Top Events in American History
By: Harley Preston
The Dawes Act
The Dawes Act focused on breaking up Indian reservation land and providing allotments to individual Native Americans. Native Americans who accepted the allotments lived separately from the tribe and would eventually be granted U.S. citizenship. Even though this was cruel to the Native Americans it was a necessary step in completing manifest destiny and trying to industrialize America.
The Completion of the Trans-Continental Railroad
Industrializing the U.S. was one of the most important things to do when creating this great nation. When they began to work on the Trans-Continental railroad this was a big step toward completing the industrialization of America. This railroad provided a better, faster way to travel the span of the United States.
The Eradication of the Buffalo
Eradicating the buffalo was a extremely cruel and horrible event that took place on American soil. The U.S. wanted to complete its dream of Manifest Destiny and to do this they needed to take the Native American land from the Indians. So since the Native Americans would not budge they just began to kill off their main source of food, buffalo, to give them more incentive to take the deal with the U.S. government and give up their land.
The Chinese Exclusion Act
On May 6, 1882 President Chester A. Arthur signed off on the Chinese Exclusion Act. This was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. This act was passed to placate worker demands. It prohibited any and all immigration to the United States by Chinese people.
Poor Working Conditions in the United States
Working conditions in large factories and plants in the United States were not always sanitary. It used to be that working in a factory meant that you would either get extremely hurt or that you would just flat out get killed on the job. There were countless cases of people dying of poor ventilation, getting trapped in the factories and burning, or losing limbs in accidents from the hazardous surroundings.
Labor Unions
These Labor Unions were designed to help protect laborers. They did their best to provide better hours for their laborers and also get them better pay. These Unions served as the worker's voice and actually gave them a say in how many hours they worked and what they got paid. This helped prevent employers becoming complete dictators to their employees.
Political Machines
Political machines were a powerful pyramid system that led strait up to a "boss" such as the famous Boss Tweed. These bosses traded jobs and housing to new immigrants in exchange for their votes and support.
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell invented one of the most popular inventions possibly in the history of mankind, the telephone. His telephone that he invented marked a certain point in the urbanization of America. Without this invention the urbanization of America would have been completely different and probably not even the same America as we see today.
The Range Wars
The Range Wars was a direct result of American urbanization. Urbanization led to the invention of barbed wire which farmers on the American range were using to fence up their land. This led to a widespread war of farmers disputes over where one man's land started and, where another man's land began.
The Square Deal
The Square Deal, proposed by President Roosevelt, protected middle class Americans. It did this by attacking big business trusts but at the same time protected businesses from extreme demands of organized labor.
The Pure Food and Drug Act
Passed in 1906 the Pure Food and Drug Act protected the public from adulteration of food and from products that were identified as healthy without any scientific support. This was of importance at the time because things were so bad at this point in time that sometimes you would open up a can of goods and find a chopped off finger inside, so this was critical.
The 19th Amendment
The 19th amendment clearly and simply states the women now have the right to vote. It was a long and hard fight for women to get this right. Many conventions and different leaders in the fight for suffrage. One of the main leaders in this fight was Susan B. Anthony.
The Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was a U.S foreign policy that stated that any further attempts to colonize America by any European nations would be seen as acts of hostility and would need to immediately be acted upon.
Dollar Diplomacy
This was used to further American aim in Latin America and also in East Asia through use of America's dominant economic power. Proposed by President William Howard Taft he believed this would improve our financial opportunities but also use private capital to further U.S. interest overseas.
Moral Diplomacy
Moral Diplomacy proposed by President Woodrow Wilson. This is a system of diplomacy where support is provided only to countries whose moral beliefs are similar to those of the U.S. This helps promote American ideas while at the same time hurting nations with different morals.
The Fourteen Points
At the end of WWI President Theodore Roosevelt proposed his blueprints for peacekeeping known as the fourteen points. Most important among his fourteen points included the reduction of armaments kept by a nation and his main point which was to create and League of Nations. This was one big peace keeping committee.
Germany Pays Reparations
At the end of WWI Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles which stated that they would pay all war reparations, which was insanely expensive, and also that they would take full responsibility for starting the war.
The Selective Service Act
The Selective Service Act of 1917 says that the U.S. government has the right to raise a national army through a mandatory draft of men.