History Exam 1 review

first semester

New Immigration

The wave of immigrants to the US around 188-1920.

Where did a lot of immigrants from New Immigration come from?

largely from Southern and Eastern Europe (Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, etc.), in contrast to earlier immigrants who mostly came from Northern and Western Europe.

What was the impact of New Immigration?

Rapid urbanization, industrial labor supply, cultural diversity, social tensions, and debates over assimilation, citizenship, and national identity

Margaret Sanger

Birth control advocate; opened first birth control clinic, led to Planned Parenthood.

Eighteenth Amendment (1919) 

Prohibited manufacture and sale of alcohol (Prohibition).

Red Scare (1919–20)

Fear of communism and radicals after WWI; led to raids and deportations.

Great African American Migration 

Movement of African Americans from South to North (1910–1970); driven by jobs, escape from racism.

Harlem Renaissance 

Cultural flowering of Black art, literature, and music in 1920s

Committee on Public Information (CPI) 

WWI propaganda agency led by George Creel to rally support for the war.

Spanish-American War (1898)

U.S. war with Spain; gained Puerto Rico, Guam, and Philippines.

Philippine Insurrection (1899–1902) 

Guerrilla war against U.S. rule after annexation; suppressed by U.S. army.

Panama Canal (1914) 

Strategic canal built by U.S. after supporting Panama’s independence from Colombia.

Queen Liliuokalani

Hawaiian monarch overthrown by U.S.-backed planters; annexation followed.

Lusitania (1915)

British passenger ship sunk by German U-boat, killing Americans; increased U.S. support for entering WWI.

Zimmerman Telegram (1917) 

German proposal urging Mexico to ally against U.S.; sparked U.S. entry into WWI.

Treaty of Versailles (1919) 

Ended WWI; blamed Germany, demanded reparations, created League of Nations (U.S. didn’t ratify).

Naval Reserve Act (1916) 

Expanded U.S. navy before entering WWI; reflected preparedness movement.

George Creel

Head of CPI; promoted pro-war propaganda.

Randolph Bourne 

Intellectual who opposed WWI; championed cultural pluralism instead of forced assimilation.

William Jennings Bryan

Populist/Democratic leader; anti-imperialist; prosecutor in Scopes Trial.

Imperialism

a policy of extending a country's power and influence through colonization, use of military force, or other means:

Social Darwinism 

Idea applying “survival of the fittest” to society and economics; used to justify inequality and big business.

Jacob Riis

Muckraker/photographer who exposed tenement life in How the Other Half Lives (1890).

Terence Powderly

Leader of the Knights of Labor; supported cooperative reforms and broad worker unity.

Samuel Gompers 

Leader of the AFL; promoted “bread and butter” unionism.

Ida Tarbell

Exposed Standard Oil

Clarence Darrow 

Lawyer who defended labor activists and taught evolution in the Scopes Trial (1925).

Dawes Severalty Act (1887)

Broke up tribal lands into private plots to force Native assimilation; resulted in major land loss.

Union Pacific Railroad

Company building the eastern portion of the first transcontinental railroad (starting in Omaha).

Central Pacific Railroad 

Built the western portion of the transcontinental line (from Sacramento); relied heavily on Chinese labor.

Homestead Act (1862)

Offered 160 acres of free land to settlers willing to farm; spurred westward migration.

Sitting Bull 

Lakota Sioux leader; resisted U.S. expansion, fought at Little Bighorn, later part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

Henry Pratt 

Founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School; promoted forced assimilation (“Kill the Indian, save the man”).

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

First U.S. law banning immigration based on nationality; targeted Chinese laborers.

Push Factors

Conditions driving people out of homelands (e.g., poverty, war, persecution).

Pull Factors

Attractions drawing immigrants to new countries (e.g., jobs, land, freedom).

Knights of Labor 

Early inclusive labor union (1869); sought broad social reforms but declined after the Haymarket Riot.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Founded 1886 by Samuel Gompers; focused on skilled workers, wages, hours, conditions.

People’s Party (Populists)

Farmers’ political movement (1890s) pushing for silver coinage, government rail regulation, and direct democracy reforms.

Haymarket Riot (1886)

Chicago labor protest turned violent after a bomb killed police; linked unions with radicalism.

Pullman Strike (1894)

Railroad strike over wage cuts; federal troops intervened, showing government siding with business.

Tammany Hall

Democratic political machine in New York City; helped immigrants but notorious for corruption.

Ida Tarbell

Muckraker who exposed Standard Oil’s monopolistic practices.

John D. Rockefeller

Industrialist; founder of Standard Oil, symbol of monopolies/trusts.

Presidential Reconstruction

Andrew Johnson’s lenient post–Civil War plan (1865–67); quickly restored Southern states but allowed former Confederates to regain power.

Congressional Reconstruction

Radical Republicans’ stricter approach (1867–77); imposed military rule in the South and expanded rights for freed people.

Black Codes

Post–Civil War Southern laws that restricted African Americans’ rights, keeping them tied to plantation labor.

Compromise of 1877

Deal ending Reconstruction; Hayes became president, federal troops withdrew from the South, effectively abandoning Black civil rights.

Sharecropping

Farming system in the South where freedmen and poor whites rented land for a share of crops; kept many in debt.

Ku Klux Klan

White supremacist group founded in 1866; used terror and violence to suppress Black political participation.

Jim Crow Laws

State laws enforcing racial segregation (1870s–1960s), legalizing “separate but equal.