U.S. History: Gilded Age, Progressive Era, and American Imperialism

Flashcards covering key U.S. History concepts from the Gilded Age, Progressive Era, and American Imperialism.

Which federal act aimed to assimilate Native Americans by dividing reservation land into individual plots and granting citizenship?

The Dawes Act

The Lakota Ghost Dance movement directly led to which 1890 massacre?

The Wounded Knee Massacre

Which organization of farmers formed for political and educational purposes and advocated for state control of railroad rates?

The National Grange (The Grangers)

Who delivered the famous 'Cross of Gold' speech in support of bimetallism?

William Jennings Bryan

Which federal act signed by President Lincoln encouraged westward expansion by offering up to 160 acres of land to settlers who cultivated it for five years?

The Homestead Act

What was the name of the 800-mile-long cattle trail used by cowboys to drive cattle northward to meatpacking centers?

The Chisholm Trail

What industrial innovation made steel significantly cheaper and faster to produce during the Second Industrial Revolution?

The Bessemer Process

What monopolistic business practice involves controlling every step of a product's production process?

Vertical Integration

Which 1890 law was intended to break up corporate monopolies but was initially used primarily against labor unions?

The Sherman Antitrust Act

What economic system is defined by private ownership and competition for profit?

Capitalism

How does a corporation differ from a trust in business organization?

A corporation raises capital by selling stock shares and holds legal rights like a person; a trust transfers stock control to an independent board to establish a monopoly.

Which group of immigrant laborers performed agricultural stoop labor and became the target of the first U.S. ethnically-based exclusion law?

Chinese immigrants

Which labor union welcomed skilled and unskilled workers, women, and African Americans, but collapsed following the Haymarket Affair bombing?

Knights of Labor

What economic ideology argues that workers, the public, or government should own the means of production rather than private businesses?

Socialism

Whose industrial practices in a company town led to a major 1894 strike that prompted the creation of Labor Day?

George Pullman (The Pullman Strike)

What political philosophy pushes for prioritizing native-born Americans' interests over those of immigrants?

Nativism

Which labor union restricted its membership to skilled white male workers and became the largest union after the downfall of the Knights of Labor?

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Which political agreement resolved the disputed election of 1876 and effectively brought Reconstruction to an end?

The Compromise of 1877

What Supreme Court decision ruled that Black people could not be U.S. citizens and struck down the Missouri Compromise?

Scott v. Sandford (Dred Scott decision)

What military strategy did General Sherman employ during his March to the Sea?

Total war (scorched earth strategy)

Who was freed by President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation?

Only enslaved people residing in Confederate states in rebellion against the Union.

Which constitutional amendment extended voting rights to Black men?

The 15th Amendment

According to census data, what percentage of American teenagers attended school in 1890?

4 percent

Who co-founded the National Child Labor Committee in 1904 alongside Jane Addams?

Florence Kelley

By 1912, how many states had passed child labor laws prohibiting children under 14 from working?

39 states

What Progressive reform allows voters to propose and pass laws directly?

Direct initiative

What Progressive reform enables citizens to vote on whether to approve or reject a law passed by a state legislature?

Referendum

What Progressive reform allows citizens to vote an elected official out of office before their term ends?

Recall

Which organization was created in the late 1800s to unify and direct the national women's suffrage movement?

National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

Which constitutional amendment granted women nationwide the right to vote in 1920?

The 19th Amendment

Where did Booker T. Washington establish a vocational and industrial institute for African Americans?

Tuskegee Institute in Alabama

What civil rights organization was founded in 1909 to secure legal rights for African Americans and combat segregation?

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

What term did W.E.B. Du Bois use for the top 10 percent of educated Black Americans who would lead the race forward?

The 'Talented Tenth'

Which civil rights activist and NAACP co-founder conducted groundbreaking research exposing lynching as an economic tactic?

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Which major corporate holding company was broken up by Theodore Roosevelt using the Sherman Antitrust Act?

J.P. Morgan's Northern Securities Company

What technique did Theodore Roosevelt introduce to settle major labor strikes fairly?

Arbitration using a neutral third party

What were the '3 Cs' of Theodore Roosevelt's Square Deal program?

Control of corporations, Consumer protection, and Conservation of natural resources.

In environmental policy, how does preservation differ from conservation?

Preservation protects wilderness lands entirely from development, while conservation focuses on limiting and managing resource use.

Which government agency was established under President Theodore Roosevelt to safeguard national forest lands?

The U.S. Forest Service

How many total antitrust lawsuits did President William Howard Taft initiate during his single term in office?

90 lawsuits

Which chief forester and conservationist did President Taft fire after he publicly criticized government wilderness sales?

Gifford Pinchot

What third party did Theodore Roosevelt establish to contest the 1912 presidential election against Taft?

The Bull Moose Party

Which 1914 federal law strengthened antitrust enforcement and explicitly exempted labor unions from antitrust prosecution?

The Clayton Antitrust Act

Which 1916 law signed by Woodrow Wilson established early federal regulations prohibiting child labor?

The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act

What central banking authority was created under President Woodrow Wilson in 1913?

The Federal Reserve System (The Fed)

What taxation structure levies higher tax percentage rates on individuals with higher incomes?

Graduated income tax

What independent administrative agency was created in 1914 to investigate and prevent unfair business competition?

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

What was the title of Woodrow Wilson's reform agenda aimed at curbing corporate trust influence and supporting small businesses?

New Freedom

What power did the federal government gain through the ratification of the 16th Amendment?

The authority to levy an income tax.

What electoral change was mandated by the 17th Amendment?

The direct popular election of U.S. Senators by citizens.

What action was mandated nationwide by the 18th Amendment?

The prohibition of the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.

Which constitutional amendment repealed Prohibition in 1933?

The 21st Amendment

What were urban organizations led by full-time politicians that controlled local politics via favors and patronage called?

Political machines

Who was the notorious political boss who ran New York City's Tammany Hall machine?

William 'Boss' Tweed

What fraudulent method did Tammany Hall use to accelerate citizenship for immigrants to secure their votes?

'Naturalization Mills'

How much taxpayer money did Boss Tweed charge to build an NYC courthouse that actually cost $250,000?

$13 million

Which political cartoonist created illustrations exposing Boss Tweed's corruption, leading to Tweed's arrest?

Thomas Nast

Why was the U.S. Senate referred to as the 'Millionaires Club' prior to the 17th Amendment?

State legislatures selected Senators, making seats easily bought through corporate bribes and corruption.

What 1883 reform law required competitive civil service exams for nonmilitary government jobs to end patronage?

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act

What religious movement promoted applying Christian principles to correct social and economic injustice?

The Social Gospel movement

What name was given to Progressive Era investigative journalists who exposed corruption and societal abuses?

Muckrakers

Which monopolistic giant did Ida Tarbell expose in her series for McClure's Magazine?

Standard Oil

Which muckraker documented the squalor of urban tenement housing through photojournalism?

Jacob Riis

What primary condition did Upton Sinclair intend to expose when writing 'The Jungle'?

The harsh exploitation and dangerous working conditions of immigrant laborers in Chicago's meatpacking industry.

Which two consumer protection laws were signed on June 30, 1906, following public outrage over 'The Jungle'?

The Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act

What 1911 NYC industrial disaster killed trapped garment workers and sparked major workplace safety reforms?

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

What movement emerged in the late 1800s encouraging moderation or complete abstinence from alcohol?

The Temperance Movement

What 1890 book by Captain Alfred T. Mahan argued that dominating ocean trade routes was essential for global greatness?

The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1660-1783)

What were the three key pillars of Alfred T. Mahan's naval expansion strategy?

1. Build a modern steel navy ('Great White Fleet'); 2. Obtain Pacific and Caribbean coaling stations; 3. Build a Central American canal.

Who was the Cuban poet and statesman known as the father of Cuban independence who died early in the 1895 revolution?

José Martí

Why did Americans refer to Spanish General Valeriano Weyler as 'The Butcher'?

He instituted reconcentration camps in Cuba that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths from starvation and disease.

How many Cubans are estimated to have died in General Weyler's reconcentration camps?

Between 200,000 and 400,000 Cubans

What style of exaggerated, sensationalized newspaper reporting fueled American public support for war with Spain?

Yellow Journalism

Whose leaked private letter insulting President McKinley as 'weak' outraged the American public in 1898?

Enrique Dupuy de Lôme (Spanish ambassador to Washington)

What U.S. battleship exploded in Havana harbor in February 1898, killing over 260 American crew members?

USS Maine

What congressional resolution guaranteed that the United States would not annex Cuba following its liberation from Spain?

The Teller Amendment

On what date did Congress formally declare war on Spain in 1898?

April 25, 1898

Which U.S. naval officer destroyed the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898, without losing a single ship?

Commodore George Dewey

What volunteer regiment was organized by Theodore Roosevelt and Colonel Leonard Wood to fight in Cuba?

The Rough Riders (First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry)

Which African American regiments fought alongside the Rough Riders during land battles in Cuba?

The Buffalo Soldiers (9th and 10th Cavalry)

What major land victory in Cuba was secured by the combined charge of the Rough Riders and Buffalo Soldiers?

The Battle of San Juan Hill

What was the primary cause of mortality among the 5,500 American troops who died during the Spanish-American War?

Diseases such as malaria and yellow fever.

Which three overseas territories were acquired by the U.S. from Spain in the Treaty of Paris (1898)?

Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.

Which organization was formed by prominent figures like Andrew Carnegie, Jane Addams, and Mark Twain to oppose U.S. territorial expansion?

The Anti-Imperialist League

Which constitutional amendment forced into Cuba's constitution allowed the U.S. to intervene in Cuban affairs and maintain Guantánamo Bay?

The Platt Amendment

What proportion of Cuba's rural land was owned by U.S. businesses in the years following the Spanish-American War?

60 percent

What term refers to the overall set of principles and goals guiding a nation's relations with foreign countries?

Foreign policy

What three main tools do presidents use to pursue foreign policy objectives?

Diplomacy, financial aid, and the threat or use of armed force.

What foreign policy ideology argues that international decisions should be driven strictly by pragmatic self-interest?

Realism

What foreign policy ideology contends that international relations should be guided by moral values and ideals?

Idealism

What two core foreign policy principles did George Washington advocate in his 1796 Farewell Address?

Neutrality and unilateralism

Which 1823 policy statement warned European nations against further colonization or intervention in the Western Hemisphere?

The Monroe Doctrine

What were the two central tenets of the Monroe Doctrine?

Non-colonization and non-interference in the Western Hemisphere.

Which 1803 land purchase doubled the territorial geographic size of the United States?

The Louisiana Purchase

What treaty concluded the Mexican-American War in 1848, resulting in Mexico ceding half of its land to the U.S.?

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

What historical theory asserted that westward expansion across the frontier forged America's democratic character?

Turner's Frontier Thesis (by Frederick Jackson Turner)

What term describes the state policy of expanding overseas territory and influence to secure resources and markets?

Imperialism

Which uninhabited Pacific island group was claimed by the U.S. in 1867 to serve as a coaling station for steamships?

The Midway Islands

Which South Pacific islands became a tri-partite protectorate shared by the U.S., Germany, and Britain in the late 1800s?

The Samoan Islands

In international relations, what is a protectorate?

A nation or territory that is defended and controlled by a stronger foreign power.