Spanish War

Populism, or the People’s Party, was formed for many economic reasons. Most of the agrarian society felt as if they were not equal to bigger industries (Brinkley 449-451). Railroad services charged small farmers more for shipping rates and bigger industries less. The farmers claimed that railroad services fixed their rates because they would cut deals with the bigger businesses. Populists also wanted a reform of currency (455). They wanted to do so in a way that would raise crops and farm products, so they could get more money and would be able to alleviate their debt.

The populists created a Farmers’ Alliance that began in Texas and it organized low cost insurance for farmers and put banks in their place with regulations. The Farmer’s Alliance also gave the government the ownership of the transportation system to regulate their costs and monopolies. When the Grangers lobbied for regulation of the

Through the period of 1865-1900, America’s agriculture underwent a series of changes .Changes that were a product of influential role that technology, government policy and economic conditions played. To extend on this idea, changes included the increase on exported goods, do the availability of products as well as the improved traveling system of rail roads. In the primate stages of these developing changes, farmers were able to benefit from the product, yet as time passed by, dissatisfaction grew within them. They no longer benefited from the changes (economy went bad), and therefore they no longer supported railroads. Moreover they were discontented with the approach that the government had taken towards the situation.

This illustrates that the Senate is controlled by big business, and how easily wealthy people had power over the government. Moreover, the railroad presidents were seen as kings, they could delay lawsuits, control the government and the people, corrupt communities, and control the press (DOC B). Important railroad companies dictated government policies because the legal system favored railroad interests. Further, trying to better the political system, the Populist Party made themselves known. Their platform demanded that the government be restored to the hands of the “plain people.” They wanted to end oppression, injustice, and poverty (DOC F). Evidently, they were dedicated to political and social reform, and urged that the government be strengthened and take responsibility of the people.

The period between 1870 and 1900 was a time to change politics. The country was for once free from war and was united as one nation. However, as these decades passed by, the American farmer found it harder to live comfortably. Crops such as cotton and wheat, once the cash crop of agriculture, were selling at prices so low that it was nearly impossible for farmers to make a profit. Improvements in transportation allowed larger competitors to sell more easily and more cheaply, making it harder for American yeoman farmers to sell their crops. Finally, years of drought in the Midwest and the fall of business in the 1890s devastated the farming community. Most notably, the Populist Party arose to fight what farmers saw as the issues affecting

cooperatives so as to make a profit. These two systems were a large step in the emergence

The Spanish-American War was known as the beginning process to the United States establishing itself as a world super power. This would be the beginning to becoming a strong and powerful Empire. This process to building a powerful Empire is something that America has built up for hundreds of years.

The Populist Party was hardly winning any support from the eastern and northeastern part of the United States. Most of the party’s goals would negatively affect the industrial economy and quite possibly cause a backward reform into the agricultural past. Another goal of the Omaha Platform was to transfer the operation and ownership of railroads to the government for the best interest of the people. They would also want to transfer the control of all types of communication such as, telegraphs and telephones to the government as well. This would hurt all the transportation and communication businesses in the country. Big business owner such as, Andrew Carnegie would be against the Omaha Platform and as people knew, money could control the government. If he did not own his own railroad company it would hurt his business significantly; it would for him to pay for transportation causing a chain reaction and raising the price of steel in reaction causing the price of anything with steel to

Most of their success was contributed to laissez-faire’s economic system. The government played a large part in funding the accounts acting in the railroad industry. Document G exposes the bonds, grants, and money given out by the government to multiple railroad companies. This caused the citizens to have to pay a much higher tax in order for the government to contribute to railroad companies. Never the less in the 1870’s Congresses resolution was passed. This states “no subsidy in money, bonds, public lands, endorsement, or by pledges of the public credit, should be granted by Congress to associations or corporations engaged or proposed to engage in public or private enterprise” as seen in Document F. They were trying to limit certain aspects of the companies, directly contradicting the laissez-faire idea. After this resolution was passed the land was put on sale for 125-250 per acre. At this point the larger companies began to buy the land surrounding the railroads and selling it off piece by piece at much higher

In the late nineteenth century shortly after the Civil War and Reconstruction, farmers in the Midwestern United States found themselves in quite a predicament. During the second industrial revolution of the United States that contained mass introduction of: railroads, oil, steel, and electricity, the risk-taking entrepreneurs of this era took an adventure into the world of cutthroat capitalism. In just a little time, a handful of monopolies arose in all these industries which hurt both the consumer of the product and the producer of the material (Doc. F). Because of the corrupt politicians in Washington DC, the absence of regulation on the monopolies put into place by bribes and greed or moderation from them, and the devious ways of the

Due to “…falling agricultural prices and growing economic dependency” (Foner 636) in the mid-nineteenth century, farmers in the South began to face inevitable economic uncertainty. Farmers, both white and black alike, were thrown into poverty due to sharecropping and the fall of the price of cotton, and many faced the fear of losing everything they had due the inability to pay bank loans. Believing that their situation was caused by “…high freight rates…excessive interest rates for loans…and the fiscal policies of the government” (Foner 636), disgruntled farmers hoped to better their lives and conditions through the founding of the Farmers’ Alliance in the 1870s. However, by the 1890s, the Alliance transformed into what became known as the Populist Party. Keeping their roots in mind, the Populists sought to end what they considered political corruption and economic inequality that arose during the Reconstruction. In order to do so, they proposed “…the direct election of U.S. senators, government control of currency, a graduated income tax, a system of low-class public financing…the right of workers to form labor unions…[and a] public ownership of the railroads” (Foner 638). In addition to their propositions, the Populists were considered radical due to their embracement of science and technology, their belief that the

The quote "A Splendid little war" by Secretary of State John Hay summarizes the Spanish American War in 1898. While this war could be seen as an act of aggression by the 20th century standards this war was beneficial to the United States of America while being deviating to the Kingdom of Spain for many reasons.

In 1890 clergyman Washington Gladden wrote an article called “The Embattled Farmers”. In it he blamed the ruin of the farmers on “protective tariffs, trusts…speculation in farm products, over-greedy middlemen, and exorbitant transportation rates.”

In the past farming was a way to provide food to the family, but in a growing market economy it was becoming more important in the 1860s and 1870s to have money in order to purchase food, clothing, and supplies for the family. That money could also be used to keep the farm running and producing more goods and making more money. However, farming was as competitive as ever. During the Civil War the demand for crops like cotton was high so farmers started producing even more cotton. After the war, the supply of cotton stayed the same but the demand for it lowered, dropping the prices and putting many farmers in debt. The invention of railroads connected many states together making bigger, interstate markets instead of simple local markets; making it even more difficult

world war two? The evidence and arguments considered has led me to the conclusion that the