Civil War: Triumph And Tragedy

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Triumph and Tragedy Throughout its existence, the United States has always managed to overcome the hardships of tragedy through recovery and reform. Over the past 250 years, America has struggled through woes of both combative and economic natures. The American Revolution and the Civil War both impacted the country’s politics and governing greatly, while the Panic of 1873 and the Great Depression caused a reform in banking and economic processes. Since the birth of our nation, there have been numerous conflicts with foreign powers. The first began even before our independence, and was also the cause of it. After years of poor, unequal treatment by their British government, the people of the American colonies decided it was time for a change.…show more content…
America has also severely struggled economically. The first major monetary crisis came in the form of the Panic of 1873. After the Civil War, there was an economic boom the likes of which the American people had never seen. The construction of the Transcontinental Railroad was under way, and the glorious “Gilded Age” had begun. Many eager businessmen with a few extra dollars invested in the railroad and real estate businesses, and soon this gave way to massive over speculation. Over the next few years, 89 of the country’s 364 railroads went bankrupt, over 15,000 businesses failed, and unemployment skyrocketed to 14%. Eventually, the economy managed to get itself back on its feet, and by the 1880s the country was back to normal. The government passed a number of reformative protective tariffs which were meant to ensure that nothing like the panic would ever happen again. Unfortunately, it did. On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed, and the United States once again found itself in economic turmoil. Prior to this, many people had begun purchasing stock on margin, or in other words, on credit. When the market crashed, the stock brokers called the loans they gave out back so that their companies may survive, except the loans couldn’t be paid back by the debtors. Many of the nation’s banks soon went under because they too had paid into the stock market and had lost much of their money. Very successful businessmen were now…show more content…
The Panic of 1873, Great Depression, Revolution, and Civil War are examples of some of these situations where the government had to put in place reforms to better the nation. These reforms have had lasting effects on the American people, keeping them safe from economic struggle, and providing for them the freedoms that the forefathers intended for them to
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