Question 1: Gilded age

During the Gilded age, politics were not as strong as they are supposed to be. With the rise of empirical and monopolistic companies and corporations, the wealthy gained more wealth and used it to their advantage.  In this era, industrialization saw the unusual growth of small factories, railroads, stores, banks, mines and other enterprises. Immigration was promoted by railroad and steamship companies with the promise of jobs. With the immigration, ethnic diversity increased.

With the scandals in the Reconstruction era, the sense of civil virtual in America was shocked. In addition, the state governments were very corrupt and massive frauds in big cities controlled by politicians were experienced. There were cases of political payoffs to secure government contracts as well as the government sleaze during the administration of Ulysses S. Grant. Government economic intervention was filled with bribery, favoritism, corruption and inefficiency.  The democrats called for a free market, low taxes, and low tariffs and less government t spending but the democrats continued to dispute this call.

The elections were closely contested by the two parties.  The use of accusations and insults became popular in campaigns and the republicans employed the “waving the bloody shirt” tactic. The north and the south became the strong holds of the republicans and democrats respectively.  In this period, there was a lot of equilibrium delicacy between the political parties towards their supporters. The issue was aggravated by the social issues and various idealistic on political agendas and moral issues. The wealthy politicians and business people could not take risk and thus stayed away from the congress.  In the end, the American people ended up voting for the wrong people such as Grant who had little political knowledge.

Question 2: Wilson’s New Freedom

The “New Freedom” was a collection of progressive policies including reform of the inept national banking system, reduction of the tariff on imported goods and strengthening of the Sherman Act to combat trusts. Wilson had been given an opportunity which no democrat had received for fifty years to make a change. A majority of the people in the Electoral College voted for him so that he could reform the government. In my view his progressive legislative achievements in his first term were consistent with his “New Freedom” campaign.

First, he set up a strong democratic cabinet in place to help him with the new Freedom pledges. He started by tackling the tariff problem. The republican tariff had placed a 40 percent tax on many imported and foreign goods. This had specifically been designed to protect the domestic manufacturers and laborers from foreign competition. However, the high tariff increased the prices of goods to high levels. Wilson produced the Underwood Act which reduced the tariffs to 25 percent. In addition, the act eliminated tax on essential goods such as sugar, clothing, wool and steel.

Wilson then turned to the banking system which was very inefficient. Since its creation, it had experienced failures and collapses. The central bank had little power over the nation’s money. After much debate in the senate and congress, the Federal Reserve Act was passed creating the Federal Reserve Bank which controls the nation’s reserves.  Wilson went ahead to fight against the monopolistic nature of the different trusts aimed at eliminating competition. This move was challenged by the business community and though Wilson managed to strengthen the Sherman Act which was against the trusts, he did not achieve much in this area.

Question 3: Europe and Pacific wars

The European and Pacific wars in the World War 2 had both similarities and differences. A major similarity is that in both wars, America was fighting imperialistic nations. In the European war, America was fighting Germany as well as the Soviet Union. Similarly, in the pacific war, America was fighting Japan. In addition, both wars set back the economies of both Europe and the Pacific. The wars were very costly thus consuming a lot of resources. Both the wars also happened at the same time thought the pacific war lasted a little longer. In addition, both Germany and Japan belonged to the Axis powers.

The wars were also different in many ways. The European war was against the socialism. The axis powers were spreading socialism in Europe. The Pacific war was however a war between countries to protect land. The U.S and Australia were fighting Japans settlements. The pacific war was mainly fought over the sea with the use of suicide pilots. The Europe war was however fought mainly on land. The pacific war was however more brutal in that the Japanese took the Americans hostage only to treat them badly. At the end when the Americans could not handle the Japanese troops, the used atomic bombs to attack two areas in Japan killing thousands of civilians.

The war in Europe did not involve civilians. It was a war between troops and the end was not as brutal as the pacific war. In addition fighters in both wars experienced different weathers. Fighters in the Europe war experienced summer in Sahara desert and winter outside Moscow. Fighters in the Pacific war however experienced humidity and tropical heat as well as health problems.

Question 4: 1920s and 1980s

The 1980s and 1920s were both periods of political conservatism. There was the red scare in the 1920s. It was used by leaders in the business community to restrain the formation and development of unions. The wealth gained more wealth in this period. In the 1980s, the cold war was renewed. There was a general distrust in the Soviet Union leading to the buildup of arms. However, by the end of 1980s, the Berlin war was down and communism was weakened. In the 1920, isolationism prevailed in the U.S though in the 1980s, America was involved in the development of other countries in the world.

Both the 1920s and 1980s precede economic hard times. In the late 1920s, the great depression kicked in. this saw the clash of the stock market and most of the people lost their investments. In addition, depositors in banks lost their money which had been loaned to investors who in turn lost the money with the clash of the stock market.  Banks clashed leading to loss of money. Factories and firms continued to produce at the same rate but the demand was very low leading to loss of jobs. The economic boom of the 1980s continued to the twenty first century. However, in 2008, the recession set in. it was characterized by the collapse of the financial market. Banks failed while others were taken over. Many investors lost their money just like in the depression period.

In both periods, there were tax cuts to stimulate the economy. Specifically, the tax burden in the 1920s was shifted to the middle class. In the 1980s however, there is a debate unto whether the tax cuts increased federal deficit or stimulated production.

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