APUSH Unit 6 Vocab :)

Second Industrial Revolution

A period of rapid industrial growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, characterized by advancements in technology, electricity, and mass production, significantly transforming the economy and society in the United States.

Gilded Age

an era in which the “captains of industry” controlled large corporations, created great fortunes, and dominated politics. At the same time, the problems faced by workers, farmers, and burgeoning cities festered under the surface of the new wealth. (INDUSTRIALIZATION!!!!)

Panic of 1893

A severe economic depression that began in 1893, marked by the collapse of some railroads, leading to widespread bank failures, unemployment, and a significant decline in industrial production.

Union Pacific Railroad

A major railroad company in the United States, instrumental in the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad, connecting the eastern United States to the Pacific Coast.

Central Pacific Railroad

A key railroad company that worked alongside the Union Pacific Railroad to complete the First Transcontinental Railroad, facilitating transportation across the western United States. Central Pacific Railroad. Led by Charles Crocker and Included as many as 20,000 Chinese immigrants,who played a crucial role in the construction of the railroad.

Pacific Railway Act of 1861

authorized the building of a transcontinental railroad over a northern route in order to link the economies of California and the Western territories with the Eastern states.

Homestead Act

promoted settlement of the Great Plains by offering parcels of 160 acres of public land free to any person or family that farmed that land for at least five years. Like the headright system in colonial Virginia and the sale of land in the Northwest Territory, this act helped many White settlers, but very few African Americans.

Dawes Severalty Act

The act was designed to break up tribal organizations, which many felt kept American Indians from becoming “civilized” and law-abiding citizens.

Assimilation

the process by which individuals or groups adopt the culture and norms of another group, often leading to the loss of their original identity.

Battle of Wounded Knee

a 1890 confrontation between U.S. troops and Sioux Indians, resulting in the massacre of hundreds of Native Americans, marking the end of armed Native resistance in the Great Plains.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

a prominent 19th-century industrialist known for his significant contributions to the railroad and shipping industries, earning him the title "The Commodore." He merged local railroads into the New York Central Railroad

Jay Gould

a notorious 19th-century financier and railroad magnate, known for his ruthless business tactics and manipulation of stock markets. His stock manipulation and ruthless competition earned him the label of a "robber baron.

Alexander Graham Bell

inventor who developed the telephone.

Thomas Edison

inventor who created the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the practical electric light bulb. His innovations and development of direct current (DC) electricity systems were pivotal during the Gilded Age and helped establish modern industrial society.

Nikola Tesla

inventor and electrical engineer best known for his development of alternating current (AC) electricity, which became the standard for power transmission.

John D. Rockefeller

founder of the Standard Oil Company

Andrew Carnegie

leading industrialist and philanthropist during the Gilded Age who dominated the steel industry through vertical integration.

J. Pierpont Morgan

a powerful banker and financier during the Gilded Age who played a significant role in consolidating industries and stabilizing the economy. He helped reorganize and merge major companies, such as creating U.S. Steel Corporation

Vertical Integration

is a process through which one company takes control of all stages of making a product.

Horizontal Integration

a process through which one company takes control of all its former competitors in a specific industry, such as oil refining or coal mining.

Bessemer Process

a revolutionary method for mass-producing steel by blasting air through molten iron to remove impurities.

Sears, Roebuck and Company

a mail-order retail giant founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah C. Roebuck in 1893. It revolutionized consumer shopping by offering a wide range of products through catalogs, making goods accessible to rural and remote customers.

“laissez-faire”

an economic philosophy that advocates for minimal government intervention in business and market affairs.

Protestant Work Ethic

A number of Americans found religion more convincing than Social Darwinism in justifying the wealth of successful industrialists and bankers. Contributed to capitalism in the USA.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

was a nationwide labor strike that began in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in response to wage cuts and poor working conditions on the railroads.

National Labor Union

the first large-scale national organization of labor unions in the United States, founded in 1866. It aimed to promote better working conditions, higher wages, and the establishment of an 8-hour workday.

Knights of Labor

was the 2nd labor organization founded in 1869 that became the largest and most important American labor group in the 1880s.

The Haymarket Affair

was a violent confrontation between labor protesters and police in Chicago when a bomb was thrown at the police officers.

Samuel Gompers

the founder and long-time president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL)

American Federation of Labor

Unlike the broader and more inclusive Knights of Labor, the AFL focused on organizing skilled workers into craft unions and pursued practical goals such as better wages, hours, and working conditions.

Homestead Steel Strike of 1892

a major labor conflict at the Carnegie Steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania due to cuts in profits.

Pullman Strike of 1894

a nationwide railroad strike that began at the Pullman Company in Chicago. The strike was sparked by wage cuts without corresponding reductions in rent and living costs in the company-owned town where workers lived.

Eugene V. Debs

a prominent labor leader and socialist who played a key role in the American labor movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He founded the American Railway Union (ARU) and led the Pullman Strike of 1894

George A. Custer

a U.S. Army officer and cavalry commander known for his role in the Indian Wars during the westward expansion of the 19th century. He is most famous for his defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn

Great Sioux War

a series of conflicts between the U.S. government and the Sioux tribes, primarily over control of land in the Black Hills, which were sacred to the Sioux and rich in gold.

Range Wars

conflicts in the late 19th century between farmers, ranchers, and sheepherders in the American West over the use of open land

Ellis Island

primary immigration station in the United States from 1892 to 1954. Located in New York Harbor, it served as the entry point for millions of immigrants

Chinese Exclusion Act

banned all new immigration from China.

“Nativist”

someone who favors native-born inhabitants over immigrants and opposes immigration

Social Darwinism 

the belief that Darwin’s ideas of natural selection and survival of the fittest should be applied to the marketplace.

Pragmatism

a philosophical movement that emerged in the late 19th century, primarily led by thinkers like William James and John Dewey who believed that the truth of ideas should be measured by their practical consequences and usefulness in solving real-world problems.

William James

an American philosopher and psychologist, best known for being a leading figure in the pragmatism movement

Reform Darwinism

a social theory that emerged as a critique of Social Darwinism. Proposed by sociologist Lester Frank Ward, it argued that human beings, unlike animals, could actively shape their environments and improve society through cooperation and government intervention.

Political Machine

a political organization in which a boss or a small group commands the support of a large group of people, often in exchange for political favors or jobs.

Tammany Hall

a powerful political machine in New York City, particularly active during the 19th and early 20\th centuries. It was led by figures like Boss Tweed and played a key role in controlling the city's political and economic life.

William “Boss” Tweed

the leader of Tammany Hall, the Democratic political machine in New York City during the mid-to-late 19th century.

Stalwarts

a faction of the Republican Party during the late 19th century. They were led by Roscoe Conkling and were known for their support of the spoils system, which rewarded political supporters with government jobs

Mugwumps

a group of Republican reformers in the 1880s who opposed corruption and broke with their party to support Democrat Grover Cleveland in the 1884 presidential election.

Grover Cleveland

the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, serving two non-consecutive terms (1885–1889 and 1893–1897).

Election of 1888

Democratic President Grover Cleveland faced Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the electoral one.

Granger Movement

a social and political movement that emerged in the late 19th century to address the economic challenges faced by farmers.

Farmers’ Alliances

regional organizations of farmers that emerged in the late 19th century to address economic hardships and advocate for agricultural and political reform.

Populist Party

established in 1892 to represent the interests of farmers and laborers against industrialists and bankers.

Omaha Platform

the official platform of the Populist Party adopted at its founding convention in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1892.

Gold Standard

a monetary system in which the value of a country's currency was directly tied to a specific amount of gold. Under this system, paper money could be exchanged for gold at a fixed rate.

Mary Elizabeth Lease

a prominent political activist and orator during the late 19th century associated with the Populist Party and the Farmers' Alliances. Known for her fiery speeches, Lease encouraged farmers to take political action against the economic injustices

Depression of 1893

a severe economic downturn that began in the spring of 1893 and lasted for several years, marking one of the worst depressions in U.S. history up to that point. It was caused by multiple factors, including overexpansion of railroads and bank failures.

William McKinley

the 25th President of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901.

William Jennings Bryan

a prominent Democratic politician, three-time presidential candidate, and influential orator during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became a leading voice for agrarian and populist causes, advocating for economic and political reforms to support farmers and workers.

George Washington Carver

an African American scientist, educator, and agricultural innovator during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into slavery, Carver overcame significant obstacles to become a leading figure in agricultural science and education.

“Jim Crow” Laws

a series of state and local laws enacted in the Southern United States after Reconstruction that enforced racial segregation and disenfranchised African Americans.

Plessy v. Ferguson 

a landmark Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.

“Separate but Equal”

a legal doctrine established by the Supreme Court in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). It upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation, as long as the separate facilities provided for Black and white people were considered equal.

Ida B. Wells

an African American journalist, activist, and leader in the fight against racial violence and injustice during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She is best known for her work exposing and campaigning against the widespread practice of lynching in the United States.

Booker T. Washington

a prominent African American educator, author, and leader during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He advocated for racial uplift through education, economic self-reliance, and accommodation to segregation as a practical strategy for African Americans to improve their social and economic status.

WEB Du Bois

a prominent African American scholar, civil rights activist, and leader in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a vocal advocate for racial equality, higher education, and political activism, often contrasting with the more gradualist approach of Booker T. Washington.

Dr. Walter Reed

an American physician and medical officer best known for his work in identifying the cause of yellow fever and proving that it was transmitted by mosquitoes, which led to the development of more effective prevention methods.

De Lome Letter

a diplomatic scandal in 1898 that contributed to the tensions leading up to the Spanish-American War. It was a private letter written by Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, the Spanish ambassador to the United States, to a friend in Cuba. In the letter, de Lôme criticized U.S. President William McKinley, calling him weak and labeling his foreign policy as ineffective.

Alfred Thayer Mahan

a U.S. naval officer and historian whose ideas on naval power and imperialism had a significant impact on American foreign policy during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Social Gospel

a religious movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that sought to apply Christian principles to social problems, particularly those stemming from industrialization, urbanization, and poverty. The movement emphasized the importance of social justice, advocating for reforms to improve the lives of the poor and address societal inequality.

Settlement House

a community center in urban areas that aimed to provide social services and support to immigrants and the poor, particularly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Jane Addams

a pioneering social reformer, activist, and leader in the early 20th century who co-founded Hull House in Chicago, one of the most famous settlement houses in the United States.

Gospel of Wealth

an idea popularized by industrialist Andrew Carnegie in the late 19th century. It argued that wealthy individuals had a moral obligation to use their fortunes for the benefit of society, particularly through philanthropy and supporting public goods like education, libraries, and cultural institutions.

Spectator Sports

refer to sports that are primarily watched by an audience rather than actively participated in by the general public

Barnum and Bailey

a famous American circus that became known as the "Greatest Show on Earth."

Sherman Antitrust Act

a landmark U.S. law passed in 1890 aimed at combating monopolies and promoting fair competition in the marketplace.

Greenback Party

a political party in the United States that existed during the late 19th century, primarily focused on advocating for the issuance of paper money, or "greenbacks," by the federal government to help combat deflation and provide economic relief to farmers, workers, and debtors.