Unit #6 Flashcards
The Great Plains
Untamed, wild, full of Indians, bison and wildlife, and sparsely populated by Mormons and Mexicans.
Exodusters
Name given to African Americans who fled the Southern United States for Kansas in 1879 and 1880 because of racial oppression and rumors of the reinstitution of slavery.
The Homestead Act
an act that allowed a settler to acquire as much as 160 acres of land by living on it for 5 years, improving it, and paying a nominal fee of about $30 - instead of public land being sold primarily for revenue, it was now being given away to encourage a rapid filling of empty spaces and to provide a stimulus to the family
Pacific Railroad Act
an act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes
The Transcontinental Railroad
completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, it linked the eastern railroad system with California’s railroad system
Union Pacific RR
the railroad that started from Omaha in the mid-1860s and was built westward as part of the transcontinental railroad
Central Pacific RR
started in California, and pushed eastward; eventually connected with the Union Pacific Railroad in Promentary Point, Utah
The 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.
The Plains Indians Wars
Native American tribes fought back because they were removed from their ancestral lands and Indian agents were corrupt and pawned off products to their own Indians.
Chivington (Sand Creek) Massacre
1864: Militia massacred about 400 hundred Indians in cold blood - Indians who had though they had been promised immunity and Indians who were peaceful and harmless
Fetterman Massacre
1866: a Sioux war party ambushed Captain Fetterman’s command of 81 soldiers and civilians who were constructing the Bozeman Trail to the Montana goldfields leaving no survivors, Indian Victory
2nd Treaty of Fort Laramie
1868: the government abandoned the Bozeman trail; “Great Sioux Reservation” promised; Ended when Custer found gold on the lands
Reservation System
The federal government tried to pacify the Indians by signing treaties with chiefs of tribes. The US failed to understand that tribes and chiefs didn’t necessarily represent groups of people in Indian culture.
Sitting Bull
Leader of the Sioux
Crazy Horse
chief of the Nez Perce Indians of Idaho; tried to escape to Canada
George Armstrong Custer
Discovered gold in Black Hills of South Dakota, his seventh cavalry division was decimated by the Sioux at the battle of Little Big Horn
Battle of Little Big Horn
Hordes of gold-seekers invaded the Sioux reservation after Colonel Custer found gold in the Black Hill, Indian Win
Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce
After the New Perce Indians revolted the gold seekers made the government shrink their reservation by 90% and after a battle Chief Joseph surrendered his band after a long trek across the continental divide to Canada.
Geronimo
Lead the Apache tribes of Arizona and New Mexico; finally surrendered after being pushed to Mexico and they became successful farmers
Destruction of Buffalo
Many people killed buffalo for their meat and their skins and used the whole body but others hunted for sport. By 1885, fewer that 1000 buffalo were left.
The Carlisle Indian School
Was founded to teach native American children how to behave like whites, completely erasing their culture
Helen Hunt Jackson
Wrote a Century of Dishonor and Ramona; chronicled record of government ruthlessness/love story
Dawes Severalty Act
1887: dissolved the legal entities of all tribes, but if the Indians behaved the way whites wanted them to behave (farmers) and could receive full citizenship is 25 years
The Ghost Dance
a festival that whites thought was the war-drum beating
Wounded Knee
1890: the Ghost Dance was brutally stamped our by US troops who killed women and children and marked the end of Indian War because by then they were on reservations or dead
The Mining Frontier
Gold was discovered n California in the late 1840s and in 1858 in Colorado
Comstock Lode
A fantastic amount of silver and gold worth more that 340 million was mined
Hard Rock Mining
mining Technique that involves sinking deep mine shafts to get at ore in veins of rock. only big businesses could afford to do this
Women in the West
Women found new rights such as gaining suffrage; Women began running boarding houses
Silver Senators
these people used disproportionate influence to promote the interests of silver miners
Open Range Ranching
cattle/livestock grazed on open ranges
Joseph McCoy
livestock owner that used railroads to send meat and built cattle pens called stockyards
Range Wars
Tensions between shepards/ cattleman/ ranchers & farmers
Cattle Kingdom
First legit business in the Great Plains; cowboys were paid to take cattle to railroads
Farming on the Plains
Due to higher wheat prices resulting from crop failures more people pushed westward. It was difficult to grow crops, dry farming was invented.
Barbed Wire
invented by Samuel Glidden; fences that erased the open-range days of the long cattle drives
Turner’s Frontier Thesis
The closing of the frontier inspired this thesis which stated that Americans needed a frontier. The frontier is a safety valve.
Foreign Policy Pre-1880
The frontier was a state of mind. When areas became packed the frontier allowed folks to move west.
Seward’s Folly
Purchase of Alaska from Russia which was considered stupid at the time. It was later used for oil resources.
Expansionist Arguments
the growth in population, wealth and productive capacity causes labor violence agrarian unrest so, overseas markets seemed the solution
Josiah Strong
Missionary; wrote Our Country: It’s Possible Future and Its Present Crisis; he spoke for civilizing and Christianizing savages
Henry Cabot Loge
Sr Applied Darwin’s survival of the fittest theory to nations-Was the order of things for the strong to conquer the weak
Pan American Conference
James Blaine pushed his Big Sister policy which sought better relations with Latin America. He presided over this conference.
Alfred T. Mahan
Wrote the Influence of Sea Power Upon History which argued that every successful world power once held a great navy.
Naval Act of 1890
Authorized 3 sea going battleships (carrying heaviest armor) caused America to rank 3rd in the word in terms of naval power
Annexation of Hawaii
Americans in Hawaii revolted and caused Hawaii to seem ready for annexation. Cleveland investigated and ground that it was wrong and delayed annexation of office util he left office.
McKinley Tariff
Raised the prices on Hawaiian sugar.
Queen Lililoukalani
Opposed annexation of Hawaii; Queen of Hawaii
Sanford Dole
used US marines to remove the queen from power then declared Hawaii a republic, American plantation owner in Hawaii
Samoan Islands Treaty
America and Germany almost went to war over the Somoan Islands.
Jose Marti
leader of Cuban rebels, against US occupation of Cuba
Valeriano Weyler
Spanish General that came to Cuba to crush the revolt and ended up putting many civilians into concentration camps that were terrible
Yellow Journalism
Yellow presses competed against each other to come up with more sensational stories.
William Randolph Hearst
Yellow journalists that sent and artist to draw picture of functional atrocities.
Joseph Pullitzer
Yellow journalists that influenced overseas expansion.
DeLome Letter
A letter written by the Spanish Minister to Washington that ridiculed President McKinley.
USS Maine
The US battleship that mysteriously exploded in Havana Harbor killing 260 officers and men. Spain received blame despite the unknown cause.
Rickover Report
US Navy admiral found evidence that the initial explosion had resulted from spontaneous combustion in a coal bunker near magazines
Teller Amendment
Proclaimed that when the US had overthrown Spanish misrule, it would give the Cubans their freedom and not conquer it.
Spanish American War
McKinley though war with Spain seemed inevitable, America had to defend Democracy and opposing a war could split the Republican party and America.
Theodore Roosevelt
Assistant Secretary to the Navy that modernized the US navy and made it look sleek.
Commodore George Dewey
Commanded the American Asiatic Squadron at Hon Kong and told him to take over the Philippines. Dewey did so brilliantly, completely taking over the islands from the Spanish.
Manila Bay
Nations were moving their ships into the harbor to protect their men. The German navy defied american blockade regulations and Dewey threatened the navy commander with war, but it blew over.
Emilio Aguinaldo
Led American troops to Manila and in collaboration with Filipino insurgents to overthrow the Spanish rulers.
Rough Riders
A regiment of soldiers led by Theodore Roosevelt and Colonel Leonard Wood rushed to Cuba and battled at El Caney stormed up in San Juan Hill.
The Splendid Little War
John Hay called the Spanish American War this because they were cocky. The American army took over Puerto Rico and soon after they signed an armistice. Finally, TR wrote a round-robin letter demanded that the US government take the troops out before they all died.
Treaty of Paris
1989: America got Guam an Puerto Rico and freed Cuba but the Philippines could not be honorably give it back to Spain after decades for misrule, but th US couldn’t just take it like an imperialistic nation.
Imperialism Debate
The US got the Philippines and imperialists wanted to keep the Philippines so it doesn’t succumb to anarchy.
Anti-Imperialist Debate
Opposed the new imperialism of America that was sparked from the Philippines; opponents argued that such a step would destroy American’s venerable comittments to self-determination
Leonard Wood
Set up an American military government in Cuba which brought miracles in government, public health, public education and finance.
William Gorgas & Walter Reed
Exterminated yellow fever in Havana, Cuba
Platt Amendment
US encouraged Cuba to write and pass this. Stated that the US could intervene and restore order in case of anarchy, the US could trade freely with Cuba ad the US could get two bays for naval bases.
