Imperialism & Spanish Am. War
A term for journalism that produced juicy stories, both real and wildly sensationalized, designed to drive newspaper readership, sometimes at the expense of the truth.
Yellow journalism
A progressive policy platform advocated by President Theodore Roosevelt. It involved breaking up trusts, increasing government regulation of business, pro-labor laws, and promoting environmental conservation.
Square Deal
President from 1913–1921, presided over US WW1 effort, supported a number of progressive reforms. Implemented segregation throughout the executive branch offices, which had never been segregated.
Woodrow Wilson
Ratified in 1920, it granted women the right to vote.
Nineteenth Amendment
A 1934 law that replaced the Dawes Act of 1887, returning lands to the tribes and giving support to American Indians to reestablish self-governance.
Indian Reorganization Act
a 1944 law which provided funding for a college education, as well as low-interest home and small business loans. For 15 million soldiers returning from war, it provided the opportunity to secure a career and purchase a home. Facilitated the postwar “baby boom.” Discriminatory against African Americans.
GI Bill
An amendment to the Monroe Doctrine issued by Theodore Roosevelt. It stated that the United States would come to the aid of any Latin American nation experiencing financial trouble. In essence, the United States gained total control of Latin America through the corollary.
Roosevelt Corollary
A wilderness conservation committee established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908.
National Conservation Commission
A precursor to the United Nations, proposed by Woodrow Wilson in his Fourteen Points. Article X of the League’s charter called for members to stand at the ready if another member nation’s sovereignty was being threatened. This killed the charter’s chances of ratification in the U.S., as it seemed to promise future wars.
League of Nations
A period beginning around 1910 which saw millions of African Americans move from the South to northern cities. This was to take advantage of economic opportunities in the North, often to escape from the exploitation system of sharecropping.
Great Migration
Passed in 1935; guaranteed income for retirees, the disabled, and the unemployed. Unfortunately, the law did not apply to millions of agricultural and service workers, such as domestics, nannies, and janitors, who were largely African American. A major U.S. social safety net program.
Social Security Act
An iconic image of a woman working in a factory on behalf of the war effort. A piece of American propaganda during World War II that exalted women’s war work.
Rosie the Riveter
A policy articulated by Secretary of State John Hay, who served in both the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations; declared that China would trade equally with any nation. The policy was wildly popular in the United States, as it kept Chinese markets open to American business while outwardly avoided the taint of imperialism.
Open Door Policy
Ratified in 1913, it authorized the federal government to collect an income tax.
Sixteenth Amendment
A foreign policy initiative by FDR. Centered on Latin America, it saw the withdrawal of American forces from Nicaragua and the establishment of normalized relations between the United States and the nations of Latin America. Its non-interference, non-interventionist doctrine lasted until the start of the Cold War.
Good Neighbor Policy
A period of social anxiety and paranoia from 1917 through 1920's concerned with communist and anarchist infiltration throughout society. Driven by events such as the nationalism of World War I, labor unrest, nativism, and most especially the 1917 Russian Revolution that established the world’s first communist state in the Soviet Union. Led to a series of mass arrests and deportations in 1919–1920 known as the Palmer Raids.
Red Scare
A program of the Second New Deal; encouraged more public works projects and the employment of nontraditional workers—artists, writers, and young people—to build bridges, refurbish parks, write plays, and paint murals.
Works Progress Administration
A group of American Indian volunteers during World War II. They translated U.S. documents and order into their native language so that enemy forces could not decipher their content.
Navajo code talkers
A 1903 policy issued by the U.S. after the Spanish-American War. Cuba had to have all treaties approved by the United States; the United States had the right to interfere in Cuban affairs both politically and militarily; and the United States would be given access to naval bases on the island.
Platt Amendment
Created in 1913, consists of 12 regional banks that are publicly controlled by the Federal Reserve Board but privately owned by member banks. The system serves as the “lender of last resort” for all private banks, holds and sells the nation’s bonds, and issues Federal Reserve Notes—otherwise known as dollar bills—for consumers to purchase goods and services.
Federal Reserve System
A diplomatic letter from German Foreign Secretary Zimmermann to the Mexican president, promising him that if his country assisted Germany in a possible war against the United States, Mexico would be given back the territory lost in the Mexican-American War. A contributing factor to U.S. entry into World War I.
Zimmerman Telegram
A 1921 law that set a strict limit on individuals from each nation of origin based on the 1910 census. In practice, this biased immigration in favor of northern and western Europeans. Repealed by the Immigration Act of 1965.
Emergency Quota Act (Immigration Act)
Strengthened the language of the National Industrial Recovery Act. It still stands as the foundation of U.S. labor law, and created the National Labor Relations Board.
National Labor Relations Act or Wagner Act
A series of California race riots in summer 1943. Sailors roamed the streets of Los Angeles and Long Beach attacking young Mexican-American teens who wore long coats, flashy colors, and long hairstyles. Due to rationing of fabric to support the war effort, the teens were considered unpatriotic for such extravagance.
Zoot Suit Riots
Added to the war declaration on Spain, it assured Cuba and the world that the United States intended to grant Cuba its independence once the war ended. This turned out not to be the case.
Teller Amendment
A 1913 reform that significantly reduced tariff rates and protected consumers by keeping the price of manufactured goods low.
Underwood Tariff Bill
An agency established by the federal government during World War I. It sought to control production, wages, and the prices of goods.
War Industries Board
Became leader of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1900. An outspoken advocate of women’s suffrage, she believed that women could only guarantee protections for themselves and their children through voting.
Carrie Chapman Catt
Part of the First New Deal; was the most proactive legislation to date (circa 1933) in protecting the rights of workers and organized labor. Its board set maximum work hours, minimum wages, and price floors. It was also responsible for setting production quotas and inventories to prevent overproduction or price gouging. Later ruled unconstitutional in 1935. Guaranteed labor the right to organize and collectively bargain.
National Industrial Recovery Act
Organized during World War II to produce radio shows and newsreels to keep Americans apprised of events overseas. It aimed to keep American morale high and to increase support for the war.
Office of War Information: The OWI
Nickname for the 1867 purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire for a $7.2 million.
Seward’s Folly or Seward's Icebox
Passed in 1903, it allowed the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to prohibit rail companies from giving rebates and kickbacks to favored customers.
Elkins Act
A 1921–1922 arms control conference that reflected the antiwar mood of the 1920s. It attempted to limit battleships. Belgium, Britain, China, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States all attended.
Washington Naval Conference:
A 1905 meeting organized by W. E. B. Du Bois. It discussed possible forms of protest and formulated a plan of action to advance the cause of African American equality. It is a direct precursor to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Niagara Movement
An economic theory that states that governments should spend to stimulate the economy. By the government increasing spending, it would “prime the pump” by spurring an increase in demand that would eventually increase the need for employees.
Keynesian theory
issued by President Roosevelt in 1942 in reaction to the paranoia that American citizens of Japanese ancestry might turn against their adopted country to aid Japan in an invasion of the West Coast. The Supreme Court upheld the decision to intern these citizens in the case Korematsu v. United States (1944), stating that in times of war, the curbing of civil rights was justified and that the court could not second-guess military decisions.
Executive Order 9066