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Assimilation
Natives had to adopt christianity, private property, European values by being forced into reservations (where white settlers came in with food to « help » the natives but refused giving them US citizenship). Kids were forced into Christian schools, go to churches, cut long hairs, forbid to pray their own gods or speak their native tongue. They were starved and tortured until they gave up for the white way and went into reservations. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Congress made north people catch run away slaves in their free states to bring them back to their masters even if they were against slavery. -
Parution of Uncle Tom's cabin
Became most sold book (after the Bible) in North US
It was about runaway slaves (uncle Tom) who end up being catch again, tortured and eventually killed. It played a great part into people believing slavery was wrong. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford's Supreme Court Decision
Dred Scott v. Sanford was a slave that was taken by his master in a free state for business before taking him back to the Slave State. He argued that since he had set foot into a free state he was therefore free but the Supreme Court disagree and he remained a slave. The north and anti slavery was indignated with it and it confirmed the power of the Republican Party which was a newly antislavery party created in 1854. -
* Federal Government *
Before civil war, States had more power than the government itself
Nowadays (contrary):
Legislative branch (US capitol) - Congress (House of Representatives and Senate) and then State Legislature and then city council
Executive branch (White House) - president and vice president and then Governor
Judicial branch (Supreme Court) - Federal (all of the States) and then State courts -
Free and Slave states
Blue States are free states - Red are slaves states - Brown are not conquered yet but bought from other countries (only inhabited by native americans) -
* White Supremacy *
used to talk about "white superiority over the rest (blacks and native Americans)" and justify the 4 to 4.5 millions of slaves
white supremacy slowed down during civil war and Reconstruction but it started again around the mid-1870s -
Confederate States of America
Abraham Lincoln, first Republican president, didn't want slavery to expand further so the 11 southern states seceded from US to create the Confederacy -
* Reality on Natives Americans *
There were a lot of tribes, some fought between one another unlike what whites thought (lived form agriculture, livestock rising, hunting, fishing, gathering and training, sometimes raiding) Buffalo (+salmons) was their main source of hunts but was threatened by white who massively hunted them just for fun, take the land or their leather. Only a few hundreds remained on the millions in plains. It resulted in the decline of the native population (from several millions to only 250k by 1900). -
Abraham Lincoln's election
16th US president and first Republican
Was against slavery and for the Union -
* Reality of Western US *
2/3 of US is concerned when talking about western US (everything west of Mississippi river in red) and the image of western movies in Hollywood (cowboy valleys, ghost towns, deserted places with guns fighting and the white hero or sheriff) only concerned the south around Texas. Landscapes were rocky mountains and plains in middle west, forest woodlands in north west, the Great Plains further east (blue circle), plantations of corn or giant fields in the eastern part of west Mississippi. -
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Civil War
Clash between South (slavery was good for sugar canes or cotton fields and slaves were thought by their masters hard work and other things since they were wild people) and North (morally wrong) caused the civil war.
Border States (slave states next to free states) didn't want to leave US so Lincoln tried to rally them by putting slavery matters after Union. He made runaway slaves prisonners of war but quickly revised his idea to use them as soldiers and to deplete the South economy -
Homestead Act
If settlers had lived in a territory for five years they earn the right to call it their own (of course most of the territories belonged to Indians who were there for millines). Only saw the great plains and the rest of the territories as unexploited ressources (mining, wood work or farming) so they took the most fertile leaving the poorest to natives. -
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
most famous words of US history made to commemorate the battle and open the cemetery next to the battlefield for fallen soldiers.
His words are next to his statue in the Lincoln memorial in Washington -
End of Civil War and results
North was industrialized (armed) whereas South was composed of agricultural States so they only won a few battles at the beginning but after the battle of Gettysburg in 1863 the north kept winning battles. The March to the Sea was the South's surrender and saw a temporary collapse of White Supremacy and reinforced the federal government. -
End of Slavery
13th amendment - only prisonners (convicted for crime) remained slaves -
Andrew Johnson's Black Codes
Lincoln was murdered on April 1865 and his successor, Johnson, was conservative and stated that Black people didn’t have the right to vote or to be in debates against the white -
Ku Klux Klan
Led by former Confederate officer Nathan Bedford Forrest, they were "white vigilante" that shot, beat up (often to death) former slaves without being considered as criminals -
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Reconstruction
Designate the period following Civil war, end of Confederacy, slavery in the South and their return in the Union but also presence of a lot of terrorism and violence against Black people and a lot of fleeing toward rural places to avoid riots and intimidation
It ended when the North troops were withdrawn from the South -
14th amendement
if you’re born on US soil you are an American citizen (even black newborn) and anyone should be equal and under US laws
Because of the black code in the South, republicans sent military occupation to make sure new revolution would not blow up -
15th amendment
anyone could vote (except women) and therefore be governors, senators... - first time talking about biracial democracy (equal for black and white) but Africans Americans remained on the land they worked before for a low wage (no right to earn property), went from slaves to free poor farmers -
Rise of ranching
Ranching (taking care of cattle) is the origin story of cowboys (rough work most in the time in the sun, poorly paid and had to travel a lot by horse) -
Rise of railroads industries
Transcontinental railroad (from west to east coast) and all Chicago's line (most main lines passed or started in Chicago) made railroads going from 900 miles in 1850 to over 100k miles in 1900 -
Reconstruction fatigue
financial panic and troubles caused by the government which focussed itself on the North or on racial issues -
Little Big Horn
Last major victory for natives (they only had small victories except maybe this one) -
Lost Cause
It was followed by the Lost Cause that was used by the South to justify the civil war (the cause of the Confederate States during Civil War was just heroic and not centered on slavery) Nowadays it's still a common belief for many in the South. South lost the war but won the peace. -
Compromise
Because of Reconstruction fatigue and raise of violences, republicans made a compromise with the South to withdraw their troops making southern Black abandoned (number of Black elected in the south dropped because they couldn't vote anymore because of all the violence). It marked the White Supremacy return as well as the end of biracial democracy in the South (even did literacy test so that only literate could vote but slaves never learned how to read or write). Starts separation of Segregation. -
Great Railroad Strike
Against repetitive routine and low salaries, over 100 strikers died and resulted of the federal government siding with management and not workers -
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Racial Segregation
Begin after the compromise, reflect all the racism and discrimination especially in the South (Black kept away from certain job, places...or only had specified places for Blacks which were worst than White facilities) and is confirmed by the creation of Jim Crow in theatre (played by white painted faces black) which stated that black and white were separated but equal (Union allowed segregation because of that reason) -
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The Gilded Age
Âge doré et pas âge d'or
marked the Second Industrial Revolution (located in the US whereas the first was mainly in Europe)
New technologies created : Electricity (by Edison), Steel (used for trains by Carnegie), International combustion engine (produced by Ford to create first affordable car) and Chemicals uses (like bleaches or pesticides mainly by du Pont)
+ management techniques by Frederick Taylor (assembly line). Rising companies were led by « robber barons » (into social darwinism). -
Haymarket massacre
Strike for 8-hour workday, 130 people hurt -
Dawes Act or General Allotment Act
Natives got back some of their former land by paying in order to separate tribes and sense of community and encourages individual ownership because it was lands for individual families (capitalism °3°). It helped settlers to control them. It met a lot of resistance especially from Lakota who are responsible for the Ghost Dance (to speak with the spirits through trances). -
Farmers Alliances in political field
From the 1870s to the 1890s, almost 50% of the workers were farmers (poor ones), which resulted in the creation of several agricole organisations that entered the political field to force the federal government to lower taxes -
Myth of the Old West
Invented by American literature and popularized by Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows worldwide famous, it shows all the clichés on western movies and the nostalgia for the non longer existing "frontier". They show nothing about the natives suffering and only shows them as exotic creatures who attacked trains and convoys. It's still present in today people's mind. -
Progressivists figures
Jane Addams was the leader of the settlement movement (places where (white) women came to teach the poorest kids, both men and women, basic English, History, maths…)
Upton Sinclair denounced the poor conditions that aliments where made or conduct like unhealthy meat production, he was called the « muckraker »
Robert La Follette denounced corruption for election of senators (patronage) -
Rise of progressivism
It followed Populism (from rural farmers annoyed with railways and low prices for their goods to a bipartisan effort to use the government to attenuate the excesses of capitalism and patronage) and favored better housing thanks to social housing, forbidding child labor, 8 hours work day, workers compensation for injuries at work, creation of national parks… It was both a democrat and republican idea. -
Eugenics movement
Part of white supremacy that states that since your defective you will surely have defective children. This led to the imprisonment of a lot of women in mental institutes that were sterilized against their will in order to not have defective baby. -
Wounded Knee Massacre and end of Natives Resistance
Violent repression of Ghost Dance and ended Indian military resistance in the Plains.
Nowadays, the image of a tragic but yet honorable fight for the whites is still present even if it was clearly mass murder of natives (couldn’t even fight back because they either were starved or had to faced more powerful weapons or diseases and didn’t have any rights which made every crime immediately sentenced to death). The cultural genocide and the genocide itself are sadly underestimated. -
Annexation of Hawaii
US goal was to open a trade route with Asia and set domination on the western hemisphere so thanks to the gunboat diplomacy (shooting coast with black ships) they conquered Hawaii and thrown its queen away to rule on the island -
Spanish war
With Puerto Rico, Cuba was the only Spanish colony remaining but they rebelled to reach Independence which was a problem for US mass investment in Cubans sugar plantations. They sent a battleship (the Maine) which exploded by April 98 and set the beginning of the war with Spain but it was so weak that, by December, all remaining Spanish possessions belonged to US (Puerto Rico, Philippines, Guam and partial control of Cuba) -
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Philippine war
Philippinians didn't want to live under US and US wanted to replace them with its own people (more obedient). US managed to impose against Philippines revolutionaries which led to mass torture and death and rise of pro- (can access easily Asia and can educate Philippines and Asia) and anti-annexationists (more black people in US if philippine was conquered and end of white supremacy - racist reasons). As a result to debates, Puerto Rico and Philippines were annexed but not as States (no rights). -
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Boxers revolt
In China, a lot of European country and US wanted control on Beijing but boxers rebelled and troops massacred them and pillaged the city. -
Big Stick Diplomacy
Theodore Roosevelt became president thanks to his influence in the Spanish war and created the Big Stick Diplomacy which was a violent diplomacy to control colonies similar to gunboat diplomacy. his goal was to create new routes so he conquered Panama (for its canal) Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Haiti. -
Platt amendment
stated that Cuba was independent but had to obey US laws (Cuba literally became US puppet) -
Creation of NAACP
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was created by W.E.B. Du Bois and its mission is "to ensure the equal political, educational, social and economic rights of all citizens and eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination". It raised awareness on African Americans Lynching -
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The Great Migration
South Blacks went through 3 different routes to flee South: towards South West (LA, San Francisco…), towards middle developed North (Chicago, Detroit…) and the North East coast (Boston, NYC…). They flew Jim Crow to but ended up living in ghettos. Those ghettos and downtown places were crowded, unhealthy neighborhoods but also places of freedom where people could finally exercise new jobs, vote (even if they didn’t have a politician representing them) and go to school. -
New empire
US became a new empire but treated its ‘colonies citizen’ as second-class citizens (like in West Side Story) and by the beginning of WWI, US became a global power and dominated the Western hemisphere. -
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World War One
Between the allied powers (France, UK…) and central powers (Ottoman Empire, Austrian Hungary and Germany). 20.000 American were sent in the Expeditionary Force which was far from the 4 millions soldier who served during WWI. Most troops arrived in Europe in the spring of 1918. Few of the US troops died so the economic and symbolic contribution was the most important point during WWI unlike WWII where more soldiers died and the implication was more human. -
US join the war
US joined the conflict on April 1917 because of the Monroe Doctrine (1923 - no implication with Europe), got profit from selling manufacturing goods, the Lusitania was sunk by Germans (1915) and because Germany tried to find allies from Mexico by promising they will get back their territories (Zimmermann telegram). -
Espionage and Seditions Acts
The government made sure that US citizens were for the US troops and supportive of the war effort by creating the Committee on Public Information which goal was to use propaganda to increase US hatred towards German or love US army. Those two laws were made in order that all people who criticized the war and those who were for peace were arrested and became war criminals. -
Influenza epidemic
Lasted two years and it was the event that marked for US citizens the end of the war. It killed more people in the US than the war itself (675.000 which was 7 times more than people who died of the war). This stopped only around the beginning of 1920s. -
14 points speech
US main reason to justify them fighting at the end of the war was to ‘make the world safe for democracy’. Wilson didn’t talk about the economic interests and only talked about the honorable fight for democracy. The main goal of this speech was to find solutions to stop the war and to rebuild Europe after the war such as the League of Nations idea which was to discuss each other problems each year when countries will meet up. -
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Red Scare
US fear of communism (hence the red color)
To cope with this rise of communism, US troops were sent to fight Russian Bolsheviks between 1918 and 1919. They were called the ‘Polar Bear expedition’. For US citizens, communism was a foreign idea and would rise the number of immigrants. It was a Conservative pushback. -
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was signed after a great compromise. A lot of US citizens were against the ToV and believed that the League of Nations was a threat to US freedom of action and sovereignty (believed that US would need the agreement of other countries to do something (pass a law, create new act…) if they were part of the League of Nations). The Senate ended up voting against the treaty and US did not joined the League. -
Red Summer
Refers to the color of the blood the White mob produced on African American when attacking them in dozen of big cities because African American former soldier started to rise because they had seen the liberty former slaves had in Europe. -
Black marches
Began around the 1920s in NYC and was led mainly by former soldiers to protest about how much they suffer before and during the Great Migration. Their movement was called the New Negro (around 1925) and was called from a book or Harlem Renaissance. It showed a cultural emancipation for African American.
Map of the Great Migration -
Rise of Urbanisation
Over half the country was urbanized and full of European immigrants workers -
The Prohibition
First women movement to force their husband to stop drinking or to drink less because they were victims of domestics abuse due to alcohol. It goes until 1933 (Carrie Nation for example destroyed bottles with her hatchet and went to prison because of hatchetations) because most emigrants saw that as a repression of their traditions (cause Europeans are damn alcoholics) it was the end of the 18th amendment. -
Women right to vote
1944 for France -
The Roaring Twenties
Refers to les années folles
Fight between modernity and tradition rising.
Modernity was composed of consumer culture (household goods, advertising, cars...), ‘new woman’ (emancipation ‘flapper’ style), rise of movie industry (Go to the movies instead of church - Hollywood / critics of society like The Kid(poverty) or Birth of a Nation (spread the Lost Cause idea)) and aviation (flight on Atlantic).
Traditional was composed of KKK revived by Birth of a Nation (from few thousands to 4 millions). -
Creation of League of Nations
The League of Nations was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace and to show more transparency, improve free trade and self-determination. It was founded by the Paris Peace Conference (where the treaty of Versailles was signed) that ended the First World War. The main organisation ceased operations on 18 April 1946 when many of its components were relocated into the new United Nations. -
New immigration quotas
Much more restricted to cope with communism rising and venue of communist immigrants