Spanish-American War

During the War, America will be able to spread American beliefs and culture to different countries and the Philipenes. The United States influence in the Philipenes will offer commercial gain for our goods. If we help the Philipenes, the United States will lose money and will power, but in the end will gain a lot of strength in America. Another belief was taht we should help the Phillipenes because it will promote U.S. economic interests over seas. But the United States should be careful with who they chose to do business with. This idea would strengthen America only economically which would help gain money. America would lose many resources and military. If the U.S. does not help the Philipenes, it is because they do not believe America should oppose our will on a foreign country. They would want to stay clear from doing business with other countries too. The United States has unique values and if we tried to spread them to other countries, they would not take them in well. This idea would not benefit America in any way and it would not contradict our own values.

The West

During the populist era, the west side of the country had many possiblities as well as problems. During that time, people were starting to make the transcontinental railroads that would go across the whole United States for the first time. This would help with trade across the country as well as becoming connected between the east and west side. Also, moved to the west to find gold in the gold mines in California. Many people moved their family and their life to mine for gold. As more of the west was discovered, it opened new opportunities for people who wanted farmland. The government was giving some of it away to people who needed it to start a farm to support their family. In the west there were also some problems such as buffalo hunters. The Native Americans' home was in the west and the buffalo was an important symbol in their culture. The buffalo hunters were impulsivly hunting them, almost driving them to instinction. Also, while the railroads were a success in the end, it was very risky to make them and thousands of people risked their lives to make these railroads.

Progressive and Populist Era

I think the areas that were most influenced by the Progressive Movement were  the local and federal governments. In the federal government, many people wanted to choose who became the senator, instead of letting the leglislative branch vote. Also, there were some leaders that people did not necessarily like and wanted to get rid of them. As a result of all of these complaints, the government made a recall, initiative, and a referendum to meet all of the peoples' needs. In the local government, the people were not able to vote for local officials and they wanted to change that. This is why the local government came up with a manager and a commission which allowed the people to vote for public officials. I think that during the populism era, there were a lot of problems that were not solved right away. For example, there was 8 hour work days and income taxes which were not being prevented until the progressive era. In that era, people were fed up with all of the problems and were starting to have srikes and unions to show that they felt strongly regarding a certain subject. The progressive movement aimed to protect the social welfare, promote moral improvement, create a better economy and political system. During the populist era, many problems started and the progressive era helped clean them up.