Storia Americana, Cultura americana

Joseph Pulitzer published sensational accounts of the struggle in Cuba. When the Maine blew up , people

began calling for war with Spain, "Remember the Maine" became a battle cry. In April President McKinley

declared the war. The Spanish­ American war was fought in two parts of the world. One was Cuba, the other

was Philippines. The philippines was another big Spanish colony near the coast of Southeast Asia. The

Philippines became an indipendent country in 1946.

In 1953 Puerto Rico became self­governing, but continued to be closely tied to the US. In 1959 Hawaii was

admitted as the fiftieth state of the Union. Cuba was treated differently. When Congress declared war on Spain

in 1898 it said that it was only doing so to help the Cuban people to win indipendence. When the war ended,

Cuba was soon declared an indipendent country. But for years Cuba's indipendence was just a pretense.

Before the Americans took away their soldiers in 1902 they made the Cuban governement give the land at

Guantanamo bay on the Cuban coast. A big american naval base was built there. The Cubans also had to

accept a condition called Platt Amendment. This said that the US could send troops to take control of Cuba

any time it believed that American interests were in danger, in other words, whenever they wanted.

The splendid little war.

This is the common name which is used to called this short war between the US and Cuba. It was very short, it

lasted just 10 weeks. There was unprepareness, the firts military actions did not take place in Cuba but in the

Filippines, which ere also occupied by Spain. Admiral George Dewey came with his squadern from Hong

Kong, which was a british colony, and destroy the spanish flit on the bay of Manila. 11.000 trups were sent from

the us to support the filippino irregulars and they all defeated the spanish trups in August.

Regarding Cuba, military action was quick and decisive, on May the 29th, they blocked the spanish at

Santiago Harbour.In the following months 17.000 trups were sent included the T. Roosevelt Rough Riders.

These trups stormed the country, they captured several important places one by one, like Daiquiri, Santiago,

San Juan. After an engagement that lasted 4hours, the American flit had managed to destroy all the spanish

ships. Things were concluded on the 12th of August, spain agreeed to leave Cuba. Cuba became indipendent

and ceded some colonies to the US as Puerto Rico, Guam(island in the Marianos). The formal negotiations

were conducted in Paris, and Spain also agreed to sell the Philippines to the us for an amount of 20 millions

dollars. New problems arrosed Cuba, and very rapidly the presence of american trups were hated. Cuba didn't

want to stay under the us. After some years the us decided to leave the island.

Thanks to this Splendid little war, Mckinley and Roosevelt gained importance. Roosevelt was his vicepresident.

In 1904 Mckinley was assassinated, Roosevelt became the new president.

It was an empire over the seas, it was a sort of imperialism, trough the military conquest.

The Platt amendament

The Platt Amendment of 1901 was an amendment to a joint resolution of the United States Congress,

replacing the earlier Teller Amendment.[1] It stipulated the conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops

remaining in Cuba at the end of the Spanish­American War and defined the terms of Cuban­U.S. relations until

the 1934 Treaty of Relations. The Amendment ensured U.S. involvement in Cuban affairs and gave legal

standing (in U.S. law) to U.S. claims to certain territories on the island including Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

04/10 Populism

Populism has been viewed as a political ideology, political philosophy, or as a type of discourse. Generally,

populists tend to claim that they side with "the people" against "the elites". While for much of the twentieth

century, populism was considered to be a political phenomenon mostly affecting Latin America, since the

1980s populist movements and parties have enjoyed degrees of success in First World democracies such as

the USA.

This is about the American political party commonly known as the "Populists" which existed from 1892

to 1908. For other American and worldwide parties using the term populists see Populist Party. For the

American party with the same name which was active in the 1970s see People's Party (United States, 1971).

For the party existing in the Utah Territory from 1870­1891 see People's Party (Utah).

The People's Party, also known as the "Populists", was a short­lived political party in the

United States established in 1891 during the Populist movement (United States, 19th Century). It was most

important in 1892­96, and then rapidly faded away. Based among poor, white cotton farmers in the South

(especially North Carolina, Alabama, and Texas) and hard­pressed wheat farmers in the plains states

(especially Kansas and Nebraska), it represented a radical crusading form of agrarianism and hostility to

banks, railroads, and elites generally. It sometimes formed coalitions with labor unions, and in 1896 the

Democrats endorsed their presidential nominee, William Jennings Bryan. The terms "populist" and "populism"

are commonly used for anti­elitist appeals in opposition to established interests and mainstream parties.

The Octopus Roosvelt against the trusts

Some famous events

1. Edison electric invention

2. 1883 ­> an important costruction of the BROOKLING BRIDGE

3. 1889 ­> Oklaoma land rush , Oklaoma was inhabited, noone could live thre, then they opened the land and

started tha conquer of this last state! Thanks to the Homestad act they could have land for free. It was

conquered in 24 hours!

4. No Other land could be conquered.

5. 1890 important book "How the other half lives" by jacob riis. He denounced the poverty of NYC. He was also

a photographer he included some terrible picture about the poverty and misery of NYC 's streets.

6. 1890 as weell the first skyscaper was built in Saint Louis in Missouri : The Wainwright building.

7. 1890 the last battle against indians. Wanded knee was a massacre!

8. 1903 The first movie. The Great trump robbery,

9. 1903 The Wrigth Brothers . First flight in the world.

10. 1906 " The jungle" which dealt with the jungle of the stockmarket

11. 1909 the National Association for the advancement of Color people ( NAACP )

Reformers and Progressives

Kansas­Nebraska act 1854 which separeted the two states in order to avoid these conflicts.

Between 1865 and 1880 , 150 km of railroad were built. The governement send a aid with section of free land,

plus financial aid from the Congress. In May 1859 the first Transcontinental Rail Road was ready, Union pacific

with Ocean pacific met in Utah.

Loans, Private investements by the end of 19 century the railroas owned more than 130 millions of federal

land.

Changes:

1. Commodities, material were sold

2. people

There was abuses in the railroad that caused strickes and

speculative promotion,

political corruption(pressure on politions and magistrators), market manipulation

Stock Watering( the over capitalizes by selling more stocks and chairs than actualy rapresented the company.

To show to the people that the company was richer than it was in reality)

The pit (stockhouse in Chicago)

There was also discriminations about shipping stations.

Coveres act to prevent POOLING AGREEMENTS, to control charges and to forbidden secret discounts. Plus

the first formation the first union.

1880 an 1900 there were about 2000 strikes. These strikes concerned every large corporations.

The haymarket Incident . May 1896

Anarchists started being fear in the country.

All these demostrations ended in 1901 when the socialist party in america was founded which signed the

beginning of the progressive era.

There are some few events

The monroe Doctrine 1823

Homestead act 1862( cultivating a land for 5years gave the farmers the right to own it by law)

problem of slavery from a rational point of view Dred scott v. Sandford.

The Sherman antitrust act 1892 , which was the first attempt at controling the various monopoly.

Every contract, combination in the firm, in the trust or overwhise, or conspirancy (assosiation de malfatteur) ,

in restrate or trade or commers, among the several states, or with forein nations is hereby declared to be

illegal.

Ment to prevent monopoly.

Plessy v. Ferguson(1896)

The civil war hasn't started yet , most black people were slaves. At the times of Ferguson something else

appeared, racial discrimination and a form of segregation.

The splendid little war (1898)

Corollary to the Monroe doctrine (1904)

Juridical Review.

Morbury vs Madison (1801)

He refused the apointment there was a trial.

Marshall, declared the juridicial act, uncostitutional. It was a violation of the costitution. The supreme Law. A

law that will permit to be more important than the costitution, well that law should be forbidden. He took more

than 50 years.

First Case : Scott V. Sandforg

A slave named Dred Scott had been taken by his owner to live in a free state. Scott asked the

Supreme Court to declare that this had made him legally free. But the Court refused. It said that black slaves

had no rights as American citizens. It added also that Congress had gone beyond its costitutional powers in

claiming the right to prohibit slavery in the western territories.

The Dred Scott decision caused great excitement in the United States. Southern slave owners ere

delighted. Opponents of slavery were horrified. The Supreme Court seemed to be saying that free states had

no right to forbid slavery within their boundaries and that slave owners could put their slaves to work anywhere.

It was of great importance, for the ideological stand, the existence of black people and slavery and political

balance. Some states had already abolished slavery, Missouri hadn't.

Doctor Emerson took his family to Illenois and Minnesota, places were slavery had been abolished.

On their returns Three years later, Scott claimed he had be made free. Was he still a slave or was he a free

man? That was brother­in­law that went to court.

The court decided the following :

Scott was no citizens of United states.

Missouri compromice uncostitucional, slavery still existed.

In the second case : Plessy v. Ferguson

Was in a train in Lousiana, New orleans. He was asked to go the black part, since he refused to do so he was

arrested, he went to court, it went to the supreme court, actually it was decided that separation of the two

races din't mean different quality: Separate but equal. In other words, slavery does not exist but segregation

does, so this is the problem!

In 1896 the Supreme Court announced its decision in a casa called Plessy v. Ferguson. It ruled that

the Costitution allowed separate facilities and services to be provided for black and white people, so long as

the facilities and services were of equal quality. The Plessy v. Ferguson decision made racial segregation a

legal part of the Ame