Gilded age and Westward Expansion

Boss Tweed (William Mager Tweed)

Most corrupt politician during the Gilded age

Leader of the Tammany Hall (Political Machine in NYC)

Fraud election (hired police so they did not do much about it)

Political Machine

Controlled the activities of a political party in a city (Immigrants made these successful-Tammany Hall gave immigrants jobs, housing, food, and fuel when official city services failed)

Graft

Taking bribes in return for votes and support

Spoils System

Donating to president’s campaign would secure a government job

Civil service jobs were in high demand (high pay benefits)

Patronage

Giving jobs and favors to those who helped a candidate get elected

Pendleton Civil Service Act

created a merit based system for government positions.

Candidates had to have qualifications, college degrees, etc

President Garfield

Assassinated because Charles Guiteau wanted a job using the spoils system but Garfield refused

Eventually lead to civil service reform merit based system

Assassination

Deliberate and premeditated murder of a prominent or important person

Could be for political, ideological, or social reasons

Morrill Land-Grant Act

Gave State governments millions of acres of western lands

states could then sell to raise money for creation of “land grant”-colleges specialized in agriculture and mechanical arts

Land speculator

People who bought up large areas of land in hope of selling it later for profit

Homestead Act

Homesteaders could apply for 160 acres of free land if they could survive on it for 5 years

Farmers would end up in an endless cycle of debt

Exoduster

African Americans who migrated from the post-Reconstruction South to the Great Plains

escape racial violence, oppression, and economic exploitation

Push factors

Famine

poor economy

war

dictator

Pull Factors

Good education

Universal health care

Great economy

Civil Liberties and freedom of speech and religion

Battle of Little Bighorn

Red cloud launched a 2-year war to block the Bozeman trail from being built

Sioux refused to leave their land

Wounded Knee Massacre

Massacre of 300 Native Americans by US soldiers

Ended all organized Native American Resistance

Assimilation

The process of getting rid of Native Americans

The Ghost Dance

Native American resistance to assimilation

A moment to revive culture and spiritual traditions

Was misinterpreted by U.S. soldiers and seen as a threat

Indian Appropriation Act

Nullified all previous treaties with Native tribes

Nullified

Get rid of

Reservations

Land given to native Americans to get rid of them

Dawes Act

Divide reservation lands into individual plots