STUDENT NOTES FOR CH. 20 HIS122

CHAPTER 20 Dissent, Depression, and War, 1890-1900 The American Promise A History of the United States CHAPTER 20 Dissent, Depression, and War, 1890-1900

The Farmers’ Revolt -Farmer’s Challenges -The railroad system -Prices of land -Previous protests -The Farmer’s Alliance’s -where were meetings? -how spread message? -what they encouraged?  

The Farmers’ Alliance So, what did these groups, Farmer’s Alliances hope to gain? The Farmer’s Alliance launched what? What did they demand?  

Steel Workers vs. Andrew Carnegie “Labor Wars” Steel Workers vs. Andrew Carnegie Henry Frick  

Fort Frick Pinks Replacement workers?

“Pinks” vs. Workers

National Attention

The steel mills were reopened for business The steel mills were reopened for business. The owners took charge, slashed wages, reinstated the 12 hour work days and got rid of 500 jobs. The significance of this event was that “the workers learned their lesson”…Carnegie was in charge, not them… The production at the Homestead steel mills tripled after this event…Carnegie’s profits went from $4 million to $40 million in 7 years.

Women’s Activism A. Women also were trying to fight for better working conditions and better lives in general… 1.The WCTU (Womans Christian temperance union) had a great deal of political activity in the late nineteenth century; women felt particularly vulnerable to the effects of drunkenness, as they were dependent on men’s wages and subjected to drunken, abusive husbands. 2. Willard’s Tactics—Frances Willard radically changed the direction of the WCTU; moved it away from religiously oriented programs to a campaign that stressed alcoholism as a disease rather than a sin and poverty as a cause rather than a result of drink; joined with labor unions to press for better working conditions for women workers. 3. Willard capitalized on the cult of domesticity to move women into public life and gain power to ameliorate social problems; using the concept of “home protection,” Willard argued that women needed the vote to protect home and family. WCTU had over 200,000 members in the 1890s; gave women valuable experience in political action.  

Depression Politics Threat to Party Unity—The People’s Party started with farmers alliance and agrarian revolt. It captured more than a million votes in the presidential election of 1892, a respectable showing for a new party; but sectional and racial animosities threatened party unity Cries for Reform—Presidential election of 1896: the Republicans nominated Ohio governor William McKinley; Open rebellion also split the Democratic Party in the West and South because of President Grover Cleveland support’s for gold. Farmers and most in South wanted Silver. Nominating Bryan—The spirit of revolt spread throughout the Democratic National Convention as thirty-six-year-old William Jennings Bryan was nominated.

Depression Politics A Fierce Election—Republican McKinley, backed by wealthy industrialists and party boss Mark Hanna, squared off against the underfunded but energetic and eloquent Bryan in the fiercely fought and highly emotional presidential election of 1896; Bryan delivered more than six hundred campaign speeches in three months. Populist Agenda—In an election marked by unprecedented voter turnout, McKinley won twenty-three states and 271 electoral votes to Bryan’s twenty-two states and 176 electoral votes; biggest losers in the election of 1896 turned out to be the Populists; the People’s Party was crushed, and with it died the agrarian revolt, but Populism nevertheless set the domestic political agenda for the United States in the next decades; highlighted issues such as banking and currency reform, electoral reform, and an enlarged role for the federal government in the economy.

The United States and the World “A Splendid Little War”=Spanish-American War Another important event during this time period was the Spanish-American War. It began with moral outrage over the treatment of Cuban revolutionaries, who had launched a fight for independence against the Spanish colonial regime in 1895; as the Cuban rebellion dragged on, pressure for U.S. intervention mounted. Economic and Territorial Interests—American interests in Cuba were considerable; American business had more than $50 million invested in Cuban sugar; American trade with Cuba, a brisk $100 million a year before the rebellion, had dropped to near zero; More than Cuban independence was at stake, because war with Spain opened up the prospect of expansion into Asia as well—Spain controlled not only Cuba and Puerto Rico but also Guam and the Philippine Islands.

The United States and the World The Maine—President McKinley slowly moved toward intervention; in a show of American force, he dispatched the armored cruiser Maine to Cuba; a mysterious blast destroyed the ship, killing 267 crew members and prompting cries for war back home. A Brief War in Cuba—Congress declared war in April, and five days after McKinley signed the war resolution, the U.S. Navy, under Commodore George Dewey, destroyed the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay; war in Cuba ended almost as quickly as it began. Roosevelt’s Rough Riders—Made Theodore Roosevelt a bona fide war hero; he formed the Rough Riders, a regiment composed of Ivy League polo players and western cowboys; played a role in the decisive battle of San Juan Hill; brought Roosevelt to the attention of prominent independent Republicans.