Description
University of Chamberlain
HIST405N United States History
Week 5: Industrialization, Progressivism and World War 1
Introduction
The forces of industrialization and immigration would change America from a rural agrarian society to an industrial power equal to the powers of Western Europe, but these changes would also unleash a glaring gap between rich and poor. The story of the immigrant experience is a window into these changes. Along the way, America would also become a world power.
Industrialism and Exploitation of Workers
The Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries paralleled the rise of nationalism in Western Europe. Before 1750, goods were made in so-called cottage industries. The value of the good was tied to the worker who made it, but new sources of energy would change this old pattern of life. James Watt, a Scottish engineer, is often called the father of the Industrial Revolution. Building on an earlier model of Thomas Newcomen, Watt perfected and began to manufacture a reliable steam engine. The transformation of transportation, communication, and mechanization made life in America easier. America was becoming a leading competitor in the global community while building an internal cohesiveness. The years after the American Civil War were characterized by new inventions based on scientific discovery with mass production that used new power sources. Vast industrial centers were introduced with an increase in immigration that would eventually lead to labor reform and civil rights. The factory system also led to huge population shifts, as farmers from rural areas moved to such cities as New York and Chicago, but the technologies that created this system also led to exploitation of workers in harsh working conditions, loss of human dignity, and child labor. The industrial revolution led to huge urban centers and profound demographic and social changes. The following video explains how immigrants during the 1900-1914 contributed to industrialization in major cities such as New York and Chicago:
A National Culture (2:46)
The Immigrant Experience
The years between 1865 and the outbreak of World War I (1914) are commonly considered a unique chapter in American history. Three significant factors contribute to that evaluation. First, the dramatic increase in foreign-born people nearly quadrupled the population. The first wave of immigrants came after 1840, mostly Irish and Germans fleeing famine and conscription in their own countries. Between 1860 and 1880, a second wave brought more northern Europeans, with a significant number of German Catholics fleeing Bismarck’s Kulturkampf. A third wave between 1890 and 1910 brought a huge increase in eastern and southern Europeans, with Polish and Italian Catholics and Russian Jews adding to the mosaic of cultures in the United States. By 1900, one-third of all Americans were either foreign-born or children of foreign-born.
A second factor that changed America was a radical shift in the intellectual climate. Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) challenged man’s place in the universe. This new historical understanding of the past bolstered the new “higher criticism” of the Bible, which attempted to understand the Bible in light of its context. A third factor of post-Civil War America was the dramatic increase in industrialization and urbanization. The Industrial Revolution, which began in England in the mid-1700s, finally reached America full-blown after the Civil War. By the time Ulysses S. Grant took the presidency in 1869, the United States had clearly begun to change from an agrarian to an urban society.
The following video shows the life and living conditions of immigrants from diverse nations of eastern and southern Europe:
Moving to the City: Part 3 (3:53)
The Progressives
Beginning with the 1890s through the presidential election of 1912, historians often call this period “the Progressive Era,” after the “movement” of reform known as Progressivism that dominated American society during these two decades. Notice that the word “movement” in quotation marks here – because Progressivism was not a coherent movement in the traditional sense of the word. One of the most important things to remember about the Progressives is that they were extremely diverse, and the reforms initiated during this period were often contradictory. Invariably, if some Progressives believed they could improve society in one way, another group believed they could improve society by doing exactly the opposite. Progressives came from all political backgrounds and cultures. Click on the following tables to learn about general characteristics of Progressives:
Concern about the effects of industrialization and the conditions of urban industrial American life
- Progressives recognized the costs as well as the benefits of rapid industrialization and sought to ameliorate them.
Progressives came from all political backgrounds and cultures. Three leading progressive presidents were Theodor Roosevelt, William Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. The following video details initiatives taken by Presidents Roosevelt and Wilson during their tenure in office:
The Progressive Paradox: Part 6 (5:54)
Progressive Reforms
Click on the following tabs to learn about some areas of Progressive reform:
The following video highlights Progressivism’s effort to enhance civil rights for all Americans:
The Progressive Paradox: Part 4 (2:15)
The Great War and its Aftermath
Although powerful forces were pushing Europe toward war, the great powers had formed alliances to try to keep the peace. Nationalism would be a force leading the world to war. This was evident in Serbia. Serbia wanted its independence from Austria as an independent Slavic state. Russia supported their efforts (called pan-Slavism), but it threatened old empires like the Ottoman Turks and the Austrian-Hungarians. Soon, unrest made the Balkans the powder keg of Europe. In 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia, by a member of the Black Hand, a Serbian terrorist group. Like dominos, the major powers soon took up sides. Russia mobilized its army in support of Serbia; France claimed it would honor its agreement with Russia. Germany sided with its ally Austria and then declared war on France. When German troops invaded Belgium to reach France, Britain declared war on Germany. World War I had begun.
The Great War (as it was called) lasted four years. At first, Germany seemed unstoppable, but German plans for a quick victory were spoiled by Belgian resistance on the Western Front and the quick entrance of Russia on the east. New technologies like machine guns, tanks, submarines, and airplanes added to the scale of human destruction. The war in the east became a stalemate as both sides dug in leading to a deadlock that neither side could break. On the Eastern Front, Russia suffered enormous casualties on the field and bread shortages at home. This coincided with the growth of radical socialism (led by the Bolsheviks, later renamed Communists), led by Vladimir I. Lenin. The Russian Revolution broke out in November 1917 and soon Russia withdrew from the War.
The United States remained neutral for the first three years of the war, but anti-German sentiment grew when a German U-boat sank the British passenger liner Lusitania off the western coast of Ireland in 1915, with a loss of almost 1,200 passengers. While recent research confirms that the ship was not carrying munitions, the sinking of the Lusitania nurtured the belief that Germany was not among the civilized nations of the world and had to be defeated at any cost. Many Americans also supported the Allies because of long-held ties with Britain and France. With an infusion of about two million new troops, the Allies were soon poised to defeat Germany. President Woodrow Wilson did not keep America out of the war, as he had promised, but he did formulate Fourteen Points for resolving future wars. The final showdown came on the Western Front, as German forces launched one last assault on the Allies, but the Allies counterattacked with thousands of fresh American troops and forced the Germans back into Germany. The Kaiser stepped down and fled to the Netherlands. The war ended at exactly 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918.
The following chart shows the relationship between the Industrial Revolution and the forces that led to World War I, in particular, nationalism and imperialism.
Responses to the Industrial Revolution
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Timeline: Industrialism, Progressivism, and War (1877-1918)
References
Dyer, J. (Producer). (2005). Moving to the city: Part 3 [Video]. Dallas County Community College District. Academic Video Online.
Dyer, J. (Producer). (2005). A national culture [Video]. Dallas County Community College District. Academic Video Online.
Dyer, J. (Director), & Dyer, J. (Producer). (2005). The progressive paradox: Part 4 [Video]. Dallas County Community College District. Academic Video Online.
Dallas County Community College District (Producer). (2005). The progressive paradox: Part 6 [Video]. Academic Video Online.
