History documents read aloud.
The All-African People’s Conference was a series of meetings of anti-imperialism political parties, leaders of various ethnic groups, labor union representatives, and anyone else who believed Africa should be returned to the communities from which the European powers took it. This document contains excerpts from the resolution drafted by the Conference.
The ‘New Internationalist Magazine’ is a British nonprofit publishing cooperative. This text contains excerpts pertaining to the history of and issues related to Pan-Africanism. One prominent debate among historians is the issue over whether the decolonization that occurred during the Cold War was caused by structural issues in the imperial nations, or by “human agency” on the part of the colonized people. In other words, did decolonization occur because the imperial countries no longer had the money or military strength to maintain their empires, or because of the success of efforts on the part of colonized people to throw off their oppressors?
Trevor Getz is a Professor of History at San Francisco State University who specializes in Modern Africa and world history. This excerpt describes issues facing South Asian countries as they struggled to obtain independence.
The Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine - President Theodore Roosevelt’s Annual Message Before Congress December 6th 1904 (abridged)
The Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine - President Theodore Roosevelt’s Annual Message Before Congress December 6th 1904 (abridged)
The Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine - President Theodore Roosevelt’s Annual Message Before Congress December 6th 1904 (abridged)
Former President Theodore Roosevelt, October 12, 1915, before the Knights of Columbus, Carnegie Hall, New York City
The idea of Americanization emerged in the early 20th century in the period just before WWI. During this time, a huge influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe were arriving on America's shores. From the 1890s until the mid 1920s, over 22 million Europeans immigrated to the US from places like Italy, Greece, and Poland. Many Americans were suspicious of these new arrivals that practiced different religions, spoke strange languages, and had very different customs. Others feared that they were simply the criminals and undesirables of other countries. The Americanization process was supposed to remove the immigrant status from these people and replace it with a new American identity.
“Between the end of the Civil War and the early 20th century, the United States underwent one of the most rapid and profound economic revolutions any country has experienced. There were numerous causes for this explosive economic growth. The country enjoyed abundant natural resources, a growing supply of labor, an expanding market for manufactured goods, and the availability of capital for investment. By 1913, the United States produced one-third of the world’s industrial output—more than the total of Great Britain, France, and Germany combined.”
If one thing characterized early 20th century cities, it was their immigrant character. The “new immigration” from southern and eastern Europe had begun around 1890 but reached its peak during the Progressive era. Between 1901 and the outbreak of World War I in Europe in 1914, some 13 million immigrants came to the United States, the majority from Italy, Russia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.” One of the legacies of the immigrant experience is the formation of distinctive ethnic neighborhoods. Ethnic enclaves are specific parts of cities where ethnic minorities live. In these areas the people living there would create religious and cultural organizations where residents of the same ethnic groups could form communities. However, housing and infrastructure became a major issue. As urban populations increased, new types of housing were developed. Sometimes, two or three families occupied a single family home. These multifamily urban dwellings, called tenements, were overcrowded and unsanitary. Cities tried to keep up with the growth and expansion of the population, but usually failed, resulting in poor living conditions for immigrants.
Between 1885 and 1920, approximately 21,000,000 immigrants arrived in America. Roughly 75 percent (75%) of them entered through New York Bay and were processed at Ellis Island after the immigration station opened in 1892. The arrival of immigrants from new parts of the world brought fears of new diseases and new germs being introduced to the United States. As a result, immigrants who arrived were first met by medical officers from the US Public Health Service (USPHS), who examined them for evidence of “loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases,” which could be grounds for sending immigrants home. During the early years of the 20th century, trachoma, an infectious eye disease that could lead to blindness if left untreated, became one of the leading reasons for excluding immigrants on medical grounds. To check for trachoma USPHS officers would flip back immigrants’ eyelids using their fingers or a buttonhook, an implement originally intended for fastening the small buttons common on shoes and clothing at the time.
Assimilation is when a minority group adopts the beliefs, culture, and way of life of the dominant culture. During the 1890s-1900s Americans wanted the “new” immigrants to stop following their old culture and beliefs, such as religion, traditions, and customs, and instead adopt the ideals and characteristics of Americans to create one homogenous culture shared between people of all backgrounds. Acculturation is when the minority culture is changed by the dominant culture, but the minority culture is still able to retain unique cultural markers of language, food, and customs. During the 1890s-1900s many “new” immigrants refused to give up their cultural identities in order to merge into American society. Each of these terms can be simplified into a cultural theory, the “melting pot” theory and the “salad bowl” theory. The “melting pot” theory describes society as a mixture of people of different cultures and races who blend together by abandoning their native languages and customs. The “salad bowl” theory describes society as the integration of the many different cultures in the United States where each culture retains their own unique cultural characteristics.
Hilda Polacheck, a WPA writer, interviewed Louis T. in June 1939 as part of the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930’s. Louis T. was a Polish Jew. Below is an excerpt from the interview, which can be found in American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940.
This excerpt describes the difficulty and scarcity of living in China. Many Chinese immigrated to the United States because of poor living conditions in China and lack of opportunities.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, address on The Fugitive Slave Law, May 3, 1851
An anonymous Georgian, “Plain Words for the North,” American Whig Review
“The Compromise of 1850” by James Shields, 1850
Robert Toombs of Georgia Statement on the House of Representative Floor December 13, 1849 regarding the Wilmot Proviso.
John L. O’Sullivan, 1845, on Manifest Destiny.
President Polk on the Annexation of Texas
Frederick Douglas on the Annexation of Texas
Mexican Legislator on Texas Annexation
Charles Sumner on the annexation of Texas.
Polk on the annexation of Texas.
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