apush vocab units 1-6

Gilded Age

Gilded Age

first used by Mark Twain in 1873, this expression referred to the superficial glitter of the new wealth so prominently displayed hid the many social problems of the time including the high poverty rate, high crime rate and corruption in the government

Industrial Revolution

The growth of the nation that focused on heavy industry and the production of steel, petroleum, electrical power and industrial machinery

Vertical Consolidation

When a company owns and controls every stage of production from mining raw material to transporting the finished product; the steel industry is an example

Horizontal Consolidation

When all competitors in each industry are brought under the "umbrella" control of a single corporation; the oil industry is an example

Trusts

An organization or board that manages the assets of other once competing companies. Example - Standard Oil

holding company

Created to own and control diverse companies

Laissez-faire

the economic expression which meant "hands off" and believed the government should stay out of economic affairs/regulation

Herbert Spencer

Developed the idea of Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism

Following the ideas of natural selection as it applied to the economy, this idea concluded that the concentration of wealth in the hands of the fit was a benefit to humanity; "Survival of the fittest" applied to human society. Used as an argument against social reforms to help the poor.

"Robber Barons"

The owners of big businesses who made large amounts of money by "cheating" in their business practices and abusing their power with the government.

John D. Rockefeller

Tycoon associated with Oil

Andrew Carnegie

Tycoon associated with steel

Bessemer Process

Method used to create steel from iron, which created a high-quality product, because you can't bend steel.

Gospel of Wealth

Written by Carnegie, it describes the idea that because God has granted wealth to the rich, they had a responsibility to help the poor.

Progress and Poverty

Henry George said that poverty was the inevitable side-effect of progress

JP Morgan

Tycoon who acquired US Steel from Carnegie and later is associated with banking

Commodore Vanderbilt

Tycoon associated with railroads

Horatio Alger

He developed the idea of the self-made man, that anyone could become wealthy, in they worked hard and were honest, to justify the disparity between the rich and poor

Panic of 1873

Unrestrained speculation on the railroads led to disaster - inflation and strikes by railroad workers. 18,000 businesses failed and 3 million people were out of work. Federal troops were called in to end the strike.

Panic of 1893

A financial crisis that forced a quarter of railroads into bankruptcy. Caused a loss of business confidence. 20% of the workforce was unemployed. Led to the Pullman Strike.

Coxey's Army

As the depression of 1893 got bad, thousands of unemployed workers marched on Washington demanding the government expand jobs by spending money on public works. Leaders were arrested and marchers left

Sherman Antitrust Act

A federal law that committed the American government to opposing monopolies, it prohibits contracts, combinations, and conspiracies in restraint of trade but in the end was ineffective because of a Supreme Court ruling and was used against labor unions.

U.S. v. E.C. Knight

The case which determined that the Sherman Anti-Trust Act could only be applied to trade, not manufacturing

Interstate Commerce Act

This act required railroad rates to be reasonable and just and created the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate carriers transporting goods and people between states. It was not very effective.

Samuel Gompers

Leader of the AFL, American Federation of Labor

Great Railroad Strike

1877 - RR workers went on strike due to wage cuts. After a month of strikes, President Hayes sent troops to stop the rioting

Homestead Strike

Carnegie's Steel cut wages by 20 percent. When workers went on strike Frick (the plant's manager) utilized the lockout, scabs, and private guards to defeat the strike.

Pullman Strike

When wages were cut on the manufacturing of sleeping cars, workers organized with the railroad union. Eventually the President got involved and issued an order/injunction to stop the strike. It eventually ended when leaders were jailed.

In re Debs

Debs organized the Pullman strike. A federal court found him guilty of restraint to trade, stopping US mail, and disobeying a government injunction to stop the strike.

Haymarket Bombing

Incident which killed 7 police officers and led Americans to believe that the union movement was radical and violent, even though it was a group of anarchists that were convicted of the bombing.

Eugene V. Debs

He helped mobilize the railroad union during the railroad strike in Chicago 1894 and was eventually jailed. He decided more radical means were needed to help the problem with labor and turned to Socialism.

Knights of Labor

This union started secretly, went public and admitted all workers (women and African Americans) and had lofty goals like abolition of child labor, trusts, and monopolies.

Terrence Powderly

Leader of the Knights of Labor

American Federation of Labor

This union concentrated on achieving practical "bread and butter" goals like higher wages and improved working conditions.

Muller v. Oregon

1908 - Supreme Court case that said Oregon can place restrictions on women's hours because women are weak and need protection

Politcal machine

A tightly organized group of politicians, headed by a single "boss", that commands enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of a city, county, or state. Often, they would coordinate the needs of businesses, immigrants, and the underprivileged in return for votes on election day.

Tammany Hall

a political organization within the Democratic Party in New York city (late 1800's and early 1900's) seeking political control by corruption and bossism. Led by political boss, Boss Tweed

"Honest Graft"

Justified bribery or cheating.

Old Immigrants

immigrants from Northern and Western Europe who were mostly Protestant, English-speaking, high level of literacy and occupational skills. Relatively easy to blend in.

Ellis Island

an immigration center, opened in New York 1892, the new arrivals had to pass more rigorous medical and document examinations before being allowed into the United States.

New Immigration

The second major wave of immigration to the U.S. Unlike earlier immigration, the New Immigrations came mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe, fleeing persecution and poverty. Language barriers and cultural differences produced mistrust by Americans.

Ethnic Neighborhood

Urban area with a distinct cultural identity where the group could maintain its own language, culture, church, schools, newspapers, and social life.

Tenements

Urban apartment buildings that served as housing for poor factory workers. Often poorly constructed and overcrowded.

Jane Addams

Prominent social reformer who was responsible for creating the Hull House. She helped other women join the fight for reform, as well as influencing the creation of other settlement houses.

Hull House

The first private social welfare agency in the U.S; Was opened by Jane Addams in Chicago in 1889; created to assist the poor, combat juvenile delinquency, and help immigrants learn to speak English

literacy test

immigrants were required to pass literacy tests to gain citizenship. Many immigrants were uneducated or non-English speakers, so they could not pass. Meant to discourage immigration. These were also used against blacks to prevent them from voting.

Chinese Exclusion Act

1892 - Denied citizenship to Chinese in the U.S. and forbid further immigration of Chinese. It was the first law implemented to prevent a specific ethnic group from immigrating to the United States

Civil Rights Cases of 1883

SCOTUS ruled that Congress could not ban racial discrimination practiced by private citizens and businesses, including railroads and hotels, used by the public

Plessy v. Ferguson

1896 - Landmark case - SCOTUS upheld a Louisiana law requiring "separate but equal accommodations" for White and Black passengers ruing that the law did not violate the 14 Amendment's "equal protection of the law".

Grandfather Clauses

Allowed a man to vote if his grandfather had voted in elections before Reconstruction.

Ida Wells

campaigned against lynching and Jim Crow Laws

Booker T. Washington

an educator who urged blacks to better themselves through education and economic advancement, rather than trying to attain equal rights. Founded the first formal school for blacks, the Tuskegee Institute.

W.E.B. DuBois

Helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Demanded an end to segregation and the granting of equal civil rights to all Americans.

Mugwumps

Republicans who did not play the patronage game were ridiculed for "sitting on the fence." and not taking a side

Half-breeds

A faction of the Republican party who were accused of backing reform simply to create openings for their own supporters, led by James G. Blaine. In favor of tariff reform and social reform.

Pendleton Act

Passed in 1883, an Act that created the Civil Service Commission so that hiring, and promotion would be based on merit rather than patronage

Stalwarts

A faction of the Republican party led by Conkling in the end of the 1800s. Supported the political machine and patronage. Conservatives who opposed civil service reform.

Patronage

a system in which benefits, including jobs, money, or protection are granted in exchange for political support.

Plains Indians

Posed a serious threat to western settlers because, unlike the Eastern Indians from early colonial days, the Plains Indians possessed rifles and horses.

Dawes Severalty Act

This 1887 Act dismantled American Indian tribes and set up individuals as family heads with 160 acres to assimilate the Indian population. It turned out to be disastrous for Native Americans because it abolished communal ownership on Indian reservations, and more than two-thirds of Indians'

remaining lands were lost due to this law.

Wounded Knee

This was the site of a massacre of Native Americans in which many Sioux people were killed, most of them unarmed. The "ghost dance" was stamped out by us troops. Women and children were killed too. This battle marked

the end of the Indian Wars.

Assimilation

An attempt to destroy traditional Indian cultural identities by forcing them to adopt European-American ways such as formal education, job training, and conversion to Christianity

Morrill Act

1862 - Set aside public land in each state to be used for building colleges.

Homestead Act

1862 - Provided free land in the West to anyone willing to settle there and develop it. (160 acres) Encouraged western migration.

Granger Movement

A group of agrarian organizations that worked to increase the political and economic power of farmers.

Fredrick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis

American historian who said that humanity would continue to progress if there was new land to move into. The frontier provided a place for homeless and solved social problem.

Barbed Wire

Joseph Glidden solved the problem of how to fence cattle in the vast open spaces of the Great Plains where lumber was scare, thus changing the American West

Populist Party Platform

Officially called the People's Party; called for free coinage of silver and paper money, a national income tax, direct election of senators, regulation of railroads and other government reforms to help farmers.

William Jennings Bryan

3-time candidate for Democratic party, supported the Populists

"Cross of Gold" Speech

Given by Bryan in which he said people must not be "crucified of a cross of gold", referring to the Republican proposal to eliminate silver coinage to adopt a strict gold standard.

Election of 1896

William McKinley wins the election using mass media. Considered the beginning of Modern Politics Habeas Corpus

Anaconda Plan

The Union's Plan to blockade the south

Emancipation Proclamation

this famous document freed zero slaved but changed the motivation and focus of the north and motivated them to fight

Grant

general for the north that accepted the surrender from the south and later became president

Lee

General for the south that led the troops; he gave the south a huge advantage in terms of military leadership

13th Amendment

Change in the Constitution that made slavery illegal

Confiscation Acts

This allowed the north to take the property of the confederates and was intended to free the slaves, based on the argument that slaves were property.

Total War

a military conflict in which as aspects of society mobilized. The conflict is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used, the territory, or the combatants involved. Often the "laws of war" are disregarded

Copperheads

A nickname for a faction of Democrats in the North that opposed the Civil War, because they were likened to a venomous snake.

Gettysburg Address

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." - Lincoln, speech given after one of the bloodiest battles in the Civil War

Homestead Act

Congress (1862) made public lands in the West available to settlers without payment, usually in lots of 160 acres, to be used as farms

Radical Republicans

This was a faction of the party led by Sumner and Stevens that strongly opposed slavery during the war and distrusted Confederates during Reconstruction, demanding harsh penalties. They supported equal rights, civil rights, and voting for freedmen and led Congressional Reconstruction in the South.

Attrition Warfare

This represents a strategy that attempts to grind down an opponent through superior numbers. It attempts to win a war by wearing down the enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and material. The war will usually be won by the side with greater such resources.

Appomattox

This is the final battle of the Civil War, where the South surrenders to the North.

Wilmot Proviso

This proposed that slavery be prohibited in the land acquired by Mexico; it did not pass

Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

This treaty ended the Mexican-American War.

Gadsen Purchase

Territory purchased as a southern railway route through the Arizona Territory

Manifest Destiny

The idea that the US was destined by God to expand their territory from sea to shining sea

54' 40' or Fight

Campaign slogan of Polk that used a latitude line that they wished to acquire territory from Great Britain in Oregon

Ostend Manifesto

Pierce's Plan to secretly try to buy Cuba from Spain or "we will take it by force". Of course, the North got mad when they found out about it, because they thought it was a plot to get another slave state.

Whigs

Party against the War with Mexico

Gold Rush 1848

This is when a lot of people raced out to find a precious metal in California

Fugitive Slave Law

These said the North had to give escaped slaves back to the South and was a major issue of debate during the Compromise of 1850.

Harper's Ferry

This raid on the arsenal in Virginia by John Brown led to his death and did not achieve its goal of a slave revolt

Kansas-Nebraska Act

This proposal for popular sovereignty was made by Stephen Douglas in 1854, effectively nullified the Compromise of 1820, thus increasing sectional tension

Republican

This new party of Lincoln in the late 1850s opposed further extension of slavery but did not want to emancipate slaves in the south

Popular Sovereignty

This is the idea that whoever lives in the territory should get to vote for whether the territory becomes a slave or free

Compromise of 1850

Another Henry Clay Compromise: POPFACT - Popular Sovereignty in new territories, Fugitive Slave Law, Abolition of the Slave Trade in DC, California admitted as a free state, Texas Debt assumed by the Federal Government