British American Civilisation Essay

British american civilisation essay.

After the Civil War, Americans settled the western half of the United States. Miners searching for gold and silver went to the Rocky Mountains. Many German and Scandinavian immigrants settled in Minnesota and Dakotas. On the plains of Texas, hired horsemen managed enormous herds of cattle. These men were called cowboys. Most of them were former Southern soldiers or former slaves. Cowboys became the most celebrated and romanticized figures in American culture.

The late 19th century was a difficult period for American farmers because of falling food prices, high railroad shipping rates, and expensive mortgages. Then one of national organizations, the Populist Party, demanded for nationalization of the roads, a progressive income tax and monetary reform. In 1896, the Democratic presidential candidate, William Bryan, denounced the trusts, the banks and the railroads, and in this way won the votes of the agricultural states of the South and the West.

In 1898, when the battleship Maine sank in Havana harbor, Spain declared war on the United States. Then American troops landed in Cuba, and the United States Navy destroyed two Spanish fleets. The United States acquired Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, and annexed the Hawaiian Islands. After the Spanish-American War, Americans justified their actions on the grounds that they were preparing underdeveloped nations for democracy.

Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat elected president in 1912, created a “New Freedom” program. According to this program, Wilson enacted a personal income tax, toughened antitrust laws and created the Federal Trade Commission. The 1913 Federal Reserve Act created a government-controlled system of 12 regional reserve banks, which strengthened public regulation of the nation’s credit. Wilson also passed laws restricting child labor and setting a maximum eight-hour working day for railroad workers.