US History STAAR Notes

Urbanization

 The dramatic increase in the growth of cities. This was the result of a large migration of rural Americans to the cities to find jobs and economic opportunities. Many rural towns and villages just disappeared. It was also the result of large numbers of New Immigrants like Italians, Greeks, Russians, and Chinese settling in cities.

Jane Addams

An early advocate for the Settlement House Movement. She established the first Settlement House in the US. It was called Hull House and was located on Chicago’s South Side.

**Settlement House**

Relief workers established these in poor, immigrant neighborhoods. The workers took up residence in the neighborhood. At the house, immigrants could find English classes, training in job skills, daycare, cooking classes, citizenship classes, etc. The primary purposes were to alleviate the poverty of the immigrants and to __assimilate__ them into American culture and society.

**Naturalization**

The process whereby an immigrant becomes a US citizen. The requirements are to reside continuously in the US for at least 5 years, pass a test on American history and government, speak, read, and write English, have good moral character, and take an oath of allegiance to the US and the Constitution.

**Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882**

The first US law meant to limit immigration. It refused entry for 10 years to skilled and unskilled Chinese laborers. It was extended in 1892 under the Geary Act.

**Laissez-faire**

Both parties believed in a hands off approach to business neither wanted to regulate or tax business. The government raised money through tariffs. 

Republic/Representative Democracy

A type of government where the people hold the power and exercise that power through elected representatives. It is not a pure democracy. (Popular Sovereignty)

Suffrage

The right to vote

Declaration of Independence

The document written primarily by Thomas Jefferson and approved by the Second continental Congress on 4 July 1776 declaring that the Colonies were free and independent of Great Britain. Its ideals are rooted in the Enlightenment and classical liberalism.  

Articles of Confederation

The 1st Constitution of the US. The states were strong and the federal government was very weak. In the end this constitution did not work. 

US Constitution

The supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation of all governmental power and defines that power. It contains several principles that guide its provisions. It was written in 1789 and later ratified in 1789. 

Bill of Rights (1791)

The first 10 amendments to the US Constitution. They outline and define the natural rights of people that the government must protect and may not infringe upon our natural rights. 

*E Pluribus Unum*

The original motto of the US. It is Latin for “out of many, one”

In God We Trust

The official motto of the US as defined by a law passed and signed by President Eisenhower in 1956.

Democracy in America

A book written by Alexis de Tocqueville and published in 1835 and 1840 in 2 volumes. Tocqueville had been sent to America by the French government to study American prisons. He also studied all aspects of American society in his 9 months of travel. He identified several characteristics of American society that made America an advanced and modern society.

Liberty

Freedom to choose and act.

Egalitarianism

The doctrine that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.

Individualism

The idea that Americans are equal and independent from society as a whole. Religion is a moderating force because it teaches that freedom is the freedom to do what is right.

Populism

The idea that people are involved in the political process. It embodies the concept of the consent of the governed. Everyone is equal in the political process.

Popular Sovereignty

The concept of the consent of the governed. People are the true sovereign and hold political power that they delegate to elected representatives.

Limited Government

“We are a nation of laws, not meant.” Everyone is subject to the law, even the government. 

Separations of Powers

Three equal branches of government share power. They are the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. 

Checks and Balances

Each branch of government has mechanisms to check the power of the other branches.

Federalism

Two levels of government sharing power over the same territory and people. They are independent of each other. 

**Manifest Destiny**

The belief it was ordained or destined that the United States would stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific and that it was a national obligation to take American cultures and values with it.

**Fort Laramie Treaty (1886)**

 A treaty between the Sioux Indians and the US government, where the Sioux agreed to move to reservations on the Great Sioux Reserve in western South Dakota in return for provisions and money. About 15000 Sioux Indians were a part of this, even though they didn't really agree, but they were hungry and were in need.

**Battle of Little Bighorn**

 Americans found there was gold in South Dakota where the Indians were so they wanted to move them to get it. Colonel George Armstrong Custer led 209 troops into battle with Sioux warriors under the leadership Sitting Bull. Custer and all of his men were killed. Most Americans were more determined that Indian resistance must be crushed. 

**Dawes Severalty Act (1887)**

Law passed to turn Indians into farmers and ranchers. It broke up reservation land and each Indian family could get 160 acres to farm or 320 acres to graze. White speculators skirted the law and took much of the Indians’ land. Indians wound up with low quality land.

**Wounded Knee (1890)**

The Cavalry was rounding up 340 Sioux to take to the reservation. A shot was fired. Within minutes more than 300 Sioux were dead. This marked the end of Indian resistance in the Plains.

**Transcontinental Railroad**

 The Pacific Railroad Act was passed in 1862 authorizing the building of a transcontinental railroad. It provided grants of land and other subsidies to the railroad companies for each mile of track laid. It spurred the settlement of the Great Plains and transformed the country. It was completed on 10 May 1869.

**The Homestead Act**

Offered 160 acres of land to anyone who would pay a $10 registration fee and live on and cultivate the land for 5 years. It spurred settlement of the Great Plains. 

**Klondike Gold Rush (1896)**

An estimated 100,000 prospectors swarmed the Klondike region in northwestern Canada in search of gold. 

**Cattle Drives (160’s-1870’s)**

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The mass herding of cattle from Texas to the railroads in the north to provide meat to the cities in the east. There was a wrangler, a cook, and a cowboy for every 250-300 head of cattle. About ⅕ of cowboys were Hispanic or black. Nat Love was the most famous black cowboy. It sparked a genre of literature, a romanticized vision of the Wild West. 

**Chisholm Trail**

One of the most famous cattle trails during the cattle bonanza. It started at the Red River and ended at Kansas City, Kansas.

**The Curtis Act (1898)**

As settlers sought more land in the Great Plains, they began to eye the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). This act dissolved the Indian Territory and abolished tribal governments. Opened Indian settlement to White settlement.

**Yellowstone National Park (1872)**

Congress designated this area for “preservation…for all time, \[of\] mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within said park…in their natural condition.” It marked the beginning of a changed awareness of the environment. 

**John Muir**

A Scottish immigrant who campaigned for the preservation of the rugged mountains of the West. He was the 19th century’s most articulate publicist for wilderness protection. He worked to establish Yosemite National Park in 1890 and later became the president of the Sierra Club.

Carneige

Steel guy

Rockefeller

Oil guy

Morgan

Bank guy

Gould

Railroad guy

Political Machine

An unofficial organization designed to keep a particular party in office in a certain city. They tended to be very corrupt and used bribery, coercion, etc. to gain and maintain power.

Boss William “Magear” Tweed

New York City Democrat Boss who ran __Tammany Hall__ and was infamous for fraud and corruption. He was convicted of fraud and extortion in 1873.

Greenback Party

Founded in 1877, it advocated for an expanded money supply by printing more paper money. It also advocated for other measures to benefit workers and farmers. This is an example of a 3rd Party. They were minimally effective as the panic receded an prosperity returned to the country.

The Farmers Alliance

An organization that began in Texas in the 1870’s. It served the farmers in the South and West similar to the way the Grange did in the Midwest. There was a parallel organization for black farmers called the National Colored Farmers Alliance Women also joined the movement. It had some success on the state and local levels as it grew into a nationwide movement. 

The Populist Party

Formed in 1892 by leaders of the alliance and formally called the People’s Party of the United States. It became a nationwide __3rd party__. It advocated for much of what the alliance did as well as direct popular election of senators and other electoral reforms. T was a movement of “the people”. They went on to influence the Democratic Party and the Progressive Movement. 

William Jennings Bryan

Nominated for president by the Democrat Party AND the Populist Party 1896, he advocated for free coinage of silver as well as farmers’ issues. He gave a famous speech when he accepted the Democratic nomination called the “Cross of Gold” speech.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Supreme Court ruling that declared that segregation was constitutional as long as the facilities were equal. Many sales used this ruling to enact more and stricter Jim Crow laws

Booker T. Washington

The nation’s foremost black leader from the 1890s to his death in 1915. In 1881, he organized a black state vocational school in Alabama that eventually became Tuskegee University. He insisted that the first task of America’s blacks must be to acquire useful skills such as farming and carpentry, and that once they proved their economic value, he predicted, racism would fade. He said that until then, they must accept their lot. Secretly, however, he contributed to lawyers who challenged segregation. He wrote an autobiography entitled *Up from Slavery* (1901). Not all black leaders supported his accommodationist views.

Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883

It set up a commission to prepare competitive examinations and establish standards of merit for a variety of federal jobs; it also forbade political candidates from soliciting contributions from government workers.

The Grange

Also called the Patrons of Husbandry. Formed in 1867 by Midwestern farmers, they offered information, emotional support, and fellowship. It urged farmers to buy less and produce more so that farms would be more self-sustaining. They negotiated deals with farm-machinery dealers and other farm related businesses. They lobbied the state governments to regulate railroad rates.