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The Roaring 20s, the Depression, the New Deal & WW II (1920-45) |
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War, Prosperity and Depression In the years following the Civil War, the United States played an increasing role on the world stage. Motivation for foreign involvement was largely for trade and profit, but Social Darwinism also offered a rationale. Early steps involved America in Samoa, Hawaii and the Caribbean. More serious problems developed with the Spanish in Cuba, culminating in the Spanish American War (1898). Emerging from the war as a hero, Theodore Roosevelt followed an activist foreign policy, reinterpreting the Monroe Doctrine and engineering the independence of Panama. Taft continued the interventionist policies by sending soldiers to Nicaragua in 1912 in a display of Dollar Diplomacy. Wilson also was a foreign affairs activist, intervening in Santo Domingo and coming close to war with Mexico. In the Far East, the United States proclaimed an "Open Door" policy for trade with China and mediated the Russo-Japanese War (1905). War erupted in Europe in August 1914. The U.S. attempted to remain neutral, but its resolve was tested by German submarine warfare. Wilson was returned to office in the Election of 1916, reluctantly using the slogan, “He kept us out of war.” Nevertheless, the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917 and more than 1.4 million American soldiers served in Europe. Wilson proposed Fourteen Points as the basis for peace and personally attended the conference, which drafted the Treaty of Versailles. The U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty and American membership in the League of Nations. The U.S. sent soldiers to Russia during a civil war following the Bolshevik Revolution. Postwar efforts were made by the major powers to secure disarmament and extract reparations from the defeated powers. On the home front, America experienced a Red Scare and the Palmer Raids. Warren G. Harding assumed office after the Election of 1920, an administration tainted by the Teapot Dome Scandal. Calvin Coolidge became president upon Harding’s death and was elected in his own right in 1924. Major trends and events included efforts to limit immigration, the growth of American industry, the Roaring Twenties and the stock market crash of 1929. Herbert Hoover was victorious in the Election of 1928 and preached “rugged individualism” as the cure for the country’s economic woes. Franklin D. Roosevelt won the Election of 1932 and promised a “New Deal” for the American people. In the administration’s first One Hundred Days a series of measures was presented dealing with banking, unemployment, farm policy and business reform. Later programs were enacted to deal with social security and collective bargaining. The Election of 1936 was regarded as a referendum on both FDR and the New Deal. In 1937, the President was engaged in a Supreme Court fight. The New Deal provoked critics and admirers, both in the 1930s and in the years thereafter. In foreign affairs, Roosevelt pledged the United States to be a “good neighbor” to Latin America while strong sentiment for isolationism grew as problems deepened in Europe and Asia. Pacifism was effectively ended by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and Japanese Americans were faced with internment. America's entry into World War II necessitated mobilization efforts on a massive scale. Military action occurred in the Pacific, North Africa, Europe and the North Atlantic. Harry S. Truman faced a critical decision regarding the use of the atomic bomb.
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