Unit 6 APUSH

Plaines Indians

Natives who lived in the Midwest along the Great Plaines.

Rancheros

Mexican ranch owners

Transcontinental Railroad

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

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Law that suspended Chinese immigration into America. The ban was supposed to last 10 years, but it was expanded several times and was essentially in effect until WWII. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law that restricted immigration into the United States of an ethnic working group. Example of extreme nativism.

Homestead Act of 1862

Encouraged westward settlement by allowing heads of families to buy 160 acres of land for a small fee ($10-30); settlers were required to develop and remain on the land for five years. Over 400,000 families got land through this law.

Boom Town

A town undergoing rapid growth due to sudden prosperity.

Frontier Thesis

Frederick Jackson Turner's writing on the origin of the distinctive aggressive, violent, innovative and democratic features of the American character.

Concentration

Movement of Native Americans into reservations to limited obstacles to western settlement.

Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull

Led Sioux and Cheyenne troops in the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, defeating George Custer.

Battle of Little Bighorn

In 1876, Indian leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse defeated Custer's troops who tried to force them back on to the reservation, Custer and all his men died.

Custer's Last Stand

At the Battle of Little Bighorn: Custer and men defeated by 2500 Sioux warriors.

Ghost Dance Movement

The last effort of Native Americans to resist US domination and drive whites from their ancestral lands, came through as a religious movement.

Wounded Knee Massacre, 1890

US army killed 200 in order to suppress the Ghost Dance movement, a religious movement that was the last effort of Indians to resist US invasion. Ended Native American resistance in the Great Plains.

Dawes Severalty Act (1887)

Also called the General Allotment Act, it tried to dissolve Indian tribes by redistributing their land. Each Indian family head would be allotted 160 acres. American citizenship would be granted if the Indians remained on the land for 25 years and adopted "habits of civilized life." Surplus reservation lands were available for sale to white settlers. Designed to forestall growing Indian poverty, it resulted in many Indians losing their lands to speculators. Most Indians were unfamiliar with farming and were assigned poor lands so they could not secure a living. Many did not wish to become "civilized" as reflected in the white culture, but sought to retain their own tribal cultures.

Barbed Wire

Used to fence in land on the Great Plains, eventually leading to the end of the open frontier.

Bessemer Process

A way to manufacture steel quickly and cheaply by blasting hot air through melted iron to quickly remove impurities.

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. By 1901, his company dominated the American steel industry.

John D. Rockefeller

Was an American industrialist and philanthropist. Revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. Founded Standard Oil.

J.P. Morgan

A highly successful banker who bought out Carnegie. With Carnegie's holdings and some others, he launched U.S Steel and made it the first billion dollar corporation.

Horizontal Integration

Type of monopoly where a company buys out all of its competition. Ex. Rockefeller

Vertical Integration

An approach typical of traditional mass production in which a company controls all phases of a highly complex production process. (ex. Carnegie)

Trust

A monopoly that controls goods and services, often in combinations that reduce competition.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

United States financier who accumulated great wealth from railroad and shipping businesses.

Social Darwinism

The belief that only the fittest survive in human political and economic struggle.

Gospel of Wealth

This was a book written by Carnegie that described the responsibility of the rich to be philanthropists. This softened the harshness of Social Darwinism as well as promoted the idea of philanthropy.

Horatio Alger Myth

The belief that due to limitless possibilities anyone can get ahead if he or she tries hard enough. Rags to riches.

Monopoly

The exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

July, 1877 - A large number of railroad workers went on strike because of wage cuts. After a month of strikes, President Hayes sent troops to stop the rioting. The worst railroad violence was in Pittsburgh, with over 40 people killed by militia men.

Knights of Labor

Led by Terence V. Powderly; open-membership policy extending to unskilled, semiskilled, women, African-Americans, immigrants; goal was to create a cooperative society between in which labors owned the industries in which they worked.

AFL

A labor union formed in 1886 by Samuel Gompers in order to voice the working class (only highly skilled laborers). It fought against labor forces and debated work conditions for skilled workers. Utilized Strikes.

Homestead Strike

A steelworker strike near Pittsburgh against the Carnegie Steel Company. Ten workers were killed in a riot when "scab" labor was brought in to force an end to the strike in 1982.

Eugene V. Debs

Head of the American Railway Union and director of the Pullman strike; he was imprisoned along with his associates for ignoring a federal court injunction to stop striking. While in prison, he read Socialist literature and emerged as a Socialist leader in America.

Pullman Strike (1894)

A staged walkout strike by railroad workers upset by drastic wage cuts. The strike was led by socialist Eugene Debs but not supported by the American Federation of Labor. Eventually President Grover Cleveland intervened because it was interfering with mail delivery and federal troops forced an end to the strike. The strike highlighted both divisions within labor and the government's continuing willingness to use armed force to combat work stoppages.

New/Old Immigrants

Before 1880, most immigrants came from Northern and Western Europe (German, Irish, English, Scandinavian). After 1880, most immigrants came from Southern and Eastern Europe, Mexico, Latin America, China, and Japan. The new were poor, illiterate peasants, largely Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, and Jewish, while the old were Protestant. Most went to poor ethnic neighborhoods in NY, Chicago, etc. The old had very high literacy and skills, and they came to seek a better life. The new were searching for an opportunity to escape worse living conditions back home.

Assimilation

The social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another.

Nativism

A policy of favoring native-born individuals over foreign-born ones

Frederick Law Olmsted

Designer of New York City's Central Park, who wanted cities that exposed people to the beauties of nature. One of his projects, the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893, gave a rise to the influential "City Beautiful" movement.

Tenement

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

Jacob Riis

Early 1900's muckraker who 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 and published "How the Other Half Lives".

Political Machine

A party organization that recruits voter loyalty with tangible incentives and is characterized by a high degree of control over member activity.

Graft

The acquisition of money in dishonest ways, as in bribing a politician.

Tammany Hall

The most notorious political machine in New York; Marcy Tweed also know as Boss Tweed became head in 1863

Morrill Land Grant Act (1862)

Transferred public acreage to the state governments which could sell land and use proceeds for the establishment of agricultural colleges (for example, Texas A&M). Called "Land-Grant" colleges, it help spread public education in America.

Gilded Age

A name for the late 1800s, coined by Mark Twain to describe the tremendous increase in wealth caused by the industrial age and the ostentatious lifestyles it allowed the very rich. The great industrial success of the U.S. and the fabulous lifestyles of the wealthy hid the many social problems of the time, including a high poverty rate, a high crime rate, and corruption in the government.

Patronage

Granting favors or giving contracts or making appointments to office in return for political support.

Pendleton Civil Service Act

Passed in 1883, an Act that created a federal civil service so that hiring and promotion would be based on merit rather than patronage.

Sherman Antitrust Act

First federal action against monopolies, it was signed into law by Harrison and was extensively used by Theodore Roosevelt for trust-busting. However, it was initially misused against labor unions.

Interstate Commerce Act

Established the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) - monitors the business operation of carriers transporting goods and people between states - created to regulate railroad prices.

Populism/Populist Party

Populist party formed in 1892 by members of the Farmer's Alliance, this party was designed to appeal to workers in all parts of the country. Populists favored a larger role of government in American society, a progressive income tax, and more direct methods of democracy.

Free Silver Movement

Free, unlimited coinage of free silver, which would cause inflation. Supported by farmers, Democrats, the Populist Party, Westerners and Southerners.

Coxey's Army

A protest march by unemployed workers from the United States. It was led by the populist Jacob Coxey. They marched on Washington D.C. in 1894, the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in United States history to that time.

"Cross of Gold Speech"

An impassioned address by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Deomcratic Convention, in which he attacked the "gold bugs" who insisted that U.S. currency be backed only with gold.

Progressives/Progressivism

Believed that direct purposeful intervention in social and economic affairs was essential to the ordering and bettering of society, controlled progress.

Muckrakers

Journalists who attempted to find corruption or wrongdoing in industries and expose it to the public.

Social Gospel

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

Settlement House Movement

Creation of places that offered social services to urban poor - often food, shelter, and basic higher education. Jane Addams' Hull House was most famous.

National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

A group formed by leading suffragists in the late 1800s to organize the women's suffrage movement.

National Women's Party

A militant feminist group led by Alice Paul that argued the Nineteenth Amendment was not adequate enough to protect women's rights. They believed they needed a more constitutional amendment that would clearly provide legal protection of their rights and prohibit sex-based discrimination.

19th Amendment (1920)

Women gained the right to vote

Initative, referendum, recall

Reforms of the Progressive Era aimed at creating a more democratic system.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Fire in New York factory in 1911 that trapped young women workers inside locked exit doors; nearly 50 ended up jumping to their death; while 100 died inside the factory; led to the establishment of many factory reforms, including increasing safety precautions for workers.

Muller v. Oregon

1908 - Supreme Court upheld Oregon state restrictions on the working hours of women as justified by the special state interest in protecting women's health.

Booker T. Washington

African American progressive who supported segregation and demanded that African American better themselves individually to achieve equality.

W.E.B. DuBois

1st black to earn Ph.D. from Harvard, encouraged blacks to resist systems of segregation and discrimination; helped create NAACP in 1910.

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

18th Amendment

Prohibited the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages.