Once upon a time in America government was greater than Big Business. Uncle Sam looked at “Ma Bell” and said, “You are too big and powerful”, and broke her up into tiny pieces. They had done this before with great success. America believed in capitalism but not in monopolies. America had a tendency to fight for the little guy and many advances were made toward helping the little guy keep from being run over by corporations and the so-called “robber barons” of big business.
Roosevelt felt some trusts were integral to the economy, and actually worked to preserve them. The way Roosevelt saw it, trusts that increased the prices of their products purely to increase profit margins weren’t helpful in any way, however trusts that kept reasonable prices and benefitted the economy could be considered positive. Hoping to disband bad trusts
Explain why there was protest against the political system in the period 1815-1822. Many people felt that the Government existed soely to appease the wealthily ruling class and nobody else. They therefore felt that it was time for a change; the administration should work to improve the lives of the vunerable in society rather than protect the interests of a small few. This was spurred on by the conditions that the working class had to endure while working in the new industries created by the industrial revolution. So, faced with the policies of Lord Liverpool’s Government, many people felt they were being treated unjustly.
Many factors influenced the American rebellion that we all known as the American Revolution. Though political influences existed, the American Revolution was primarily an economic rebellion, because of conflict over taxation and representation in Parliament. The colonists had strong beliefs that the British did not seem to care about. The English government was unfair and often tyrannical also. The conflicts over trade, taxes, and government representation brought about the revolution that began shaping the United States as it is today.
These policies were an early attempt to end child labor, reform the banking system, and protect business’ interests. However, these positive attempts were overshadowed by continued corruption as seen through the power hungry politicians. This was the time when the development of railroads began. It was a vital requirement for the whole industrialization process to be complete. This is one of the reasons why the railroads were really important.
The United States could not safely increase their military and defense spending without the nation’s public getting upset. This is where the Cold War fits in because it could have been largely avoided but the American government jumped headlong into it in order to accomplish their goals at hand. With communism such a large threat, the American government would have the perfect opportunity to increase spending while getting the public’s full support in the matter. Secondly, the United States wanted the Asian, European, and Middle Eastern economies for American business to prosper in the future. America was becoming a large export nation and needed economies where they could sell their products.
Gilded Age politics were dominated by corruption, as politicians took bribes and rewarded their supporters with government jobs. Government was naive about business and allowed cutthroat business practices to continue. America was founded on a philosophy of hands off of business, known as “laissez-faire”, but even when it became clear that regulation was necessary, the government was too corrupt to do much. In the Progressive Era, government began to increase regulations of big businesses. One example of increased government regulation in the Progressive Era includes regulation of working hours.
The League had some successes in the 1920s, but some historians have argued that it was doomed to failure from the start. The League had so many weaknesses which lead to its failure as an international peacekeeping organisation. One of the main causes that made it difficult for the League to be fully effective is the membership, not all countries were part of the League. First of all the USA didn’t join the League because they wanted to stay out of European politics and just opt with isolationism. The USA was the most powerful and richest country in the world.
The conflict between Britain and its American colonies was greatly affected by the French and Indian War. During the war, the British did not want the New England or Middle colonies to export any supplies to anyone but them or the West Indies. The British felt this way because the American shippers liked this way of trade because they were able to get things the West Indies and Britain could not offer them, and Britain did not want to lose money that the American colonies brought in for them. Thus said, economics was a major origin of the Revolutionary War. There were many economic reasons why there was turmoil before the Revolutionary War, which ultimately helped lead to the war.
They were also influenced by the fear of Europe flooding American markets with cheap goods after the war. Presidents Harding and Coolidge, granted with authority to reduce or increase duties, were always sympathetic towards the big industries, thus much more prone to increasing tariffs than decreasing them. Congress soon passed the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Law, which raised the tariff from 27% to 38.5%. However, this presented a problem for Europe since they needed to sell goods to the U.S. in order to get the money to pay back is debts, and when it could not sell, it could not repay. Later on President Hoover passed the Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 which raised duty on non-free goods to nearly 60%.