The Progressive Era, in the late 19th and early 20th century, was the start of a new ideology where reforms about government, economics, and society were made in order to improve citizen’s way of living and businesses way of running. During his presidency, Woodrow Wilson led many reforms. Known as the Wilsonian Progressivism, he passed various acts and foreign policies regarding American Imperialism that are still in use today and have influenced the economy into a fair competition, workers getting privileges, and the future of foreign relations between nations.
Dating back to the Election of 1912, Wilson had a clear victory as Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft’s dispute created two different categories of Republicans. Wilson wouldn't have stood a chance if this hadn't occurred, but won with 435 electoral votes. For this reason, Wilson was elected president and through his speeches and documents promised to resolve and regulate monopolies, tariffs and create new forms of banking systems.
The start of Wilsonian Progressivism changed the government to being involved in every aspect of society, to the point where he felt like Democracy was useful and needed in every country. Although, his plan didn’t go the way he wanted it to, it showed his involvement with other countries and in the midst of World War 1 it turned into a riot between the citizens and government due to the extent of how their authority was operating.
Key Vocabulary
To fully understand Wilsonian Progressivism and American Imperialism, is to
know each of the most important vocabulary words. The important terms to remember
are Progressivism, Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom, Federal Reserve Act, Federal
Commission Act, Liberalism, Democracy, Moral Diplomacy, American Imperialism,
American Exceptionalism, Jones Act 1916, and the Tampico Incident. These terms are in
relations of acts and events that influenced and changed the United States economically
and politically.
Woodrow Wilson was a Liberal Progressive President, he followed the Moral
Diplomacy and his beliefs were of Democracy and Liberalism. He developed a program
of progressive reforms and asserted international leadership in building a new world
order. The Federal Reserve Act and Federal Trade Commission Act, were some of the
new policies that Wilson created. The passage of the Federal Reserve Act provided the
Nation with the more elastic money supply it badly needed and help regulate a stable
monetary and financial system. His 1912 platform for change was called the New
Freedom, which included his promises and speeches about regulating tariffs, bankers, and
business.
The late nineteenth century was known as the “Age of Imperialism”, a time in the
United States and other major world powers rapidly expanded their territorial
possessions. American imperialism refers to the economic, military, and cultural
influence of the United States on other countries. American imperialism is partly based
on American exceptionalism, the idea that the United States is different from other
countries, this was Wilson’s influence of spreading Democracy around the world. The
Jones Act of 1916, declared the American intention to grant independence to the
Philippine Islands. This was the way of Wilson to start a new direction into foreign
policies, American sovereignty was retained by provisions of the act, and its promise of
absolute independence set the course for future American policy in the islands.
Following this is The Tampico Incident, which was the anti-American feelings in Mexico
resulting from the Tampico incident were the main reason that the government kept
Mexico neutral in World War I. In relation to World War I, Wilson was successful in
getting the Sedition Act of 1918 passed as an amendment to the Espionage Act. The
Sedition Act stated that people or countries cannot say negative things about the
government or the war. It effectively negated freedom of speech that related to American
war efforts.
Secondary Sources
Wilson had the idea to start Moral Diplomacy when many Latin American
countries were under the control of imperialism, which is an idea that the countries can
control or influence other countries. The reason behind Moral Diplomacy is to decrease
the growth of imperialism and to spread Democracy. This was in hope to increase the
number of democratic nations and to stop countries that could be a threat to the United
States, also referred to as American Exceptionalism.
The phrase “American exceptionalism” became known in the 18th century.
Wilson was a great supporter of this, the idea that our nation is not only unique, but also
superior. Wilson was determined to “make the world safe for democracy.”1, just like the
U.S. is. To do this, he chose to send out American troops into Mexico, Haiti, the
1 Lipset, Seymour Martin. American exceptionalism: A double-edged sword. WW Norton & Company, 1997.
Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Some scholars believed that "Latin American politics of
the twentieth century as a cycle of authoritarianism".2 Which explains why Wilson chose
them to change, although, his plan was never successful.
The Jones Act of 1916 was America’s way of saying that they would eventually
grant freedom to the Philippines. The Jones Act also created a new government structure
in the Philippines, gave them territorial status, and helped to define Wilson's policies in
regards to foreign affairs.
In Wilson’s ways of spreading his beliefs also caused the Tampico Affair that
began just as a small incident between US sailors and Mexican land forces during the
Mexican Revolution. "To President Wilson, Huerta [the president of Mexico] was the
symbol for everything that was wrong with Latin American governments"3. A
misunderstanding occurred on April 9, 1914 and in result, the U.S. invaded Mexico’s port
city, Veracruz, all started due to Wilson's ideals and opinion towards Mexico.
The controversy with Mexico resulting from the Tampico incident is the key to
why the government kept Mexico neutral in World War I. One of the acts passed during
WWI was the Sedition Act was passed on May 16, 1918 which made it illegal to,
"willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive
language about the form of the Government of the United States"4. The act was made to
attack Socialists, Pacifists and Anti-war activists. Around 877 people were convicted in
1919 and 1920.
2 Carothers, Tom H. In the name of democracy: US policy toward Latin America in the Reagan years. Univ of
California Press, 1991.
3 Quirk, Robert E. An affair of honor: Woodrow Wilson and the occupation of Veracruz. No. 390. WW Norton &
Company, 1962.
4 The Sedition Act of 1918 From The United States Statutes at Large, V. 40. (April 1917-March 1919)
Primary Sources
In the beginning of his presidency, Woodrow Wilson had many obstacles that
stopped him from accomplishing his 1912 Freedom Plan. Wilson wanted to build a nation
of farmers and business people. The obstacles that stopped him were things such as
tariffs, trusts, and the banks. Wilson called these obstacles the “Triple Wall of Privilege”.
The plan consisted of farmers and helping with their financials. Wilson also knew that the
banks were squeezing money from small businesses and promised to get rid of trusts.
Wilson wants to change the way farmers were not making enough money. He
wants to make it easier for the farmers. By removing tariffs or at least lowering them,
farmers have a better opportunity to no
t pay as much. Tariffs are the taxes which need to
be paid for the particular amount of imports and exports. They provide additional earning
for governments and domestic producers at the expense of consumers and foreign
producers. Wilson argued with the government trying to convince them that high tariffs
created monopolies and hurt consumers. Farmers were affected since the tariffs drove up
the prices of farm equipment. Possibly due to the fact that there was not much
competition with imported goods since American agricultural produce was already
cheaper than imports.
Along with his fight for lower tariffs, Woodrow Wilson wanted to regulate unfair
and deceptive business practices or what is commonly known as trusts. In the view that
trusts denied economic freedom to small businesses and ordinary citizens. Due to this he
created the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act. The act states that "unfair methods of
competition … and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, are
hereby declared unlawful."5 The FTC made hundreds of rules governing many features of
business behavior. The commission was in charge of dealing with the complaints of
scams and many more. He was unable to remove the trusts, but he did further limit their
power.
The thing that bothered Wilson the most is how the workers have to work without
being shown who they are working for. They work for large corporations without
knowing who their supervisor is. Many are in danger and have no way to defend
themselves. As Wilson said in his book, The New Freedom he mentions that
“They generally use dangerous and powerful
machinery, over whose repair and renewal they have no
control. New rules must be devised with regard to their
obligations and their rights, their obligations to their
employers and their responsibilities to one another.
Rules must be devised for their protection, for their
compensation when injured, for their support when
disabled.”6
The group of workers that work with each other have to protect themselves. In order to
earn the money they need, they have to work for these dangerous machines. If they were
to get hurt in any way or form, they would have to deal with it.
This changed and turned to be beneficial to the people in a good way because the
FTC gave authority to discipline or make violators pay; the FTC can seek civil
punishment in federal court and seek reimbursement for those who were harmed by the
unfair or sneaky practices. The Federal Reserve Act was another one of the acts that
Wilson created to help his people, signed on December 23, 1913. It created and
established the Federal Reserve System, a central banking system of the United States.
This act gave the 12 Federal Reserve banks the ability to print money in order to ensure
5 Federal Trade Commission Act, 1914
6 Woodrow Wilson, New Freedom, 1913
economic stability. This was a huge deal because it increased employment and kept
inflation low.
Conclusion
Wilsonian Progressivism and American Imperialism come together to show
Woodrow Wilson’s ideals and what he accomplished during his presidency. Seeing how
his choices changed the government and aided the people, sets standards of what Modern
America should surpass. His accomplishments such as the Federal Reserve and Federal
Trade Commission are still in effect and has improved the economy of the U.S.
As every president is also remembered for their accomplishments along with
failures, Wilson’s view on American Imperialism can be seen as a not so well thought out
plan. In a previous point, Wilson was very much into the idea of American
Exceptionalism and with wanting to spread Democracy and his Liberal beliefs into other
countries, left a mark in history in relations with foreign countries, such as Mexico in the
Tampico’s Incident. This demonstrated that not every “powerful” nation can succeed in
all their goals in influencing other nations.
Lastly, in today’s society, these two topics show a difference on how America
was ran before the Progressive era. Wilson set his place for Liberal ideology and later on
showed his need for America’s protection with his neutrality in World War 1. Along with
his improvements and reforms that helped America move forward to become more of the
people and their need in both the economy and society.
Bibliography
"The Supreme Court and Capitalism." PBS.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/capitalism/sources_document1.html.
Naik, Abhijit. "What is Moral Diplomacy and Why is it So Important After All?" Buzzle.
August 17, 2016. Accessed February 24, 2017. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/moraldiplomacy.
html.
Lipset, Seymour Martin. American exceptionalism: A double-edged sword. WW Norton &
Company, 1997.
Carothers, Tom H. In the name of democracy: US policy toward Latin America in the
Reagan years. Univ of California Press, 1991.
Quirk, Robert E. An affair of honor: Woodrow Wilson and the occupation of Veracruz.
No. 390. WW Norton & Company, 1962.
Link, Arthur S., and Woodrow Wilson. The New Freedom. Princeton, NJ: Univ. Press,
1956.