Reconstruction in the United States

During the period of westward expansion many conflicts arose between the US government and the various Native American tribes that had inhabited this land for centuries before the arrival of western settlers. Many of these conflicts were disagreements over territory. One Native American tribal chief, Black Kettle, signed the treaty of Fort Laramie in 1851, which exchanged safe travel for settlers through southern Cheyenne land for a yearly allowance of $50,000. However when gold was discovered in Colorado, the government reduced the Cheyenne’s land to a fraction of what they had before known as the Sand Creek Reservation. Because of the low quality of the land provided by the government, the Cheyenne were unable to grow crops or raise livestock. Because the Cheyenne had to resort to attacking passing wagons to be able to survive the local militia attacked the Cheyenne. Even after chief Black Kettle received guarantied protection provided by the government and signaled to the advancing militia that they surrendered, they were attacked in an event that became known as the sand creek massacre.

Presidents Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson each had different views on multiple issues during the progressive era, and their respective diplomacies reflected those views. One area of interest is the nation’s focus on industry and big business. Roosevelt and Wilson both supported industrial reform, however, during his time as vice president, Taft strongly opposed Roosevelt’s initiative into reform of any kind. When Taft ran for president in 1912 he was forced to change his stance on reform if he was going to win the election, hence Taft’s notably conservative election platform, which included industrial reform, among others, to try to win over the majority of the vote so he could win the election.

When the question of labor reform arose, it was basically the same story; Roosevelt and Wilson were avid supporters of labor reform, while Taft thought it best not to get involved. Roosevelt’s most notable labor reform diplomacy was the institution of the Department of Commerce and Labor, which was later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor under Taft’s presidency. Wilson passed the Keating-Owen child Labor Act, which is arguably the most important labor reform during the progressive era; it also set the foundation for today’s child labor laws.

Aside from the major reform issues of the time, each president had one or more of their own reform ideas. Roosevelt was a strong supporter of environmental conservation, so too was Taft, but was never able to gain the popularity of Roosevelt on the matter. Wilson had more economically aimed reforms, including the reintroduction of the income tax, which inevitably became what we know today as the Internal Revenue Service, more commonly known as the IRS.