Progressivism, American Imperialism, and World War I

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering the key people, legislation, foreign policies, conflicts, and social movements of the Progressive Era, American Imperialism, and World War I.

Progressive Movement

A broad-based reform movement from roughly the 1890s through the 1920s that sought political, economic, and social improvements through government action, targeting industrialization, urbanization, political corruption, and social inequality.

Hepburn Act of 1906

Federal legislation championed by President Theodore Roosevelt and Congress that gave the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) the power to set maximum railroad rates and inspect financial records.

Buffalo Exposition 1901 (Pan-American Exposition)

A world's fair held in Buffalo, New York, to showcase Western Hemisphere development, famous as the site where President William McKinley was assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.

16th Amendment

A constitutional amendment ratified in February 1913 establishing Congress's right to impose a Federal income tax without apportioning it among the states.

Teddy Roosevelt

The 26th President of the United States (1901–1909), champion of the 'Square Deal,' conservationist, and trust-buster who redefined the presidency as a 'bully pulpit' to regulate corporations and protect public land.

Preservation

An environmental philosophy advocated by John Muir and the Sierra Club that calls for the complete protection of nature from human interference, commercial use, and industrial development.

Conservation

The sustainable management, regulation, and wise use of natural resources to prevent waste and ensure long-term public benefit, institutionalized by Gifford Pinchot and President Theodore Roosevelt.

Taylorism (Scientific Management)

A manufacturing management philosophy popularized by Frederick Winslow Taylor designed to analyze workflows and improve economic efficiency through systematic time-and-motion studies.

Ludlow Massacre

An April 20, 1914 violent attack by the Colorado National Guard and company guards on a tent colony of striking coal miners and their families at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.

Muller vs. Oregon

A landmark 1908 Supreme Court case argued by Louis Brandeis that upheld state restrictions on the working hours of women using sociological and medical data.

Muckrakers

Investigative journalists, writers, and photographers (such as Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, and Lincoln Steffens) who exposed corruption in politics, corporate monopolies, and social injustices between 1902 and 1912.

W.E.B. Du Bois

Civil rights activist, sociologist, and NAACP co-founder who rejected gradualism, demanding immediate civil rights and higher education for the 'Talented Tenth' of African Americans.

Booker T. Washington

African American leader and founder of the Tuskegee Institute who proposed the 'Atlanta Compromise,' advocating vocational education and economic self-reliance over immediate political agitation.

Imperialism

A late 19th- and early 20th-century policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy, military force, or economic dominance over weaker nations.

Great White Fleet

A powerful U.S. battle fleet sent by President Theodore Roosevelt on a peaceful round-the-world journey (December 1907 to February 1909) to project American naval strength internationally.

Battleship Maine

An American naval ship that mysteriously exploded and sank in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, killing over 260 sailors and serving as the catalyst for the Spanish-American War.

Spanish-American War

A brief conflict fought between the United States and Spain from April to August 1898, resulting in the U.S. acquiring Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.

Platt Amendment

A 1901 rider attached to a U.S. army appropriations bill that restricted Cuba's autonomy, gave the U.S. the right to intervene in Cuban affairs, and turned Cuba into a de facto U.S. protectorate.

White Man's Burden

A cultural and ideological justification for imperialism, stemming from Rudyard Kipling's 1899 poem, asserting that white Westerners had a moral obligation to colonize and 'civilize' non-white populations.

Open Door Policy

A U.S. diplomatic doctrine proposed by Secretary of State John Hay asserting that all nations should have equal and unhindered trading access to Chinese markets.

Gentleman's Agreement

An informal understanding (1907–1908) where Japan agreed to curb laborer emigration to the U.S., and the U.S. agreed to halt anti-Japanese segregation in California schools.

Panama Canal

A major engineering project built between 1904 and 1914 connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans across the Isthmus of Panama, cementing U.S. hegemony in the Western Hemisphere.

Roosevelt Corollary

A 1904 extension of the Monroe Doctrine asserting the United States' right to intervene in the domestic affairs of Latin American nations as an international police power ('Big Stick Diplomacy').

Franz Ferdinand

Archduke of Austria-Hungary whose assassination on June 28, 1914, by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo triggered secret alliances and sparked World War I.

Schlieffen Plan

Germany's military strategy, devised by General Alfred von Schlieffen, designed to fight a two-front war against France and Russia simultaneously.

Trench Warfare

A brutal style of combat on the Western Front (1914–1918) where opposing armies fought from deep, fortified ditches protected by barbed wire, machine guns, poison gas, and artillery.

Allied Forces

The World War I coalition initially composed of Great Britain, France, and Russia (later joined by Italy, Japan, and the United States) that defeated the Central Powers.

Central Powers

The World War I alliance of nations opposing the Allied Forces, consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.

Lusitania

A British luxury ocean liner torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915, killing nearly 1,200 civilians (including 128 Americans) and straining U.S.-German neutrality relations.

Zimmerman Telegram

A secret German communication intercepted in 1917 wherein Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann proposed a military alliance with Mexico if the United States entered World War I.

Spanish Influenza

A lethal global pandemic (1918–1920) caused by an H1N1 influenza virus strain that infected an estimated 500 million people and killed tens of millions worldwide.

Women's Suffrage

The political movement advocating for women's voting rights, culminating nationally in 1920 with the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment.

Red Summer

A wave of violent white supremacist race riots and anti-Black violence that erupted across dozens of U.S. cities during the summer and autumn of 1919.

Great Migration

The mass demographic movement of millions of African Americans from rural Southern states to industrial cities in the North and West between roughly 1916 and 1970.

Jack Johnson

The first African American heavyweight boxing champion (reigning from 1908 to 1915), whose dominance and defiance challenged white supremacy and triggered fierce racial backlash.