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  1. transcontinental railroads

railroads built in the 1860s and 1870s that connected the Far West to the East; built by subsidies companies with mostly immigrant labor

  1. Great Plains

grassland West of the 100th meridian that was mostly unsettled in 1865 due to its extreme temperatures and little rain

  1. Great American Desert

a nickname for the Great Plains

  1. 100th meridian

the line dividing the sparse and dry West (Great Plains) from the East

  1. buffalo herds

animals that went nearly extinct with the introduction of settlers in the Great Plains and boomtowns

  1. vaqueros

Mexican cowboys who established the cattle business in Texas

  1. longhorn cattle

big, strong cattle originally from Mexico, but notably found in Texas

  1. cattle drives

the forced migration of massive numbers of cattle to the railroads where they could be shipped to the East

  1. barbed wire

Joseph Glidden's invention for property division given a lack of timber in the plains

  1. Homestead Act of 1862

an act promising 160 acres to Plains settlers after 5 years; ineffective due to the buy up of land by speculators and railroad companies

  1. Joseph Glidden

Inventor of barbed wire, which became essential in the Plains

  1. dry farming

the solution to farming dry land in the plains in which farmers plow deeper to maximize moisture in topsoil

  1. cash crops

crops, such as corn and wheat, that were grown in excess to be sold in the domestically and internationally

  1. middlemen

the wholesalers and retailers who took immense cuts of farmers' profits

  1. National Grange Movement

an social/education organization for farmers that grew into a economic and political think tank against middlemen, trusts, and railroads

  1. cooperatives

businesses owned and run by farmers to save the costs charged by middlemen

  1. Granger laws

legislation passed with the pressure of the National Grange Movement to (1) ban fixed railroad prices and (2) eliminate railroads playing favorites

  1. Munn v Illinois

a landmark Supreme Court Ruling in 1877 that affirmed the right of states to regulate public businesses, such as railroads (re: Granger Laws)

  1. Ocala Platform

the call of farmers at an 1892 convention in Ocala, FL to (1) directly elect senators, (2) decrease tariffs, (3) establish a graduated income tax, (4) allow for federal regulation of banks, (5) inflate the money supply, (6) establish Federal storage and loan facilities to avoid middlemen

  1. Frederick Jackson Turner

influential American historial author who wrote the Significance of the Frontier in American History

  1. The Significance of the Frontier in American History (1893)

an essay that argued that the frontier was an analog for the process of civilization and shaped American culture

  1. Little Big Horn (1876)

a battle in which American Colonel George Custer's army was defeated by the Sioux

  1. Ghost Dance Movement

the last effort of Native Americans to resist US domination by religiously dancing; 200 peaceful natives were shot dead by the army

  1. assimilationists

people who advocated forcing Natives to conform with American culture via formal education, job training, religious conversion, and culture-erasing bordering schools

  1. Helen Hunt Jackson

a notable assimilationist author who published A Century of Dishonor in 1881

  1. Dawes Act of 1887

a bill to assimilation natives by breaking up their tribes to grant their land plots and granting citizenship after 25 years of "being civilized"

  1. Indian Reorganization Act

an aspect of FDR's New Deal that reestablished tribal culture, leading to an increase in Native populations

  1. Santa Fe Trail

an important trade route between the Southwest (New Mexico) and East (Missouri) that spurred economic development and settlement, especially for Mexican immigrants

  1. Yosemite

one of the first national parks in the West

  1. Yellowstone

the first national park in the West

  1. Forest Reserve Act of 1891 and Forest Management Act of 1897

legislation that established regulations on development in forests and parks

  1. conservationists

those advocating for sustainable and regulated natural resource extracion

  1. preservationists

those advocating for zero natural resource extraction in some areas

  1. John Muir

founder of the Sierra Club in 1892

  1. Sierra Club

American preservationist organization that educated the public on preservationism

  1. "New South"

the antebellum dream of a capitalist, self-sufficient South built on industry, improved transportation, and better race relations that didn't come to fruition

  1. Henry Grady

Atlanta paper edit who advocating for economic diversity and laissez faire led localities to tax-exempt investors

  1. Birmingham

home to a booming steel industry in the South

  1. Memphis

home to a booming lumber industry in the South

  1. Richmond

home to a booming tobacco industry in the South

  1. Georgia and the Carolinas

home to a booming textile industry in the South that overtook Northern production

  1. national rail network

the standardized rail systems that finally expanded South in the late 19th century

  1. tenant farmers

poor farmer who rents his land

  1. sharecroppers

poor farmer who rents his land with a share of crop

  1. George Washington Carver

African American scientist at the Tuskegee Institution, Alabama who called for diversifying crops

  1. Tuskegee Institute

Booker T. Washington's to educate black students and foment prosperity

  1. Civil Rights Cases of 1883

rulings that permitted discrimination in all privately-owned facilities, including hotels, railroads, and more

  1. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

landmark SCOTUS case that established the "separate but equal" doctrine

  1. Jim Crow laws

laws following Plessy v. Fergusson that segregated nearly everything

  1. literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses

methods of disenfranchising African Americans

  1. lynch mobs

murderous mobs of vigilante White supremacists who would lynch African Americans who activists who challenged segregation and White supremacy

  1. economic discrimination

a method of subjugating African Americans by barring them from skilled labor and factory jobs, leaving them will next to no social mobility

  1. Ida B. Wells

an African American newspaper editor who challenges against lynching and Jim Crow forced her to flee North

  1. International Migration Society (est. 1894)

Bishop Henry Turner's solution to discrimination which helped African American immigrate to Africa

  1. Booker T. Washington

an educated ex-slave who founded Tuskegee Institute because he believe education and money was more important than a vote

  1. W. E. B. Du Bois

an African American civil rights leader that, contrary to B. T. Washington, called for the end to segregation and for equality

  1. Atlanta Compromise

Booker T. Washington's argument that (1) all Southerners (White and Black) should bolster the South with hard work and without complaining about segregation, but (2) Whites should provide an education and basic rights for Blacks

  1. economic cooperation

Booker T. Washington's emphasized ideal of working to better the economy— and therefore life— in the South