WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.299 Imagine watching a time lapse of a teenager growing 00:00:03.299 --> 00:00:07.519 up. But instead of just the awkward acne and 00:00:07.519 --> 00:00:10.839 maybe a few voice cracks, this teenager is literally 00:00:10.839 --> 00:00:13.279 tearing their own limbs off. Oh, wow. That is 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:15.300 quite the visual. Right. And replacing their 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:17.739 bones with steel and then suddenly stepping out 00:00:17.739 --> 00:00:20.120 of all that chaos as a heavyweight fighter. Yeah, 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:22.399 they have violent, mechanical, just entirely 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:26.519 chaotic metamorphosis. that is exactly the story 00:00:26.519 --> 00:00:29.859 of the United States from 1860 to 1899. Exactly. 00:00:30.120 --> 00:00:32.880 And welcome into this custom -tailored deep dive, 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:35.259 by the way. We are looking at a very specific, 00:00:36.320 --> 00:00:38.479 a very intense 40 -year time lapse at the U .S. 00:00:38.479 --> 00:00:40.380 today. Yeah, and we're using a comprehensive 00:00:40.380 --> 00:00:43.060 Wikipedia timeline covering U .S. history from 00:00:43.060 --> 00:00:46.799 1860 to 1899 as our primary source material today. 00:00:46.920 --> 00:00:48.979 Right, and the goal here... The mission here, 00:00:48.979 --> 00:00:52.060 I mean, it's to synthesize what is frankly a 00:00:52.060 --> 00:00:53.759 massive bloody error into a single... narrative 00:00:53.759 --> 00:00:56.280 threat. We want to watch the nation morph from 00:00:56.280 --> 00:00:58.640 this fractured entity that was tearing itself 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:01.640 apart into a fully industrialized global power. 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:03.960 And for you listening, I know it often feels 00:01:03.960 --> 00:01:07.540 like we're living in an era of just overwhelming, 00:01:07.780 --> 00:01:10.680 whiplash -inducing change right now. Oh, absolutely. 00:01:10.859 --> 00:01:13.439 Every day brings like a new technological shift 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:16.739 or some cultural upheaval, but as this deep dive 00:01:16.739 --> 00:01:19.159 will show you, that feeling of rapid transformation 00:01:19.159 --> 00:01:23.000 is definitely not new. Right at all. So keeping 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:26.000 that violent teenager analogy in mind, where 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:28.599 do we actually begin this time lapse? Well, rather 00:01:28.599 --> 00:01:30.879 than simply moving straight to the first date 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:33.640 on the timeline and reading off a list of events, 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:36.379 it helps to realize something crucial. Which 00:01:36.379 --> 00:01:39.200 is? To understand the nation's eventual outward 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:42.560 expansion in the 1890s, we first must look at 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:45.819 how incredibly close it came to permanent collapse. 00:01:46.040 --> 00:01:48.280 just 30 years prior. Right. So we're starting 00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:50.879 at the point of maximum internal pressure, setting 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:53.519 the baseline in the 1860s. Exactly. The timeline 00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:56.159 drops us right into a political earthquake. Abraham 00:01:56.159 --> 00:01:59.079 Lincoln is elected president in 1860. But what 00:01:59.079 --> 00:02:01.400 really jumps out from the source data is the 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:04.180 math. He won with only 39 percent of the popular 00:02:04.180 --> 00:02:06.689 vote in a four man race. Yeah, the fracture was 00:02:06.689 --> 00:02:08.990 already there. It was laid completely bare by 00:02:08.990 --> 00:02:12.129 those numbers. The country was deeply, structurally 00:02:12.129 --> 00:02:14.169 divided. Yeah. And almost immediately following 00:02:14.169 --> 00:02:17.530 that election, we see the rapid secession of 00:02:17.530 --> 00:02:20.389 states. South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, 00:02:20.650 --> 00:02:23.250 Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas. What's just 00:02:23.250 --> 00:02:26.469 a domino effect. Exactly. They established the 00:02:26.469 --> 00:02:30.229 Confederate States of America. And by 1861, the 00:02:30.229 --> 00:02:32.449 American Civil War begins at Fort Sumter. And 00:02:32.449 --> 00:02:35.139 the sheer scale of the devastation here is I 00:02:35.139 --> 00:02:36.819 mean, it's hard to wrap your head around even 00:02:36.819 --> 00:02:39.120 looking at the raw numbers. It really is staggering. 00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:42.400 The source notes that more than 550 ,000 Americans 00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:45.340 died fighting this war. You have the Battle of 00:02:45.340 --> 00:02:48.939 Antietam in 1862, which the timeline highlights 00:02:48.939 --> 00:02:51.719 specifically for just how incredibly bloody it 00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:53.900 was. Yeah, it was a total war that consumed the 00:02:53.900 --> 00:02:56.240 entire country. But it was also a period of massive, 00:02:56.300 --> 00:02:59.120 rapid technological shift in how war was even 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:01.319 fought. Right, because of the industrialization 00:03:01.319 --> 00:03:03.479 happening. Exactly. A perfect example from the 00:03:03.479 --> 00:03:06.039 timeline is the 1862 Battle of Hampton Roads. 00:03:06.139 --> 00:03:07.960 Oh, that involves the monitor and the Merrimack, 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:11.560 correct. Yes, those were the ships. It was the 00:03:11.560 --> 00:03:14.639 first ever naval battle between iron -sided ships. 00:03:14.740 --> 00:03:17.659 Wow. The mechanism of naval warfare completely 00:03:17.659 --> 00:03:20.719 changed in a single afternoon. Wow. I mean, every 00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:23.280 wooden naval fleet in the world was rendered 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:25.840 virtually obsolete the moment ironclads started 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:28.120 firing on each other without sinking. That's 00:03:28.120 --> 00:03:30.360 wild to think about. The machinery of conflict 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:32.759 was evolving right alongside the violence itself. 00:03:33.020 --> 00:03:35.280 Exactly. And the political machinery was moving 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:38.500 just as frantically. Looking at the source material, 00:03:38.599 --> 00:03:40.800 there's this sequence of political maneuvers 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:43.719 that we really have to look at strictly as historical 00:03:43.719 --> 00:03:45.979 facts to understand the whiplash of the era. 00:03:46.099 --> 00:03:47.740 Right, just reporting what's on the page. Yeah, 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:50.120 without taking any modern political sides, just 00:03:50.120 --> 00:03:52.560 looking neutrally at the legislation. In March 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:55.740 of 1861, Congress actually passes the Corwin 00:03:55.740 --> 00:03:59.500 Amendment. That is a very, very revealing piece 00:03:59.500 --> 00:04:01.819 of legislation. Oh, hold on. The Corwin Amendment, 00:04:02.020 --> 00:04:03.659 I admit, I am a little confused here. I thought 00:04:03.659 --> 00:04:05.939 the constitutional amendments in that era were 00:04:05.939 --> 00:04:08.240 entirely about freeing enslaved people. What 00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:10.060 was the Corwin Amendment? It was essentially 00:04:10.060 --> 00:04:13.379 a desperate 11th hour attempt to stop the Civil 00:04:13.379 --> 00:04:16.560 War before it fully escalated. The Corwin Amendment, 00:04:16.920 --> 00:04:19.379 which passed Congress, but, you know, was never 00:04:19.379 --> 00:04:22.300 ratified by the states. OK. It was designed to 00:04:22.300 --> 00:04:25.439 enshrine slavery forever. It would have explicitly 00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:27.759 shielded domestic institutions of the states. 00:04:27.959 --> 00:04:31.439 from federal abolition. Wow. So they were willing 00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:34.379 to permanently cement slavery into the Constitution 00:04:34.379 --> 00:04:36.879 just to keep the South from leaving? According 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:39.279 to the historical record, yes. Yeah. But the 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:41.660 maneuver failed. The war happened anyway, and 00:04:41.660 --> 00:04:44.000 then the legal foundation completely flips. How 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:47.060 so? Fast forward just a bit to 1862 and 1863, 00:04:47.660 --> 00:04:49.779 and Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. 00:04:50.339 --> 00:04:53.509 Then by 1865... slavery is officially abolished 00:04:53.509 --> 00:04:55.370 by the 13th Amendment. And then followed by the 00:04:55.370 --> 00:04:58.470 14th Amendment in 1868, guaranteeing equal protection 00:04:58.470 --> 00:05:00.350 under the law. Right. The legal foundation of 00:05:00.350 --> 00:05:02.389 the country is being rewritten in real time. 00:05:02.850 --> 00:05:04.810 But what's fascinating here is that while the 00:05:04.810 --> 00:05:07.709 nation was fighting a catastrophic war, it was 00:05:07.709 --> 00:05:10.209 simultaneously legislating its future expansion. 00:05:10.430 --> 00:05:12.589 What do you mean? Well, if you look at 1862, 00:05:13.290 --> 00:05:15.649 right in the middle of this incredible bloodshed, 00:05:16.089 --> 00:05:18.470 the government passes the Homestead Act. and 00:05:18.470 --> 00:05:21.129 the Moral Land Grant Colleges Act. Okay, let's 00:05:21.129 --> 00:05:23.550 unpack this because I am looking at this timeline 00:05:23.550 --> 00:05:27.509 of a nation literally at war with itself. Half 00:05:27.509 --> 00:05:29.949 a million people dying. Yeah. Battles raging 00:05:29.949 --> 00:05:32.949 across the continent and yet Congress is passing 00:05:32.949 --> 00:05:35.970 acts to build land grant colleges and plotting 00:05:35.970 --> 00:05:38.689 out the groundwork for a transcontinental railroad. 00:05:39.269 --> 00:05:41.790 They are indeed. How did the government possibly 00:05:41.790 --> 00:05:44.310 have the bandwidth to do that while fighting 00:05:44.310 --> 00:05:46.829 a massive civil war. It feels like deciding you're 00:05:46.829 --> 00:05:49.009 going to completely remodel your kitchen while 00:05:49.009 --> 00:05:51.329 your house is actively on fire. It is a great 00:05:51.329 --> 00:05:53.990 analogy, but the fire is actually what allowed 00:05:53.990 --> 00:05:56.009 the remodel to happen in the first place. Wait, 00:05:56.009 --> 00:05:57.970 how does that work? Think about the mechanics 00:05:57.970 --> 00:06:01.589 of Congress. Before the war, northern and southern 00:06:01.589 --> 00:06:04.689 legislators were completely gridlocked. The South 00:06:04.689 --> 00:06:07.069 consistently blocked policies like the Homestead 00:06:07.069 --> 00:06:09.110 Act. Because that act gave away western land 00:06:09.110 --> 00:06:12.689 to individual settlers. Yeah, exactly. The South 00:06:12.689 --> 00:06:15.850 feared it would lead to a bunch of new free states 00:06:15.850 --> 00:06:19.490 that didn't rely on plantation agriculture. But 00:06:19.490 --> 00:06:22.930 once the southern states seceded and their representatives 00:06:22.930 --> 00:06:25.850 left Washington. Oh, the gridlock was gone. Exactly. 00:06:26.230 --> 00:06:28.970 That political gridlock vanished. The remaining 00:06:28.970 --> 00:06:31.449 legislators finally had the unified voting bloc 00:06:31.449 --> 00:06:34.269 they needed to push through this massive continent 00:06:34.269 --> 00:06:36.670 spanning infrastructure and education agenda 00:06:36.670 --> 00:06:39.389 that had been stalled for years. That makes so 00:06:39.389 --> 00:06:42.139 much sense. So they are quite literally legislating 00:06:42.139 --> 00:06:44.819 the future blueprint of the country because the 00:06:44.819 --> 00:06:47.000 people who opposed it are out of the room setting 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:50.060 them on a battlefield. Precisely. And that blueprint 00:06:50.060 --> 00:06:52.899 becomes the physical reality of the 1870s. By 00:06:52.899 --> 00:06:55.639 1869, the first transcontinental railroad is 00:06:55.639 --> 00:06:58.540 completed at Promontory Summit, Utah. The nation 00:06:58.540 --> 00:07:01.259 is now physically united by iron rails. Which 00:07:01.259 --> 00:07:03.379 fundamentally shifts the entire focus of the 00:07:03.379 --> 00:07:05.959 country. The Civil War is over, the tracks are 00:07:05.959 --> 00:07:08.759 laid, and suddenly everyone's gaze turns away 00:07:08.759 --> 00:07:10.579 from the battlefields of the South and looks 00:07:10.579 --> 00:07:13.040 toward rapid Western expansion. Right, and to 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:15.279 these intensely growing industrial cities. But 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:17.500 looking at the source, the rebuild is incredibly 00:07:17.500 --> 00:07:21.620 messy. Oh, messy is an understatement. The 1870s 00:07:21.620 --> 00:07:24.680 are defined by intense growing pains. Take the 00:07:24.680 --> 00:07:28.350 end of Reconstruction in 1877. Okay. The timeline 00:07:28.350 --> 00:07:30.209 shows us this didn't just end naturally because 00:07:30.209 --> 00:07:32.829 the South was fully integrated. It ended because 00:07:32.829 --> 00:07:35.170 of a highly disputed presidential election in 00:07:35.170 --> 00:07:38.670 1876. Ah, that is the Samuel Tilden and Rutherford 00:07:38.670 --> 00:07:41.129 B. Hayes election. Yes, Tilden won the popular 00:07:41.129 --> 00:07:44.209 vote, but there were 20 electoral college votes 00:07:44.209 --> 00:07:46.870 across a few states that were fiercely disputed. 00:07:47.610 --> 00:07:49.649 The country was on the brink of another crisis. 00:07:49.810 --> 00:07:52.189 So what did they do? So an electoral commission 00:07:52.189 --> 00:07:54.730 was formed and they struck a monumental backroom 00:07:54.730 --> 00:07:58.420 deal. They awarded Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency, 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:01.600 but the specific mechanism of that deal was that 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:04.399 Hayes had to agree to end the military occupation 00:08:04.399 --> 00:08:06.480 of the South. Wait, so essentially they traded 00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:08.779 the presidency for the withdrawal of federal 00:08:08.779 --> 00:08:11.920 troops. Yes. They sold out the recently freed 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:14.420 enslaved population in the South who relied on 00:08:14.420 --> 00:08:16.959 those troops for protection just to settle a 00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:19.439 tied election. That is exactly how the mechanics 00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:22.560 of the Compromise of 1877 worked. The federal 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:24.500 government stepped back. which allowed white 00:08:24.500 --> 00:08:26.800 supremacist state governments to regain total 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:30.019 control in the South. Wow. A massive political 00:08:30.019 --> 00:08:33.159 deal dictated the future of millions of people. 00:08:33.559 --> 00:08:35.899 And while that high level maneuvering is happening 00:08:35.899 --> 00:08:39.059 in Washington, you have this simultaneous explosion 00:08:39.059 --> 00:08:42.019 of what we now call Wild West mythology happening 00:08:42.019 --> 00:08:44.639 out on the frontier. Yeah. The contrast is jarring. 00:08:44.940 --> 00:08:47.580 In 1876 alone, you have the Battle of Little 00:08:47.580 --> 00:08:50.200 Bighorn out West. Right. And that same year, 00:08:50.279 --> 00:08:52.659 the timeline notes that Wild Bill Hickok is killed. 00:08:52.970 --> 00:08:55.210 He's shot in the back of the head by a man named 00:08:55.210 --> 00:08:57.370 Jack McCall while playing poker in Deadwood, 00:08:57.509 --> 00:08:59.750 South Dakota. Holding what becomes immortalized 00:08:59.750 --> 00:09:02.590 is the dead man's hand, aces and eights. Exactly. 00:09:02.789 --> 00:09:04.629 But here's where it gets really interesting. 00:09:05.269 --> 00:09:08.450 Because 1876 is also the year the nation is celebrating 00:09:08.450 --> 00:09:11.409 its centennial exposition in Philadelphia. The 00:09:11.409 --> 00:09:13.970 split -screen reality of it all. Right. So I 00:09:13.970 --> 00:09:16.429 want you to just picture this bizarre split -screen 00:09:16.429 --> 00:09:20.330 for a second. On one side, you are walking around 00:09:20.330 --> 00:09:23.730 a glittering exposition in Philadelphia, celebrating 00:09:23.730 --> 00:09:26.850 100 years of the nation, marveling at the first 00:09:26.850 --> 00:09:29.289 telephone and looking forward to an industrialized 00:09:29.289 --> 00:09:31.250 future. And on the other side of the screen, 00:09:31.389 --> 00:09:34.610 you've got a chaotic, heavily disputed presidential 00:09:34.610 --> 00:09:37.250 election threatening to tear the political system 00:09:37.250 --> 00:09:40.950 apart and deadly myth -making battles happening 00:09:40.950 --> 00:09:43.909 on the frontier. It perfectly captures a nation 00:09:43.909 --> 00:09:46.950 growing far too fast for its own systems to handle. 00:09:47.450 --> 00:09:49.269 And it wasn't just the romanticized frontier 00:09:49.269 --> 00:09:51.470 that was experiencing this chaos. Right. The 00:09:51.470 --> 00:09:53.570 cities, too. The urban centers were buckling 00:09:53.570 --> 00:09:56.429 under the pressure. The source highlights Boss 00:09:56.429 --> 00:09:58.669 Tweed gaining control of Tammany Hall in New 00:09:58.669 --> 00:10:01.370 York City. Now, for someone who isn't steeped 00:10:01.370 --> 00:10:03.909 in New York political history, what exactly was 00:10:03.909 --> 00:10:06.590 Tammany Hall and how did Boss Tweed control it? 00:10:07.070 --> 00:10:09.490 Tammany Hall was a political machine. The mechanism 00:10:09.490 --> 00:10:12.789 was pure patronage. New York was flooding with 00:10:12.789 --> 00:10:15.710 new immigrants who needed jobs, food, and housing. 00:10:16.110 --> 00:10:18.529 Tammany Hall provided those basic needs. But 00:10:18.529 --> 00:10:21.710 in exchange, they demanded your vote. Once Boss 00:10:21.710 --> 00:10:23.690 Tweed secured enough votes to control the city 00:10:23.690 --> 00:10:26.850 government, he used that power to embezzle tens 00:10:26.850 --> 00:10:29.750 of millions of dollars. Just massive theft. Through 00:10:29.750 --> 00:10:32.990 inflated city contracts and massive graft? Yes. 00:10:33.610 --> 00:10:38.200 It represents the absolute height of gritty urban 00:10:38.200 --> 00:10:40.519 political corruption. You have systems breaking 00:10:40.519 --> 00:10:42.700 down everywhere. Yeah. You have the Great Chicago 00:10:42.700 --> 00:10:45.879 Fire in 1871 burning down a major metropolis. 00:10:46.360 --> 00:10:50.299 And the panic of 1873 triggers a severe multi 00:10:50.299 --> 00:10:52.620 -year economic depression. It brings us right 00:10:52.620 --> 00:10:54.639 back to that teenager analogy. The bones are 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:56.419 growing so fast that the muscles are tearing. 00:10:56.620 --> 00:10:58.759 Exactly. You have railroads magically connecting 00:10:58.759 --> 00:11:01.220 coasts, but the economy and the political structures 00:11:01.220 --> 00:11:03.600 are just fracturing under the sheer weight and 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:06.320 speed of it all. Which brings us into the 1880s 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:10.360 and early 1890s. The unregulated, explosive growth 00:11:10.360 --> 00:11:14.240 of the 1870s directly fuels the intense social 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:16.600 and labor frictions of this next era. It's all 00:11:16.600 --> 00:11:18.539 connected. The pressure builds up so much that 00:11:18.539 --> 00:11:20.720 the government realizes it has to step in and 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:23.120 try to manage society. But the instability is 00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:25.480 still very visceral. Right at the start of this 00:11:25.480 --> 00:11:28.100 section in 1881, President James A. Garfield 00:11:28.100 --> 00:11:31.220 is assassinated. Yes. And he's shot by a deranged 00:11:31.220 --> 00:11:34.620 gunman on a train platform. That image alone 00:11:34.620 --> 00:11:37.159 really captures the vulnerability of the era. 00:11:37.779 --> 00:11:41.500 And following that, we see major sweeping legislative 00:11:41.500 --> 00:11:44.179 attempts by the government to control both the 00:11:44.179 --> 00:11:47.470 population and the economy. The timeline lists 00:11:47.470 --> 00:11:50.210 several key pieces of legislation here. You have 00:11:50.210 --> 00:11:53.629 the Dawes Act in 1887. What was the actual mechanism 00:11:53.629 --> 00:11:55.750 of the Dawes Act? It was a devastating shift 00:11:55.750 --> 00:11:58.450 in Native American policy. Instead of treating 00:11:58.450 --> 00:12:00.549 tribes as sovereign entities on reservations, 00:12:00.990 --> 00:12:03.029 the Dawes Act broke up communal tribal lands 00:12:03.029 --> 00:12:05.909 into individual plots. Okay, so breaking up the 00:12:05.909 --> 00:12:08.129 community. Yes, the explicit goal was forced 00:12:08.129 --> 00:12:10.190 assimilation, trying to make Native Americans 00:12:10.190 --> 00:12:12.389 into individual farmers. But the secondary mechanism 00:12:12.389 --> 00:12:14.850 was that any land left over after these individual 00:12:14.850 --> 00:12:17.049 allotments was declared surplus. And sold off. 00:12:17.289 --> 00:12:19.370 Sold off to white settlers, yes. Right? It stripped 00:12:19.370 --> 00:12:21.570 millions of acres of land away from Native communities. 00:12:21.629 --> 00:12:24.490 That is incredibly stark. And the source also 00:12:24.490 --> 00:12:27.480 lists the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1990, how 00:12:27.480 --> 00:12:29.919 did that work? That was the government's first 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:33.120 major attempt to rein in corporate monopolies. 00:12:33.399 --> 00:12:35.820 Companies like Standard Oil had formed trusts, 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:38.940 essentially colluding to crush competition and 00:12:38.940 --> 00:12:41.779 control entire industries. The Sherman Antitrust 00:12:41.779 --> 00:12:44.480 Act made it illegal to form combinations that 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:47.080 restricted trade. It was fairly weak at first, 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:49.620 but it established the principle that the federal 00:12:49.620 --> 00:12:51.899 government had the authority to break up massive 00:12:51.899 --> 00:12:54.700 corporations. So the government is really throwing 00:12:54.700 --> 00:12:57.159 its weight around in all directions. And on the 00:12:57.159 --> 00:12:59.460 ground, the culture is just boiling over. You 00:12:59.460 --> 00:13:02.259 have massive labor unrest. The Haymarket Square 00:13:02.259 --> 00:13:06.220 riot in 1886. The Pullman strike in 1894. Very 00:13:06.220 --> 00:13:09.139 chaotic times for labor. But then, right alongside 00:13:09.139 --> 00:13:11.960 all this intense friction, you have these towering 00:13:11.960 --> 00:13:14.899 physical milestones of achievement. The Brooklyn 00:13:14.899 --> 00:13:18.360 Bridge opens in 1883. The Statue of Liberty is 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:21.779 dedicated in 1886. The world is modernizing so 00:13:21.779 --> 00:13:25.100 incredibly fast that by 1889, Benjamin Harrison 00:13:25.100 --> 00:13:27.399 becomes the first U .S. president in history 00:13:27.399 --> 00:13:30.139 to have his voice recorded. It is an undeniable 00:13:30.139 --> 00:13:32.960 march of technological and industrial capability. 00:13:33.419 --> 00:13:35.460 I have to push back on this narrative of pure 00:13:35.460 --> 00:13:37.659 progress for a second, though. Fair enough. Because 00:13:37.659 --> 00:13:40.000 when you look at the timeline objectively, it 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:42.320 really feels like two steps forward, three steps 00:13:42.320 --> 00:13:45.519 back. Think about it. Just a couple of decades 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:48.200 after the nation fought a civil war and passed 00:13:48.200 --> 00:13:51.200 the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, the source 00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:53.460 shows Congress passing the Chinese Exclusion 00:13:53.460 --> 00:13:56.960 Act in 1882. Which explicitly banned Chinese 00:13:56.960 --> 00:13:58.879 laborers from entry of the country, yes. Right. 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:02.960 And then in 1896, the Supreme Court hands down 00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:05.779 plus E .V. Ferguson. Yes. The ruling that legally 00:14:05.779 --> 00:14:07.659 affirmed the doctrine of separate but equal. 00:14:07.820 --> 00:14:10.779 Exactly. Again, just looking neutrally at the 00:14:10.779 --> 00:14:13.620 source data, the mechanism of Plessy Ferguson 00:14:13.620 --> 00:14:16.320 provided the constitutional cover for states 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:19.279 to enforce brutal segregation laws for the next 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:22.860 60 years. So how is this progress? This raises 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:25.220 an important question. Who exactly was benefiting 00:14:25.220 --> 00:14:27.980 from this rapid industrialization? Because your 00:14:27.980 --> 00:14:30.360 pushback is completely valid. Right. While the 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:32.059 physical machinery of the country was becoming 00:14:32.059 --> 00:14:34.559 incredibly advanced, the social fabric was deeply 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:37.600 strained and in many ways legally regressing. 00:14:37.769 --> 00:14:40.490 The legal frameworks were being used to simultaneously 00:14:40.490 --> 00:14:43.610 consolidate unprecedented wealth for a few and 00:14:43.610 --> 00:14:46.169 exclude massive swaths of the population from 00:14:46.169 --> 00:14:49.889 equal participation. But purely from a structural 00:14:49.889 --> 00:14:53.149 standpoint, it is this exact friction, this chaos 00:14:53.149 --> 00:14:55.529 of powerful railroads and massive corporations 00:14:55.529 --> 00:14:58.090 that forces the creation of modern government 00:14:58.090 --> 00:15:01.370 mechanisms. How so? Like how did they even begin 00:15:01.370 --> 00:15:04.149 to regulate a machine that big? Let's look at 00:15:04.149 --> 00:15:06.190 the Interstate Commerce Commission created in 00:15:06.190 --> 00:15:09.370 1887. Prior to this, the federal government didn't 00:15:09.370 --> 00:15:11.710 really have a functional mechanism to regulate 00:15:11.710 --> 00:15:14.809 private business across state lines. But the 00:15:14.809 --> 00:15:17.230 railroads had become gargantuan. They were so 00:15:17.230 --> 00:15:19.429 powerful that they could make or break entire 00:15:19.429 --> 00:15:21.649 farming regions by secretly changing freight 00:15:21.649 --> 00:15:25.389 rates. Congress finally had to step in. The creation 00:15:25.389 --> 00:15:28.370 of the ICC represents the absolute birth of the 00:15:28.370 --> 00:15:30.730 modern regulatory state. It is the moment the 00:15:30.730 --> 00:15:32.909 government realizes it has to build permanent 00:15:33.100 --> 00:15:35.879 institutional guardrails for this incredibly 00:15:35.879 --> 00:15:38.320 powerful, potentially destructive industrial 00:15:38.320 --> 00:15:40.580 machine it had fostered. OK, so they're starting 00:15:40.580 --> 00:15:43.200 to build the guardrails, but the machine is still 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:46.279 accelerating. And by the time we hit the late 00:15:46.279 --> 00:15:49.759 1890s, the nation has physically spanned the 00:15:49.759 --> 00:15:52.299 entire North American continent. The railroads 00:15:52.299 --> 00:15:55.240 are built. The massive internal industries are 00:15:55.240 --> 00:15:57.440 humming. And that leads to a critical turning 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:00.100 point because the internal frontier is essentially 00:16:00.100 --> 00:16:02.809 closed. The massive industrial machine you just 00:16:02.809 --> 00:16:05.350 mentioned is now overproducing. Overproducing. 00:16:05.429 --> 00:16:08.549 Yeah. The U .S. economy is generating more manufactured 00:16:08.549 --> 00:16:11.370 goods and agricultural products than the domestic 00:16:11.370 --> 00:16:14.570 population could possibly consume. They desperately 00:16:14.570 --> 00:16:17.789 need new overseas markets to sell their goods. 00:16:18.049 --> 00:16:20.590 Which means all that internal pressure finally 00:16:20.590 --> 00:16:23.250 spills outward onto the global stage. That is 00:16:23.250 --> 00:16:25.970 the final phase of our time lapse. The internal 00:16:25.970 --> 00:16:27.950 growth spurt concludes and the country looks 00:16:27.950 --> 00:16:31.750 outward. The major catalyst arise in 1898. The 00:16:31.750 --> 00:16:34.450 USS Maine explodes in Havana Harbor in Cuba, 00:16:34.750 --> 00:16:36.769 which precipitates the Spanish -American War. 00:16:37.009 --> 00:16:39.190 And looking at the dates here, things move incredibly 00:16:39.190 --> 00:16:41.610 fast from there. According to the source, the 00:16:41.610 --> 00:16:44.129 Treaty of Paris ends that war the very same year 00:16:44.129 --> 00:16:47.210 in 1898. But it's immediately followed by the 00:16:47.210 --> 00:16:50.370 Philippine -American War. That same year, 1898, 00:16:50.590 --> 00:16:53.149 Hawaii is officially annexed. The next year, 00:16:53.509 --> 00:16:57.269 1899, American Samoa is occupied. It's just a 00:16:57.269 --> 00:17:00.049 sudden rapid fire expansion. And it extends into 00:17:00.049 --> 00:17:03.250 Asia as well. The timeline lists the U .S. issuing 00:17:03.250 --> 00:17:05.809 the open door notes in 1899. Now, what were the 00:17:05.809 --> 00:17:08.390 open door notes? Who was opening what door? It 00:17:08.390 --> 00:17:11.240 was a diplomatic maneuver aimed at China. European 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:14.420 powers were already carving up China into exclusive 00:17:14.420 --> 00:17:17.880 spheres of influence for trade. The US, meeting 00:17:17.880 --> 00:17:19.960 those foreign markets we talked about, essentially 00:17:19.960 --> 00:17:22.220 sent notes to these global powers, demanding 00:17:22.220 --> 00:17:25.579 that the door to Chinese trade remain open equally 00:17:25.579 --> 00:17:27.980 to everyone. Interesting. It was America asserting 00:17:27.980 --> 00:17:30.539 its economic weight globally, and it placed the 00:17:30.539 --> 00:17:32.539 US right in the middle of Chinese affairs, which 00:17:32.539 --> 00:17:34.319 immediately ties into the beginning of the Boxer 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:37.440 Rebellion in 1899, where Chinese nationals violently 00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:39.460 rose up against all this foreign economic and 00:17:39.460 --> 00:17:41.380 religious interference. So what does this all 00:17:41.380 --> 00:17:43.720 mean? When you take a step back and look at the 00:17:43.720 --> 00:17:46.400 whole timeline we just walk through, it is mind 00:17:46.400 --> 00:17:48.660 blowing. It really is. In a single generation, 00:17:48.680 --> 00:17:51.319 just 40 years, this nation went from a fractured 00:17:51.319 --> 00:17:54.180 entity fighting a catastrophic civil war on its 00:17:54.180 --> 00:17:58.119 own soil, fighting over its very existence to 00:17:58.119 --> 00:18:01.519 literally annexing overseas territories, projecting 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:05.059 naval power and fighting wars across the globe 00:18:05.059 --> 00:18:07.700 to secure foreign trade markets. If we connect 00:18:07.700 --> 00:18:11.079 this to the bigger picture, the 1890s mark the 00:18:11.079 --> 00:18:13.289 exact moment the United States steps out of its 00:18:13.289 --> 00:18:16.049 domestic isolation and aggressively inserts itself 00:18:16.049 --> 00:18:18.390 into global geopolitics. Right. For the entire 00:18:18.390 --> 00:18:21.069 century prior, the focus had been almost exclusively 00:18:21.069 --> 00:18:23.490 on internal expansion, surviving the Civil War, 00:18:23.690 --> 00:18:25.710 settling the West, laying the railroads. But 00:18:25.710 --> 00:18:28.630 with those rapid fire events in 1898 and 1899, 00:18:29.029 --> 00:18:30.930 the U .S. is suddenly projecting power across 00:18:30.930 --> 00:18:32.849 the Caribbean and the Pacific simultaneously. 00:18:33.049 --> 00:18:34.710 It brings us right back to that time lapse of 00:18:34.710 --> 00:18:36.210 the teenager we talked about at the beginning. 00:18:36.309 --> 00:18:38.750 We watched the painful, violent, chaotic growth 00:18:38.750 --> 00:18:42.240 spurt from 1860. The forging of new constitutional 00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:45.440 amendments and the fire of a civil war. The wild, 00:18:45.500 --> 00:18:47.500 messy, corrupt years of the Gilded Age where 00:18:47.500 --> 00:18:49.940 machines like Tammany Hall stole millions, right 00:18:49.940 --> 00:18:52.460 up to the doorstep of a global empire by 1899. 00:18:52.799 --> 00:18:56.140 It is a profound metamorphosis. It reshaped not 00:18:56.140 --> 00:18:58.559 just the North American continent, but the global 00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:01.960 order, the infrastructure, the modern regulatory 00:19:01.960 --> 00:19:05.380 state, the military reach. All of it was forged 00:19:05.380 --> 00:19:09.309 in this 40 -year crucible. That new industrialized 00:19:09.309 --> 00:19:12.029 adult form is what would go on to define the 00:19:12.029 --> 00:19:14.750 entire 20th century. It really is. But before 00:19:14.750 --> 00:19:16.970 we wrap up this deep dive, I want to leave you, 00:19:17.049 --> 00:19:20.190 the listener, with one final fascinating detail 00:19:20.190 --> 00:19:21.890 that was buried in this timeline. Oh, I like 00:19:21.890 --> 00:19:24.230 this one. We spent so much time looking at the 00:19:24.230 --> 00:19:26.809 wars, the assassinations, the sweeping legislation 00:19:26.809 --> 00:19:28.970 like the Sherman Antitrust Act and the geopolitical 00:19:28.970 --> 00:19:32.549 shifts. But the 1890s also quietly saw some completely 00:19:32.549 --> 00:19:36.119 different milestones. In 1891, a physical education 00:19:36.119 --> 00:19:38.619 teacher named James Naismith invents the game 00:19:38.619 --> 00:19:41.839 of basketball. And in 1896, a mechanic named 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:45.200 Henry Ford builds his first automobile, a noisy 00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:47.700 little quadricycle, in a workshop behind his 00:19:47.700 --> 00:19:49.700 home. Those are the quiet mechanical moments 00:19:49.700 --> 00:19:51.460 in the background that end up changing everything. 00:19:51.799 --> 00:19:54.240 Exactly. So I invite you to ponder that. While 00:19:54.240 --> 00:19:56.220 the history books and the bold headlines are 00:19:56.220 --> 00:19:59.420 dominated by extreme political chaos, global 00:19:59.420 --> 00:20:02.859 posturing, and economic panic, it is often these 00:20:02.859 --> 00:20:05.470 small, background inventions, a guy putting up 00:20:05.470 --> 00:20:08.190 a peach basket in a gymnasium or tinkering with 00:20:08.190 --> 00:20:10.609 an engine in a shed that end up shaping the daily 00:20:10.609 --> 00:20:13.109 culture and the physical landscape of our lives 00:20:13.109 --> 00:20:15.869 just as profoundly as any president or treaty. 00:20:16.329 --> 00:20:17.890 Very true. Something to think about the next 00:20:17.890 --> 00:20:20.390 time you feel overwhelmed by the relentless chaotic 00:20:20.390 --> 00:20:23.269 headlines of today. Thank you so much for joining 00:20:23.269 --> 00:20:25.950 us on this deep dive. Keep exploring, keep questioning, 00:20:26.190 --> 00:20:27.569 and we will catch you next time.