Progressive Era

Yoshelin Alvarez
History 1302
Michael Frawley
November 10, 2014
Progressive Era
The Progressive Movement was an effort to cure many of the ills of the American society that came during the industrial growth and in the last quarter of the 19 century. The era began in 1890s and ended in 1920s. In the 1890s, the belief that getting involved with other counties was not good was slowly dissolving. America became a major world power because of its fast economic and social growth. So when Cuban rebels began a violent revolution against Spanish rule in 1895, and a mysterious explosion sunk the U.S.S. Maine in the Havana harbor, the U.S. entered into what diplomat John Hay called "a splendid little war" with Spain. Although the Spanish-American War ended relatively soon, issues over ownership of Spain’s oversea empire also had to be resolved also many Americans took an important role during the time.
The United States presents in the Spanish American War came about when U.S.S Main was sunk. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris signed in December 10, 1898. The Treaty was most generous to the winners. Cuba was granted freedom and United States received Guam, Philippines, Puerto Rico. As a result Spain lost its remaining oversea empires but received $20 million for its lost. The United States was criticize and categorized as hypocrite for seizing the territories. The war was about freeing Cuba not taking over other territories. It was very ironic that America the land of the free was pursuing an oversea empire. The public seemed very accepting of the blessing the territories offered as well as the curses. The Spanish-American war was short and not much was lost. Only lasted ten weeks and resulted in 400 battle deaths. However the Philippine insurrection was almost three year long and took 4,000 American lives.
Still the American public was willing to support the expansion of America. America was spreading its wings and its ambition to spread grew. So when Theodore Roosevelt became president he reasserted the Monroe Declaration (a letter that stared that the Western Hemisphere free from European expansion). Before America was too weak to claim, but things were change America was now a world power. Roosevelt took a step further from the Monroe Declaration. He wanted to keep control of the Western Hemisphere. If Latin America engaged in any “Chronic Wrongdoing” the United States’ military would intervene. Engaging more with international affairs America helped Panama gain its freedom. Therefore America was allowed to build the Panama Canal and control it for one hundred years.
So during the Progressive Era the United States was mainly expanding and creating more and more interaction with foreign affairs. The word progressive its self lets the reader know the positive connotation of the word. Now the word is used in political parties to create a positive vibes. America gained and lost element during the era overall it took the persona of America to take a turn.

Work Cited http://thinkprogress.org/election/2013/03/22/1761431/what-it-means-to-be-a-progressive-a-manifesto/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/whats-the-difference-betw_b_9140.html http://www.politicususa.com/2013/06/15/liberals-progressives-difference-matters.html http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraid=11 http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/progressive-era http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/det.4a31055/?co=det

Cited: http://thinkprogress.org/election/2013/03/22/1761431/what-it-means-to-be-a-progressive-a-manifesto/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/whats-the-difference-betw_b_9140.html http://www.politicususa.com/2013/06/15/liberals-progressives-difference-matters.html http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraid=11 http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/progressive-era http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/det.4a31055/?co=det