Notes on Populism, Progressivism and Imperialism, for Chapter 7-12- revision notes for the breadth study of AQA A-level History Making of a Superpower: USA k
Revision notes condensed down from core textbooks and some areas of further reading. Useful for revision- used to achieve an A* in 2019 Sum...
CHAPTER 7- USA
Democratic support was centralised in the Solid South, where they nearly always had
Democratic majorities in state governments so the only issue was who the Democratic
candidate would be.
Thus allowing segregationist Southerners to gain a stranglehold on the national party
They also had support from industrial NE but mostly blue collar workers and recent
9O0immigrants (due to little man policy of the party). During the 90's they received support
from farmers in Western states.
What did Harrison’s presidency consist of?
Harrisons presidency consisted mainly of the Sherman Anti-trust Act 1890 (first anti-trust legislation,
but weakly enforced and used against trade unions), the Sherman Silver Purchase Act (increased
silver coinage to attract Silverites but lead to Panic of 1893) and the McKinley Tariff (raised tariffs by
49%)
What happened in the 1892 presidential elections?
Cleveland won the vote in the 1892 election due to Harrison’s failure of the McKinley Tariff
(angered farmers and the ‘little man’ whose support wavered towards the Populist party)
and depletion of US Treasury through the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
James B Weaver of the Populist party was becoming more popular with more than 1 million
votes
Cleveland’s presidency wasn’t successful due to several reasons:
The Economic Depression of 1883
Cleveland believed the Silver Purchase Act and its depletion of the silver in US Treasury was
to blame for the bankruptcy of Reading Railroad, which catalysed the stock market crash.
o Therefore, he repealed the Act in 1893 despite opposition from farmers, which did
stem unemployment and start economic recovery but did not favour the small
farmers in West and the South.
o This was very much in opposition to silverites, for Cleveland and many Conservatives
saw too much silver coinage to undermine the economy, isolate the USA from
Europe, and increase government intervention in business- thus explaining
Cleveland’s repeal of the measre in 1896
He also did try to reduce the tariff (also believing this did not help the years of depression)
but only managed to change it a little.
o However he did introduce a 20% income tax to richest households, fuelling the
money it had and allowing for the possibility of tariff reduction
Backings from Wall Street:
However, to increase the diminishing supply of gold he made negotiations with JP Morgan to get
financial backings from Wall Street to prop up gold reserves. Though this recovered Gold supply, the
alliance between the president and “robber barrons” seemed to suggest he favoured pro-
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