Key Progressive Era Reforms and Global Conflicts

Goals of the Progressive Movement

The primary objectives included protecting social welfare, creating economic reform, fostering efficiency, and promoting moral improvement.

Women's Organizations

• NACW (National Association of Colored Women): Managed nurseries and kindergartens with a mission to ensure education for African Americans.
• NAWSA (National American Women’s Suffrage Association): Focused on securing the right to vote for women.

Economic and Labor Reforms

• Roosevelt and the Coal Strike: This marked the first time the federal government intervened as a neutral mediator in a business dispute. The United Mine Workers of America in Pennsylvania struck for union recognition, shorter workdays, and higher wages.
• Clayton Antitrust Act: Legalized strikes, peaceful picketing, boycotts, and the collection of strike benefits.

Imperialism and Foreign Policy

• Benefits of Imperialism: Access to new markets, raw materials, increased political influence, military power, and the spread of American culture.
• Cuban Independence: American public opinion remained divided on the moral implications of owning colonial dependencies.
• Dollar Diplomacy: The U.S. asserted the right to intervene to stabilize the economic affairs of smaller states unable to pay international debts.
• Invasion of Mexico: President Wilson used the actions of a Mexican bandit to justify military intervention.

World War I

• Long-term Causes: Imperialism, nationalism, militarism, and the alliance system.
• U.S. Entry: Triggered by the sinking of the Lusitania and the interception of the Zimmerman Note.
• Treaty of Versailles: The U.S. Senate rejected the treaty due to a desire to avoid further involvement in global conflicts.

Cultural and Social Shifts

• Scopes Trial: Evolution was banned from public school classrooms, leaving creationism as the only theory taught in science curricula for years.
• Literary Trends: Writers began incorporating diverse social classes and addressing political and social issues.
• Great Migration: Racial violence and discrimination in the South encouraged African Americans to move to the North.
• Harlem Renaissance: An influential artistic movement among African Americans that originated in Harlem.