1900-1914

1900-1914 American History Vocabulary Please define your term in complete sentences and place THREE photos, documents, or other primary sources (movies?) in the section on our class page. When you have completed your topic you will place your entry on this page.

Spanish-American War Spanish-American War- A “splendid little war” between the United States and Spain that started on April 25th and ended on August 12th, 1898. The conflict was started when the United States became involved in the conflict between the Spanish and the inhabitants of Cuba. When the USS Maine went to Cuba to project American and exploded in the harbor the United States blamed the Spanish and declared war. The war was relatively short and one-sided since the United States was a rising world power and the Spanish were losing their long-held empire. When the conflict concluded the United States won Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Filipinos that expected independence after the defeat of the Spanish were disappointed by the U.S. occupation and fought a violent rebellion which was brutally suppressed.
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 * Remington's "Charge Up San Juan Hill" ||  ||
 * Remington's "Charge Up San Juan Hill" ||


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 * The USS Maine after its' destruction ||  ||
 * The USS Maine after its' destruction ||


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 * Political Cartoon portraying the American Empire ||  ||
 * Political Cartoon portraying the American Empire ||

Jim Crow Jim Crow is NOT a real person. It is a name to black people. It said blacks should have less rights then whites. The laws were totally against Black Americans and decided to not let them vote. Some examples of Jim Crow laws are the segregation of public schools, public places and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms and restaurants for whites and blacks. The U.S. military was also segregated.



Birth of a Nation Birth of a Nation was written and produced in 1915. The movie was the top grossing film of its day. The director, D.W. Griffith used his own new own camera techniques. The silent film opened in first Boston and then Philadelphia. For many white Americans the movie was a big hit. After it came out in Boston and Philadelphia it came out in other big cites such as Chicago, Denver, and also Kansas City. After the movie was shown a white teen went and killed a black teen by beating him to death. The president was a supporter of the film. The Library or Congress deemed the film culturally and historically and aesthetically significant and added to the national film Registry. The Ku Klux Klan was the protector of the white people. The klan broke out all over the untied states they where a big hit in the mid 1870’s. The Birth of a Nation was about a civil war soldier who was black and married a white woman and the white people where really mad and upset. So there was a group of white men who dressed up like ghost to scare little children. So then the white group came up with the ku klux klan hanging and lynching black men. Women’s Suffrage Movement Women suffrage has been granted at various times in varibous countries throughout the world. In many countries women’s suffrage was granted before universal suffrage. Women’s Suffrage is the right for women to vote, to own property, and payment of taxes or marital status. New Zealand was the first country to give the right for women to vote in 1893. The suffrage movement was a very broad one, which encompasses women and men with a very broad range of views. In some countries nothing has changed, in Saudi Arabia, women were not given the right to vote or stand to election National Women’s suffrage did not exist until the 1920’s

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a 77 km (48 mi) ship canal that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific ocean and a key conduit for international maritime trade. Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in the canal's early days to 14,702 vessels in 2008, displacing a total 309.6 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) tons.

The Panama Canal makes the trip from New York to California shorter than before. In January 1, 1880; Franch Ferdinand de Lesseps started his plan to build Panama Canal. But the diseases make his plan unsuccessful. After that, American government took over from Franch by paying 40 million dollars. American learned from Franch's experiment, they send people there to kill the mosquie before they started to work on the canal. Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27th 1858, and died on January 6th 1919. During his life he was the 26th President of the United States. Before he became President he held offices at many levels. When he was growing up he did not go to school, instead he was at home studying the natural history of the world. He studied at Harvard, and in his free time he boxed. When he became President he was the former Vice President. When President McKinley was shot Teddy took over as President. As President he went out of his way to make the public happy, he was a loved president. After becoming President from 1901-1909 he died at age 60 from a arterial blood clot.

Booker T. Washington He was born 1856 as a slave in Hale's Ford and died 1915. He had to work in salt furnaces and coal mines at the age of nine years. Booker was an intelligent and curious child, but he was frustrated when he could not receive good schooling locally. When he was 16 his parents allowed him to quit work and go to school. Washington became a teacher because he thought that education would rause his people to equality in this country. He traveled the country unceasingly to raise funds from blacks and whites. Soon he became a well-known speaker. In 1895, Washington was asked to speak at the opening of the Cotton States Exposition, an unprecedented honor for an African American. His Atlanta Compromise speech explained his major thesis, that blacks could secure their constitutional rights through their own economic and moral advancement rather than through legal and political changes. Although his conciliatory stand angered some blacks who feared it would encourage the foes of equal rights, whites approved of his views. Thus his major achievement was to win over diverse elements among Southern whites, without whose support the programs he envisioned and brought into being would have been impossible. In addition to Tuskegee Institute, which still educates many today, Washington instituted a variety of programs for rural extension work, and helped to establish the National Negro Business League. Shortly after the election of President William McKinley in 1896, a movement was set in motion that Washington be named to a cabinet post, but he withdrew his name from consideration, preferring to work outside the political arena. He died on November 14, 1915.

W.E.B. Dubois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and died on August 27, 1963. Du Bois was an American civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, historian, author and editor. He was the most prominent leader and political activist for the African American race in the first half of the twentieth century. Labeled as the “Father of Pan-Africanism,” W.E.B. Du Bois emphasized on segregation, political disfranchisement and ways to improve African American life. Du Bois wrote many books such as //The Philadelphia Negro, The Souls of the Black Folk, John Brown, Black Reconstruction,// and //Black Folk, Then and Now//. His first book, //The Negro//, influenced many pioneer Africanist scholars such as Drusilla Dunjee Houston and William Leo Hansberry. In Du Bois’ //Black Reconstruction//, he wrote on how African Americans were a major factor in the Civil War and Reconstruction. In 1897, Du Bois began writing about the sociology of crime after receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard University. His first work that involved criminology study in depth and theory was //The Philadelphia Negro//, describing the analysis of black criminal population in Philadelphia. W.E.B Du Bois was included in many civil rights activist activities. He helped organize the “Negro exhibition” in 1900 which focused on African Americans’ positive contributions to the American society. In 1905, he helped found the //Niagara Movement// along with Fredrick L. McGhee and William Monroe Trotter. The Movement centered on freedom of speech and criticism, as well as full male suffrage, belief in the dignity of labor, and a united effort to realize such ideals under leadership. Du Bois was one of the best leaders during the twentieth century for the African Americans and helped change America by emphasizing the issues of the African American race and how they are an important piece of America’s society.

Muckraker (Upton Sinclair) A Muckraker usually seeks to expose corruption of businesses or government to the public. Muckrakers are journalist. They often wrote about the wretchedness of urban life and poverty. They also wrote about the establishments and institutions of society, such as a big business. McClure’s Magazine, wrote in 1901 has published many of the muckrakers articles. Muckrakers were a significant part of reform in the United States in the 19th or 20st centuries. The term “Muckraker” was taken from the fictional character in the book Pilgrims Progress, written by a man who was consigned to rake muck endlessly, never lifting his eyes from his drudgery. Muckrakers usually wrote about, the trusts(oil, beef, or tobacco.), prison conditions, exploitation of natural resources, the tax system, the insurance industry, pension practices and food processing. He achieved considerable popularity in the first half of the 20th century, while writing fame in 1906, muckraking novel, //The Jungle//. The book was about U.S meat packing industry, causing public uproar that partly contributed to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection in 1906. Yellow Journalist (Hearst, Pulitzer)
 * [[image:http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/media/images/hearst12.jpg width="423" height="232" caption="William Randolph Hearst"]] ||
 * William Randolph Hearst ||


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 * Joseph Pulitzer ||

Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst were American newspaper publishers who used melodrama, romance, and hyperbole to sell millions of newspapers; a style that became known as yellow journalism. Yellow Journalism is type journalism that downplays legitimate news in favor of eye-catching headlines that sell more newspapers. William Randolph Hearst was born 1863 April, 29 in San Francisco. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887 after taking control of The Francisco examiner from his father. Moving to New York City, he acquired //The New York Journal// and engaged in a bitter circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer's //New York World// which led to the creation of yellow Journalism he created a chain that numbered nearly 30 papers in major American cities at its peak he magazines Larger and made the largest Magazine and Newspaper in the World. he was elected twice as a democrat but did successfully ran for mayor in New York City in 1905-1909 later on life he became more conservative. Joseph Pulitzer was born on April 10, 1847 He received a quality education and sought adventure in the army as a teenager the Hungarian army did not accept because of his lack eye sight and a weak body. After the two European armies did not accept him he joined the American Union Army he emigrated to the United States in 1864 and fought the war without distinction until the end of war. On his Newspaper Career by 1872 he had developed a reputation for being a hard working reporter. Though with a owner that is almost close to bankruptcy he was offered a controlling interest in newspapers which he sold back to original the owners and made a profit of 30,000 dollars he became the owner of St.Louis Post-Dispatch later on he was a successful news reporter and he gained a lot of leadership on his works.

Temperance Movement The Temperance Movement was a effort to encourage moderation in the consumption of intoxicating liquors. Many women, who had been neglected by their intoxicated husbands, filled the ranks of the movement. Eventually, many Temperance Movement groups promoted to stop the consumption of all alcoholic beverages. Temperance was also seen as a solution to the nation’s poverty, crime, violence, and other ills.

Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson was born in Virginia in 1856. Wilson was the 28th president of the United States. Wilson was president from 1913 until 1921. On April 2, 1917 Wilson brought forward to the congress of the war against Germany. In 1918 Wilson went to Paris to sign a peace treaty with Germany. Wilson made a national tour to mobilize public sentiment for the treaty. Wilson did this against doctor’s orders which caused a stroke, nearly killing him. Wilson died in 1924.

Election of 1912 Election of 1912
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 * image: party candidates cartoon ||  ||
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For the United States presidential election of 1912 it was fought among three major candidates, two of whom had previously won election to the office. Incumbent President William Howard Taft was renominated by the Republican party with the support of the conservative wing of the party. After former President Theodore Roosevelt failed to get the Republican nomination, he called his own convention and created a new Progressive Party which was nicknamed the Bull Moose Party. It nominated Roosevelt and ran candidates for other offices in major states. Democrat Woodrow Wilson was nominated on the 46th ballot of a contentious convention, thanks to the support of William Jennings Bryan. He defeated both Taft and Roosevelt in the general election, winning a huge majority in the Electoral College despite only winning 42% of the popular vote, and initiating the only period between 1892 and 1932 when a Democrat was elected President. Wilson was the second of only two Democrats to be elected President between 1860 and 1932. This was also the last election in which a third party candidate came in second in the Electoral College.

John Muir John Muir born April 21, 1838 was a smart man, but not in the medical field. He went to school for medicine, but dropped out of that because he was more attracted to nature then anything else. Although he loved nature, he liked to tinker with other things. He once invented the old style alarm clock that would awaken a sleeping individual by tipping them out of bed when the alarm sounded. He also invented the old style model sawmill. In 1868, he went to San Francisco, California and worked on a sheep ranch. In later years in 1916, he set out for a walk that was then called //A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf;// he actually made it as far as Cuba. What he is most famous for is creating nature trails and parks. He created a trail that stretched about 222 miles from Happy Isles, to Whitney Portal. If it wasn’t for John Muir, we wouldn’t have nature trails, or have the luxury of a State Park. He thought that it would be a good idea for people to sell their land to the state to create National State Parks, and have the park services provide the community with a beautiful park to roam through. John Muir made it possible to have State Parks.