The Progressive Era, WWI, the Great Depression, Dust Bowl, & WWII

In this unit you will learn about the political/social changes brought about by the Progressive Era, Texas' role in WWI, the impact of the Great Depression & Dust Bowl in Texas, and how Texas contributed to WWII.

How might it feel to live through a conflict that disrupts your way of life?

The Progressive Era

Attempts by people to solve social or political problems became known as the Progressive Movement.

The Galveston hurricane provided progressives the opportunity to set up a new city government.

Progressives pushed for the “Terrell Election Law” to make sure elections were carried out fairly.

Women’s Suffrage & Prohibition were the two main issues that the Progressives felt the need to solve.

Women's Suffrage

- Election reforms in Texas still did not grant women the right to vote, something that women had been struggling to gain for many years.

- Those against it said that men would protect women’s rights, and that women who voted would neglect their homes and children.

- Those for it argued that women would vote for better schools, safer parks, and improved public health.

- In 1918, Texas women won the right to vote by making a deal with the new governor, William P. Hobby. Women promised that if he would give them the right to vote, they would support him in the next election. It worked, and Hobby won the next election in a landslide.

Nationwide, full voting rights were granted to women by the 19^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.

This is a clip from the movie “Iron Jawed Angels”, a film about women fighting for Suffrage in the 1900’s.

This Suffragette is trying to explain exactly why women want to right to vote, that they want to be considered a part of American society. Women wanted suffrage not just for the sake of voting, but to be able to have a say in what happens to them in life. Women wanted the same right to vote that was given to every male American citizen, a right should have been guaranteed to them by the 15th Amendment.

Prohibition

The biggest issue in Texas during this time period was the battle over alcohol – a target of the Progressives because alcohol seemed to be at the center of so many social problems [gambling, selling stolen goods, planning crimes, etc].

These Progressives wanted to prohibit [stop] the making, buying, selling, and drinking of alcohol in a movement known as “Prohibition”.

In 1919, the progressives won, and Prohibition was written into the U.S. Constitution with the 18^th Amendment. It became illegal in the U.S. to make, buy, sell, or drink alcohol [though there were plenty of people willing to break every part of that law, in Texas and all over the country].

The 18^th Amendment became an unpopular law that was eventually repealed [removed] in 1933.

World War I

Texas and World War I

Trouble overseas would eventually reach Texas.
In August 1914, World War I broke out in Europe. Great Britain, France, and Russia made up the Allied Powers.
They fought against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and its allies.
At first, the U.S. remained neutral, or did not take sides.

The Players

The Allies were made up of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Serbia, Belgium and several other smaller countries.
The Central Powers were an alliance formed between Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.

Technology of WWI

World War I saw the development of many new types of technology.
Germany became the first country to use “undersea boats,” or U-boats, to block trade and control the seas.
The British invented tanks, a new machine that devastated infantry soldiers.
Both the Allies and the Central Powers used airplanes in combat for the first time.
Several training bases for aviators were located in Texas, making the state the nation’s leader in flight training.

Texas Before WWI

During this time the U.S. and Mexico were again fighting over Texas.

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sent troops into Mexico to capture Pancho Villa [a revolutionary leader] who had attacked and killed many Texans.

At this time Mexico wasn’t exactly feeling very friendly with the United States...

The Lusitania

The Lusitania was a British passenger ship that was owned by the Cunard Line and was first launched in 1906. Built for the transatlantic passenger trade, it was luxurious and noted for its speed.
The Lusitania was a British cruise ship but 128 Americans died when it was sunk by a German submarine.

Germany’s sinking of the commercial cruise liner the Lusitania angered Americans.

Germany & Texas

In 1917 The German Foreign Secretary sent a telegram, called The Zimmerman Letter, to Mexico.

In the Zimmerman Letter Germany offered to help Mexico attack the U.S. and take back Texas.

However, this letter was intercepted by the United States and this move by Germany angered Americans and Texans alike.

America Joins the Fight

In April 1917 The U.S. joined World War I.
For many years the U.S. had stayed out of this war between the Allies and the Central Powers, but the Zimmerman Letter combined with the sinking of the Lusitania finally convinced the United States join the Allies in the war.

Texans In WWI

Texans turned out in great numbers to answer the call to duty.
On Registration Day, June 5, 1917, more than 300,000 Texans registered for the military draft, which meant that they might be called to join the military.
Within a few months, that number soared to over 985,000.
In all, nearly 198,000 Texans served in the armed forces—including about 450 female nurses.
By 1918 over 5,000 Texans had lost their lives in the war.

Texans & Training Grounds

Many Texans who signed up to fight had gained valuable skills during the recent conflict along the Texas-Mexico border.
These Texans had learned how to command, supply, and move large military units.
Thousands of less-experienced recruits found themselves heading to Texas for military training.
The state’s mild climate made it an ideal training site for the newly formed U.S. Army Air Corps.
The largest aviation training center in the nation was established at Kelly Field in San Antonio.
Other military training camps were established elsewhere in San Antonio as well as in Waco, Houston, and Fort Worth.

The Home Front

About 200,000 Texans fought in the war. More than 5,000 of them died. People across the state bought bonds or gave money to the Red Cross.

Women worked while men were away from home fighting. All people had to deal with shortages of supplies.

Many Texans planted their own "Victory Gardens" (a home vegetable garden) to increase food production during the war.

The End of WWI

World War One ended at 11am on November 11, 1918. This became known as Armistice Day - the day Germany signed an armistice (an agreement for peace) which caused the fighting to stop.

The leaders of the USA, Great Britain and France met in Versailles to decide what should happen next. They forced Germany to sign the Treaty of Versailles. In this treaty, Germany had to:
- Accept Total Blame for the War
- Lose territories (Land)
- Could not join the new League Of Nations (World Organization created to uphold PEACE).
- Pay back 132 BILLION in war damages. (Because Losers In War Have To Pay...)

The German people were angry that they had to accept total blame for the war...leading to resentment of the other nations who forced them to accept the Treaty Of Versailles.

This anger would directly pave the road to World War II.

The Roaring 20's & the Great Depression

Changing Culture

WWI officially ended in 1918 with the Allies (including the U.S.) victory.

Following the war, in the 1920s, Texas continued to grow quickly. Industry boomed, and immigrants continued to come to Texas from distant lands.

The African American and Mexican American populations grew. Rapid growth of cities led to greater need for roads, utilities, and other services.

The 1920s saw social changes. Women had more job opportunities than before. People had more leisure time for entertainment.

The Roaring 20's

"The Great Gatsby" is a movie set in America during the "Roaring Twenties" (1920's) and follows the lifestyle of new multi-millionaire Jay Gatsby. The world economy had a lot of new money flowing into it and people were spending money like never before. This clip shows just how luxurious and easygoing this era was for America.

Following the end of WWI, the 1920's were a time of fun, laughter, & dancing!

People were enjoying new luxury goods such as radios, movies, and automobiles!

With the invention of Credit people who could not previously afford luxury items could now buy whatever they wanted!

People and banks invested in the Stock Market! Businesses were booming!

New inventions revolutionized the world!

Parties were abound and women were able to exercise more freedom!

Life was AWESOMETACULAR!

UNTIL.....

Stock Market Crash

In late 1929, the stock market collapsed in an event known as “Black Tuesday”.

Stock prices were inflated higher than they should have been. Businesses were over producing and taking on too much debt.

Stock prices began to fall dramatically and eventually crashed on October 29, 1929.

Stockholders lost all of their money. They couldn't repay loans to banks.Banks went out of business. Billions of dollars were lost.

Millions of Americans lost all of the money they had stored in the banks. The American economy was completely devastated and the unemployment rate dramatically increased overnight.
This brought America and the world into an era known as the “Great Depression”.

The Great Depression

Texas in the Great Depression

At first, the Great Depression did not hit Texas hard. Few Texans had bought stocks, so the crash did not affect many people. Also, the state had little industry, so few factories closed.

By 1931, though, cotton and oil prices began to fall. Then a drought hit. Texans in large numbers began to suffer, too. Some, such as the famous outlaws Bonnie and Clyde, turned to crime.

Texas had several governors during the Great Depression. They tried different approaches to making the economy better. None of these steps worked, however, and there was little any leader could do to pull Texas out of the Great Depression.

The Dust Bowl

This sandstorm scene from the movie Interstellar is similar to what would happen to areas in the United States affected by the Dust Bowl. Including the Panhandle region of Texas.

Physical Causes

- Along with the Great Depression, Texas went through another crisis in the 1930s. The Great Plains suffered a severe lack of rain. The land became dry and hard. Temperatures were higher than normal as well. Farmers’ crops died.
- Then, powerful, hot winds blew across the plains. The winds caused erosion – the gradual wearing away of the soil. They picked up the soil and blew huge clouds of dust across Texas. Sometimes, the dust storms held so much dirt that they blocked the sun in daytime.

- The storms also did great damage to people and property.
- The area most hurt by these storms was called the Dust Bowl, which included Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas.
- Other states affected by the Dust Bowl included Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana.

Dust Bowl – Human Causes

Weather conditions had helped cause the Dust Bowl. People’s actions also played a part. A boom-and-bust cycle – a period of great profit followed by a sharp drop in prices – had led farmers to take part in some bad practices.

During World War I, the government encouraged farmers to grow more corn and wheat. Farmers plowed up grasses that once covered the plains. Then, prices fell after the war. This led farmers to plow even more land and plant more crops in hopes of making more money.

Also, ranchers had too many cattle on the land. The animals ate the grasses that held the dirt in place. Without grass, millions of acres of land were now exposed to erosion.

Physical Impact

The dust storms were very destructive. The dirt clogged cars and tractors, making them unable to work.

It destroyed homes, crops, and livestock. Babies and older people suffered poor health because of the heavy dust.

Social Impact

Many people lost their farms. They had taken loans from banks to buy and operate their farms. With no crops to sell, they could not repay the loans. The banks then took over the farms in a process called foreclosure. Thousands of farmers left Texas to find work in other states. Many went to California.

The federal government took steps to help the farmers. It paid them some money to plant trees and to form high ridges of land. These steps limited the damage caused by wind erosion. This help, however, came too late for many victims of the Dust Bowl.

The New Deal

Hoover and the Great Depression

Herbert Hoover was President of the U.S. when the Great Depression began in 1929. He tried to revive the economy. He offered loans to businesses and the farming industry. Hoover was less willing to give aid to individuals, though. He feared that people would stop looking for work. Hoover thought private charities should meet people’s needs.

Soon, though, charities ran out of money. Unemployment kept rising, and people began losing their homes. Camps full of homeless people living in makeshift shacks appeared everywhere. People called the camps Hoovervilles, and they blamed President Hoover for their misery.

A "Hooverville" set up outside of Seattle, Washington.

FDR and the New Deal

In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected U.S. President. He promised to take steps to end the Great Depression. When he took office, he launched many new programs aimed at helping people and fixing the economy. Taken together, these programs were called the New Deal.

Under Roosevelt, the federal government spent money on relief for hungry people. It also tried to create jobs. For example, one program called the CCC put people to work fighting erosion and building parks.
Roosevelt’s New Deal also provided help for Texas farmers. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration paid farmers to plant fewer acres of crops, hoping to raise prices by lowering supplies.

John Nance Garner

Texans in the government backed these plans. For example, John Nance Garner served as Vice President for eight years under Roosevelt. He helped ensure passage of the New Deal laws.

Sam Rayburn, also of Texas, worked in Congress to help pass the Rural Electrification Act. It improved life for many people in Texas and elsewhere.

Sam Rayburn

Criticisms

The economy did improve, but the Great Depression did not end. In 1936, Roosevelt won reelection as President. In his second term, though, the New Deal lost some support. Some critics said the program had not done enough.

Others thought the New Deal had gone too far. They feared that Roosevelt had become too powerful. They worried that the federal government had grown too large and would take away people’s freedom. So they opposed any expansion of the New Deal.

While Americans and Texans argued about the value of the New Deal and a way out of the Great Depression, a storm was brewing in Europe...

World War II

Road to World War II

The Great Depression hit countries all over the world. In some places, leaders took advantage of people’s fear and desperation to build great power.

In Germany, Italy, and Japan, dictators – rulers with complete power over a country – took control. They began to attack other countries. They wanted to build empires, with many countries under their rule. Fascism, a political system where the government has complete control over the country, was also increasing.

In 1939, Germany attacked Poland. This began World War II, which would last until 1945. In this war, the Axis Powers of Germany, Italy and Japan fought the Allied Powers of the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and their allies.

Dictators of the Early 20th Century - Axis Powers

Adolf Hitler - Germany

Benito Mussolini - Italy

Emperor Hirohito - Japan

The U.S. Enters the War

The U.S. didn’t enter the war at first. But Germany quickly gained control of most of Europe. The U.S. began to send aid to those trying to resist the Axis Powers. The nation began to get ready for possible military action.

Japan became concerned about possible U.S. involvement, or participation, in the war. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked a U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack destroyed many ships and killed 2,500 men. The next day, the United States declared war.

Texas & WWII

Texas played important roles in the war effort. More than 750,000 Texans served in the armed forces, including 12,000 Texas women. Over 23,000 Texans died in the war. Texas was home to army bases where over 1,200,000 soldiers trained during the war.

Texas had twice as many prisoner-of-war camps as any other American state. It also had internment camps. Here, many citizens of Japan, Germany, and Italy who had been living in America were confined during the war.

The U.S. considered these aliens threats to the nation’s safety. An alien is a foreign-born resident of a country who has not become a citizen of that country.

The five internment camps in Texas were at Fort Sam Houston, Fort Bliss, Kenedy, Seagoville, and Crystal City. MANY OF THE CAMPS RAN UNTIL 1948, THREE YEARS AFTER THE WAR ENDED.

A survivor of a maximum-security Japanese internment camp recalls his experience at Tule Lake in Northern California.

"Kenji" describes the experiences of Linkin Park member Shinoda's family during the Japanese American internment of World War II.

Texas Women In WWII

World War II newsreels documented one of most traditional roles that women played during wartime, nursing wounded soldiers in remote make-shift hospitals. Though women's participation in the military has grown significantly since then, many people do not realize the extent to which women actually were involved during that war.

Texas women served as nurses on the front line, built weapons and airplanes in factories back home, and some even joined the first ever female air force unit known as WASP [Women Airforce Service Pilots].

Unfortunately, many of their achievements were not officially recognized by the United States until 1977 when female soldiers during WWII were FINALLY granted veteran status and given full honors. Even so, many Texas history books do not mention their contributions to the war effort...

Industry In Texas During WWII

The international conflict of WWII led to the development of new military facilities, Naval and aircraft production, ammunition plants, and petroleum plants in Texas.

During WWII the dominant resource industry in Texas officially switched from cotton and cattle to oil as the U.S. military needed a large supply of petroleum to power war machines (tanks, planes, jeeps, boats, etc.).

Many military bases were built in Texas during the Second World War because Texas had a moderate climate and large expanses of land.

World War II changed the consumption habits of Texans and forced them to ration certain items like food, shoes, and gasoline.

Famous Texans Of WWI

Charles Nimitz

Received Distinguished Service Medals for his service as commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet.

Doris Miller

A cook and laundry person who was in the Navy at Pearl Harbor. He rushed to a deck gun and fought against the Japanese attack.

Oveta Culp Hobby

Commander of the Women’s Army Corps.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe, led the Allies in the invasion of German-controlled France on D-Day.

Audie Murphy: A Real Texas Hero!

Audie Murphy was a Texas citizen who fought in World War II in nine campaigns.

Son of poor Sharecroppers in Texas, he enlisted in the war at the age of 14 in order to support his family.

He was the most decorated American soldier in World War II.

Earned the Medal Of Honor for holding off a Nazi attack on his Army Troop by firing at them with a machine gun while standing on top of a burning Tank Destroyer. When asked how he did it he simply replied, “They were hurting my friends.” Once his platoon made it to safety he insisted this his fellow soldiers be treated first, even though he was heavily injured.

After the war he became a famous singer, songwriter, rancher, and actor. He starred in the movie "To Hell And Back" about his personal experiences in WWII.

(Isn't he a Dream Boat?!?!?! :D)

Texas & the Holocaust

The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews and other people deemed “racially inferior” by the Nazi regime and its allies. As Nazi tyranny spread across Europe, the Germans and their collaborators persecuted and murdered millions of other people seen as biologically inferior or dangerous. This would include Jews, Gypsies, Soviet citizens, Catholics, Poles, any non-White person of color, and many more.

As early as 1933, Texans read local reports of the rise of the Nazi party and its violent acts against German citizens. Many Americans pleaded with Texas to join their fight to allow Jewish refugees to seek asylum [safety] in the United States. Unfortunately, many Texans refused to help as they gave in to widespread fears about entering the war when they were already hurting for money due to the Great Depression. However, some Texans did decide to campaign Congress to pass a Bill allowing refugees to come to Texas. Congress denied the Bill.

Those captured by the Nazis would be sent to “Concentration Camps” where they were forced to do labor for the Axis war effort. Most who went in to these camps never made it out alive.

Texans & Liberation

“You've heard the expression 'Dead man walking.' That's the way they looked. When they got through [were freed] they were just raising their hands in joy and appreciation. They didn't think they'd ever see that again. They didn't think they'd be alive. That was it."

-Wilson Canafax, a Texas soldier, recounting his experiences liberating prisoners from the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

Towards the end of WWII as Americans advanced in to Nazi-controlled territory they would liberate these Concentration Camps and free all of the prisoners.
Many Texas soldiers were a part of these Liberations, specifically the Army’s 36th Infantry, nicknamed the “Texas Arrowhead Division”.
The 36th was in combat nineteen months, fought in five major campaigns, engaged in two amphibious assaults, and captured more than 175,000 prisoner. Displaying the Lone Star flag and wearing the famous T-patch on their shoulders, men of the Thirty-sixth were proud to be known as the "Texas army."

The reaction of the Texas liberators was agonizing and would follow them the rest of their lives, they said. Remember these were soldiers as young as 19 and few were in their 30s. War was one thing, it was hell. But this, the atrocity of the Holocaust was like a personal tour of Dante’s Inferno, as one young solider explained.

After the war many of these veterans created the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission. It educates citizens to increase understanding of the past and encourage individual responsibility for society's actions.

The End of WWII

On September 2, 1945 WWII officially came to an end. The Axis powers had all surrendered and the Allies officially won the war!

During World War II Texas and Texans went through a series of rapid changes. Because of wartime demands, people migrated to the state in increasing numbers—as many as 450,000 in less than four years.

Since industrial jobs were plentiful in or near such cities as Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, and Fort Worth, Texans saw rapid urbanization.

In turn, oil officially became the dominant resource in the state—cotton and cattle were no longer "king".

Social changes were also rapidly occurring towards the end of the war. Women continued to push for equality and acceptance, minorities fought for their Civil Rights, and Texas’ new post-war demographic would soon force the Lone Star State to change many of their long-standing views of the world....

FUN FACT! :D

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