History of the United States (1898-1920)

The history of the United States from the end of the Spanish-American War up to the Second American Civil War was marked by growing economic and political instability, coupled with the notorious ruling of incompetent presidents throughout the 1900s. In this time, the States saw the rise of opposition parties which, for the first time in years had challenged the Republican and Democratic Parties which sat comfortably for decades. Ultimately, the United States was beaten back into the Pacific exile, where they remain indefinitely to this day.
== 1898-1900 ==
=== Aftermath of the Insurgency Wars ===
The Insurgency Wars were arguably the first instance of a "national humiliation", so to say. Many repercussions came out of the wars fought in Cuba and the Philippines, tarnishing the reputation of William McKinley, creating a setback for Republicans while also jumpstarting the rise of opposition parties which would grow in popularity over the coming years.
== 1900-1912 ==
=== Presidency of Adlai Stevenson I ===
The United States, up to the presidency of Adlai Stevenson I not fully recovered from the Spanish-American War and its aftermath even by the 1900 general election, still dealing with race riots, mutinies and Cuban and Filipino insurgents in recently US occupied territory. Unable to garner enough support due to the disastrous war campaign for re-election, then president William McKinley expectedly looses to right-wing radical Adlai Stevenson I. During his rule, Stevenson would further divide the United States and it’s people apart from one and another.
==== Labor Unrest ====
Labor tensions were still high following the end of the war, and many people began to call on the government to oppose anti-unionization processes encouraged by industrial corporations and their leaders. Such tensions reached a boiling point, where in 1901, the United States Steel Corporation was founded by J.P Morgan, a controversial yet influential economic figure. When people began accusing the Corporation of ineffectively handling workers rights, Stevenson was quick to ignore the issue of expanding labor rights even as strikes and protests grew. By the end of the year, unable to contain the rising issue of unionizing, Stevenson publicly came out and supported Morgan and made it clear he wouldn’t tolerate the increasing demand of workers rights. This outraged institutions like the American Federation of Labor. The economy had still not fully recovered from the war, but in the aftermath of the president’s response, a general strike was declared in Chicago which spread across the nation in late October.
For the next month the strike grew, and at its zenith over 80,000 workers were on strike. In the end, in early December however, Stevenson called on the national guard to various cities harboring the strikers in an effort to crush those participating. By January of 1902, the strike was effectively suppressed, but outrage against the president grew further.
==== Racial tensions ====
Alongside labor unrest came the rise of racism and Southern and White patriotism. The Spanish-American War brought a influx of refugees, many of them Afro-Cubans into the Gulf States. While some states, like Louisiana were more acceptant of white refugees, many refused to let Afro-Cubans to settle in the USA. The question of migrants and if they should be sent back split the country apart. Black communities in the Black Belt marched in support of the Cubans, while Southern White groups bashed against them. The Cuban immigrants in turn opened old wounds between White Southerners and Northerners and between White and Black people in the south. Some in the South viewed this debacle as being caused by the North, and resentment against Washington slowly grew. Many in the Black Belt held resentment for, not just the predicament of Afro-Cubans but also against their current living conditions. While Black Americans had little power to demand immediate change, the Black Liberation Front would be founded in 1903 that would, just 30 years later, form a guerrilla organization that fights the Southern Union to this day. Most Afro-Cubans would be sent back, and the migration crisis wouldn’t be fully resolved until 1903.
=== Presidency of Alton B. Parker ===
Already seen as an unpopular contender for the role of the president, Parker largely continued the policies of the late Stevenson, opposing anti-trust laws and, while enacting various reforms which forced some industries to be regulated by the government, most of the working class viewed these reforms as few and far between.
In 1905, the International Workers of the World, or the IWW was founded. The IWW quickly became the largest labor union in the entire United States, becoming even more popular than the American Federation of Labor, thanks to their inclusion of immigrants, Black Americans and women. The IWW gained thousands of members, while they endorsed the Socialist Party of America, and both institutions would continually grow.
In 1906, the Niagara Movement was founded by W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter, a civil rights organization aimed at improving the lives of Black Americans and officially endorsed by the Black Liberation Front. The creation of the movement however only fueled racial tensions, seen in the Atlanta Race Riot which occurred that same year, and in the wake of the attack, the Black Liberation Front retaliated, attacking many white nationalist sympathizers in several Southern cities, leading to even more violence in the South, a repeat of the race riots of the early 1900s. Parker, for his part, desperately tried to stop the ongoing cycle of violence, and while he was able to make momentary peace between both sides, the White population of the South, mostly those aligned with the National Dignity Party, were most dissatisfied. A rift appeared in the later years of right-leaning radicals in the region, with the NDP eventually seeing a split in 1908, when most of those in the NDP in the South split and formed the People’s Rights Party aimed at protecting Southern interests in the South as the anti-Union sentiment started to grow. Because the NDP lost so many members, they decided to relocate from the South into the Northwest primarily due to the little influx of socialist/separatist ideas present in the state, eventually also giving rise to the KKK’s migration to the region as the NDP gained popularity. 
That same year The Jungle was released and it became a widely politicized subject among the American population which thereafter lead to public outrage against the meat industry in the country. Parker initially disregarded Sinclair due to his socialist background, but general pressure lead to the creation of the Meat Inspection Act, but even as public outrage grew, it quickly turned into a political issue, with many of those who pressured the White House supporting or at least sympathizing with the growing American Left, which was off-putting to the president.
In 1907 in mid-October, a scare in Wall Street resulted in a financial crisis that culminated in a market crash and economic recession in the city, eventually spreading across to envelop the whole of the United States. The actions by J.P Morgan and Parker during this time only served to bolster resentment for the Democratic and Republican parties, as this issue would not be resolved until the 1910s which sent the United States spiraling into economic depression and ruin.
During the 1908 general election, the 8 years of mismanagement and political instability caused by the Spanish-American War resulted in an ever polarizing election. The NDP lost the few voters it had in the 1904 election while the PRP overtook what they gained, and then some, swaying thousands of voters in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. The SPA for its part gained a significant following in New England and the Midwest, while for the first time the SPA gained votes in the House of Representatives. In the end, William Howard Taft was able to win by popular vote, though in the end, he would not be remembered fondly.
=== Presidency of William Howard Taft ===
For the first time since since the 1890s, Taft became popular through his anti-trust actions and reforms, but when talks with the Black Liberation Front over enfranchisement of Black Americans went nowhere, the BLF began to slowly mobilize and form into a separatist organization, feeling that it was no longer possible to achieve freedom in the USA under diplomacy and reform, though militancy and guerrilla activities would not be reached until several years later. In the years of Taft, his inability to work with the stubborn People’s Rights Party only strengthened their support, as many in the North were upset over the PRP’s recent rise in popularity, with some dubbing it as the “political attempt to reform the Confederacy”, and while Taft originally hoped to ease tensions through diplomatic talks, he only made things worse. 
The midterm elections in 1910 were a turning point in US history, spearheading the rise of the SPA, NDP and PRP in various states. For the first time, New York, Illinois and Massachusetts gained SPA-aligned governors, the NDP-aligned politicians ran and won as governors in Montana, Washington and North Dakota while governors aligned with the PRP won Louisiana, Florida and Alabama.
In 1911 in the midst of another economic crash scare and constant provocation by Cuban separatists, he eventually made the decision to leave the country, drawing condemnation from many people across America who viewed the departure as unnecessarily violent and messy. In 1912 he passed the Pure Food and Drug Act as to expand on the Meat Inspection Act, and while many praised Taft for this, others saw it as hollow as the 1912 Lawerence Textile Strike garnered national attention, particularly as children entered the strike as it spread through New England. Police brutality against the strikers rallied many to their cause leading to nationwide protests against wage slavery and child labor, and as public pressure would have it, alongside endorsement from the IWW, most of the strikers needs were met and agreed to accordingly, which was an important event in US labor history, showing thousands of people that strikes can be effective.
== 1912-1920 ==
=== Presidency of Woodrow Wilson ===
In the 1912 general election, unsurprisingly, Woodrow Wilson became the next president of the USA. The assassination of Theodore Roosevelt in October was essentially the final straw for any large scale opposition to Wilson and it meant the death of Progressivism in the USA, and in reality the only man to oppose Wilson was the growing Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party of America, where, due to the numerous events that preceded the election, managed to win him 5 electoral victories and over 20% of the popular vote, while the PRP and NDP ran, they expectedly lost, but all 3 political parties gained more influence in their states while also kicking out the Republican and democratic parties.
As the Great War began, a financial crisis ensues on Wall Street but it was later alleviated with the creation of the Federal Reserve, while in the same year Wilson, due to a drastic deterioration and false flag identification of provocation along the US-Mexican border, launched an invasion into Mexico, something which surprised the whole nation. Troop morale during this time was low and some felt a war against Mexico was unjustified, but Wilson continued onward. By 1916 as the war progressed most of Northern Mexico under the Huerta regime (including Baja California) were under American occupation, and while Wilson wanted to leave it at that, border skirmishes with the Villistas and Carrancistas forced all sides into the war. 
The Great War overshadowed the Second Mexican-American War, though by 1919 with American aid, the Huerta regime crushed most resistance in the north or was occupied by Americans, and for another year Huerta fought the Zapatistas near Mexico City. The war arguably could have been worse for the president, who also won re-election in 1916, this time by a less popular vote, as the SPA won 18%, the NDP won 7% while the PRP won 10%, Wilson’s occupation of Mexico was seen as a momentary victory. Several more non-mainstream governors won various new states, while more and more senators and representatives ran as “independents”.
That was, until the 20s, as the newly acquired states of Chihuaha, Baja and many other places became hotbeds for Mexican guerrilla activity, and gradually support for Wilson’s invasion withered away.
=== National Race Riots, coup and meltdown ===
In late Summer of 1919, White (Irish) and Black residents in the South Side of Chicago squared off in the bloodiest race conflict Illinois had ever seen, due to the excessive, prolonged amount of violence and fatalities. Before then, the atmosphere of the city was tense due to the economic competition and racism present in Chicago. Only lasting no more than two weeks, responses nationwide only enflamed the tense political situation seen all over the country.
As the news became more focused on the intense violence over the city, citizens associated with the Black Liberation Front within the Deep South planned to organized a general strike to gather attention nationwide over what they hoped to accomplish, mainly to repeal several, if not all Jim Crow Laws and to enforce the protection of Black citizens within the workplace. News of this general strike, months before it was planned to take in effect had a mixed reaction. Those associated with the IWW and Socialist Party endorsed the strike, while those who were a part of the NDP and the PRP denounced this activity. In September, a white mob in Montgomery lynched over 12 workers thought to be a part of the Front, outraging much of the United States. The BLF, taking years to arm themselves, began boycotting various institutions. Throughout the month, lynchings and murders became widespread while the IWW at the same time announced plans to hold a strike in the north with solidarity to the BLF, creating scenes of violence in various cities on the East Coast, as it became more difficult for the National Guard to hold down protestors and strikers. Political tensions only grew as in the Northwest, members of the NDP became sabotaging Federal buildings, VIPs, railroads and border crossings.
The National Guard was employed all throughout the country by February, 1920, as by this time low intensity conflicts were present in over a dozen cities, but as these conflicts were pushed back and eventually lessened in their magnitude, there was little concern for the 1920 election being a tipping point for a civil war.
In the mean time, police squared off against these forces, while in the general election Warren Harding was elected by the people in the last election of the United States. One of the reasons Harding won was due to his split from the Democratic Party, and to his success, he decided to run as an independent candidate, and his call for a “return to normalcy” rallied many to his cause, but as expected, the three other major parties were winning significant victories, with the SPA willing over 23%, the NDP winning 12% and the PRP winning 16%. By this point, several states had already forced out most democratic and Republican influence in Washington, New York, Louisiana, etc. But this election and its subsequent results were highly contested by all sides. The NDP for its part grew distant from Washington, at first aligning with them in the 1900s to slow socialist momentum, but they officially denounced the republicans and democrats in 1910. The election results stunned the nation, especially the NDP and SPA, who themselves thought that violence was imminent, and so both parties began planning against Washington and each other, claiming that staying under the wing of the United States was no longer feasible. The growth of socialist Germany also reinforced revolutionary ideals and militarized the SPA, and to a smaller extent the Black Liberation Front starting in 1919.
At the same time, the closure of the Suez Canal during the Cairo War catapulted the USA into yet another economic depression, rallying many against the Republicans and Democrats.
By Harding’s inauguration in March of 1920, the United States was experiencing a political meltdown. The National Guard was reporting that conflicts across multiple states, rather than being pushed back like before, were getting stronger than ever. Harding promised to keep America together, but he was secretly terrified of America collapsing, which seemed imminent at this point. 
On the 16th, Harding issued an executive order, which banned the SPA, the IWW, NDP and the PRP. Leaders of these organizations and parties were arrested, and in rare cases, killed. Harding had hoped that this move would decapitate these movements, but it had the complete opposite effect. The arrest of said leaders, such as Eugene V. Debs became a rallying cry and excuse for these parties to completely cut off ties with the American government. Citizens regularly protected those who were to be arrested, and fights on the streets turned bloody in over a dozen states. The order only inflamed the growing situation, and as rumors floated around that governors were in talks about ceding from Washington, news broke out that, on the 4th of April, a slew of military officers, the national guard, and the Maryland Garrison took control of Washington, putting Harding on temporary house arrest, and declaring that a civilian American government was no longer feasible under current conditions. Instead, a military junta took control of the country, under a council of officers, generals and commanders who took a militaristic approach to keeping the USA together. However, this coup, as a last ditch effort to save the United States, caused its downfall. 
The support of the military in New England, the Northwest and the South waned as did support from the National Guard. Hearing the news of this coup, on the 23rd that same month, the governor of New York had ceded from the United States and declared a republic. With the help of left-wing paramilitary organizations, order was quickly restored in several cities, but revolutionary fervor took the lives of thousands. The Second American Civil War had begun.
Category:North American Topics
Category:American Topics