Unit 9 - Westward Expansion & Discrimination in the Gilded Age

Pre-Apush unit 9

What does the Gilded Age mean?

When something is covered with gold on the outside but cheaply made on the inside (looks great on the outside, but when you scratch the surface it's not so great)

What are political machines?

powerful organizations that used both legal and illegal methods to get their candidates elected to public office (corruption)

What is the idea of honest/dishonest graft?

politics for personal gain -honest, not illegal ("taking opportunities) -dishonest, illegal (blackmailing)

What's a Laissez Faire government?

-did little domestically (1870-1900) -Main duties during this time→deliver mail, collect taxes & tariffs, conduct foreign policy -Exception: administer the annual Civil War veterens' pension -did this to limit government regulation and allow for rapid industrialization

The presidency wasn't really ruled by the president but by _______.

party bosses -the presidency as a symbolic office -presidents should avoid offending any factions within their own party -president just handed out federal jobs

What was president Grant's administration like?

-full of background dealing -involved in credit mobiler, Jay Cook company, whiskey ring, & Indian ring scandals (diverted a lot of time and energy)

What was tammany hall?

The democratic political machine controlling New York City politics from the 1854 to the 1934.

What were muckrakers?

journalists who exposed the corruption of gilded age politicians through art and writing -Thomas Nast & Upton Sinclair

Who was Boss Tweed?

a usual target of muckrakers, trying to expose the corruption

Government Incentives to Move West:

-Homestead Act 1862 -Pacific Railway Act 1862 -Morrill Act 1862 -Oklahoma Land Run 1889

What was the Homestead Act (1862)?

-gave any 21+ male 260 acres of land -had to build a home and farm for 5 years before being granted full ownership of the land by the government

What was the Pacific Railway Act (1862)?

-Government gave 125 million acres of land to railroad companies to build railroad and telegraph lines -Made the West more modern, created new jobs, and travel became faster

What was the Morill Act (1862)?

-Government gave land to states to build colleges (mostly teaching agriculture) -This was the first time the federal government funded colleges and allowed settlers to receive an education in the west

What was the Oklahoma Land Run (1889)?

-at noon on April 22, 1889 the territory of present day Oklahoma was opened to settlers -50,000 people rushed into the Oklahoma interior to stake their claim, by winning a race (occurred 5 more times)

What did the Great Pacific Railway's impact?

-determined to unite east and west -on its way to becoming a world power -allowed people to have their own farm -carry thousands of western longhorns to the east -bring buffalo hunters (almost making the Natives' food extinct)

What was the railroad's impact on immigration?

-increased immigration (encouraged it) as they needed workers to build the tracks -lots of Chinese discrimination

How did the transcontinental railroad create economic growth and unity?

-increases trade (serves as an important commercial route for natural resources) -allows military authority to maintain peace among Indians and protect those from robbers -causes friendly relations, and secure peace on the Mexican border

The building of the railroads was an identity of diversity how?

all diferent languages, different races

How did the railroad encourage American culture?

-all different people figuring life out -encouraging manifest destiny because they needed to build a civilization out there

Discrimination: Native Americans

-Sand Creek Massacre (1864) -Battle of Washita (1868) -Indian Appropriation Act (1871) -Dawes Act (1887) -Carlisle Indian Industrial School -Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)

What was the Sand Creek Massacre (1864)?

Took place in Colorado

Natives killed a white family

Denver citizens carried out a surprise attack on a non-combatant encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians under Chivington

Black Kettle was there.

What was the Battle of Washita (1868)?

Colonel George A. Custer led U.S. calvary on a surprise dawn attack against the southern Cheyenne village -Black Kettle was killed

What was the Indian Appropriation Act (1871)?

declared that all Indigenous people were no longer considered members of "sovereign nations" and that the US government could no longer establish treaties with them

What was the Dawes Act (1887)?

authorized the president to break up reservation land, which was held in common by the members of a tribe, into small allotments to be parceled out to individuals

What was the Carlisle Indian Industrial School?

Founded in 1879 by Captain Richard Henry Pratt under authority of the US Federal government, Carlisle was the first federally funded off reservation boarding school. -suppressed Native culture -forced assimilation

What was the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)?

-there was a drought that ruined crops and sickness spread so Natives did a "ghost dance" -When Indian police tried to arrest Sitting Bull, a crowd gathered and shot a police officer

Discrimination: African Americans

Jim Crow Laws Plessy v. Ferguson KKK Sharecropping Literacy Tests

What were Jim Crow Laws?

-both North and South discriminated against Blacks -laws enacted to discriminate against blacks and keep them segregated

What was, and the impact of Plessy v. Ferguson?

-Supreme court cases which ruled that segregation was legal as long as there was "separate but equal" facilities -Allowed for the South to legally discriminate for the next 50 years

What was the KKK?

• An organization formed in response to African-American freedom and liberties in the South
• used violence to intimidate, beat and murder Blacks and white abolitionists -forced Republicans out of office in the South

What was sharecropping and its impact?

-Post Civil War agricultural system in the US South where land owners provided land, tools, and seed to farmers (mostly former enslaved, and poor whites) -it created a cycle of debt, perpetual poverty, forced labor, acting as a form of economic subjugation that persisted until the 1930s

What were Louisiana Literacy Tests?

-discriminatory voting requirements used primarily in the US south from the late 19th century to 1965 to disenfranchise black citizens, poor whites and immigrants -these tests part of Jim Crow laws demanded applicants, read, write, or interpret complex legal text allowing officials to disqualify them easily

What was the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)?

-prohibited immigration from China -Won't allow any Chinese already here to become a citizen (Chinese immigration rapidly dropped in one year)

What was the Chinese Exclusion Act "important"?

-the first significant law to restrict immigration based on nationality -a bill of ethnic cleansing (white purity) -reflects how America has developed (and how it used to see itself)

Why did many white Americans support the Chinese Exclusion Act?

-Chinese take too many jobs -becomes the scapegoat of other immigrants -they've created a monopoly in many industries

The Panic of 1873 had what impact?

Nativism increased