TIMELINE

AMERICA IN THE WORLDPOLITICS AND POWERIDENTITYIDEAS, BELIEFS, AND CULTUREWORK, EXCHANGE, AND TECHNOLOGY
1890
  • Congress funds construction of modern battleships

  • U.S.-backed planters overthrow Hawaii’s queen (1892)

  • U.S. wins War of 1898 against Spain; claims Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Philippines

  • Republicans sweep congressional elections as Americans respond to severe depression (1894)

  • Republican William McKinley elected president (1896)

  • “American exceptionalism” and rise of imperialism

  • Alfred Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890)

  • “Remember the Maine” campaign fuels surge in nationalism

  • Depression of 1890s increases pressure for U.S. to secure foreign markets

1900
  • U.S. war against Philippine revolutionaries

  • Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine (1904)

  • William McKinley reelected on pro-imperialist platform (1900)

  • William McKinley assassinated; Theodore Roosevelt becomes president (1901)

  • Insular Cases establish noncitizenship status for new territories (1901)

  • California, Washington, and Hawaii limit rights for Asian immigrants

  • Rise of modernism

  • Root-Takahira Agreement affirms free oceanic commerce (1908)

1910
  • Wilson intervenes in Mexico (1914)

  • Panama Canal opened (1914)

  • United States enters WWI (1917)

  • War ends; Wilson seeks to influence peace treaty negotiations (1918)

  • Woodrow Wilson elected president (1912)

  • Red Scare (1919)

  • Woodrow Wilson issues Fourteen Points (1919)

  • U.S. Senate rejects Treaty of Versailles (1919, 1920)

  • New Ku Klux Klan founded (1915)

  • Post-WWI race riots

  • Wartime pressure for “100% loyalty”; dissent suppressed

  • Moviemaking industry moves to southern California

  • Birth of a Nation glorifies the Reconstruction-era Klan (1915)

  • Radio Corporation of America created (1919)

  • Great Migration brings African Americans to northern cities, Mexicans north to United States

  • Assembly-line production begins

1920
  • Heyday of “dollar diplomacy”

  • U.S. occupation of Haiti and other Caribbean and Central American nations

  • Nineteenth Amendment grants women’s suffrage (1920)

  • Prohibition (1920–1933)

  • Teapot Dome scandal (1923)

  • Republican “associated state,” probusiness policies (1920–1932)

  • National Origins Act limits immigration (1924)

  • Rise of Hollywood

  • Harlem Renaissance

  • Popularity of jazz music

  • Scopes “monkey trial” (1925)

  • Economic prosperity (1922–1929)

  • Labor gains rolled back

  • Era of welfare capitalism

  • Rise of automobile loans and consumer credit

1930
  • Rise of European fascist powers

  • Japan invades China (1937)

  • Franklin Roosevelt elected president (1932)

  • First New Deal (1933)

  • Second New Deal (1935)

  • Roosevelt attempts to reform Supreme Court (1937)

  • Bonus Army (1932)

  • Indian Reorganization Act (1934)

  • Social Security created (1935)

  • Documentary impulse in arts

  • WPA assists artists

  • Federal Writers’ Project

  • Great Depression (1929–1941)

  • Rise of CIO and organized labor

1940
  • United States enters WWII (1941)

  • Atomic bombing of Japan and end of WWII (1945)

  • United Nations founded (1945)

  • Roosevelt elected to fourth term (1944)

  • Roosevelt dies (1945)

  • Harry Truman becomes president (1945)

  • Internment of Japanese Americans

  • Segregation in armed services until 1948

  • Film industry aids war effort

  • War spending ends depression

  • Rationing curbs consumer spending

  • Married women take war jobs