Essay: How has the US become a leading nation in the World?

The United States was built on the oppression and cheap labor of minorities. Children grow up learning that everything the US has done was for the better of the country, history books have been whitewashed pushing white privilege to the extreme; but what if our heroic actions are someone else’s terrorist acts? The US has been a leading nation in the world for many years now but how did we do this when our own nation was being torn apart during the civil war. The next couple time frames were major keys in the upbringing of the U.S. was the Civil War, the Gilded Age, Imperialism, the Progressive Era, and World War I. Without these time periods we wouldn’t be living in the society we have today.
Civil War exacerbated existing racial discrimination and violence that permeated the landscape; splitting the nation in two having the north craving the freedom of slaves while the south fought for their “right” to keep slavery as a cheap form of labor. Even after the war was over when the north won the war the nation was far from being united on the believes on African Americans and the rights they possessed. Historian Ken Burns reminds people that the Civil War was not about states right but about slavery and the Ku Klux Klan hid behind the confederate flag, using it as their symbol for racism. Following short of the Civil War was the reconstruction period, not every citizen was on the same idea of equal treatment for ex slaves. Blacks were assaulted and murdered for refusing to give way to whites on city sidewalks and attempting to buy land. Africa Americans understanding of freedom was shaped by their experiences as slaves and their observation of the free society around them so without much knowledge of how they’re supposed to be treated many slaves were tricked into a form of legal slavery while some left for cities where they felt they would be more free. While some black leadership did rise like Frederick Douglas who he himself escaped slavery, then became a black spokesperson who traveled and lectured about the hypocrisy in reconstruction and why we should speak against it.  In this point Using their new found freedom blacks openly hold mass meetings and religious services free of white supervision. While we expand our laws we also expand the land that the U.S. owns, the infamous move out west destroyed the natural land the indigenous people did such an amazing job at conserving.
The Gilded Age happened between 1870-1890 in these twenty years America experienced many advantages such as a second industrial revolution, the federal government seemed more than thrilled to actively promote industrial and agricultural development. The high tariffs protected American industry from foreign competition, granted land to railroad companies, and used the army to remove Indians from western lands desired by farmers. This new found economic freedom transformed the nation while Edison helped establish industries that transformed private life, public entertainment, and economic activity. Although some things seemed to be changing for the better Black Americans still had to deal with the racial disparity that came with the KKK, they were still lynching Blacks and they seemed to be something out of the power of the law. It wasn’t only Black Americans that suffered in these time Native Americans were being stripped of land despite their peaceful ways most immigrants encountered little hostility from Indians, and often traded with them for food and supplies. Children were removed from the “negative” influences of their parents and were raised in a white way. Many Immigrants who arrived in Angel and Ellis island changed the tone for the American nation, these immigrants faced the hardships of being mistreated and looked down at, they were forced to change their last name to something shorter. A name is an identity and butchering someone’s name for the convenience of people who can’t be bothered with learning the full name is like taking pat of who someone is away. People start expressing feelings of xenophobia which is the intense and irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries, the nation started excluding immigrants from available jobs and living in certain areas.
Following short of the Gilded Age is the Imperialist movement. Many Americans lived that if the US didn’t expand it would explode, there was a massive increase in population, wealth, and industrial production which came with a demand for more resources. By being overseas many feared that the resources available in the US would dry up so the need to expand and claim resources from other countries was great. The US became the empire in 1890 by taking over Hawaii, establishing an open door trade policy with china and creating the Monroe doctrines; which allowed the U.S. to enter in Latin America. The main point of imperialism was the need for land and to control the natural resources offered. Since America took over most of the land and had many allies during this time period English became the language of imperialism. With the power of the Monroe doctrine the US invaded Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Philippines, the Caribbean and the Panama Canal; they used Hawaii for its industrial investment and the popular industry of Dole bananas, and tariff raising barriers against Hawaiian sugar. When the panic of 1893 hits many business men are convinced that America has reached its prime and has over expanded resulting in overproduction and under consumption. We recover by getting into Cuba. Then when Cuba feels the need to revolt against Spain McKinley and wall street believed that the Cuban independence was not something the U.S. should be dealing with the yellow press forced the issue, even though at this time the U.S. army seemed to be smaller than the Spanish army we still sent reinforcements into Cuba to help them get their independence with the promise that once the U.S. overthrows Spanish misrule it would give the Cubans their freedom. While all this was going on the U.S. was trying to get an annexation of Hawaii, we had set up a white dominated government in Hawaii but the people and the queen were displeased with becoming a part of the US. A joint resolution was rushed, forced, pushed through and approved granting many Hawaiians US citizenship. America goes in with the idea that they are helping people by taking over their land and using up natural resources but as we see with the treatment of native American’s they only ab uses their power and hurt the land, to some their actions may see heroic but others suffer under the “liberation” the U.S. provides.
Between the years of 1890-1920 the progressive era began as a social movement and transformed into a political one. Some upsides of the progressive era were white women’s rights activist, recreational activities, new innovations, and consumer freedom. While these advancements were being made we also had a couple setbacks like workers’ rights, poverty, violence, greed, class warfare and racism. They also rejected the Social Darwinism and they believed most of these negatives could be fixed by providing better education and having safer environments. The KKK seemed to believe it was a good idea to make appearances and threatened black Americans, they started lynching people and burning crosses in front of houses. Riots started out to bring attention to black Americans and the horrible things that are happening to them while having the black migration from south to north for factory jobs. But they aren’t the only victims of white supremacy, they also try using Latin Americans as a scape goat for marijuana making its way in the US. White southerners seemed offended when they had all these changes made regarding black Americans, whites still believed they were better than them and refused to see them for more than slaves. Slowly but surely it become more acceptable for women to go out and work instead of staying home and taking care of the home. Immigrant woman could now go out and work just like their husbands to help bring income for the household. But the working conditions were terrible like in the triangle shirtwaist factory fire was a good example of the set up immigrant women had in these factories, they had to work in assembly lines, with locked doors, in an overheated room with rats running around. But when 200 of triangles workers tried to join the international Ladies Garment Workers Union, the owners responded by firing which shows just how actually progressive these times were.
With America moving up in the world and the progressive era we are moved into World War I. the main causes of WWI were nationalist aspirations, national rivalries, and colonial disputes over Africa. This war shaped the global landscape and placed this nation as a leader of foreign policy and direction of other countries by creating a total war, where we are introduced to new weapons such as marine warfare. For the years of 1914-1918the US went through president Roosevelt, Roosevelts corollary, Taft and Nicaragua with the dollar diplomacy, Wilson and moral imperialism where Wilson promised a new foreign policy that would respect Latin America. When the war first broke out in Europe in 1914 America was neutral and some propaganda was used to support the war and show it in a positive light, but the public was still not agreeing on getting involved; Americans wanted to stay out of it. When the US entered the war because of Germanys decision to resume the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, they had segregated military forces with some closing ranks that had black leadership. The African theatre of WWI describes campaigns in north Africa instigated by the German and ottoman empires, local rebellions against European colonial rule and allied campaigns against the German colonies, German south-west Africa and German east Africa. The Europa theatre was the main theatre of operations during WWI and was where the war began and ended. Africa was split into colonies earlier on but when the war ended Europe colonies where redistributed to other countries. Because of the war back at home many immigrants were being scapegoated due to wartime bias and stereotypes, Americans called German soldiers “krauts” referring to the fondness of Germans occupying the US. Later the US adopted the British stereotype of the Huns and would depict them as gorillas with spiked helmets. With all the demand for weapons someone had to make them, the war created countless jobs for the US with the demand of more bullets, and more guns; Many factories opened to keep up with the demand. Women had the opportunity to step into a man’s job and take over while they were of during war. Tired of the war president Woodrow Wilson created the Fourteen Points, which was a statement of principles for world peace negotiations. The fourteen points stated free trade, open agreements, and democracy, they exaggerated more on self-determination and equal treatment than the support of imperialism.
Throughout the reading we see how power is a reoccurring theme everyone is trying to gain power over someone else and is trying to up do everyone else, we see how white men over power everyone, from women to black Americans to land. We see an example of this in the sharecropping contracts that white men used to enslave black Americans the contract gave the planter the right to supervise the labor of his employees. Families would rent shared land work it under their own direction and divide the crop with the owner ex slaves never made much to pay off the rest of the crop they were in a continues loop of serving the land owner putting them in another form of slaver even when African American gained more power and freedom as time went by white people fell back on the KKK to assert their dominance on them. We see how violence is used for everything inn history, when creating the US violence was not a necessary part of shaping the land, instead of talking to the natives and communication with them while working something out, they fought with the people and forced them out of their own land stuck them in tiny reservations and forced them to blend into the white culture. Where a simple agreement could have been made and talked out, whet people found the need to forcefully take. Leading with fear is one of the worst ways to run a government because you aren’t leading the people you are scaring them into following you and forcing them to accept you.