Introduction to the Progressive Years and World War I
America Becomes A World Power: The United States 1896-1920
Copyright © 2010, Henry J. Sage

This section of our study brings the United States into the 20th century. The changes in the country—and in the world—since 1800 were by far the most dramatic of any century since ancient times.  Communication devices such as the telegraph and telephone; transportation means such as railroads, streetcars and automobiles; ready made clothes and canned foods; electric lighting; indoor plumbing; and myriad other technological wonders were all but unimaginable to Americans in 1800. The population of the United States increased from approximately 5 million to over 75 million people, and the ethnic makeup of the country had shifted, beginning with the great flood of Irish immigrants and continuing after the Civil War, when more and more immigrants from eastern and southeastern Europe arrived on our shores.

Many people around the turn of the century felt that progress was about to level off; indeed, the Director of the United States patent office in that era declared that within a decade or so his office would close, since everything conceivable had already been invented.  Even as the Wright brothers were planning their first heavier-than-air flying machine, scientists were beginning to investigate the powers of radiation and the mysteries of the atom.  Not only would the rate of change not level off; it would continue to accelerate through the 20th century.

In this section of our study of American history we will focus on two distinct components: the Progressive Era, the great age of reform, and the entry of the United States into the status of world power.

For most of the 19th century the United States had remained more or less aloof from and indifferent to matters in the rest of the world.  From the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Western world enjoyed a period sometimes called the “hundred years peace.” It was not all peace, of course, but compared with the 18th and 20th centuries, there was relatively little strife on the world stage. With the Spanish-American War, America gained an empire, a development many Americans regretted.

The great economic gains of the 19th century, while creating a new and prosperoud middle class, left many Americans in deplorable conditions, as we saw during our study of the Gilded Age. By 1900 many could sense a smoldering sense of rebellion that went beyond the protests of the Populist movement. Things were going to change, one way or another, and the Porgressive Movement aided in making those changes more constructive than destructive, although the so-called war between capital and labor did not disappear altogether.

Where the focus of our previous section tended to be on the poor, the downtrodden, and the exploited, this period will see us focused on the changing role of government, both domestically and internationally.  From being an almost passive observer of the development of the nation, the government will become an active player in facilitating change, generally for the better. 

Similarly, in the international world we will see the United States transformed from a sideline observer to a major participant in the great events of the 20th century. Whether the latter development was for good or ill is still being debated.

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