War and Prosperity

After the conclusion of the Great War, the world moved into the 1920s. The 1920s were a time of many changes in the economic and social aspects of life in the United States. Following World War I, the United States struggled to return to what President Warren G. Harding called "normalcy". However, the impact of the war, the new age of consumerism, the automobile, and the growth of the suburbs contributed to the creation of a different and new national lifestyle.

While transportation and communications technology served to unite the nation, a clash of values between the new urban-centered life and the legacy of the traditional rural life caused uneasiness and conflict. In addition, all Americans did not share in the good times. Beneath the surface was an economy with structural flaws that brought the Roaring Twenties to an abrupt end with the stock market crash in October 1929.


The Impact and Aftermath of War

World War I triggered a number of important changes in American society, most notably for some women and for many immigrants and African-Americans. Some changes were subtle and gradual while others were immediate and dramatic.

As many men went off to fight in Europe, the roles and responsibilities of women were affected. Their family responsibility increased. They contributed to the war effort as volunteers. Some women went to work in male-dominated fields, such as workers in weapons and munitions factories. Many women served overseas with the Red Cross and Salvation Army. Most, however, worked in traditionally female jobs, for which there was an increased demand. Contrary to popular belief, only about five percent of the women who entered the wartime workforce were new to working outside of the home. At war's end, with the return of male workers, women were expected to quit their jobs or to return to more traditional female work. Between 1910 and 1920, only 500,000 more women were added to the workforce.

The war had harsh consequences for immigrant families. Further immigration to the United States came to a screeching halt. About 18 percent of the American troops were foreign-born. However, many immigrant families already in the country faced fierce social and job discrimination in an antiforeign climate whipped up by the war.

Most African-American civil rights leaders supported World War I, and some 400,000 African-Americans served in the war. African-American soldiers were assigned to segregated units and often worked as laborers. Discrimination in the military was common during this time. Where African-Americans saw combat, they served with distinction. Several African-American regiments who fought alongside French troops were honored by the nation. Upon returning home, many African-American soldiers questioned why the liberties and freedoms they had fought to preserve in Europe were denied to them in their own country.

The Great Migration

After the Civil War, African-Americans began to migrate to the North, attempting to flee the racism and discrimination they faced in the agricultural South for what they imagined would be a better life in the industrial North. In the South, jobs were lost due to floods and crop damage, and in the North, workers were needed to meet war production goals beginning around 1910. The flow of immigrant labor was stopped due to the fighting in WWI, which created a need for workers to replace those in uniform.

After the war, this Great Migration continued. From 1910 through 1930, and even going into the 1940s, almost 2 million African-Americans had left the South. Although in the North they were usually able to improve their well being, they were still subject to racism and discrimination and it was fairly common for race riots to break out.

A Return to Normalcy

After WWI, disillusioned Americans wanted to return to the traditional foreign policy of isolationism. The 1920 landslide election of Republicans Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge represented the desire of many Americans to remove themselves from the pressures of world politics and the idealistic goals of the Progressives. While Progressivism continued, it was a slower pace largely at the state and local levels.

Next time here on The Half-Pint Historian Blog, we're going to examine the period of the Roaring 1920s. 

The Search for Peace

Hello readers! It's been quite a while since I last wrote here on the blog. I've been busy putting together my manuscript for The History Press, and I am happy to announce that my manuscript has been submitted for publication. It still amazes me that I was given this great opportunity to make my dream of becoming a historian come true. I will continue to keep you all updated as to the status of my book as it moves through the channels and will let you all know when it becomes available.

In the meantime, let's pick up where we left off...

World War I ended with an Allied victory in November 1918. The United States, particularly President Woodrow Wilson, played a role in the peacemaking process. Wilson had first suggested his own peacemaking proposals in January 1918, known as the Fourteen Points. To summarize, Wilson's Fourteen Points included: open, not secret, diplomacy; freedom of the seas; removal of trade barriers; arms reduction; self-determination of peoples (letting various national groups make their own political decisions); and the creation of an "association of nations" to guarantee political independence and territorial integrity.

Wilson's Fourteen Points became the basis for the peace negotiations that would be held in Versailles, France beginning in January 1919. Wilson led the American delegation, being the first president of the United States to leave American soil while in office.

Many of the Eurolean nations, who had suffered far greater than the United States, were not fully on board with Wilson's Fourteen Points. They wanted to be repaid for some of their losses they had suffered during the war, and some had even made secret wartime deals involving territorial changes and money settlements that contradicted provisions of the Fourteen Points.

The most important agreement reached at Versailles was the treaty with Germany, the Treaty of Versailles. According to its provisions, Germany had to do the following: accept complete responsibility for causing the Great War; pay huge reparations to the Allies; give up its military forces; cede lands to the new nations of Poland and Czechoslovakia; and give up its overseas colonies.

Wilson opposed many of the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles and treaties with the other Central Powers; however, he was willing to compromise because the treaties provided for a new world organization, the League of Nations, a predecessor to the United Nations. Wilson believed that the League of Nations would correct any problems caused by the peace treaties.

The League of Nations

The United States Senate had to approve the Treaty of Versailles that included the League of Nations, and it was there that Wilson was truly met with opposition. Wilson had angered Republicans by excluding them from the American delegation to the Versailles Conference yet Republicans held a majority of seats in the Senate. Wilson and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Henry Cabot Lodge distrusted a d disliked one another. It was this hostility that was a major factor in the failure to compromise.

Isolationists in the Senate worried that joining the League of Nations would involve the United States in future foreign wars. They feared, for example, that the United States might be obligated to furnish troops to defend member nations.

Wilson stubbornly refused to allow any but the most minor of changes to the Treaty of Versailles, becoming increasingly moralistic and uncompromising.

When Wikson went on a speaking tour to gain popular support for the treaty, he collapsed and suffered a stroke. His illness thereafter prevented him from playing an active role in the treaty debate. The Senate voted several times on the Treaty of Versailles but always defeated it. The United States made a separate peace with Germany, and never did jojn the League of Nations. Fundamentally, the nation had voted to retain its traditional foreign policy of preferring non intervention and of acting alone when it did choose to play a role.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

Although the United States failed to join the League of Nations, there was still great concern in the United States about keeping the peace. During the Paris Peace Conference, for example, many American women met with others from around the world to form the Women's International League for Peace and Feeedom. The WILPF opposed peace terms that would create additional, hostility among nations. The organization opposed the Treaty of Versailles for that reason, suggesting that its legacy would only be more war. The WILPF and other peace organizations wanted disarmament, arms control, and neutrality.

Reparations and War Debts

In 1914, the US had been a debtor nation, meaning that it owed more money to foreign nations than those nations owed to the US. After WWI, however, the US became the world's leading creditor nation, meaning that other countries owed more to the US than the US owed to them. The US was also the world's leading industrial producer, exporter, and financier. These changes were due in large part to money from the payment of war debts owed to this nation from the other Allied powers.

During WWI, the European Allies borrowed a great deal of money from the US in order to buy war supplies from American manufacturers. After the war, these debts became a source of conflict; European nations argued that their debts should be forgiven because while the US had contributed money, Europe had paid a heavy price in lives lost. Despite these arguments, the US demanded repayment anyway.

A factor that made repayment difficult was the US protectionist policy. High American tariffs limited European trade with the US and thus reduced earnings that might have been used to pay off war debts. These same tariffs also led to retaliation by 26 nations, most of which would raise their own tariff rates.

One step aimed at making repayment easier was the Dawes Plan, adopted in 1924. Under this plan, the US lent funds to Germany so that it could make war reparations--money it owed to European Allies as payment for economic losses during the war; the Allies would, in turn, use the funds to make payments on the war debts they owed the US.

Steps Towards Peace and Arms Control

In 1921, President Warren G. Harding hosted the Washington Naval Conference. The US, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan agreed to set limits on the number of warships each nation could build. They also pledged to keep the peace in Asia and to protect the independence of China. The conference, however, failed to establish any means of enforcement.

In 1928, 15 nations meet in Paris to sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which outlawed war except in self-defense. Enforcement provisions were missing from the Pact, which 60 nations eventually signed.

Although these moves towards peace would not last, the US would see an era of prosperity, and that's what we'll cover in the next post here on The Half-Pint Historian Blog.

The Effects of the Great War

Hello readers! This post is an important one because we'll be wrapping up the series of WWI posts by examining the effects the war had on the world. So, without further ado, let's get started.

World War I was a devastating war, the effects of which are still being felt 100 years after its conclusion. The Great War was the deadliest war involving multiple countries, with over 9 million military personnel deaths and over 7 million men left permanently disabled. The Great War was the most expensive war up until that point. The Great War also boasted the most advanced weaponry than any war that came before it, with war goods such as tanks, submarines, air planes, poison gas, machine and gatling guns, and various other artillery forms being the norm on the battlefields. Given this information, it's no surprise that the effects of the war are still being felt a century later; however, what were done specific effects of the war?

- The conclusion of the war saw the downfall of four longstanding monarchies: Austria-Hungary, Germany, Turkey, and Russia.
- The war made people more open and accepting of other ideologies such as the Bolsheviks, communism, socialism, and fascism.
- The conclusion of WWI effectively marked an end to colonialism, with revolts to end colonialism in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East as people became more nationalistic.
- The Great War was the most costly war of the time, leaving European countries deep in debt and making the United States the leading creditor in the world; thus, the war shifted the economic balance of power.
- As a leading aggressor in the war, Germany's economy suffered greatly after the war and Germany had to pay reparations, which led the economy to suffer further.
- With soldiers traveling from country to country, influenza spread, killing 25 million people worldwide.
- Due to the methods of war that were used in WWI, countries became embittered and it became evident that a governing body was necessary to promote security and peace worldwide, so the League of Nations was formed.
- The war promoted research in the fields of technology, transportation, and communication.
- The war promoted social changes, such as women's suffrage and labor laws, to improve living standards and quality of life.

There are many other effects that can be attributed to the Great War, but regardless of how long or short that list is, what is certain is that the world was never the same again.

Ten Important Battles of the Great War

Hello readers! It's been a few months since I last posted here in the blog. I wish I could say I've been up to some exciting stuff lately, but I've just been busy with my full-time job, preparing for my summer job, and finishing up my manuscript for The History Press.

The previous few blog posts have been about World War I, and this post is no different.

World War I was a major conflict that had some devastating effects, but before we can discuss those, we should discuss some of the significant battles of the war. I'm by no means a military historian, so I'm posting a link to an article written by staff members of the Imperial War Museums in the United Kingdom. Below is the link to the article:

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/10-significant-battles-of-the-first-world-war

Preparing for War: The U.S. Before Entering WWI

Hello readers. I'd like to take a minute to wish you all a happy new year. I hope your 2019 is off to a great start. I know mine is. I have my manuscript for The History Press due in July, I'm in the process of applying for research fellowships, so we'll see what happens in that department, and I'm looking at universities in the US and the UK for PhD programs. In the meantime, I hope to continue researching and putting out content here and on the Facebook page for the blog here. 

Source: Mary Harrsch, Mural of Trench Warfare of WWI at Bardstown, Kentucky; https://www.flickr.com/photos/mharrsch/2337046167/ 

Last month, I wrote about the reasons why the U.S. joined World War I. This post will examine the actions the U.S. took at home for a successful war effort.

The United States entered the Great War on the side of the Allies in 1917. Before that, however, the U.S. spent time gearing up for their impending entry in a number of ways. In 1916, passage of the National Defense Act and the Navy Act began the expansion of the U.S. armed forces; also in 1916, the 1916 Revenue Act was passed to pay for the military expansion.

While the U.S. was expanding the armed forces, there remained a question of how exactly the country would raise an army. This was a subject that was heavily debated at the time as there was support for a draft but also opposition for a draft. Those who supported the draft saw it as a way to be fair and democratic with Anericans from various walks of life serving the country together; those who opposed the draft did so under the belief that military service should be voluntary saw a draft as the rich and educated exercising their power over the poor, the working class, and immigrants just as has been done during the Civil War when a draft has been enacted. Despite the opposition, Congress passed the Selective Service Act in May 1917 which established a draft. All males between the ages of 18 and 45 had to register with the Selective Service, an act that is still in practice today. The constitutionality of the Selective Service Act was challenged but was upheld by the Supreme Court. 

To get the nation's economy geared up for war, certain economic operations were centralized and concentrated through a series of governmental agencies. Relying on the broad wartime powers of the president, Woodrow Wilson used the Council of National Defense to oversee these agencies. 

Whereas the U.S. typically had a laissez-faire economy, government control of the economy in the U.S. increased during World War I. For the first time, the government entered such fields as housing and labor relations; the government also supervised various public utilities, including the telephone and telegraph. About 16 percent of male workers went into the military and their jobs would be taken over by women and African Americans.

To President Wilson, WWI was a crusade. He believed that the Allies were fighting the 'war to end all wars', a war to make the world "safe for democracy". These idealistic goals helped make President Wilson the Allie's moral leader. These goals also helped to mobilize the American people to support the first conflict the U.S. had fought outside of the Western Hemisphere. With Wilson's words, and a busy propaganda machine organized by the Committee on Public Information urging the public to purchase war bonds and the conservation of resources, the nation geared up for war with patriotic enthusiasm.



Wartime Constitutional Issues

As the U.S. prepared for war, there continued to be opposition to the nation's entry and to the role the U.S. would play in the role.

Many people, including notable Americans of the time such as Progressives Jane Addams and Robert La Follette, were against the U.S. entry into the First World War. Due to the widespread opposition, the vote to declare war followed intense congressional debate. Once committed to the war effort, however, the nation's social climate was one of patriotism and nativism.

These emotions sometimes led to actions that restricted some people's civil rights, usually in the name of national security. In addition to those of German background and immigrants in general, socialists, pacifists, and anyone who questioned the war, became suspect as possible traitors. Nativism was expressed in a 1917 law passed over President Wilson's veto that required a literacy test for immigrants. The law's objective was to restrict immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe; however, it turned out that most immigrants could read and write, if not in English than in their native language.

The emotions of patriotism and nativism would also lead to the passing of two broadly worded acts which served to control and punish those who opposed the war effort. The Espionage Act of 1917 made it a crime to interfere with the draft and allowed the postmaster general to bar "treasonous" materials from the mail. The Sedition Act of 1918 made it a crime to speak or publish anything "disloyal, profane...or abusive" about the government, Constitution, flag, or military services of the United States.

Under these acts, the government prosecuted more than 2,000 Americans and sent 1,500 of them to jail. Pacifists, socialists, and others seen as extremists suffered the most. A special target was the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a radical union active in the West. Its leaders were arrested, its strikes broken up, and many of its members interred.

In 1918, the Sedition Act of 1918 was up for question as, just like previous stated, the Act made it a crime to speak or publish anything that could be seen as disloyal about the government, Constitution, war effort, etc. In a court case known as Schenck v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that free speech could, in fact, be limited during wartime. In a unanimous decision, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, "Free speech would not protect a man from falsely shouting 'fire' in a theater and causing a panic". Holmes would go on to say that Congress has the right to prevent words that would cause a "clear and present danger". That same year, the Supreme Court would also uphold the Sedition Act.



The actions the U.S. would take towards the war effort would seem to have been worth it, as the First World War would result in an Allied victory in November 1918. However, this series of posts on WWI is not yet finished. Next time on the blog, we'll examine some of the major battles of World War I.

Causes of WW1 for the United States

The Great War, or World War I, officially began in Europe in 1914, the United States would remain neutral until joining the war effort in 1917(with the war ending in 1918). This post will examine and provide details into the factors that caused the United States to enter the war and why they chose to ally with the Triple Entente.

Summary -- War broke out in Europe in July 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Due to the alliance system that existed at the time, most European nations joined the conflict while the U.S., under the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, remained neutral until 1917 when the country was drawn into the war due to a series of factors.

Cultural and Ethnic Links -- Despite the U.S. as a country remaining neutral for much of the war, few Americans remained truly neutral. Some people sympathized with the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy) because of familial and/or ancestral ties to those nations or because of a hatred of one or more of the nations in the Triple Entente (France, Britain, and Russia). The majority of Americans, however, favored the Triple Entente due to long-standing connections with Britain.

Economic Links -- The U.S. links to the Triple Entente/Allied Powers were economic as well as cultural. The British would blockade the North Sea which ended the U.S.'s export trade agreements with Germany which would drop in value from $345 million in 1914 to $29 million in 1916; however,  the U.S.'s trade agreements with the nations of the Triple Entente increased exponentially. American business and agriculture, particularly benefited from this trade as much of it was financed by U.S. government loans to the Allied nations, totalling more than $2 billion by 1917.

Most Americans did not believe that the trade agreements and lending of money with the Allied powers violated the nation's neutrality in the war. At this time, many of those in Wilson's cabinet were in favor of siding with the Triple Entente. Wilson's slogan for his second presidential campaign boasted this false neutrality: "He kept us out of war". Although many Americans still believed the country was neutral despite its economic ties with the Allies, the Triple Alliance (also known as the Central Powers) thought otherwise.

German Submarine Warfare -- In order to fight against the British blockade and to attempt to stop trade between the Allied Powers and the U.S., the German armed forces declared a war zone around Britain in 1915. German u-boats, or submarines, would sink enemy ships in the war zone. Germany announced that in order to avoid attack, neutral nations and their citizens should refrain from entering the war zone; this would supposedly prevent attacks done in error due to mistaken identity. At the time, the international rules for marine warfare required that a warship stop and identify itself before boarding a merchant/passenger ship, removing its crew and passengers, and finally sink it. However, Germany ignored these international laws.

Germany's indiscriminate sinking of ships in order to destroy the Britiah blockade and its sinking of ships from Allied nations was the primary reason for the U.S. entry into the Great War. President Wilson argued for the freedom of the seas, insisting that America, as a neutral nation, had the right to trade with nations at a time of war. Freedom of the seas also meant that in times of peace there should be unrestricted travel of civilians in international waters and that in times of war, citizens of neutral nations should be free to travel.

Germany's response to this would lead the U.S. into the war in 1917.

* On February 1, 1917, Germany released it's new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. Germany warned that it would attack ships without warning the vessels that were headed for Allied ports. Germany believed, at this point, that the war was at a stalemate; they knew this policy could bring the U.S. into the war but had hoped that they could break the British blockade before the U.S. could get troops to the battlefield.

* Two days later, on February 3, the U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Germany. In March, tensions between the U.S. and Germany grew with the discovery of the Zimmermann Note. This note was a message from the German foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, to the German minister to Mexico urging a German military alliance with Mexico--if the Mexicans helped the Central Powera, Germany promised to support Mexico in regaining their lost territory in the southwestern  U.S.

* Five U.S. merchant ships were sunk by the Germans in March 1917.

* Also in March, the Russian Revolution overthrew Czar Nicholas II and the Romanov dynasty, Russia's ruling class for 500 years before its fall. At the time, it appeared that more democratic forces would take control; if the U.S. went to war, it would attempt to make Russia an ally as the U.S. would join an alliance with other democratic nations.

With the Great War a century in our past, it's important to look back on the causes for the war and the reasons why the various nations, including our own,  eca e involved in the conflict. Next time here on the blog, we're going to examine the various roles that the U.S. played in the war and in future posts we'll examine the key battles and why they were so devastating.

Causes of World War I in Europe

Hello readers. I know I've been absent from the blog for a while and I sincerely apologize. Since my last post I've been continuing to work on my manuscript for Arcadia Publishing/The History Press (my editor says I'm on the right track for what they want for the manuscript) and I've started at a full-time job as an assistant teacher in a pre-k program. Things have been going well all around.

This month, we celebrate Veterans Day on 11/11. Fighting in World War I ended at 11am on November 11, 1918. To look back on this day as a day of remembrance, The Half-Pint Historian is continuing to take a look at the causes of World War I in Europe. Let's do this!

Soldiers in WWI; photo from www.todayifoundout.com

As the early 1900s began, people in Europe had enjoyed nearly a century of relative peace; however, at this time, forces were pushing the continent towards the brink of war. Nationalistic feelings, a glorification of the military, imperial rivalries, and tangled alliances all led to unrest in Europe. The war was sparked in the Balkans, where the Ottoman Empire had once maintained control, and soon all of Europe was at war. This post will explore the causes of the Great War in Europe prior to the entrance of the United States.


Causes

Although the world seemed at peace in the early 1900s, a series of powerful forces were at play that would drive the world to the brink of war.

• Nationalism--a feeling of pride in, and devotion to, one's country

Nationalism is a force that can bring people together but is also a dividing force. In the 1900s, aggressive nationalism was a source of tension.

Nationalism was strong in both Germany and France. In the early 1900s, Germany was unified and was extremely proud of its growing military and industrial complexes. France, in the meantime, wanted to regain its position as a leading European power, especially after its 1871 loss in the Franco-Prussian War. Due to this loss, France lost the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine and had to pay money to Germany. This national rivalry between the two nations contributed to the growing tensions in Europe.

Nationalist movements in the diverse Ottoman Empire also led to unrest, especially in the Balkan peninsula of southeastern Europe.

Russia had encouraged a form of nationalism in Eastern Europe called Pan-Slavism. The Pan-Slavism movement tried to draw together all Slavic peoples, with Russia being the largest Slavic country. The multinational empire of Austria-Hungary opposed Slavic national movements, particularly in Serbia and Russia.

• Militarism--the glorification of military power

In the late 1800s, militarism arose in many European nations. This over-glorification of the military led to various nations engaging in arms races, particularly Britain and Germany, who created war goods such as tanks, U-boats (German submarines), machine guns, and more. The glorification of the military coupled with the arms race led to numerous European nations growing suspicious of one another and becoming increasingly willing to utilize military force against one another.

• Imperialism (and Economic Rivalry)--when a country increases their power and wealth by bringing additional territories under control

Prior to the outbreak of World War I, European countries vied for control of Africa and Asia due to the richness of various raw materials these continents could provide. Needless to say, tensions ran high among the European nations as they struggled against one another to control the areas and gain the raw materials they needed/wanted.

• Alliance systems--a network of agreements, treaty, and ententes

Over time, due to various reasons, various countries in Europe built up alliance systems, the point of which were to defend one another. If one country went to war, the allied country (or countries) would come to the defense of the attacked.

The alliance systems in place prior to the outbreak of the Great War were as follows: Russia and Serbia; Germany and Austria-Hungary; France and Russia; Britain and France and Belgium; and Japan and Britain.

The alliance systems are confusing, but they would play a major role in the war in Europe. Austria-Hungary would declare war on Serbia (for a reason that will be examined in the next, and final, cause); Russia would then become involved in order to defend Serbia. Seeing Russia mobilizing, Germany would declare war on Russia; France would then declare war against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Germany would attack France through Belgium pulling Britain into the war, and because Britain was drawn into the war, Japan would enter into the war as well. Later, for reasons that will be examined in the next post, Italy and the United States would enter the war on the side of the Triple Entente (made up of Britain, Russia, and France).

• Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

If there could be one singular cause for the outbreak of a war, then the immediate cause of the war was the assassination of the Austria-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. 

In June 1914, a Serbian nationalist terrorist organization called the Black Hand sent assassins to kill the Archduke. Their initial attempts failed, but on June 28, 1914, a Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Archduke and his wife while they were in Sarajevo, Bosnia which was a part of Austria-Hungary at the time. The assassination was in protest to Austria-Hungary having control of the area when Serbia wanted control of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The assassination led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia and the alliance system kicked in to full-force, leading to the outbreak of the Great War. 

The Great War in Europe would change the world and would change warfare. The war had an extremely high casualty rate--over 15 million deaths and 20 million injuries. Due to this war, modern warfare would never be the same and this war would lead to confusing alliances, economic difficulties for all of the countries involved, the Great Depression, and the Second World War. However, those all for a different post. 

Next time on the blog, we'll be examining the causes for the U.S. entry into World War I. Until next time!

Conditions in Europe Which Led to World War I

Hello readers! I know it's been a while since I last published an actual history post, so I'm going to get right into it after this very brief introduction. The next few posts, including this one, will be about World War I. Before I begin informing you all about the outbreak of the war, it's imperative that I begin with what was going on in the U.S. and in Europe prior to the war's start; this will allow for understanding of why the war happened the way it did in future posts.

Getty Images--On the Franco-German front, British soldiers standing in trenches

Prior to the outbreak of the Great War, the U.S. was an economic powerhouse. The economic strength of the U.S. due to the rise of industrialization rivaled that of much of Europe; the rapid production of now-household items and the technological advances brought the U.S. financial wealth--more people were employed in various industries, urbanization caused cities to spring up almost out of nowhere, and the industrial growth in the country brought multiple waves of immigrants to its shores looking for opportunities to better themselves. Also important to note is that although the U.S. focused its military efforts on the Spanish-American War and extending its control over places like the Philippines, Cuba (for a small time), and Puerto Rico, the U.S. did, more or less, develop an isolationist foreign policy and remained outside of the political disputes happening over in Europe around the same time. However, the U.S. would later play a minor role in the Great War.

So, what was happening in Europe at the time? Although this blog focuses on American history, we cannot discuss the Great War without knowing what happened in Europe prior to its outbreak, and Professor David Stevenson of the London School of Economics & Political Science wrote a great article about it linked here. However, for those who do not want to click on to external links, here is the full article below, along with Stevenson's footnotes and the brief bio that appears at the bottom of his article:

"Considering factors such as globalization and military advancement, Professor David Stevenson examines the political and diplomatic landscape of Europe before the outbreak of World War One.

Europe in the early 20th century had known no great war, involving all the Continent’s major Powers, since the fall of Napoleon. Although European society had been transformed in the interim, the changes had made war more difficult rather than impossible, and the underpinnings of the long 19th-century peace had grown fragile.

Globalization

Characteristic of the pre-1914 decades was what we would now call globalization. Trade may have risen from one thirtieth to one third of world production between 1800 and 1913; between 1855 and 1914 investment flows grew 20 times. Europe accounted for nearly two thirds of global trade and even more of global investment, and from the 1890s Europe’s major currencies were fixed in value in relation to each other under the international gold standard. Hundreds of thousands of foreign-born labourers worked in the heavy industries of French Lorraine and Germany’s Ruhr. The British writer Norman Angell in his 1909 best-seller, Europe’s Optical Illusion, maintained that war between advanced modern economies was now irrational.^[1] Yet British naval planners saw economic interdependence as making Germany more vulnerable, and the German General Staff considered war remained a viable option, at least if victory came quickly.

Democratization

A second 19th-century characteristic was democratization. By 1914 all the European Powers had elected lower houses of parliament, and a majority of the adult male population was enfranchised. The press was relatively free, and citizens could form parties and pressure groups. Nonetheless, in Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Russia ministers answered to monarchs rather than to a parliamentary majority, and the military chiefs were not subordinate to civilian statesmen. Moreover, as international tension mounted, public opinion polarized, more moderate and progressive tendencies being offset by nationalism and militarism. Europe’s socialist parties opposed wars of conquest and aggression but were willing to endorse a war fought for just cause and in self-defence, which in 1914 all the governments would claim to be fighting.

Military revolutions

The 19th century had also witnessed a succession of military revolutions. At sea, steel had superseded wooden hulls and steam had superseded sail. HMS Dreadnought, launched by Britain in 1906 with turbine engines and 10 12-inch guns, made all existing battleships obsolete. On land, Prussia’s combination of universal liability to conscription, forward strategic planning by a General Staff, and railway-borne mobilization helped win the wars of German unification, and was widely emulated. Breech-loading cannon with rifled steel barrels replaced smooth-bore muzzle-loaders, and infantry rifles replaced muskets. Smokeless high explosive replaced powder in bullets and shells, and the modern field gun fired up to 20 rounds per minute. Yet although on balance these developments favoured defenders over attackers, military planners concluded from the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War that offensive tactics could still prevail, albeit at much higher cost than before.

International organization

War therefore remained possible, and the leading international political institution, the Concert of Europe, was too weak to prevent it. The Concert was not a permanent fixture but rather an understanding that at times of crisis the Powers would try to resolve their differences peacefully through a conference of ambassadors. It was a valuable face-saving device if governments wished to use it, but in 1914 when Britain proposed a conference, Germany encouraged Austria-Hungary to refuse.

A balance of power?

Peace therefore depended on more traditional devices such as the balance of power and deterrence. In the 1870s and 1880s the newly unified German Second Empire under the Chancellorship of Otto von Bismarck was not only the strongest Continental military power but also spun a web of alliances that left France – resentful of its defeat in 1870 – isolated. The Austro-German alliance of 1879 developed into the Triple Alliance (including Italy) in 1882, and Russia too concluded agreements with the German-led bloc. But after Wilhelm II became Emperor he allowed the connection with Russia to lapse, facilitating the formation in 1891-94 of a Franco-Russian alliance. Even so, for a time the two groupings balanced each other, and Russia and France were in rivalry not only with Germany but also (in Central Asia and in Africa) with Britain. So secure did Germany still feel that from 1898 it too challenged Britain through a major programme of North Sea battleship building.

The beginning of the 20th century

After 1904-07, the line-up became more ominous. Russia was weakened for several years after its defeat by Japan. Germany tried but failed to form a German-Franco-Russian bloc excluding Britain. Instead the British compromised over their extra-European disputes with the French in the ‘Entente cordiale’ of 1904 and over those with the Russians in 1907, and began co-operating diplomatically with their former adversaries. In 1902 Italy had reached a separate understanding with France. Germany’s leaders protested that the Triple Entente ‘encircled’ them, while their one remaining reliable ally, Austria-Hungary, was a multi-national empire that was hobbled by inter-ethnic disputes and menaced by a growing confrontation with its neighbour, Serbia, which with Russian encouragement fomented separatism among Austria-Hungary’s South Slavs. After 1905 Europe experienced a succession of diplomatic crises that heightened antagonism between the two blocs. From 1912 the Anglo-German naval race lost impetus, as a land arms race between the Austro-German and Franco-Russian alliances superseded it. In retrospect it is easy to discern the warning signs. But at the time they were less evident, and as late as spring 1914 tensions seemed to be easing. The French Socialist leader, Jean Jaurès, believed the peaceful resolution of so many crises had bred a dangerous complacency. Nonetheless, a general war was not inevitable until deliberate decisions created it." 

Footnotes

[1] Norman Angell, Europe’s Optical Illusion (London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1909).

• Written by David Stevenson
• Professor David Stevenson holds the Stevenson Chair in International History at the London School of Economics & Political Science. His publications include: Armaments and the Coming of War: Europe, 1904-1914 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996); 1914-1918: the History of the First World War (London: Allen Lane, 2004); and With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918 (London: Allen Lane, 2011). He is currently preparing a book on the international history of the year 1917.

This is a fantastic article by Professor Stevenson highlighting the conditions in Europe that primed it for war. In upcoming posts, we'll learn about the events that led to the outbreak of the war in Europe, why the various European nations became involved in the conflict, and why the U.S. would come to involve itself in the war, as well as specific key battles in the war and its eventual end and repercussions.

A New Adventure

Hello readers. I know I've been away for a while but I have fantastic news--I've been diligently chipping away at a manuscript that will be published by Arcadia Publishing/The History Press in the spring of 2020! I submitted a revised version of my graduate school thesis back in April after I got my grade back on it and was contacted by the acquisitions editor for The History Press (a subsidiary of Arcadia Publishing) saying that my manuscript wasn't what they were looking for; however, he stated that my writing style is what they were looking for and had me pitch another idea. A few days later after giving it some thought and doing a whole lot of research, I pitched a new idea--a book about the wilderness frontier raids in Upstate New York during the American Revolution. I knew it was something they didn't already have a book about and I had already done some research on the topic for my graduate thesis and had written an article about it for the New York History Blog (check that blog out here) so I was confident in my abilities to write a full manuscript about it. This project did get approved and I was sent a publishing contract a few days ago. This is such an exciting time for me and I'm so excited to be sharing this amazing news with all of you! However, I know some of you may be concerned with the state of affairs here at the blog--I'm writing this post to tell you all not to worry because I'm still going to be devoting time to write posts for this blog as well. Each and every one of you, readers, have made me realize how much I enjoy writing for an audience that enjoys history and have pushed me to explore other avenues so I can continue to pursue my love of writing and history.

Be on the lookout for more posts in the near future as well as updates on how my manuscript is going. Remember to "like" the Facebook page for this blog at Marie Williams, The Half-Pint Historian and follow me on Twitter @MarieDAWilliams.

The Spanish-American War

The late 19th century would see two wars--a circulation war between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst and a war between the United States and Spain. The Spanish-American War would result in the end of Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and the acquisition of new territories in the Pacific and Latin America by the United States.

In the early months of 1895, Cuba was struggling to gain independence from Spain. Spain was brutally repressive towards Cuba and this was played out in the American media. Newspaper editors, politicians, and regular American citizens wanted U.S. intervention on Cuba's behalf but there was not probable cause to enter the conflict at the time. William Randolph Hearst, the editor of the "New York Journal", sent a correspondent to Cuba in 1859 to draw pictures for the newspaper. The correspondent sent word to Hearst that there was no hint that war would break out; in his reply, Hearst famously replied, "You supply the pictures and I'll supply the war."

On February 15, 1898, an explosion occurred on the USS Maine, a U.S. naval ship sent to Cuba to monitor the rebellion. The explosion was completely unexpected and a large number of the crew, 260 men, were killed as a result. Although the cause of the explosion is still being debated by naval historians and naval archaeologists today (with the primary belief today being that the cause was an internal combustion issue after decades of research), the U.S. Navy believed through its investigations that the USS Maine was destroyed by a missile fired by the Spanish.

The phrase "Remember the Maine" became a rallying cry for the U.S. as civilian citizens, military members politicians, and even the president believed that the U.S. should enter into a war with Spain.

President Grover Cleveland wanted to avoid going to war with Spain during his term and was successful; however, President McKinley was not successful. After the incident with the USS Maine, President McKinley sent the Spanish a strongly worded letter demanding a truce and an end to the brutality against the Cubans. The Spanish refused and the U.S. Congress would declare war on April 25, 1898.

The events in Cuba would trigger the Spanish-American War but the first official events of the war would kick-off in the Philippines in Southeast Asia. In late February 1898 after the incident with the USS Maine, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt had warned Commodore George Dewey to prepare for possible military action in the Philippines as these islands served as a base for part of the Spanish naval fleet. In the early morning hours of May 1, Commodore Dewey had launched a surprise attack on the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay. Most of the Spanish ships that were present would be destroyed. In July, American troops arrived in the Philippines and combined forces of the Americans and the Filipino rebels, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, would capture the city of Manila; on their own, the rebels would capture the island of Luzon and declare independence from Spain.

Back in the Caribbean, a Spanish fleet entered the Cuban harbor at Santiago on May 19. The American Navy soon blockaded the Spanish fleet, trapping them inside the harbor. About 17,000 American troops then came ashore while forces under Cuban general Calixto Garcia drove off the Spanish soldiers. As the Cuban and American forces advanced, heavy fighting followed.

As the war advanced, Theodore Roosevelt would resign from his position as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy and would join the war efforts as a commanding officer of the First Regiment of U.S. Cavalry Volunteers--known famously as the Rough Riders. On July 1, the Rough Riders charged up San Juan Hill, capturing the hill after intense fighting. Two days later, the Spanish fleet in Santiago Harbor was destroyed, bringing an end to Spanish colonial rule in Cuba. In late July, the U.S. then turned its sights on Puerto Rico and quickly took control of the island.

The Spanish-American War led to the acquisition of new territories to the United States, which included Puerto Rico and the Philippines; the U.S. also became a protectorate of Cuba via the Platt Amendment (1901) which granted Cuba its independence under the conditions that the U.S. could control the naval base at Guantanamo Bay and also intervene in Cuban affairs if the country's independence was threatened. In 1907 under the Jones Act, Puerto Rico became an official U.S. territory and all Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship; at that time, Puerto Rico wanted independence and to be its own sovereign nation whereas today many Puerto Ricans want the territory to be granted statehood.

The Philippines, however, would continue to fight for independence and would have support from anti-imperialist backers such as Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain, and others. Imperialists Henry Cabot Lodge, Albert Beveridge, and others argued what they believed to be the benefits of American imperialism and in securing the islands--that the Philippines could be home to (another) Pacific naval base, that they could use the location as a trade hub with China, and that the U.S. had a duty to help "less civilized" peoples. The imperialists would win the argument and the Treaty of Paris would be ratified on February 6, 1899.

Rebellion in the Philippines would continue as the islands struggled for independence not from Spain but from the U.S. More than 4,000 Americans died in the conflict, but the Filipinos suffered much greater casualties with a death toll of 200,000 civilians and soldiers. In the summer of 1901, the U.S. transferred authority from a military government to a civilian government with William H. Taft at its head. In 1946, the Philippines would finally be granted independence.

Although the Spanish-American War was one of the shorter conflicts the U.S. was involved in, it has lasting impacts on the country today as far as international and national relations are concerned with the acquisition of lands. In 2017, Puerto Rico was ravaged by Hurricane Maria, leaving over one million people without electricity, communications technology, and their homes. Relief aid was slow to come, and many in the U.S. commonwealth are still left without homes and electricity. Today, many people don't realize that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory rather than a sovereign nation and believe that they should be left alone to deal with the fallout and the cleanup of the hurricane on their own, which arrived in the midst of an economic downturn for the territory, further straining relationships with our own people.


The next post on the blog will examine U.S. international relations and the construction of the Panama Canal.

The Progressive Era's Reform Movements: A Summary

The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform in the U.S. from the 1890s to the 1920s. The main objective of the Progressive Era was to eliminate the social ills caused by industrialization, urbanization, mass immigration, and government corruption. The top ten reforms of the Progressive Era were:

1. Civil Rights-- W.E.B. Du Bois published "The Souls of Black Folk" in 1903 which called for a more proactive approach to civil rights; in 1909, the NAACP was founded by a group of black and white activists.

2. Conservationism-- Millions of acres of land and mineral sites were set aside as national property during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt for conservation and reclamation; in 1906, the National Park Service was founded by the Organic Act.

3. Government Reform-- Wisconsin governor Robert La Follette implemented the "Wisconsin Idea" which reformed taxes, elections, railroad rates, and more; he also allowed voters to have a more direct control of their government, and other states would see his actions and would follow suit.

4. Health & Medicine-- After the 1906 publication of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle", which examined the horrors of the meatpacking industry, reformers worked to create national food and drug regulations; today, we have the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to ensure our food and medicine is safe for consumption.

5. Labor Reform-- Theodore Roosevelt became the first president to support workers by intervening in the coal strike of 1902 on behalf of the miners. Reformers also advocated for legislation regulating child labor and workplace safety. Labor reform would lead to the rise of OSHA safety standards, workers compensation, and other measures.

6. Radical Trade Unionism-- Trade unions were established for the benefit of the workers; tools such as strikes and collective bargaining were used to receive things like worker safety measures and higher pay...including the fight for a minimum living wage.

7. Socialism-- Socialism is a dirty word in this country, but it would come to the U.S. in the 1900s. Socialist candidate Eugene Debs won 800,000 votes in 1912 for the presidential election, showing how popular Socialism was at the time. Some socialist measures continue to exist in this country--such as public schools, public libraries, public emergency forces such as police, firefighters, and EMS, and more.

8. Temperance-- Temperance groups blamed violence, poverty, and other social problems on alcohol. As a result of the work carried out by temperance groups, the Eighteenth Amendment forbidding the manufacturing, sale, transportation, and consumption of alcohol was ratified to the Constitution; later, this amendment would be stricken.

9. Trust Busting-- Theodore Roosevelt used the 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act to "bust" up powerful monopolies and corporate trusts like the Northern Securities railroad trust and the Standard Oil trust.

10. Women's Rights-- Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn in 1916. Birth control would allow women to space out their births and to limit the number of children they had. The infamous Comstock Laws would be passed, which severely censored information and materials considered "indecent" such as information on birth control; women of all social classes rallied against these laws, and would also rally for suffrage (which I described in a post in March for Women's History Month). The Nineteenth Amendment would be ratified in 1920 and women would be granted the right to vote.

This post was a summary of the many reform movements of the Progressive Era. These reforms by no means eliminated the social ills of the day, but the goal to set out to make a better country in the wake of industrialization was fought head-on by people of all social classes who saw that moving forward technologically was not positive for everyone.

Educating America

Before 1870, fewer than half of American children went to school. One-room schoolhouses with all age levels being taught together by one teacher was the norm. As industry grew, people realized that the nation would benefit from having an educated workforce; as a result, states would push to improve education at all levels. This post will examine how education reform swept the nation.

In 1852, Massachusetts would pave the way for compulsory education by law. Compulsory education is what we in the U.S. continue to have--children up to a certain age are required by law to attend school. Other states followed suit and most states would require children up to age 16 to remain in school, changing from no age requirement and no compulsory attendance. The public school would become popularized at this time. Due to the rise of public schools and compulsory education, more youths would stay in school and graduate. Higher education would expand as a result of increased availability to education; both state-funded universities and privately-funded colleges for both men and women would increase in number.

One major proponent of compulsory education was Horace Mann, who was the Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Mann believed that education should be universal, non-sectarian, free, and that it should aim to educate the child as a whole person--to teach them the reading, writing, and math skills they would need for everyday life but to also teach them civic virtue and character so they would be well-rounded, functioning members of society.

Education for adults would also rise during this time, usually in the form of libraries and religious education. Teachers also taught immigrants how to speak English and how to read, write, and perform necessary mathematic functions.

As education became more widespread, so too did literacy rates increase. As more people learned to read and write, they began to do these for pleasure. Low-priced paperbacks about the "Wild West" and "rags-to-riches" stories became popular; realistic fiction would become popular as well, propelling authors such as Upton Sinclair, Mark Twain, and others to fame.

Newspapers and their readership began to take off at this time as a direct result of higher literacy rates. However, newspapers were not always informational pieces; this time period saw one of the greatest feuds between editors--William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. Hearst was the editor-in-chief of the "New York Journal" and Pulitzer was the editor-in-chief of the "New York World"; both competed to be the best-selling newspaper of the later 19th century, and they did this via yellow journalism--sensationalizing and embellishing the stories (or making them up altogether). This will be covered in-depth in a future post, but I wanted to set up the information here first.

The growth of an educated populace would propel the U.S. and further push it to become the global superpower of the 19th and early 20th century.

The Art of Doing Business: Captains of Industry, Robber Barons, and the Formation of Unions in the Second Industrial Revolution

The Second Industrial Revolution and the Progressive Era brought about new ways of doing business, and due to these new ways of doing business changes had to occur for the safety and betterment of the workers. These eras would lead to the rise of entrepreneurs in the forms of captains of industry and robber barons and would also bring about the rise of unions and health and safety standards.

The later 1800s and early 1900s saw the rise of corporations, or businesses owned by multiple investors. Corporations operated by raising large amounts of capital by selling stock in the business. Stockholders, in turn, would receive a share in the company's profits and could pick the directors to run the company. The corporations were seen as a benefit for a time because they limited the risk for investors; owners of non-incorporated businesses risked losing their homes, property, and livelihood if the business folded but investors of corporations only risked the amount of money they had invested. At this time, banks were loaning huge amounts of capital to corporations, which allowed for the growth of industry; bankers made major profits off of these loans as well. One such banker was J.P. Morgan, a name that readers should be familiar with if they have one (or more) Chase credit card. Morgan gained control of key industries such as railroads and steel via issuing loans to corporations; he and his colleagues would also buy stock in troubled corporations, run them in a way that eliminated competition, and made those corporations profitable again.

 The United States took a laissez-faire (hands-off) approach to business in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; Congress rarely made laws to regulate business practices, which led to a feeling of freedom and growth of industry at the time. This growth of industry and big business would lead to the rise of trusts and monopolies (more on these later in this post). The growth of industries also led to the rise of captains of industry and of robber barons.

Some famous captains of industry were: John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, the previously mentioned J.P. Morgan, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. These men expanded their industries, gave people jobs, and literally built America.

John D. Rockefeller came from humble beginnings as the son of a peddler in New York City. At age 23, Rockefeller invested in an oil refinery and he used the profits earned from his investment to purchase other oil companies. Rockefeller competed in industry by lowering his prices to drive out competition; this resulted in Rockefeller forming the Standard Oil Trust in 1882.

Andrew Carnegie came from humble beginnings as well; as a poor Scottish immigrant, he worked his way up in the railroad business then entered the growing steel industry. Carnegie slowly gained control of every step of the steel making process; Carnegie would come to own iron mills, steel mills, railroads, and shipping lines. In 1892, Carnegie would combine his businesses into the Carnegie Steel Company, which would produce more steel than all of the mills of England. Although Carnegie was a ruthless businessman he was also a philanthropist and believed that the rich had a duty to improve society, so he donated hundreds of millions of dollars to build and fund libraries and concert halls and other charities.

One final captain of industry this post will discuss is Cornelius Vanderbilt, who built his wealth in shipping and railroads. he cut his teeth in the shipping industry working with his father as a ferryman between Staten Island and Manhattan. Vanderbilt turned to the railroad business as some of the railroads of his day were built to connect with steamboats that ran to New York. Vanderbilt dominated the steamboat business on the Long Island Sound and successfully launched a campaign in the 1840s to take over the New York/Providence/Boston Railroad, also known as the Stonington. Over time, Vanderbilt would take over numerous railroad lines, most notably the Hudson River Railroad and the New York Central Railroad. In 1869, Vanderbilt had directed the construction of the Grand Central Depot on 42nd Street in Manhattan for the terminus of his lines. The Grand Central Depot was finished and operational in 1871 and was renamed the Grand Central Terminal in 1913. Vanderbilt, who had also grown up poor, put his wealth to use by establishing Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.

I used the term "captains of industry" while describing these men because the term generally has positive connotations--captains of industry often: served their nation in a positive way; raised productivity and expanded markets; created jobs that raised the nation's standards of living; boosted the supply of goods by building factories; and created museums, libraries, universities, concert halls, and more, many of which still exist today. The term "robber baron" that I used earlier in this post had and has negative connotations--robber barons were people who became rich through ruthless business practices. Robber barons often: drained the country of its natural resources; persuaded public officials to interpret the law in their favor; ruthlessly destroyed their competitors; made their workers toil under dangerous and unhealthy conditions; paid their workers meager wages; and built their fortunes by stealing from the public.

Before moving on to the experiences of workers and the rise of labor unions, here are some important definitions:

Corporations--businesses owned by multiple investors

Monopoly--a company that controls most of all business in a particular industry

Trust--a group of corporations run by a single board of directors


Changes in the Workplace

Prior to the Civil War, most factories were fairly small; however, as industries grew due in part to immigration, the workplace had to change as well. Most of the factory workers were immigrants, poor native-born whites, and African-Americans who left Southern farms. In some industries, the majority of workers were even women and children. For example, women outnumbered men in the textile mills of New England, the garment sweatshops of New York and the tobacco factories of the South. Children worked in bottle factories, in textile mills, tobacco factories, coal mines, and garment factories.

Factory life was by no means ideal at this time--employers were not required to pay compensation for injuries that happened on the job or even to pay employees a living wage. Robber baron factory owners often cut costs at the expense of their workers; children were often injured or killed in the factories and coal mines, and one of the deadliest fires occurred in New York City on March 25, 1911 due to unsafe work practices. On March 25, 1911, fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory; the workers, most of whom were young women, rushed to the exits but found they had been barred to prevent the workers from walking off the job. Workers tried to escape the flames by jumping out the windows to their deaths. Nearly 150 workers lost their lives in the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. As a result, New York workers pushed for safer conditions in a number of ways.

One such way was through organizing and forming labor unions so the voices of workers could be heard as a collective. One of the oldest of these labor unions was the Knights of Labor. The Knights of Labor was established in 1869 by a group of Philadelphia clothing workers. The Knights admitted women, African-Americans, immigrants, and unskilled laborers. The Knights was one of the largest labor unions of its day. However, whatever success the Knights had was undercut by the Haymarket Riot. On May 4, 1886, in Chicago, striking workers rallied in Haymarket Square. Suddenly, a bomb exploded killing seven policemen; police sprayed the crowd with bullets. As a result of the Haymarket Riot the Knights of Labor, present at the riot, lost much of their influence. In its place, Samuel Gompers formed the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in Columbus, Ohio in 1886. Unlike the Knights, the AFL only admitted skilled workers because Gompers argued that their skills made it costly and difficult to train replacements; he also believed that the most effective way to achieve improvements was through collective bargaining where the union would negotiate with management for workers as a group. By 1904 the AFL had grown to more than a million members.

Women also participated in the labor movement. One woman who rose to prominence at this time was "Mother" Mary Harris Jones. Mother Jones tirelessly traveled the country campaigning for unions, giving support to striking unions, and calling attention to the hard lives of children who worked in factories.

Today, unions don't play as major of a role for workers as they did in the past. However, from the labor movements of the 19th and 20th centuries we continue to maintain child labor laws (which vary from state to state), OSHA standards, HAZ MAT standards, and more meant to benefit the workers.

The Second Industrial Revolution would bring about the rise of urbanization and factory work, and would lead to the rise of workers standing up for their rights needs. The next posts on this blog will be about the rise in education in the United States and the reforms of the Progressive Era. 

Inventions and Innovations in the Second Industrial Revolution

Hello readers. The previous blog post was about immigration in the Second Industrial Revolution; now, we're moving into the inventions, innovations, and advancements made during the era.


In the late 1800s, numerous enterprising Americans created a flood of new inventions meant to make life easier for others. In 1897, the U.S. government issued more patents than in the decade before the Civil War and would become known the world over as the land of inventions and innovations.

This wouldn't be a post about inventions and innovations without mentioning Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. Nikola Tesla was an inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and physicist best known for his contributions to the knowledge of alternating current (AC) electrical supply system. Tesla emigrated to the U.S. in 1884 from Austria. He worked at Edison Machine Works in New York City for a time before going his own way; he would establish laboratories and companies where he would develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices such as his famed alternating current induction motor. Tesla was also famous for his experiments with wireless technology--from wireless lighting and wireless electrical power to wireless communication. Without Tesla's experiments, there would be no basis for cell phones or WiFi today. In 1876, Thomas Edison set up a research laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey where numerous scientists worked to produce products such as the electric light bulb, phonograph motion picture camera, and more. With most of the inventions produced by Edison's crew requiring electricity, Edison would open the first electrical power plant in New York City in 1882; soon, power plants would spring up in other cities all over the country, providing electricity to homes businesses, and schools. Today, the electrical inventions of Tesla and Edison, and the availability of electricity in the home are often taken for granted.

The period of the Second Industrial Revolution/Technological Revolution would lead to a rise in communications technology just as the Market Revolution had. In 1866, Cyrus Field had laid an underwater telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean between the U.S. and Europe. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell further improved communication with the successful invention of the telephone; by 1885 more than 300,000 telephones had been sold, mostly to businesses, and Bell would go on to organize the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (or AT&T today). Other devices would go on to make the work life and home life simplified. In 1868, Christopher Sholes invented the typewriter; George Eastman's Kodak Camera was introduced in 1888 and its light weight replaced the use of huge cameras and hundreds of pounds of chemicals; and the costs of the typewriter and the Kodak Camera were low enough that ordinary people could buy them and use them in their daily lives.

The time period also brought about a change in how people traveled. In the late 1800s, Europeans invented the automobile and it would make its way to the U.S. In 1902, only 8,000 Americans owned an automobile; in 1913, Henry Ford developed the assembly line, which allowed him to churn out vehicles at a quickened pace making the automobile more widely available to the American public in both quantity and price. Ford even began churning out his own automobiles such as the Ford Model A and the Ford Model T--both available in every color you could want...as long as that color was black. Roadways were built and expanded upon and today the name Ford continues to live on.

One final mode of transportation that came about because of the Second Industrial Revolution was the aeroplane, or airplane as we say now. In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright tested a gas-powered airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. On its first flight, the plane stayed in the air for 12 seconds and flew 120 feet. at the time, no one could see a practical use for these flying machines, and it wasn't until World war I broke out when their potential military use was realized. By the 1920s, travel by airplane began to "take off" and Boeing would begin the move from manufacturing military aircraft to commercial fleets.

Many of these inventions and innovations remain in use today while others have not stood the test of time and our modern technological revolution, but these inventions and innovations would propel America forward and make us known the world over as a technological powerhouse.

Immigration in the Second Industrial Revolution

The Second Industrial Revolution was well-known for the influx of immigrants who came from Europe to the United States. Between 1865 and 1915, some 25 million immigrants entered the U.S. There were many reasons for this increase in immigration--some European immigrants were escaping pogroms and political turmoil, others were seeking religious freedom, others were facing famine in their own countries, others were seeking spouses, and others were seeking employment and economic gain. The decision to leave one's country may have been difficult for some, and not all immigrants chose to stay in the United States for a variety of reasons. Many Americans were not pleased with the arrival of these Europeans coming to their country and made their opinions known. This post will examine the impact of immigration and nativism on the United States during the Second Industrial Revolution.

In the later 1800s and the early 1900s, immigrants arrived in the U.S. on ships. Ocean travel was very popular at the time, but it was a luxury for many people as it was expensive. The immigrants were crammed into large compartments below decks known as steerage, typically where cattle would be stored on a transatlantic voyage. To deal with the influx of immigrants into the U.S. there were multiple receiving centers in various parts of the country--in 1892 the most famous of these receiving centers, Ellis Island in New York, opened and took in European immigrants and at the same time Angel Bay, a receiving center in San Fransisco, California took in Asian immigrants.

The path to becoming an American citizen back then was much different than it is today. In order to become an American citizen in the 1880s, immigrants had to say they wanted to become citizens, study American history and the laws, pass a naturalization exam, and promise loyalty only to the United States. Finally, if everything was sufficient, the individual was given naturalization papers. This was not the case for many of the immigrants--many arrived in the U.S. as temporary workers, where they would work in the U.S. for a time to earn money and return to their home country to buy property and get married. For others, coming to the U.S. was a permanent move to escape political turmoil or famine. However, one-third of immigrants who had initially arrived in the U.S. had determined after a time that their situation in their home country was not as bad as what they experienced in the U.S. and would return to their home country.

Not everyone was pleased with the wave of immigrants coming into the country. Nativist, those who wanted to preserve the U.S. for native-born Americans citizens. They attempted to do this by creating "scientific" tests based on a series of measurements and physical exams to prove intelligence, strength, and other "worthy" characteristics. Nativists would also spread the beliefs that these newcomers would not assimilate to the culture of the U.S., that they would take jobs from "real" citizens, that they would bring rampant crime and violence, and that they would bring undesirable beliefs into the country such as anarchy, communism, and socialism to the country. Despite the exams and the spread of these xenophobic beliefs, millions of people were allowed entrance into the United States.

Immigrants would cause numerous changes in the country as they lived and worked their daily lives. Cities such as New York, Chicago, and San Francisco grew in population and immigrants took jobs in factories, as street vendors, as farmers, brewers, and as various skilled laborers such as masons and seamstresses/tailors who wanted to try their hand at their own businesses. While some immigrants would become extremely successful and their names are still known today--such as Frederick Pabst, Frederick Miller, Adolphus Busch, Eberhard Anheuser, Levi Straus, Andrew Carnegie, and others--many others would live a life of poverty that they were unable to escape. In the 1900s, the book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair described what life was like for many immigrants who lived in the meatpacking districts and were just trying to make a living for themselves and their families.

Immigration in the U.S. has always had a vexed history, and it is a history that cannot be stated in just one blog post as it played such a major role in the Second Industrial Revolution and the Progressive Era. Upcoming posts will be about the Second Industrial Revolution will include inventions and innovations; captains of industry, robber barons, and the rise of unions; and yellow journalism and muckracking.