Ex-010: Explain Why Republicans Won All the Presidential Elections between 1896 and 1908 (McKinley and T.Roosevelt)? (12 marks)

?

Explain Why Republicans Won All the Presidential Elections between 1896 and 1908 (McKinley and T.Roosevelt)? (12 marks)

Causes

  • Popular with big business and urban voters.
  • Popularity of specific issues such as imperialism.
  • Mark Hannah/Electioneering.
  • Popular with ethnic voters/African-Americans since the end of the civil war.
  • Popularity of republican leaders such as McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

Effects

  • Republicans supported the gold standard and this was popular with big business, rich farmers and urban workers. Democrats less popular because they supported free coinage of silver which helped poorer farmers and rural areas. Republicans while mostly laisse-faire in their approach to big business they did put on tariffs to make people buy American products. Democrats wanted lower tariffs to make goods cheaper for normal consumers.
  • Republicans tended to follow a more expansionist foreign policy and many people liked this because they believed it would bring money to America. The Democrats were generally anti-imperialist.
  • Mark Hannah managed Mckinleys campaigns of 1896 and 1900 and is often credited with creating modern electioneering techniques. He had a huge big business empire in coal, iron, shipping and banking and used $100,000 of his own money along with other money raised (around $16 million) from big business to run the campaign for McKinley. He created posters which showed the difference between the 2 main parties and suggested if people voted McKinley American factories would thrive. He employed 1500 republican campaign workers/speakers and sent letters out to voters.
  • Abraham Lincoln led the North to victory during the civil war, they were seen as the party who freed the slaves at the end of the civil war. The Republican Party was formed in 1854 as part of the anti-slavery movement.
  • McKinley was a civil war veteran and T. Roosevelt fought with distinction in Cuba in the Spanish-American war, this made them well known and popular.

Overall summary

In conclusion, show the inter-relationship of the reasons given. You might explain that in this period the Republicans were in tune with the changing times through issues such as Imperialism and Progressivism whereas the Democrats were associated with specific small town America and farming.

Comments

No comments have yet been made