6.2-6.6 flashcards

Where was the first transcontinental railroad built? How many in total are builty?

Promontory Point, Utah; five total railroads

Two big booms of the west

mining and cattle farming

Homestead Act of 1862

encouraged farming on the great plans by offering 160 acres of free federal land for anyone willing to settle on it for 5 years

Biggest problem farmers faced?

overproduction

The Grange

organized by Oliver Kelley in 1868; helped farmers through educations, co-op buying and selling practices, and collective pressure on government to pass laws protecting farmers and their interests

What did Farmers’ Alliances call for?

direct election of U.S Senators, lowered tariffs, graduated income taxes, a new banking system regulated by the federal government, and expansionist monetary policies

Indian Wars

A series of violent, armed conflicts between United States federal troops/white settlers and various Native American tribes in the American West. These conflicts resulted in the total destruction of the buffalo and the forced confinement of Native peoples to reservations.

Ghost Dance Movement

A religious movement as a last ditch effort by the natives led by Sitting Bull, as it taught them that focus on traditional beliefs and practices would return prosperity to the natives. This failed, as soon the US attempted to ban dancing, and killed Sitting Bull whilst arresting himself

Massacre of Wounded Knee

Dec. 1890 in South Dakota, the US Army gunned down 200+ Native men, women, and children; marked the end of the Indian wars ad any organized resistance to American encroachment of tribal lands.

“A Century of Dishonor”

Written by Helen Hunt Jackson; chronicled the destruction of Native Americans and their culture. However, her book failed to elicit an end to native mistreatment, and instead sparked support of assimilation and further eliminated culture.

Dawes Act of 1887

further separated tribal lands into traditional familial plots of varying sizes and promised citizenship and land ownership for those that farmed the land for 25 years. The best land was seized or sold to whites while native populations began to die from malnourishment, disease, and starvation

What was the first national park established by the

Yellowstone National Park

What did the “New South” push for?

a diversified economy based on laissez-faire capitalism; modernized industrial economy along with the current agricultural economy

George Washington Carver

An African American scientist from Tuskegee, AL who promoted diversified crops such as peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans

Jim Crow Laws

state and local statutes in the South hat enforced racial segregation and disenfranchised African Americans

Plessy v. Ferguson

upheld the legality of the JC Laws, claiming “separate but equal” facilities did not violate the 14th amendment

How were black men disenfranchised by white supremacist groups?

literacy tests, poll taxes, and intimidation; Grandfather clauses were also used, stating that you could vote if your grandfather was able to vote too.

Ida B. Wells

Journalist and teacher who campaigned against lynching in her newspapers

Booker T. Washington

One of the most famous black leaders of the time, and founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a technical college to teach work in the skilled trades. He advocated for the Atlanta Compromise, a plan for accomodation between whites and black, arguing that blacks should focus on building up their own economic strength. He believed this would lead white people to understand the value of blacks as people

W.E.B DuBois

Challenged Booker T. Washington, as he advocated for the full and immediate equality between whites and blacks. Additionally, he helped to found the NAACP

What were the most important inventions and innovations during the post-war era?

telephone, phonograph, lightbulb, dynamo, Bessemer’s purified iron process, electric street cars, subways, elevated trains, steel suspension bridges, and steel skyscrapers

J.P Morgan

dominated the baking and railroad industry

Cornelius Vanderbilt

dominated railroad and shipping industry

Andrew Carnegie

dominated the steel industry with his use of vertical intergration

John D. Rockefeller

dominated the oil industry using horizontal integration; his standard oil company controlled 90% of the oil refinery business, becoming a monopoly

Social Darwinism

the application of Charles Darwin’s concept of “survival of the fittest” to human society, suggesting that the strong naturally succeed while the weak fail. business leaders used this concept to justify immense economic inequality, monopolies, and social disparities as wealth = worthiness