CIS US History Unit 3: Industrialization, Immigration, and Imperialism

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, historical figures, legislative acts, and foreign policies across industrialization, the Progressive Era, American imperialism, and World War I.

Industrial Revolution

The transition from handmade products to mass-produced goods using new technology.

First Industrial Revolution

An industrial phase from the late 1700s to the mid-1800s characterized by water wheels, the factory system, and coal power.

Second Industrial Revolution

An industrial phase from the 1860s to the early 1900s featuring steel (the Bessemer process), oil/petroleum, electricity, and trains, which drove urbanization.

Robber Barons

A derogatory term for business tycoons who accumulated massive personal wealth through monopolies, political corruption, and the mistreatment of workers.

Captains of Industry

A positive term for business leaders who utilized their ingenuity and resources to advance the nation and the world.

Philanthropy

The practice of donating substantial portions of personal wealth to fund public institutions and societal goods.

Gospel of Wealth

An influential book by Andrew Carnegie arguing that the wealthy have a moral responsibility to use their fortunes to help society.

Laissez-faire

A 'hands-off' government policy avoiding regulation and oversight, allowing private businesses to operate without state interference.

Social Darwinism

The application of 'survival of the fittest' to human society, asserting that the most capable individuals become wealthy while inferior people remain poor; used to justify eugenics and imperialism.

Monopoly

A market condition in which a single company secures total control over an entire industry, eliminating all competition.

Trust

A legal arrangement where rival companies assign their stock to a single board of trustees, allowing them to fix prices as a united group while feigning independence.

Push Factors

Conditions that force people to leave their native homelands, such as famine, warfare, and persecution.

Pull Factors

Attractions that draw immigrants to a new country, including job opportunities, freedom, and economic prospects.

Old Immigrants

Immigrants arriving primarily from Northern and Western Europe who shared similar cultural, linguistic, and religious backgrounds with existing Americans, facilitating assimilation.

New Immigrants

Immigrants arriving from Southern and Eastern Europe, as well as Asia, who held distinct cultural and religious traditions and suffered intense persecution and stereotyping.

Nativism

An ideology favoring native-born Americans over immigrants, fueled by anxieties regarding job security, wages, religious differences, and cultural changes.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882–1943)

The first federal statute to ban immigration based on nationality, originally suspending Chinese laborer entry for 10 years following anti-Chinese racism and labor competition.

Ellis Island

A major immigration depot in New York that processed mostly European immigrants through relatively orderly legal and medical screenings that often took only hours.

Angel Island

An immigration station in California processing mostly Asian immigrants under harsh, prison-like conditions with interrogations lasting from two weeks to six months.

Labor Unions

Worker organizations, such as the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor (AFL), formed to demand shorter hours, higher wages, and safer working conditions.

Haymarket Strike (1886)

A violent confrontation in Chicago between striking laborers and police officers.

Homestead Strike (1892)

A violent labor dispute at a Carnegie steel plant sparked by wage reductions, during which Pinkerton guards were brought in to confront striking workers.

Pullman Strike (1894)

A nationwide railroad strike halted when the federal government deployed troops to force employees back to work.

Gilded Age

A label coined by Mark Twain describing an era that seemed wealthy and prosperous on the surface but harbored severe corruption, inequality, and industrial abuses underneath.

Grange Movement

A coalition of American farmers organized to combat falling crop prices and mounting debt by advocating for government regulation of railroad rates.

Populist Party (1890s)

A political movement representing farmers and workers against corporate monopoly power, advocating for a graduated income tax and the direct election of U.S. senators.

Progressive Movement

A reform campaign aiming to solve the corruption, monopoly abuses, and unsafe working environments brought on by industrialization via government regulation and social reform.

Muckrakers

Investigative journalists, activists, and photographers who exposed social injustices, municipal corruption, and corporate malpractices.

Jacob Riis

A muckraking photojournalist who documented urban slum conditions to force wealthy citizens to confront extreme economic inequality.

Upton Sinclair

A muckraking author whose writings exposed the unsanitary and dangerous conditions of the Chicago meatpacking industry.

Ida B. Wells

A crusading journalist who supported the women's suffrage movement and co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Square Deal

Theodore Roosevelt's domestic policy focused on the 'Three Cs': conservation of natural resources, consumer protection, and the control of corporations.

Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act (1906)

Federal legislation establishing consumer safety standards for consumables, leading to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), mandatory labels, and federal inspections.

New Freedom

Woodrow Wilson's 1912 domestic platform aimed at reducing tariffs, checking big business dominance, and expanding support for small businesses.

Federal Reserve Act (1913)

Federal legislation establishing the Federal Reserve System to act as the central banking authority of the United States.

Clayton Antitrust Act

Legislation that bolstered existing antitrust measures to curb unfair business practices and dismantle monopolies.

Sixteenth Amendment

A constitutional amendment authorizing the federal government to collect an income tax.

Seventeenth Amendment

A constitutional amendment mandating the direct popular election of U.S. senators by the public rather than by state legislatures.

Eighteenth Amendment

A constitutional amendment prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors, championed by the temperance movement.

Nineteenth Amendment

A constitutional amendment granting American women the right to vote.

Imperialism

The policy of expanding national power and influence by acquiring overseas territories and economic dominance.

Yellow Journalism

Sensationalized and exaggerated newspaper reporting designed to incite public emotion, which helped drive U.S. entry into the Spanish-American War.

Platt Amendment (1901)

An amendment that established the right of the United States to intervene in Cuban affairs and granted the U.S. a naval lease at Guantanamo Bay.

Big Stick Diplomacy

Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy approach characterized by peaceful negotiation backed by the threat of military intervention.

Roosevelt Corollary

An expansion of the Monroe Doctrine asserting the right of the United States to act as an international police force in Latin America.

Moral Diplomacy

Woodrow Wilson's foreign policy advocating for the overseas promotion of democratic principles and moral standards rather than mere economic self-interest.

Banana Republics

Politically unstable Latin American nations whose economies were almost entirely reliant on exporting a single primary product (such as bananas).

M-A-I-N Causes of WWI

The four underlying European causes of World War I: Militarism, secret Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism.

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare

A German naval strategy involving submarine (U-boat) attacks without warning on all merchant and passenger vessels sailing in war zones.

Lusitania

A British passenger liner sunk by a German U-boat, resulting in approximately 1,200 deaths, including 128 Americans, triggering intense domestic outrage.

Zimmermann Telegram

A intercepted secret diplomatic cable sent by Germany proposing a military alliance with Mexico against the United States, catalyzing American entry into WWI.

Selective Service Act (1917)

A federal law authorizing a military draft requiring men initially aged 21 to 30 (later expanded to 18 to 45) to register for military service.

Doughboys

The popular nickname given to American soldiers deployed to Europe during World War I.

Committee on Public Information

A federal agency created during WWI to mobilize public opinion and build support for the war through patriotic propaganda and Liberty bond sales.

Liberty Bonds

Government-issued debt securities sold to American civilians to fund the Allied war effort, redeemable after the war with accrued interest.

Great Migration

The large-scale movement of hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the rural, Jim Crow South to industrial northern cities to secure factory jobs.

Espionage Act (1917)

A federal statute imposing harsh penalties for aiding the enemy, obstructing military recruitment, or interfering with draft procedures.

Sedition Act (1918)

A wartime law making it illegal to utter, write, or publish abusive or disloyal language criticizing the U.S. government, military, or the war effort.

Eugene V. Debs

A prominent American socialist leader who was prosecuted and imprisoned under the Sedition Act for delivering an anti-war address.

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson's peace proposal outlining principles for a post-WWI world, featuring freedom of the seas, free trade, self-determination, and a League of Nations.

League of Nations

An international peacekeeping organization established by the Treaty of Versailles to foster collective security and resolve international disputes peacefully.

Treaty of Versailles

The 1919 peace treaty ending World War I that assigned sole war guilt to Germany, imposed massive financial reparations, redrew boundaries, and established the League of Nations.

Red Scare (1919)

A nationwide panic over the perceived threat of a communist revolution in the U.S., sparked by the Bolshevik Revolution, rising prices, and severe labor strikes.

Palmer Raids

A series of aggressive, warrantless government raids directed by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer against suspected political radicals, anarchists, and foreign-born communists.