The Roaring Twenties.- A good or a bad thing?

By the beginning of the nineteen-twenty's , World War One was over. The war had changed the United States in a big way. Despite the fact that the United States did not join the League of Nations or the failure of Woodrow Wilson after the war, the United States arose as a major economic and military power. People wanted more than anything a return to normality concerning politics. Economically after the war, the United States faced a period of prosperity.
The period in which the United States encountered various kinds of cultural, social, and artistic innovations was called " The Roaring Twenties" ( 1920-1929). During this period a big economic boom faced the United States. The people, to extend the economy, made a big impact when consumerism vastly increased due to the many inventions during that period; For example, before this period not many people owned a car, but thanks to Ford's famous assembly line made the process faster, therefore cheaper and more affordable to the public. Additionally, human intellect arose: Albert Einstein's relativity theory. Technology was improved, or invented as well. Unfortunately not everything was pleasing, for the "Roaring twenties" experienced social ,economic, and cultural alterations that affected the lives of Americans.
Disputes over the rural versus urban attitudes were created. Rural areas were guided by tradition, and the cities were looked at by the rural public as corrupted and sinful. What small-town people looked at as a provocative lifestyle, the drinking in the cities was the "thing". Even after Prohibition. Even women in the cities were different. The way they dressed was very different from women in the rural areas. What became know as " Flappers", were women wearing make-up and smoking.
Citizens also grew concerned about communism. In what became known as the "Red Scare", fear swept the country for the feeling that communism could spread after the success of the Russian Revolution in 1917. People also reacted against local radicals , union members, socialist and immigrants. AS a result of increase of nativist sentiment, groups such as the KKK were reestablished to fight against Eastern Europeans, catholics, Jews, unions, and African Americans. Foreigners, such as Sacco and Vanzetti , were victims of nativist fear due to their ethnicity and political views. Not even if the need for cheap labor was big, anxiety about immigrants caused various legislations to be passed in order to minimize immigration impacts to the U.S.
Religion, still in the hearts of the rural citizens, was put a question mark when in the city, ideas based in science about the creation of man were rationalized. In the Scopes Monkey trial, prosecuted by W. J. Bryan tried to settle the dispute of whether the theory of evolution should be taught at schools.
This conflicts were mainly driven by the concern from the citizens on what was adequate and appropriate for the sake nation's status. Unfortunately, all things must come to and end. By the year 1929, those great and not so great times would be over. For the next period would be that involving the Great depression were even those who prospered during the "roaring twenties" would have to go down.

US Neutrality.

During the industrial era, the United States was in much need for raw materials in order to feed its economy. Local resources were not enough, therefore the United States needed to get these materials from other countries. As a result, the United States opted for imperialism; The United States achieved a lot during this era. The United States was not alone in these race for territories. In order to achive the conquering of many foreign territories a vast expansion of the army was needed. The use of these armies was to intimidate other nations, this is also known as militarism. Moreover, imperialims created distrust among the imperialist which ultimately resulted in the creation of secret military alliances.
All this factors, along with the rise of nationalism by those conquered by imperialist, were the creators of Wolrd War one which lasted from 1914 to 1918. As the war broke out with the assassination of heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Francis Ferdinand, the United States declared their neutrality. The United States was in fact neutral, until a number of factors forced the nation to intervene along with the allies.
By 1914, the United States president at the time, Woodrow Wilson, declared the nations neutrality, ( Doc A ) stating that the war was not in the best of interest for the nation. National leaders such as Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan also gave voice to the inclination for American neutrality (Doc D).The United States remainded neutral, until Germany along with its unrestricted submarine warfare in european seas resulted in the lost lives of hundreds of Americans. This action of course upset the United States. As stated by the German embassy, (doc E) any ship sailing in the warzone would be attacked. Since the United States still traded with european nations, this was a big problem for the nation. In response, the United States president declared to cut off all kinds of dipolomatic relationships with Germany unless the unrestricted Warfare stoped.( Doc G) Germany wanted to keep the United States out of conflict therefore they promised not to sink any ships without warning or taking care for the lives of passengers, this was known as the Sussex Pledge.
Deeper United States involvement in war came in 1917 when Germany decided to continue with their Submarine Warfare. The U.S. declared "Armed neutrality" , this meant that U.S. merchant ships would be armed to protect themselves from German U-Boats. Germany realized that this was a small step into bringing the U.S. into war; They also thought that it was too late however for American intervention to have any effect in the outcome of war. Just in case the U.S. became too involved in war, Germany's Arthur Zimmerman sent a telegram to German Ambassador Johann von Bernstoff in Mexico. (Doc H) The telegram was intercepted by the British however. The telegram encouraged Mexico to join Germany's cause in case the U.S. joined war. If Germany won, Mexico would get back the lasn lost to the U.S. during the Mexican-American War. This angered the Americans.
Later on, the United States entered War in order "to make the World safe for democracy." Now the United States was beginig to see Germany as a threat to the world ( Doc I). Fortunately U.S. intervention was very helpful since its help was a big factor to defeating the Germans. After war ended, Wilson and the Allies came up with the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations.
By the begining of the war the U.S. still traded with Britain and even Germany, however, since Germany decided to use Submarine Warfare and take the lifes of people, including Americans, the United States could not keep its neutrality for too long. Due to the fact that Germany was a threat to American lifes as well as the rest of the world, U.S involvement was necessary in order to stop Germany's awful militaristic plans.

Roosevelt, Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.

By the start of the twentieth century, the United States had managed to become a powerful world power, perhaps the most powerful. The ones that benefited the most of bieng a powerful nation were the upper class that came from corporations and and large business that operated with hardly any government intervention. In addition, in most places poverty was still a big issue. One goup of people, the middle class, were willing to make a change in American democracy. The period in which these people took some action was called the progressive era.

Presidents also took some actions to adress the problems of their society. Among these were Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. In order to solve the problems during this era, federal policies and legislation were needed. Each president had its own ideas and proposals to confront the problems. However, Roosevelt was the one that stood out the most at reforming society during the progressive era.

When runnig for president, Taft and Roosevelt were enemies due to the fact that Taft did not carry out Roosevelt Plans after Roosvelt had done his term. One of Taft's achievments is the busting of more trust than Rosevelt. However, unlike Roosevelt, Taft was very weak on progressivism, conservation, and social- welfare. Regarding trusts, Wilson passed the Clayton anti-trust act.

Roosvelt was also a conservationist, this can be seen by the Newlands Act, which opted for the preservation of forest. What made Roosevelt tha best in the progressive era was that he succesfuly acoomplishd many reforms in various "fields

", including the workers and consumers, for example: the creation of the Hepburn Act , which solved the problems with the railroad rates. Another was the Anthracite coal strike in which Roosevelt threatened to sent troops to take over the mine, however, frightened that Roosvelt actually seize the mine, the operator came up with an agreement to have an arbitration commitee in order to settle the dispute. After the strike ended, the result were fulfiling, it provided a ten percent wage increase and a shorter workday.

Even Wilson made a better job than Taft in the social sector. This can be seen in Muller v Oregon, which solved issues concerning women workers. Anyhow, Wilson did not do much concerning foreign reforms. Taft passed his Dollar Diplomacy, which allowed private investors ( wealthy class) to give out loans to Central American countries. More exceptional, Roosevelt got the Panama canal and created the Roosevelt corollary; additionally he was also the mediator to the Russo-Japanese war.

Clearly Roosevelt was the better man when it came to reforming. He was the "Square deal Reformer", meaning that he took actions concerning: Trust busting, consumer protection, and conservation. More importantly he also suceede in these. He was the one that had the most impact in the nation. He also got the most support from people due to his concern for the common man. Taft and Wilson cannot be ignored however, since they also took some actions to fight against the parasites of the nation.