A. Discuss three major changes in race relations
The specificity of the social structure of the South during the Reconstruction period
indicated that the reorganization of the social and political life of the southern states was largely
dependent on small white farmers and tenants. The most consistent fighters against planters were
Africans. During the civil war, the Negro people achieved the abolition of slavery. It was a
conquest of enormous progressive significance, but after being freed from slavery, the negroes
received neither land, nor the right to vote, nor economic, political, and civil rights. Equal rights
with whites could only be wrested by Africans in the struggle with the planters, and they were to
play a crucial role in the second stage of the revolution. The movement for independent political
actions intensified among the workers, at the same time trade unions began to form, a powerful
movement unfolded for an 8-hour working day. The influence of Republicans on farmers in the
post-war years also weakened, because farming was unhappy with the financial policies of the
Republicans and the transfer of the best land to railway and mining companies . But a significant 1
part of the farmers, who received the land from the hands of the bourgeoisie, continued to
support the Republicans.
Debates in Congress show that the position of Republicans in voting on the most
important acts of Reconstruction was determined to a large extent by whether the vote for this or
that bill made re-election for the next term of this congressman. Johnson believed that the
following measures were necessary for the reconstruction of the southern states: the southern
states should recognize the abolition of slavery; military debts of former rebel states are
eliminated; all whites 10 who will take the oath of loyalty may participate in the implementation
1
Ikenberry, G. John. “Liberalism and empire: logics of order in the American unipolar age.”
Review of International Studies 30, no. 4 (2004): 609-630.
of reconstruction; Reconstruction is not led by the congress, but by the president of the United
States.
B. Describe two consequences of industrialization on American politics and/or society
Industrialization has greatly changed the infrastructure of the United States. In general, it
can be said that, after 1860, the railway transport became the largest economic entity of the
economy (up to the end of the 19th century, the capital of the largest railways exceeded the
capital of the largest iron industrial companies) . Due to the penetration of railways in almost all 2
regions, a single national market is finally taking shape. The national economy in connection
with orders for railway equipment and thanks to the operation of railways receives a powerful
incentive for its development.
Another feature of the American industrial economy (unlike, for example, from the
European) was the rapid progress of agriculture. In the epoch of industrialization, the
mechanization of agriculture finally begins – one of the most conservative and inconvenient for
the technical progress of the industry . Under the conditions of the USA, with their vast virgin 3
territories and labor shortages, the mechanization of agrarian production received an additional
impetus. In turn, mechanization was pushing agriculture to increase marketability. After 1860,
American farmers began to work not only on the domestic, but also on the export market.
Increasing specialization and production efficiency.
C. Explain the rise of the Progressive movement
American society was characterized by religious pluralism so the notion of
“denomination” appeared, since the dominant state churches did not support it. Each Protestant
2 Domosh, Mona. American commodities in an age of empire. Taylor & Francis, 2006.
3 Northrup, David. Indentured labor in the age of imperialism, 1834-1922. CUP Archive, 1995.
denomination sought to win over as many believers as possible. The members of each
denomination settled separately, trying to build their ideal of church and state in a new place. So,
for example, the Rhode Island colony was founded by Baptists, and Quakers lived in
Pennsylvania.
Among the innovations of the era of progressivism is the further strengthening of the
federal government and its financial capabilities through the introduction of the Sixteenth
Amendment to the US Constitution of the federal income tax and the Seventeenth Amendment –
direct election of senators. Two more amendments to the Constitution introduced prohibition and
women’s electoral law (Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, 1920). At the first stage,
the driving force of the modernization of the political society was the new political elite, offering
the people a new formation and civilization project. Then a new powerful centralized state was
created as the main instrument of modernization. At the second stage, there is a rapid
modernization of the state economy, the redistribution of GDP for the revival of military power;
an equalizing, ascetic, slowly improving way of life of the working people is maintained; the
“lacquering” of the new way of life and the struggle with its “enemies” is carried out. Labor
unions, especially the American Federation of Labor, at the beginning of the 20th century
became an influential political force and also joined the progressives movement. They formed an
alliance with a democratic party and sought recognition by the legislator of the rights of trade
unions to represent the interests of labor collectives in disputes with employers.
D. Explain the role of American imperialism in leading the United States into Hawaiian
Annexation
At the end of the 19th century, Washington began military and economic expansion into
Asia, and the value of the Hawaiian Islands as an American military base increased dramatically.
The creation of the US base in Hawaii fully complies with the concept of “Sea Force” developed
by the founder of the American school of geopolitics, Admiral Alfred Mahan, who considered
the sea as a road to power and requires the creation of a system of strong points for stifling land.
Attention should be paid to the fact that the United States did not want to accept many other
territories. For example, the Americans had the power to completely annex the Philippines, but
they were not interested . And Hawaii became a springboard to establish control over East Asia. 4
Considering the issue of annexing the Hawaiian kingdom, it should be noted that the
local population for a long time actively opposed the establishment of control over its territory:
first, thanks to the efforts of the Patriotic League of Hawaiian Islands, the first resolution on
annexation did not pass in the US Congress, then, in 1897, representatives of the Hawaiian
Islands spoke in the US Congress with a volume petition against the accession of the islands.
4 Brody, David. Visualizing American empire: Orientalism and imperialism in the Philippines.
University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Bibliography
Brody, David. Visualizing American empire: Orientalism and imperialism in the Philippines.
University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Domosh, Mona. American commodities in an age of empire. Taylor & Francis, 2006.
Ikenberry, G. John. “Liberalism and empire: logics of order in the American unipolar age.”
Review of International Studies 30, no. 4 (2004): 609-630.
Northrup, David. Indentured labor in the age of imperialism, 1834-1922. CUP Archive, 1995.
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