This period of the Histoire of the United States extends from the end of the American Civil War (1861-1865), which opposed the industrial States of North to the confederated States, in particular on the question of the Esclavage, at the end of the First World War. It is marked in particular by the Reconstruction, which ends with the Compromis of 1877 and the withdrawal of the troops of the North of the States Southerners. The period of the Histoire of the United States which was held between the end of the war and the beginning of the XIXe century is sometimes called “gilded period” (in English Gilded Age ), and was marked by a long prosperity of the country in many fields (economy, industrialization). However, this same period extended until the Second world war was also characterized by a progressive withdrawal of the acquired rights by the Noirs American at the end of the war in the states of the South, which arrived to its culminating point during the arrest of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which ratified the racial segregation in public transport. The Grande Depression touched also America, which leaves little there before the First World War.

Continuations of the American Civil War and the Rebuilding (1865-1877)

The period which follows the American Civil War and which saw the rehabilitation of the States secessionists in the union, as well as the policy led to their regard for this period names the Reconstruction. Abraham Lincoln before her assassination, preaches a moderated policy, but the immense human costs of the war and the social changes that it brought lead the Congrès to block the réadmission of the rebellious States in the Union without are filled of the prerequisites. A series of laws are promulgated for this purpose: an oath of honesty is required on behalf of the populations of the south. Slavery is officially removed in 1865 by the XIIIe amendment.

After the rendering of the Lee general in Appomatox, the northerner troops occupy the ex-states secessionists, the army organizes a food distribution with the famished populations. The federal government launches a credit for the rebuilding which lasted jusqu in 1877, date or the white of north stop protecting the blacks, it is the tacit compromise of 1877. The arable lands set out again, each released slave obtains in theory 40 acres and a mule. But quickly south and dominated by the Carpetbaggers soldiers of the Union, or business men of the north who repurchase plantations or portions of railroads for a bread mouthful and who employ the blacks as sharecroppers or farmers. White of the south adhere to the Republican party in order to obtain stations in the administration at the sides of the carpetbaggers and the former slaves. The white having supported the Confederation do not have the right to vote. To vote it is necessary to swear. Certain blacks migrate towards north in order to find a work as workman. The extent of the destruction caused by the invasion of the South, its defeat, follow-up of the social changes of the States overcome after the war give birth to a durable bitterness in the South with regard to the government from the the United States. The former Masters and the white remained faithful to the south answer by violence by forming terrorist companies (Ku-Klux_Klan, flower of the Camellia) and tries to kill the carpetbaggers and the sclawags and the blacks of the administation. The army is able nevertheless to control them initially. Nevertheless as soon as the troops of the union leave the south in 1877, the Bourbons (former Masters) return to the capacity, the carpetbaggers and the scalwags flee in north, while the emigration of the blacks accelerates. The compromise of 1877, because of the incapacity of the federal government to join together and reconcile really the country, fails during several decades to guarantee the Civic right former Noirs slaves in the South. The federal government gives up the civic rights for the blacks and gives again the capacity with the Bourbons.

Civic rights

The most radical Republicans such as Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner assert the right to vote for the blacks. But violences take for target the former slaves in the years which follow the war, mainly under the impulse of the Ku Klux Klan, terrorist movement anti civic rights.

One of the major questions of the rebuilding is that of the civic rights for the former slaves of the States of the South. In answer to the attempts of the South to refuse these rights, the Congress votes a law of the civic rights ( Civil Rights Act ) or XIVe amendment which grants the citizenship and the equal rights to the Blacks in 1866 (another in 1875 will follow).

The congress is in conflict with the president Andrew Johnson, in favor of a policy as limited as possible, and which uses, surmounted by the necessary majority of two thirds to the congress. The conflict leads to a procedure of Impeachment against the president in 1868, voted by the Room, before he is discharged by the Senate, except for a voice.

After important profits of the Republican party to the elections of semi-mandate in 1866, the first law of rebuilding ( first rebuilding act ) is adopted the March 2nd 1867. He declares from the start which “There exists in this moment neither legal government, nor adequate protection of freedom or the property in the rebellious States”. The act, which envisages the government of the South, divided into five districts (except for the Tennessee reinstated in 1866) by the military authorities, is several times reinforced until the last of the rebuilding act ) voted the March 11th 1868.

In 1869, the XVe interdict to limit the right to vote of the Blacks. The ratification of XIVe, then of XVe amendment, is imposed on the States of the South like one of the conditions of their rehabilitation in the Union. Rehabilitation is effective in 1870, but the policy of the rebuilding continues until in 1877, date on which the presidential election, presenting a ex-aequo, is deliberated by the Room on the representatives in favor of Rutherford Beam, the candidate of North, with the detriment of Samuel Tilden, supported by the South. It is generally allowed that this election is obtained in exchange of the end of the rebuilding, this exchange being called “compromised of 1877”. The theory does not achieve the unanimity of the historians. At all events, the Rebuilding takes indeed fine at this time.

In 1874, the white league ( White League ), racist organization located in the mobility of Ku Klux Klan, tries a coup d'etat to the New-Orleans. The republican governments of the states of the south fall little by little to the profit from the democratic camp.

Handing-over in question of the civic rights

See also: Racial segregation in the United States

The end of the Rebuilding means also the end of the civic rights for the American Blacks. The years passing, North loses its interest for the question, and the South is in fact authorized to establish the racial segregation. The number of black voters will continue to increase until 1880. After the period of the Rebuilding, most of the legislation of the civic rights is declared anticonstitutional by the Supreme court. Particularly, the Supreme court declares in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 is unconstitutional, XIVe amendment concerning only the States and not the people, the Congress cannot prohibit to the people and at the private companies (transport, restoration, theaters) to practice the segregation. In 1896, the court further goes and in the stop Plessy v. Ferguson, it authorizes the States themselves to practice the segregation, provided that the conditions offered to the two races are “separate but equal” (doctrines separate goal equal ). De facto, Ku-Klux-klan intimidates the black voters, number of them are illiterate and cannot thus vote without assistance (which is refused to them). In certain states, one requires voters to quote and comment on passages of the Constitution in front of a jury, which then eliminates systematically the black voters. It is only starting from the historical stop Brown v. Board off Education of 1954 that the doctrines were called into question. New a Civil Rights Act is voted by the Congress in 1964, and this time, is supported by the Supreme court. This act, with the Voting Rights Act (law on the right to vote) of 1965, puts indeed fine at the segregation.

Black activism

See also: Movement of the civic rights to the United States of 1896 to 1954

The main characters of the cause of the Blacks are Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey and William Edward Burghardt Of Wood. This last founds in 1910 NAACP (National Association for the Advancement off Coloured Peoples). The American Communist party suggests the creation of autonomous black communities in the south.

The Golden age and the Republic imperialist (1877-1914)

Foreign policy

The end of the 19th century marks the one period beginning of expansion of the neo-imperialism, pushing the United States on the world scene:

Industrialization

The expansionism American then takes of course its source in domestic and economic concerns, as in other lately industrialized nations: in the United States as in Germany, the investments support and accelerate economic progress, with the creation of expensive infrastructures, like the public works and railroad other. However, the conclusions of the census of 1890, published by the historian Frederick Jackson Turner in its article “the importance of the Border in the American History”, contribute to the fear of seeing the natural resources decreasing. The Panic of 1893 and the depression which follows bring business men and politicians to the same conclusions as of other personalities of State of the former generation such as Léopold II of Belgium, Jules Ferry, Benjamin Disraeli, Joseph Chamberlain or Francesco Crispi. These conclusions are that industry is probably in surplus production capacity and produces more goods than the domestic consumers cannot buy some.

As at the time of the Great depression in Europe, which nourishes the doubts about a growing resistance political of the world Capitalisme, the main features of this depression are deflation, the rural decline and the unemployment (indicative of underconsumption), which worsen the hard social protests of the Golden age - the populist movement , the crusade free-silver and of the violent ones working conflicts such as the Grève Pullman. In the same way, the period post-1873 in Europe sees a réémergence of the militant organizations in the working classes and of the cycles of great strikes. In fact, the fast passage to the imperialism of the end of the nineteenth century can be correlated with the cycles of economic depressions which affect many classes of elites. Following the example Long Depression (one era of worsened unemployment and deflation of the prices of the manufactured goods), the Panic of 1893 contributes to a competition baited for the conquest of the markets of the growing “sphere of influence” of the United States, which starts to encroach on that of the United Kingdom, particularly in the Pacific and South America.

The Germany, the the United States, the Italy and other countries recently industrialized need relatively less, compared to the the United Kingdom, to export their surplus of capital. Also these nations use the protectionism and the formal imperialism, once attacked by the liberal followers of the Laissez to make economic, to fight the unequal advantage of the British on the international markets.

Certain politicians, such as Henry Pooch Lodge, William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, defend a more aggressive foreign politics in order to leave the United States the depression under the second Administration of the president Grover Cleveland, known for its interior policy (and external) pointing out liberalism gladstonien .

However, at the time of the First World War, the rise of the American military imperialism will cause to save the Allies, liberal empires older and better established, of the emergent threat of the Prussian , absolutists and néo-mercantilists, though with an enormous cost.

When German Reich reacts to the depression by the adoption of protectionist tariff barriers in 1879, the United States imitates them with the crushing election of William McKinley, which had been distinguished six years before with the Tariff barriers McKinley from 1890 .

The threat that America makes weigh on the British is then intensified by its rise like a military great power and policy after the Civil war: adoption of protectionist tariff barriers, acquisition of a colonial empire in 1898 and construction of a powerful military fleet - - the Large White Fleet.

These events, introduced by the Second Industrial revolution, are reproduced in parallel in Germany, which emerges like a potential military power after its own reunification, the adoption of tariff barriers in 1879, the acquisition of a colonial empire in 1884-85 and the construction of a powerful fleet after 1898. In the Pacific, since the Restoration Meiji, the development of Japan follows a similar diagram, behind the Occident, in industrialization and militarism, and allows him to establish a head of bridge or sphere of influence in China Qing. Although the American investments with the Filipino and Puerto Rico remain relatively weak, these colonies are strategic advanced stations to extend the exchanges with Asia, in particular China, and the Latin America. The United States can thus collect the benefit of the policy of “Open door” of China and the “Diplomatie of the Dollar” under the Taft presidency - a kind of alternative of the British policy of abstract colonialism.

All these developments, in Germany, to Japan or the United States, bring the United Kingdom to the formal imperialism because of its share relatively declining in the trade of world export. However, the imperialism of the United States, marked by the reaffirmation of the Doctrine Monroe (formalized in the Corollary of Roosevelt to the Doctrines Monroe in 1904) continues its task of replacement of the United Kingdom like principal investor in Latin America, a process mainly completed at the end of the Great War.

The apogee of immigration

Between 1870 and 1920,20 million Europeans emigrates towards the United States, for various reasons:
  • the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe flee the Pogrom S and the Antisémitisme.

Vis-a-vis the massive surge of nonAnglo-Saxon immigrants, the American administration takes restrictive measures. Xenophobia assigns the Asian immigrants particularly: in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibits Chinese immigration on the American ground for one ten years period. In May 1921, the Congress founds a policy of quotas by nationality.

The expansion towards the west

The expansion is progressive and is done by various means: annexations, purchases, wars… In 1803, the EUA repurchase Louisiana in France what doubles its surface. In 1819, Florida is bought to the Spaniards. 1846, the treaty of Oregon between the EUA and the United Kingdom make it possible to acquire the territories of the North-West (British Oregon). 1846-1848, the war with Mexico allows the annexation of Texas and New Mexico. The treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo fixes the border between Mexico and the EUA along Rio Grnade. 1850, California uses the Union as a not-slave State. In 1867, Russia sells Alaska in the United States. In 1889 and 1890, the Union increases with six new states (South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming). In 1912, the admission of the Arizona and New Mexico supplements the continental unit. The integration of the west is facilitated by the Railroad the North-Pacific ( Northern Pacific Railroad ) and by the arrival of new migrants. The system of the Ranch S extends soon to Large and High plains in the west from the Mississippi. The surge of the pioneers in ground or noble metal search causes many clashes with the Amerindians. The general Custer is beaten with the Bataille of Little Big Horn (1876, Montana) vis-a-vis a coalition of Indian tribes (Cheyenne S and Sioux of the Sitting Bull). In 1886, the chief Apache Geronimo is constrained to deposit the weapons. The Massacre of Wounded Knee, the December 29th 1890 rings the knell of Indian resistance.

First World War

During the 20th century the United States is implied in two World wars. After maintainhaving firmly maintained their neutrality when the First World War bursts in 1914, the United States enters in war the April 6th 1917 after the interception by the British of the Télégramme Zimmermann. Previously in 1917 the United States broke their diplomatic relations with Germany because of policy of underwater war of this one, carried out against the civil buildings.

With the American assistance the the United Kingdom, the France and the Italy gain the war, and impose hard economic sanctions on Germany in the Traité of Versailles. In spite of the calls of President Woodrow Wilson for more acceptable terms, the economic impact of the repairs required by the Treaty is severe. The misery which it produces in Germany helps Adolf Hitler to seize the power in Germany in 1933. The Senate of the United States does not ratify the Treaty of Versailles; on the contrary, it signs distinct peace treaties with Germany and its allies.

Disillusioned by the war which did not make it possible to reach the high ideals promised by President Woodrow Wilson, the American people choose the Isolationnisme then: they turn their attention towards the interior, far from the international relations, only on the domestic affairs.

The First World War modifies the country and its place in the world. Inside, the need for labor in the context of an all-out war makes flow the Blacks of the south towards the cities of north and the west.

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