Unit 5 Test Flashcards
Battle of Little Bighorn
1876, near Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory, pitted federal troops by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer against Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne. Tensions rose since gold discovery on Indian lands. Tribes didn’t move to reservations so U.S. Army confronted them.
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
1868 between the U.S. Government and the Sioux Nation, the U.S. recognized the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux people.
Sioux & the Ghost Dance
A religious revitalization campaign of dancing, singing, religion. Fortells a day of returning to traditional Indian life.
Massacre at Wounded Knee
Far of uprising government troops killed 200 Indians which was then applauded in the news. This led to American’s efforts to limit mainstream religions (animism and Mormon).
The Dawes Act (vs. Homestead Act)
Senator Henry L. Dawes (chair of Senates’ Indian Affairs Committee) broke up tribal land into small parcels of land which was redistributed to Indian families (not communities to promote Christian family values) and auctioned off some to white purchasers. This led to a loss of tribal land and traditions.
Homestead Act
an applicant (families) could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead.
Assimilation
Government forced Indians to surrender land and exchange religious way of life for American ideals which eliminated deals with the Indians.
“Buffalo soldiers”
United States Army that primarily comprised African Americans, to serve on the American frontier.
Boarding schools for indigenous children
To westernize Indian and assimilate them through modern education and removal of cultural identity
Construction of the Transcontinental RR
Funded by private investments and government grants which tripled amount of existing railroads which opened vast new areas to commercial farming and national market for manufactured goods. Major railroad companies divided nation into 4 time zones
Laborers & labor conditions of the transcontinental railroad workers
Made up mostly of Chinese immigrants which were unrecognized for their dangerous and unregulated work.
Impact of Transcontinental RR on West & the nation as a whole
Raised transport fees which put many farmers into debt and others. Was a large influential monopoly. They were key to America’s industrial success. Railroads raised commerce and integrated the America market which allowed national brands to emerge.
Cowboys & Cattle
Collection of white, Mexican, and Black men conducted cattle drives and these “cowboys” became symbols of a life of the freedom on the open range land.
Panic of 1873
After the Civil War, the US banking system grew rapidly and seemed to be set on solid ground. But the country was hit by many banking crises. One of the worst happened in 1873 – during the time of the Freedman’s Bank. “Long Depression”. EXAMPLE: One of the biggest banks in New York City was Jay Cooke & Company. It had invested a lot of money in the railroads, and when the railroads started having problems, Jay Cooke & Company went bankrupt. When people saw that such a big bank failed, they began to run to their banks, demanding all of their money back.
Rockefeller & Oil
Corporations bought up rivals. Standard Oil controlled 90% of U.S. oil industry.
Carnegie & Steel
American steel company founded by Scottish-born American industrialist Andrew Carnegie. 1889 the Carnegie Steel Company was launched with an astounding integrated network of steel and iron supply, manufacture, and transport.
Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth
1889, Andrew Carnegie’s essay “The Gospel of Wealth” believed in giving wealth away during one’s lifetime (philanthropy).
JP Morgan & banking
Horizontal vs. vertical integration
Horizontal: big firms bought up smaller ones to create a monopoly
Vertical: Firms bought up all aspects of production process (raw materials–> production –> transportation –> distribution)
Panic of 1893
Federal Reserve
Collapse of several Wall Street brokerage houses, over 600 banks and 16,000 businesses failed, unemployment 20%r, little relief. Thousands of farmers lost their land, the Populist Party gained momentum as a voice of reform and government intervention in the economy.
New Middle-Class
Many artisans and small merchants, who owned small factories and stores, did manage to achieve and maintain respectability in an emerging middle class. Lacking the protection of great wealth, the middle class agonized over the fear that they might slip into the ranks of wage laborers
Old vs. New immigrants (and numbers)
Old Immigrants: 1820-1880 German and Irish immigrants (10 million) most similar to native white Americans and from Northwest Europe (like UK)
New Immigrants: 1900 From Southern and Eastern Europe in addition to China and other Asian countries (Italy + Russia + Austro-Hungarian Empire) (12 million)
Push vs. pull factors
Pull: Free religious practice + economic opportunities + American dream + less regulations + industrialization
Push: political and religious persecution, economic hardship, and social unrest. Many countries experienced political instability, such as revolutions and wars, which forced people to seek a more stable and secure life elsewhere.
Chinese Exclusion Act
Congress temporarily excluded all Chinese immigrants because they are seen as criminals, uneducated, and reasons for all economic miseries.
Restrictions placed on immigration
- long time for citizenship (weeks to years)
- health checks
- No criminals, poor people, ill of those likely to become a public charge (homeless).
Nativism
Favoritism for “native white born” Americans.
Ellis Island vs. Angel Island
Ellis Island: New York (east) immigration station, processed in a few hours. Women couldn’t leave without a man accompanying hedrf
Angel Island: San Francisco (west) longer detentions
“Melting Pot”
Metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, through the mix of foreign cultures
Tenement housing
Small multi-building low-quality and unhygienic housing.
Typical work for immigrants
Unskilled work such as factory (assembly-lines), construction, domestic work.
Sweatshops
Crowded workplace with very poor, illegal/unacceptable working conditions. The manual workers are poorly paid, work long hours, and poor working conditions.
Urbanization
process of large numbers of people becoming permanently concentrated in relatively small areas, forming cities.
Ethnic neighborhoods
areas with high ethnic concentration, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity. (like Little Italy)
Social Darwinism
evolution was as natural a process in human society as in nature and so the government must not interfere. Used to justify the emergence of giant corporations and so the government can’t restrict their operations with legislation because that would reduce society to a primitive level. Which led to no public relief for the poor and they are responsible for their dire economic situations.
The “New South”
an era of prosperity based on industrial and agricultural expansion. This attracted investors which created a state of low wages, Dawes Act, convict (criminal) labor and these investors made no economic contribution.
“Redeemers”
merchants, planters, entrepreneurs created a coalition to slash state budgets, tax land property, and reduce public facilities to regain Southern political power and white supremacy.
The “Lost Cause”
a romanticized slavery (nostalgic), the Old South, centralized around religion. It was to help whites come to terms with Civil War defeat and white supremacy.
Jim Crow South
Jim Crow laws = collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation in the South from the post-Civil War era to 1968. They denied African Americans the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education or other opportunities. Jim Crow was the name of a minstrel routine.
Disenfranchisement (Literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clause)
To purify politics by ending “fraud” , violence, and manipulation of voting through literacy test (most blacks were illiterate and poor whites), poll taxes (can’t afford it), and grandfather clause (exempted descendants of persons who weren’t allowed to vote PRIOR to the Civil War, Black people were enslaved before war)
Plessy v. Ferguson
Supreme Court approved state laws requiring separate facilities for races (black man Homer Plessy was arrested for disobeying laws) = segregation
Lynching
Blacks who challenged the system and fought for civil rights (middle black class) are tortured and executed publicly and justified through the common accusation of raping a white woman.
Booker T. Washington “Atlanta Compromise”
Booker’s speech urged blacks to adjust and accept segregation and to abandon the fight for civil and political rights and to instead get skilled educated jobs.
NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
oldest and recognized civil rights organization. works locally and nationally to “ensure political, educational, social, and economic equality for all, and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.”
Gold Standard Act
Congress, signed by President William McKinley 1900, defining the U.S. dollar by gold weight and requiring the U.S. Treasury to redeem, on demand and in gold coin only, paper currency the Act specified. abandoned due to its volatile changes, and government limitations it imposed
The Open Range and Barbed Wire
1870s west expansion of the agricultural frontier across the Great Plains had been halted by the lack of adequate fencing material to protect crops from cattle. 1874, Joseph F. Glidden was granted a patent for fencing material consisting of barbs like modern designs
Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis
lectured about “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” and argued that on the western frontier the distinctive qualities of American culture were forged (safety from corporations)
Kansas Exodusters
Slaves, now free, were now faced with renting farmland to make a living growing cotton. Tenant farmers couldn’t make enough to provide for families. Rare for blacks to own land + increasing racial violence. Many families began to look for ways to leave the South.
Kansas seemed to be one solution, freedom because of the events during the Bleeding Kansas era
Industrial Revolution (Factors that led to the Industrial Revolution)
- abundant natural resources
- growing labor supply
- government promoted agricultural, industrial development
- expanding market for manufactured goods
- availability of capital for investment
New innovations and Inventions in the Industrial Era
- Railroads + locomotives
- 1866 Atlantic cable
- Instant electronic telegraph messages
- Telephone
- Typewriter
- Handheld camera
- Electricity
- Phonographs
- Lightbulb
- motion picture
- system for distribution of electricity + generate electricity
- manufacturing
- factories
- establishments
- mines
- skyscrapers
Increased standard of living
Transformed private life –> created public entertainment, economic activity, with more reliable and flexible sources of power, leisure activities, balls, mansions,
Railroads and western settlement
railroads connected east to west and made travel there less permanent and more attractive for living and access to clothes, food, supplies from railroad and more factory jobs and industrial farming.
Corporations and Monopolies
With horizontal integration, corporations became monopolies with control over the majority if not entire market. wielding power to pick prices and expand in an unregulated marketplace
The “Gilded Age”
named after book by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Wamer. “gilded” means covered with a layer of gold and glittering surface that masks the core of little/to no real value which is deceptive. The economic expansion was an era of profit and wealth but it included corruption in politics and corporations and most didn’t enjoy any of that wealth
Captains of industry vs. robber barons
captains of industry: corporations’ energy and vision pushed the economy forward
robber barons: corporations wielded power without any accountability in an unregulated marketplace
Populist Movement & People’s Party
coalition of agrarian reformers but politically ineffective. Demanded an increase in the circulating currency (to be achieved by the unlimited coinage of silver), a graduated income tax, government ownership of the railroads, a tariff for revenue only, the direct election of U.S. senators, and other measures designed to strengthen political democracy and give farmers economic parity with business and industry.
Farmers and Railroad complaints (and other economic problems facing farmers)
discontented because of crop failures, falling prices, and poor marketing and credit facilities, and high transportation fees from Railroad corporation
“Cross of Gold” speech (William Jennings Bryan)
during the campaign for the presidential election of 1896. The Republican Party platform for the election, “We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to debase our currency.” didn’t want the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold.
1896 Election
Republican William McKinley defeated Democrat-Populist William Jennings Bryan. The central issue was the country’s money supply. An economic depression had begun in 1893, and public opinion—and even the Democratic Party—was split between those who favored the gold standard and those who favored free silver, a type of currency inflation, to help alleviate the depression.
Labor Unions (American Federation of Labor + Collective bargaining)
–> AFL devote themselves to negotiating for higher wages, better working conditions however restricted memberships to only skilled workers (a minority)
–>Your union and employer must bargain in good faith about wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment until they agree on a labor contract or reach a stand-off
Labor Unrest (Great Railroad Strike of 1877, Haymarket, Homestead Strike, Pullman Strike, Bread and Roses Strike)
Workers became outraged and tired at the unfair pay that continued to lower so they created worker solidarity and often boycotted, walked out in thousands, to try and raise wages, less hours/week, better working conditions (sanitary and danger). strikers were sometimes shot and killed and these killings were supported by the government and corporations.
Socialist Party - platform and how this relates to workers’ rights
Belief that private control of economic enterprises should be replaced by public ownership in order to ensure a fair distribution of the benefits of the wealth produced.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
NYC 1911, The fire caused the deaths 123 women and girls and 23 men – who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, falling, or jumping to their deaths. Sparked a movement for labor rights and safety reform
Progressive Movement
an era of intense social and political reform aimed at making progress toward a better society; to fix a lack of freedom
16th Amendment
authorized Congress to enact a graduated income tax (high for rich and low for poor)
Muckrakers
reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions
Political Machines & Party Bosses
a party organization, headed by a single boss or small autocratic group, that commands enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of a city, county, or state.The rapid growth of American cities (immigration + migration) created huge problems for city governments, which were often poorly structured and unable to provide services. In those conditions, political machines were able to build a loyal voter following, especially among immigrant groups, by providing jobs or housing.
Initiative, referendum, recall
Initiative: direct legislation which allowed citizens to propose and vote directly which bypassed state legislature
Referendum: popular votes on public policies
Recall: allowed for the removal of public officials by popular vote
17th Amendment
direct election of United States senators in each state
Jane Addams and the Settlement House Movement
a peace activist and a leader of the settlement house movement in America. A distinguished of the first generation of college-educated women, she rejected marriage and motherhood to commit to the poor and social reform.1889 moved into an old mansion in an immigrant neighborhood of Chicago. Hull-House remained Addams’s home for the rest of her life and became the center of an experiment in philanthropy, political action and social science research. Many followed in her path creating these sanctuaries for those in need
WCTU
Women’s Christian Temperance Union was one of the biggest female organization (150,000) who demanded prohibition of alcohol because it caused men to waste wages on alcohol and domestic abuse so to vote for economic and political reform.
Women’s suffrage movement
wanted elitist and educated voters and held annual meetings for National American Woman Suffrage Association and they agreed with nativism and suffrage.
18th Amendment
the Prohibition Act (no alcohol)
Social Gospel
Walter Rauschebusch, Baptist Minister, insisted that freedom and spiritual self-development required an equalization of wealth and power. This originated as an effort. to reform Protestant churches by expanding appeal to urban and poor to combat companies and create relief programs. So the it supported the labor movement.
President Roosevelt
For the people and against corporations and hated muckrakers.
Square Deal
attempted to confront the problems caused by economic consolidation by distinguishing between “good” and “bad” corporations.
Sherman Antitrust Act
outlaws all combinations that restrain trade between states or with foreign nations AND makes illegal all attempts to monopolize any part of trade or commerce
Civil Service Reform (Act of 1883)
1883 mandates that most positions within the federal government should be awarded on the basis of merit instead of political patronage
President Taft
William Howard Taft was a federal judge from Ohio who served as a more conservative governor of Philippines after Spanish-American War.
Election of 1912
Taft Vs Roosevelt Vs Wilson Vs Debbs. Primarily between Wilson and Roosevelt
