TEMA 5, 6, 7

5.1 Political Landmarks: The Course of Empire

-Rise of Party Politics

● George Washington, first president of the US
○ Birth of two political parties as the result of different ideologies within his
government
○ Federalist Party (Alexander Hamilton)
○ Democratic-Republican Party (Thomas Jefferson): Idealized agrarian life and
westward expansion.
● Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) (Democratic-Republican party)
○ Writer of the declaration of independence
○ Father of religious freedom (enlightenment)
○ Slave owner
○ Events:
■ The Louisiana Purchase (1803)
● Spain ceded Louisiana to France, Napoleon needed money so
the US bought Louisiana. US nearly doubled its size
■ Transcontinental Expedition
■ Neutral Rights Controversy
● War between Britain and France
● The US stayed neutral and banned commerce with both Britain
and France (Embargo act)
● Economic depression BUT fostered industrialization, the US
had to make their own goods
● James Madison (1817-1825) (Democratic-Republican party)
○ War of 1812: Conflicts in the West between US and Britain, britain
encouraged the natives to fight.
■ North were opposed to the war but south was in favor
■ Ended with the treaty of Ghent with no changes in territory
○ Deepening of the Westward Expansion
○ Disappearance of the Federalist Party
● James Monroe (1817-1825) (Democratic-Republican party)
○ Only one party with representation in the congress (his)
○ Events:
■ Adam-Onis Treaty (1819): Spain ceded Florida in exchange for
territories West along the Sabine River
■ Missouri Compromise (1820): Missouri was created and was an slave
state, more slave states than free states = creation of maine and from
now on, states created south from Missouri would be slave and nort
free. This would raise the westward expansion of slavery
■ Monroe Doctrine: No European power was allowed to collonize in
America, this would be considered as an unfriendly act = more
isolationism
■ The era of Good Feelings: Lots of problems surfaced in the country
due to lack of political opposition towards some policies
● Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) (Democrats)
○ Events:
■ End of the era of good feelings:
● Recovery of two party system
○ Democrats (Andrew Jackson) Opposed federal efforts
to regulate economy.
○ Whigs: Favored modernization, banking and
industrialization
■ Era of the Common Man
● New type of politician, different from the elite figures that ruled
the country before, he believed in individualism and the spirit of
the West
■ Jacksonian Democracy: Widening of democratic rights
● Universal White Male Suffrage
● Introduction of Secret Ballots
■ Political Shift
● Jeffersonian Model (before) Politics should be in the hands of
the elite
● Jacksonian Model: Greater political participation, political
power should be in the common people
● New Economical Pattern:
○ Industrialization: From colonial to modern
manufacturing
○ Tech advances
○ Factory System
○ Emergence of modern capitalist economy
○ Rise of the Cotton South
● Removal Act: Removal of Natives (Trail of Tears)
○ After the Louisiana Purchase and the Adams-Onis treaty, white people who
colonized those lands faced with the natives, these were moved west into
reservations, this exode is known as the Trail Of Tears, many indians died
because of the hard conditions of the winter without supplies
● Texas Revolution (1836)
○ Texas was a state of Mexico
○ From 1821, continuous settlement of us citizens
○ Confrontation between US citizens and Mexican government force the
government to close the border (people kept coming)
○ Decision: limit the self-government of states
○ Response in texas: Rebellion to gain self government again
○ After the battle of El Alamo, fight fot independence, archived in 1836 and US
annexed Texas in 1845
● James K. Polk (1845-1849) (Democratic Party)
○ Events:
■ The Politics of Expansion: Manifest Destiny
● Completion of the WestWard Expansion
● Justification was the secular part of the manifest destiny
■ Mexican War (1846-1848)
 ● Conflict with Mexico that resulted in the teatry of
Guadalupe-Hidalgo
● Mexico ceded Texas, New Mexico and California for 15m$
● Extension of slavery
● Gold discovered in California in 1848
■ California Gold Rush (1848)
● Gold is discovered in the region
● Lots of migrants into the area
● Savage zone, diversity of people, not only american but
Mexico, Chinese or European

5.2 Social Landmarks: The Transformation of US Society

-The Transportation Revolution

● At the time, roads were in very bad state and, as the expansion was done, a need for
infrastructure for transportation was needed. Roads and Canals were build in order to
transport goods and people towards the new lands
● Railroad (19th century development) was in fast growth.
● Telegraph was invented, communication over long distances was parallel to the
railroad
-Demographic changes.
● Rapid population growth stimulated by
○ Improvemets in public health
○ Immigration (second wave of immigration)
■ Irish and Germans mainly (also chinese)
■ Due to economic factors or religious prosecution
■ In look for jobs at cities, factories or farmers at the frontier.
■ Bad reception
● The Irish:
○ Most of them were poor and crowded in urban areas like in NY
○ Against the abolition of slavery (although they lived in the north) because they
did not want competition for their lower income jobs
● The Germans:
○ Mostly Settlelled in the Mid West
○ Skilled workers, mostl farmers, professionals or tradespeople
● Urbanization and Nativism: Consequences of immigration
○ Urban Growth: Many of the immigrants, who did not have money flowed into
the cities
○ Nativism: Ehhtnic and religious tensions between native-born and immigrant
workers, anti immigration movements
■ The “know Nothing Party”: Against catholics (Irish) who supposedly
were a threat to native-born workers.
-Industrialization: From colonial to manufacturing, mark the emergence of a modern
capitalist economy
● Causes of industrialization:
○ Trade Wars (Neutral rights controversy) stimulated manufacturing
 ○ Political measures: Taxes on imports to protect US manufacturing from
foreign competition
○ Transport and communication revolution
○ Demographic changes: unskilled immigration to serve as workforce in
factories
○ Technological advancements: Steam engine or the Cotton gin
● Difference north/south
○ Although the westward expansion and revolution happened simultaneously in
the south and north, the differences were tangible
■ North=Textile factories in cities
■ South=Producers of cotton (cultivation)
○ Textile factories in New England (north)
■ in 1850, not only textiles were manufactured, other goods like tools,
guns or interchangeable parts were manufactured
■ Labor force of the cotton mills? Mill Girls
● Since almost all factories were located in the north and slavery
was not spread, young, unmarried women were the work force
of the cotton mills
● The conditions were hard, they lived in houses owned by the
factories
● They sometimes protested against the low wages, poor living
and working conditions.
-The second Great Awakening:
● Remember the first
○ Causes: Fear that religious devotion undermined change
○ Key: Against predestination
● Now, the second
○ Causes: Low levels of church attendance
○ Form of Preaching: Peoplegathered together to listen to sermons
○ Key idea: The possibility of universal salvation through faith and good works
(charles finney)
○ Linked to reform: religious revivalism was linked to the reform movements
-The age of reform
● Context: Revivalism: Religious revival was the democratic belief that individual could
take charge of their own spiritual destinies
● Aim of reform: Movements to improve society
● Social “ills”
○ Abolition of slavery: the national sin
○ Womens rights: women started demanding the right to vote
○ Temperance: Alcohol was seen as the cause of sin and crime due to its high
use among the population
○ Pubic education: Produce a system of universal public education (educated
electorate was key to preserve democracy but education was tied to social
clases)
○ Better treatment of criminals and insane
○ Establishment of perfect, utopian comunities
-Slavery in the 19th century:
● The south as a slave society: Slavery was base of the society in the south, most
population was slave in some states, political, social and economical key
● Virginia: Social organization
○ The demand for cheap labor in the tobacco plantations encouraged the
spread of slavery
○ Slaves were property so they could be bought, sold..
○ Hereditary condition: children of slaves were also slaves but only from mother
so sexual abuse was a common and profitable activity
● Middle Passage: The voyage from Afica to the US
○ Slaves crowded in ships in inhuman conditions, torture and use of iron masks
and collars
○ They were sold at 20 to 30 times what they costed in africa, very profitable
● South aas Slave society:
○ Economy: The economy rested on slavery
■ Cotton growing became the dominant economic activity in the South
○ Workforce:
■ Black Slaves, around 90 percent of african population were slaves
○ Politics:
■ Slavery was the most dividing political issue
■ Neither of th eparties had a clear position over slavery, it was more of
a north vs south thing
● Shift in 1854: Creation of the Republican Party
○ The republican party hosted many politicians who were against slavery,
memebrs of the democrat party and the whig party joined the republican party
when it was created.
○ First Republican President: Abraham Lincoln
● Life Under Slavery:
○ Slaves were not considered humans, they were denied education
■ Working Conditions:
● Slave masters put even children to work
● Harsh punishments were applied to the slaves in order to
make them work
■ High Mortality:
● Disease and malnutrition was widespread
● Half of infants died through their first year of life
● Life expectancy was half of whites (21/22 years)
● Rape was a common way of increasing property
■ Justifications:
● Polygenesis: A theory that claimed that blacks were
biologically inferior to whites, they were non-human species
● Religion: Others appealed to passages from the bible that
seemed to approved slavery
● Emergence of African-American culture
○ Slaves combined elements of African and American culture to create their
own
○ Religion:
■ Christianity blended with African spirituality
 ■ How was religion an inspiration for resistance and liberation?
● God would not stand slavery
● Slave resistance:
○ Violent uprisings:
■ Fears of slave insurection haunted the South
■ In 1811, four to 500 hundred slaves involved in a rebellion aroundd
New Orleans
■ 1831: Nat turner and other black slaves killed around 60 whites
Virginia
○ Escape:
■ The underground railroad:
● A network of people, safe houses and secret routes for slaves
to use and escape to Canada
■ Why canada?
● Although slavery was not spread in the nort, police returned
slaves if they caguth them, in Canda they were free
○ Frederick Douglas:
■ Born into slavery, he scaped to Canada and later became a figure in
slavery abolitionism
-Women Rights
● Women during the industrial revolution:
○ Mill Girls: unmarried women, young, working in textile factories
○ The conditions of living and working were poor
○ Beyond factories, domestic servants
○ Wages: Not until he Civil War
○ Sense of unity as a result of living and working conditions. Women as a
significant force in the development of unions
● The Declaration of Sentiments:
○ Link between reform movements and women rights movements
○ Complementary spheres and the cult to domesticity
■ Differences between men and women: Men were rational and
aggressive while women were ruled by emotions and thus less fitted
to public life
■ Men=public sphere / Women=Private sphere
■ Virtue for men was a political characteristic, for women was beauty or
innocence
○ Criticism on the Declaration, “injuries” reported in the text
■ No right to vote, no representation, no voice in laws
■ No right to wages or property, no equal employment opportunities
■ No rights to divorce cases
■ No entrance to colleges
■ Different code of morals
○ Public Demands:
■ Medicare for All, right to free health care, specially in reproductive
health
■ Rights in work, equal wages
■ Protectio against violence towards women
 6. CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
-1860 General election:
● Republican Party is created, Abraham Lincoln is elected in november
● In between november and march, the secession winter:
○ 7 states from the south secede, they call themselves the confederate
states of america, with own constittution in which slavery is legal
-War
● War broke out after the sececionists atacked fort sumter
● at first, confederate states had the advantage and were winning, most officials were
on their side and thought that they would win it soon
● the union on the other hand, had a constant flow of soldiers from immigration mainly
● Turning point: battle of gettysburg, after that the confederation did not do almost any
advances into the territory of the union
-Emancipation Proclamation
● The emancipation proclamation was the paper that proclaimed that every person that
was until that time a slave had to be freed from slavey. This took into acount
obviously the slaves that lived in the southern states as they were part of the same
country under the view of the union.
● This bringed two things, it changed the character of the war and put focus on the
issue of slavery and also, gave black slaves a legal reason to rebel against their
masters, which, were at the front lines in some cases, bringing revolts behind
frontlines
● It also proclaimed that former slaves should not enforce violence if not forced upon
first, to live normal lives with salaries but also:
● They were more than welcome to enlist into the army if they were fit for combat.
-Europe view of the civil war:
● England and France viewed the war in favour of the confederates because of the fact
that dividing usa into two would make them weaker in international policies, however,
Lincoln knew this and proclaimed the emancipation proclamation, switching the
reason of the war to a war to end slavery. This obligued the european powers to
switch their sides and support (not actively) the union
-Lincoln addresses
● In his addresses of his second term, Lincoln talked about the war, not puting the
culpability of it in neither side. He also talks about the war taking to long but his
reason is that god decided for it to be so in order to pay for the sin of slavery, he calls
for reconziliation.

6.2 RECONSTRUCTION

-13th Amendment 1865: End of slavery with emancipation proclamation

-Civil Rights Act 1866: everyone born into the us have the same rights and is citizen of the
US, not indians tho, same right in every state of the United States
-14th amendment: citizenship to former slaves
-15th amendment 1870: black men vote (vote shall not be denied by reasons of race, color
or previous condition of servitude)
-Wartime reconstruction:
● Gen. Shreman promised 40 acres and a mule, former property of masters, to the
former slaves.
-Presidential Reconstruction:
● Owners would get back their land if they swear loyalty to the constitution
○ Aprentice laws: whites could proclamate in charge of black kids (without
parents consent) in order to make them work forcesly
-Congressional reconstruction:
● The army is sent to states in the south to protect black people

-Freedmen Bureau:
● A Bureau stablished in 1865 to help black freed people archieve economical
stabilitty and secure political freedoms
● Creation of public schools for freed people and poor whites
● This did not last long due to opposition from people and even the president
-Compromise of 1877:
● The elections of 1876 were disputed so, the republican party and democrat party got
into an agreement in which, the democrats would let the republicans get the
presidency in exchange of the republicans retiring the army in the southern states.
this provoked problems since black people were not protected anymore by the army,
controlled by the state
-Post reconstruction era and the 15th amendment
● When the reconstruction supposedly ended in 1877, the 15th amendment provided
the right to vote to black people, since no man should be denied of his right to vote
by reasons of race or color. However, after the compromise of 1877, several states
started applying segregation to black people to put every kind of dificulties that were
not explicitly blocked by the amendment. Some of them were poll taxes or literacy
tests that if not passed, the person would be deemed not fit to vote.
Segregation is a topic that gained strength during the 20th century and is, although
prohibited by law, still done in some areas.
-Jim Crow Laws
● The term to refer to laws created in states of the former confederation that allowed
for racial segregation

7.1 GILDED AGE

-Gilded Age, main features, why gilded?

● Historical period in which technological, and industrial advances coincided with
corruption and uncontrolled speculation. Yet, social unequality
● Presidents: Grant and Hayes
○ Grant: Fought the KKK, guaranteed rights for free blacks
■ His presidenciy is associated with corruption and speculation
○ Hayes: Reconstruction ended in 1877 and the troops wre withdrawn so the
archievements of reconstruction were dismantled
■ The democrats returned to power in the south and used law to enforce
cheap black labour (jim crow laws)
 ● Intense industrialization: the country is being rebuilt, second industrial revolution and
the STEEL is the main material, used for example, in the building of railroads that
connect the country.
● Wealth became more and more unequally distributed. The appearance of the
“tycoon”, super rich people:
○ J.P Morgan: Banker who made money selling refurbished rifles to the union at
higher price
○ Rockerfeller: Oil
○ Vanderbilt: Ships and Railroads
● Unregulated capitalism that brought several monopolies which determined the tone
of the US
● The Tycoons accumulated much wealth and had also much power in the congress
-Tenements: (Jacob Riis, How the other Half Lives)
● Industrialization brought immigration and population into the industrial cities
● In cities, like in New York. People from the working class used to live in buildings that
used to belong to middle class families. These buildings were big, from various
stories but instead of living just family, as before, families crowded together living in
the building, with almost no personal space whatsoever, families lived in one room,
sanitary facilities were very limited so bathrooms were shared, and the ventilation
was non existent which favored the appearance of diseases. At times, around 100
people lived in just one tenement
● Jacob Riis was a journalist photographed the tenements to put an eye on them and
try to make the situation better
-The New Colossus:
● Its a poem written for the inauguration of the statue of liberty. It portrays lady liberty
as a character that protects and call the poor and the immigrant. It is compared with
the colossus, an ancient statue which signed for strength of the empire, whereas lady
liberty embodies the welcome to immigrants into a land of oportunities.
-Westward Expansion:
● Term that receives the expansion of the United States towards the east into the
Pacific during the 19th century. It has several parts and famous dates
○ The Gold Rush 1848: When gold was discovered in California, many people
migrated in search of wealth to California. This was before the railroad acts so
the fastest route was in a ship from NY to San Francisco that went around all
america, the journey took so long and many people there were in fact man.
○ The Homestead Acts (1862): An act signed in order to call people to migrate
to the west. The act stated that anybody who was a head offamily, over 21
and citizen of the US (excluded non citizens like indians and later chinese)
would receive a plot of land for free in the frontier in exchange for they
cultivating it for 5 years, after that they would keep it. This created problems
between cowboys and farmers.
○ Oklahoma Land Rush: 1889: A race in which everybody who wanted to
participate would gather at the border of Oklahoma and when the start was
given, everybody would race with a small flag to put it anywhere and claim a
plot of land for free.
○ Pacific Rail Road Act 1862: An act that stablished the route for the building of
a railroad that went from the east to the west in order to make migration much
easier and fast. The route was disputed in the years before but, taking
 advantage of the war, the act decided to use a middle route instead of north
or south. Lots of chinese workers migrated, called by the government
○ Dawes Act: 1887: Act in which, land that belonged to indians reservations
would be divided in plots, to give to the indians for sums of money and let
whites buy plots of land that used to belong to indians. this was a problem
because indians did not contemplate property and land was a sacred thing.
-Discirmination against minorities:
● Indians: They were discriminated and put into reservations for lots of years. the
dawes act ended that but discrimination continued and now the indians lived with
whites. They started dancing in a pacific way to make the white disappear and whites
felt attacked so they started attacking them, killing an important indian chief, sitting
bull
● Chinese: they came duting the gold rush and ended up working building the
railroads. later the chinese exclution act was done and they were not given
citizenship although having been born in the us
● Blacks/Irish: they were treated as monkeys, the excuses were based in phrenology, a
pseudosience that observed the form of the skull to describe other races. Irish were
supposed to be of african descent because they got into ireland from africa to the
iberian peninsula to ireland.

7.2 THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

-Why progressive?
● The progressive area was a time of wide-rangins causes and movements that strived
to reforms in order to make the US a better country.
● Reformers reacting and fighting for a variety of issues like, violence against black
people, child labour, working conditions, women suffrage, immigration…
● Reformers often drew on socialism
● Theodore Roosevelt:
○ Republican, against influence of big companies. Promoted natural parks
● National child labour comitee. Against child labour
● Industrial workers of the world IWW: Union of workers that did strikes in order to
archive better working conditions
-Female vote:
● Female vote campaigns started way back in the seneca falls
● Some western states allowed the vote to women in order to make them come into
their states because population was mainly male
● Silent sentinels: Group of women who protested in a pacific manner in front of the
white house in order to get the woman suffrage.
● Alice Paul created the national womans party 1916: in orer to pass and amendment
in the constitution
● woman vote was granted in 1920 with the 19th amendment.
● Anti suffragist movements: men thought that women would take part in the roles of
the men, making them inferior. Alice Guy released a feminist movie portraying this
change of role ideas in 1906. women were seen as ugly people who could not marry
-Feminism in the early 20th century.
● Wanted the birth control
-Temperance movement/prohibition
● alcohol was a big problem, seen as the cause of fights, or domestic violence
● the 18th amendment (1919) banned manufacturing, sale and transportation of
alcohol
● porihibiton brought problems and many people who campaigned for it before, now
wanted to bring it back
● Why? Economical factors like taxes, people kept drinking underground, mothers who
did not want their children to have problems with the law due to illegal drinking.
-The flapper