thoughts on slavery were not the same as the former president, Jackson. Van Buren was sort of a free-soiler, a person who does not agree with slavery but will do nothing to prevent. He was “sort of” a free-soiler because he did not want to spread slavery any farther west, but he agreed to keeping the already slave states the same. Van Buren was responsible for signing Gag Resolutions which stated that the House could not print anything that related to slavery because it would lead to sectionalism.
War and Diplomacy:During this time the major controversy that was rising was the argument between British Canada and the United states over the border of the territory of Canada and the state of Maine. Van Buren believed in the idea that was established by George Washington which was the idea of neutralism which meant that the country would choose no side in a war. This was the case of the Aroostook war which shed no blood. The end of the war and the decision of the boundary between these two pieces of land was made by the Webster-Ashburton treaty.
William Henry Harrison (1841)
William Henry Harrison’s presidency was the most unlucky. In his inaugural address he took an oath in the rain. He had no coat and stood there for nearly two hours reading his speech which has been the longest speech in president history. He suffered a strong case of pneumonia and died about a month later after he came into office.
John Tyler (1841-1845)
American Identity and Culture: As the era of Jacksonian democracy was slowly coming to its final days, John Tyler came into office. The idea that Americans began to have as to what it meant to be an American was mainly set on taking the territory of Oregon. As people began to call it, “Oregon Fever” became an idea such as the manifest destiny idea. People believed it was the country’s right to take all of Oregon. American culture was focused on regaining the economic status that had been affected by Jacksons era and to continue expanding the country westward.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: John Tyler disagreed with Henry Clay’s idea of creating a national bank after the Panic was over. This led to John Tyler vetoing Clay’s bills of chartering a national bank twice. Tyler was a president that wanted to keep the high taxes and to spread money that was made by selling public land and distributing between states. This helped out the states but slowed down federal money income. The taxes that were expected to be met had to stay below a twenty percent line so that the country would not fall into another panic.
Environment: John Tyler wanted to Annex Texas, but the senate of the United States rejected his treaty of annexation. His treasury secretary John C. Spencer helped Tyler to get rid of the previous office holders who were against the annexation of Texas and appoint new office holders who were in favor of annexing Texas so that it would be easier to finally pass its annexation. During John Tyler’s presidency Hawaii was also annexed into the United States only to increase its territory even out into the ocean.
Politics and citizenship: John Tyler was a big fan of wanting the country to continue expanding westward as well as having a government which was in favor of free trade. John Tyler began to send his people to other places such as china, Germany, and eventually to annex Hawaii. In China his lawyer, Caleb, signed a treaty, the treaty of Wanghia while in Germany he sent Henry Wheaton to sign a different treaty in Berlin.
Slavery and its legacies in North America: John Tyler was not a president that wanted to end or keep slavery. He was in the neutral stage as he didn’t support either side. He believed that states should choose whether to be a slave state or a free state. Even with these views on slavery he still owned slaves and proposed that the slave trade end since he thought slaves were only Africans trying to take advantage of the United States to try and receive rights that would not be given to them, he also saw these people as barbarians.
War and Diplomacy: A diplomatic issue grew around the 1840s over the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, Canada. Canada was still under British rule and the American people still saw Britain as their worst enemy. This issue sprouted a conflict known as the Aroostook war otherwise known as the “battle of the maps”. Protestant missionaries as well as farmers were settling in the Willamette Valley during the 1840s. This led other people to catch the “Oregon Fever” and want to settle in that area, traveling two thousand miles through the Oregon Trail to settle south of the Columbia River. Americans believed that the countries manifest destiny was to take all of Oregon and to annex the Republic of Texas. They also believed that Mexico should give up the land in the West which contained California.
James K. Polk (1845-1849)
American Identity and Culture: Reformation of society and expanding westward were still the main ideas that the country had. Population was increasing by birthrates and by people coming in from other countries. Rich people only took advantage to become wealthier while the poor were left to die of hunger and not having the money needed to sustain themselves. Women were still seeking for a voice in politics.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: The Independent Treasury that Van Buren had settled was reinstated by James K. Polk after the Whigs had repealed it. James wanted to reduce tariffs. He also wanted to improve trading between the mother country, Britain, and the United States. This was done by passing the Walker tariff which would lower the high tariffs on goods that were going in and out the country so that trading would become easier and bring more revenue as well as a better connection between the countries that traded with the United States and the United States. These new improvements brought about income that would soon help to increase the making of railroads and other necessary elements to improve the country.
Environment: James was in favor of the annexation of Texas, gaining the territory of California, and reoccupying all the territory of Oregon. The slogan “Fifty-four Forty or fight” became popular since everyone wanted to expand the country since this slogan was what expanded the latitude of the border of the territory of Oregon and the Alaska territory which was being controlled by Russia. After the Mexican War a huge amount of Western territory was acquired. New Mexico and California were bought as a prize from the war.
Politics and citizenship: During Polk’s presidency women still had the idea that they had as much rights as men had and the Seneca Falls convention was one of the events that began the change towards women’s rights. Women began to have positions in teaching. Women were also trying to end the cases of prostitution which made women seemed like they were just instruments to men. Another political asset that Polk had was that he did not sign the Wilmot proviso which prohibited slavery in newly acquired territories especially those taken from Mexico.
Slavery and its legacies in North America: Many people judged James as wanting to use the slave power in his favor. They believed that this was the primary reason why he was in favor of trying to continue previous attempts of annexing Texas as well as the Mexican War just so that slavery could continue to spread. James believed that slavery would not be allowed in the new lands that were taken from the Mexican territory but at the same time he disagreed on signing the Wilmot Proviso. James had been a slaveholder since he had inherited his father slaves as well as his father’s land where the slaves were put to work. Before he became president he could not increase his count of slaves but once he became president he began to buy more slaves.
War and Diplomacy: Instead of fighting for the territory of Oregon, Polk decided to compromise with Britain and remove the campaign that his party was creating, “Fifty-four forty or fight”. The slogan implied that if the latitude was not expanded then there would be war and fighting so Polk, instead of fighting for Oregon, decided to just settle for half of the territory to not create a war. The Mexican American war only lasted seven years, but after it was over, Mexico had to sell the New Mexico and the California territory to the United States and settle that the border would be the Rio Grande.
Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)
American Identity and Culture: During the presidency of Zachary Taylor one of the most astonishing events happened. Gold was found in some river banks in California and this sprouted the gold rush era where people from all over the country came to California to test their luck in striking gold and changing their lives forever. This was not the case for many people since the gold found was only minimal. Religious communities began to be established. They were made to better shape how the people acted, to change their morals and the way they lived so that they could have better lives and give a better inheritance to their children shaped by the ways of the bible. States saw the imbalance of free states and slave states as an excuse to create their own state constitutions in order to bend the rules stated in the country’s constitution to their favor.
Economic Transformations and Globalization:
Environment: The territory that was gained from the Mexican war became California and New Mexico. With these newly made states the idea of manifest destiny was fulfilled since there was nothing more west than the territory of California. The Louisiana territory only increased the amount of land that the United States controlled.
Politics and citizenship: Zachary Taylor was not really of much experience when it came to foreign affairs therefore he was not much involved in the country’s diplomatic decisions or foreign affairs. One of the policies that arose during his presidency was the idea of popular sovereignty in the states where the majority rules and whatever the majority stated what was to be done. Another policy that arose was the fugitive slaw law where people could recapture runaway slaves and bring them back to their owners. Dogs were sometimes used in these captures.
Slavery and its legacies in North America: With the Mexican war coming ending the United States gained new territory which were to become states. These states would either have to be free states or slave states and Zachary advised the new territories to get statehood so that they would not become slave states. Slavery was still kept in the slave states but new territories would only add to the argument of whether the balance of slave and free state was really balanced.
War and Diplomacy: During Zachary’s presidency there were not many notable wars, but this era was only a stepping stone to the civil war. As the years progressed the north and the south continued to have arguments which would in time turn out to be a civil war between two parts of the country.
Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)
American Identity and Culture: The most significant American Identity movement happening in America during Millard Fillmore’s presidency was Women’s Rights. Women in America had realized how unfairly they were being treated as lesser, second class Americans because of their gender. The fight for women’s rights was organized with the National Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester. The Convention established women’s desire for political and social equality and deeming the current status of women as unacceptable. The American identity began to change during this period as women began to fight for their equality. The American identity for women became a stride to obtaining equality with men in society.
Economic Transformation and Globalization: During Fillmore’s presidency, Whig ideals supporting internal improvements, economic expansion and self-sufficiency were executed in the United States. Fillmore supported efforts to expand the United States territory and all of its aspects to increase the efficiency of the economy, participation from the citizens in the country and also from foreign nations. A support of protective tariffs was common in the government during this period because Fillmore brought in Whig dynamics of supporting trade and development. In an effort to develop these international ties, Fillmore sent a U.S. diplomat to Japan to begin and foster a trading partnership with the industrious country. Economic transformation and globalization came in the form of Whig traditions: internal improvements, internal and external expansion and foreign interaction preserved through protective tariffs.
Environment: During President Millard Fillmore’s term political leaders and thinkers alike encouraged migration to the Oregon Territory. Samuel R. Thurston was the Oregon Representative who created a law called the Donation Land Claim (1850). The law aimed to motivate people to migrate and settle in the Oregon Territory by providing 160 acres to single males who were older than 18. To married couples, the law provided 320 acres of land to be shared evenly between the male and female in the couple. This law supported the Whig ideal of expansion, in addition to enhancing progress in the American Identity for women who were given the right to own a half of the land she shared with her husband; a right newly established with the creation of this law.
Politics and Citizenship:Fillmore was attempting to represent the Whig party and its views as a whole, however the Whig party inevitably divided under the countless debates plaguing the nation at the time. Because of some of the decisions Fillmore made about controversial topics in the United States, the united Whig party began its destructive descent with its division into Northern Whigs and Southern Whigs. The slavery debate was a significant cause in the split, peaking with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act by Fillmore. With the initial split of the Whig party tensions continued to grow and instigated the desire to expand and progress into completely different political parties. The involvement of the American Whigs in politics; with their opinionated ideals, in addition to Millard Fillmore’s controversial policies resulted in the destruction of the Whig party.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America:Fillmore was an undeniable supporter of the Compromise of 1850. To be able to pass the Compromise, Fillmore had to systematically satisfy the southern states by passing the Fugitive Slave Act, which forbade whites to assist runaway slaves, and that any fugitive caught would have to be returned to its owner. This policy was crucial for Millard Fillmore to pass in order to gain the ability to pass the Compromise of 1850. Although Fillmore did not have much of a choice because he desired to straying away from violence due to the topic of slavery, his approval of the Fugitive Slave Act consequently caused disruption between the North and the South socially and politically.
War and Diplomacy:The Compromise of 1850 was an attempt at preventing the actuality of Civil War, but it evidently became a core event causing it. The Compromise declared that California would be brought into the Union as a free state, the New Mexico and Utah territories would use popular sovereignty to decide the status of their state when admitted into the U.S Texas would give up its claims in New Mexico, Slave trade would be prohibited in the District of Columbia and the Fugitive Slave Law would remain effective. The Fugitive Slave law was the even that would allow the Compromise of 1850 to happen; one event pleased the South and the other pleased the North. Although the Compromise was created to satisfy both regions, it ultimately assisted in the demise of unity in the United States.
Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)
American Identity and Culture:American identity and culture in America during this period was defined by Uncle Tom’s Cabin: a novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and easily conceived as the most influential book of the time. The novel explored the slave-master relationship in its reality and it exposed the truth about the brutality, hardship and torture of living as a slave. People in the North and advocates of abolition used the novel as evidence to their arguments about the termination of slavery. People who initially had no solid opinion about the slave debate read this novel and became passionately outraged at the slave situation. Southerners used the book to express their opinion that the discriminatory, derogatory outlook of the North on the South, saying that the content was an extreme exaggeration. American culture began to divide based on sections, which was made clear after Uncle Tom’s Cabin was released.
Economic Transformations and Globalization:Franklin Pierce was one of the most supportive presidents of westward expansion. His vision of westward expansion reaching the Pacific Ocean and establishing a self-sufficient country was creating the transcontinental railroad. Prior to building the transformative railroad, Pierce bought the Gadsden Purchase near New Mexico and Arizona. This small area of land would be necessary to the United States because the railroad would run through this territory, which was south of the border at the time. The railroad was believed to be essential to have an efficiently running economy because trade within the U.S. would be more productive. In addition to the railroad, another economic investment was the United State’s free trade with Canada. This arrangement would support the economy on a more global, international level whereas the railroad established internal, national support.
Environment:The Pierce presidency was in complete support of westward expansion. Franklin saw only positives in extending the borders of America. A common goal throughout this period was ultimately achieving Manifest Destiny and inhabiting the most amount of territory available. Many people believed and support expansion because it would help the country become larger and stronger. More territory would lead to more industries, more people, more money. The geographic swelling of this period was very important to Franklin and Americans.
Politics and its Legacies in North America:The Kansas-Nebraska Act was an act passed during Franklin Pierce’s term as president. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was the result of the Federal government keeping neutral in the slave/free state debates. The Act allowed the citizens in the Kansas and Nebraska territories the right to decide for themselves the status of the state through popular sovereignty. This act led to the Bleeding Kansas event; antislavery advocates and proslavery supporters took physical, violent action to finally decide which side was going to win. It became evident that the slavery debates would end in violence, division and war regardless of who made the decisions. Giving the Federal government the right to decide would force the government to choose sides, while popular sovereignty caused direct regional tensions.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America:Bleeding Kansas was the disastrous event following the Kansas-Nebraska Act during Pierce’s term as president. This event was a violent consequence of the North and the South’s opposing desires over slavery. People were voting unfairly in the Kansas elections deciding whether the state would be free or not. There was more than just a debate progressing out of the conflict. This event introduced the United States to the beginning of the Civil War because of the use of physical violence. The Northern abolitionists raised to a new level of verbal activist attacks on the South in general, and their position about slavery.
War and Diplomacy:The control of Cuba from Spain was a global goal of the United States. Pierce chose Pierre Soule, James Buchanan and Jason Mason (who were all Southern Democrats) as the three diplomats who were sent to represent America in a discussion deciding the future of Cuba. Franklin Pierce directed them to diplomatically negotiate with the Spanish to obtain Cuba. However, the diplomats basically acted in the opposite manner and gave Spain an ultimatum saying they had to sell Cuba or face war. This ultimatum was obviously not cleared with Franklin and he issued the Ostend Manifesto. Everyone involved in the predicament met in Ostend, Belgium to correct the miscommunications.
James Buchanan (1857-1861)
American Identity and Culture:After a long line of Republican presidents, James Buchanan was the first Democratic to take office. American Identity began to transition to a more southern democratic model. The southerners were the most comfortable with the new president and they embraced his views on slavery. American Identity became one that accepted the presence of slavery and identified it as an established part of the culture. Under his term, people looked to him for guidance, which resulted in a nation where Republicans were the rebels to the dominant Southern society.
Economic Transformation and Globalization:The economy was plagued by an economic depression that began in 1856 and lasted up until the beginning of the Civil War. Buchanan, being democratic, did not support the use of tariffs and he lowered them during his term. Many people attribute this factor as the reason for the depression and consequently many Republicans came to despise him and his political outlook. The European economies also played a role in causing this Panic. European demand for American goods began to decline and investors in America began to lose money. Banks didn’t want to give out loans they knew were not going to be paid back. People lost their jobs as a result of declined consumerism. In addition, the stock market lowered by 65% which added to investors loss and debt.
Environment:The democratic value of expansion was evident during James Buchanan’s term when he craved for Cuba. Even before his presidency, Buchanan demonstrated that he supported expansion without a doubt. As a diplomat at the time, he aggressively demanded Cuba by outing the Spanish under the pressure of an unnecessary ultimatum. Buchanan lacked the skills of negotiation required to be a successful diplomat and acquire more land due to his proslavery mindset.
Politics and Citizenship:Buchanan was clearly a loyal Democrat with Democratic ideals. As president, he denied anyone besides white males, the right to vote. Women and definitely free blacks were never given the opportunity to vote in the United States during his term. Buchanan encouraged the use of popular sovereignty in America advocating that the white males in a territory should decide the status of that state. The fact that Buchanan limited the citizenship to just whites and voting rights just to white males demonstrates the roots of Southern Democracy that he consistently emphasized during his presidency.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America:The Dred Scott case was one of the most influential trials in American history. The debate was over whether a slave living in free territory was actually free or not. People began to question the efficiency and honesty of popular sovereignty, the power of the Federal government vs. the State government, the limitations of citizenship and also the motives of the Southern Democrats. The decision of the Dred Scott trial stated that Dred Scott was not a citizen and therefore could not sue for his freedom, no blacks (free or slave) could ever be granted citizenship and the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. This verdict was one of the most controversial rulings in American history and is still considered an infamous mistake. This case escalated Northern and Southern tensions from dislike to hatred. The once undeniable dislike for each others opinions became unstoppable, irreparable and most definitely a cause of the Civil War.
War and Diplomacy:The Utah War (Buchanan’s Blunder, Mormon War, Mormon Rebellion) happened in 1857 and was a peaceful, nonviolent war. Buchanan disliked the Mormons and the outlandish activities they took part in. He disagreed with polygamy and their disregard for conventional American lifestyles. He prepared weapons and troops to take out the Mormon community. Very few lives were lost throughout the whole war because the Mormons agreed to a peaceful settlement. The Mormon population agreed to discontinue the activities that went against the Constitution and to begin abiding by U.S. laws and remove Mormon religion from the government.
Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)
American Identity and Culture:“American Identity” most definitely became two distinctive identities during this period: the Union Identity and the Confederate Identity. As people in the Union in the Northern states of America, the diversity of blacks and whites in society was accepted, People thought in a more moral and sensitive perspective on the slavery debate. They made arguments about the protection of intangible rights like liberty and freedom. The northern identity was one that embraced the radical changes happening in the United States. The Confederacy and Southern region thought in a more objective and financial-oriented perspective. They used the factual economic pros that come from using slaves as their defense for slavery. The cultures of both regions grew differently as well: one grew with the revolutionary changes while the other stayed grudgingly with the traditional ways of the U.S.
Economic Transformations and Globalization:In 1864 Abraham Lincoln initiated the National Banking Act to establish a stable U.S. currency, create more banks and rebuild the economy. The banks set up throughout America helped to correct the mistakes that originated in earlier years and to help support the Civil War when it happened. The banks were allowed to make loans that would fund supply purchases and transportation. In addition the banks could regulate state taxes during the war and purchase federal bonds. These banks allowed the economy to reassume its stability and strength in the United States.
Environment:Abraham Lincoln was a supporter of expansion within the U.S. through settlement in the new territories. It seemed that America had acquired millions of acres of land, and yet many people remained in the North and Southeast and Midwest. As a solution, Lincoln drew up the Homestead Act in1862. This act rewarded Americans willing to settle in the west with 160 acres of land, which the settlers would have to fertilize and cultivate for a minimum of five years. The Homestead Act was essential to get the West caught up with the rest of the American economic system. The Western land proved to be very valuable and for farming, agriculture, trading and manufacturing; the land was good and large cities began to develop in no time.
Politics and Citizenship:Abraham Lincoln was the most transformational president when defining citizenship in the United States. He forever changed the future of the U.S. through the 13th Amendment, which was added to the American Constitution in 1865. The 13th Amendment promised to protect all people in America. It promised that slavery or other “involuntary servitude” would not be allowed in the United States. The government would protect everyone, including free blacks and former slaves. This addition to the Constitution shows the progress and transformation that happened in America during president Lincoln’s term. People would finally have to accept the equality of everyone in the Union and accept that the definition of citizenship in the U.S. would forever diverse.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America:In 1862 Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Leading up to the Civil War, Southern states seceded and formed the Confederate States. The Northerners in the Union wanted to take drastic action to repair the Union and succeed in their goal of abolition. Throughout the slave debate during his presidency, Lincoln had to achieve equilibrium between the masses who wanted abolition and those who didn’t want to take that kind of action. The Emancipation Proclamation was the transitional event that showed Lincoln’s perspective on what ought to happen with the slave debates. It encouraged the abolitionists in the north and further complicated the Confederate vs. Union relationships. This event showed increased support for the Northern Republicans who had been urging abolition all along.
War and Diplomacy:The famous Civil War transpired during Abraham Lincoln’s term. The war initially began when the southern states seceded to create their own nation separate from the Union. Abraham Lincoln stayed neutral throughout the beginning of the war, insisting that his intentions were solely focused on reuniting the Union and the Confederacy. Many people in the Union supported this motive for war until people began to focus on the issue that caused the split in the first place. Eventually, the war became about allowing or prohibiting slavery and deciding how former slaves and free blacks would fit in American society. The Union victory happened because the Confederacy lacked supplies, soldiers and sank under Sherman’s March in 1865.
Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)
American Identity and Culture: Andrew Johnson was brought into office as Abraham Lincoln’s successor. Looking back on both of the presidencies, they seemed to represent opposite political stances. Andrew Johnson was labeled as a Republican candidate, however he defended Democratic ideals during his term. What was supposed to be the beginning of a new era where slavery was prohibited seemed to be a time of retrogressing progress. The culture of America was dominantly radical and satisfied with the revolution, anticipating the future until this period where ex-confederate masses were corrupting the positivity by subtly refusing the post-war adjustments.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: One of the Reconstruction policies introduced at the beginning of Andrew Johnsons presidency was that any Confederate state that owned more than 20,000 dollars in property was not allowed to vote or hold office upon reentering the Union. This measure was made to ensure that no radical Democratic would be able to immediately rejoin the politics of America and revert any progress. Although this was the policy, Andrew Johnson was Democratic-minded and pro-Union, so he took less strict measures with the Confederacy and allowed them to reenter the Union with their former rights when he thought they were being genuinely loyal. Many people despised Johnsons for acting in this way because they believed he was letting the Confederates off too easy after they destroyed the Union.
Environment: Geographically during this time, the United States was able to begin repairing the Union and bringing all Confederate states back into the Union. This period of uniting the regions was referred to the Reconstruction. The Confederate states had to agree to a reconstruction plan to be allowed to reenter the Union. The steps to reentering were supposed to assure that the states would be forever loyal to the Union; however, since Andrew Johnson was a sympathizer to the Southern Democrats, this reconstruction period proceeded much quicker than it should have. At the end of just 8 months, the United States was restored to its former unity.
Politics and Citizenship: The political strategies that Andrew Johnson used were very different to the systems that Abraham Lincoln introduced. It has been said that Lincoln realized Andrew was a Southern representative and that’s why he was chosen as the successor: to nurture the South with compromises as they adjust to the new America. The contrast in political perspectives between Johnson and his precedent were obvious when he vetoed many bills that were in support of the Republican Party. Johnson vetoed bills that sought equality, guidance and assistance to blacks as they transitioned from slavery to freedom. His refusal to address the blacks as citizens and help they fit into society made him a disapproving president according to the Republicans.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: Although the Democrats lost the war and thereby lost the right to slavery, it still existed in de facto. President Johnson executed the use of Black Codes, which recognized that slaves were free, but nothing truly changed. The Black Codes held that blacks had to acquire a working contract with someone to begin making money, blacks could not own or rent land and blacks could not testify against whites in court. Because of the Black Codes and the lack of support many blacks got, especially in the south, they had to turn to their former masters and begin sharecropping. Sharecropping was a system where the blacks got almost no benefit. They had to pay a loan to buy the small portion of land on the master’s property, and since they had no money, a loaner paid for it instead. The consequence was the destructive interest rate the loaner had. After paying the money to the master, they blacks could begin working on the land but were required to give the master an enormous portion of both the crops and the profits. Systems like sharecropping and laws like the Black Codes enraged the Northerners because the blacks were supposed to be free and treated like citizens. They should have been receiving support and guidance instead of manipulation.
War and Diplomacy:The Alaska Purchase in 1867 was one that had been anticipated by the Secretary of State at the time William H. Seward. Russia controlled the Alaskan territory before the Civil War and offered to let the United States buy the land. After the Civil War when America had settled down, the chase for Alaska started again. It took some time for the Senate to agree to the purchase because they were skeptical of what benefits, if any, the territory would bring. Despite not knowing much about Alaska, the purchase was made from the Russians in 1867. The territory was not made a state until President Eisenhower’s presidency, however after exploration in the land, gold and other riches were discovered.
Ulysess S. Grant (1869-1877)
American Identity and Culture: President Grant made a lot of social changes in America during his term. Through the use of his policies to protect the blacks, he created a new outlook on the way Americans should be; the way Americans should be treating each other and other races. Grant introduced a humanitarian air in the U.S, which reflected his own humanitarian values. He was a man of ALL the people and he worked to create pace and equality. The culture of America became one that had to struggle with becoming used to seeing blacks as equals in society. Some people were able to adapt very well to the new diverse culture, while others found the transition an obstacle to conquer.
Economic Transformations and Globalization:In 1873 the U.S. experienced another depression. The Panic of 1873 was caused by extensive borrowing and taking out loans to build the railroads running across America. The plan to build all the railroads never included banks becoming bankrupt and the stock market crashing. The idea had been that the railroads could only help the economy by making trade and transportation of materials and products in the U.S. more efficient. The result of over borrowing lead to bankruptcies. Without the bank system functioning properly, people could not take out money to buy whatever they needed and consumerism went down. The lack of purchasing led to a faltering stock market and eventually, the market crashed again causing investors to lose their money. Trying to fix the problem, the Treasury printed more paper money which only cause inflation and furthered the economic depression. With this new problem at hand, the government had to resort to the Resumption Specie Act of 1875, which allowed people to trade in the worthless paper for gold and silver hard money.
Environment:President Grant, unlike his precedent Johnson, was an extremely sympathetic president towards the black population. He realized that their lives were probably harder than they were with the whites discriminating against them. Almost fantasizing, Grant envisioned the island of Santo Domingo as a haven where blacks could be sent to escape discrimination and hatred. The vision was unrealistic, but showed Grant’s passion for protecting the blacks and achieving peace in the United States. When the idea was brought up in the Senate, it was rejected.
Politics and Citizenship:In 1875 President Ulysses Grant passed the Civil Rights Act, which said that no one could be publically abused due to his or her skin color or race and everyone had the same rights to the same opportunities regardless of race. Once again, Grant was attempting to provide security for the blacks in America being mistreated. Anyone who violated the policy would be sent to jail for 30 days or be forced to pay a fine. After the KKK attacks on innocent blacks, the humanitarian developed policies like this to ensure that no hate crimes or unnecessary violence would plague the United States.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America:In 1869 Congress passed the 15th Amendment and it was added to the U.S. Constitution as the last of the so-called “Reconstruction Amendments”. Expressing humanitarian values, the 15th amendment gave all free blacks the right to vote and denied any state the power to keep anyone from voting based on race or color. The Northerners who respected and encouraged diversity in the U.S. gratefully supported the passage of the amendment. The Southern fight to limit all possible rights of blacks was finally over, as they now received the same rights as everyone else. Although this became law, nothing stopped grudging whites from violent verbal discriminatory/racist actions.
War and Diplomacy:As a president, Grant was knowledgeable of military strategies and tactics. Before his run as president, he served as a Lieutenant in the Mexican-American War in 1846. Later he served in the Civil War making remarkable defeats against the Confederacy. He was recognized as a military champion before his presidency. During his term he showed his undeniable humanitarian side doing his best to protect the people with this defensive instincts. He was able to use the military as one of the first ways to integrate the races by encouraging blacks to serve in the military. He ensured that the American military would be respectful of differences and he used his military leadership to make an impression on that power source.
Rutherford Bichard Hayes (1877-1881)
American Identity and Culture: During Hayes administration the American culture focused solemnly on better working conditions and more rights for the workers. What the many American workers that were discontent with the working conditions did was go on strikes at their jobs. One of the biggest strikes in the labor or workforce was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. This strike rose after the employers of workers in railroads cut down wages in order to make up for the money that was lost in the crisis of 1873. People feared a riot but nothing really happened. The city of Pittsburgh did in fact blow up in riots, but President Hayes sent in military help to end the riots. American culture had much of their hope and belief on President Hayes and he was able to stop these riots without his militia purposely killing any of the rioters.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: Although Hayes was a supporter of the Reconstruction one of his first actions of his presidency was to put an end to Reconstruction and have the South rule once again. Hayes had two major problems to deal with in his presidency which were the coinage of silver and the use of gold once again as a form of currency. Currency became less valuable when the Coinage act of 1873 stopped the coinage of silver for amounts worth more than a dollar. Debtors could not pay their debts and the crisis increased. There was the idea that the government should coin silver to go around to two to four million dollars per month. Hayes believed that it was an act of dishonesty and that it would create inflation in the country’s currency so he vetoed the bill that would allow such coinage, but congress overrode his veto. United States notes were also a problem that Hayes slowly tackled. These notes were used to pay taxes and debts but could not be redeemed for gold.
Environment: Railroad riots were one of the issues that created a negative effect on the environment since the more serious riots ended in distorted railroads and burning companies. Indian territories were repopulated by Indians that were once sent away.
Politics and Citizenship: Rutherford disliked the idea of appointing party members being appointed to high political ranks as a reward for winning elections as Andrew Jackson had done during his presidency. Hayes, however, did appoint two associate justices to the Supreme Court.
Slavery and its Legacies: Slavery had been gone for seven years after the passing of the 15th amendment in 1770, but this was not enough time for the racial discrimination to end completely. During Hayes’ presidency Congress tried to pass an act that would repeal the Force Acts which had made it a crime to prevent someone from voting because of his race. Hayes Vetoed Congress’ attempt in order to keep a law that gave protection to African American voters. In one of his diaries he wrote that he wanted to help out African Americans and their rights because it was his task to put an end to the color line, which had been present since the creation of the country, even if it meant that his reputation would go down.
War and Diplomacy: Hayes was a president that did not like to have foreign affairs in far away countries, instead he focused on Latin American. He was involved in a Paraguayan war and he gave the land that was won to the Paraguayan’s. They decided to honor him by naming one of their cities, Villa Hayes. Both Hayes and the Mexican president decided that Mexicans would not be able to raise armies in the United States and that they would be in the lookout for bandits in the Mexican-American border. One of Hayes mayor diplomatic problems was dealing with China. An overflow of Chinese immigrants was the “reason” of blame that the United Sates inhabitants came up with for the depression of workers’ wages. Congress passed a Chinese Exclusion act but Hayes vetoed the bill.
James Abram Garfield (1881)
James Abram Garfield was shot and died a couple months after he took office.
Chester Alan Arthur (1881-1885)
American Identity and Culture: The people of the United States began to have a fear of Chester becoming a corrupt president and allowing all sorts of corrupt and shady organizations since they were aware that the contractors of a postal route were being paid too much for their services and the president allowed it. This was only one incident but the people also had trust in Arthur since he allowed for the making of new naval boats to protect the oceans around the United States, against attacks from other countries.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: The government was able to collect money from taxes due to the war as well as a failed attempt to provide a program for early retirement; the federal government was able to collect money totaling some one hundred and forty-five million dollars in revenue. Arthur was on his party’s side and he wanted to get rid of all excise taxes that were set on everything, but not remove the taxes on liquor. Arthur signed a bill that set up a tariff commission. Congress wanted to spend nineteen million dollars on internal improvements to reduce the surplus of money and even though Arthur was not against internal improvements for the country, the amount that of money that was going to be spent scared him and he vetoed the bill. It was unsuccessful because congress overrode the veto and in effect the surplus was reduced by nineteen million dollars
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Environment: During Chester’s term as president he passed the first federal immigration law which altered congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion act in order to stop the overflow of Chinese immigrants into the United States. This was done in order to lower the amount of people that were traveling to California during the rush where thousands of people from the dust bowl were traveling to California in search of gold and the hope of finding jobs. There were also many laws that discriminated the Chinese and they were forced to either live alone in America or travel back to where they had fled from.
Politics and Citizenship: Arthur was against the spoils system and when Pendleton Act was passed, which created the Civil Service Commission, Arthur was in favor. It was an act that federal government positions could only be held by those who did competitive written exams. These jobs were made harder to get and the spoils system did not work because the jobs were taken by educated people who were willing to go through the harsh application process instead of simply being chosen by the president because they were from the same party.
Slavery and its Legacies: Arthur, like many of the previous presidents, struggled with the decision on what to do with blacks in the south. Since they were now free the question was whether to let them vote or keep them slightly in “slavery” by not giving them the rights that they deserved. Congress took down the civil rights act of 1875. Arthur tried to stop them from doing so but his attempt failed. He did however get involved in a court ruling against an African American who was blamed for something he didn’t do simply because of his color.
War and Diplomacy: During Arthur’s presidency the secretary of state, James Blaine, led the diplomatic affairs of the United States with Latin America to new heights. He wanted to set up a conference to discuss the way in which trade would be run and to set an end to the War of the Pacific. The new secretary of state took Blaine’s spot and he decided that the United States would not interfere with the War of the pacific fearing that the nation might have been sucked into the war. Congress passed a bill that no one seemed to oppose. It was a bill that allowed for ports and the country’s waterways to regulate the amount of steamships that came into the country to stop the immigration of illegal immigrants. Arthur signed an immigration act which set a very high fifty cent tax per immigrant that would enter the United States. The same act prohibited people who were mentally ill or disabled to enter the country because they would not, “take care of themselves”. The Chinese were blamed for the drop of worker’s wages and congress tried to pass a bill that would exclude Chinese immigrants for twenty years but Arthur vetoed it.
Grover Cleveland (1885-1889)
American Identity and Culture: Grover Cleveland was a president that used his power to its full extent, especially when it came to veto bills. He did this for hundred of pension bills for war veterans who could no longer work. He did not have compassion and even vetoed pensions for people with disabilities that did not come from a military incident. There was a long drought in Texas and many of the crops there were damaged and some even were destroyed so a bill called the Texas Seed Bill would be passed in order to help the people and the farmers that were affected by the drought by giving them ten thousand dollars. Cleveland vetoed the bill because he believed that the money of the country should not be spent on relieving problems which were not directed to the public.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: Still a major problem in the United States was whether the type of currency to continue to be used throughout the years would be gold and silver or just gold. The parties of the south wanted to go back to the use of silver while northeastern parties wanted to keep a gold currency. Silver was worth more than gold so people who needed to pay their taxes paid them in silver while international debt was demanded in gold which would deplete the gold supply in the country. The Bland-Allison act was an act that had the amount of silver that was to be coined but Cleveland and the secretary of treasury tried to lower that amount. Another problem at the time of Cleveland’s administration was the protective tariff.
Environment: During Cleveland’s first term as president railroads were becoming a major source of transportation in the United States and this made the country have a better internal look that attracted tourists and immigrants. The Interstate Commerce act was an attempt to regulate the business of these railroads. Cleveland granted the investigation of lands on the west so that they would not surpass the agreed measures of the railroads that were agreed on. The Dawes act was also passed by Cleveland and it was a distribution of lands that used to be held by tribes and gave those lands to Native Americans in order to improve the way in which they lived. These lands backfired as non-Indians began to settle in these lands and more railroads were built.
Politics and Citizenship: Cleveland quickly went to work on his reforms as he could appoint people to government jobs by the spoils system but he believed that if the Republicans that were in office were doing a good job then they should not be fired in order to place new people from his own party. Cleveland use the power that he had to cut down the number of federal workers in office since there had been an overflow of these workers set previously by Chester. Cleveland vetoed numerous bills for pensions towards war veterans because he believed that the pension’s bureau had already made a decision of not giving pensions and congress should not try to take that decision away.
Slavery and its Legacies: Cleveland saw that reconstruction was something that had failed and he was reluctant in using his power to make the fifteenth amendment pass which would allow voting rights for African Americans. Frederick Douglas was an African American and Cleveland did nothing to remove him from his previous spot as recorder of deeds in Washington and once Frederick left his spot Cleveland replaced him with another African American.
War and Diplomacy: Cleveland did not believe in intervention into the affairs of other countries. He also opposed expanding the territory of the U.S. and imperialism. He was in favor of the Monroe Doctrine and stated that the United States would be involved in all of Latin America so that European and eastern countries would not want to interfere in the Americas. He wanted to keep good relationships with the southern countries of America as well as with Great Britain.
Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
American Identity and Culture: Harrison’s speech was a short one where he quickly stated what he was going to do in his presidency. The people of the United States believed in him and that he would increase education as well as religion. He also said that he would do whatever possible to help the southern states become more industrialized and with this effect would create a protective tariff in case they needed to import or export from or to other countries once they became industrialized.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: Ex president Cleveland had wanted to set lower tariffs on imported goods because of the surplus of money that had sprouted after the war. Harrison and his cabinet wanted to keep the tariffs high and they passed the Mckinley Tariff which would keep tariff rates high. Congress wanted to make the tariff easier and more affordable on the people so it allowed the president to reduce rates when other countries did the same thing with their rates on U.S. imported goods. The Mckinley tariff was not set on sugar and farmers that grew sugar were given a sum of money o two cents per pound of sugar from the government to support their business, called a subsidy.
Environment: The environment of the United States faced a great increase since during Harrison’s presidency many states were added into the Union. These states were the Dakotas, Washington, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. These new states used to be vast amounts of uninhabited lands which had to be populated. The government spent money to make deserted lands into habitable lands with homes, farms, factories and the necessary facilities of a city. The government became involved in these new states and helped the environment of the new western lands to become industrialized with roads and water ways.
Politics and Citizenship: Harrison was a president of decision and he took a lot of time in deciding who to appoint for political positions. Members of both of the political parties feared an overgrowth of trusts and monopolies and decided to pass the Sherman Antitrust act which provided a new use of the federal government’s power in decisions that would affect the country. Harrison wanted to place Indians into the society of the United States since they were still citizens but like African Americans, they had restrictions and not the same rights as whites did.
Slavery and its Legacies: Harrison believed in the education of young black kids because in order for them to become free they first had to be equal to the white children by becoming more educated. He wanted to end the issue of slavery and he even mentioned it in his presidential speech that a slow end to slavery and discrimination would happen in the country. His fight for blacks’ equality failed because not many people supported his ideas of educating them so that they could become equal to the white children.
War and Diplomacy: Expanding the naval effort to place military boats to keep watch on American trade routes helped the cause of the “new epoch” of trade as Harrison called it. This navy would protect shipping in the ocean. Harrison sent Frederick Douglas to the country of Haiti to try and set naval bases there but his attempt failed and he returned to the U.S. Canada and the United States had a small disagreement on the rights of fishing through the Aleutian Islands and the result of this disagreement was the seizing of Canadian ships by the American government. One of Harrison’s issues that he dealt with towards the end of his presidency was the annexation of the islands of Hawaii. The new government of Hawaii petitioned for its annexation and Harrison was interested in setting a naval base at Pearl Harbor and to have more influence on Hawaii by spreading the country.
Grover Cleveland(1893-1897)
American Identity and Culture: The American culture and identity was focused on the want for better working conditions and strikes in order to have these conditions improved. The end of silver coinage as well as damaged labor conditions created labor unrest on the working people of the United States. These workers began to make marches and strikes in order to have better working conditions demanding the government to make a change. A strike known as the Pullman Strike began because the workers were being paid low wages and had to work twelve hour days. After this strike, Eugene V. Debs became the leader or a railroad strike which paralyzed the commerce of the nation. Cleveland was forced to send military support to the places where strikes were creating the most trouble and although this action was applauded, the use of troops caused a tough attitude from workers towards Cleveland’s administration.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: A little after Cleveland came into office for the second term the economy dropped and he faced the Panic of 1893 which had a huge impact on the economy. The panic increased a little with the decrease of gold because of the free coinage of silver so Cleveland called congress to discuss these problems. The panic’s effects had led government to want to get rid of the free coinage of silver. The passing of a repeal of free silver coinage restored gold levels. Cleveland felt good because he had repealed the laws on silver previously set by Harrison and he decided to reverse the Mckinley Tax as well. Through Cleveland this tariff was changed to the Wilson-Gorman Tariff act which said revisions would be done on the tariff and maybe changed, especially tariffs on raw materials.
Environment: Although Cleveland did not do much to improve the environment he supported the Chinese exclusion act which would repel Chinese immigrants from overpopulating the country. He passed the Scott act which prevented former Chinese immigrants that had left back to China or simply left the U.S. from coming back into the country.
Politics and Citizenship: Cleveland was very optimistic and wanted to have a plan b for the country if anything ever happened where the country was left without a vice president or a vice president then the executive departments would be left to choose a successor for both president roles. This came to be the Presidential Succession act. The purpose of it was to have a replacement for the president roles.
Slavery and its Legacies: Cleveland did not have any major role in the civil rights movement but during his presidency there was one court case which revolutionized the issue of segregation and slavery in general. Plessy v. Ferguson was a case where a man name Plessy had both black and white genes, but his skin color was white. He sat on an all white train wagon but because he had part black he was sent to court where it was ruled that segregation was constitutional. As a result of segregation being constitutional the Jim crow laws which set up different facilities for whites and different facilities for blacks such as bathrooms, drinking fountains, libraries, schools etc.
War and Diplomacy: Leaving off on Harrison’s later problems Cleveland faced the issue of annexing the islands of Hawaii. At first Cleveland and Hawaii had the agreement that they would both have free trade and that the United States would set up a naval base in Pearl Harbor. The final decision was that the United States would still have connections with Hawaii and maintain its relations with the new Republic of Hawaii. Cleveland adopted a diplomatic approach that was similar to the Monroe Doctrine but it stated that the United States would interfere with any problem within the hemisphere. There was a disagreement between the border boundary of Venezuela and British Guiana and the United States intervened, this led to improved relations between the U.S. and the southern countries of America.
William Mckinley (1897-1901)
American Identity and Culture: As the war between Spain and the United States took a serious road the American people were being fed with over exaggerations of what was really going on in the war. The yellow press or “Yellow Journalism” printed exaggerated and false atrocities of the Spanish and the nations civilians were in favor of the war thinking that the U.S. was justified in going to war.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: As the country began to expand its influence over seas it was more evident that the nation could become a potential opponent of China economically. There was a fear that the Chinese empire was falling apart due to its many spheres of influence such as Russia, Japan, Great Britain, France, and Germany which could dominate trade and investment in each of their individual spheres. John Hay sent a request for an Open Door Policy where everyone would have the same privileges in China to trade. This was a diplomatic win because no one had said no to it.
Environment: The environment of the country was being expanded as wars were won and treaties were signed. The outbreak of the war and the fighting in the Philippines gave Mckinley the perfect excuse to finally annex Hawaii after many years of requests from their government. In 1900 the Hawaiian state became the fiftieth state of the United States. An addition of territories were made after the treaty of peace was signed on December. Puerto Rico and Guam were acquired by the United States and with a payment of twenty million dollars the Philippines came to be in control of the U.S. as well.
Politics and Citizenship: The U.S. went in to Cuba for four reason which were to put an end to the atrocities being committed by the Spanish, to protect the U.S. citizens that were living in Cuba, to end the danger of injury against the commercial and business aspect of the United States, and to have peace in the country from the disorders in Cuba.
Slavery and its Legacies: During the elections while Mckinley was still a candidate to the presidency, the African American population hoped for an improvement to their rights. Mckinley was strong on his view against lynching and most of the African Americans that had the right to vote supported him as well. Mckinley had a set priority which was to end sectionalism as soon as possible but they were disappointed in him because he could not do much about it. Blacks saw the war as a chance to prove themselves and to show the country and the president that they were patriotic and deserved the same rights that the whites had so many blacks joined the war as soldiers. There was little that Mckinley could had done to improve the equality of blacks.
War and Diplomacy: The war with Spain began because the United States was on the Cuban side and Spain had control of Cuba. The Spanish wanted to move the Cubans to concentration camps near the Spanish military bases. Mckinley wanted a peaceful attempt to end the war between the Cubans and the Spanish so the U.S. and Spain began to have negotiations but it was evident that the Spanish would not give up their hold on the Cuban island. Riots in Havana were reported and the USS Maine was sent to protect the lives of the Americans in danger. In October the Miane exploded and the event caused and up rise in the war. Mckinley stilled wanted to have his negotiations with Spain but Spain would not agree to anything so congress had the decision and declared war on Spain. There was a resolution passed called the Teller Amendment which stated that once the war was over and there was peace the Cuban people would be free of anything and would have their government because the United States had no intention of taking its political power.
Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
American Identity and Culture: Roosevelt came into the presidential spot and immediately took action on trusts. He was aggressive towards trust and ended many of them therefore he was given the nickname “trust buster”. He also took a stance against union workers that went on strikes and in 1902 he stopped the United Mine Workers who had gone on strike to try and receive higher pay and shorter working hours. Roosevelt was the first president to be seen driving a car and this would play an important role in what Americans now saw as a culture of driving everywhere in automobiles which would later on be mass produced. The meat inspection act and the Pure food and drug act helped Roosevelt gain the trust of the American People by allowing the truth behind corrupt food organizations to be shown to the public so that changes could be made for the better of the people. Americans felt safer because their foods were cleaner and healthier than before.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: The Sherman Antitrust act was set against monopolies and his square deal would be equal to all organizations and job companies. Roosevelt was against big monopolies and he was in favor of labor unions. Roosevelt set up the National Conservation Commission to keep the use of the nation’s natural resources low so they would not waste quickly which would in the long run save money because the U.S. would not have to rely on other countries for these natural resources.
Environment: Roosevelt was a man who loved to be outdoors and in the wilderness. During his presidency he used the Forest Reserve act many times in order to keep millions of acres of federal land as a national reserve that could not be able to be sold to any private interested people. The Newlands Reclamation Act provided money towards the sale of public land for irrigation purposes in the states on the west. Roosevelt was so interested in preserving the environment that he held a conference for the need for conservation and after the conference was over what followed was a National Conservation Commission.
Politics and Citizenship: The United States and Japan did not have a really good fellowship due to the many laws that had prevented Japanese as well as Chinese people from coming into the United States. Many of these laws had been placed in states such as California where it was required for Japanese and American children to be separated and Japanese children could not receive citizenship. In the constitution it states that anyone born in the United States has the right to citizenship but in Roosevelt’s era Asians, African Americans, and any other immigrant that came to the United States was discriminated and could not receive their citizenship.
Slavery and its Legacies: Slavery was long gone, but there was still a line between African Americans and whites. One of the incidents that took Roosevelt’s views on slavery the wrong way was the Brownsville incident which was in major part not true because when suspects were asked if they had anything to do with the incident they responded with a simple no. They were taken away their pensions for serving the military and it caused resentment towards the government and the president from the African American community.
War and Diplomacy: Roosevelt coined the phrase “speak softly but carry a big stick” which was his aggressive way of dealing with foreign policy. Roosevelt wanted to make the U.S. a world power and would negotiate with other countries, but if he had to he would use the “big stick” which was the U.S. military to settle and disagreements or disputes. The revolt in Panama was aided by the U.S. and what was given as a result of its aid was control of the Panama Canal which Roosevelt had been eager about constructing since it would give the country new waterways for trading to foreign countries. The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine stated that the United States would not let European countries interfere in Latin American countries and the United States would interfere instead. What happened as a result long-term effect were poor U.S. relations with Latin America.
William Howard Taft (1909-1913)
Progressive Era
American Identity and Culture: The Progressive Era was defined by a focus on internal improvement. A factor promoting this period was the rise of muckrakers, who were the eyes of the public looking into the realities of politics, factory conditions and the lowest lows of American lifestyles. Newspapers, magazines and books revealed the truth of the corruption in America through the use of scandalous expose articles, investigative headliners and bearing photos of the issues in the United States. When people became aware about all the scandals and cover-ups in politics and large industries, the demand for change became unavoidable. The Progressive Era became about correcting the type of issues revealed by the muckrakers as to create a better America for the citizens. Reforms of the government system, working conditions, powers of industrial corporations, and the city slums classified the changes brought by this era.
Economic Transformation and Globalization: Continuing progressive policies, Taft supported an increase in the amount of Trust Busting done in America. One of the more known cases of trust busting during his term was against the US Steel Company. This specific case brought about some controversy because the preceding president, Theodore Roosevelt, approved the trust and its merger. When President Taft proceeded to declare the US Steel Company a “bad trust”, Theodore Roosevelt took the doing as a personal attack. President Taft ordered the pursuit of bad trusts almost twice the amount that Theodore Roosevelt did. The principle of identifying good and bad trusts was essential to the progressive era, and it was successful in maintaining a stable U.S. economy and work on the protection of the company employees who might otherwise be exploited.
Environment: This time period was largely seen as a continuation of the progressive reforms instituted in the previous presidency. A main principle valued throughout all the progressive presidencies was an attention paid to national conservation. A few of Taft’s conservationist reforms implemented during this period were the creation of the Bureau of Mines, the additions of the Appalachians to national forest reserves and the reservation of federal oil lands. Despite his contributions to conservation, the Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy convinced many progressive supporters that Taft was betraying the progressive cause. Progressives supported the chief of Forest Conservation at the time, Gifford Pinchot, and highly distrusted Taft’s Secretary of the Interior, Richard Ballinger. The distrust stemmed from when Ballinger opened public lands in Alaska to use for private developments. For that reason, conservationist Gifford Pinchot criticized Ballinger, and was fired by Taft for insubordination. The resulting impression was that Taft had no interest in conservation and correcting the wrongs done by Ballinger in Alaska.
Politics and Citizenship: The Sixteenth Amendment was ratified in 1913 and it gave the right for the federal government of the United States to collect an income tax. At the beginning of his term, Taft made efforts to reform the tariff policies in America without much success. The president lost interest in enthusiastically supporting the tariff revisions and understood that an alternative form of steady federal revenue would be necessary to replace any negative changes implemented on the tariff policies. The income tax started out as a patriotic responsibility that didn’t cause a lot of hardship for the Americans. Eventually as the tax grew throughout the years, the income tax became a burden to the people and the principle form of federal revenue for the government.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: At this point in time, the black population in America was fighting for integration and equality economically, socially and politically. Many civil rights organizations were developed during the progressive era aiming to end racial discrimination. W.E.B. Du Bois was one of the most known civil rights activists. In 1905 he organized the Niagara Movement where black intellectuals met in Canada to protest and take action concerning equal rights. In 1908 Du Boise and members of the Niagara Movement founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which had goals of ending all segregation and racial discrimination. The NAACP continued to recruit members and became the largest civil rights organization by 1920.
War and Diplomacy: President Taft used a foreign policy called the Dollar Diplomacy during his term as president. Unlike diplomacies before his presidency, Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy focused less on aggressive expansionism, and stressed the trading enterprises and investments abroad. This foreign policy took interest in investment opportunities with China and Nicaragua. The interest in China was centered on expanding America’s commercial trade with that prosperous country. In Nicaragua, the Americans supported their rebellion through this foreign policy, as a means of establishing control of the National Bank, Customs Service and national railroads in that country. Taft’s approach to expansionism and imperialism was a lot less focused on aggressive conquering of physical land. The essence of the Dollar Diplomacy was an expansion of American business through diplomatic deals rather than armed offenses.
Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
Progressive Era
American Identity and Culture: President Wilson was another progressive president who focused on a lot of reform among the industries and work force. He instituted the Clayton Antitrust Act, which strengthened the initial provisions made in the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Wilson administration was successful in the continuation of breaking up harmfully powerful monopolies in America. Through his reforms, Woodrow Wilson created an American culture that was centered on making the United States more efficient in its industrial aspect. People tended to focus on ways the industry and corporation systems could be altered to better benefit the workers of America. It became a very important principle during this time to secure the rights and liberties of the people as workers. At this time, the culture of America centralized on the business, ad not on the luxuries. In addition, this time is also known for the enormous war: World War I. This event transformed the American culture and identity into one that was unconditionally supportive and patriotic of American diplomatic and domestic affairs.
Economic Transformation and Globalization: During his campaign, Woodrow Wilson had promised that the tariffs would be lowered to bring down consumer prices. Tariff reduction became the first priority he would tackle during his presidency. His first day on the job, he held a meeting with Congress to discuss the tariff reduction. In his success with the Underwood Tariff (1913), which significantly lowered tariffs, Wilson included a bill increasing the income tax rate to maintain federal revenue in the absence of high tariffs. Banking reform was another issue Wilson tackled right away. He felt that the banks in America were favoring the interests of the Wall Street investors than the common citizen by using the inflexible gold standard. In 1913, Wilson offered the solution of a national banking system with 12 district banks all overseen by the Federal Reserve Board, and in 1914 Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act.
Environment: Wilson sent marine troops into many Central American and Caribbean countries to support them financially and politically through a more direct approach. Throughout his term he sent marines into Nicaragua, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Although this type of aggressive intervention went against the principles of his diplomacy, he insisted that intervention was necessary to ensure the protection of the stability in the regions. This type of sustenance using marines caused many military disputes between the Central American countries and the Caribbean countries; however, many were resolved through mediation and did not require military violence.
Politics and Citizenship: Part of President Wilson’s New Freedom take on diplomacy was taking moral approaches to foreign affairs. This type of politics was called Moral Diplomacy and it focused on correcting the consequences of previous aggressions with foreign nations. This diplomacy aimed to show respect, support and protection to growing democracies. In 1916, Wilson passed the Jones Act in regard to the Philippines; the act bestowed them with full territorial status, a bill of rights, universal male suffrage for Filipino citizens and promised independence after a stable government system was demonstrated. In Puerto Rico, everyone was granted U.S. citizenship and awarded with a limited self-government. The principles of moral diplomacy kept that the goal for foreign nations was establishing a functioning democratic system, and the means for achieving that goal were ones of diplomatic nonaggression. In an effort to establish more equality between other nations and the United States, Congress repealed U.S. exemption to the standard canal toll tax when traveling through the Panama Canal. In addition, Wilson and supporter of Moral Diplomacy, William Jennings Bryan began a system of negotiation treaties where nations promised to find the aid of international commissions to solve disputes, and participate in a year long “cooling-off” period before involving the military.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: This period, also part of the Progressive Era, was dominated by a desire for equality and integration between America’s diverse populations. Aside from W.E.B. Du Bois’ contributions to solving the struggles of black Americans, there was Booker T. Washington. Washington was born into slavery in the South; therefore, his philosophy was one based on patience and learning. He advocated that the first need to be met for the African American population was progress in education and economic opportunity. He encouraged that in order to achieve equality in these areas, a concentration on learning industrial skills was essential. He strongly believed that economic equality would lead to political and social equality. He gave a speech enlightening the masses about his views in 1895 called the Atlanta Exposition speech, and his teachings became very popular throughout the progressive era, abundant with changes.
War and Diplomacy: President Wilson was in office during the beginning of World War I and throughout its unfolding. At first, the policy of America had been isolationism and non-interventionism; the United States had no interest in getting tied up with European problems. However, countries involved, like the central power Germany, enticed the United States to get involved. The tensions began with unrestricted submarine warfare, which put Americans travelers and sailors abroad at risk. The sinking of the British passenger liner, the Lusitania, killed 128 American passengers. The German submarine warfare went through phases of terminating and reinitiating depending on the military strategy of the Germans. Tensions heightened with the Zimmerman Telegram incident, which revealed German intentions of getting Mexico involved in the war as a means of getting the United States involved. In addition to the growing hatred for the Germans, the American neutrality policies were being modified in small ways to support the British and the other Allied countries, like amplified trading and intensified lending. British propaganda flowed to America as well, influencing the United States to support them. In the end, policies of neutrality were lost and the United States joined the war effort with the Allies.
Warren G. Harding (1921- 1923)
American Identity and Culture: President Harding began his term in office at the beginning of America’s business boom; later labeling the period “The Roaring Twenties”. In addition to increased manufacturing output, economic prosperity was also caused by the new sources of energy that were being utilized, for example, industries began to use more oil and electricity, and eventually these fuels were made available to the common American citizen. The overall increase in production created an environment of wealth and affluence. People were able to spend more money on luxury, comfort items with the use of credit cards; money became easily available to most Americans. The masses began to spend money on buying automobiles for their families and teenagers, which spread the essence of freedom throughout the households of America. Teens and women who normally would not have the freedom to travel within the city now possessed that ability. There was a shared sentiment of positivity, freedom and independence in America beginning with the early twenties and President Harding’s term. The middle class American could also send money on cultural leisure; going to the theater to watch a play or se a film, going to a fancy party with other affluent people, buying into the entertainment businesses music, models, advertisement, Hollywood films and literature. For the first time, people in America were pending their money on things they wanted to satisfy their material desires.
Economic Transformation and Globalization: President Harding’s domestic policy consisted of overseeing financial revisions including a reduced income tax and increased tariff rates. In order to decrease the income tax, a measure many Americans were grateful of, Harding had to increase the tariff rates to ensure consistent federal revenue was maintained. As a result, the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act 1922 was passed to increase the tariffs. The economic transformations of this time were meant to keep the economy prosperous with very little intervention. The increased tariff rates meant that Americans would be buying more American made products, further supporting the economy.
Environment: The environmental incident that president Harding is remembered for was the infamous Teapot Dome scandal. The Secretary of the Interior leased public oil lands to private business personnel in exchange for illegal bribes and personal loans. To the rest of America, this disgrace came as a representation of what President Harding and his administration stood for concerning the environment: they didn’t view it as something to be conserved or protected.
Politics and Citizenship: Part of President Harding’s domestic policy was to establish the Bureau of the Budget. This bureau was created to help congress oversee a single budget, which included all the individual budgets, and decide if it needed to be revised. In addition, this period was marked by the revival of experimentation with Prohibition. In 1919 the 18th Amendment that outlawed the manufacturing and vending of alcoholic beverages was ratified. The Amendment and officials said to be enforcing the law did not bring an end to alcoholic consumption. People went to “speakeasies”, which were bars and clubs where “bootleg” beer and other alcoholic beverages were sold. Many Americans saw the thrill in going against the law, and it became a commendable deed to disobey the law. Organized crime in the United States increased because gangsters, mobsters and other rebels tried getting their alcohol illegally. The politics of the Amendment were blurry because of the staggering amount of disagreement. People of every party had a hard time deciding whether or not they agreed with the Amendment and whether it was actually benefitting the United States. It was a big political issue during President Harding’s term as president, and continued to cause domestic tensions until 1933.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: The African American population of America during this cultural age also found beneficial changes to their own lifestyles. It was clear through the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance that the white Americans were not the only race to experience constructive transformations. The Jazz Age was the trademark of the growth in African American culture. African roots influenced jazz music, and it became symbolic of the new and modern times. Although the music was of African descent, a majority of the American population found its beat and message delightful. Aldo along with African American cultural prosperity was the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance consisted of talent in poetry, music, art and performance. A lot of the famous artists and poets of the time focused their subjects and messages on their heritage and customs as African Americans. They were able to express their individual takes on the changes they and their ancestors had experienced in Africa and upon arriving in America. The art, literature, music and performance of the time ranged in the stories they told and the emotions they evoked to the audience. The Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance were significant times for the African American population to express their outlook on African American past.
War and Diplomacy: The Knox-Porter Resolution of 1921 was what officially ended the United States’ participation in World War One. Although the war ended with the Treaty of Versailles, some of the conditions in the treaty did not sit well with the American government. Many people disagreed with joining the League of Nations, which was established from the Treaty of Versailles. President Harding publically stated his opposition to the League; making the US’s lack of participation official. Because the United States was never legitimately involved in a treaty stating the end to their involvement in war, the Know-Porter Resolution was made to formally declare the status of America as no longer engaged in war.
Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)
American Identity and Culture: The second half of the Roaring Twenties brought up some of the issues created by the excessive spending and changes in family order. Americans began to purchase new appliances like washing machines, vacuums, refrigerators and cars, which were all being mass-produced and sold in department and chain stores. Much of America could afford such products, and the competition to have the newest, most efficient appliance began among American households. The same competition also was common among the many chains of department stores; all of them competing for the lowest price to reel in the most costumers. Another problem emerging throughout the later half of the twenties was the alteration of women’s view on morals. The new appliances helped women complete their domestic responsibilities in less time, which allowed them to take advantage of their extra freedom. The identity of the typical American woman began to transform from the stay-home mom preoccupied with domestic duties, to a woman concerned with materialistic desires. Flapper styles became popular; women and young girls became infatuated with fashion, style, models and movie stars. This revolutionary change in female outlook created tensions within America between people who embraced the new era, and the conservatives who preferred the less radical traditions. Lastly, divorce in America was a controversial consequence of women’s freedom and independence.
Economic Transformation and Globalization: The thriving economy enticed the government to take a less involved approach to business. The role of the government in economics changed because the political economic leaders feared any unnecessary intervention or interference would harm the booming success streak they were experiencing. As a result of nonchalant distancing from industry, the large corporations were able to revert back into creating the damaging trusts and monopolies that the progressive era worked so hard to eliminate. Manufacturing corporations began to practice the “open shop” system where employment was offered to workers who were not part of unions and as a result, union membership declined significantly. Industries began practicing their own welfare where workers were promised specific benefits and higher wages, which were another, factor encouraging union rupture. Another profound economic issue of the time was in the farming country. Without the wartime demand of agricultural products in occupied war countries, and wartime policy, which assured a minimum charge for crops, the farm economy was destroyed. Even with the expensive, new technology enhancing the efficiency and productivity of farmers, the surplus it created put the prices of the goods extremely low, creating no form of benefit.
Environment: Metropolitan centers began to make appearances in all every state. New York and Chicago were two of the more renowned metropolitan centers that attracted many Americans. The migration to the busy urban towns became very popular because people wanted to be connected to the modernizations and advancements being made in the trendy inner-city districts. The environment of this period was affected by the growth of new technology and sources of energy that were being made more readily available to Americans. Industries were switching from coal power to electric power; this innovation of electric energy was distributed to individual households. The changes in energy had consequences on the environment that were not exactly identifiable at the time, but are issues we still deal with today. A well-known environmental crisis of the time was the Great Mississippi Flood in 1927. The natural disaster was a shock Americans weren’t typically used to dealing with, and President Coolidge never took significant care in making recovery arrangements for the distraught Mississippi environment.
Politics and Citizenship: Immigration slowed during the years of the First World War; however, the immigration rates of the United States increased significantly after the war. Quota laws created by Congress throughout Calvin Coolidge’s presidency aimed to limit the amount of immigrants the United States received. The initial immigration policy was one of unlimited immigration to all people of the world capable of immigrating. In 1921, a quota act limited immigration to 3 percent of natives from a given foreign country. Congress wanted to intentionally differentiate the immigrant limit from Southern and Eastern European countries; therefore, in 1924 another quota act was passed limiting immigration to 2 percent. In 1927 another quota act limited the total amount of Asian immigrants to 150,000 and specifically singled out Japan to allow absolutely no Japanese immigrants into the United States. Latin Americans and Canadians were excused from any immigrant restrictions, most likely because of their convenient geographical location on the borders of the United States. The policies constraining immigration were the consequence of the emergence of political support for isolationism and conservatives fearing that immigrants would introduce revolutions and rebellions to the American citizens.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) experienced regeneration during the late 1920’s and expanded their resentment and aggression toward Blacks, Jews, Catholics, suspected Communists and foreigners. By 1925, they had recruited 5 million members, and their “movement” increased in popularity throughout the South and the Midwest in small, intimate and highly critical towns and cities. The Klan employed tactics that were similar to the ones they used in the earlier days of its establishment. Their trademark intimidating appearance with the white hoods and burning crosses was still their main approach for terrorizing and instigating fear. The KKK came off as an organization promoting pure morality in America; however before its decline, the corruption, racism and discrimination the Klan really stood for was revealed.
War and Diplomacy: Although the First World War had long been over, some of its consequences continued to haunt the United States during this period. Although the economy had repaired itself significantly through the war spending and trading, exclusive measures were taken to ensure the war veterans could find their place in the changed American economy. The World War Adjusted Compensation Act was established to give military veterans of World War One benefits while they adjusted to normalcy in the US. Wanting to keep the peace and stay out of foreign trouble, Coolidge created the Washington Naval Treaty, which limited the amount of naval armaments of the five nations signed in the Act. The United States refused to recognize the Soviet Union after World War I. In addition, the US was busy handling Mexico as it stabilized its elected government. In other foreign nations like Haiti and Nicaragua, no changes were made regarding the troops occupied there, while they were removed from the Dominican Republic in 1924.
Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)
American Identity and Culture: The 1930’s became an era defined by the Great Depression. The culture of America during this period of time experienced a very drastic change from the culture developed during the Roaring Twenties. Hoover’s term lasted from the beginning of the Depression to its lowest descent into economic failure; at the end of his term, unemployment in America peaked at 25 percent. The prosperity, joy and contentment Americans became accustomed to was replaced with emotional depression, unhappiness and an adherence to hope. Artists, musicians and novelists released material that depicted the fear and misery the economic depression brought to Americans, and left them in a hopeful sentiment for the future. Films and Nickelodeons were featured in theaters in an effort to keep the publics spirits bright. The Great Depression dictated American Identity and culture during this period.
Economic Transformation and Globalization: Herbert Hoover’s policy during his term was one of “isolationism”. He believed the United States would fare better if they didn’t commit to a certain country. The American people of the time also agreed, not wanting to get involved with military conflicts. Normally, the United Sates would use their prosperous economy to acquire trade allies, and to create new trade markets and investments. With the policy of isolationism, the power of the United States economy was limited, and instead, the US relied on peace conferences and treaties to solve disputes and become on neutral terms with all the countries. The suffering economy was viewed as a weakness to the administration and the American people; it was believed that the United States would not be able to maintain itself in the event of military warfare. In addition, people preferred focusing their time and energy on mending the substantial internal issues they were experiencing.
Environment: President Hoover went on a good will tour of Latin America in 1929 to enact friendly relations between the United States and those Latin American countries. Beginning his nonintervention ideals, Hoover began to draft treaties between the U.S. and Haiti and Nicaragua. Hoover also arranged for the troops in Haiti and Nicaragua to be removed by 1934. His agreements with countries overseas contributed to the isolationist policies of his presidency. Another environmental event that took place during Hoover’s term was the construction of the Hoover Dam between 1931 and 1936. The dam was built to prevent floods from the Colorado River and serve as an irrigation system and produce hydroelectric power at the same time. Initially the dam was named the Boulder Dam, but the name was changed to Hoover Dam, crediting its establishment to Herbert Hoover, who was its number one supporter.
Politics and Citizenship: Herbert Hoover’s policies for responding to the Great Depression were very unsuccessful. Initially, Hoover signed into law the Hawley-Smoot tariff in 1930. The idea was that by making tariffs on imported goods much higher, the tendency for Americans to buy American products would increase because foreign prices would be exceptionally high and the American industries could be effectively stimulated. In the end, the tariff was only successful in spreading the economic depression until it escalated into a global economic crisis. Countries in Europe and around the world decided to retaliate and raise their tariffs, which unintentionally destroyed their own economies while furthering the damage in the United States. After this event, Hoover focused on the problem of the crisis in America, and he eventually decided that the economy was capable of self-correcting the situation without the intervention of government help. Many people were outraged that Hoover did nothing to help with the recovery across the states.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: During the lows of the Great Depression, otherwise middle class white families were thrust into the slums of America where they began to really understand the living status of the poor blacks. The Depression did not really affect the poor black population because they were already at the bottom of the economic chain. As more and more whites found themselves in the same situation the poor blacks had experienced their whole lives, a new realization of the economic-racial divide was reached. Despite the whites and blacks being forced to live in the same Hooverville communities, the whites refused to accept the fact that both races were equal: equal in economic status and in domestic status.
War and Diplomacy: After World War One, the League of Nations was created as an assembly of world power diplomats to try and maintain world peace. Japan, China, Great Britain, France and many other powers participated in the League; it was beginning to represent a promise of peace if aggression ever took place. In 1931, Japan defied the Open-Door-Policy, which was established in 1890’s to give many different countries (Russia, Japan, Great Britain, France and Germany) a section of trade, or “sphere of influence”; they could dominate without actually dominating China. In 1931, Japan took over the Chinese territory of Manchuria and renamed in Manchukuo. They established a weak form of government there where the Chinese were given no power as subordinates to the Japanese. The League of Nations’ reaction was one of very little intervention: they simply condemned Japan and sent its delegates out of the League. Their lame retaliation made them out to be powerless and the League would never be trusted in the same way. Staying true to their policy of isolationism, the United States recalled the Nine-Power Treaty of 1922, and added the Stimson Doctrine, both of which stated that governments established through force (Manchukuo) would not be recognized as valid authority.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)
American Identity and Culture: World War Two brought many changes to American society. At the beginning of its outbreak and the United States’ entrance on the side of the Allies, Americans were put to work in factories and large industries working on producing war artillery and machines. The Office of Price Administration determined prices for food, material items, wages, rents and rationing. Rationing specifically was a significant part of American life because essentials like meat, rubber, gas and sugar had to be conserved for the military’s use for the duration of the war. Mexicans in America joined the force at home, and on the battlefield. Native Americans left their reservations to help in factories and do industrial work. Because of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were sent out of their West Coast homes into internment camps. Like with the Red Scare in the earlier decades, the Japanese Americans were thought to be secretly allying with their homeland’s government as terrorists and invaders. Women in America served in the military and took up the jobs left by the men fighting in the War. The Government used propaganda through many media outlets including radio, music, movies, public advertisements and advertisement in newspapers and magazines. The propaganda sent out across the United States helped Americans stay positive and patriotic about being involved in such an intense war.
Economic Transformation and Globalization: London Economic Conference 1933 was an economic conference that the previous president had agreed to participate in. The international conference was supported by the president and his administration until they recognized the threat it had on the US economic recovery. As a result, the United States withdrew from the conference before a settlement could be reached. Unlike previous president, Roosevelt realized the significance of relations with the Soviet Union. He understood that trade with that massive country would benefit the United States and strengthen the economy; therefore, he declared US recognition of the Soviet Union in 1933. Roosevelt set up an economic system that supported and welcomed international trade. As a result, he recognized the necessity of reducing tariffs, and imposed a 50 percent tariff reduction. A final measure taken to increase US economic efficiency of was giving independence to the Philippines. Roosevelt decided that the benefits gained from terminating US governing of the Philippines outweighed the benefits of controlling it.
Environment: The United States took special care in creating good relations with the Latin American countries. In 1933 at a Pan-American Conference in Uruguay, the United States made a promise to never interfere with Latin American affairs. Roosevelt traveled to Argentina in 1936 to attend another Pan-American Conference. This conference established the alliance FDR wanted between the United States and Latin America, ensuring their support. In 1934, President Roosevelt had the Platt Amendment nullified. This meant that the only right the US had in Cuba was to maintain its Guantanamo Bay naval base. The policy of being a good neighbor even extended to Mexico when they claimed American oil properties. Instead of aggressive and unfriendly retaliation, President Roosevelt suggested the oil companies arrive at a peaceful, diplomatic settlement.
Politics and Citizenship: President Roosevelt instituted the Good-Neighbor Policy during his term. His goal was to improve relations with the neighboring countries in Latin America. He employed noninterventionist ideals to create friendly, promising relationships with the Latin American countries. This type of policy didn’t have many economic consequences because the dollar diplomacy strategy was no longer being utilized due to the Depression. The United States didn’t have the money to continue any investments abroad while it was trying to recover internally. Another motive for being a “good neighbor” and remaining more noninterventionist was to ensure that the lain American countries would be more influenced to supporting America and the West in any future conflicts. President FDR realized that the growth of German and Italian fascist regimes could potentially lead to warfare, and he wanted to ensure having Latin American support.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: As some African American citizens moved north to support the war effort through industrial means, others left their families to fight on the battlefield. In both atmospheres, the African Americans experienced discrimination and racism. Despite their desire to show their patriotism and American passion, they were still being segregated. The blacks began fighting for an additional purpose they called “double V”, which stood for victories against the dictatorship regimes in Europe and victories against racism/segregation/inequality in the United States. The Congress of Racial Equality was established in 1942 and membership in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People increased. It was difficult for the African Americans to show their full support for the United States, the war and democracy when they had to fight their own communities and military units for equality and respect. One of their more prominent victories in their strive for equality was the Smith vs. Allwright case, which won blacks protection to membership in political parties to ensure their vote in primaries.
War and Diplomacy: The war policy of the United States at this time was one of neutrality. Isolationist Americans were extremely opposed to getting pulled into a violent and massive world war. During the age of neutrality, the United States demonstrated their biased support to the Allied Powers, especially Great Britain. The destroyers-for-bases deal, “cash and carry arrangement”, lend-lease act and the Atlantic Charter were shifts in the neutrality policy that favored Great Britain. During 1940 and 1941 the United States experienced an age of significant tensions with Japan. After the infraction of the Open Door Policy and factions over oil policies, the incentive for confrontations with the military increased. The tipping point that served as an excuse for entering the war was the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. The surprise attack was made on December 7, 1941. The bomb killed 2,400 Americans and caused tremendous damage to American warships and airplanes. With that devastation, President Roosevelt declared war on Japan and thrust them into the Second World War. In effect, the Germans and Italians declared war on the Americans, and the United States became the third ally on the Allied Powers.
Harry S. Truman (1945-1953)
American Identity and Culture: This was a very confusing time for many Americans. There was indecision about whether engaging in war with the Koreans, Chinese and Russians should even have been and option. Some Americans clung to the principles of isolationism and non-interventionism while others saw the importance of getting involved. Once the war began, there was no turning back. Americans showed their patriotism for this war just like for any other, but the difference was the Cold War was a fight for more than just America: it was a fight for democracy in the US, around the world and the values established under democracy. The Americans faced the Second Red Scare during this period fearing a communism conspiracy in the United States. The Loyalty Review Board was created to conduct background investigations of federal workers. The Smith Act of 1940 was put into effect considerably during this time. The Act made it illegal for people to make outbursts that advocated for the overthrow of the government. Other security measures were made to check the federal agents in the government and also common citizens, to get peace of mind about their loyalty to the democratic government; for example, the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950 and the House of Un-American Activities Committee.
Economic Transformation and Globalization: The Marshall Plan of 1947 was the United States’ policy for economic recovery in Europe and method of strengthening the democracies on that continent. The United States realized the devastation that warfare and depression had caused Europe, and it became a fear that their struggles would lead the regimes to succumb to communist influences. The four-year European Recovery Plan, as it was also known, distributed 12 million dollars of aid to the Western countries in Europe. The aid was proposed to the Eastern European countries as well like the Soviet Union ant the eastern satellites; however, they feared taking the offer would put them in debt to the United States later. The consequences of the Marshall Plan were extremely successful: the western countries were able to regain their self-sustainability and the threat of communist influence was eliminated, while also benefiting the United States through increased trade and enterprising to Europe. The lack of Eastern Europe’s participation in the recovery made the tensions and divisions deeper between democratic West and communist East.
Environment: The Cold War created a regional division between the Western democracies and Eastern communists. The Soviet Berlin Blockade cut through Germany and was the Soviets attempt to block off all outside supplies and trade from Berlin. The United States retaliated with the Berlin Airlift, which dropped care packages into the blocked region by the US air force. The division created by the Cold War shows the way Soviet communists were able to conquer a majority of Eastern Europe. The strategies of the democratic governments and the ones taken over by communism were similar in that they tried attacking and influencing the government of countries around that region. In the end, the geography of the war was the East versus the West: Eastern communists like Russia and Asia versus Western Democracies like the United States, Great Britain and France.
Politics and Citizenship: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established in 1949. The Western European countries, the United States and Canada created this military alliance that agreed to protect each other from attacks made by anyone not included in the alliance. In retaliation, the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries created the Warsaw Pact in 1955, which was an alliance that protected communism in the East. Many of the domestic and foreign policies that Truman created were meant to contain the spread of communism. The United States made it its political and democratic duty to protect weak countries from being sucked into communism. The National Security Act of 1947 created a Department of Defense where all the operations of war were overseen and organized. It also established the National Security Council, which determined the foreign policy during the war, and lastly, it created the CIA to use espionage to obtain information from foreign governments.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: Truman believed in creating equality for African Americans in every aspect of their lives. He was a supporter of black civil rights and had various plans to help him achieve his goal of ending discrimination and segregation. He desegregated the military and as a result, black and white Americans served in the same units with the same treatment. He also created equality in jobs of civil service (which are jobs involved with the government not including the military) and he also created the Committee on Government Contract Compliance (CGCC). This committee was responsible for ensuring that any business tied to the federal government follow the laws and comply with nondiscrimination.
War and Diplomacy: Harry S. Truman’s most renowned war incident was his decision about the American atomic bomb. Truman’s presidency followed Franklin Roosevelt and his war torn term. The issues that were created during and as a result of World War Two continued to intensify tensions during Truman’s presidency. Truman took office having to make a decision about how the United States was going to utilize the atomic bomb that was created during the war. The president’s decision to drop the bomb in Japan was a significant and shocking sign to the rest of the world about the United States’ power. Two atomic bombs were dropped in Japan: one in Hiroshima and one in Nagasaki, and both of them demonstrated the astonishing energy of atomic weapons when it completely obliterated the cities. In addition, Truman was president through the fight against communism during the Cold War. The Truman Doctrine established the United States as a protector of democracy and all the democratic countries fighting communist threats.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)
American Identity and Culture: President Eisenhower was in office during the 50’s decade. During this period, the media and technology were increasingly used among Americans because they were put at such easy access for common citizens to utilize. There were TV’s in almost every household in the United States during the 1950’s, and it became a centralizing factor for family interaction. The amount of TV channels that were available, the type of programming broadened, and people began to question the impact of certain TV shows on American youth. Advertisement utilized all forms of the media to promote consumerism. Despite the hypnotizing effects of the TV, Americans were still in tune with literature and obtaining awareness through the newspaper. The music industry also experienced changes during the 1950’s and the musical culture was dominated by rock and roll with massive pop stars like Elvis Presley. In addition, Eisenhower was president through the introduction of the 1960’s decade, which was dictated by “flower children”, jeans, long hair, peace signs, drugs and “hippies”.
Economic Transformation and Globalization: The Vietnam War the United States had put so much time, energy and resources in fighting, consequentially hindered the economy. The excessive spending on funds used for weaponry, training, supplies and soldiers cost the United States economic stability. American industries normally dominating the economy were experiencing imbalances and hardships competing with other industries. The American population’s standard of living began to decline with the economic slump, and poverty hit many citizens. The hardships they encountered in no way compared to the ones experienced during the Great Depression; however, they did impact the Americans and their lifestyles. Because the US spent so much money in aid to foreign countries, the value of the dollar under the Bretton Woods System decreased.
Environment: In 1956, the Highway Act was passed by Congress, which permitted 42000 miles of highway interstate to be built across America. The Interstate Highway System implemented by the United States became the exemplary system setting the standard for the rest of the world. The United States saw the construction as an investment for better, more efficient transportation, communication and protection. The Highways created physical unity between all of America’s major cities, and it also boosted the sentiment of unity and protection. People felt safer knowing there was an evacuation route they could rush to incase of a national emergency. While the new highways connected the US environment, there were a few cons to its production. Consequences were decreases in railroad use, and also negative impacts on the environment due to the increased use of cars and trucks.
Politics and Citizenship: Eisenhower instituted a domestic policy resembling a business system. He assigned many corporate leaders into his cabinet, ensuring that his assisting politicians would be able to handle critical issues. His domestic policy was centered on the exercise of covert intervention. The CIA was a main component of the covert team established during Eisenhower’s term. He believed using espionage, intelligence and secret agents was a more efficient and economical solution to obtaining information than employing troops to do the job directly. The CIA helped to eliminate a government institution in Iran in 1953. The resulting monarch who took over the government consequently gave the US “favorable” oil prices, and became a key consumer of American weaponry. In Guatemala, the same scenario seemed to play out; however, intervention in Latin America resulted in negative sentiment directed toward the United States.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: The revolutionary Civil Rights Movement was in full swing during the 1950’s. While a few advancements were made concerning integration and equality, African Americans in the South had yet to break many barriers to freedom. The laws created during the 15th Amendment’s ratification like poll taxes, grandfather clauses and literacy tests continued to haunt the African Americans in the South. Their alienation from society kept them from making economic advances in society: creating a cycle of poverty and inequality. Northern African American democrats were more involved in politics, and the sentiment left from the Cold War was key factors that started the movement in America. One of the most influential cases in the history of the civil rights movement was the Brown vs. Board of Education. The court ruled that segregation in schools was a violation to the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Plessy vs. Ferguson case ruling of “equal but separate” was overturned. In addition to fairer voting rights, African Americans fought for desegregation on public transportation. Civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. organized protests in the form of boycotts, sit-ins and marches.
War and Diplomacy: President Eisenhower ‘s Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, helped him initiate a new foreign policy. The “Dulles diplomacy” advocated a more radical approach to containment and the aftermath of the Cold War. His plan promoted liberating Eastern European countries to assert themselves against the communist superpowers. By encouraging pressure onto the communist powers, Dulles argued that the communist authority would back down. He stated that the US had this power because of their supreme nuclear abilities and weapon technology. His ideas about foreign policy scared many Americans because they felt their personal security would be threatened by war again, if the plan were carried out. President Eisenhower supported the American people, and stuck to a more conservative policy.
John F Kennedy: [1961-1 963] 
American Identity & Culture: Americans during this time were beginning to shift their attention from war and foreign matters into problems that were directly related to them and present in American society. The main focus of these problems was the problem of civil discrimination and the present racial tensions and segregation present in America. Even with America’s still present racist views people began to speak out and really speak out and fight the discrimination. One of the most prevalent and renown leaders of the time was Martin Luther King Jr. who was a civil rights leader who organized many marches and boycotts to fight the segregation present during the 60’s. Dr. Martin Luther king also expressed his “I have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln memorial he talked about the freedom present in America and he really aimed towards getting congress to notice the importance of civil rights and more importantly, equality. Throughout Kennedy’s presidency many advocates for civil rights emerged and really turned America’s eyes on the issue of racial discrimination.
Economic Transformation & Globalization: During this time period Kennedy proposed the Alliance for progress. The Alliance for Progress was supposed to increase the relations between America and the countries of Latin America through the means of economic stimulation. It also wanted to help the countries of Latin America fight certain social problems that existed in the country such as the low literacy rates they had and to basically aid it in modernization. The economic aid was also supposed to be followed by military and police help into the countries to better their forces and also to help the countries be able to fight of communistic influences that could spread into the country, primarily through Cuba and the communistic government of Fidel Castro. This was another one of the measure taken by Kennedy in order to try and help the other countries of the world and to help restore foreign relations through the means of spreading democracy and directly pumping money into countries that were in dire need of it.
Politics & Citizenship: Along with this instilled belief in the American culture of racial hierarchy when compared to minorities the own American government was still becoming racial and in a way allowing the racism and segregation in America to grow. This was demonstrated by the inauguration of George C. Wallace the governor of Alabama. He was not a subdued racist; he openly shared his ideas and views on the racism existent in America. In his inaugural speech for becoming Governor of Alabama he declared, “ segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever!” The inauguration of George C. Wallace into the state of government of Alabama just added fuel to the fire of racial segregation already present in the Deep South. The admittance of publically racial government officials was just allowing America to retrogress in the movement towards total racial equality that had been improving consistently during the 20th century.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: In 1961 a group of Americans fighting for civil equality called the Freedom Riders organized and began to ride around the most segregated parts of the united States and went into white only locations. They were part of a civil rights group called the Congress on Racial Equality or CORE. The Freedom Riders had both black and white volunteers who would ride right next to each other on the bus in order to make a statement against the segregation that existed on the public transportation system such as the one that Rosa Parks stood up against. Throughout their rides in the South, which was one of the most segregated parts of America, they experienced a lot of harassment from the people of the area even from government officials such as the governor of Mississippi, James Patterson. Even though blacks had been considered equal to whites years ago there was still an idea instilled deep in American culture that blacks were somehow inferior to the Aryan race.
War Diplomacy: Bay of Pigs was a planned invasion of Cuba by CIA trained forces to try and over throw the communistic government of Fidel Castro. It failed because the somehow secret-plan was discovered by the Cubans and they were awaiting this attack by America right at the shore. This encounter was dealt with at the Bay Playa GÃron right at the tip of the bay. Part of the reason for the invasion of Cuba was the past American towards the Cubans and the Soviet who were once in close relations and both seen as America’s enemies. The purpose of this invasion wasn’t just to just o overthrow Castro but also to expel his communistic government and set up a different type of government more similar to the democratic government of the United States.
Environment: During this time period of Kennedy’s presidency the Peace Corps were formed by Kennedy as a challenge to some students from Michigan State university in order to help out other nations that were in need and to also help other countries to develop if they were substantially behind other parts of the world in modernization. The Peace Corps was an organization devoted to improving countries around the world through the means of education and technologically advanced aid. This corporation also helped the other countries of the world understand how America worked and helped them learn and understand the differences between the cultures they were submerged in and the American culture as well.
Lyndon Baines Johnson [1963-1969]
American Identity and Culture: During Johnson’s presidency revolutionary action was taken against politics in America. The 24th amendment was ratified in order to eliminate the poll tax present in American voting booths. This action towards the voting system in America was a big jump for the government as well as the people because by ratifying the 24th amendment more people were allowed to vote. Allowing more people the right to vote gave the opportunity to different Americans to get their voices heard and for new changes to be implemented in the country. This stopped one of the forms of political discrimination still present in America. The discrimination that was abolished by the 24th amendment was the discrimination by economic differences and disadvantages.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: In Lyndon Baines Johnson’s presidency he passed the Social Security Amendments of 1965 to establish Medicaid and Medicare for the elderly. This was basically the first public health insurance program for the American people. Even though this program was part of Lyndon Baines Johnson’s great society and part of his actions for the war on poverty this wasn’t too effective because of the controversy that emerged after this because of the vast amount of money that the federal government was spending on these elderly people. The plan was to help the elderly people in America by paying for part of their medical bills that were piling up and that the elderly were unable to pay because of old and inability to work to make money for themselves. This plan was also aimed at aiding the economically disadvantaged families in America.
Environmental: Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Wilderness act in 1964 in order to try and preserve some land in the country. This act preserved about 9 million acres of federal land for preservation. A big controversy started over this piece of legislation over something so minimalistic, which was what is the actual definition of Wilderness. People began to argue that wilderness was too vague and it had no definite definition. This piece of legislation also signed in by president Lyndon Baines Johnson also created the Wilderness Preservation System, which was responsible for maintaining and managing the federal preserved land. This shows America’s new focus on preserving and maintaining some of the land that it had.
Politics and Citizenship: Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Voting rights act in 1965. It made voting more of a right and less of a privilege. It guaranteed the right to vote to African Americans and it made it illegal for federal and state implications to be passed that were designed on limiting the rights of blacks to vote. It this piece of legislation was hand in hand with many others of Lyndon Baines Johnson’s legislations pushing for the rights and equal treatment of African Americans. The piece of legislation was also to push the 15th amendment of the Constitution and to enforce it. It was also directly trying to abolish the literacy tests that were in place in order to try and still discriminate against the voting rights of blacks.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: On June 19, 1964 Lyndon Baines Johnson along with the Senate passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which attacked and outlawed the discrimination of races in public facilities. The act extended to many parts of society including the education aspect by outlawing racial discrimination in public schools. Along with this piece of legislation came the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to try and eliminate the unjust discrimination that was present in employment in America. This was the biggest piece of legislation aimed to outlawing racial discrimination in America since the Reconstruction period in America. This legislation showed in another occasion how important civil rights and equality were to Lyndon Baines Johnson. He passed a lot of legislation and with this piece her really put a stop to the segregation and discrimination present in America, he also received substantial help from people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
War and Diplomacy: President Lyndon Baines Johnson pursued the war in Vietnam during his presidency because of the constant trouble and harassment of North Vietnam on it’ Southern part of the country. President Johnson sent troops to Vietnam and he along with McGeorge Bundy the National Security Advisor signed the National Security Action Memorandum 328 which outlined the strategy that the US would use in trying to suppress the Vietnamese forces. The United States agreed on a tactic of getting all of the citizens of Vietnam inland in order to try and help the American forces attack the communists. The troops that were initially sent in were supposed to protect the American bases but now they were approved to go out on the offensive and try and cover Vietnamese land and try and gain leverage over the communists. The United States was now fully involved in the Vietnam War and America plunged into a country engulfed by war once more.
Richard M. Nixon [1969-1974] 
American Identity and Culture: During this time of Nixon’s Presidency there was a lot of anti war sentiment lingering around America because of its spontaneous involvement in the Vietnam War. In the first year of Nixon’s presidency there was many groups and individuals who strongly opposed the United States’ involvement in the war. There was one group that was called the Women Strike for Peace in Washington DC which was the first large anti war demonstration since the inauguration of the president and it really set the stage for many more people to show their opposition toward the war. America was once again into wars that it was really directly affected by, it began to realize that this was true and began to try and recall troops back to the United States in order to try and make the war be fought by the Vietnamese who were trying to oppose the communistic influences intruding their country, this process was called “Vietnamization”.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: The inflation of America currency during Nixon’s presidency was slowly on a rise while the president was in office and in order to combat this slowly but substantial spike in the inflation rate president Nixon ordered a wage and price control for 90 days. It froze the wages, rents, and prices all in order to try and end the long appointed goal of the American economic system to back up its economy and currency with gold. It was also aimed to try and lower the unemployment rate in the country, which was also slowly on the rise, which was also increasing the national debt because Americans were being able to survive off welfare and government assistance programs. Even though Nixon’s plans for the economic system were good-hearted they all failed to ultimately reach their goal except for temporarily decreasing the inflation rate, which rose again after 1971.
Environmental: During Nixon’s presidency the environmentalist and senator Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day and on April 22, 1970 it was the first time it was observed by the country as a whole. The emergence of more people concerned about the environment created new problems and topics that the government had top pay more attention to. This really began the movement for the eco-friendly movements and revolutions in the world and especially in America where the citizens became more conscious of the impact they were leaving on the environment and it made Americans think more about what they were doing and the repercussions that the actions they took would leave for future generations.
Politics and Citizenship: The American justice system even though it had came a long way still had it’s scandals and problems that it had to address before it became ideal. The Watergate scandal was a problem in the American government because of the corruptness used by the actual president and people who were related to him in trying to gain the upper hand in the presidential election. In one of the cases of the Watergate Scandal some men broke into the Democratic National Committee and stole money, which was later discovered to be appropriated to the campaign of Richard M, Nixon. The people who were later found out to be associated with the scandal were put to trial and it led to the conviction of 26 member’s of Nixon’s campaign, the Watergate scandal was also connected to the resignation of Richard M. Nixon from the presidency.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: Still present in America was the sentiment of racial inferiority especially towards blacks and during president Nixon’s presidency segregation in the country was still slowly moving along because of the strong and influential sentiments and views of the south. These strong racial sentiments soon tied into the educational system. The educational matter was soon taken to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court ruled that the use of busing would be permitted in order to try and make desegregation in the south take less time. The busing would get the kids from other neighborhoods and take them long distances to other schools to try and spread different races to the public schools. This was not enforced much in the north it was just primarily for the south which caused the southern citizens to protest against having children bused into their schools while the north still had a system where depending on where the child lived they would have to assist a certain school.
War and Diplomacy: During the presidency of Nixon America was already involved in the conflict of the Vietnam war which was trying to stop the spread of communism to the countries of South Eastern Asia. The United States interfered in the Vietnam War in aid of the South Vietnamese versus the northern communists “Viet-Congs” who were trying to establish a communistic type government. The United States interfered with no real reason except for the political and domestic pressures it was in but it soon realized that entrance into the war was not necessary so it began to gradually back out slowly and make it more of a Vietnamese versus Vietnamese war. Nixon as well as America realized after the war that interference in the Asia’s was not really beneficial to America in some cases so Nixon passed the “Nixon Doctrine” which said that future Asian allies would receive help from the United States but that it would receive it to such a full extent where troops would be sent to combat.
Gerald R. Ford [1974-1977]
American Identity and Culture: The united states government always had it’s economy in mind and always sought different ways in how to protect it’s currency and make it the most valuable in the world. It did it with this backing up its economy with gold and making America be on the gold standard. America saw the value of gold and saw that it’s value was just increasing because the quantities of it in the world were decreasing so it made it illegal for the citizens of America to own, buy or sell gold and all of it was confiscated. But in 1974 congress allowed the American people to once again get involved with the trading of gold. This seems insignificant but it established the rights of Americans to really do as they want and it allowed Americans to once again emerge themselves in luxuries that they did before and to publically show their wealth and gold once again became a status of wealth and thus became a social symbol.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: Once of the biggest economic situations that happened in the world during president Ford’s presidency was the re-opening of the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal was once again reopened on June 5, 1975 after Egypt had shut it off for trade for the rest of the world because of the war that it was going on with Israel. This was of big importance not only to America but also the rest of the world because canals proved to be a very economic and efficient ways to transport goods from country to country without having to take tremendously long trips and suffer the conditions of the open seas. Egypt had closed down this canal for eight years because of the government situation it had and now after all that time it was opened and it allowed the markets of the world to once again gain prosperity and flow like they once did.
Environmental: The government was now turning to this more eco-friendly and globally conscious state of mind where people in the country were now being aware of the actions they were taking and the lasting impact each individual would make on the country. President ford addressed this new concern of the American people by instituting the Toxic Substances Control act which really set standards and regulations for certain chemicals, drugs and foods that were being used or consumed in the country by the citizens. The act required many different types of testing to make sure that the risks of the new product or chemical were know and if they were going to be safe for the public and now this act allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to keep track of the different types of chemicals and substances being used by big corporations or by other organizations or people in the country.
Politics and Citizenship: On September 2nd of 1974 president Gerald R. Ford signed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 or ERISA to protect the employees of the working class in America. The act had many different goals and ideas instituted in it including regulating the employee health and pension plans. All in all it addressed two important employee facets, to protect the benefits of the employee and to help employers establish uniformity in benefit plans. It also set standards for the private health plans, which included guaranteeing protection in plans for a certain number of years and to meet some funding requirements.
This act also established Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation or PBGC which provided just standard and very minimal benefits in the health sector just incase the health or pension plan that the employee had for some reason didn’t cover them and also to make sure that when an employee retired their pension plans would be guaranteed which also led to the establishment of the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: Slavery in the United States gradually moved on into the American history by spreading into other races and not just primarily being racially prejudice towards blacks, more races began to be affected by racial tensions and ideas and it really secluded the whites from the rest of the world by creating the Aryan race. The United States passed a law on February 25, 1976 that gave the states the right to establish a law that could make the hiring of illegal alien illegal. This was hypocritical of the united States in the sense that even though they were now allowing the hiring of aliens to be illegal it forgot that in it’s early colonial times it was based off a workforce of primarily illegal’s and aliens from other countries that really laid out and constructed the fundamental basis for which the country grew upon.
War and Diplomacy: Even though the war in Vietnam had proved to be fatal to many American institutions and even though the public was against it completely president Gerald Ford saw that it was just to ask congress for more money to pump into the south eastern Asian countries. On January 28, 1975 president ford asked congress for 522 million dollars in order to try and give it to southern Vietnam and Cambodia, primarily it was to be given in military support including heavy artillery, tanks and heavy artillery weapons. Congress refused to support the president’s actions and rejected him the money. After congress didn’t allow for the president to send money to Cambodia and Southern Vietnam the two countries soon were overpowered by the soviet first of communism and later that year fell to a communist government and the domino theory of Eisenhower soon began to take affect.
James E Carter [1977-1981]
American Identity and Culture: The second day of being in the presidency James Earl Carter began implementing actions that appealed to the American public and increased the nationalism in the country. Throughout the violent past of America there has been many wars and throughout many of them volunteers for the military had been needed because of scarce amount of people enlisted in the armed forces. America countered this problem by creating a draft for the armed forces were every adult male had to sign and fill put a draft card to become eligible to serve in the war. This was a problem because there were many people in the country that opposed the war and they didn’t think it was just to go to war if they didn’t support it so they began to burn their draft cards, which was illegal, and a criminal offense. President Carter realized many people did this so he pardoned every single one of them and cleared their criminal records and showed the American people that he understood the actions that they took and created more of a connection to the people.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: During this time in the presidency president Carter had to deal with the problem of inflation as did many of his predecessors now that the economic market was different than ever before.The government saw that one of the ways to fight the inflation in the country was that it had to get the citizens to conserve oil energy and to revive the coal industry at the same time. Both of these policies to try and stop or slow down inflation at least failed and the inflation of the country eventually grew to 13%. The problem of inflation was becoming of the most prominent economic problems in the United States and it would be a persistent problem that presidents would have to deal with all throughout the 20th and 21st century.
Environmental: President Carter was also involved in the presidency at the same time that the environmental consciousness in America was growing and he also added to the environmental movements of the period by trying to limit the energy that was being used in the country. President Carter Realized that the citizens of America were submerged in a time of over-consumption of energy and he tried to attack this problem by limiting the amount of energy the citizens could use. He did his by trying to persuade the American people to not use as much energy by providing tax cuts for people with low energy consumption. He also made energy more expensive for the person, which was an effort to try and dissuade the people of America from using so much energy, which would effect the environment a lot because a lot of the energy used in the country came from fossil fuels.
Politics and Citizenship: During this time of James Earl Carter’s Presidency religion took a radical turn for the worst and it really showed the extremist side of religion. Jim Jones was a founder of a Christian sect in Indianapolis where he had hundreds of African American followers because one of the things that the Christian sect fought against was discrimination. In this sect Jim Jones had basically all the power and held a lot of influence over the members by basically having them as puppets. He had such control over the members of his sect that on November 18th 1978 he convinced members of his sect commit suicide by ingesting cyanide-laced fruit. As a result of this 931 of his followers died, Jones later fled to South America to escape persecution. This showed to Americans the danger of being extremists or radicals. It showed Americans the dangers of some religions and really justified what was wrong and what should be allowed in religious groups or communes.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: As America thrived and prospered over the years, it established itself as a country that many other races and countries wanted to be involved with. This led to many different types of races flooding the country including many Latin Americans and people from European countries as well as from the Asia’s. This influx of immigrants created more racial tensions within the countries and the people of Asian descent were hit hard by the racial tensions. Asians were limited to come into the country and many of them also suffered from racial segregation in the educational system. In November of 1977 millions of Chinese immigrants took a nationwide university entrance exam and proved themselves as one of the brightest generations. The immigrants proved that they had a lot of value and a lot to offer America and that they were not just there to do arduous, hard labor.
War and Diplomacy: America had been building it’s relationship with it’s Latin American neighbors for quite some time and one of the major factors and occasions where the Latin American and American relationship was tested was with the creation of the panama canal which became a very globally important trading route for countries all around the world. The canal was made right through Panama and it was really made during some hard times in Latin America with problems existing in Panama itself as long with Venezuela. But after the establishment of the Panama Canal as one of the most important trading resources in the world Panama soon wanted to take control of the canal and rake in the benefits for themselves just as the united states did and they accomplished this with the United States by agreeing to have the country return all the power of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians at the end of the 20th century.
War and Diplomacy: America had been building it’s relationship with it’s Latin American neighbors for quite some time and one of the major factors and occasions where the Latin American and American relationship was tested was with the creation of the panama canal which became a very globally important trading route for countries all around the world. The canal was made right through Panama and it was really made during some hard times in Latin America with problems existing in Panama itself as long with Venezuela. But after the establishment of the Panama Canal as one of the most important trading resources in the world Panama soon wanted to take control of the canal and rake in the benefits for themselves just as the united states did and they accomplished this with the United States by agreeing to have the country return all the power of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians at the end of the 20th century.
Ronald W. Reagan [1981-1989] 
American Identity and Culture: With this new emergence of America into this new sexually open and sexually indulged era new problems arose that would single handedly undertake the country by whole. The new casual sex that a lot of the country was being involved in was due to the new sexual technology that was introduced to the American society. The place where this new problem emerged was in Los Angeles, California where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered a new type of pneumonia in some of its patients. The Centers of Disease Control and prevention reported that five homosexuals had the new form of pneumonia but it later was discovered that this new supposedly rare form of pneumonia was actually the AIDS virus that would in years later spread throughout the country and the numbers of it would rise, as the years would come.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: President Reagan took part in also try to revolutionize and reconstruct the economic status in America by signing the Economic recovery Tax Act of 1981. The introduction of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 was to try and reduce the tax rates for individuals. As well as trying the decrease the amount of money the tax rates were for the individual citizen of America it also provided some incentives to start up small businesses and therefore improve some aspects of the economic situation. It also encouraged the citizens of America to save by also offering incentives if they did choose to save their money in banks. The plan would include a federal tax cut of 25 percent over the course of three years.
Environmental: America as a whole had now been being very interested in the missions to space and to the moon. This had all been strung up by competing with the Soviet Union in developing a space program to see who could reach space first. This race caused the United States to over look one of the specifications of the space shuttles they had. On January 28th, 1986 the United States sent off space shuttle Challenger and in less than an hour it exploded and all seven crewmembers were instantly dead. The United States had on the space shuttle what was supposed to be the first civilian in space but she died. This was responded by the United States by creating a special commission, the Rogers commission that would inspect and develop certain measures so that problems like what happened on the space shuttle challenger would occur again. In the Rogers commission globally renown and praised astronaut Neil Armstrong was involved.
Politics and Citizenship: During Reagan’s presidency there was a lot of new problems and situations facing America with the new technology that was advancing and it expanded into many different facets of society. With the new inventions of condoms and birth control sex became more of a casual activity because the certain repercussions that are involved with sex were now virtually eliminated. This matter worked its way all the way up to the supreme court and in H.L. v Matheson where the supreme court declared that there was no procedure a minor could undertake in which parental involvement and consent could be overturned. The ruling by the Supreme Court gave the states of the country to establish laws that could require parental notification when teenage girls would seek abortion. This led America in the direction of having more control over the youth and limiting some of the freedoms they once enjoyed.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: Throughout the 1960’s there was an upsurge of fights for civil rights and many leaders emerged to try and combat the racial segregation and discrimination present in the country and the most prominent leader that arose as a civil rights activist was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr was seen as the leader and the most prominent figure of the civil rights movements and being involved with many revolutionary actions and marches as well as boycotts that helped transform America into the almost equal and just country that it is today. Even though he was praised nationally and globally for his efforts in fighting versus the discrimination in the country he hadn’t been appointed as much attention or as much respect as he should have and to combat this President Reagan established a federal holiday in order to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and all of his success in leading the civil rights era in America.
War and Diplomacy: America along with its southern neighbors of Latin America once again became involved with one another once again. Very shortly after being sworn in as president of the united states president Reagan along with the united states government realized the problem growing slowly out of hand in El Salvador. The main aggressor was once again not the country they were going into to fight but rather the sly and evil enemy; communism. The United States in February of 1981 increased its assistance and aid to El Salvador in order to try and fend off communism and the government gave assistance such as that as it did to the southern Vietnamese. The war in El Salvador quickly turned for the worst as in Vietnam with many inhumane actions taken by both countries in the war.
George H. W. Bush [1989-1993]
American Identity and Culture: In one of the most weird and strange rulings of the Supreme Court in America was one of where the supreme court ruled that the first amendment allowed Americans the right of burning the flag as a form of political protest against the American government. This was very strange in the way that it basically was allowing the burning of the most prominent and renown symbols of the American government and the burning of the flag would symbolize the destruction and disabling of the American government as well as being against the democracy instilled deep in the American traditions and ideals. This gave Americans more freedoms and gave them more rights to express themselves in many different ways politically and express themselves to their fullest extent.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: During this presidential era of George H. W. Bush there was an attempt to try and save loans and savings institutions from foreclosures and debts that it had. The government’s system and attempt to help and save these institutions failed and it resulted in not only costing the government money but the taxpayers as well. The taxpayers had to pay over 250 billion dollars in money that would go to fix the attempt to save these savings and loan institutions. The Americans felt a lot of resentment towards these careless actions by the united states government as well as by president George H. W. Bush because he had promised not to adopt anymore tax increases but he went against that when he approved of congress’ $133 billion more dollars in tax increases.
Environmental: The already established concerned for the environment was now hand in hand with a new civil consciousness for the well-being and maintaining a healthy body. The Agricultural department of the United States also took concern of the matter of people destroying their bodies with the new fast-food joints that were sprouting up left and right and all over the country. The Agriculture Department responded to this new fast-food craze and to the rise of obesity in America by presenting the renowned food pyramid which shows which types of food are recommended in order to try and maintain a healthy body. The new importance of the environment and the human body led to more action and more focus to be put on them as the years went on. The food pyramid also began to develop across the years to be more suitable to the well being of humans.
Politics and Citizenship: During this time the struggle for civil rights was still going on but no longer in civil rights for blacks but civil rights for the people in the country who suffered form disabilities. The people who were suffering from disabilities were having a hard time finding work because they were always getting discriminated against from various employers because of the certain disabilities that they had whether they be physical or mental. George H. W. Bush responded to these unequal opportunities in the country by passing the Disabilities act of 1990, which established that employers weren’t allowed to legally discriminate against people with a disability while they were applying or looking for work.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: The development of racial tensions ad racial ideals in America was now slowly beginning to phase out and racial discrimination and segregation were basically becoming non-existent in the country. Being racist in the country went from being just a normal everyday thing but now as time went on being racial began to be frowned upon because of the vast amount of different races present in America and the different advancements that people of different races had brought to America. The different races that were in America helped the country develop just as much if not more than the “native” Aryans that were present in the country. During Bush’s presidency the Supreme Court ruled that people who created hate crimes towards people of different races would be persecuted and would be subject to receiving extra punishment.
War and Diplomacy: The presidential era of George H. W. Bush was significantly important to the relationship of the united states with other European countries, mainly the soviet union which along with the united states concluded the end of the cold war by signing two treaties which did explicitly state the end of the war but stated goal for which both countries were aiming at with victory in the war. The two treaties that the United States signed with the Soviet Union were the START I AND THE START II treaties. START I agreed to reduce the number of nuclear warheads to fewer than 10,000 for each country. The START II agreement reduced the number of nuclear warheads to a little over 3,000. The United States even went as far as lending out economic aid to the destroyed economy of Russia. Cold war was later officially ended with the signing of the Charter of Paris.
William Jefferson Clinton [1993-2001] 
American Identity and Culture: During this time in American history homosexuality was still not accepted by the mainstream society because of the still deep instilled religious beliefs like Christianity and because of the moral values some people thought that homosexuality violated. Clinton didn’t see that homosexuality was as bad everyone made it out to be. He also realized that homosexuality was also one of the reasons why people were discriminated against in the country and he realized that even in the government facilities and jobs that there was discriminations so he allowed homosexuals to serve in the military but under the condition that they refrained from engaging in public homosexual activity.
Economic Transformations and Globalization: During the presidential era of William Jefferson Clinton the foreign relations with other countries were really just prospering now that the united states had to some extent repaired it’s relationship with the soviet union which was it’s primary aggressor in the 20th century, but now that they weren’t at war anymore the united states could focus on improving it’s relationship with other countries. President Clinton did this by establishing the North American Free Trade Agreement of NAFTA, which was a treaty between Mexico, Canada and the United States. The main goal of the treaty was to improve the amount of trade existent between the countries and at the time the tariffs on most American good were very high so the two other countries were not importing American good in such large quantities so the goal of NAFTA was to reduce the ridiculously high tariffs on American goods so that the other countries could benefit from the goods that America produced.
Environmental: Now that the population of America was growing so fast and had now reached numbers that it had never imagined there was a certain number of internal improvements that the country had to make in order to protect the space it had as well as the citizens. President Clinton passed the National Highway System Designation Act, which gave billions of dollars to restore state highways and repealed the federal speed limits. The new highways were not only made to mallow cars to drive around form place to place but to do it efficiently. Now that there was more cars on the road there was more CO2 emissions that were being produced and using the highways would make driving more efficient by allowing for faster and shorter routes and would allow commuters to get to their destination without spending so much gas that was directly related to the amount of carbon dioxide that was being produced.
Politics and Citizenship: America had been advancing in the world for almost 3 centuries now and it just seemed to be progressing faster and faster than any other country but certain actions taking by the people with power in America showed that America still had a long way to go before it was the ideal democratic society. In 1994 William Jefferson Clinton passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act as a response to several other racial and discriminatory abuses the American government had instituted on its people. The Act was the largest bill relating to crime ever instituted and it included adding billions of dollars to use for prisons, and prevention programs for the police force. It was also supposed to add 100,000 policemen to the force.
Slavery and its Legacies in North America: America was progressing also in the area of racial discrimination and segregation by almost having it completely disappear but an incident that happened in 1991 would once again incite the fears of the America minorities of being oppressed by the Aryans of America. The incident that really got people enraged and mad at the police force as well as the federal government was the incident pertaining to Rodney King and how he was beat viciously by policemen. This incited the black people of America to declare that the policemen were viciously beating him just because he was black but in reality he was a criminal driving under the influence of alcohol. This led to establishment of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act as well as the persecution of the four policemen on trial for beating him.
War and Diplomacy: As well as improving the relations with the two neighbors of the country America also tried to increase it’s foreign relations with it’s old enemy of Vietnam. Vietnam was an enemy of the united states during the Vietnam war and sentiment towards Japan was very bad as the united states had interfered in the country and eventually just let it fall to a communistic regime but now that communism was well established and the US-Soviet relationship was altered for the better, Vietnam could now try and re-establish a relationship with the united states. The way that the United States improved the relationship with Vietnam was that it tried to re establish trading with Vietnam by lifting a trade ban that it had on it since the Vietnam War.
