Gilded Age, Progressive Era, Imperialism, and WWI Review

A comprehensive collection of vocabulary flashcards covering key figures, concepts, events, and legislation from the Gilded Age, Progressive Era, American Imperialism, and World War I.

Sitting Bull

A famous Lakota chief who fought fiercely to protect Native American lands from the government.

Teddy Roosevelt

A president who loved nature, built the Panama Canal, and stopped bad business monopolies.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

A wealthy businessman who made a massive fortune by building and owning America's railroads.

Chief Joseph

A peaceful Nez Perce leader who tried to lead his people safely to Canada to escape the army.

John D. Rockefeller

A billionaire who owned Standard Oil and controlled almost all the oil business in America.

Andrew Carnegie

A rich businessman who ruled the steel industry and gave his money away to build public libraries.

Woodrow Wilson

The U.S. President during World War I who created a big plan for world peace.

19th Amendment

A constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote in all elections.

Mass Production

The process of making huge amounts of items quickly and cheaply using machines.

Social Darwinism

The false idea that rich people are naturally better or smarter than poor people.

Gospel of Wealth

Andrew Carnegie's idea that rich people have a duty to give their money back to help society by building things like libraries and schools.

2nd Industrial Revolution

A period of massive economic boom fueled by new inventions like electricity, steel, and oil that helped factories produce goods faster than ever before.

Reservations

Small patches of land where the government forced Native Americans to live after taking away their ancestral lands.

Ellis Island

An immigration station where the majority of arriving immigrants came from European countries such as Italy, Russia, and Ireland.

Angel Island

An immigration station where the majority of arriving immigrants came from Asian countries such as China and Japan.

Vertical Integration

A business strategy that involves buying every single step of making a product, from raw materials to delivery trucks.

Horizontal Integration

A business strategy that involves buying out all competitor businesses that sell the exact same product until only one company remains.

Dawes Act

An unsuccessful law that attempted to force Native Americans to abandon their culture and become traditional neighborhood farmers, resulting in the loss of even more Native land.

Yellow Journalism

Shocking, scandalous, and wildly exaggerated news stories written specifically to scare people and sell more newspapers.

Muckrakers

Journalists who attempted to uncover and expose corruption, bad business practices, and dirty living conditions so they could be addressed and fixed.

Chinese Exclusion Act

A harsh law that banned Chinese workers from moving to the United States.

Progressives

Reformers who worked to fix dirty cities, unsafe factories, corrupt politicians, and unfair rules affecting workers and children.

Populism

A political movement started by regular farmers to fight powerful banks, lower shipping costs on railroads, and obtain government help for everyday working people.

Political Machine

A corrupt, unofficial group of politicians that controlled a city's government and votes by dispensing jobs and favors in exchange for power.

Tammany Hall

The most famous and highly corrupt political machine in New York City, operated by Boss Tweed.

Initiative

A political reform that allows citizens to suggest new laws.

Referendum

A political reform that lets citizens vote directly to approve or block a law.

Recall

A political reform that gives citizens the power to remove a bad leader from office early.

Laissez-faire

The philosophy or belief that the government should completely stay out of business affairs and leave the economy alone.

Free Silver Movement

A plan to print large quantities of silver coins alongside gold money to expand the cash supply, making it easier for regular farmers to pay off debts.

Massacre at Wounded Knee

A tragic event in which U.S. soldiers surrounded and killed hundreds of unarmed Lakota men, women, and children.

USS Maine

An American battleship that exploded and sank while stationed in Cuba, an incident blamed on Spain that triggered the Spanish-American War.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The archduke of Austria-Hungary whose assassination—blamed on Serbia—sparked the outbreak of World War I.

Queen Liliuokalani

The last queen of Hawaii who, along with native Hawaiians, opposed the U.S. annexation of Hawaii to keep her nation free.

Rough Riders

A group of volunteer cavalry soldiers led by Teddy Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War.

Imperialism

A foreign policy adopted by the U.S. to acquire new raw materials, open new trading markets, project military power, and spread American culture.

Fourteen Points

President Woodrow Wilson's comprehensive peace proposal designed to establish lasting world peace and prevent future conflicts like World War I.

League of Nations

An international organization proposed in Wilson's Fourteen Points where member countries could negotiate and resolve disputes peacefully instead of fighting.

Treaty of Versailles

The official peace treaty that ended World War I.

War Guilt Clause

A punitive provision forced onto Germany by the victorious Allies requiring Germany to accept 100% of the blame for starting World War I and pay billions in reparations.

The Allies (WWI)

The wartime coalition initially comprising Great Britain, France, Russia, and later joined by the United States.

The Central Powers

The wartime alliance consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Zimmerman Telegram

A secret diplomatic message from Germany proposing an alliance with Mexico to attack the United States, outraging Americans and pushing the nation into World War I.

Victory Gardens

Vegetable gardens planted by regular citizens on the home front to supply food and support the war effort during World War I.

Selective Service Act

A federal law establishing a military draft that utilized a lottery system to select men for army service.