period 6 part 1 apush

Transcontinental railroad

the first railway connecting the East and West Coasts

promontory point

In Utah, the site where the first Transcontinental Railroad was completed

Homestead Act

federal law granting 160 acres of public land to any U.S. citizen who lived on it for five years, improved i

Indian wars

prolonged, violent conflicts between Native American tribes and European colonists/U.S. government

Battle of Bighorn

a major U.S. Army defeat by native americans, 1876

Battle of Wounded Knee

1890, ended indian wars, tragic massacre of approximately 300 Lakota people

Dawes Act

U.S. law that broke up communal tribal lands into individual plots (allotments) for Native Americans, to promote individual farming, 1887

Indian reservations

designated lands set aside by the U.S. government for Native American tribes,

chief joseph

leader of the Nez Perce tribe, famous for his resistance against the U.S. government's forced removal from their ancestral lands in the Pacific Northwest

Geronimo

native leader known for his fierce resistance against Mexican and U.S. forces during the late 19th-century Apache Wars

Helen hunt jackson

a key 19th-century writer and activist who exposed the U.S. government's mistreatment of Native Americans

boomtowns

a rapidly growing, often chaotic town that springs up overnight in the American West during the 1800s, usually after gold, silver, or other resources are discovered

exodusters

African Americans who migrated from the post-Reconstruction South to the Great Plains

tenant farming

in new south, post-Civil War agricultural system where landless farmers (mostly Black freedmen and poor whites) rented plots from landowners, paying with a share of their crops or cash so economically dependent and often in debt

Crop-lien system

a post-Civil War credit system where Southern farmers, lacking cash, borrowed supplies (seed, tools, food) from merchants, giving the merchant a legal claim (lien) on their future crops

Bessemer process

the first inexpensive method for mass-producing steel

andrew carnegie

a Scottish-American industrialist who built a steel empire using vertical integration, becoming one of the wealthiest men

john d. Rockefeller

the founder of the Standard Oil Company, an industrialist who built a near-monopoly in the oil industry

standard oil

John D. Rockefeller's massive oil company, a symbol of Gilded Age monopolies

Cornelius Vanderbilt

built empire in shipping and railroads, started in steamboats, then massively expanded into railroads, consolidating many smaller lines into powerful networks like the New York Central Railroad

J.P. morgan

dominated corporate finance by merging industries, buying failing railroads, and creating massive trusts

vertical integration

a business strategy where a company gains control over multiple stages of its production and supply chain, from raw materials to final distribution, to increase efficiency, cut costs, and dominate an industry

horizontal integration

a business strategy where a company merges with or acquires its competitors at the same level of production

trust

Several independent companies pool resources and control under one management.

monopoly

when a single company gains exclusive control over an industry, eliminating competition