United States History Since 1877 STAAR Review

Gilded Age

1870s - 1890s; time period looked good on the outside, despite the corrupt politics and growing gap between the rich and poor

Alexander Graham Bell

He was an American inventor who was responsible for developing the telephone.

Thomas Edison

American inventor best known for inventing the electric light bulb, acoustic recording on wax cylinders, and motion pictures.

Free Enterprise System

An economic system in which people are free to operate their businesses as they see fit, with little government interference.

Laissez-Faire

No government intervention in business.

Bessemer Process

A process for making steel more efficiently, patented in 1856.

Entrepreneurship

Accepting the risk of starting and running a business.

Monopoly

A market in which there are many buyers but only one seller.

Andrew Carnegie

A business man that increased his power through by gaining control of the many different businesses that make up all phases of steel production development.

John Rockefeller

Creator of the Standard Oil Company who made a fortune on it and joined with competing companies in trust agreements that in other words made an amazing monopoly.

Robber Baron

a negative term for business leaders that implied they built their fortunes by stealing from the public

Captain of Industry

business leader who has a positive impact

Political Machines

Corrupt organized groups that controlled political parties in the cities. A boss leads the machine and attempts to grab more votes for his party.

Political Boss

representative for or head of the political machine; gained votes for their parties by doing favors for people.

Immigration

Coming to live permanently in a foreign country

Nativists

U.S. citizens who opposed immigration because they were suspicious of immigrants and feared losing jobs to them

Child Labor

Children were viewed as laborers throughout the 19th century. Many children worked on farms, small businesses, mills and factories.

Labor Union

An organization of workers that tries to improve working conditions, wages, and benefits for its members

Strikes

times when workers refuse to work until owners improve conditions

Knights of Labor

1st effort to create National union. Open to everyone but lawyers and bankers. Vague program, no clear goals, weak leadership and organization. Failed

Samuel Gompers

He was the creator of the American Federation of Labor. He provided a stable and unified union for skilled workers

Manifest Destiny

A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific.

Westward Migration

the movement of people to the western and mid-western states to find new opportunities (ex. jobs, land, and gold).

Homestead Act

1862 - provided free land in the west as long as the person would settle there and make improvements in five years

Transcontinental Railroad

Completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, it linked the eastern railroad system with California's railroad system, revolutionizing transportation in the west

Great Plains

A mostly flat and grassy region of western North America

Frontier

a wilderness at the edge of a settled area of a country

Gold Rush

rush of immigration to and for gold in California.

Indian Wars

1850 to 1890; series of conflicts between the US Army / settlers and different Native American tribes

Reservations

areas of federal land set aside for American Indians

Dawes Act

1887 law which gave all Native American males 160 acres to farm and also set up schools to make Native American children more like other Americans

New Immigration

Immigrants from Southern and Eastern European countries and Asia arriving in the late 1800s

Ellis Island

An immigrant receiving station that opened in 1892, where immigrants were given a medical examination and only allowed in if they were healthy

Tenement

A building in which several families rent rooms or apartments, often with little sanitation or safety

Chinese Exclusion Act

(1882) Denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate.

Progressive Era

time at the turn of the 20th century in which groups sought to reform America economically, socially, and politically

Populists

third party political movement to address farmers' plight

Social Gospel

A movement in the late 1800s / early 1900s which emphasized charity and social responsibility as a means of salvation.

Americanization

cause to acquire and conform to American characteristics. For Native Americans and Immigrants

Assimilation

A policy in which a nation forces or encourages a subject people to adopt its institutions and customs.

muckraker

Early 1900's Jacob Riis exposed social and political evils in the U.S. with his novel "How The Other Half Lives" exposed the poor conditions of the poor tenements in NYC

Jane Addams

the founder of Hull House, which provided English lessons for immigrants, daycares, and child care classes

Alfred T. Mahan

Author who argued in 1890 that the economic future of the United States rested on new overseas markets protected by a larger navy. Wrote "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History"

Sanford B. Dole

1894 wealthy, plantation owner and politician who was named President of New Republic of Hawaii. He asked US to annex Hawaii.

Theodore Roosevelt

26th President of the United States, 26th president, known for: conservationism, trust-busting, Hepburn Act, safe food regulations, "Square Deal," Panama Canal

Yellow Journalism

Journalism that exploits, distorts, or exaggerates the news to create sensations and attract readers

Causes of Spanish American War

Yellow journalism, imperialism, Spain brutality to the Cubans, explosion of the USS Maine.

Spanish American War

In 1898, a conflict between the United States and Spain, in which the U.S. supported the Cubans' fight for independence

Result of Spanish American War

Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam became territories of the US. US became a World Power

Open Door Policy

A policy proposed by the US in 1899, under which ALL nations would have equal opportunities to trade in China.

Imperialism

A policy in which a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries politically, socially, and economically.

Panama Canal

a ship canal 40 miles long across the Isthmus of Panama built by the United States (1904-1914)

Dollar Diplomacy

Foreign Policy idea by Taft to make countries dependant on the U.S. by heavily investing in their economies

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

First United States law to limit trusts and big business. Said that any trust that was purposefully restraining interstate trade was illegal.

Interstate Commerce Act

law passed to regulate (by the government) railroad and other interstate businesses.

Progressive Party

Also known as the "Bull Moose Party," this political party was formed by Theodore Roosevelt in an attempt to advance progressive ideas and unseat President William Howard Taft in the election of 1912.

Initiative, Referendum, Recall

All made elected officials more responsible and sensitive to the needs of the people, and part of the movement to make government more efficient and scientific during the Progressive Era.

Upton Sinclair

muckraker who shocked the nation when he published The Jungle, a novel that revealed gruesome details about the meat packing industry in Chicago. The book was fiction but based on the things Sinclair had seen.

National Forest Service

Government agency created by Theodore Roosevelt to preserve land and protect local animal species.

Pure Food and Drug Act

the act that prohibited the manufacture, sale, or shipment of impure of falsely labeled food and drugs

Federal Reserve Act

a 1913 law that set up a system of federal banks and gave government the power to control the money supply

17th Amendment

Passed in 1913, this amendment to the Constitution calls for the direct election of senators by the voters instead of their election by state legislatures.

18th Amendment

Prohibited the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages

19th Amendment

Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1920) extended the right to vote to women in federal or state elections.

Susan B. Anthony

Key leader of woman suffrage movement, social reformer who campaigned for womens rights, the temperance, and was an abolitionist, helped form the National Woman Suffrage Assosiation

Plessy vs. Ferguson

Supreme court case that ruled that separate-but-equal facilities for blacks and whites did not violate the constitution.

W.E.B Du Bois

believed that African Americans should strive for full rights immediatly; founded the NAACP

Ida B.Wells

African American journalist. published statistics about lynching, urged African Americans to protest by refusing to ride streetcards or shop in white owned stores

Causes of WWI

1. A system of alliances divide Europe into two parts 2. Nationalism was very prevalent in the countries of Europe 3. Militarism or reliance on military strength 4. Imperialism and the conquering of countries in Asia, South America, and Africa 5. The assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by the Black Hand

US Entry in WWI

-1915: Lusitania sunk by Germans (killed 125 Americans) -President Wilson sent ultimatum to Germans (you don't change your ways with subs, we're your enemies) -Germans did change, but reverted back to their ways in 1917 -Zimmerman telegram (created by Germans to provoke a war between Mexico and US to distract them) in 1917 was the trigger, then US declared war on Germany

Trench Warfare

Fighting with trenches, mines, and barbed wire. Horrible living conditions, great slaughter, no gains, stalemate, used in WWI.

WWI Technology

airplanes, poisonous gas, tanks, machine guns, zeppelins, flamethrowers, barbed wire, submarines

Fourteen Points

A series of proposals in which U.S. president Woodrow Wilson outlined a plan for achieving a lasting peace after World War I.

Treaty of Versailles

the treaty imposed on Germany by the Allied powers in 1920 after the end of World War I which demanded exorbitant reparations from the Germans

League of Nations

A world organization established in 1920 to promote international cooperation and peace. It was first proposed in 1918 by President Woodrow Wilson, although the United States never joined the League. Essentially powerless, it was officially dissolved in 1946.

Great Migration

movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920

Propaganda

Ideas spread to influence public opinion for or against a cause.

Sedition Act

1918 law that made it illegal to criticize the government

Isolationism

A national policy of avoiding involvement in world affairs

Red Scare

A social/political movement designed to prevent a socialist/communist/radical movement in this country by finding "radicals" incarcerating them, deporting them, and subverting their activities

Palmer Raids

A 1920 operation coordinated by Attorney General in which federal marshals raided the homes of suspected radicals and the headquarters of radical organization in 32 cities.

Social Darwinism

19th century of belief that evolutionary ideas theorized by Charles Darwin could be applied to society.

KKK

Started right after the Civil War in 1866. Revived in the 1920s

Roaring Twenties

Nickname for the 1920s becasue of the booming economy and fast pace of life during that era

Return to Normalcy

After World War I 1919-20s, when Harding was President, the US and Britain returned to isolationism. The US economy "boomed"; but Europe continued to struggle. It was the calm before the bigger storm hit: World War II

Henry Ford

American businessman, founder of Ford Motor Company, father of modern assembly lines, and inventor credited with 161 patents.

Assembly Line

In a factory, an arrangement where a product is moved from worker to worker, with each person performing a single task in the making of the product.

Consumer Credit

a type of credit granted by retailers that is used by individuals or families for satisfaction of their own wants

Jazz

A style of dance music popular in the 1920s

Harlem Renaissance

A period in the 1920s when African-American achievements in art and music and literature flourished

Prohibition

the period from 1920 to 1933 when the sale of alcoholic beverages was prohibited in the United States by a constitutional amendment

Flapper

carefree young women with short, "bobbed" hair, heavy makeup, and short skirts. The flapper symbolized the new

"liberated" woman of the 1920s.

Scopes Monkey Trial

1925, the trial that pitted the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution against teaching Bible creationism

Clarence Darrow

A famed criminal defense lawyer for Scopes, who supported evolution. He caused William Jennings Bryan to appear foolish when Darrow questioned Bryan about the Bible.

Causes of Great Depression

Higher US tariffs, Overproduction of food, buying on margin, market speculation, stock market crash, bank failures

Hooverville

Depression shantytowns, named after the president whom many blamed for their financial distress

1929

Great Depression begins/Stock Market Crash

Dust Bowl

Region of the Great Plains that experienced a drought in 1930 lasting for a decade, leaving many farmers without work or substantial wages.

President Harding

This president promised a "return to normalcy" when he was elected. His administration was full of scandal and corruption, including the Teapot Dome scandal.

President Coolidge

He became president after Harding died in office. He fired those involved in the scandals; increased government support of business and encouraged a continuation and expansion of Harding's policies.