The history of the United States

The history of the United States

fourth part

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America after the War.

GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION

Social, Economic and Cultural Politicians

NEW DEAL vs. GREAT DEPRESSION

THE UNITED STATES vs. JAPAN

EMERGING GIANT

(NAFTA)

1900

The cold war

Korea and Vietnam conflict

Treaty of Versailles

GREAT DEPRESSION

FIRST PART

LAST PART

DISCONTENT AND REFORM

THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II

End of the 20th Century

THE COLD WAR, KOREAN CONFLICT AND VIETNAM

WORLD WAR I-1920’S PROSPERITY AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

Cultural change 1950-1980

CONCLUSION

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2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1960-1980

1950-1960

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After the Civil War, the U.S. entered a stage of accelerated economic development, to which contributed the abundance of natural resources, the American inventive genius and the democratic regime of freedom and equal opportunity, which even in the South was gradually restored. Since the time of Benjamin Franklin, contributions had been made to mechanics and applied science (steamboats, cotton disassembler, grain harvester, electric telegraph, sewing machine, weapons and automatic machines, elevators, rotary press and a hundred more). In the second half of the nineteenth century the country entered fully into the era of machinism and large-scale production. With the expansion of the railroads, mining, factories, agriculture and livestock and the consequent fantastic increase in wealth, the great captains of industry emerged, who were naturally allies of Republican politicians (The United States has two parties: the Republican and the Democratic), and this alliance ruled the country for most of the rest of the nineteenth century, with strong anti-capitalist opposition mainly in the West and South. • The United States became a great power, partially comparable to its antagonist, the Soviet Union. • The American political, economic, and social system became a global paradigm known as the American model of life. • It is transformed into a superpower based on three pillars. Economic and technological superiority, since it has 2/3 of the world's gold and 43% of wealth Increased political prestige for having defeated Nazism and being defenders of democracy. Its military power supported by an impressive arsenal.

• Unrestricted suffrage: the thesis that the practice of voting was only for a part of the population with wealth or talent, or be a male duty, was abandoned and it was considered as a right of all citizens, men and women. • A new economic complex is imposed based on the scientific-technical revolution and the transformations caused by the extension of computer science. • A consumerist and materialistic society was created, that is, even the most superficial products were considered essential. • The arms business (weapons), was very well received. • Society is characterized by its cosmopolitanism, through migratory processes from all parts of the world, representing all ethnicities, languages, religions and cultures. At the same time, society presented very important problems of racial discrimination. • The white population continued to consider itself superior to blacks and applied various restrictions on their political and social rights; such as the prohibition of the exercise of the suffrage, segregating in schools, places of amusement, transportation, and obtaining the least qualified and therefore least paid jobs performed in worse conditions. • The struggle of black society for its rights. This struggle reaches greater importance in the U.S. and in South Africa. In the U.S. its main advocate was Martin Luther King, who put into practice the peaceful struggle that Gandhi had previously used. • Youth rebellion. In the United States, large sections of the youth called "hippies" rebelled against the consumer society and sought an alternative way. They rejected the American way of life (consumerism), the political system and experienced new forms of interpersonal relationships, with the values of love, freedom, anarchy, nonviolence, love by nature, living in communities and revealing themselves to everything.

In the early 1930s, President Roosevelt proposed a “New Deal” to end the Great Depression. The New Deal included many programs:

• Bank accounts were insured.
• New rules applied to the stock market.
• Workers could form unions to protect their rights.
• Farmers received financial aid for certain crops.
• The government hired people to plant trees, clean up waterways, and fix national parks.
• Skilled workers helped build dams and bridges.
• The government provided flood control and electric power for poor areas.
• The Social Security system helped the poor, disabled, and elderly.

These programs helped, but they didn’t solve the economic problems. The next world war would do that.

As Japan conquered territories in China and elsewhere in Asia, it threatened to seize raw materials used by Western industries. In response, the United States refused to sell oil to Japan. Japan received 80% of its oil from the United States. When the United States demanded that Japan withdraw from its conquered territories, Japan refused. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The United States declared war on Japan. Because Germany and Italy were allies of Japan, they declared war on America. The United States fought with Britain and the Soviet Union against the German Nazi threat in Europe. Many other countries joined the bloody war and the fighting continued in Asia and the Pacific Ocean even after the war ended in Europe. Japan refused to surrender even as U.S. forces approached the Japanese home islands. Some Americans thought invading Japan would cause larger numbers of U.S. and Japanese deaths. When the atomic bomb was ready, President Harry S. Truman decided to use it on two Japanese cities—Hiroshima and Nagasaki—to bring the war to an end without an invasion. World War II was finally over in August 1945. Soon the world would fear nuclear weapons far more powerful than the bombs used against Japan.

In 1900, the United States was an emerging giant. In the midst of its second industrial revolution, America had just begun to acquire an overseas empire and international influence. During the first half of the 20th century, the United States proved to be the decisive combatant in two major world wars, earning the right to determine a post war outcome. The Cold War that plagued the world in the last half of the 20th century proved in the end to be an American victory as well.American scientists had developed nuclear technology, the computer, put human beings on the moon, and were at the vanguard of IMMUNIZATION techniques. America's postwar economy was the envy of the globe. A consumer-driven middle class built the highest standard of living in the world. American popular culture was everywhere. Levi's jeans, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and Hollywood movies were enjoyed around the world. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the United States was the only remaining military superpower, and the world looked to Washington for leadership at combating aggression in the Persian Gulf, ending ethnic cleansing in places such as Kosovo, and halting nuclear proliferation.

The NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (NAFTA) ended economic barriers with Canada and Mexico and promised even more prosperity. Why then did so many Americans feel uneasiness and uncertainty as the 21st century approached? Economic challenges were created by the prosperous Pacific Rim and a stronger European Union. Despite prosperity, real incomes stagnated for the bottom half of American wage earners. Although legal barriers to equality were largely eliminated for American minority groups, economic equality was but a dream. Women made advances toward equity, but still earned less than 75 cents for every dollar earned by American males. Many Americans felt they were working longer hours for less. Pessimists depicted America as a civilization in decline. The rise of the divorce rate led to many children being raised in broken homes. Gun violence was a major problem. SCHOOL SHOOTINGS became commonplace. When two students entered COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL in Littleton, Colorado in April 1999 with weapons, they murdered thirteen people before taking their own lives. Critics pointed to a media that glorified and promoted violence, permissive gun laws, failing schools, and neglectful parenting. Environmentalists observed the ominous dwindling of rainforests and global warming trends. Disasters such as the EXXON VALDEZ oil spill of 1989 and rising gasoline prices in 2000 illustrated America's embarrassing dependency on fossil fuels and the ecological and economic havoc that resulted.

June 30, 1900 -- A pier burns down in Hoboken, New Jersey in the United States. May 3, 1901 – A large fire starts in Jacksonville, Florida in the United States. July 10, 1902 – A Rolling Mill mine disaster in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in the United States kills 112 miners. The United States refused to recognize the new government and, in February 1900, fighting broke out between Aguinaldo's forces and American troops. The American Mutoscope & Biograph Company sent two expeditions to cover the Philippine Campaign, a name that appears in the company's catalog to refer to the war and its aftermath.

As every province or state considers that its ideologies, common welfare, security, norms and laws are the most favorable for the population and that the regime should be that way for a better growth as a country; however, not all provinces share the same ideologies, as was the case of the United States and Russia, where there was a period of disagreement between them because they had different thoughts and this is what is known as the Cold War.

While the conflict in Korea was a physical war fought about differing philosophies: Communism versus capitalism. The war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives was that of North Vietnam and South Vietnam, although South Vietnam was supported by U.S. troops at a certain period, finally North Vietnam succeeded in conquering South Vietnam, which caused many South Vietnamese to flee from the new communists in their country.

In 1914, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey fought Britain, France, Italy, and Russia. Other nations joined the conflict, and the war reached across the Atlantic Ocean to affect the United States. In 1915, almost 130 Americans died when a German submarine sank the British ocean liner Lusitania. President Woodrow Wilson demanded an end to the German attacks. They stopped but started again in 1917. The United States declared war. More than 1,750,000 U.S. soldiers helped to defeat Germany and Austria-Hungary. The war officially ended on November 11, 1918, when a truce was signed at Versailles in France.

• President Wilson had a 14-point peace plan, including the creation of a League of Nations. He hoped the League would guarantee the peace, but in the final Treaty of Versailles, the victors of the war insisted on harsh punishment.

• After the war, the United States had problems with racial tension, struggling farms, and labor unrest.

• After Russia’s revolution in 1917, Americans feared the spread of communism. This period is often known as the Red Scare.

• United States enjoyed a period of prosperity, however, In October 1929 the good times ended with the collapse of the stock market and an economic depression.

• Businesses and factories shut down.

• Banks failed.

• Farms suffered.

• By November 1932, 20 percent of Americans did not have jobs.

• That year the candidates for president debated over how to reverse the Great Depression.

• Herbert Hoover, the president during the collapse, lost to Franklin Roosevelt.

The seventeenth century saw the creation and maturation of Britain’s North American colonies. Colonists endured a century of struggle against unforgiving climates, hostile natives, and imperial intrigue. They did so largely through ruthless expressions of power. Colonists conquered Indians, attacked European rivals, and joined a highly lucrative transatlantic economy rooted in slavery. After surviving a century of desperation and war, British North American colonists fashioned increasingly complex societies with unique religious cultures, economic ties, and political traditions. These societies would come to shape not only North America, but soon the entirety of the Atlantic World.

Reconstruction was the period after the American Civil War, from roughly 1865 to 1877, during which attempts were made to implement full freedom and constitutional rights for African Americans following emancipation. In the late 1900s the United States became one of the world's superpowers. The other superpower was the Soviet Union. Both countries had nuclear weapons. The two countries fought a Cold War for many years where battles were fought by spies, by a race for the most weapons, and in proxy wars like the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and Soviet-Afghanistan War. World War I, also called the First World War or the Great War, was an international conflict that in 1914–18 involving Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and other regions. In other hand, The Great Depression contributed to the creation of influential and important American art and popular culture, grounded in social conscientiousness. The longest and most severe economic downturn ever experienced by the industrialized Western world, the Great Depression began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. Under the leadership of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the American people and the U.S. economy gradually rebounded from the Great Depression. North Vietnam fought a guerrilla war against U.S.-supported South Vietnamese forces during this war.

At home, some Americans began to have easier lives. Families grew and some moved from the cities into outlying areas where they could purchase larger homes. Not all Americans were so successful. African Americans started a movement to gain fair treatment everywhere. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for black children were not equal to those for white children and must be integrated. President Lyndon Johnson supported the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his peaceful fight for civil rights and voting rights for African Americans. Some black leaders, such as Malcolm X, believed in less peaceful means to reform. New laws ended segregation and guaranteed African Americans the right to vote. Many black Americans worked toward joining the more prosperous middle class. While racial prejudice was not gone, African Americans had a better chance to live freely and well.

During the 1960s and 1970s, many American women grew angry that they did not have the same opportunities as men. Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem were leaders of a movement that worked to change laws so women could compete equally with men in business and education. A proposed constitutional amendment promising equal rights for women failed when not enough states ratified it, but many new laws did grant equal rights. Native Americans fought for the government to keep its past promises. They won back control of tribal lands and water rights. They fought for assistance for housing and education. In 1992, Ben Nighthorse Campbell became the first Native American elected to the Senate. Hispanic Americans from Mexico, Central America, Puerto Rico, and Cuba were politically active too. They fought against discrimination. They were elected to local, state, and national positions. César Chávez organized a nationwide boycott of California grapes that forced growers to work with the United Farm Workers union. Students protested the war in Vietnam, and President Johnson began peace negotiations. Long hair, rock ’n’ roll music, and illegal drugs were visible symbols of the “counter-culture” thinking of some young people during this time. Americans became more concerned about pollution. The first Earth Day was designated in 1970. The Environmental Protection Agency was created. New laws cut down on pollution. American society was changing. Slowly, the United States was embracing its multicultural population.