Term 2: Chapter 17: Freedom's Boundaries, at Home and Abroad ★ 1890-1900

Philippine War

(1898-1902); War in which America used brutal tactics to crush rebellion; involved executions, concentration camps, destruction, and savagery; Jones Act allowed for independence of this nation when ready, but did not specify a specific date. Eventually, citizens would gain independence in 1946.

How did the United States emerge as in imperial power in the 1890s?

- Americans started viewing themselves as a growing nation-> interest in overseas not for territory, but for trade expansion. - fears of economic and ethnic disunity led to an increased and more determined nationalism - Spanish-American War where U.S beat Spain and gained some control over Spanish countries-> desire to modernize them/the people->white man's burden

Compare and contrast the goals, strategies, and membership of the American Federation of Labor and the Knights of Labor.

- Knights of Labor: members were skilled and unskilled workers, rallied for shorter work days, equal pay for men and women, and to end child labor - American Federation of Labor: members were skilled workers only, goals were strikes for shorter work days/higher wages/improved working conditions (set practical goals to achieve through collective bargaining).

How did religion and the idea of the Lost Cause give support to a new understanding of the civil war?

- civil war was seen as a family quarrel with no significant part for blacks - erasure of blacks as historic actors - reconstruction came to be know as a regrettable period of negro rule

What ideas and interest motivated the United States to create an empire in the late 19th century?

- expansions was primary reason US sought out colonies - natural resources became appealing - wanted to control what was to become the Panama Canal

Explain how changes in politics, economics, and social factors, and violence interacted to affect the situation of African Americans in the New South.

- limits of economic development - persistent regional poverty - no supervisory positions for black men. black women were mostly servants - most unions excluded blacks - little land ownership opportunities

In what ways did the boundaries of American freedom grow narrower in this period?

- these racial restrictions applied to non-white immigrants as well-> Immigration Restriction League - women ironically experienced more opportunities than before-> women's era - in regards to labor, there was a shift from reformist ideals to more limited goals because people knew that trying to fight against big corporations would not work

Chinese Exclusion Act

1882, Denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate.

American Federation of Labor

1886, founded by Samuel Gompers; sought better wages, hrs, working conditions; skilled laborers, arose out of dissatisfaction with the Knights of Labor, rejected socialist and communist ideas, non-violent.

Plessy v. Ferguson

1896, Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal

grandfather clause

A clause in registration laws allowing people who do not meet registration requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867.

yellow press

A deliberately sensational journalism of scandal and exposure designed to attract an urban mass audience and increase advertising revenues.

Immigration Restriction League

A group that called for the reduction of immigration by barring the illiterate from entering the United States.

Kansas Exodus

A migration by some 40,000-60,000 blacks to Kansas to escape the oppressive environment of the New South.

Populists

A party made up of farmers and laborers that wanted direct election of senators and an 8hr working day

Open Door Policy

A policy proposed by the US in 1899, under which ALL nations would have equal opportunities to trade in China.

Atlanta Compromise

Argument put forward by Booker T. Washington that African-Americans should not focus on civil rights or social equality but concentrate on economic self-improvement.

What rights did Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans gain in the late 19th century and what limitation did they experience?

Congressional exclusion of all Chinese immigrants, discrimination and violence against Chinese Americans (no public education, assaults, expulsion), uneven positions of Supreme Court on rights of Chinese

Insular Cases

Determined that inhabitants of U.S. territories had some, but not all, of the rights of U.S. citizens.

What economic and political issues gave rise to the Populist Party, and what changes did the Party advocate?

Farmers forced to pay high freight rates -excessive interest rates for loans -fiscal policies of government- have to mortgage properties to afford payments. - public ownership of railroads - direct election of senators - government control of currency - graduated income tax - free Silver

Platt Amendment

Legislation that severely restricted Cuba's sovereignty and gave the US the right to intervene if Cuba got into trouble

Compare the arguments for and against U.S. imperialism. Be sure to consider the views of Alfred T. Mahan and Emilio Aguinaldo.

President McKinley fights for US imperialism because they want to educate and help out the Philippines, specifically. The US had the impression that all people of the Philippines were uneducated and needed government guidance. - Alfred T. Mahan: Argued that no nation could prosper without a large fleet of ships engaged in international trade, protected by a powerful navy operating from overseas bases. Was pro-expansionism. - Emilio Aguinaldo: leader of the Philippines that comes out to say that they aren't as uneducated as the US perceives and that they could do just fine on their own, just as the US and Japan had done some years earlier. He asks for the chance to be treated "exactly as the [US] demanded to be treated at the hands of England when you rebelled against her autocratic methods"

"separate but equal"

Principle upheld in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) in which the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public facilities was legal.

Coxey's Army

Protest march of unemployed workers led by Jacob Coxey. Marched on Washington in 1894.

New South

Term that identified southern promoters' belief in the technologically advanced industrial South

How did the liberties of blacks after 1877 give way to legal segregation across the South?

The South had the thought that in order to prevent blacks from having successful lives, or from over-ruling whites, they had to remove everything that had happened in the Reconstruction era, and tell blacks their true place. -blacks who were imprisoned for the tiniest of reasons were brought to companies to labor (basically a smaller form of slavery) -although some Southern cities supported the growth of a business-induced black middle-class, business was segregated. -even the north would not except black workers-> blacks getting more into business/church instead of politics in which they felt more success with -southern legislatures made laws that appeared made for anyone, but really applied only to blacks. in order to do things like to vote, they gave literacy tests, or asked questions they knew blacks could not answer-> grandfather clause-> disenfranchisement

the Lost Cause

The phrase many white southerners applied to their Civil War defeat. They viewed the war as a noble cause but only a temporary setback in the South's ultimate vindication

What were the origins and the significance of Populism?

The populist movement arose in the 1890s in an attempt to bring fairer working conditions/wages to the working class -these people wanted to reform the declining economy and try to change the government which they felt was using its power for corporate interests-> Farmers Alliance -populists called for public ownership of railroads to giver famers an inexpensive access to markets for their crops -they mainly focused on white middle-class males but some wanted to include blacks and women came to engage in populist movements

Who were the redeemers and how did they change society and politics in the New South?

Tried to redeem region of misgovernment horrors and black rule.

U.S.S. Maine

U.S. Battleship that exploded in Havana Harbor in 1898; Evidence suggests an internal explosion, however Spanish military was framed by Yellow Journalism; The incident was a catalyst for the Spanish American War

Anti-Imperialist League

a group that opposed the treaty and the creation of an American colonial empire

new immigrants

immigrants who had come to the US after the 1880s from Southern and Eastern Europe

lynching

putting a person to death by mob action without due process of law

disenfranchisement

the removal of the rights of citizenship through economic, political, or legal means

How did employers use state and federal forces to protect their own economic interests, and what were the results?

they used federal government to deploy soldiers to break up various strikes