chapter 16 ap history Flashcards
Frontier
An empty land awaiting settlement and civilization; a place of wealth, adventure, opportunity, and untrammeled individualism; a place of fresh beginning and bold undertakings
Pueblos
Indian tribe of the southwest who had long lived largely as farmers and had established permanent settlements
Territorial rings
Circles of local businesspeople with access to federal money who worked together to make the territorial government mutually profitable
Californios
Hispanic residents in California who were unable to resist the onslaught of English speaking immigrants
Rancheros
People in the south of California who raised cattle for the booming Anglo communities in the north
Barrios
Mexican American communities found in Los Angeles
Coolies
Chinese indentured servants whose condition was close to slavery
Tongs
Chinese secret societies, some were violent criminal organizations involved in opium trade and prostitution
Denis Kearney
An Irish immigrant who created the Workingmen’s party of California in 1878
Chinese exclusion act
Passed by congress in 1882; banned Chinese immigration into the U.S. for 10 years and barred Chinese already in the U.S. from becoming naturalized citizens
Homestead act
1862 permitted settlers to buy plots of 160 acres for a small fee if they occupied the land for 5 years and improved it
Sodbusters
Farmers who moved onto the Great Plains in Nebraska and other states on the agrarian frontier who cut through the sod to get to the soil to plant crops
Comstock lode
Silver discovery by Henry Comstock in Nevada, 1858
Black hills
A mining vein in southwestern Dakota territory where important minerals were found in 1874
Boo towns
A community that quickly started usually where a mining camp was located
Vigilantes
When gangs became intolerable, these committees formed as a system of social control. Unconstrained by legal system, they often forced justice without regard to due process.
Cattle kingdom
Great Plains provided open grass lands for cattle raisers to graze mass amounts of cattle free of charge. It is Mexican and Texan by ancestry and involved moving cattle to distant markets across the plains.
Chisholm trail
A trail in the cattle kingdom that led to Abilene KS, from TX
Range wars
A battle for grass between sheep men and cattlemen. Fences were built on claims to block trails and break up range. It resulted in loss of life and property damage.
Rocky Mountain school
Group of artists that romanticized the west through art. Some of the men that pained these western landscapes were Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran.
Frederick Jackson Turner
The historian that wrote “the Significance Of the Frontier in American History.” It stated his frontier thesis, which said the west was free to take, a place of triumph and progress, and that it ended in 1890.
Bureau of Indian affairs
Branch of department of the interior that managed Indian affairs such as distributing land, payments, and shipments of supplies. Agents were dishonest and had little understanding of tribes.
Sand creek massacre
Government of Colorado urged friendly Indians to group at army posts for protection. They exhibited no hostility, but J.M. Chivington led a militia and massacred 133.
Indian hunting
Vigilantes tracked and killed Indians like a sport
