Modern time. [1]
XXIII (V) period, the first period of modern time.
3rd period of the industrial society – 1870-1910 – period of imperialism.
33. America in 1870-1910.
A) North America in 1870-1910.
In Canada 1871 the British Columbia enters the Dominion of Canada with the condition of railway building. 1885 the Canadian Pacific Railway was built. 1882 the Northwest Territories were change into the districts. 1896 the “gold fever” in Yukon takes place. The Yukon Territory is formed 1898, Alberta and Saskatchewan -1905. Now the whole dominion is divided into provinces and territories. 1907 New Foundland receives the dominion status.
General Ulysses Grant (Republican party) ruled from 1869 till 1877. He saw the state as the provision office for war veterans. The USA survived their darkest corruption period. 1873 the economic crisis, connected with the building of railway, took place. A military dictatorship over the Southern “rebels” (till 1877) protects agents from the North (“Carpetbaggers”), who build the questionable governments and take the public money. The plantation owners, who have many tax debts, organize secret unions (Ku-Klux-Klan 1881, Lynch justice). The restrictions of election rights (intelligence tests) and race separation make the Afro-Americans again to the socially neglected class. The Tammany society in New York cheated the state over 60 mln. dollars in two years. The separated Liberal-Republicans (Carl Schurz) fight against the corruption of economy and politics.
1877 Democrat Rutherford Hayes was elected to President. He was an honest man, who made strong actions against the corruption among the officials. But his party did not have majority in the Congress. He called out the last troops from the South. Together with his finance minister Sherman he ordered the finances of the Union; the gold coins were made again and exchanged 1:1 into the paper Greenbacks, which lost 30% of their value in the time of the Civil War. Republicans Garfield (1881-1885) and Arthur (1889-93) were his successors.
Democrat Grover Cleveland ruled 1885-1889 and 1893-97. In his time the administration was reformed; some offices were made independent from the government change. 1877-89 the “booty system” was gradually liquidated. After the Civil Service Act (1883) the exams for officials were introduced. The corruption inside the government was decreased. 1890 the Mac-Kinley tariff was accepted, which brought the considerable increase of tax.
After Mac Kinley (1897-1901) Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) became President. He reformed administration and railway tariffs. He caused the state to intrude into the relations between the capital and workers. Taft (1909-13) became his successor.
The weakness of state favors striving for profit and gangsters, but also readiness for risk, energy and private initiative. Despite crises (1873, 1907) expansion of industry, technique, economics and the capital. From 1860 till 1914 the population grows from 31,3 till 91,9 mln. (with 21 mill. immigrants). The number of workers grows for 700, the production for 2000, the investment capital for 4000 percent. In the production of iron, coal, oil, copper, silver the USA are at the top; the power of steam is succeeded by the electricity; the protective taxes favor the building of monopolies. From the small beginnings trusts and huge concerns of “big business kings” like Astor (fur trade,) John D. Rockfeller (Standard Oil), Andrew Carnegie (Steel Corp.), Morgan, Vanderbilt (railway society). Henry Ford, a son of an Irish farmer, presents the conveyer car 1908. The conveyer can cheapen the costs and increase the production number. Besides it, Ford pays to his workers the high minimal loans (five doll. a day). 1913 two percents of Americans have 60 percents of the national income; Morgan and Rockfeller together control twenty percents of the people’s property (341 big enterprises with capital of 22 billion dollars). Edison and Nikola Tesla were famous inventors of the time.
Despite the danger to equality (race discrimination in the South) and freedom (capital concentration in the North) the general democratization makes success. The mass wares increase the prosperity; the industry magnates found universities, scientific institutes, museums, care organizations. In the agriculture the national Farmers’ Alliance is created 1873. But the Socialist Labor Party is dissolved after the splitting 1877, the program of the People’s Party (1891) is taken over by the Democrats. S.Gompers (1850-1924) is a leader of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), founded 1886, which becomes the strong support. In difference to Europe, the professional workers are its members (protection from the uneducated immigrants, becoming of high loans). Another workers’ organization is Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), founded 1905. They make hard fights for the loans (more than 1000 strikes a year). The government also has to fight against monopolies and exploitation.
1891 the homesteads’ law is abolished, therefore the end of the inside imperialism. Financial and economic crises influences the foreign policy. The new imperial power policy is proved morally because of the public opinion and is made for all with the economic means (dollar imperialism). The buying of Alaska from Russia for 7,2 mln. dollars is still criticized, but 1913 the fur trade and gold foundings bring 81 mln. dollars of gain 1913. In the Cuba revolt against Spain (1895), supported by the American volunteers, the Pulitzer and Hearst press influence the public opinion in such a way, that the “Maine incident” from Habana (explosion of an American war ship) causes the war with Spain of 1898 with occupation of Cuba. According to the peace of Paris, the USA get Guam and Puerto Rico. The fight between imperialists and their enemies (Carl Schurz) around Hawaii and Philippines is decided by McKinley in the favor of annexion under the pretext of the same Japanese, Russian and German intentions. But Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson support fully the imperialist policy. Under the intervention threats the capital investments are made to the finance protectorates over Central and South America (big stick politics). From 1889 the Panamerican conferences serve to the same goals. They have to secure the unity of the continent (the predomination of the union). 1910 the Panamerican Union is founded. The good relations to Germany (1889 struggle for Samoa, divided from 1899; trade concurrence) and Russia (stressing of the “open door” policy in East Asia) are cooled. The relation to the traditional British enemy develops in the other way. The founded by Lesseps Panama Society (1879) ends in the scandals. In the Venezuela frontier struggle with British Guayana (1895-1897) the UK agrees with the American demand for the common court. The British and Americans come near. Despite the Clayton-Bulwer treaty of 1850, which sees the international channel building, it is given to the USA (1901), the frontier between Alaska and Canada is delimitated 1903.
The decades after the end of the Civil War are a time of prosperity for American Jews of German origin, since many of them are army purveyors, manufacturers of and traders in uniforms, financiers, and money changers. Bankers such as Joseph Seligman (1820-1880) and his brothers, Jacob Schiff (1847-1920), and several others, play an important role in the economic history of the United States and of their own community. 1873-89: The organization of Reform Judaism is completed by the establishment of three institutions: the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Hebrew Union College, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis. 1880, in a Jewish population of approximately 250, 000, only one out of six American Jews was of East European extraction. Ashkenazi hazzanut first appears in the United States. 1881 the Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe begins. There are already 1,016,000 Jews in USA and Canada. 1885: The Pittsburgh Platform, composed by the radicals of the Reform movement. 1887: The Jewish Theological Seminary of America is founded in New York, dedicated to the “preservation in America of the knowledge and practice of historical Judaism”. It remains to this day a most important spiritual and educational center. At the end of the 19th century about one third of the Jewish workers in the large cities are invested in the garment industry; entrepreneurs and sub-contractors employ men, women and children in sweatshops situated in the city slums; a typical work week consists of seventy hours. 1897: Founded and edited by Abraham (Abe) Cahan, the Yiddish journal Forverts (“Advance”) soon becomes the organ of the Jewish workers’ movement and a powerful element within the community; the journal supports the Jewish trade unions but does not commit itself to any ideological dogma. 1902: The Jewish Theological Seminary, founded in 1887, is headed by Solomon Schechter who came to the US from Cambridge University; under his direction the Seminary becomes the national center for the ordination of modern rabbis, education of teachers for Jewish schools, and promotion of Jewish studies; Schechter also initiates a union of Conservative synagogues. 1910: Abraham Lincoln Felin, a department store owner in Boston, seeks the intervention of lawyer Louis Brandeis in the strike movement that agitates the Jewish garment industry in New York; Brandeis achieved a “protocol of permanent peace” between workers and employers according to the principle of the “preferential shop”, lowers the number of weekly working hours to an average of 50, abolishes the piece-work system in the sweatshops, and creates a system of arbitration by representatives of workers, employers, and independent persons; Brandeis’ system later spreads to other industries. From 1899 till 1914 from Russia 1,243,000 Jews emigrated to the USA; from Austro-Hungary – 260,000; from Rumania – 103,000; from Great Britain – 73,000; from Canada – 57,000; from the Ottoman Empire – 20,000; from Germany – 15,000; from others countries – 67,000. Despite the sometimes terrible conditions of works, the situation of Jews in the USA was much better than in Europe, where anti-Semitism grew strong.
1910 the population of the USA, which became the leading industrial power of the world, numbers already more than 90 mln. inhabitants. The new states are created: 1876 – Colorado; 1889 – North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington; 1890 – Wyoming and Idaho; 1896 – Utah.
The native inhabitants of the continent – American Indians are damaged with the railway building and the expansion of the White settlement. Even the reservations, decreed for Indians by the government, are not respected. 1874 the Sioux in Dakota make strong resistance against the intruding gold searchers. 1876 the Sioux win over Custer in the battle at Little Bighorn. But the US cavalry, which was sent to protect the White settlers, beat the Sioux and Cheyenne. The Sioux chieftains Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse are persecuted and have finally to give over. In New Mexico and Arizona the chieftain of Apaches Geronimo make guerilla war till 1886. Many disappointed Indians initiate the Ghost Dance cult, which promises the liberation from the White supremacy. 1890 in Wounded Knee (South Dakota) the US troops kill more than 200 Sioux dancers. In the same year the Indian war was over; the west frontier was not more obligatory; the ‘Wild West” was conquered, but with high human losses.
1875 in New York the Theosophical Society is founded by the Russian immigrant H.P.Blavatsky (1831-91). Her main works, written in English – “Isis Unveiled” and ‘Secret Doctrine” try to make a synthesis of religion, philosophy and science, criticize Spiritualism, Catholic church, Free masons and materialism.
Famous realistic writers are satirist Mark Twain and Jack London.
In the whole, in the 3rd period of their history the USA develop intensively. The population of the country grows (also because of the big immigration). The USA becomes the first industrial power of the world; the concentration of capital (trusts and concerns) grows. It begins to lead an imperialistic policy (occupation of Cuba, Philippines and Hawaii). It is the most developed democratic country of the world with two-party system.
In difference to the USA, the neighbor Canada is a British dominion with big self-government.
B) Latin America in 1870-1910.
In Mexico President Porfirio Diáz (1877-80 and 1884-1911) is supported by Japan and the UK. 1883 the slavery is prohibited in the Spanish colonies. The Blacks become plantation workers or strengthen the city proletariat. 1898 first Syrian Jews immigrate to Mexico ; the literary weekly “El sábado secreto” (later “La luz del sábado”), dedicated to the language and history of Sephardi Jewry, appears in Mexico. 1908, June 24 Rabbi Martin Zielionka from El Paso, Texas, helps the Jews of Mexico organize their community.
In Cuba the revolt against Spain (1895), supported by the USA, causes the Spanish-American War (1898). After the war, demobilized Jewish soldiers settle in Cuba. As protector of the new republic of Cuba the USA lease the fleet station and Guantánamo. 1906/07 the USA makes a financial inspection over the Dominican Republic. 1871 the first Jewish community (Shearith Israel) in Panama is founded by Jews from St. Thomas and Curaçao. 1903 the revolution in Panama, provoked by the USA, liberates the land from Columbia. After the ten years of building the Panama channel is opened (1914).
In Brasil till 1889 Pedro II rules. The abolition of slavery (1888) unites plantators and liberals for the overthrowing of monarchy (1888). The territory of the Republic of the United States of Brasil is extended till 1910 through the clever treaties. The Free State Acre exists from 1899 till 1903.
With a sea blockade (1902) the European powers defend the rights of foreigners, abused by Venezuelan President Castro (1899-1908). 1902-3: First acquisitions of land in Brazil, mostly in the south, in Rio Grande del Sul, where ICA buys 250,000 acres.