| Week 2 Discussion 1 The Progressive Movement and the Age of Imperialism According to Barnes and Bowles (2015) historians associated progressive reforms with industrialization, immigration, and urbanization. Industrialization needed reform because of hazardous and unsafe working conditions. Urbanization and immigration were looked at as needing reform because of living conditions in many city tenements where overcrowding and poor living conditions took place. The need to reform industrialization took place because of poor working conditions such as those in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory where women were forced to work in a locked room for 8 to 12 hours a day with little ventilation (Barnes and Bowles, 2015). Progressives like former factory worker Rose Rosenfeld Freedman voiced their concerns over the safety of workers after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory caught fire and many of the women inside were trapped. After the tragedy, Progressives were successful in getting many states and cities to adopt laws that required strict worker safety protections.
Examine the approaches progressives took regarding American foreign policy, including the policy of Imperialism. Explain these approaches. The approach that American foreign policy had toward other nations is that other nations were viewed as intellectually inferior and needed guidance because they were thought to be unfit to survive (Barnes and Bowles, 2015). Americans often tried to force their own practices and beliefs on other cultures because they thought other cultures were wrong in their beliefs. America Capitalists that invested in these countries that the United States annexed wanted those investments protected. If another country was to come in and take over the country, investors could lose their investment and caused them great financial loses when it came to the resources they were collecting being taken away.
The progressive approach at home was inconsistent with the practice of imperialism overseas. Whites argued that it was acceptable to take land and natural resources from people they felt were inferior. Whites also felt it was acceptable to take control of the government of other nations without their prior consent. This taking control of other nations was seen as a violation of democratic principles that America was based upon and was an argument for the independence of the United States from Great Britain. Barnes, L. & Bowles, M. (2014).The American story: Perspectives and encounters from 1877. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. | 
