The american pageant 11th edition chapter 39

Skip to main content. Printer Friendly. The Long Economic Boom, Then, in the late s and into the s, the economy began to boom tremendously, and folks who had felt the sting of the Great Depression now wanted to bathe in the prosperity.

Women also reaped the benefits of the postwar economy, growing in the American work force while giving up their former roles as housewives. However, much of the prosperity of the 50s and 60s rested on colossal military projects.

Massive appropriations for the Korean War , defense spending, industries like aerospace, plastics, and electronics, and research and development all were such projects. Even though this new affluence did not touch everyone, it did touch many.

Cheap energy paralleled the popularity of automobiles, and spidery grids of electrical cables carried the power of oil, gas, coal, and falling water into homes and factories alike. Workers upped their output tremendously, as did farmers, due to new technology in fertilizers, etc… in fact, the farming population shrank while production soared.

The Smiling Sunbelt With so many people on the move, families were being strained, which explained the success of Dr. Immigration also led to the growth of a fifteen-state region in the southern half of the U. In fact, in the s, California overtook New York as the most populous state.

Sunbelters were redrawing the political map, taking the economic and political power out of the North and Northeast. As the children grew up collectively, they put strains on respective markets, such as manufacturers of baby products in the s and 50s, teenage clothing designers in the 60s, and the job market in the 70s and 80s.

In the future, they will place enormous strains on the Social Security system. Truman , who had come to power after Franklin Roosevelt had died from a massive brain hemorrhage. The first president in a long time without a college education, Truman at firs approached his burdens with humility, but he gradually evolved into a confident, cocky politician.

Often, Truman would stick to a wrong decision just to prove his decisiveness and power of command. However, even if he was small on the small things, he was big on the big things, taking responsibility very seriously and working very hard. Yalta: Bargain or Betrayal? A final conference of the Big Three had taken place at Yalta in February , where Soviet leader Joseph Stalin pledged that Poland should have a representative government with free elections, as would Bulgaria and Romania, but he broke those promises.

At Yalta, the Soviet Union had agreed to attack Japan three months after the fall of Germany, but by the time the Soviets entered the Pacific war, the U. The Soviet Union was also granted control of the Manchurian railroads and received special privileges to Dairen and Port Arthur.

Stalin wanted a protect sphere around western Russian, for twice earlier in the century, Russia had been attacked from that way, and that mean taking nations like Poland under its control.

Even though both the USA and the USSR were recent newcomers to the world stage, very advanced, and had been isolationist before the 20th century, now, they found themselves in a political stare down that would turn into the Cold War and last for four and a half decades.

Shaping the Postwar World However, the U. The United Nations opened on April 25, The Senate overwhelmingly approved the UN by a vote of 89 to 2. His traditional values were from the pres generation. He favored small government, laissez-faire capitalism, a tough stance with Russia, personal responsibility, and "family values.

Having grown up in small-town Midwest America, Reagan had a real down-home nature that was appealing and friendly. Reagan won in a landslide, to 49 in the electoral. In Carter's farewell address, he encouraged disarmament, human rights, and environmental protect. One of his last acts was to sign a bill preserving million acres in Alaska. The Reagan Revolution Ironically, the hostages in Iran were released the exact day Reagan was sworn into office, January 20, Reagan put together a cabinet of the "best and the rightest.

In his view, the government did not fix problems, the government was the problem. This message was well-received by the s. There was a movement away from the ideas of a "welfare state" and governmental "entitlement" programs. Californians had a "tax revolt" with Proposition 13 cutting property taxes and governmental services. This wave spread to D. Most of the cuts were in social programs like food stamps and federally paid-for job training programs.

The Republican Senate went along, the Democratic House needed politics. Southern conservative Democrats in the House called "boll weevils" went along with Reagan. The lowered budget passed. Reagan was suddenly shot on March 6, Hit in the arm and lung, he recuperated and walked out of the hospital 12 days later.

Reagan's appeal on TV and help from the boll weevils passed this bill as well. The plan called for " supply-side economics " AKA " Reaganomics " or policies that supported businesses, such as lower taxes and less government interference.

Supply-side economics would boost investment, production, hiring, and eventually through growth, would reduce the federal deficit. The plan took a hit when the economy slid into a recession in The blame-game was on. Democrats charged that Reagan's cuts were to blame. They said the cuts were aimed at the poor and helped the rich. In fact, the "tight-money" anti-inflationary policies of President Carter were to blame for the economic downturn. The economy did turn around in and began to thrive.

Supply-siders grinned. On the bad side, the rich-poor gap did widen during the 80s. Reagan's massive military spending was also at play. Though he had a spend-less mentality, that did not apply to the military. Reagan wanted to beef up the military to stand strong against the U. The annual deficit and thus the total debt increased substantially under Reagan, almost exclusively due to military spending.

The deficit in trade was also skyrocketing. America became the world's biggest borrower of money. His way of dealing with the Soviets was through strength—meaning the military was to be built up. He gambled that by ramping up the arms race, the capitalistic U. More commonly called the " Star Wars " plan, SDI was to put satellites in orbit armed with lasers that could shoot down Soviet missiles.

The theory sounded good. But there were questions: 1 how much would it cost? These question were too much and SDI was never built. In Poland, workers organized into a huge union in the Solidarity movement. The Soviets imposed martial law on Poland; the U. Things move quickly between and '85 when three old Soviet leaders died in succession. In , a Korean passenger airliner went into Soviet airspace and was shot down.

Several of the dead were Americans. Clearly, the U. Reagan sent U. Afterward, Reagan pulled the U. Reagan's popularity kept on, earning him the nickname of the "Teflon president" because nothing stuck to him. In Nicaragua, leftist communistic "Sandinistas" had taken over the government.

Whereas Carter had tried to extend a handshake to the Sandinistas, Reagan flatly opposed them. He said Nicaragua would be a base for Russia and accused the Sandinistas of stirring up communism in El Salvador. Reagan's military got involved in other places, notably the island of Grenada. There, communists had taken over so the U.

The Democrats nominated Walter Mondale. His V. The economy was strong, Reagan was popular, and he won easily, to only Reagan's first term had featured budget and economic measures, his second term was marked by foreign issues. In the Soviet Union, a new leader took over in Mikhail Gorbachev. He spoke of " glasnost " or 'openness" by the Soviet government and of " perestroika " or "restructuring" the Soviet economy to be more free-market oriented.

Talks at a second meeting in Iceland broke down. At their third meeting, the INF agreement was made. Reagan gave warm remarks about Gorbachev. Reagan also ordered an air strike on Libya in return for its support of terrorism. The Iran-Contra Imbroglio Reagan did have foreign-policy headaches.

Some Americans had been captured by Muslim militant radicals in Lebanon. The communistic Sandinista government in Nicaragua was holding onto power. Reagan wanted to send military aid, but Congress wouldn't go along. More bad news came in a U. Oliver North had secretly arranged a deal where U.

They abandoned it later due to bad conditions. Marco Polo- Italian adventurer who supposedly sailed to the Far East China in and returned with stories and supplies of the Asian life there silk, pearls, etc…. Vasco da Gama- In , he reached India and returned home with a small but tantalizing cargo of jewels and spices. Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile- The wedded king and queen of Spain, their marriage united the previously non-existing country.

Ferdinand Magellan- In , his crew began a voyage and eventually ended up becoming the first to circumnavigate the world, even though he died in the Philippines.

The sole surviving ship returned to Europe in Francisco Coronado- From to , he explored the pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico, penetrating as far east as Kansas. He also discovered the Grand Canyon and enormous herds of bison. He brutally abused Indians and died of fever and battle wounds. Francisco Pizarro- In , he crushed the Incas of Peru and got lots of bounty.

Giovanni da Verranzo- An Italian explorer dispatched by the French king in to probe the eastern seaboard of U.

Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo- He explored the California coast in but failed to find anything of interest. Lake Bonneville - massive prehistoric lake, all of which remains today in the form of the Great Salt Lake. Treaty of Tordesillas - treaty that settled Spanish and Portuguese differences in the Americas, Portugal got modern-day Brazil; Spain got the rest.

First humans come to Americas from land bridge connecting Asia and Alaska. Corn is developed as a stable crop in highland Mexico. First civilized societies develop in the Middle East.

Corn planting reaches present-day American Southwest. Norse voyagers discover and briefly settle in Newfoundland Vinland. Also, corn cultivation reaches Midwest and southeaster Atlantic seaboard. Height of Mississippian settlement at Cahokia. Christian crusades arouse European interest in the East. Marco Polo returns to Europe from Asia. Columbus land in the Bahamas. Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal.