A Large Workforce

                Human resources available to American industry were as important as natural resources. With this it helps make America capable of industrializing rapidly. Between 1860 and 1910 the population of the United States tripled in size. Population growth provided industry with an abundant work force, an also created demand for consumer goods.

Between 1870 and 1910, more than 17 million immigrants arrived in the United States. American Industry began to grow at a time when social and economic conditions in Europe and China convinced many people to immigrate to America. Many seek to find a better life; others seek to escape oppressive governments and religious persecution. Multitudes of people joined the workforce, while others helped increase factories and companies.  

Panama Canal Construction

                Theodore Roosevelt insisted that displaying American power to the world, so the other nations would make other nations think twice about fighting and to also think about peace.  One of his sayings was “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Roosevelt and many others thought, having a canal through Central America was vital to American power in the world. In the 1850’s, the United States and Great Britain agreed to not build a canal without others participation. In 1901, the U.S and Great Britain signed the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, which basically gave the U.S to build a canal through Central America.

                The United States already two places where they could build a canal. One of the places was Nicaragua and the other going through Panama. In 1903 Panama was Colombia’s most northern province. Secretary of State Hay offered Colombia $10 million and a yearly rent of $250,000 for the right to construct the canal and to look around a narrow strip of land on either side. The Colombian government refused the offer because the price was too low and they were afraid of losing control of Panama.

Conservation

            Roosevelt began the environmental conservation in order to keep the beauty of the American land and its resources. He felt that the government should know the differences “Between the man who skins the land and the man who develops the country,” which he then states that he is working with “And only with, the man who develops the country.” In 1902, he agreed with using federal funds that are received from the public land sales and pay for irrigation and land development projects in an act called The Newlands Reclamation Act. Gifford Pinchot was a friend of Roosevelt. He was made the head of the U.S. Forest Service that was established in 1905. This service was to save forests and forest life.

            The two men believed that resource management trained people should have the same values for the landscape as the others who applied for industry cites. They declined the Laissez-Faire argument and thought that the best way to conserve forests are to sell them to lumber jacks, this way they could sell and take care of the land for that was the major source of their business. Roosevelt had added 100 million acres to many protected national forests. He founded five national parks and fifty-one federal wildlife reservations.

Health and Safety Codes and Child Labor

In big businesses around the nation, there were very little health and safety codes. Lochner v. New York (1905) and Muller v. Oregon (1908) are two cases that the Supreme Court lectured the government into regulating businesses, this way they can protect the workers. The Court made a decision to make a law for forbidding bakers to work more than 10 hours a day in Lochner v. New York. In Muller v. Oregon the Court gave the state the right to limit hours for women workers. The state did not have the right to regulate business, so, by the Court’s worry for the healthy mothers, the Fourteenth Amendment was not violated. Building codes were eventually set that regulated the light, air, room size, and cleanliness. The buildings were also required to have fire escapes. Health Codes were for restaurants to maintain a clean atmosphere for their employees and customers.

Child labor had a physical toll on the children. They not only worked for very little money, they were physically stunted and crippled. Their backs would become permanently bent backwards. Their hands would cramp up so bad that they would be deformed, crippled. The children were deprived of sleep and often times, they wouldn’t grow to a normal height for their age. These children wouldn't get an education like normal kids their age today. They were guaranteed to have the same living conditions and no improvements once they got to their parents age. Sixty cents for a ten-hour day was the average pay for them. Many nine-ten-year-old children died from the awful working conditions. Many Muckrakers would expose the businesses for their gruesome habits. A few Muckrakers that did this were John Spargo and Lewis Hines. The more reports the Muckrakers made, the more convinced the states were. Eventually the states passed laws that gave businesses a minimum age and the maximum hours the children could work.

War on Spain

     On February 9, 1898, the New York Times printed a letter made by a Cuban agent. It was written by Enrique Dupuy de Lom. He was the United States ambassador. The letter said, McKinley as “weak and a bidder for the admiration of the crowd.” The nation was furious over that insult. Then on February 15, 1898, when the Maine was ripped apart in Havana Harbor and it exploded and sank. Nobody knew why it exploded. In 1970s

Within the Republican Party, jingoism aggressive nationalism was very strong. Many Democrats also demanded war, and Republicans feared that if McKinley did not go to war, the Democrats would win the elections in 1900. April 1, 1898 McKinley asked congress to authorize to use force. On April 19, 1898 the congress proclaimed Cuba independent, demanded that Spain withdraw from the island and to use force if it was necessary. On April 24, Spain declared war on the United States. For the first time in 50 years, the United States was at war with another nation. 

A Large Workforce

                Human resources available to American industry were as important as natural resources. With this it helps make America capable of industrializing rapidly. Between 1860 and 1910 the population of the United States tripled in size. Population growth provided industry with an abundant work force, an also created demand for consumer goods.

Between 1870 and 1910, more than 17 million immigrants arrived in the United States. American Industry began to grow at a time when social and economic conditions in Europe and China convinced many people to immigrate to America. Many seek to find a better life; others seek to escape oppressive governments and religious persecution. Multitudes of people joined the workforce, while others helped increase factories and companies.  

Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on May 27, 1794, in Port Richmond, New York. He began a passenger ferry business in New York harbor with a single boat, then started his own steamship company, eventually controlling Hudson River traffic. He also provided the first rail service between New York and Chicago.Cornelius Vanderbilt was an American industrialist and philanthropist who built his wealth in shipping and railroads. He was one of the most successful rail road workers of all time. By 1869, he had purchased and merged three short running railroads to form the New York Central. He had his own rail road service between New York and Chicago around 1871. He died in 1877.

Thomas Edison

Born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, Thomas Edison is an American inventor. Before he died, he gave us the phonograph, the transmitter for the telephone speaker, an improved light bulb, and key elements of motion-picture, as well as other bright inventions. He also created the world's first industrial research laboratory.. He was curious about the world at a young age, he learned a lot about mechanics in his laboratory. Edison set up his lab with the money he received from improving the telegraph. He was the first to make a commercial light bulb. With this invention we have electricity running through our homes to help us see. Edison died on October 18, 1931, in West Orange, New Jersey.

Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland. His education was received through numerous experiments in sound and of improving his father’s work on Visible Speech for deaf people. Bell worked with Thomas Watson on the design of the first practical telephone. Bell held 18 patents in his name and 12 that he shared with collaborators. Alexander Graham Bell grew up in Scotland; He was a scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first telephone. He ended up immigrating to the United States. He came to the United States in 1874. He died on August 2, 1922, in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Annexing Hawaii

In the 1800’s the Americans found a place where the can refuel and resupply while going through the Pacific Ocean. In the Samoan islands had one of the best harbors in the South Pacific. The U.S had permission to set base there. There were a lot of whale ships and merchants vessels that went through the Pacific Ocean so they usually would stop and rest on the island.  In 1878 missionaries from New England arrived to Hawaii. The U.S settlers found that sugarcane grew very well in Hawaii’s climate and soil. After a while many business men had set up many plantations on the island.

In 1875 the Hawaiian’s were worried about the economic crises and the turned to the British and the French for help. The United States signed a treaty, freeing the Hawaiian sugar from tariffs. When the treaty came up, the Senate insisted that Hawaii grant the United States exclusive rights to a naval base at Pearl Harbor. The treaty leads to a boom in Hawaiian sugar industry and wealth for the planters. 

Bell and Telephone

            In 1874 a Scottish immigrant named Alexander Graham Bell suggested the idea of the telephone to his assistant, Thomas Watson. Watson believed that creating the telephone could actually work, and realized they could make profit on this invention. The invention of the telephone revolutionized the way we communicate now.

Without this one person’s one idea would we have the same technology we have today? Without Alexander Graham Bell we would not have been able to communicate with others like we do now. It only took one person’s idea to revolutionize the way we communicate, and talk to one another, without him we would still be sending letters through the mail.

Natural Resources

            A huge amount of raw materials was one of the reasons for the nation’s industrial success. The U.S. had vast natural resources such as iron, copper, coal, and timber. American companies could obtain these natural resources cheaply because they did not have to get it imported. In 1859 Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well in Pennsylvania. By 1900 oil fields were growing and oil production rose.

People began using a new natural resource called petroleum. Before the automotive age petroleum was still in high demand because it turned into kerosene. The American oil industry was just beginning when residents of Pennsylvania noticed oil bubbling to the surface of streams. This led to Edwin Drake drilling the first oil well. 

Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand was the Archduke of Austria-Hungary and he was also the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. He was born December 18, 1863, in Graz, Austria and the oldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig. On the day of his assassination he was visiting the capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo, even though he was warned of the terrorist activity by the nationalist group, "Black Hand,” he still decided to go. His wife, Sophie, went with him on the visit and on the way back from their visit the driver took a wrong turn and that’s when Gavrillo Princip a member of the group “Black Hand”, a Serbian nationalist group, shot the couple to death. His assassination led to the beginning of World War 1.

The Muckrakers

            The Muckrakers are the first people give progressive ideas. They were journalists who searched social conditions and political corruption. The Muckrakers was a nickname given to them by Theodore Roosevelt, and it referred to a character Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. This character was greatly similar to the muckrakers for the both of them would find scandal and filth. Roosevelt said the muckrakers were obsessed with the scandal and corruption that was happening. Their ideas were spread by cheap newspapers and magazines, which were widely spread around the nation.

            These Muckrakers would dedicate their lives to searching for the latest corruption that happened. Often times they would look into exposing large companies. The beef industry was exposed by Charles Edward Russell in Everybody’s Magazine; Ida Tarbell had a series of critical articles about oil, which was most of the time about the Standard Oil Company. No one was safe. The practices of built-up political machines that stole votes were exposed by Lincoln Steffens.  One Muckraker, Jacob Riis, would take photos and write on poverty, disease and crime that occurred. They would be influenced by Jacob Riis’s book the Other Half Live. The Muckrakers’ articles were eventually put into a book called, The Shame of The Cities.

World War 1 Begins

Roots of World War 1 go back to 1864 when the German kingdom of Prussia had its first wars to unite German states into on big nation. By 1871 Prussia had all the states united and established the birth of the German Empire, it quickly became one of the most powerful nations in the world. They attacked and defeated France and made France give up a territory along the German border called Alsace-Lorraine, this caused France and Germany to become enemies. Germany wanted to protect itself and they signed alliances with Austria-Hungary and Italy which became known as the Triple Alliance. This alarmed the Russians because Austria-Hungary was competing with them to influence in southeastern Europe. Russia and France then signed an alliance called the Franco-Russian Alliance.

June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne visited the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. While Franz Ferdinand and his wife rode through the city a member of a Serbian nationalist group, Gavrillo Princip, rushed to their car, opened it and shot both Ferdinand and his wife to death. Serbian officials knew of the assassination and hoped to start a war that would bring down the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On the 28^th of July Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia being their ally immediately mobilized its army. Then on the 1^st of August Germany declared war on Russia, two days after that they declared war on France and World War one had begun.

Women’s Suffrage Movement

            The women suffragists were often times accused of being unfeminine, immoral, and people would threaten them.  The suffragists would fight for their right to vote. They felt that if African American males were allowed to vote, then why they shouldn’t be able to also? The group later split into two groups. Two of the major groups in the women suffrage that debated over the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were the American Woman Association, which was led by Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe, and the New York City-based National Woman Suffrage Association which was founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B, Anthony.

            The National Woman Suffrage Association had full attention to the passing of a constitutional amendment. The American Woman Association were certain that the best way was to persuade the state government into giving women the right to vote before trying to alter the Constitution. Susan B. Anthony had voted illegally in 1872, and claimed that the fourteenth amendment gave her the right. She was found guilty and arrested. Because of the split between the two suffrage groups, only Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming gave women full rights to vote by 1900.

            In 1890, the groups came together to form the NAWSA, National American Woman Suffrage Association. Elizabeth Cady Stanton became the president of the Association. Politically, they still had trouble finding women who had the guts to become active. The movement grew, by 1912, Women and their children marched in a suffrage parade in NYC. Carrie Chapman Catt became the 1915 leader of NAWSA. On August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth amendment was ratified by three-fourths of the state. This granted women the right to vote.