5_Short_Essay

Describe the reasons for US entry in WWI. What new sorts of warfare emerged from this conflict' What led to the war - and what were the results' There were several reasons the US entered in WWI. Probably the most talked about reason was the sinking of the British cruise ship, the Lusitania in 1915 by a German U-boat. President Woodrow Wilson did not want to go to war and demanded an end to the attack on passenger ships. Many people disagree that this should be considered a reason for the US entry into the war because the US did not actually enter the war for almost 2 years following the attack on the Lusitania. This attack did however turn public opinion in many countries against Germany which played a part in winning the hearts and minds of the American people once the US did declare war in 1917. Another reason for the US involvement was the fact that the US had economic investments with the British and French. These countries were using loans made by the US to finance the war as well as buying arms from the US on credit. If these countries were to lose, the US would not get their money back and their not paying back these loans could collapse the US’s economy. Also considered a reason for the US entering WWI were political reasons. Woodrow Wilson didn’t want to go to war but was afraid of losing the election to Teddy Roosevelt so he told the people to get ready for war. By entering the war, the US could establish itself as a world power. The final push to war was probably the Zimmerman Telegram. British Intelligence intercepted and decoded this telegram from Berlin to Mexico which suggested an alliance between Germany and Mexico if the US did enter the war. Germany promised Mexico that if they agreed to fight, they will regain the territories they lost during the Mexican-American War, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Germany felt this would prevent the US from joining the Allies and would give Germany more time to resume their submarine attacks to keep Britain from getting supplies. President Wilson released the telegram as a way of building support for the US to enter the war. After German submarines sank seven US merchant ships and the publication of the Zimmerman telegram, Wilson was ready to declare war on Germany and on April 6, 1917, congress agreed. WW1 saw many new developments in warfare and weapons. Germany was farther ahead in technology and weapons development than the Allies, but by the end of 1917, the Allies had modernized and were using telephones, wireless communication, armored cars, tanks and aircraft. Also the infantry was changed from 100 man companies to squads of less than a dozen men with a junior NCO in charge. WW1 saw the invention of the steel helmet, fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft guns, light automatic weapons, tanks, and flamethrowers. Warfare went from trench warfare to a mechanized fight with tanks and aircraft, and even chemical warfare. Discuss the success or failure of Reconstruction after the Civil War. What were differing ideas proposed – and who were the eventual winners and losers' Reconstruction had its success and its failures after the Civil War. One of the successes was that it restored the United States as a unified nation. All of the former Confederate states had drafted new constitutions, acknowledging the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, and pledged their loyalty to the U.S. government. Reconstruction ultimately failed to protect former slaves from white persecution and failed to engender fundamental changes to the social fabric of the South. The sharecropping system was essentially a legal form of slavery that kept blacks tied to land owned by rich white farmers in the South. They had little economic power; blacks ended up having to fight for civil rights on their own, as northern whites lost interest in Reconstruction by the mid 1870s. When President Rutherford B. Hayes removed federal troops from the South in 1877, former Confederate officials and slave owners almost immediately returned to power. With the support of a conservative Supreme Court, these newly empowered white southern politicians passed black codes, voter qualifications, and other anti-progressive legislation to reverse the rights that blacks had gained during Radical Reconstruction. The U.S. Supreme Court bolstered this anti-progressive movement with decisions in the Slaughterhouse Cases, the Civil Rights Cases, and United States v. Cruikshank that effectively repealed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and the Civil Rights Act of 1875. By 1877, northerners were tired of Reconstruction, scandals, radicals, and the fight for blacks’ rights. Reconstruction thus came to a close with many of its goals left unaccomplished. Most of the ideas proposed during the Reconstruction Era were guided towards citizenship and fair treatment of all mankind, not just blacks but any minority. Although the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were to protect minority rights they were not upheld for almost a century. Everything else that went on during the Reconstruction after the Civil War was over shadowed by the racial issues. The taxation, farm land, and railroad industries were big during this time frame but little is said about it. All the state laws or “Black Codes” that were set up to limit the rights for ex-slaves were being pasted to keep blacks as slaves, free slaves but slaves none the less. The Republicans, blacks, and all minorities lost in the reconstruction war. Once the Democrats took over, that was the end of reconstruction and the path to freedom for blacks and minorities. The laws and amendments were put into the constitution but were not enforced until the 1960s in the southern states. What were some of the principal causes of the Great Depression' How did the administrations of Herbert Hoover and F. D. Roosevelt deal with the economic downturn – and with what degree of success' One of the major contributors to the Great Depression was the stock market crash in October 1929. But most agree that the problems started before the actual crash of the stock market. In the 1920s, America became the banker to the world due largely in part because of the economic decline in Europe after WW1. Europe started to default on their loans and bought fewer products from America. Further problems stemmed from the poor stock market regulations which allowed investors to buy stocks on margin at 10% of the stock price. When the market crashed, investors couldn’t make their margin calls and a huge sell-off began causing the market to fall from over 300 points to 41. Once the market crashed, millions of American began to withdraw their money from the banks because they were afraid the banks would also fail. The more money Americans withdrew, the more banks failed. By 1933, more than 11,000 banks had closed. Banks were unable to extend credit, people started spending less money, and many jobs were lost leading to massive unemployment. To make matter worse, there was a drought and millions of farm acres were lost because of no rain. Herbert Hoover believed that economical growth would come from cooperation between the public and private sector. He didn’t want too much government intervention because he thought Americans should be self reliant but he did ask business leaders to not lay off people or cut wages. Hoover was against direct federal relief payments to individuals because he thought this would decrease people’s incentive to work. Hoover also forced Mexicans and Mexican Americans from the US to Mexico in an attempt to free up American jobs and help unemployment. He signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act to raise tariffs on imported products to encourage the purchase of American-made products by increasing the cost of imported goods. This did not work because most countries were also experiencing economic depression and increased tariffs on American-made products which reduced international trade and actually made the Depression worse. Hoover also suspended reparation payments by Germany to France and war debts to the US which was ultimately never restarted. Hoover urged banks to form the National Credit Corporation which would loan money to smaller banks to keep them from failing. This did not work either because the NCC banks required the smaller banks to put up large assets as collateral. The NCC was replaced by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. As the Depression continued to get worse, thousands of Americans were homeless and began to form tent cities known as Hoovervilles, a term, the residents used to show their frustration with the lack of help by the federal government. As a result, Hoover approved the Federal Home Loan Bank Act, to help with new home construction and to reduce foreclosures. This plan seemed to work but it was probably too late. Some final attempts by Hoover to help the economy were: the Emergency Relief and Construction Act and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The ERC authorized funds for public works programs and the RFC provided government secured loans which Roosevelt continued and made part of his New Deal plan. In 1932, in his acceptance speech as the Democratic party’s nominee, Franklin D. Roosevelt promised a “new deal for the American people.” FDR’s plan was to help America pull out of the Great Depression by targeting high unemployment rates and poverty. FDR’s main programs were the Public Works Administration and the National Recovery Administration. Although these programs were designed to help the American people, they increased the role of the government in people’s everyday life. President Roosevelt’s New Deal programs were designed to tackle the economic crisis by offering: federal assistance for people who had lost their jobs; public works project to help with unemployment; assistance for farmers and industries; stricter banking regulations; and, creation of the FDIC to protect customers’ deposits. These programs may have kept the Great Depression from getting worse but it wasn’t until the US entered into WW2 that the economy began its recovery.   How did the American economy change from the Civil War until the turn of the century' Discuss, with respect to city growth, labor, technology, immigration, ideology, or political ideas (you may choose from the above - you need not address all of them). Feel free to include moments of conflict. The time after the Civil War was a time of invention, development and tycoons. Hundreds of thousands of European immigrants flooded into the US every year. Coal, oil and steel mills were built. Prior to the Civil War the economy relied on agriculture. But after the South lost the Civil War and President Lincoln abolished slavery, the Northern regions began to develop large industries. Oil was discovered in Pennsylvania. Coal was found in the Appalachian Mountains. Large iron, copper and silver mines opened up. Meanwhile, wit the slave-labor system abolished, the large southern cotton plantations were much less profitable and began to fail. With increased manufacturing came the need for more creative transportation to move products. The first transcontinental railroad was born. Because it was so expensive to build the railroads, the federal government became involved and provided subsidies to the railroad companies in exchange for discounted rates. Congress also set up land grants to the railroad companies so they could continue to expand. As industry grew, big businessmen were in control, not politicians. Young men looked for careers in the business sector instead of public service. These “captains of industry” were not regulated by the government and soon learned that through some ruthless means, they could earn large sums of many. Cornelius Vanderbilt and his son William were railroad tycoons. It was also said that the Vanderbilts, and others like them, had no regard for the common worker. And as states tried to pass laws to regulate the railroad, the Supreme Court stepped in and said that only the federal government could regulate interstate commerce. One of the richest and most famous “captains of industry” was Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie created for himself a steel empire. Carnegie bought out all the companies needed to produce the steel. He also bought out other companies that produced steel as well as those that shipped and sold it. Carnegie eventually sold his empire to J. P. Morgan. Morgan was a banker and founder of the US Steel Corporation. He was known for his lavish parties, extravagant homes and ruthless business practices. Not all big businessmen were corrupt, however. John D. Rockefeller made his fortune in the oil industry which saw little need prior to the Civil War but was in high demand with the surge of factory machines, ships and eventually automobiles. Rockefeller bought all the other oil companies so that he had no competition, creating one of the first monopolies in the US.