To address these concerns Wilson pushed for passage of the Federal Reserve Act, which created the Federal Reserve System in 1913. Federal Reserve Act: Many economists and reformers grew apprehensive that the viability of the nation’s financial system was in the hands of a private banker.Roosevelt made a point of using the act to pursue “bad trusts”-ones that interfered with commerce-not necessarily the biggest trusts. Although the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) was passed to limit monopolistic practices, the act was not enforced with a great deal of enthusiasm. “Bad trusts:” President Roosevelt saw the concentration of economic power in a few hands as potentially dangerous to the economy as a whole.By the early twentieth century, many Americans came to believe that unregulated industry could be harmful to individuals, communities, and even to the health of industrial capitalism itself. Laissez-faire economics: Industrialists and their allies championed laissez-faire economics-the idea that the government should stay out of economic activities.The push for women’s suffrage dates back to at least the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention. Nineteenth Amendment: Perhaps the most important reform to come out of the Progressive era was the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution (1920), which gave women the right to vote.Not only were middle-class college graduates the primary activists in the movement, but the tone and tenor of the movement was decidedly middle class. The Progressive Movement: The Progressive movement was essentially a middle-class response to the excesses of rapid industrialization, political corruption, and unplanned urbanization.The revolution soon degenerated into a civil war that left nearly a million Mexicans dead. The revolution began with the ousting of an autocratic leader in 1910. Mexican Revolution: President Woodrow Wilson became enmeshed in the twists and turns of the Mexican Revolution, which lasted through the 1910s.The building of a canal through Panama, therefore, became a major goal for Roosevelt. ![]() Merchant ships and naval vessels had to travel around the southern tip of South America to reach the Pacific Ocean. The Panama Canal: With the acquisition of overseas Pacific territories and with increased interest in trade with China, American policymakers wanted a shortcut to Asia.The United States participated in a multinational force to rescue Westerners held hostage by the Boxers (1900). ![]()
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