Untitled Flashcards Set

New Immigration: new immigration is a term used by historians to denote immigration that took place from 1870-1914 during which time a massive movement of humans took place around the world. This period of immigration in the United States is significant for a variety of reasons. First, driven by a complex matrix of push and pull factors, the majority of immigrants during this time period came from eastern and southern Europe. This meant, in turn, that millions of Catholics and Jews were coming to the United States challenging the hegemony of the predominantly Protestant nation. The tension that emerged from the influx of immigrants reared its head in a variety of ways including commentary from prominent cartoonists like Thomas Nast, the foundation of major labor unions like the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor, the building of the transcontinental railroad and machine politics in cities like New York. Lastly, the experience of these immigrants—Chinese, Catholic, and Jewish—gives valuable insights into deconstructing national narratives about the US as a great “melting pot” by highlighting the diversity of lived experience during this period.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): An act that completely blocked Chinese immigrants from coming to the United States. The Chinese population declined by over 40% in the 40 years after the act’s passage. This was the first US act that completely blocked a group from coming in solely on the basis of race.

Push Factors

Pull Factors

Knights of Labor: A short-lived national labor union championing 8-hour workdays and no more child labor (they wanted LAWS to be changed). It was open to almost all workers. They ultimately failed to win any meaningful concessions and lost their credibility.

American Federation of Labor: A labor union comprised of skilled workers who went on strikes to gain concessions from management. They fought for better wages, hours, working conditions, etc. in the workplace, but no laws to actually be changed. LESS radical than the Knights of Labor.

People’s Party

• Populism: Agrarian ideology that mobilized farmers to push for reforms in areas impacting their lives; “the people”

• 1892 Peoples Party formed in Omaha: radical or conservative?

  • Free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver

  • Graduated income tax

  • Government ownership of the railroads, telegraph, and telephones

  • No alien land ownership

  • Direct election of US senators

  • Initiative and referendum

• Success

  • Governors in Kansas, Colorado, North Dakota, presidential candidate (Weaver) polled 1 million votes, won Kansas

Haymarket Riot (1886): An incident in which a person bombed a crowd in Chicago and killed 7 policemen and 70 others. It symbolized social chaos/radicalism, was used to discredit labor unions, and now “anarchism” became code for terrorism/violence.

• the incident created a backlash against all labor organizations, including the Knights of Labor

Pullman Strike (1894): A railroad strike after Pullman (company) slashed wages by 25%. The strike escalated to 27 states/territories before it was shut down by troops and resulted in a management victory.

Presidential- Reconstruction

Congressional- Reconstruction

Black Codes: State laws that developed after the Civil War in the former Confederate states that limited the power/mobility of black people. These laws posed the question of whether anything really had changed after the war. Congress ended up later passing things to nullify these laws.

Compromise of 1877: A promise made by Hayes to withdraw federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction in exchange for the support of Southern delegates from the 1876 election. The promise agreed to appoint at least 1 Southerner to the Cabinet, have control of federal patronage in Southern Democrat states, federal aid for pacific/Texas Railroad, and withdraw troops from the South.

Sharecropping: A farming system in which large landowners rented their fields to poorer farmers/families in return for a share of the crop product. Many Black people rented land because they enjoyed the sense of freedom and independence, while landowners also benefited from not having to pay for slaves but still getting a cut of the profit.

Ku Klux Klan: A secret society that used terrorism and violence to intimidate Black people and undercut their 14th and 15th amendment rights.

Jim Crow Laws:

Dawes Severalty Act (1887): An act gradually eliminated tribal ownership of land/allotment of tracts to individual owners. Owners were granted citizenship, but no full property rights until 25 years. This separated families, promoted assimilation, spread Christianity, and was so corrupt that it was rarely enforced.

Union Pacific

Central Pacific

Homestead Act (1862): An act that allowed any citizen, including freed slaves, to buy 160 acres of public land after living there for 5 years. Many believed it would create new markets/outposts of commercial agriculture for the economy, while others didn’t think 160 acres was enough.

Social Darwinism: The belief that societies are subject to the laws of natural selection and that some societies/peoples are innately superior to others. This allowed capitalists to argue they deserved their success through “survival of the fittest,” but critics argued they only became successful by creating monopolies.

Committee on Public Information: The group that led a conspicuous official WWI-supporting effort that was a vast propaganda campaign. It encouraged journalists to exercise “self-censorship” when reporting news. By 1918, the propaganda against Germans was everywhere.

Spanish American War (1898): A war that allowed the US to gain control of the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. It resulted in US possession of or great influence of these areas. (US becoming a world power)

Philippine Insurrection

Panama Canal

Queen Liliuokalani: A nationalist leader of Hawaii in 1891 who set out to challenge the growing US control of islands. She was only in power for 2 years since Hawaii now had to pay sugar trade tariffs and was forced to become part of the US in order to recover.

Lusitania (1915): The British passenger liner sunk by Germany that killed 1200 people and 128 Americans. Wilson made Germany promise to not repeat such outrages, but they kept going.

Zimmerman Telegram: The communication intercepted from the German foreign secretary to the German ambassador in Mexico outlining a deal to draw the Mexicans into the war against the US (would promise Mexico some of their land back if they allied with Germany). This caused an uproar, making some Americans willing to enter the war.

Treaty of Versailles

Naval Reserve Act 

Margaret Sanger: A pioneer in the movement for birth control. She believed large families contributed to distress/poverty in poorer communities and persuaded middle-class women to see the benefits of birth control. But birth control and abortion were still illegal in most states.

Eighteenth Amendment

Red Scare (1917-1920): A period of intense popular fear/government repression of real or imagined leftist radicalism. Many spontaneous acts against supposed radicals occurred. They were “expelled from their midst.”

Great African-American-Migration: The movement of nearly 500k Black people from the rural south to industrial cities in the North. Black veterans in these cities helped organize the interwar civil rights movement and set precedents for activism that came later.

• Great Migration push factors

  • Jim Crow/racism/violence

  • Economic oppression

  • Boll Weevil

• Great Migration pull factors

  • War and labor shortage

  • Dignity and opportunity

Harlem Renaissance: The flourishing artistic life created by a new generation of Black intellectuals in New York who focused on the “richness” of their racial heritage. They aimed to assert resistance against white racism/stereotyping. This was when jazz, Black poets, and new activist voices came about.