Q8:The development of the usa after the civil war. The Monroe doctrine and the policy of expansionism. American imperialism on the beginning of the 20th century.

The period of the Civil War was marked by the rapid economic development in both parts of the country. As for the South, after the war it was devastated in need of rapid and concrete restoration. Was adopted by the US government – in 1855 – to 1877. During that period the main spheres of agriculture were restored and new industries were introduced. The South remained predominately rural, there was only one town with a population more than 100 000 people – New Orleans. The abolition of slavery was a very complicated matter. It didn't mean rapid changes in the attitude towards the black population. Although, certain changes occurred, for example, there were founded state legislative institutions, in which the black population took part. The white population of the South looked upon the former slaves as second-class people and introduced a number of black-codes. Segregation in schools, trains, everywhere. The most radical example was the activity of the infamous Ku Klux Klan. The member of the clan intimidated the blacks, murdered a lot of them, they introduced the so-called Lynch Law, according to which every African-American could be killed without any trial. The activities were suppressed by the government in 1872. Anyway there were many white who wanted to equal their rights at once, not gradually. Their attempts were opposed by president Johnson, who succeeded the presidency after Lincoln's assassination. As for the North industry made good progress in every sphere, i.e. in 1869 the first trans-continental railroad was opened and by the end of the 19^th century the total mileage of the railroad was more than 300 000 kilometers. In Chicago Louis Sullivan introduced steel-frame construction which was used in the building of skyscrapers. Alexander Bell invented telephone, Thomas Edison invented electric bulb lamp, phonograph, the car engine were also invented, as well as the moving picture. In 1893 Henry Ford represented the idea of the first automobile. The industrial development caused the appearance of the first “masters of capital”. John Rockefeller – Oil Magnate. Andrew Carnegie was dealing with iron and steel industry. Vanderbilt and Stanford – railroad magnates. By the the beginning of the 20^th century the USA became the top 1 industrial country in the world. The thing that bothered the American capital, the USA was the late-come in the world colonial system made undertake a number of steps.

The Monroe Doctrine. In 1823 the 5^th US president James Monroe in his address to the congress pointed out a number of positions, known today as the Monroe doctrine. According to it, the USA claimed its exclusive right to dominate on the American continent and all the attempts of the European countries to claim certain territories of America were considered the act of hostility towards the USA. As for the end of the 19^th century, the USA began its expansion with Alaska and Hawaii. In 1867 at the instigation of the US secretary of State William Seward the USA bought a huge territory of Alaska from Russia. Initially this purchase was highly criticized in mass media. With the discovery of huge deposits of oil and gas though this criticism quickly faded. In 1898 the USA simply conquered Hawaiian island with its precious Pearl Harbor. The real interest of the USA laid in the Spanish colonies. The most important was Cuba. In 1898 when the US battleship Maine was blown up in Havana under mysterious circumstances the USA declared war on Spain which lasted for ten weeks only and ended with the treaty of Paris, according to which the USA got the following territories under its control: Puerto-Rico, Cuba, Guam and the Fillipines. Although Cuba was proclaimed independent republic it was a complete economic colony of the US. In Cuba the US formed its military base in Guantanamo Bay, which remains the property of the USA till this very day. China became another object of American interest. At the beginning of the 20^th century the USA declared the so-called Open Door Policy to China., claiming its rights to take part in political and economic processes there. Two was how it was carried out:

Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft

1. Dollar diplomacy, which means huge investments into the economy of a certain territory until it becomes totally dependent on them. If dollar diplomacy didn't help:

2. The Big Stick policy, for example, before the IWW the USA developed an idea of building the canal that would connect who oceans and make the US navy more flexible and more dangerous than the Brittish one. The problem was that the narrow piece of land belonged to the Republic of Columbia, which refused to sell it, because the conditions were discriminatory. The USA in response supported the uprising in Columbia, there appeared a pupped of state – the republic of panama – which gladly gave this land to the USA.

The period of American imperialism

Q9 – The USA in the First World War. The contradictory 1920s.

The FWW broke out in the 1^st of August in 1914 in Europe. It was the conflict mainly between two groups of countries: so-called Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) and the so-called Allied Forces (France, Britain and Russia). Initially the USA declared neutrality, and the president Woodrow Wilson in his address to congress asked the citizen to be “impartial”.

From the beginning of the 1^st WW all the waring sides were hoping to cooperate with the United States. The European countries gradually became economically dependent from the USA, which became the richest country. The loans and the goods were sent to the neutral countries such as Belgium of Switzerland and the Allied Forces. The first event that provoked mass indignation in the US was the Germany's assault on the neutral Belgium in 1915. In 1915 German submarines began to attack different ship in Europe. A German submarine sank cruise liner Louisitania which killed 1200 (10000?) passengers/ During 1915 and 1916 German U-boat destroyed 8 American ship, and it became clear that the USA would involve. On the 6^th of April in 1917 the US congress gave president Wilson the permission to start a war. As it turned out the USA wasn't ready to ship its soldiers to Europe at once. The progress of recruitment took one more year. Only in the spring of 1918 two million American soldiers concentrated in France. The arrival was timely, because on the 14^th of July in 1918 the Germans undertook the last but very long awaited offensive at Marne, where the last line of French defenders could be easily crashed and the way to Paris would be open. With their help the Germans were defeated. Threading to get the war on its own territory, Germany appealed to president Wilson to negotiate the peace agreement. Earlier in that year in January 1918 Wilson proclaimed the “14-point document” which among other issues included the negotiation on peace and the formation of the League of Nations. The negotiations took place in 1919 in Versailles in France. However, they were held in the atmosphere of hatred, greed (for Germany's colonies and reparations) and fear (of Bolshevism). As a result the treaty wasn't negotiated but imposed on Germany. As a result German colonies apart of Czech, Polish and French lands were taken from Germany, heavy reparations were introduced, which Germany finished to pay only two years ago. The League of Nations was founded “to maintain international cooperation and to achieve international peace and security”. Went Wilson came back to the USA he brought both documents to the Congress to be approved. The Congress refused to support them being afraid of the possible involvement of the USA into European conflicts.

The contradictory 1920's

After the FWW the USA turned inwards, became isolated of all the processes in the world because of the fear of the communism. The 1920s were marked by the visible contradictions between total permissiveness on the one hand and radical conservatism on the other hand. In 1919 after a series of terrorist bombings in America the Red Scare grasped the society. There appeared radically suspicious attitude towards all the immigrants, the climax of which was the famous case of Nicolo Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were accused of a espionage in 1921 and executed in 1927 despite public protests. Strict measures to limit immigration were adopted in 1921, 24 and 29. Only Anglo-Saxon and Nordic stock were favored. The 1920s were the years of presidents Harding and Coolege. These were the years of Prohibition. For example, all the alcoholic beverages were outlawed in the 1920s. Millions of drinkers, however, found the way how to get illegal alcohol. Bootleggers were flourishing. Alcoholic drinks were distributed and sold by gangsters. The most famous gangster group was led by Al Capone. In 1920s there took place the restoration of activities of the KKK. The objects of lynching were not only African-Americans, but Jews, Catholics, and other immigrants. Hundreds of people were killed during the activities. The brightest example of radical conservatism was the Monkey Trial in 1925. A young biology teacher John T. Scopes in the state of Tennessee was accused of teaching Darwin's theory of evolution at school. This trial was a real sensation in the USA. As a result of the trial Scopes was claimed guilty by the judge who was the brightest example of radical christian conservatism. Scopes was fined on 100 dollars. Several years later the accusations were removed. Contrary to the conservatism of the period the great influence especially on young people was made by Sigismund Freud's practices. Oversimplifying his ideas young people were eager to reestablish the system of values and base it on the principals of emancipation of standards. This was also the beginning of era of the jazz.

All tis processess fond reflections in American literature of that period. There appeared a group of writers, collectively know as the Lost Generation writers. The first of them was Henry Adams, who in his autobiographical novel “The Education of Henry Adams” stressed the point that industrialization suppressed the human spirit beneath its machines. Fitzgerald. Many young writers tended to live the USA and live in Rome of Paris where life was cheap and pleasant in comparison with the USA.

Economics. Industry was developing quite rapidly, the 1920s occurred to rise by the economic boom of industrial production and free market. President Coolage in his famous phrase “the chief business of the Americans is business”. Huge loans were given to corporations. And there appeared the problem of overproduction and huge loans that were given often became the objects of speculation of the stock exchange. All of this eventually led to the famous Black Tuesday. The day which marks the beginning of the great depression.

Q10 – The Great Depression. The USA in the IIWW. Franklin Delano-Ruswelt.

Через три недели можно произвести видеопрезентацию об Американской истории недавних лет.

In November 1928, The Republican party and its leader Herbert Hoover won the presidential elections. It seemed to be the most favorable period in the economic development of the USA and Hoover's presidency promised to be easy and not troublesome. The industrial boom reached its peak, the speculations on the stock exchange markets reached an unprecedented level. However the imbalances between the production and the consumption of goods became more and more obvious. But in general, the USA was prosperous as ever. On the 24^th of October in 1929 (The Black Thursday) one the New-York stock exchange panic selling of 12 million shares at a time took place which wiped out the stock exchange itself and gave a double blow to the American economy in general. Thousands of investors lost their money instantly, millions of citizens lost their deposits in banks. The employers began to get rid of the staff in all of the companies. The industrial production fell dramatically. The agricultural companies got bankrupt, no one needed their production, the prices were extremely low. In 1929 the USA produced 4.9 million automobiles. In 1930 only 1 million. At the same time the unemployment rates reached 12 million people. Initially, Hoover was sure that the free economic mechanisms would balance the situation without the interference of the government. He started giving even bigger loans to banks, supporting the big companies, he asked big businesses not to make people redundant. Hoover's administration created reconstruction finance corporation, which was supposed to accumulate the money for the support of this project. The situation in 1931-32 changed from bad to worse, Hoover's popularity was extremely low and was obvious that in 1932 Democrats would win the elections. The Democrats chose Franklin Delano-Roosevelt in the 1932 elections. He was the only US president who was elected 4 times. He suffered from polio, he could hardy walk by himself. He radiated confidence, kindness and the ability to change the situation in the country. During the presidential campaign he visited all the states of the US. “The only thing we have have to fear is fear itself”. “This action asks for action and action now”. His program was called a 'New Deal'. There was a point called 'Hundred Days'.

• As for the financial sphere, Roosevelt closed all the banks, and reopened only those, that were ready to work under the stricter control of the government.

• He abolished gold standard of the currency, devalued the dollar and succeeded in the policy of mildly controlled inflation.

• They put the biggest emphasis on public employment (building dams, roads, etc.)

• A great support was guaranteed for theaters, cinemas, museums, concert halls and other establishments of culture.

• The conservation of national resources. 3 million people got the employment in that sphere at once.

• In agriculture Roosevelt's idea was to return to the prices of foodstuffs that existed before the Great Depression.

These were the main measures undertaken by Roosevelt's government in 100 days. In took 10 years to accomplish the results. By the 1944 the USA's development was even higher than before the Great Depression.

The second world war. President Roosevelt's domestic reforms were outshadowed by the growing threat of a new world war, instigated by the expansionist's policies of totalitarian regimes in Italy, Germany and Japan.

1931 Japan invaded a Chinese province called Manchuria.

1935 Italy invaded Ethiopia in Africa.

1936-38 Spanish regime of Francisco Franco overturns the republic and government, and Spain becomes a fascist state.

1938 Germany incorporates Austria and after the shameful Munich pact invaded Czechoslovakia. In 1939 Germany attacks Poland, which marks the beginning of the 1^st WW.

The policy of isolationism of the United States led to the inefficiency of the system of collective security associated with the League of Nations. The United state behaved neutrally, but in 1941 the program of Land Lease was adopted, that guaranteed the supplies of planes, tanks, weapons, foodstuffs to the countries, the security of which was in the US interest. Even Soviet Union got certain ammunition. On the 40^th of August President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met in the Mid-Atlantic and passed the famous Atlantic charter, many points of which later were reflected in the Charter of the United Nations. By December 1941 the atmosphere in the US on the one hand and Japan on the other was so tense that on the 6^th of December president Roosevelt the emperor of Japan Hirohito and asked for a peaceful solution. On the 7^th of December Japan undertook a smashing blow on many targets in the Pacific, such as the Philippines, Guam and especially the military base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, destroying 8 battleships, dozens of planes, killing 2300 American soldiers. On that same day the congress declared war on Japan. Two days later Italy and Germany declared war on the USA.

Soon after the USA entered the war American, British and Soviet war planners decided to concentrate their war effort in Europe while the Pacific region was made secondary.

After the defeat of the Germans near Moscow in 1941 the Anglo-American troops undertook a number of successful operations in Africa and Asia. In 1942 the American defeated Japan in the battle at the Coral Sea thus saving Australia from the occupation. In that same year as a result of the battle at midway the Hawaiian Islands were no longer in danger. In spring 1942 Anglo-American forces under the command of General Montgomery landed in Egypt which was Hitler's target. As a result of the battle Al-Alamaine 24 Oct-3 November 1942 the Suez Canal was defended. And thus Egypt was liberated. In 1943 the US army under the command of general Dwight Eisenhower French African colonies and by the summer of 1943 Tunis and Algeria were liberated and the way to the Southern part of Italy (Island of Sicily) was cleared from the Mediterranean Sea. In July 1943 the Anglo-American troops landed in Sicily and occupied the Southern part of the Italian mainland. The resistance of the Italians was not severe. On the 25^th of July in 1943 the fascist leader Benito Mussolini was deposed. He escaped. 8 months later he was captured by the Italian partisans and publicly hanged in Milan. It took one more year to clear Italy of fascists because the German troops in Italy were fighting bravely and up to the last soldier. Rome was liberated only on the fourth of June 1944.

In November 1943 there took place a conference in Teheran where Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin discussed the matter of the opening of the second front in Europe. This was the principal decision to start the war from the West as well.

«Тегеран-43» - фильм.

During the first half of 1944 the operation Overlord – The Invasion of Normandy – was carefully worked at by the American and British strategists. The D-day was appointed on the 6^th of June 1944. On the eve of that day the concentration of forces in Britain reached its top. 4 thousand ships, 11000 planes, 3 million soldiers and sailors and airmen. The operation was successful. More than 200.000 allies were moving through France towards Germany. At the end of August 1944 Paris and Brussels were liberated. In October 1944 the allies took Luxemburg and entered Germany.

In 1944 a very important event took place in the Pacific. The US liberated the Philippines. In 1944 the Germans undertook the last important offensive in the Belgium Ardens. The situation in the East was much harsher because the Soviets liberated Poland and Berlin was close.

In February 1945 in Yalta there was held another conference of the three leaders, the main issues of which were the following: the punishment of the Nazi leader after the second world war , the boundaries of Poland were established, the agreement of Soviet Union to start a war against Japan when the war in Europe was over, establishment of the United Nations organization were discussed.

In April 1945 two important events happened in the USA. On the 12^th of April Franklin Roosevelt died of a stroke in his Winter Residence in Warm Springs, the state of Georgia. His successor Harry Truman had to participate instead of Roosevelt at the ceremony of the opening of the United Nations Organization, that took place in the 25 of April 1945 in San-Francisco.

On the 25^th of April took place in Germany, meeting on the Elbe, when the Anglo-American soldiers met the soviet troops moving from the East in a small German town Torgao. On the 8^th of May Germany signed the unconditional surrender and thus the war in Europe was over.

On the 17^th of July 1945 the last conference of the three leaders opened in Potsdam near Berlin. The task for the three leaders was to decide upon the partition of Germany, the Establishment of Nurnberg tribunal on war crimes. Clement Attley from Britain. This was the last meeting of the three leaders before the Cold War. The Soviet Union remained firm to its commitment and declared war to Japan in summer 1945. It didn't last long. The famous Qwantun division was crushed by the Soviets in Manjuoria and Japan signed the unconditional surrender on the 2^nd of September in 1945. That was the end of the second world war. Before that in August Truman signed the order to attack two Japanese cities using atomic bombs. On the 6^th of August Hiroshima, on the 9^th of August Nagasaki were bombed. Tho hundred thousand people were killed immediately my the nuclear attack, million suffered from deceases years later.

Q11 – The main events of the Cold War period. The Korean war, the Caribbean crisis, the war in Vietnam.

The Cold War denotes the period from 1945 to 1991 when two superpowers: the USA and the Soviet Union were in permanent antagonism in their desire to control the situation in different regions of the world. More generally, this period can be called the conflict between the East and the West. The first reason was distrust. The Western world was afraid of the spread of communist ideas that became very popular after the SWW with the Soviet Union having the image of the liberator of Europe. In 1918 the US supported the intervention against Soviet Russia in the civil war. The USA recognized the USSR only 1933. The event that is considered to be the symbolic beginning of the Cold war was Winston Churchill's speech, where he said “ the iron curtain has descended across the continent”. The western world should keep away from the Communism.

1947 George Marshall the US State Secretary proposed a massive aid to help rebuild European economies. According to it within 10 years more than 12 billion dollars were invested in to the restoration of the economic capacities of Germany, France, Britain and other European countries. After the SWW the USSR's reputation was very high, and to prevent communist ideas spreading to the west the US invested a huge sum of money into European economies. The Marshall plan was also proposed to the Soviet Union. In 1949 to protect the Western world from the possible aggression from the East the US and 11 countries formed the North-Atlantic Treaty Organisation – NATO with headquarters in Brussels. In response in 1955 the Soviet Union and its Eastern-European allies signed the Warsaw Treaty of Collective Security (Варшавский Договор о Коллективной Безопасности) also know as the Warsaw pact. The next several decades all the main political processes in the word were characterized between these two blocks, or more generally – the East and the West.

In 1949 the conflict between the Nationalists headed by Chang Key-Shek. And the Communists led by Mao Tsedong reached its climax. As a result the communists won, and in that same year the People's Republic of China was formed. The victory of communists in China provoked another conflict in Korea. 1950-1952 – Civil war in Korea. As a result, the Korean peninsula was divided in to two state – The Republic of Korea (Seul) and communist Korean People's Democratic Republic (Пхеньян) which today remains one of the few radically communist states in the world.

In the 1950s in the US despite an economic boom and prosperity there was a suspicion. The witch hunt was initiated by senator Joseph McCarthy who claimed progressive intellectuals and politicians to be communist conspirators. Hundreds and thousands of careers were ruined. However, McCarthy was soon exposed as a cheat and dismissed. In 1960 John Kennedy won the presidential elections and immediately began to implement “new frontier” policy, and the first movement was towards Cuba, where in 1959 Fidel Castro took the power and established a communist regime in Cuba. Hundreds of Cuban emigrants were trained by the CIA and sent to Cuba where at the Bay of Pigs, where they were crushed by Castro's people. After this provocation, Fidel asked the Soviet Union to protect Cuba from the possible aggression. Soviet nuclear missiles were installed in Cuba and Kennedy demanded the immediate removal of the missiles from the Cuba (1962) – the Caribbean Crisis. In 1962 the so-called Test-Ban Treaty was signed, which prohibited all the nuclear tests in the atmosphere. Khrushchev removed nuclear weapon from Cuba under the promise of Kennedy that the USA won't invade the island.

The 1960s became a crucial decade for the solution of old problems concerning racial inequality, the role of women and Native Americans question. In 1955 in Alabama the supporters of racial equality led by Martin Luther King boycotted public transportation in the state, which ended the segregation on buses in Alabama. The beginning of 1960 were famous for rallies, the most famous of which the 'March on Washington” in 1962 led by Martin Luther King. 200 000 thousand people where Martin Luther King pronounced his notable speech “I have a dream” (p244-246). After this a number of changes took place in the legislation concerning African-Americans, the most important of which was the right to vote that was give to all the African-Americans. In 1968 Martin Luther King was assassinated. Several months later Senator Robert Kennedy followed the same destiny.

In 1966 28 progressive women led by Betty Freiden formed the National Organization for Women.

In 1968 the American Indian Movement was created that took the responsibility of solving connected with Native-Americans.

After the failure of French colonies in Indo-China in 1954 the USA got gradually involved into the controversies in Vietnam. South Vietnam was supported by the USA, North was supported by the Soviet Union. In 1954 president Johnson employed a policy of escalation and sent almost half a million of American soldiers to the country. The conflict lasted for about 10 years. The American soldiers were often accused of atrocities against civilians in Vietnam. 58000 of American soldiers were killed.

The year 1972 was the year of presidential elections and R Nixon wanted to be re-elected for the second term. During the electoral campaign 5 men were caught in the headquarters of the Democratic party at the Watergate hotel in Washington. Nixon was re-elected but in 1973 the scandal continued, when the comity demanded the recordings that Nixon made during his conversations and which vividly showed direct involvement of Nixon into this break-in to the Watergate hotel. The congress started the procedure of impeachment, but Nixon preferred to resign voluntary.

The 1980s were marked by the presidency of R Reagan and George Bush the senior. The following events were important:

“Star Wars” - launching satellites.

The collapse of the USSR in 1991.

Q12 – The US foreign policy today (11 sept 2001 – until the day of examination).