What is the most important event or movement in the period between 1865 and 1900?

Question

What is the most important event or movement in the period between 1865 and 1900?

Answer 1

There are so many:

1. American Revolution. This is the birth of the country and set down what the United States wanted to be.

2. American Civil War. This war changed the United States even further. It strengthened the Federal Government and slightly weakened the states.

3. World War II. This pushed the United States onto the world stage for good. It could not be forced to be isolationist anymore.

All three show the stages of this country; birth, growing pains and maturity.

1. Failure of Reconstruction/beginning of Jim Crow/rise of KKK (reconstruction)

2. Spanish American War/annexation of Hawaii (imperialism)

3. progressivism

4. WWI/influenza

5. Great Depression

You could easily make an argument for the following list:

1. Plessy v. Ferguson

2. Panama Canal

3. Election of 1912

4. Twentieth Amendment

5. Prohibition

or this one

1. Electricity

2. Airplanes

3. Automobiles

4. Stock Market Crash

5. Radio

Answer 2

Joniboni is way off -- don't use her answer because none of those events happened during the period you asked about.  The American Revolution was in 1775, the Civil War ended in 1865, and WWII didn't start until 1939.

The Industrial Revolution is probably the most significant event that occurred in the late 1800s.  This is what fueled the economic and social development of the United States.  Transportation methods were changing (transcontinental railroad; affordable cars; etc... people could now go out and do things), electricity was more widespread, the telephone was invented, large businesses were forming, and people were beginning to move to the city.  People now had more options than farming for their careers...