The election of 1896 between McKinley and Bryan was impacted by the economic depression that started in the year 1893, which lasted until 1897. The depression of 1893 according to the book Nation of Nations was "the deepest the nation had yet experienced." A lot of companies and banks were failing at this time, this was a hard time for people all over for the companies, and the people who worked in those companies. When people saw that the economy was crashing they all panicked and they started taking out all of their money from the banks, which was one of the things that caused the bank failures. Something else that happened was that "A quarter of the nation's railroads went bankrupt." All of this was very bad for the economy "in total over 15,000 companies and 500 banks failed." The unemployment was very high in these times according to the Nation of Nations book " by August 1893 unemployment stood at 1 million; by the middle of 1894, it was at 3 million." This whole economic crisis connects to the election of 1896 in a few ways because this economic crisis lasted until the year 1897 so the elections were being held during the time of the economic depression. The elections campaign was said to be a "battle of standards." According to the Nation of Nations book. Both of the major parties Republicans and Democrats. The republicans were with he gold standards, and the democrats were with he silver standards and if they should be the nation's monetary standards. So McKinley was for gold, and Bryan was for silver. They each had their own idea of what they thought would bring their economy up from the ground, the populist party was also something that was connected to the election of 1896, they were connected a little bit with the Democrats and they went for the silver standards.
The Populist Party otherwise known as The People's Party was a political party that wanted to represent the farmers and laborers in the 1890's. They were "clinging to their strategy of working within the Democratic party" according to Nation on Nation's , They had a lot of the same thoughts like the Democrats so they followed along with them. In the election of 1896 the Populists also were for silver, at first they thought that the Democrats were going to stick with the gold like the Republicans, they felt that the Democrat party had stolen their thunder by "endorsing silver" according Nation of Nations. They felt that if they did not fuse with the Democrats they were going to loose all of their men that were for silver to a party more powerful than them, the Democrats. So they ended up fusing with the Democrats which did not help Bryan in the campaign. "The nomination of the People's Party actually did more harm than good by labeling Bryan a Populist (which he was not." According to Nation of Nations the populist party fusing with the Democratic party did not actually help Bryan instead it did him harm, Which helped McKinley. The 1896 election showed that there were many parties that contributed to it, in the end the Populist party vanished from the political scene.
Foreign relations is also something that was a theme in the election of 1896. The two presidential candidates had their stand on the annexation of different countries. Bryan was against the annexation of states, and McKinley wasn't. The U.S was expanding and some Americans felt that was a good thing because they felt that they needed to secure raw materials and the consumer markets that were overseas. Others actually did not like the thought of U.S expansionism. In the election Bryan was one of those people who did not think expanding America would help at all. According to The Antiwar Movements book, he argued that "the extension of American power to foreign lands does not make sense financially is illegal under American law, and will inevitably lead to a war." He felt that the expansion was a risk that they should not take. He was an anti-imperialist he did not want there to be any wars. So it was basically McKinley a republican expansionist against Bryan Democratic anti-imperialist. In the 1890's Cuba was in a "State of both political and economic upheaval" they had rebelled against Spanish colonizers who were in control of Cuba since it was Spanish territory. The U.S saw this as an advantage, they passed the Wilson-Gorman Tarrif which made it impossible for Cuba to control the sugar prices they were not able to pick their favorable price, which threw them into a devastating economic crisis. The Americans stepped into the rebels Cuban because they wanted to gain their favor, and that was one of the things that was a conflict between the expansionists, and the anti-imperialists. Which is how that was involved in the 1896 election.
In every time period there are many different things that happen in the world that make elections what they are. It is battle of opposing ideas, of two different candidates. They both have their own ideas about what they are going to do about all of the different situations that are going on at the time or previous issues that were either good for the country or bad. The previous events lead up to the conflicts between the two parties because they both have their own ideas, and they have to put them out there for the people to know what side they are on. Just like our most recent election had gone through with McCain and Obama. This is just a process that every election goes through and will go through for the rest of the years.
"1896: Economic Depression." Index of /. 10 Feb. 2009
Davidson, James West, Brian Delay, William E Gienapp, Christine Leigh Heyrman, Mark H Lytle, and Michael B Stoff. Nation of Nations, Volume 2: Since 1865. New York City: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 2007.
"Panic of 1893 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 10 Feb. 2009
"United States presidential election, 1896 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 10 Feb. 2009
"1896: U.S. Foreign Relations." Index of /. 10 Feb. 2009
American Social Movements - The Antiwar Movement (hardcover edition). Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2004.
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