US History Vocab

What were the three main results following the end of the American civil war (1865)?

1. heavy losses (620k casualties/susceptible to uk invasino)

2. southern economy struggle (old railroads/land destroyed/couldn’t pay people)

3. freedom of the slaves (3.9M freed/more than white population in some places/slaves given nothing and lots of hostility toward them)

Minimal Reconstruction

Less rights for hte slaves, and more focus towards US reconciliation

Who is associated with minimal reconstruction?

Abraham Lincoln

Radical reconstruction

Full rights for slaves and less focus on the nation’s bounce-back

Who was associated with radical reconstruction?

Sumner and Stevens

Who was the president after Lincoln?

His democratic VP, Andrew Johnson

Andrew johnson

17th president, after Lincoln, racist, passed 13th and 14th amendment, 1 vote away from impeachment, vetoes the continuation of freedman’s bureau

13th amendment

Outlawed slavery 1865

14th amendment

Citizen by birth/natural rights/protected rights 1868

Freedman’s bureau

Offers education for freed slaves and 40 acres and a mule (but johnson stopped this programme)

Black Codes

Created by white southerners wanting to control the freedmen, and fearing any black political power - they limited the rights of black men - no property, mostly legally restricted to agricultural work (made illegal)

1867 - 1877 Force Acts

To enforce the 13th and 14th amendments by state → gave black people more voting and election rights, combat the KKK

Sharecropping

(When 40 acres isn’t given) when emancipated slaves worked on the land in exchange for the crops that they grow; similar to feudalism

Carpetbaggers

Wealthy northerners going to the south to financially benefit

How electoral college works

Each state gets a set of electors, citizens can vote for electors; different number of votes in the electoral college by state population to make it a more fair election and more representative than the popular vote.

Redeemers

White southerners wanting a return to the good old days

Limiting elections for POC to the southern office

Jim Crow laws

Legalizing segregation

Presidents: Lincoln, Johnson and Grant

Lincoln - abolished slavery, minimal reconstructionist, died 5 days after the end of the American civil war

Johnson - racist, VP to Lincoln, passed 13/14 amendments but vetoed the freedman’s bureau

Ulysses E grant - focus on civil rights, republican, alcoholic, credit-mobilier scandal (left voters alone)

Why did pioneers move west?

Conquer land, spread american culture, create territories, get gold, enlighten the people

What is Manifest Destiny?

Manifest destiny is the belief that Americans have a right to move west, conquer land and spread American culture.

Chivington Massacre (aka Sand Creek)

In Colorado, when the US destroyed the Cheyenne/Arapaho village, named after John Chivington.

Fetterman Massacre

Wyoming. All 81 US soldiers died. It was against America. Chief Crazy horse served as a decoy to Fetterman. They believed that Adolph Metzger lost with bravery so they covered his dead body with a buffalo robe.

Buffalo Soldies

African American US army soldiers

George Custer and the Battle of Little Big Horn

George Custer was a successful man and handsome, best rider in the US army, civil war Vet, fought at Gettysburg, general at 23; he lost at the battle of little big horn; which was in Montana and the worst loss for America. Over 260 men died.

Battle of Wounded Knee

1890 in South Dakota; Custer’s Revenge. The last major conflict of the US army vs the Native Americans. The conflict broke out during disarment.

Dawes Act

An official law in 1887 to split up territories by formalizing prior treaties. It brought Native Americans into mainstream USA to force assimilation. It implied that white people were greater than Native Americans. It meant that Native Americans could become a US citizen if they rejected their tribe.

Development of the mining industry in Western States

Created demand for railroads/timber/heavy machinery/permanent western cities → a shift to more capitalized mining from single, individual pan-held.

Cornstock Lode

Nevada in 1859; the first major discovery of silver in the United States

Deadwood

A lawless mining town in South Dakota in 1876.

What was the Plessy vs. Ferguson case?

A supreme court case in 1896 that interpreted US law. It decided that segregation was allowed as long as there were equal facilities for both black people and white people.

Pros of reconstruction

13th/14th/15th amendments

More political participation for emancipated slaves

Freedmen’s Bureau

Cons of reconstruction

KKK

Economic struggles and corruption in the south (sharecropping/carpetbaggers)

Black codes

Literacy tests/poll taxes etc. all limited voting rights

Jim Crow Laws

Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1851

Native Americans agreed to let white settlers safely cross their lands in exchange for set territories and yearly government supplies.

What Church was founded and why?

The African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1868. It allowed black marriages to happen, and helped with property protection.

Problems that pioneers faced

heat/labor/water/wildlife

Homestead Act

(1862) A promise of 160 acres to any male willing to move west of the Mississippi river.

Boomers and Sooners

Both were people rushing to get their land within the homestead act. Boomers did it legally, but Sooners snuck to get theirs first; illegally.

National Reclamation Act 1902

Funded irrigation projects, sold land to do this. Built 600 dams, 10M acres of farmland converted into working farms. Now funds 60% of US vegetable supply, and 25% of fruit/nut supply.

Importance of invention of barbed wire and how it changed the west

(1874) It made it much easier to herd animals. It was easier to fix and cheap. It became a felony to wire-cut. Ended the open-range era. Established defined property bounds. Got rid of long-distance cattle drives. Displaced Native Americans.

Exodusters

Around 20k - 40k freed slaves fleeing persecution from the south who moved to the west (prominently Pennsylvania.)

Hatch Act of 1887

Created by US Congressman William H. Hatch. Gave $15k to each land grant uni to test Ag-related concepts. Signed by 22nd president Grover Cleveland.

Bonanza Farms

Larger; owned by a person or a group; a business.

Frederick Turner’s Frontier Thesis

(1893) His argument is that the frontier experience shaped American society. It led to → independence, individuality, served as a social leveler, inventiveness (barbed wire), wasteful behavior (buffalo)

Why US industrialization began later than in other nations

Colonial policies/sparse land/little urban population/lack of infrastructure/civil war

How railroads changed business and life in US

Created the first big businesses following the creation of large transcontinental networks/created nationwide commerce/created new cities

Promontory Point

Where the central pacific and union pacific meet - the first intercontinental railroad created from east to west (symbolized American unity and progress).

Bessemer process

The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive, large-scale method for mass-producing steel from molten pig iron.

Sped up the process for 1 railroad rail

From 2 weeks to 15 minutes.

Robber barons

Powerful 19th-century American industrialists and financiers who amassed unprecedented wealth

Made millions in baking/railroads

“Money equals business which equals power, all of which come from character and trust.” - JPMorgan (banking/railroads).

Monopoly

A few companies controlling all

Achievements of JP Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller

• Morgan

  • Made millions in banking/railroads

  • Created the US Steel Corporation (merged with Carnegie Steel, which he bought) to become America’s first billion-dollar corporation

• Carnegie

  • Steel

  • One of the first to utilize the bessemer process -> mass-produced steel for massive urban expansion, skyscrapers, railway growth

  • He gave away 350 million dollars to fund over 2,500 public libraries, he created Carnegie Mellon University, and Carnegie Hall

• Rockefeller

  • Oil

  • Americ’as first billionaire

  • Controlled around 90% of the nation's oil at its peak

  • Used horizontal integration to hold a virtual monopoly

  • Rockefeller Foundation, the University of Chicago, Rockefeller University

Vertical integration

Top-to-bottom control by one company

Horizontal integration

Horizontal integration is a business strategy where a company merges with or acquires competitors at the same stage of production in the same industry to grow its market share and reduce competition.

Development of oil industry in US and establishment and problems of Standard Oil

• Developments:

  • Standard Oil dissolved between 1892 - 1911

  • At one point, many were under the same name

• Problems:

  • The first major industrial monopoly

  • Market control

  • Legal evasion

  • Government dissolution

Achievements of Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Nikolai Tesla

• Edison

  • the concept of organized, collaborative research

  • light bulb

  • Phonograph

  • motion picture camera

  • alkaline storage battery

• Graham Bell

  • the telephone

  • Metal detector

• Tesla

  • First machine to run on electricity

  • Waves

  • wireless communication

  • AC motor

  • Wireless remote control

Importance of development of stores and how they changed US society

• Created a community of consumers

• The sellers - retailers/the advent of multi-level convenience stores

• Created the language of consumers

• Society was defined by material goods

• Economic growth

• Standardized pricing (Macy’s/Sears -> helped them with lots of inventory)

• Created a female consumer audience

• A source of entertainment

Chinese Exclusion Act

Banned Chinese laborers from immigrating to the US and denied citizenships to anyone already in the US. It was passed due to racist views and economic competition in the West. White people blamed Chinese workers for taking their jobs because immigrants were paid less than white Americans.

Why labor unions formed

They realized that they had more power as an organized group

Causes, results of Haymarket Riot

• Originally a peaceful assembly

• A worker threw dynamite into the crowd of police

• Turned violent, killed 7 people, and 7 of the 8 conspirators were hung

Iron law of wages

• The economic theory that real wages will always trend to the absolute minimum to sustain the worker and their family, and fluctuate

• High wages -> large families -> flooded job market -> low wages -> smaller families -> smaller population -> high wages, etc.

What work in factory was like

• Gruelling

• Frequent accidents

• Women got paid less

• Non-immigrants paid more

• Long hours

• Unsanitary

Why factories used child labor

• It was cheap

• They were small

• They were easy to control (ie, very compliant)

Working conditions for child laborers

• Physical danger

• Health hazards

• Harsh discipline/abuse

• Social stagnation

• Psychological stagnation

Describe life in US cities

• Overcrowding - tenements (low apartment buildings)

• Dangerous public health - cholera, urban waste (horse manure), smog

• Ethnic neighborhoods

• Architectural and technological breakthroughs

Factors that led to growth of US cities

• Industrial revolution/factory job availability

• Global immigration

• Industrialization of agriculture

• New engineering - skyscrapers etc

• Railroad networks

Ellis Island

• US’s first federal immigrant processing station in New York Harbor

• Over 12 million immigrants went through there

Background of immigrants to the US

• Young, male unskilled workers

• Catholic

Tammany Hall

• An organization to give social support to the poor and a source of political corruption

• Election fraud through restriction and stuffing the ballots

• Controlled NYC politics

Tweed Ring

• Democrats who embezzled millions

• Inner circle within the Tammany Hall

Sports and why sports became popular

• Because some people weren’t drinking

• Needed an escape; urbanization

• Baseball

• Football

Victorian morals for women

• Piety

• Submissive

• Piety

• Domesticity

Spheres of Domesticity

• Men are independent

• Women are dependent

• Men leave home to participate in politics

• Women stay home 

• Women can go out with their husbands to Church and social events

Mugwumps

Worked to end Republican political corruption (big business/abusing of the lower classes), politicians, voting for democrats as republican

Plessy vs. Ferguson

Supreme court case to interpret the law to legalize segregation

Booker T. Washington

Founded Tuskegee University, wanted to advance each side but maintain segregation

W.E.B. DuBois

• Advocacy for colored people 

• NAACP

• Wanted to end segregation

Social Darwinism

• Survival of the fittest

• Society slowly evolves over time

• Society should not interfere with people’s pursuit of success

Social Gospel

• Protestant movement

• Fiscal approach

Jane Addams

• Co-founded Hull House

  • The first settlement house in the US (to support people in poverty)

Henry Street Settlement

• Social welfare agency

• Created affordable public health care, social services, and art programs for poor immigrants in New York City

Why is this period called Gilded Age

Because it was a time of glittering outward wealth that masked deep social, economic, and political decay

Interstate Commerce Commission

• Created by president grover cleveland

• Created to regulate the railroad industry

• Plans for across-state commerce

President Garfield

• Left handed president; 20th president

• Assassinated 1881 by an office-seeker

President Grover Cleveland

• 1st president to serve non-consecutive terms

• Created the interstate commerce commission

• Vetoed 854 bills, limiting the power of the government

Pendleton Act

Created civil service commission; civil service exams

McKinley Tariff Act

Raised taxes on imported foreign goods by around 50%

Pullman Strike

• Ordered by Eugene Debs

• The Pullman Strike was a widespread 1894 railroad worker boycott and strike in the U.S. that began after the Pullman Palace Car Company slashed wages while maintaining high rents in its company town, ultimately paralyzing the nation's railway system until the federal government intervened to violently crush the protest.

• Workers boycotted trains

Eugene Debs

• Socialist

• Trade unionist

• Popularized ideas for the working class

• Ordered the pullman strike

William Jennings Bryan

• William Jennings Bryan was an American lawyer, orator, and politician. He was a dominant force in the Democratic Party, running three times as the party's nominee for President of the United States in the 1896, 1900, and 1908 elections.

• Famously said the quote: “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

Debate over using gold or silver standard for money

A fierce political controversy during the Gilded Age where farmers wanted a currency backed by two metals to cause inflation and raise crop prices, while wealthy bankers demanded a strict single-metal system to keep the economy stable.

Populism

• Third party

• Created by farmers

• Took many democratic votes (hence why there was a lot of Republican presidents)

• Under Eugene Debs

Importance of third parties in US politics

To represent everyone

Reasons for US expansion

Military, consumers, economic

Monroe Doctrine

US gets the Western Hemisphere and will conquer the Eastern Hemisphere and vice versa

Seward’s Folly

• The Alaska purchase from Russia

• Derogatory term

• It cost 7M dollars

How US obtained Hawaii

• Hawaiian business owners were damaged by the mckinley tariff act and it hurt hawaii’s sugar industry

• They felt that the only solution was to join the USA

• Overthrew the monarchy (house arrest and life as a private citizen)

Yellow Journalism

Journalism that is reported in a widely exaggerated way in order to encourage more people to read and buy their journalism

Causes, events, results of Spanish American War

• Causes: yellow journalism and the explosion of the ship

• Events: Teddy Roosevelt and the rough riders won at San Juan 

• Results: Cuban independence, US gets Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam

Rough Riders

Teddy Roosevelt’s group of volunteers who fight the spanish war in cuba (civil war soldiers/cowboys/buffalo soldiers)

US Conflict with Philippines

• Guerilla war

• 3 years long

• Many casualties

• 1902 US wins and gets the Philippines until 1946

Emilio Aguinaldo

• Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy (1869–1964) was a Filipino revolutionary, military leader, and statesman who served as the first President of the Philippines (1899–1901) and was the first president of an Asian constitutional republic. He is a central, albeit highly debated, figure in Philippine history for his leadership in successive wars of independence against both Spain and the United States.