The 20th century was a defining time in world history as well as American history. The world war is evolving with the success of the industrial revolution and the mechanized world changing the way things worked every day. There were, however, certain defining moments in American history between the 1920s and 1990s which altered the country’s social, political and security conditions from time to time. However, they have contributed to the progress and later conditions of the country. These include the great 1929’s and the Great Depression, the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and the 1964 legislation passed in the U.S Congress on civil rights. In my opinion, these events mark the most defining moments in American history in this time frame, because apart from the other social, cultural, political and military events happening in the country, these happened to be events which affected the country and its citizens on many levels, and the impacts of these events were farfetched and important.
The Great Depression that began in 1929 was a time of great economic stress worldwide as well as for the American society.Although the entire world was affected by it, the Great Depression lasted the longest in the United States and in Europe. In the October of 1929 on a day named as ‘Black Thursday,’ the Great Depression started as a stock market crash in the United States, where 12.9 million shares of stocks sold out in one day (History). This amount was about triple the amount that was usually sold. In the coming days, prices fell greatly by about 23%. The industrial production and manufacture went down by 47% and the GDP also fell by 30%. Worst of all unemployment struck at such a high rate that about 20% of the people went out of jobs (History). Wall Street went into a panic, and millions of investors fled the market. By 1933, millions of Americans went out of jobs, and over half of the country’s banks failed to operate. With the crash of the stock market, consumer purchase strength failed, and the number of unsold goods increased (History). As production slowed down, the companies and factories began to reduce their production and started firing their workers. Those who remained employed were still paid meager salaries and were unable to purchase largely. Americans buying on credit fell into debt and the large adherence to gold as a fixed currency exchange commodity affected not only America but also spread to Europe and other areas.
At the time of the Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover, and other leaders assured that the crisis would be averted sooner or later, but matters only got worse. By 1931, 6 million Americans were jobless. The homeless grew more in number, and soup kitchens opened up to support the poorer population. Drought caused a dust bowl and crop harvest fell (History). The government tried to support banks so they could finance businesses, thus creating employment. It was a hard road to recovery, with the accession of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who promised to create Federal Programs ending the Great Depression (History). In 1932, the New Deal was signed into the law, which created new jobs, made unionization possible and also provided insurance to the unemployed. Some believe that WWII might also be a factor for the end of the Great Depression, due to the production of weapons and arms in American factories (History). However, the Great Depression was useful in helping to create economic reforms that helped the country cope with such crisis in the future.
Speaking of World War II, another major historical event in American history is the attack on Pearl Harbor. On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacked the American naval base called Pearl Harbor, near Honolulu, Hawaii. Although the attack did not last over two hours, but the damage it caused was immense to the American forces. The Japanese forces destroyed about 20 American naval vessels, with 8 battleships and over 300 airplanes (History). About 200 soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and over 1000 were seriously wounded. (History). After the attack, President Roosevelt proposed the Congress that American should declare war on Japan. This declaration was approved and about three days later, the allied of the Japanese forces, Germany and Italy also declared war on America. It was after two years into the World War that American finally became a part of it.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was unexpected and uncalled for but truth is America and Japan were closing in for a fight for about decades. The reason stands the aggression and belligerence that Japan was showing for China. Japan had sought its economic and geographical interests with its neighbor and to take over its import market (History). In 1937, Japan had declared war on China. The American response to this was trading sanctions and boycotts. They had thought that with the economic stress and lack of resources, Japan would have to back down with its expansionism. However, the sanctions only increased Japanese animosity against the Americans and months of negotiations and reconciliations, neither Japan nor America surrendered or backed down. However, an attack was the most unpredictable thing for the Americans. Pearl Harbor was 4000 miles apart from Japan and America had predicted an attack could only occur on the East European end (History). This made them leave the Pearl Harbor forces undefended which made it an easy and hard to resist spot for attack by Japan.
The third most important incident was the 1964 legislation passed in the U.S Congress on civil rights. Apart from the world issues, like economy and security, America had societal issues as well. One of them was discrimination against the African American race and their unequal treatment in the society. After almost a century passing with the abolition of slavery, the black race was not being given their due rights, and they were treated as an inferior race in public and private affairs, education, right to vote and education and they had little social status, thus facing a lot of social discrimination (History). Proposed by John F. Kennedy and then passing on to his successor Lyndon B. Johnson, it became law that segregation would end in all spheres of life such as employment, education, and race, nationality, sex and religion would not be considered in any fields of life. The resultant of the legislation came in the form of the voting rights granted to the African American race in 1965, as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (History). In 1957, the U.S Congress formed a Civil Rights section in the Justice Department. A Commission on Civil Rights was also formed to discover all acts of discrimination taking place in the country (History) There were huge amounts of protests from the South where the non-violent protestors were beaten by the police and dogs were let after them; the horrible discriminatory conditions led Kennedy to act and in 1963, he laid down the most comprehensive civil rights legislation, believing that all the citizens needed to be free if the United States had to be free in spirit and soul. Many provisions were granted to the African Americans such as giving them freedom to be in public places; theaters, sports stadiums, hotels, parks, etc. They could not be denied any service based on the color of their skin. Also, school desegregation was enacted by the Office of Education (History).
Therefore, these three events are marked as important events because they affected the economic, security and social conditions of America and they helped the country evolve and succeed with the passing of time. The Great Depression helped the country realized it needed better economic reforms, the attack on Pearl Harbor made America a part of WWII and the Civil Rights legislation helped to improve social conditions and create a unified and non-biased living environment for its citizens.
Works Cited
History. Civil Rights Act. 2016. Web. 2 May 2016.
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act
History. Pearl Harbor. 2016. Web. 2 May 2016.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor
History. The Great Depression. 2016. Web. 2 May 2016.
http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression
