Progressive Era

From president Roosevelt becoming a vegetarian to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the progressive era, foreign policy, and World War one were major parts of United States history. The progressive movement was caused by labor unions and the presidents’ progressive plans. World War one and Open Door Policy caused the American Foreign Policy. This in many ways helped shape and increase American power in the early 20th Century.

The progressive movement was an effort made to help make America to be safer and make the economy better. Social Welfare and African American rights where things that improved during the progressive era. Election Reforms started to change so it would give more power to the people instead of the government. The food industry was a very disgusting industry back then and it was so bad that when a man named Sinclair Upton wrote a book called The Jungle about it, it change the president into a vegetarian for six months until h came up with the Meat Inspection Act. Labor Unions such as, Knights of Labor and the A.F.L., started to increase in size because people wanted to have better job environments. Strikes emerged everywhere in the United States that helped job environments to improve. A major strike was in Chicago called the Haymarket Strike that turned the people against labor movement due to police brutality. President Roosevelt came up with a plan called the Square Deal, which used “Trust busting” and gave more power to the people and away from big business. Also President Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom plan outlawed monopolies, passed the 16th amendment that put tax on income that gave more money to the government and passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913.

The American Foreign Policy gave more power to the United States, which meant America’s dealings with other countries around the world. The true meaning to this was LAND = WEALTH = POWER. The Open Door Policy in 1899 was passed due to Secretary of State John Hay which he used Social Darwinism to write the Open Notes that opened the trading rights in Asia to the