The first decade of the 20th century gave United States’ citizens hope and made them look forward to what the new century would bring. The United States began the century with a great start. Everyone was optimistic in solving the country’s problems and making the American living better. Even when it seemed like times were tough in the country, the people tried to overcome the problems and push progress to the country. This movement of wanting to make the country better was called the Progressive Movement. The Progressive movement consisted of organizations, Theodore Roosevelt, and advocates of improving the country. 

     On September 6, 1902, President McKinley attended a Pan-American meeting in New York. An anarchist named Leon Czolgosz walked up to McKinley and shot him twice. McKinley died six days later in a hospital attempting to recover. The whole nation was saddened by the news of his death and put the country’s security in question. Even though the country was still devastated by the assassination, Theodore Roosevelt took office immediately and optimism still stood strongly in the nation. The government powered presidential security through the new Secret Security protection in 1906. The government chose to improve security so an assassination wouldn’t be so easy, and another event like that wouldn’t happen again.

     On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright created the world’s first successful plane in North Carolina and managed to fly 852 feet. They had made previous prototypes before but all of them were unsuccessful. Following the invention of the plane was the Model-T Ford. The car was mass produced in 1908 by the Henry Ford Motor Company. The Model-T was the first affordable car that was available to the public. Due to its affordability, automobiles slowly became popular. The plane had fulfilled the long lived dream of human flight and the Model-T brought the easiest way of individual transportation to the public. These inventions grabbed major international attention and opened up the possibilities of revolutionizing transportation. Technology improved society by making transportation easier.

     Theodore Roosevelt proved to be an innovative and progressive president. Roosevelt strongly believed in progressivism and tried his best to make the government help social and economic problems in the country. Theodore is mainly recognized for breaking and regulating trusts. He enforced the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and broke the trust of a railroad monopoly named Northern Securities. The attack on the trust frightened most companies and scared them into cooperating with the government’s industry regulation. Theodore Roosevelt also won the Nobel Piece Prize for mediating a settlement between Japan and Russia in 1905. Roosevelt had great interest in nature and wildlife so he passed laws such as the Newlands Reclamation Act to conserve the environment and fund environmental projects. His environmental acts also led to the Conservative movement. Roosevelt made many great changes during his term in office.

     The U.S. held many problems in the 1900’s. Segregation, social poverty, and immigration troubled the country. Segregation ethnically divided the nation through Jim Crow Laws. The people were “separate but equal” and in 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded. W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida Wells, and many others were credited for founding the organization. The NAACP strongly fought to end segregation and racism in the United States.

     Many people in the working class had lived in unsanitary conditions. It was common for the poor to live in small tenement rooms that were overfilled with other residents and had poor sanitation. Muckrakers highlighted these conditions by reporting them in the newspapers and brought its attention to the public. Progressive reformers suggested laws that would create new building policies that required building owners to provide clean water, limit maximum occupancy, and improve sanitation. By 1910, laws were passed that enforced these new policies.

     Immigration was responsible for boosting the population in the country. One third of the Unite States’ population was made up of foreign immigrants by 1900. Immigration records were broken and the United States was seeing more foreigners than ever before.  Foreign culture swarmed the country and caused ethnic hostility. Progressives and native U.S. citizens wanted to help immigrants get a better life in the country by Americanizing them. They thought that without speaking English or being familiar with the country, immigrants could never rise from poverty or the working class.

     The 1900s was a decade that was majorly influenced by the Progressive movement. The movement had become stronger than ever and the people in the country fought for progress, peace, and making the things better. After Roosevelt’s term in office, Taft took presidency in 1908. Roosevelt’s term in office made people believe that the government should assist with social problems and end corruption in the country. Technology revolutionized transportation and Roosevelt’s conservative laws eventually influenced the Conservative movement. The country developed and progressed in the first decade of the 20th century; life in the United States seemed better.

Theodore Roosevelt: http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/

Progressivism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressivism

Progressivism: http://www.progressiveliving.org/progressivism.htm

Theodore Roosevelt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt