1800 to 1945

Economics

· In the 1800s the population of Europe doubles, and its standard of living far exceeds the rest of the world. This is the result of improvements in medicine and agricultural productivity.

· Feudalism gradually disappears, accelerated during the Napoleonic empire, until Russia eliminates serfdom in 1861.

· Peasants become wage-earners, as industrialization causes the development of factories and cities. The percentage of population that are farmers drops.

Industrial Revolution

· Based on inventions in the 1700s: Flying shuttle (1733), Spinning jenny (1760s). New machines were too big to drive by hand so factories were built near rivers to utilize water-wheels.

· Work is gradually transferred from cottages to factories. Workers now rely on salaries, instead of producing their own food and clothing. Industrial towns and cities grow around the factories. But until the 1850s factories employing over 50 people only exist in the cotton mills of Lancashire (England), most people still work in small factories.Iron becomes the principle material used, and coal the main fuel, both for factories and machines, and for railways

· Gives rise to urban squalor and much social legislation was passed in the early 1800s.

· Gives rise to unions and socialism.

· Increased production allowed for a population explosion.

· The industrial revolution lead to an increased rate of imperialism – as new markets were found for its products and new sources of raw materials were found.

· Transportation: Development of the locomotive and steam ship allow for rapid transportation of goods and materials. The cost of shipping drops 85%.

· By 1850 Britain is the only fully industrial nation, due to a period of peace, strong government, early technology use, early agricultural surpluses, mineral resources, population growth, overseas commerce generating capital and an existing banking and finance system. It owned half the world’s ships and railway track. It smelted 5-times more iron than the US and 10-times more than Germany. It is followed by Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and the US. By 1900 the US and Germany were the world leaders.

Lassez-faire economics

· 1776 Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations states that people acting in their self-interest benefits all, and that the “invisible hand” of the market leads to its own efficency. This becomes known as lasses-faire economics – where government intervenes minimally in the economy

· 1815-1846 Free-trade advocates in Britain lobby for the repeal of the Corn Laws (tariffs). Although other countries experimented with free-trade based on England’s success, they generally reverted to protectionism by 1900

1860s-1910s: First era of globalization

· Britain and Europe imported raw materials from its colonies and the colonies were used as emerging markets that bought manufactured products. Britain is the main importing and exporting nation.

· Almost all currencies are on the gold-standard, with little fluctuation in exchange rates..

· 1860s-1890s British financing of US railroads promotes capital flow into US

· 1860s Japan is opened up to international trade

· 1869 The Suez Canal is opened

· 1914-1929 The era of global economy is ended by WWI, the Russian revolution, and the Great depression

1860s-1930s: Rise of communism & socialism

· 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's Communist Manifesto.

· 1864 Marx founds the First International in London, and is its secretary.

· 1919 Third International (Comintern) establishes Soviet control over international Communist movements.

1930s: The Great Depression

· 1929 On October 4 (“Black Thursday”) the US stock market crashes, beginning of the Great Depression. Unemployment near 25%, GNP decreases.

· 1931 Britain abandons the gold standard

· Encourages development of totalitarian states

1930s-1970s: Spread of socialism & mixed economies

• 1936 John Maynard Keynes writes General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Stated governments should regulate economy to deliver full employment through fiscal policy (social spending, state-owned industry, taxes). He persuaded a generation of leaders to abandon balanced budgets. Keynes influences Harvard economists like John Kenneth Galbraith and the FDR administration during the New Deal. Keynes champions the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944

◄ ►

Population Growth

Agriculture

· In 1815 a gigantic volcanic eruption at Tambora in Indonesia led to the famous “year without a summer”. New England had frosts in July. France had bitter cold in August. Wheat prices reached a level that would never be seen again in real terms, nearly $3 a bushel. Thomas Malthus was then at the height of his fame and the harvest failure seemed to bear out his pessimism. In 1798 he had forecast a population crash, based on the calculation that it was impossible to improve wheat yields as fast as people made babies.

· The Malthusian crash was staved off in the 19th century by bringing more land under the plough—in North America, Argentina and Australia especially. But wheat yields per acre grew worse if anything as soil nutrients were depleted. So in 1898, in a speech to the British Association, a chemist, Sir William Crookes, argued again that worldwide starvation was inevitable within a generation.

· This time it was the tractor that averted Malthusian disaster. The first tractors had few advantages over the best horses, but they did not eat hay or oats. The replacement of draft animals by machines released about 25% more land for growing food for human consumption.

· The only way to increase yield was to find a way of supplying extra nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to the soil. Neither a break crop of legumes, nor manure was the answer, since both demanded precious acres to produce. The search for fertiliser took unexpected turns. British entrepreneurs scoured the old battlefields of Europe searching for phosphorus-rich bones.

· In about 1830 a magic ingredient was found: guano. On the dry seabird islands off the South American and South African coasts, immense deposits of bird droppings, rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, had accumulated over centuries. Guano mining became a profitable business, and a grim one. Off South-West Africa, the discovery in 1843 of the tiny island of Ichaboe, covered in 25 feet of penguin and gannet excrement, led to a guano rush followed by a mutiny and battles. By 1850, Ichaboe, minus 800,000 tonnes of guano, was deserted again. Between 1840 and 1880, guano nitrogen made a vast difference to European agriculture. But soon the best deposits were exhausted.

· In the dry uplands of Chile, rich mineral nitrate deposits were then found, and gradually took the place of guano in the late 19th century. The nitrate mines fuelled Chile's economy and fertilised Europe's farms.

· In 1909, with the help of an engineer named Carl Bosch from the BASF company, Fritz Haber succeeded in combining nitrogen (from the air) with hydrogen (from coal) to make ammonia. In a few short years, BASF had scaled up the process to factory size and the sky could be mined for nitrogen. Today nearly half the nitrogen atoms in the proteins of an average human being's body came at some time or another through an ammonia factory. In the short term, though, Haber merely saved the German war effort as it was on the brink of running out of nitrogen explosives in 1914, cut off from Chilean nitrates. He went on to make lethal gas for chemical warfare and genocide. Haber nitrogen was not used as fertiliser in large quantities until the middle of the 20th century, and for a good reason. If you put extra nitrogen on wheat, the crop grew taller and thicker than usual, fell over in the wind and rotted

Urbanization

· The Industrial Revolution rapidly increases urbanization.

Energy

· From antiquity until the Industrial Revolution, most work was accomplished by manpower or horsepower (or other animals). In some areas windmills or watermills were used. Tranportation relied on wind (sails) or animals. Heating was by wood stoves.

· It was not until the mid-1800s that engines total work output from all types of engines exceeded that of work animals.

· In 1920 the number of horses and mules reached a peak of 26 million, then began to decline.

· In the mid-1800s the steam-engine and the factories and trains it powered were fueled by coal.

· Petroleum got major boosts with the discovery of Texas's Spindletop Oil Field in 1901, the development of the internal combustion engine and mass-produced automobiles.

· 1879 Light bulb invented simultaneously by Thomas Edison and Sir Joseph Wilson Swan. 1882 Edison opens the first electricity generating plants in London and New York.

· The process of electrification proceeded in fits and starts. Industries like mining, textiles, steel, and printing electrified rapidly during the years between 1890 and 1910. Electricity's penetration of the residential sector was slowed by competition from gas companies, which had a large stake in the lighting market. Nevertheless, by 1900 there were 25 million electric incandescent lamps in use and homeowners had been introduced to electric stoves, sewing machines, curling irons, and vacuum cleaners.

◄ ►

Science & Technology

Transportation

· 1807 Robert Fulton builds the first steam ship. 1819 Steamship Savannah first to cross the Atlantic.

· 1814 George Stephenson builds first practical steam locomotive, which traveled on roads. 1825 Stephenson designs the world's first practical railway locomotive to transport coal 8 miles in England. 1830 The first regularly scheduled steam-powered rail passenger service begins in England and in South Carolina

· 1859 Jean-Joseph-Étienne Lenoir builds first practical internal-combustion engine. 1876 Nikolaus Otto develops the 4-cycle gasoline engine. 1892 Diesel engine patented

· 1886 Pioneer automobile manufacturers were Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz of Germany, as well as Americans Ramson Eli Olds and Alexander and James Packard. By 1898 there were 50 automobile-manufacturing companies in the United States. Ten years later there were 241companies

· 1903 Orville Wright flies 120 feet in 12 seconds in the first airplane the Kitty Hawk

Communication

· 1827 Photograph developed by Joseph-Nicephore Niepice

· 1837 Samuel F. B. Morse develops the telegraph. 1858 First trans-Atlantic telegraph cable completed.

· 1876 First telephone transmission by Alexander Graham Bell in Ontario

· 1895 Auguste and Louis Lumière premiere motion pictures (cinematograph) at a café in Paris.

· 1896 Marconi receives first wireless patent in Britain

· 1901 First radio transmission by Guglielmo Marconi

· 1927 Television invented by Philo Farnsworth in San Francisco

Electronics

· 1904 The vacuum diode, which utilized a vacuum tube instead of a crystal, is developed in England by John Fleming.

· 1906 The triode – the first amplifier (radio amplifier) – is developed in the US by Lee DeForest.

· 1930s Semiconductors are discovered.

Electricity

· 1811 Sir Humphrey Davy discovered the arc lamp, an electrical arc passing between two poles produces light

· 1823 The electromagnet is invented in England by William Sturgeon

· 1831 Michael Faraday’s Law of Electrical Induction. Faraday builds an electric dynamo.

· 1879 Light bulb invented simultaneously by Thomas Edison and Sir Joseph Wilson Swan

Physics

· 1803 John Dalton proposes his Atomic Theory which stated that (1) all matter was composed of small indivisible particles termed atoms, (2) each element had an atom that differed in mass to other atoms, and (3) three types of atoms exist: simple (elements), compound (simple molecules), and complex (complex molecules).

· 1864-1873 James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist, develops The Electromagnetic Theory.

· 1885-1889 Heinrich Rudolf Hertz discovers radio waves.

· 1895 William Roentgen, a German physicist, discovers X-rays.

· 1896 Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity in uranium salts.

· 1898 J. J. Thomson discovers that electrons negatively charged particles, and measured e/m, the ratio of charge to mass.

· 1900 Max Planck’s Quantum Theory.

· 1905 Albert Einstein develops The Special Theory of Relativity.

· 1911 Ernest Rutherford proposed that all matter consisted of these three particles referred to as elementary particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons

· 1915 Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.

· 1913 Niels Bohr published a theory about the structure of the atom based on Rutherford's by proposing that electrons travel only in certain successively larger orbits.

· 1925 Erwin Schrodinger and Werner Heisenberg separately describe quantum mechanics.

· The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states on a subatomic level it is impossible to simultaneously measure the speed and the position of an electron. If the speed is well-established then there simply does not exist a well-established position (the electron is smeared out like a wave) and vice versa.

· 1938 Two German scientists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, demonstrate nuclear fission.

· 1942 Enrico Fermi achieves a controlled nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago, in a crude graphite-moderated reactor built on a vacant squash court

Home Appliances

· 1834 Refrigeration is developed in England

· 1846 Sewing machine patented by Elias Howe

· 1902 Carrier invents Air Conditioning

· 1913 Home Refrigeration

Materials

· 1889 Rayon, the first artificial fiber, is developed in France

· 1907 Plastic (“Bakelite”) invented by New York chemist Leo Baekeland by mixing a disinfectant (carbolic acid) with a preservative (formaldehyde)

Industry

· 1884 Steam turbine invented by Charles Parsons

Medicine

· 1842 Crawford Long uses first anesthetic (ether). 1846 W. T. Morton uses ether as anesthetic

· 1861 Louis Pasteur's theory of germs proposed. 1885 Pasteur develops a vaccine for rabies. He also develops pasteurization, the heat treatment of food to prevent contamination by bacteria, and vaccines for cattle, sheep, and chicken.

· 1865 Joseph Lister begins antiseptic surgery

· 1882 In Berlin, Robert Koch announces discovery of tuberculosis germ

· 1895 Wilhelm Roentgen discovers x-rays.

· 1899 Aspirin is first marketed

· 1918 Worldwide influenza epidemic strikes; by 1920, nearly 20 million are dead. In U.S. alone, 500,000 perish.

· 1921 Dr. Frederick Banting, with Charles Best and J.J.R. Macleod, isolated insulin

· 1928 Penicillin, the first antibiotic. Dr. Alexander Fleming notices mold inhibits Staph aureus from growing, mold identified as Penicillium, later extracts penicillin

Biology

· 1798 Thomas Malthus’ An Essay on the Principle of Population proposes that overpopulation leads to famine and disease

· 1859 Charles Darwin publishes his The Origin of the Species, establishing the Theory of Evolution

· 1865 Gregor Mendel's Law of Heredity

Geology

· 1830 The publication of The Principles of Geology by Scotch scientist George Lyell, proposes that the strata of the earth’s surface can date events, helps to discredit creationism

Chemistry

· 1869 Mendeleev's periodic table of the elements.

Cosmology/Astronomy

· 1927 Georges Lemaître proposes Big Bang Theory

· 1929 Edwin Powell Hubble proposes theory of expanding universe.

Military

· 1866 Alfred Nobel invents dynamite

· 1884 The machine gun is invented by Hiram Maxim

· 1910 First flight from shipboard.

· 1916 Tanks used for the first time by Britain.

Exploration

· 1909 Robert Peary reaches the North Pole after seven attempts

· 1911 Norwegian Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole

· 1927 Richard E. Byrd starts expedition to Antarctic; returns in 1930

◄ ►

International Politics and Conflicts

Nationalism

· The 1800s sees the rise of soverign nation-states based on ethnicity and language (instead of the personal possessions of monarchs.)

Liberalism and Democracy

· Accompanying nationalism, but not inseperable, was liberalism – a push for individual rights, universal sufferage and representative government, free trade, and a free press.

· The United States success with Republicanism and Federalism will influence Europe. This occurs through several Revolutions, starting in France, and throughout the continent in 1848. By 1914, only France (since 1871) and Switzerland have democratic-republican constitutions, however.

· In many countries, participation in government is initially limited to male landowners, however.

· Constitutional monarchy spreads: the monarch is now limited in his powers (no longer absolute) by a written constitution and shares power with a representative body. Examples in 1914: Britain, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Scandinvia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and the Balkans. Traditional “dynastic” monarchies still extisted in Austria and Russia

· Popular opinion becomes more important as voting rights expand, newspapers become more common, and political parties form

1900

European Imperialism, Dominance and Emigration

· Thru colonialism and emigration (during the 19^th century 60 million Europeans emigrated), Europe comes to dominate the globe. Irish and Germans, and later Italians, emigrate to the US in large numbers. Russians move to Siberia. Emigration peaks in 1913 (1.5 million left in that year). This was driven by increasing population, political and economic instability, and increased transportation. At the same time French and Italian migrated to North Africa, Portugese to Brazil, and Eastern Europeans, particularly Poles and Jews, migrated to Western Europe.

· In the 1800s, Europeans colonize Asia (India, China, Indonesia) early, and after the 1880s there is a race to colonize Africa. It is at this time that Western culture is spread throughout the world. Industrialization and the population explosion both contribute to imperialism.

Wars: 1800-1945

Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815): France versus Britain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Portugal

War of 1812 (1812-1815): United States versus Britain

1815-1848 Vienna system. Based on the Congress of Vienna where the Great Powers discuss the division of post-war Europe. Austrian and Prussian monarchies restored. German confederation replaces the Confederation of the Rhine. Kingdom of the Netherlands unites Belgium and Holland. Russia & Britain dominate international politics. Holy Alliance between Russia, Austria and Prussia to suppress liberal movements. Quadruple Alliance of Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia to maintain the Congress System, later joined by France. The Congress system maintain Europeans peace for thirty years while preserving the status quo – dependent on Austrian, Russian, and British power

1848 Revolutions in France, Austria, Germany, Venice, Milan, Rome, and Poland. Caused by food shortages and nationalist or liberal (constitutional) feelings. Began in France, where a Republic was declared. Spread to Austria, where von Metternich fled. Then to the German and Italian states, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. However German liberals realized that a strong Prussia was needed to preserve German territory in Slavic areas, so they reversed course. In the end many of the monarchies revoked the concessions they had made, and the only major change was in France.

With the breakdown of the conservative Vienna system, and without the Holy Alliance with Russia (evidenced by the Crimean War) or France (under Napoleon III), Austria loses its hegemony in Germany and Italy, which become independent countries under Prussia and Sardinia, respectively.

The Crimean War (1853-1856): Turkey, Britain, France, and Sardinia versus Russia

Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871

· France loses Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. Germany shortly after is united under the Prussians. It replaces France and Austria as the dominant land-power in Europe.

Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895

· Ends with Japanese control of Formosa. China acknowledges Koreas independence.

1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War:

• The war was a disaster for the Czar and led to the rise of the Bolsheviks. The war brought Japan international prominence, and stoked national pride.

World War I

World War II

◄ ►

Countries/Regions

North America

United States

Thomas Jefferson, Democratic-Republican (1800-1808)

· 1800 Jefferson is elected president over incumbent John Adams in a contested election that is decided in the House of Representatives. Adams creates new judgeships and "packs the courts" with Federalist appointees to mitigate the effects of the election. Among his appointments is John Marshall as Chief Justice.

· 1800 Congress convenes in Washington, D. C. for the first time.

· 1800 Spain returns Louisiana, which it had held since 1763, to France

· 1801-1805 War with Tripoli

· 1803 Louisiana purchase

· 1803 Marbury v. Madison: Supreme Court rules that an act of Congress is null and void when it conflicts with the Constitution. This is the first important test of the system of checks and balances between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

· 1803 12th Amendment: election of president and vice president on separate ballots.

· 1804 Vice President Aaron Burr kills former Treasury-Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a duel.

· 1807 The Chesapeake-Leopold incident in which three Americans are impressed the stirs anti-British feeling.

· 1807 Embargo Act bans all trade with foreign countries and forbids American ships to set sail for foreign ports.

· 1808 Thomas Jefferson refuses to run for a third term as president, naming James Madison as his successor.

James Madison, Democratic-Republican (1808-1816)

· 1812-1815 War of 1812

James Monroe, Democratic-Republican (1816-1824)

· 1816 "Era of Good Feeling" ensues since both Democratic-Republicans and Federalists are pleased at Monroe's election.

· 1816 The Second Bank of the United States is chartered. Its charter is not renewed in 1836 when Andrew Jackson vows to kill it

· 1820 Missouri Compromise balances the union at 12 slave and 12 free states. Missouri is admitted as a slave state, but no slavery will be permitted anywhere north of Missouri's southern border.

· 1823 President Monroe presents Monroe Doctrine stating that U.S. will not tolerate European interference in the Americas

John Quincy Adams, Democratic-Republican (1824-1828)

· 1824 Contested election ends in the House of Representatives. Speaker of the House Henry Clay uses his influence to elect Adams, an action resented by Andrew Jackson, whose 99 electoral votes make him a logical choice. Adams names Clay his Secretary of State.

Andrew Jackson, Democrat (1828-1836)

· Jackson was born in South Carolina of poor Scots-Irish parents, and was orphaned at an early age (he was the first president not to come from Virginia or Massachusetts). He became a lawyer and moved to Nashville, where he became wealthy speculating in land. He led the American forces at the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. His inauguration was infamously raucous.

· The campaigns between Jackson and Adams are one of the most contentious ever. Adams’ camp brings up the fact that Jackson’s wife had lived with him before divorcing her first husband. Jackson’s opponents call him a “jackass”, and Jackson adopts the donkey as the symbol of the Democratic party.

· The Battle of the Petticoats: Peggy Eaton, wife of Secretary of State John Eaton, had married Mr. Eaton before divorcing her first husband. As a result, the wives of the other cabinet members refused to socialize with the Eatons. When his cabinet refuses to obey Jackson’s demands to be civil to the Eatons, Jackson fires his entire cabinet.

· 1832 The South Carolina Nullification Crisis: South Carolina, led by John C. Calhoun, asserts its right to nullify the 1828 federal tariff “of abominations” which benefited Northern industrialists at the expense of Southern planters. Jackson opposes South Carolina’s actions, reportedly because of his hatred for Calhoun. Jackson sent several warships and hundreds of soldiers under the command of General Winfield Scott to Charleston to enforce the laws of the land. South Carolina in turn suspended the Nullification Ordinance and Congress passed a law reducing the tariffs.

· 1836 War of Texas Independence.

Martin Van Buren, Democrat (1836-1840)

· 1836 Van Buren won because he ran against a badly divided Whig party whose three candidates split the vote.

· 1837 Panic of 1837

William Henry Harrison, Whig (1841).

· Harrison dies after one month in office.

John Tyler, Whig (1841-1844)

· 1841 One month after inauguration William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia. Vice-President John Tyler becomes president.

James Polk, Democrat (1844-1848)

· 1844 Aggressive expansionist James Polk defeats Whig Henry Clay. Democratic convention calls for annexation of Texas and acquisition of Oregon (“Fifty-four-forty-or-fight”).

· 1845 John L. O'Sullivan writes of "the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence," and the phrase catches on with expansionist politicians and the public.

· 1846-1848 Mexican-American War. 1846 The Battle at Palo Alto: 2300 Americans rout twice as many Mexican forces. U.S. settlers proclaim the Republic of California. U.S. annexation of New Mexico and California. 1847 Battle of Buena Vista in which General Taylor's army of 4800 men defeats General Santa Anna's 15,000-man force. General Winfield Scott's forces lay siege to Vera Cruz. Scott occupies the heights of Chapultepec and later marches into Mexico City. Abraham Lincoln makes a speech opposing the Mexican War. 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In exchange for $15 million and the settling of $3.25 million in American claims, Mexico cedes 500,000 square miles of its territory.

Zachary Taylor, Whig (1848-1850)

· Taylor was a Mexican War hero and planter from Louisiana who was asked to run by both the Whigs and the Democrats. His nickname was “Old Rough & Ready”. He had never registered to vote and was a political unknown. Jefferson Davis was his son-in-law.

· 1850 The Compromise of 1850 created by Henry Clay admits California as a free state and Texas as a slave state; New Mexico and Utah are organized with no restrictions on slavery. Taylor vetoes the bill because he felt no concessions should be given to slavery and he has become an ardent Unionist.

· 1850 Henry Clay opens great debate on slavery, warns South against secession.

· 1850 Taylor dies of gastroenteritis. In 1991, with his descendants’ permission, he is exhumed to rule out poisoning. Vice-President Millard Fillmore becomes President.

Millard Fillmore, Whig (1850-1852)

· Fillmore is a Northerner, generally felt to be bland and amiable. Fillmore fires Taylor’s cabinet and signs the Compromise of 1850. He opposed abolition because of its effects on the South’s economy. He was not renominated by the Whigs.

Franklin Pierce, Democrat (1852-1856)

· Pierce was from New Hampshire. He was nominated because of his universal popularity.

· 1852 The “Know-Nothing” Party is formed to oppose immigration, Catholics, and foreigners.

· 1854 The Kansas-Nebraska Act passes, championed by Stephen Douglas. It allowed "popular sovereignty" to determine whether the Kansas and Nebraska territories would be free or slave states, negating the 1820 Missouri Compromise which forbid slavery in the territories.

· 1854 The Republican Party is formed by antislavery men in Michigan.

· 1856 Abolitionist John Brown kills 5 pro-slavery men

· "Bloody Kansas": clashes between pro- and anti-slavery forces occur in Kansas. Lawrence, Kansas is burned to the ground

James Buchanan, Democrat (1856-1860)

· Buchanan is from Pennsylvania. He was the only bachelor president.

· 1858 President Buchanan asks that Kansas be admitted as a slave state, a request rejected.

· 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates: Lincoln is nominated to oppose Stephen Douglas for the Senate in Illinois.

· 1859 John Brown leads an armed group of 21 to seize the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, is captured, and is executed.

Abraham Lincoln, Republican (1860-1865)

· 1860-1865 Civil War

· 1865 Lincoln is assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth, a southern sympathizer, at Ford’s Theater in Washington.

Reconstruction

Andrew Johnson, Republican (1865-1868)

· Johnson issues 29 vetoes, breaking Andrew Jackson’s record of 12 vetoes. He begins with legislation involving the Freedman’s Bureau and the Civil Rights Bill of 1866. Congress overturns 15 of the vetoes.

· 1867 All males over 21 are granted suffrage.

· 1867 Secretary of State Seward purchases Alaska from Russia for $7 million. Congressional critics call this "Seward's Folly."

· 1868 Fourteenth Amendment grants full citizenship to all born in the US except Native Americans. Georgia is put under military government after the legislature expels blacks

· 1868 Congress passes the Tenure in office ActImpeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ends in his acquittal.

Ulysses S. Grant, Republican (1868-1876).

· 1869 Number of justices on the Supreme Court rises from 7 to 9.

· 1870 Congress enacts the "Ku Klux Klan Act of 1870" or "Enforcement Act" to stop southern white resistance.

· 1870 Department of Justice is created.

· 1870 When the 41st Congress meets, every state is represented, the first such Congress since 1860.

· 1872: The Credit Mobilier Scandal. Massachusetts congressman and shovel manufacturer Oakes Ames and the Union Pacific Railway had created a company called Credit Mobilier of America, which was awarded all construction work for building the Union Pacific line west of Nebraska. Ames sweetened the deal by giving shares in the company to many government officials, including both of Grant's Vice-presidents. Congress ultimately pays $94 million to the company for work worth $44 million.

· 1872 Congress gives amnesty to most Confederates.

· 1875 Civil Rights Act states that no citizen can be denied equal use of public facilities.

Rutherford B. Hayes, Republican (1876-1880)

· Ohio Governor Hayes is selected by the Republicans because of his moral reputation.

· In an election marred by fraud, Hayes is elected president over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden after compromising with southern Democrats. Tilden receives 4,284,020 popular votes and Hayes receives 4,036,572. The Electoral Commission Bill authorizes a committee of 15 to decide the election between Hayes and Tilden. The committee's votes split along party lines. On 3 March, Hayes is announced as President after House Republicans agree, among other concessions, to pull Federal troops from the South.

· Hayes orders removal of Federal troops from the Southern statehouses, effectively ending Reconstruction

· 1880 The signing of the Chinese Exclusion Treaty by China and the United States restricts the immigration of Chinese laborers.

· Hayes keeps a campaign promise not to seek re-election

James Garfield (1881)

· 1881 Garfield is shot in the back by a disappointed office-seeker; Chester Arthur becomes president

Chester Arthur (1881-1884)

Grover Cleveland, Democrat (1884-1888)

· The election of 1884 is particularly dirty, as it comes out that Cleveland had an illegitimate child, which he readily admitted

· Cleveland issues over 400 vetoes. Cleveland is the only president to be married in the White House.

· 1886 The Supreme Court rules that corporations are "persons" under the 14th amendment and cannot be denied profits or the right of due process

Benjamin Harrison, Republican (1888-1992)

· Commercial interests back Harrison, with the protective tariff being a chief issue. He is the grandson of William Henry Harrison.

· Civil War pensions are passed, with increased spending causing the first “billion-dollar congress”

· The McKinley Tariff is passed, allowing US businesses to gain virtual monopolies while prices skyrocket. It is named after then-Senator McKinley who sponsored it.

· 1891 The Populist Party is formed in Cincinnati, Ohio

Grover Cleveland, Democrat (1892-1896)

· Promising to repeal the McKinley tariff, and he is elected in a landslide

· Eastern commercial interests support the gold standard. Populists support bimetallism – currency based on gold and silver.

· 1893 The Panic of 1893. The worst depression until that time. The first marches occur on Washington

· 1893 In Hawaii, Queen Liliuokalani's government is overthrown; Hawaii becomes a U. S. protectorate despite President Cleveland's opposition.

· In 1993 President Clinton signed the Apology Bill which offers "an apology to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the United States" for using U.S. naval forces to invade Hawai'i and depose Queen Lili'uokalani in 1893. The law vindicated President Grover Cleveland's report to Congress in which he described the action as an "act of war, committed with the participation of a diplomatic representative of the United States and without authority of Congress." The diplomatic representative was John L. Stevens, the U.S. minister to the Kingdom of Hawai'i, who conspired with a group of American businessmen to overtake Lili'uokalani's government in hopes of profiting from Hawai'i's annexation. The provisional government, established by the conspirators and officially recognized by Stevens, protested President Cleveland's call for the restoration of the Hawaiian monarchy, but it was unable to get the necessary support from two-thirds of the Senate to ratify a treaty of annexation. On July 4, 1894, the new Hawaiian government declared itself the Republic of Hawai'i and in January of the following year forced Queen Lili'uokalani, who had been imprisoned in her palace, to officially abdicate her throne.

· Cleveland’s support for the gold standard hurts his popularity, and the Democrats do not renominate him

William McKinley, Republican (1896-1901)

· McKinley, supported by big business, defeats populist William Jennings Bryan

· 1896 In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court upholds the "separate but equal" doctrine.

· 1898 Spanish-American War. The U.S. gains control of the Phillippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

· 1898 The US annexes Hawaii

· 1899-1905 Philippine insurrection suppressed by the US; The Anti-Imperialist League is formed.

· 1901 President McKinley is shot and killed by an anarchist

Theodore Roosevelt, Republican (1901-1908)

· 1902 Roosevelt sues to break up J. P. Morgan’s western railroad monopoly in a case that goes to the Supreme Court. He wins a reputation as a trust-buster

· 1902 Anthracite coal miners go on strike. With winter coming major disruptions loom, and Roosevelt forges a settlement favoring labor (after threatening to nationalize the mines)

· 1903 Department of Commerce and Labor created

· 1903 After the Hay-Herran Treaty with the Colombian government fails to resolve the issue of sovereignty over the proposed Canal Zone, a bloodless uprising occurs and Panamanian independence is declared. The Hay-Buneau-Varilla treaty gives the U. S. permanent rights to a 10-mile-wide strip of land in return for $10 million and annual payments. Panama Canal begun 1906

· 1904 The Socialist Party nominates Eugene V. Debs for president

· 1904 Roosevelt Corollary extends the Monroe Doctrine from the Western Hemisphere to global U. S. "spheres of influence."

· 1904 To correct the conditions detailed in Sinclair's The Jungle, Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.

· Roosevelt keeps his word not to run for a third term, instead he hand-picks William Howard Taft to run.

William Howard Taft (1908-1912)

· 1910 Theodore Roosevelt calls for "a square deal" in a speech that will become a rallying cry for the Progressive Movement.

· 1912 U. S. sends marines to protect business interests in Cuba.

· 1912 Split between Taft and Roosevelt, progressive members walk out of the Republican National Convention in Chicago, form the Bull Moose third party, and nominate Roosevelt. In October, Roosevelt is shot at close range, but the folded-up speech in his coat pocket blocks the bullet and saves his life.

Woodrow Wilson (1912-1920)

· 1913 The 16^th (income tax) and 17th (popular election of U.S. senators) Amendments adopted. California excludes the Japanese from holding land.

· 1914 United States evacuates troops stationed in Vera Cruz, Mexico.

· 1914-1918 World War I.

· 1916 In Mexico, Pancho Villa kills 18 American mining engineers whom he has forced off a train. Two months later, he raids towns in New Mexico with a force of 1500 men, killing 17 Americans. General John Pershing pursues Villa across the border in a two-year unsuccessful effort to capture him. Mexican President Carranza orders U. S. Troops out of Mexico.

· 1916 Wilson campaigns for re-election on the slogan "He kept us out of the war." He wins the election.

· 1917 Immigration Act requiring a literacy test for immigrants and excluding Asiatic workers other than Japanese is passed.

· 1917 U.S. enters World War I. The Selective Service Act is passed, providing for the conscription of men between 20 and 30 for military service. The first American troops arrive in France in October. By the end of the war, 2,000,000 men will have landed in France; 49,000 will be killed in action, 230,000 wounded, and 57,000 will die of disease

· 1919 In September President Wilson suffers a stroke and never fully recovers.

· 1920 The 18^th (Prohibition) and 19^th (Voting rights for women) amendments go into effect

· 1920 Attorney General Mitchell Palmer declares that a "Red Menace" exists, and authorities raid private homes and labor headquarters

Warren G. Harding, Republican (1920-1924)

· 1921 The Emergency Quota Act restricts immigration

· 1921 The Budget and Accounting Act gives the executive branch more control over the budget, and requires the President to submit a written budget to Congress

· 1921 Wage cuts and massive unemployment cause unrest and an increase in violence. The newly formed Hoover Commission suggests price cuts and shorter hours rather than an increase in wages

· 1922 The World War Foreign Debt commission tries to sort out the issue of war debts owed to the United States, which insists on full payment and thereby causes ill will among European nations.

· 1922 The Capper-Volstead Act permits farmers to form cooperatives without being prosecuted for anti-trust violations.

· 1923 President Harding dies of pneumonia. Coolidge is sworn in.

Calvin Coolidge, Republican (1923-1928)

· 1923 The Teapot Dome scandal erupts as Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall had illegally leased federal lands to Mammoth Oil company without calling for competitive bids; after the investigation, Fall is the first cabinet member in U. S. history to go to jail.

· 1926 U.S. marines dispatched to Nicaragua during revolt; they remain until 1933.

· 1926 The Air Commerce Act regulates civil aviation

Herbert Hoover, Republican (1928-1932)

· 1929 Stock market crash, beginning of the Great Depression. Unemployment nears 25%, GNP decreases

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Democrat (1932-45)

· Roosevely had been crippled by polio as a child and was unable to walk without assistance. This fact was generally hid from the American people by the administration and the press.

· 1933 Roosevelt initiates the “New Deal”. Prohibition is repealed

· 1935 Roosevelt opens second phase of New Deal, calling for social security, equitable taxation, and farm assistance

· 1938 Minimum wage established

· 1939 Roosevelt proclaims U.S. neutrality, and declares limited emergency. Albert Einstein sends a letter to Roosevelt informing him of German atomic research and the potential for a bomb. This letter prompts Roosevelt to form a special committee to investigate the military implications of atomic research.

· 1940 U.S. trades 50 destroyers for leases on British bases in Western Hemisphere

· 1941-1945 World War II

· 1941 June-July: Roosevelt freezes German, Italian, and Japanese assets. August: Oil embargo against aggressor states announced. Roosevelt and Churchill announce the Atlantic Charter. Dec: 7 Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. 8 United States and Britain declare war on Japan. 11 Germany declares war on the United States. Manhattan Project begins. Roosevelt enunciates “four freedoms,” signs Lend-Lease Act, declares national emergency, promises aid to USSR

· 1942 More than 120,000 Japanese living in western U.S. moved to “relocation centers,” (Executive Order 9066).

· 1943 President freezes prices, salaries, and wages to prevent inflation. Income tax withholding is introduced.

The Civil War (1860-1865)

Westward Expansion

· 1790 The Philadelphia-Lancaster turnpike, the first toll road, is built to carry Pennsylvania farm produce to Philadelphia instead of by river to Baltimore. It is built using the road building method of Scotsman John McAdam – called macadam – using layers of sand and gravel for drainiage. When tar is added to macadam it is called tarmac. Improvements in road building greatly speed travel.

· 1803 Louisiana purchase from Napoleon for $15 million doubles the land area of the United States, although the Constitution contained no provisions for the purchase. The money was borrowed from English and Dutch bankers.

· 1803-1806: Lewis and Clark expedition sets out down the Ohio River; 5/1804 Leaves St. Louis. 10/1804: Encamped for the winter at a Mandan Indian village near what is now Bismarck, N.D. 5/1805 Reach the Rocky Mountains; 11/1805 Pacific Ocean, winters at Fort Clatsop in Oregon 9/1806: returns to St. Louis

· 1805 Lt. Zebulon Pike explores the Louisiana Territory.

· 1808 The Osage, a Sioux tribe, sign the Osage Treaty ceding their lands in what is now Missouri and Arkansas to the U. S.

· 1809 Shawnee leader Tecumseh begins to establish a Shawnee and Creek confederacy against white settlers. 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison’s troops engage Shawnee and Creek forces led by Tecumseh.

· 1811 The Cumberland Road, from Cumberland, Maryland to Vandalia, Illinois is authorized

· 1814 Creek War ends with the Creek nation ceding two-thirds of its land in southern Georgia to the U. S.

· 1817 Construction is begun on the Erie Canal. Twice as long as any canal in the world, it is entirely financed by the State of New York at $7 million, equal to ¾ of the entire federal budget (although many bonds would eventually be bought by London’s finance houses). It is completed by 1825, two years ahead of schedule. The produce of the Midwest is shipped via the Great Lakes to the Hudson River and New York

· 1818 Andrew Jackson begins his first Seminole War in Florida. Boundary with Canada fixed at the 49^th parallel.

· 1819 Spain cedes Florida to the US

· 1821 Opening of Santa Fe Trail. 1827 Fort Leavenworth, Kansas established to protect Santa Fe Trail. 1822 Great Salt Lake explored by scout Jim Bridger.

· 1825 Creek chief William McIntosh signs treaty ceding Creek lands to the U.S.; other Creeks repudiate the treaty and kill him. 1827 Creek Indians sign a second treaty ceding lands in western Georgia. 1829 Creeks relocate across the Mississippi River

· 1828-1830 Mexico resists the efforts of Andrew Jackson to purchase Texas, blocks further U.S. colonists. Conflicts begin between American settlers and Mexicans.

· 1830 Indian Removal Act authorizes the move of of several tribes to Western lands. The Choctaws sign a treaty exchanging 8 million acres of land east of the Mississippi for land in Oklahoma. 1831 Black Hawk agrees to move west of Mississippi. 1832 Black Hawk War. Seminoles cede Florida

· 1832 The Oregon Trail becomes a main route for settlers

· 1833 Americans in Texas territory vote to separate Texas from Mexico.

· 1836 War of Texas Independence. 2/23 Santa Anna leads 3,000 men in a siege of the Alamo, killing all 187 Texans inside including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie on 3/6; on 3/27 his troops kill 300 soldiers defending Goliad. 3/21 Texans under General Sam Houston capture Santa Anna and defeat the Mexicans at the Battle of San Jacinto. 1837 Andrew Jackson recognizes the Lone Star Republic of Texas

· 1838 Removal of 15,000 Cherokee Indians from Georgia on the "Trail of Tears" results in 4,000 deaths

· 1838 The Republic of Texas withdraws its offer of annexation with the U. S.

· 1842 Colonel John C. Fremont leads an expedition to explore the Rocky Mountains.

· 1843 Beginning of large migration westward. Second Seminole War ends.

· 1845 Texas joins the union as the 28^th state

· 1845 John L. O'Sullivan writes of "the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence," and the phrase catches on with expansionist politicians and the public.

· 1846 Treaty with Great Britain extends the Oregon Territory boundary to Puget Sound.

· 1846-1848 Mexican-American War. Mexico cedes 500,000 square miles of its territory.

· 1848 Gold discovered near Sutter's Fort, California. News of the find begins the California Gold Rush of 1849

· 1851 Sioux sign Treaty of Traverse des Sioux giving up land in Iowa and Minnesota.

· 1851 Horace Greely popularizes Indiana editor John Soule's counsel to 'Go west, young man, go west.'

· 1853 The United States acquired nearly 30,000 square miles of Mexican territory in southern Arizona and New Mexico with the signing of the Gadsden Purchase.

· 1866 The Sioux nations are angered as the US Army begins building forts along the Bozeman Trail, an important route to the gold fields of Virginia City; 80 soldiers are killed

· 1867 Jesse Chisholm maps the Chisholm trail, one of several routes over which cowboys drive cattle from Texas to the railheads of Kansas City, Cheyenne, Dodge City, and Abilene

· 1868 Custer moves against Chief Black Kettle, destroying an Indian village and all its inhabitants

· 1869 Union Pacific-Central Pacific transcontinental railroad is completed as the two lines meet at Promontory Point, Utah.

· 1869 First Sioux War ends with the Treaty of Fort Laramie; the US agrees to abandon Forts Smith, Kearney, and Reno.

· 1870 The Indian Appropriation Act of 1871 makes tribal members wards of the state rather than preserving their rights as members of sovereign nations.

· 1871 Fighting with Apaches begins

· 1875 Second Sioux War erupts after the Sioux refuse to sell lands north of the Platte to the federal government.

· 1876: Ignoring warnings of a massed Sioux army of 2,000-4,000 men, Gen. George Custer and 250 soldiers attack the forces of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at the Little Big Horn. Custer and all of his men die in the attack. Sitting Bull escapes to Canada, returning to the United States in 1881 as a participant in wild west shows.

· 1877 Nez Perce War. After a battle between Nez Perce forces under Chief Joseph and those of Col. Miles in Idaho, Chief Joseph's band is sent to a reservation in Oklahoma

· 1878 The Northern Cheyenne escape from their reservation in Oklahoma in an attempt to reach their lands in Montana Territory

· 1886 Geronimo, Apache Indian chief, surrenders

· 1887 Dawes Severalty Act provides for 160 acres to be given to each Indian family, breaking up communal land holdings.

· 1889 “Oklahoma Land Rush”. The U. S. government bows to pressure and opens for settlement land that it had previously promised as a refuge for Native Americans. Native American tribes are paid about $4 million for the parcel of land. The starting gun sounds at noon, and an estimated 50,000 settlers race across the land; by sunset, all 1.92 million acres have been claimed

· 1890 Sioux chief Sitting Bull arrested and killed by police on Pine Ridge reservation; two weeks later, U.S. troops kill over 200 Sioux at Battle of Wounded Knee

· 1891 900,000 acres of Indian land in Oklahoma is opened to white settlers.

· 1896 The Klondike gold rush begins. By 1900, 100,000 people will have journeyed to the gold fields in Alaska.

· 1902 Newlands Reclamation Act authorizes the building of irrigation dams across the West

Rise of the U.S. in International Affairs

· 1798-1800 The so-called Quasi-War--a series of sea battles—began because of French privateers harassing U.S. merchant ships. After several U.S. victories, France agreed to a settlement.

· In Latin America in the 19th century U.S. troops staged frequent landings in Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Peru, and Uruguay. The Marines stormed into Haiti 19 times between 1857 and 1913.

· 1801-1805 The first Barbary Wars began when President Thomas Jefferson dispatched ships to the Mediterranean, establishing the precedent for American presidents to take military action abroad. The United States won the first round after a contingent of seven marines and a host of mercenaries trekked across the desert to capture the Tripolitan city of Derna. After the War of 1812, the Navy mopped up in the region in 1815.

· 1900 China's Boxer Rebellion was a peasant revolt against western influences. U.S. forces joined an eight-nation alliance--including Germany, Great Britain, and Japan--to crush the uprising after a number of foreign missions in Beijing and Tianjin were attacked. The coalition, says Boot, presaged America's entry into World War I on the side of the Entente allies.

· The United States also used gunboat diplomacy in the wake of the Spanish-American War to install friendly governments in Cuba and Panama. In Cuba, that led to a long-term lease for Guantanamo Bay naval base. In Panama, it opened the way to the building of the canal.

· 1926-1933 American forces, long a mainstay in Nicaragua, returned in 1926 to quell a civil war, uphold democracy, and put down rebel leader Augusto Sandino. They left in 1933. But the Guardia, trained by U.S. forces and run by Gen. Anastasio Somoza, murdered Sandino after a cease-fire ended the war. Somoza installed himself as dictator

Economics

Pre-Civil War

· The South was primarily an exporter of raw materials and importer of manufactured goods, whereas the opposite was true in the North. This led the North to favor tariffs and the South to oppose them, which further divided the two regions.

· The North becomes an industrial power, while in the South cotton-growing is king.

· Banks at the time require charters from state legislatures, encouraging corruption in many cases

· Banks, municipalities, trade associations, and other entities all print paper money, called “scrip”, although banknotes from the Bank of the United States (when in existence) are the most common form of currency)

· 1790 The first American cotton mill (spinning mill) is built in Providence, R.I. by Samuel Slater, an emigrant from England, and the American Industrial Revolution begins. Until then textile production was dominated by Britain, which guarded its machines and technical experts carefully, forbidding their export or emigration. Cotton mills spread around New England, which becomes the second largest textile producer (behind England). Mills and factories gradually replace New England farms. In 1814 the first factory is built in Massachusetts to turn cotton bales into finished cloth.

· 1793 Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, spurring the growth of the cotton industry and helping to institutionalize slavery in the U.S. South. It separated the cotton lint from the seeds by having tines pull it through a grill (the seeds were left behind). A single laborer could now due the work of 25 laborers working by hand. American cotton production goes from 5 million pounds in 1793 to 2 billion pounds in 1860, and from 1% to 70% of the world’s cotton supply in the same period. It is grown best in Alabama’s black belt and the Mississippi Delta. In the 1810s South Carolina was the leading producer, in the 1820s it was Georgia, and in the 1830s Mississippi and Alabama, followed by Louisiana. American raw cotton was shipped to Britain where cloth was produced.

· 1807 Embargo Act bans all trade with foreign countries and forbids American ships to set sail for foreign ports. It is proposed by President Jefferson as a response to the forced impressments of American ships and sailors by Britain and France. This act has a lasting negative effect on New England seaports. Exports drop from $48 million to $9 million. New England governors refuse to supply militia to enforce the Embargo Acts. It is repealed in 1814.

· 1807 Robert Fulton builds the first steamboat, the Clermont, to run from New York up the Hudson. Robert Livingston, minister to France, had employed him and they both win a monopoly on steamboat travel on the Hudson fron the New York legislature.u7

· 1813 During the War of 1812, with the bank of the United States’ charter expired in 1811, America goes in to extreme financial difficulty. The war effort is saved by a $16 million bond issue subscribed to by the likes of John Jacob Astor and Stephen Girard.

· 1816 The Second Bank of the United States is founded. The South favored its recharter because of a chronic lack of specie, which ended up in Northern banks due to a trade surplus. It over-lent and then called in its money, sparking financial panic. President Andrew Jackson ended its special status in 1836. Five years later, as an ordinary commercial bank, it went bust.

· 1816 Congress passes the first protective tariff for the New England textile industry, which is heavily opposed by the South.

· 1817 The New York Stock and Exchange Board is founded. At the time Philadelphia has the nation’s largest stock exchange (founded in 1792), and Boston also had a large exchange. It becomes the New York Stock Exchange in 1863.

· 1825 The Erie Canal is completed. The produce of the Midwest is shipped via the Great Lakes to the Hudson River and New York. New York becomes the commercial hub of the nation and its largest city. John Jacob Astor, owner of Manhattan real estate, becomes the nation’s richest man. The first load of Midwestern grain is shipped in 1836

· 1826 First American railroad completed in Quincy, Massachusetts

· 1828 The federal “Tariff of Abominations” which benefited Northern industrialists at the expense of Southern planters leads to the South Carolina nullification crisis.

· 1832 Henry Clay pushes through a bill to recharter the Bank of the United States. The Bank’s president, Nicholas Biddle, conspires with Clay. Jackson personally opposes Biddle and vetoes the bill. 1833 Under Jackson’s instruction, the government shifts its deposits from the Bank of the United States to state banks, a move that weakens the Bank. The act is of dubious legality, and Jackson fires two Treasury Secretaries until the third complies with the order. The Senate censures Jackson over the issue, until 1834 when the Democrats win the Senate and expunge the censure. By 1836 the Bank is defunct.

· 1835 The national debt is paid off for the first and only time under Andrew Jackson’s direction. To increase the amount of available money needed for a growing economy, the state banks begin to issue bank notes not backed by gold and silver. Inflation results.

· 1836 The problems arising from growing inflation, land speculation, and worthless currency lead President Jackson to issue the Specie Circular, which requires that public lands be paid for in gold or silver instead of paper money, which had been issued in an uncontrolled fashion by banks.

· 1837 Following several months of increasing inflation and shrinking credit as Western banks fail due to the Specie Circular, the Panic of 1837 begins, causing widespread bank failures and unemployment. 90% of the nation’s factories close, cotton prices fall by 50%. Philadelphia’s days as a rival to Wall Street end. The recession bottoms in 1843.

· 1858 Financial Panic of 1858

· 1862 U.S. notes, (called “greenbacks”) the first national currency, began circulating during the civil war; they were authorized by the Legal Tender Act of 1862. The Department of the Treasury issued these notes directly. Congress limited the amount of U.S. notes in circulation $300 million. (The Treasury Department stopped issuing U.S. notes in favor of Federal Reserve Notes, and none have been placed into circulation since 1971. Those that remain in circulation are obligations of the U.S. government.)

Post-Civil War

· Foreign investment and massive flows of immigration fuel infrastructure and industrial growth

· The “golden age” of railroads begins. The rail network grows from 35,000 in 1865 to a peak of 254,000 miles in 1916.

· 1869 Jay Gould and Jay Fisk attempt to drive up the price of gold and corner the market. On 9/24, "Black Friday," President Grant releases $4 million and drives the price down, an action that causes a stock-market panic.

· 1873 Financial Panic of 1873 begins with the failure of Jay Cooke and Company after years of inflation, speculation, and the overproduction of paper currency. The Stock Exchange closes for 10 days.

1880-1890s Emergence of trusts & monopolies, the “Robber Barons”

· 1870 John D. Rockefeller founds the Standard Oil Company. 1882 Rockefeller organizes the Standard Oil Trust.

· The Dupont company had been formed in 1802 by Irinee Dupont, who had studied under Lavoisier, to sell gunpowder. Pierre S. Dupont made a fortune in World War I selling munitions, then bought a controlling interest in General Motors. The company diversified into chemicals (nylon and synthetic fibers, lacquers, etc) to avoid antitrust laws.

· 1887 Interstate Commerce Act passed

· 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Law

· 1893 Panic of 1893

· 1897 Backing away from earlier pro-business decisions, the Supreme Court votes 5-4 that railroads are subject to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, led by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (who wrote Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It.)

· 1900 Spindletop claim in Beaumont, Texas brings in oil, the first in that region. Starts the Texas Oil Boom.

· 1907 Panic of 1907. Financier J. P. Morgan manages the crisis, importing $100 million in gold to bolster U. S. currency.

· 1911 Supreme Court orders the breakup of Standard Oil and American Tobacco Company

· 1913 The Federal Reserve System is formed after the Panic of 1907.

• In the early 1900s, the nation was suffering from periodic liquidity crises. These crises or "panics" occurred because the banking system was fettered with a rigid amount of currency that could not meet unusual demands, and a system of reserves that pyramided up to New York. During these panics businessmen and farmers were unable to obtain credit to finance inventories and the production and transportation of crops. The crises spread across the country and converged upon Wall Street, resulting in plunges in the stock market, a large number of bank and business failures, and a further shortage of currency.
• 1908 The Aldrich-Vreeland Act provided for the issuance of emergency currency and created a bipartisan National Monetary Commission to study central banking. Senator Nelson Aldrich, the chairman of the National Monetary Commission, went to Europe for almost two years to study that continent's banking systems and identified what he saw as the "evils" of the system in the United States — the "decentralization of reserves and the immobilization of [commercial] paper." To remedy this, he (and Paul Warburg) advocated the development of an American discount market and a European-style commercial paper. This system was based partly on a concept known as the "real bills" doctrine, which maintained that the money supply should vary with the short-term "legitimate" needs of business and commerce. By allowing banks to borrow only against short-term loans, the real bills doctrine, in theory, provided liquidity through the discounting (or selling) of loans and at the same time restricted the ability of a central bank to expand the supply of money. They also proposed the creation of a "central reserve" or central bank that would hold the reserve funds of member banks so that collective funds could be made available to a bank in need of liquidity. Both the discounting and reserve concept would help make money and credit more elastic and keep interest rates stable.
• 1910 A secret meeting occurs on Jekyll Island, Georgia (then a resort hotel) to discuss the creation of the Federal Reserve. It was led by Senator Aldrich, and included representatives of the Treasury Department, Rothschild's Kuhn, Loeb & Co., the National City Bank of New York, J. P. Morgan Company, the Morgan-dominated First National Bank of New York, and Benjamin Strong representing J. P. Morgan himself, in total representing about one-sixth of the world's wealth.
• It now consists of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, and the seven-person Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., headed by the Federal Reserve Chairman.

· The Board of Governors sets the discount interest rate (the rate the fed charges banks for overnight loans). They serve 14-year terms, except the Chairman and Vice-Chairman who serve 4-year terms. The members are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. By law, the appointments must yield a "fair representation of the financial, agricultural, industrial, and commercial interests and geographical divisions of the country."

• The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is made up of the Board of Governors, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and presidents of four other Federal Reserve Banks, who serve on a rotating basis. The FOMC oversees open market operations, which is the main tool used by the Federal Reserve to influence money market conditions and the growth of money and credit.
• The Federal Reserve's responsibilities duties fall into four general areas:

· conducting the nation's monetary policy by influencing money and credit conditions in pursuit of full employment and stable prices

· supervising and regulating banking institutions

· maintaining the stability of the financial system

· providing certain financial services to the U.S. government, to the public, to financial institutions, and to foreign official institutions, including playing a major role in operating the nation's payments systems

· Banks get cash from Federal Reserve Banks. Most medium- and large-sized banks maintain reserve accounts at one of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, and they pay for the cash they get from the Fed by having those accounts debited. Some smaller banks maintain their required reserves at and get cash through larger, "correspondent," banks, which charge a fee for the service. The larger banks get currency from the Fed and pass it on to the smaller banks.

• It is an independent entity within the government, having both public purposes and private aspects. As the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve derives its authority from the U.S. Congress. It is considered an independent central bank because its decisions do not have to be ratified by the President or anyone else in the executive or legislative branch of government, it does not receive funding appropriated by Congress, and the terms of the members of the Board of Governors span multiple presidential and congressional terms. Employees of the Federal Reserve Banks are not government employees. They are paid as part of the expenses of their employing Reserve Bank. However, the Federal Reserve is subject to oversight by Congress, which periodically reviews its activities.
• The twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks, which were established by Congress as the operating arms of the nation's central banking system, are organized much like private corporations--possibly leading to some confusion about "ownership." For example, the Reserve Banks issue shares of stock to member banks. However, owning Reserve Bank stock is quite different from owning stock in a private company. The Reserve Banks are not operated for profit, and ownership of a certain amount of stock is, by law, a condition of membership in the System. Holding stock in a regional Reserve Bank does not carry with it the kind of control and financial interest that holding publicly traded stock affords. The stock may not be sold, traded, or pledged as security for a loan; dividends are, by law, 6% per year and stockholders elect six of the nine members of the Reserve Bank's board of directors.
• The Federal Reserve's income is derived primarily from the interest on U.S. government securities that it has acquired through open market operations. Other sources of income are the interest on foreign currency investments held by the System; fees received for services provided to depository institutions, such as check clearing, funds transfers, and automated clearinghouse operations; and interest on loans to depository institutions (the rate on which is the so-called discount rate). After paying its expenses, the Federal Reserve turns the rest of its earnings over to the U.S. Treasury.
• The Federal Reserve issues Federal Reserve notes and places them in circulation.

· The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 authorized the production and circulation of Federal Reserve notes. Although printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), these notes move into circulation through the Federal Reserve System. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) produces currency and stamps, and the U.S. Mint produces our nation's coins. They are obligations of both the Federal Reserve System and the U.S. government. Both U.S. notes and Federal Reserve notes are part of our national currency and are legal tender. They circulate as money in the same way.

· National bank notes still in circulation are legal tender at face value as a matter of law. National bank notes were issued from 1863 to 1935. They are probably worth more than face value to currency collectors, however, because they are very rare.

· The largest note ever printed was the $100,000 gold certificate, 1934, featuring Woodrow Wilson. It was issued only to Federal Reserve Banks against an equal amount of gold bullion held by the Department of the Treasury for certain credits established between the Treasurer of the United States and the Federal Reserve Banks.

• The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), composed of the 7 governors and 5 of 12 regional bank chairmen, sets the shrort-term federal funds rate (the overnight rate banks charge each other) and the every 6 weeks. The FOMC can buy or sell US Treasury bonds, pumping or withdrawing cash into/from the economy.

· 1914 Federal Trade Commission formed. Clayton Anti-Trust Act.

· 1914-1920 WWI brings temporary but substantial government intervention in the free-market economy, including regimentation and takeover of key industries such as railroads

· 1920s Stock market boom, return to unfettered capitalism

• An era of "laissez-faire" capitalism under conservative presidents concerned with fiscal rigor sees boom times in the urban economy and the emergence and rise of large modern corporations. Protectionism in trade mirrors isolationism in foreign affairs, but U.S. investment spreads around the world. Farmers do not share in the good times, as agrarian recession turns to deep depression.
• Stock market investing is fueled by the invention of ticker tape

· 1929-1939 The Great Depression

• 1929 On "Black Thursday" 24 October, 13 million shares are sold on the New York Stock Exchange; despite efforts to shore up prices by J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller, prices fall again on 29 October, "Black Tuesday," as 16 million shares are sold. By 13 November, $30 billion has been lost in devalued stocks. Although all of the effects are not felt immediately, the stock market crash marks the beginning of the Great Depression

· Samuel Insull: head of Chicago Edison, held 65 chairmanships, 85 directorships, 11 presidencies thru holding companies, is bankrupted. Becomes a symbol for capitalist excesses

· Immediate response by the federal government is bank holidays, welfare & food programs

· 1932-1939 Roosevelt’s New Deal

· 1932 Congress sets up Reconstruction Finance Corporation to stimulate economy.

· 1933 National Recovery Administration: cooperation of labor, business, & government to reduce output, set prices, increase incomes. Thrown out by 1935.

· Security & Exchange Commission is formed to limit insider trading, reporting requirements, independent audit, etc. after it was discovered that New York Stock Exchange president Richard Whitney had embezzled $30million. Led by Joseph P. Kennedy & James Landis

· 1935 Public Utility Holding Company Act dismantled holding companies

· Regulatory commissions established during this period: Federal Power Commission, Federal Communications Commission, Civil Aeronautics Board, National Labor Relations Board

· Tennessee Valley Authority developed as an experiment in state-ownership

· Dollar is put on the gold-standard ($35/oz)

· Recession in late 1930s is allegedly caused by a “capital strike” as business withheld capital to protest regulation & undermine the New Deal

· 1938-1940 began to be influenced by Keynes – deficit spending

· 1941-45 WWII The Office of Price Administration & War Production Board manages the economy

Labor Movement

· 1877 The Great Strike of 1877 begins with railroad workers walking out; later, workers from other industries will follow.

· Anarchism: In the late nineteenth century, immigrants from Eastern Europe sympathetic to the international anarchist movement launched what historians consider the first wave of domestic terrorism in the United States. Anarchists tried to kill the steel tycoon Henry Clay Frick in 1892. Anarchists bombed Chicago’s Haymarket in 1886 where 7 officers are killed by a bomb and 8 anarchists are arrested despite their lack of involvement; several are executed. In 1901, an anarchist sympathizer named Leon Czolgosz assassinated President William McKinley in Buffalo, New York.

· 1886 American Federation of Labor organized.

· 1892 Homestead (Pennsylvania) steelworkers strike; after the strikers battle with Pinkerton detectives, Governor Pattison calls in the militia. Strike by workers in silver mines in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

· 1894 Coxey's Army, a group of unemployed men, marches on Washington. A related group, Kelley's Army, sets out from the West Coast; one of them is Jack London. A tailors' strike in New York City brings attention to sweat shops. In Chicago, after the Pullman Palace Car company reduces wages, workers strike; a general sympathy strike ensues. Despite protests by the Illinois Governor, deputy marshals and U. S. troops are called out to quell the strikers. Eugene V. Debs calls general strike of rail workers to support Pullman Company strikers, Debs is jailed for six months

• 1895 Citing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the Supreme Court upholds an injunction against striking railway workers, claiming that the strike impedes interstate commerce

· 1902 The United Mine Workers go on strike and the owners refuse to recognize the union; as tensions mount and negotiations fail, Roosevelt calls the two sides to the White House and successfully handles the situation.

· 1905 Industrial Workers of the World union organized in Chicago.

· 1914 Ludlow Massacre. Seven months into a strike at the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation, after the National Guard has been called in to break the strike, machine guns begin firing on the workers' tent city and fire breaks out, killing 20 men, women, and children. This gives rise to demonstrations across the country, and by the time President Woodrow Wilson sends in federal troops to restore order, 66 people have been killed.

· 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act exempts organized labor from anti-trust restrictions, which had been used against labor by companies in the past.

· 1919 Communist Party is formed in Chicago.

· 1919 The Seattle General Strike shuts down the city and leads to arrests among socialists and others deemed subversive.

· 1921 Sacco and Vanzetti, Italian-born anarchists, convicted of armed robbery and murder; they are executed in 1927

• 1923 U. S. Steel implements the 8-hour day, a victory for labor

Abolition and Race Relations

· 1808 Congress bans the importation of slaves

· 1831 Nat Turner leads slave uprising in which 70 whites are killed; 100 blacks are killed in a search for Turner.

· 1831 The Liberator abolitionist paper is published by William Lloyd Garrison. New England Anti-Slavery Society founded

· 1836 Massachusetts Supreme Court rules that any slave brought within its borders by a master is free.

· 1838 Underground Railroad organized.

· 1848 Free Soil party organizes and nominates Martin Van Buren on an anti-slavery platform.

· 1849 Harriet Tubman escapes to the North and begins working with the Underground Railroad.

· 1850 Fugitive Slave Act provides for the return of slaves brought to free states

· 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe writes Uncle Tom's Cabin

· 1857 Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court. After being brought to free territory by his owner, Scott sued for his freedom, but the court ruled that he had never ceased to be a slave, denied that he was a citizen, and denied him the right to sue.

Arts

· 1806 Noah Webster’s Compendious Dictionary of the English Language

· 1828 John James Audubon’s Birds in America.

· 1845 Edgar Allan Poe The Raven and Other Poems.

· 1851 Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

· 1854 Henry David Thoreau's Walden.

· 1855 Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

Other Developments

· 1800 John Chapman, aka "Johnny Appleseed," begins dispensing apple seeds and seedlings to settlers in Ohio.

· 1804 Aaron Burr challenges longtime rival, Federalist politician Alexander Hamilton, to a duel after Hamilton had successfully foiled Burr's bid to become governor of New York. Burr shoots Hamilton, who dies 10 hours later.

· 1807 Robert Fulton makes first successful steamboat trip on Clermont between New York City and Albany.

· 1814 Francis Scott Key, "The Star-Spangled Banner"

· 1821 Republic of Liberia in West Africa is established as a refuge for freed American slaves.

· 1826 A former Freemason who had exposed Masonic secrets disappears from the Canandiagua, N.Y. jail under mysterious circumstances. A belief that the Freemasons killed him leads to the formation of the Anti-Masonic party, the first third party in American politics

· 1830s-1890s The Cowboy develops in the west, first to corral longhorn cattle in Texas, and drive them north along cattle trails

· 1830 In Palmyra, New York Joseph Smith founds the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). After removing first to Kirtland, Ohio, and Commerce (later Nauvoo) Illinois, Smith was shot to death by a mob in Carthage, Illinois, in 1844. 1846 Brigham Young leads Mormons to Great Salt Lake.

· 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville spends nine months touring America, inspiring the book Democracy in America

· 1845 Potato famine in Ireland brings great numbers of Irish immigrants.

· 1856 First bridge to span the Mississippi built between Illinois & Davenport Iowa

· 1861 Congress adopts the income tax. Congress creates Colorado, Dakota, and Nevada territories

· 1871 The Great Chicago Fire. “Boss” Tweed Ring exposed in the New York Times and is overthrown.

· 1875 First Kentucky Derby.

· 1881Tuskegee Institute founded by Booker T. Washington. Clara Barton organizes the American Red Cross

· 1883 Brooklyn Bridge opened

· 1884 A ten-story building in Chicago is the world's first true "skyscraper."

· 1884 Samuel S. McClure founds the first newspaper syndicate in the U.S., McClure's Syndicate

· 1884 First commercially successful long-distance telephone service is established between Boston and New York

· 1886 Statue of Liberty dedicated

· 1898 "Yellow Journalism"

· 1900s Coca-Cola (in Atlanta) and Pepsi-Cola (in North Carolina) develop from patent-medicine “pharmacists”, originally containing cocaine and caffeine from the Kola bean from west Africa

· 1900 In the worst natural disaster in U. S. history, a hurricane sweeps over Galveston, Texas, killing 7,000 of 36,000 inhabitants

· 1901 The Boston Red Sox win the first World Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates

· 1905 Frustrated by the accommodationist tactics of Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois invites African American leaders to a conference near Niagara Falls, and organize the Niagara Movement. The Niagara Movement holds annual meetings until 1909, when most of its members join with white liberals to form the N.A.A.C.P.

· 1906 Roosevelt lambastes the press for its lurid exposure of social evils, calling journalists such as Upton Sinclair "muckrakers" after the man in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress who could see nothing but filth.

· 1906 San Francisco earthquake kills an estimated 500 people, and fire destroys much of the city.

· 1909 North Pole reportedly reached by American explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew Henson.

· 1912 The Titanic strikes an iceberg, and 1502 lives are lost because the ship did not carry enough lifeboats

· 1916 Jeannette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.

· 1918-1919 Influenza epidemic strikes; before it ends in 1919, it kills an estimated 20 to 40 million people worldwide.

· 1920 Station KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, initiates regular radio broadcasts, the first station to do so

· 1923 Widespread Ku Klux Klan violence

· 1925 The Scopes trial begins as John T. Scopes of Tennessee is arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. Clarence Darrow defends Scopes as William Jennings Bryan heads the prosecution. In an unusual move, Bryan takes the witness stand to defend his strict interpretation of the Bible. Scopes loses the trial and is fined $100, but the trial publicity has given the debate over evolution national attention.

· 1926 The Army Air Corps is established. This occurs just one year after Col. William "Billy" Mitchell had been suspended from the Army for 5 years without pay for insisting on the importance of air power in the national defense.

· 1926 Richard Byrd makes the first flight over the North Pole.

· 1927 Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs in the season; record stands for next 34 years

· 1931 Gangster Al Capone sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion

· 1932 Veterans march on Washington after Senate rejects payment of cash bonuses; removed by troops under Douglas MacArthur.

· 1932 Amelia Earhart is first woman to fly Atlantic solo. Charles Lindbergh's baby son is kidnapped, killed. 1937 Amelia Earhart is lost somewhere in Pacific on round-the-world flight.

· 1935 U.S. Senator and former governor Huey Long is assassinated in Louisiana

· 1936 Hundreds of Americans join the “Lincoln Brigades” in the Spanish Civil War

◄ ►

Canada

· 1791 Canada Act divides Canada into English and French speaking territories.

· 1818 Boundary with the US fixed at the 49^th parallel; both countries occupy Oregon

· 1840 Lower and Upper Canada united.

· 1867 Canada becomes the first independent dominion in the British Empire under the Dominion of Canada Act, a governor-general is the symbolic head of state

· 1870s-1910s Railroads allow Canada to capitalize on a wheat boom with exports to the U.S. and Commonwealth. Industrialization. Ontario has more than 30 auto plants. Immigrants pour in.

· 1914-1929 Canada enters World War I. Cheap hydroelectric power in Quebec and Ontario attracts American investment, the U.S. overtakes Britain as the largest foreign investor. Wheat is Canada's chief export.

· 1930-1938 The Great Depression. 20% unemployment.

· 1940-1940 World War II

· 1944 Canada's first socialist government is formed when the CCF wins 1944 elections.

◄ ►

Central and South America

· At this time the Spaniards born in America – the creoles – are unable to hold office, and lack other privledges of the native Spaniards. Encouraged by the US and French revolution, the Spanish creoles seek independence from Spain.

· 1804 Haiti declares independence from France.

· 1806 Wars of Independence begin while Spain is ruled by France, led by General Jose San Martin in the region of Rio de la Plata

· 1807 The Portugese Prince Regent leaves Lisbon (captured by the French) for Rio de Janiero, which becomes the capital of the Portugese empire

· 1811 Venezuela, Paraguay, and Uruguay declare independence

· 1818 San Martin and Bernardo O’Higgins liberate Chile

· 1819 Simón Bolívar liberates New Granada (now Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador); named president of Colombia.

· 1821 Guatemala, Panama, and Santo Domingo proclaim independence from Spain. San Martin invades Peru.

· 1822 When the King of Portugal returns to Lisbon, he leaves his son Dom Pedro as ruler of Brazil. Pedro proclaims independence from Portugal with Pedro I as the first Emperor of Brazil

· 1823 James Monroe, US President, promulgates the Monroe Doctrine, which warns Europe to stay out of American affairs

· 1824 Bolívar liberates Bolivia, becomes president of the Republic of Bolivia

· 1829 Greater Columbia divided into Columbia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and New Grenada

· 1902 Britain and Germany seize the Venezuelan navy to force payment of debts

· 1903 Panama declares independence from Columbia

· 1904 Construction begins on the Panama Canal. It opens in 1914.

◄ ►

Mexico

· 1821 Mexico becomes independent from Spain. 1824 Mexico becomes a republic.

· 1828-1830 Mexico resists the efforts of Andrew Jackson to purchase Texas, blocks further U.S. colonists

· 1836 War of Texas Independence. Texas becomes independent Republic from Mexico.

· 1846-1848 Mexican-American War. 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo: US gains California and New Mexico from Mexico

· 1864-1867 Mexican Empire. French capture Mexico City; proclaim Archduke Maximilian of Austria emperor.

· 1867 French leave Mexico; Maximilian is executed

· 1876-1911 Porfirio Diaz is dictator of Mexico

· 1911 Mexican Revolution: Porfirio Diaz steps down; a period of disorder follows

· 1917 “Northern coalition” of rebels takes control, writes Constitution of 1917 with a federal republic governed by a president and a bicameral national congress.

· 1929 The National Revolutionary Party (PNR) forms, later to become the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which remains in power until 2000.

· 1934-1938 President Cárdenas announces a drastic reform program including land redistribution and the nationalization of foreign-owned oil wells

◄ ►

Cuba

· 1868-1878 Ten Years War for Cuban independence against Spain

· 1895-1898 Revolutionary movements against Spain

· 1898 Spanish-American War. 1899 Independence from Spain, occupation by the US

· 1914-1923 Despite its corrupt political regimes, Cuba is popular with American investors, and its economy flourishes. Foreigners come to control most of Cuba's land and services and 40 percent of its sugar industry. Tourism and gambling join sugar as mainstays of the island's economy.

· 1924-1933 U.S. Prohibition is a boon for Havana hotels, bars, and restaurants. Rural Cubans continue to live in poverty.

◄ ►

Argentina

· 1910s-1920s Argentina is a constitutional democracy and is among the world's richest nations. Foreign investment and massive immigration set the stage for economic revolution. Britain invests heavily in infrastructure. Conservative forces dominate politics until 1916, when the Radicals win control.

· 1929-1937 Unemployment results in social and political unrest. The military forces the Radicals from power and improves economic conditions. Urban working classes lead several unsuccessful uprisings.

◄ ►

Bolivia

· 1910-1920 Political stability and prosperity. The rise of tin production, presided over by a few Bolivian tin magnates, causes social tensions as mining laborers live in precarious conditions. When World War I leads to a decline in mineral exports, support for a new Republican Party increases. A bloodless coup in 1920 puts Republicans in power.

· 1921-1930 The Republicans split into factions, some Socialist- and Marxist-influenced. Tin prices decline, slowing economic growth. Bolivia relies heavily on foreign loans. Labor and Indian uprisings are suppressed. A military junta overthrows President Reyes, then allows elections that give reformist Salamanca the presidency.

· 1932-35 Border war between Bolivia and Paraguay over the Chaco area and its oil fields. An armistice grants Paraguay most of Chaco and Bolivia some oil fields. Loss of life and territory discredit the traditional ruling class and prompt a military coup.

· 1936-1939 Coup leader Colonel Toro attempts a program of "military socialism," but he is overthrown by a coup led by the more radical Colonel Busch. A new constitution favors government intervention in social and economic affairs. Busch alienates the conservatives and finds little popular or military support, and he commits suicide.

· 1940-1946 Socialist and leftist groups including gain control of the Congress & Presidency in 1944. Increasing political terrorism undermine the regime. 1946 Students, teachers, and workers kill President Villaroel, and take over the presidential palace.

◄ ►

Paraguay

· 1932-35 Border war between Bolivia and Paraguay over the Chaco area and its oil fields. An armistice grants Paraguay most of Chaco and Bolivia some oil fields.

◄ ►

Brazil

· 1889 Brazil becomes a Republic, abolishes slavery. Constitution of 1891: Federal republic, governed by a president with a bicameral congress and a judiciary. The elites of the pátrias, or autonomous centers of regional control, hold the real power, in particular in the states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo. Lack of inland transportation hinders integration, but Brazil prospers economically, exporting sugar, rubber, and coffee.

· 1917-1923 The economy expands, industrial production, concentrated in the South and Southeast, increases rapidly. Coffee exports remain the economy's driving force. Immigrants working on coffee plantations seek better opportunities in urban areas. The lack of adequate infrastructure development triggers violent strikes against urban living and working conditions.

· 1924-1929 The most powerful pátrias in Minas Gerais and São Paulo continue to exert control over the federal government. Brazil increases trade and financial ties with the U.S. Economic growth continues until the fall in world demand for coffee, overproduction, and the 1929 world financial crisis.

· 1930-1934 Vargas takes power in a revolution of elites to undermine the growing political power of labor. Vargas centralizes government, and the pátrias give up their power in return for federal protection of their interests.

· 1935-1939 Vargas imposes martial law to quell a communist revolt then declares a "state of war." He shuts down Congress, dissolves political parties, issues a new constitution for a fascist-inspired "New State," and becomes its dictator. The government nationalizes and centralizes industry.

· 1940-1945 Succumbing in part to international pressure, Vargas signs a new constitution, declares amnesty for political prisoners, and allows presidential elections. But the military stages a coup d'état to cut short the political mobilization of the masses.

◄ ►

Chile