Unit 6 AMSCO

transcontinental railroads

These were built across North America in the 1860s, linking the railway network of the Eastern United States with California on the Pacific coast

Great Plains

A mostly flat and grassy region of western North America

Great American Desert

Vast arid territory west of the Missouri River & east of the Rocky Mountains; encouraged westward expansion after Stephen Long's Expedition

100th meridian

imaginary line from the Dakotas to Texas dividing the East and the West

vaqueros

skilled riders who herded cattle on ranches in Mexico, California, and the Southwest

cattle drives

This refers to the forced migration of massive numbers of cattle to the railroads where they could be shipped to the East.

Homestead Act

1862 - Provided free land in the West to anyone willing to settle there and develop it. Encouraged westward migration.

Joseph Glidden

Invented barbed wire

dry farming

a way of farming dry land in which seeds are planted deep in ground where there is some moisture

cash crops

crops, such as tobacco, sugar, and cotton, raised in large quantities in order to be sold for profit

deflation

A situation in which prices are declining

middlemen

In trading systems, those dealers who operate between the original buyers and the retail merchants who sell to consumers.

National Grange Movement

Organized by Oliver H. Kelley primarily as a social and educational organization for farmers and their families.

Granger laws

Grangers state legislatures in 1874 passed law fixing maximum rates for freight shipments.

Munn v. Illinois

1876; The Supreme Court upheld the Granger laws. The Munn case allowed states to regulate certain businesses within their borders

Ocala Platform

A (farmers) platform that would have significant impact in later years: They supported 1) direct election of US senators, 2) lower tariff rates, 3) a graduated income tax, and 4) a new banking system regulated by the federal govt.

Frederick Jackson Turner

American historian who said that humanity would continue to progress as long as there was new land to move into.

The Significance of the Frontier in

American History 1893

Little Big Horn

General Custer and his men were wiped out by a coalition of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse

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.

assimilationists

Wanted to eradicate tribal life and assimilate Native Americans into white culture through education, land policy, and federal law.

Helen Hunt Jackson

United States writer of romantic novels about the unjust treatment of Native Americans (1830-1885)

Dawes Act of 1887

tried to civilize Indians and make them more little settlers by giving them land to farm, instead it harmed their native culture

Indian Reorganization Act

1934 - Restored tribal ownership of lands, recognized tribal constitutions and government, and provided loans for economic development.

Santa Fe Trail

an important trade route going between Independence, Missouri and Santa fe, New mexico used from about 1821 to 1880

Yosemite

1880s in California; created by Congress; Controversy over the Hetchy Valley there-San Francisco residents worried about needing more water, want it to be a reservoir

Yellowstone

first national park

Forest Reserve Act of 1891

Authorized the President to set aside public forests as National Parks and other reserves

Forest Management Act of 1897

withdrew federal timberland from development + regulate their use to be used for future development of national parks + conserving land

conservationists

people who work to protect the environment

preservationists

Those who attempt to maintain in their present condition areas of the Earth that are so far untouched by humans.

John Muir

(1838-1914) Naturalist who believed the wilderness should be preserved in its natural state. He was largely responsible for the creation of Yosemite National Park in California.

Sierra Club

American environmental organization. Helped promote the protection of the environment and nature.

Henry Grady

Journalist from Georgia who coined the phrase "New South". Promoted his ideas through the Atlanta Constitution, as editor. He planned Atlanta's International Cotton Exposition

national rail network

Roadways and railways all across the United states that

made travel more efficient

tenant farmers

A poor farmer who did not own land and had to live on and work the land of others, either for wages or a share of the crop they produced

George Washington Carver

African American farmer and food scientist. His research improved farming in the South by developing new products using peanuts.

Tuskegee Institute

Booker T. Washington built this school to educate black students on learning how to support themselves and prosper

Plessy v. Ferguson

a 1896 Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal

Jim Crow laws

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites

literacy tests

Method used to deny African-Americans the vote in the South that tested a person's ability to read and write

grandfather clauses

Law that excused a voter from literacy test if his grandfather had been eligible to vote on Jan. 1 1867

lynch mobs

In the 1890s, more than 1,400 African American men were lynched (hung by a mob without trial) by Southerns.

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

International Migration

Society

formed by Henry Turner in 1894 to help American blacks emigrate to Africa

Booker T. Washington

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

W. E. B. Du Bois

fought for African American rights. Helped to found Niagra Movement in 1905 to fight for and establish equal rights. This movement later led to the establishment of the NAACP

Atlanta Compromise

Argument put forward by Booker T. Washington that African-Americans should not focus on civil rights or social equality but concentrate on economic self-improvement.

transatlantic cable

Is an undersea cable running under the Atlantic Ocean used for telegraph communications. The first was laid across the floor of the Atlantic.

Alexander Graham Bell

Invented the telephone

Henry Bessemer

Englishman who developed the first efficient method for the mass production of steel

Thomas Edison

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

Menlo Park

It was a research laboratoy set-up by Thomas Edison in New Jersey. A team of experts refined Edison's ideas and translated them into practical inventions.

George Westinghouse

An american entrepreneruer and engineer who invented the railroad and the air brake

Brooklyn Bridge

Designed by John Roebling. Combines two structural systems, steal cables and the arches themselves. established the structural basis for all modern suspension bridges

Otis elevator

Invented the first safe and reliably working elevator.

R. H. Macy

Founded one of the first department stores, Macy's

mail-order companies

railroads allowed for this; Sears, Montgomery Ward; rural companies

Sears, Roebuck & Co.

Retailer who dominated the mailorder industry and by 1907 had become one of the largest business enterprises in the nation; the Sears catalog helped create a truly national market.

Gustavus Swift

In the 1800s he enlarged fresh meat markets through branch slaughterhouses and refrigeration. He monopolized the meat industry.

consumer economy

An economy that depends on a large amount of spending by consumers

American Railroad

Association

In 1883, this organization divided the country into four different time zones, which would become the standard time for all Americans. (p. 320)

consolidation

A hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of information into durable memory codes stored in long-term memory.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

A railroad owner who built a railway connecting Chicago and New York. He popularized the use of steel rails in his railroad, which made railroads safer and more economical.

Jay Gould

United States financier who gained control of the Erie Canal and who caused a financial panic in 1869 when he attempted to corner the gold market (1836-1892)

watering stock

inflating the value of a corporation's assets and profits before selling its stock to the public

rebates

refunds paid to consumers after a purchase

J. Pierpont Morgan

He was a banker who financed the reorganization of railroads, insurance companies, and banks. He bought out Carnegie and in 1901 he started the United States Steel Corporation.

interlocking directorates

The practice of having executives or directors from one company serve on the Board of Directors of another company.

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.

United States Steel

Created by J.P. Morgan from Carnegie's holdings; became the first billion dollar Corporation

John D. Rockefeller

Established the Standard Oil Company, the greatest, wisest, and meanest monopoly known in history

Standard Oil

Established in 1870, it was a integrated multinational oil corporation lead by Rockefeller

horizontal integration

Absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in the same level of production and sharing resources at that level

vertical integration

Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution

holding company

a company whose primary business is owning a controlling share of stock in other companies

laissez-faire

Idea that government should play as small a role as possible in economic affairs.

Adam Smith

Scottish economist who wrote the Wealth of Nations a precursor to modern Capitalism.

Social Darwinism

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

William Graham Sumner

He was an advocate of Social Darwinism claiming that the rich were a result of natural selection

Protestant work ethic

Sociological term used to define the Calvinist belief in hard work to illustrate selection in elite group

concentration of wealth

richest 10 percent of US in 1890s controlled 90 percent of nation's wealth

Horatio Alger

Popular novelist during the Industrial Revolution who wrote "rags to riches" books praising the values of hard work

iron law of wages

proposed principle of economics that asserts that real wages always tend, in the long run, toward the minimum wage necessary to sustain the life of the worker.

collective bargaining

Process by which a union representing a group of workers negotiates with management for a contract

railroad strike of 1877

One of the worst outbreaks of labor violence erupted in 1877, during economic depression, when railroad companies cut wages in order to reduce costs.

craft unions

Labor organizations whose members were skilled workers in a particular craft

National Labor Union

1866 - established by William Sylvis - wanted 8hr work days, banking reform, and an end to conviction labor - attempt to unite all laborers

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

Gilded Age

A name for the late 1800s, coined by Mark Twain to describe the tremendous increase in wealth

Haymarket bombing

bomb thrown at protest rally, police shot protestors, caused great animosity in employers for workers' unions

American Federation of

Labor (AFL)

a national organization of labor unions founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers

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

Homestead strike

1892 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.

Pullman strike

in Chicago, Pullman cut wages but refused to lower rents in the "company town", Eugene Debs had American Railway Union refuse to use Pullman cars