Unit 7 Flashcards
Plains Indians
A diverse group of Indian tribes and their languages that inhabited the West
Sand Creek Massacre
1864: when Colorado Territory militia attacked + destroyed a village of Cheyenne & Arapaho killing and mutilating many natives
- 2/3rds were women and children.
Fort Laramie Treaty
1868
US government agrees to abandon 3 forts and the Bozeman Trail
Red Cloud agrees to move his tribe (Sioux) to a reservation stretching from the Black Hills of Dakota to the Missouri river
Custer’s Last Stand
June 1876, when Colonel George A. Custer and all his men were killed by Sioux Indians at the Battle of Little Bighorn (Custer’s Last Stand) in southern Montana.
whites motivated by gold found on reservation land
George Custer
Fought and was killed by the Sioux at the battle of Little Big Horn
Sitting Bull
- Great Soiux warrior who was one of the leaders at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
- was shot while being arrested for leading the Ghost Dance.
Helen Hunt Jackson
author of Century of Dishonor, criticized the government’s treatment of Native Americans and their violations of treaties and rights.
A Century of Dishonor
Written by Helen Hunt Jackson, this book exposed the U.S. governments many broken promises to the Native Americans.
Dawes Severalty Act
adopted by Congress in 1887, authorized the President of the United States to survey American Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians.
tried to destroy indian culture and unity and promote individuality instead
failed because there was no timetable and speculators took the better land from the natives
Ghost Dance Movement
Porphet Wovoka (Jack Wilson) had a vision where he saw the second coming of Christ and received warning about the evils of white man.
The last effort of Native Americans to resist US domination and drive whites from their ancestral lands.
Battle of Wounded Knee
a shot was fired which resulted in the US soliders opening fire indiscriminately from all sides, killing 300/340 natives.
ended indian wars and resistance
Mining Frontier
The discovery of gold in CA in 1848 caused the first flood of newcomers to the West. A series of gold strikes and silver strikes in what became the states of Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, and South Dakota kept a steady flow of hopeful young prospectors pushing into the Western mountains.
Comstock Lode
a lode of silver ore located in the Virginia Range in Nevada (then western Utah Territory). It was the first major discovery of silver ore in the US.
- After the discovery, prospectors rushed to the area and scrambled to stake their claims.
- Mining camps soon thrived in the vicinity, which became bustling centers of fabulous wealth
Cattle Frontier
The migration of many people west to take up cattle ranching, which was a quick way to make cash. All you needed was a couple cows which you allowed to graze until fat & then shipped off to the east coast where meat was in high demand. This was a temporary frontier because soon the supply of cattle overwhelmed the demand.
Farming Frontier
A period of time in which hundreds of thousands of citizens moved west and began to farm the frontier, very much due to the Homestead Act of 1862, which offered 160 acres of free public land to any family that settled there for a period of 5 years.
Oklahoma Land Rush
opened the Oklahoma Territory to occupation by white settlers in 1889, displacing the Native Americans.
- resulting in a race to lay claim for a homestead
Frederick Jackson Turner
Historian, wrote one of the most influential essays ever, The Significance of the Frontier in American History
- argued that the spirit and success of the United States was directly tied to the country’s westward expansion.
Frontier Thesis
Frederick Jackson Turner’s writing on the origin of the distinctive aggressive, violent, innovative and democratic features of the American character.
- the expansion into the western frontier distinguished america from europe and was crucial in shaping our nation
Railroad Consolidation
large companies absorbed smaller ones, integrated rail networks, made everything more uniform/even/compatible
JP Morgan
a banker, dominated the boards of competing railroad corporations through interlocking directorates
- bought out carnegie
Interstate Commerce Act
created an Interstate Commerce Commission to oversee the conduct of the railroad industry. With this act, the railroads became the first industry subject to Federal regulation.
- monitors the business operation of carriers transporting goods and people between states - created to regulate railroad prices
Andrew Carnegie
Wealthy industrialist whose company dominated the steel industry. Pioneered vertical integration.
Vertical Integration
company would control every stage of the industrial process (from mining the raw materials to transporting the finished product)
US Steel
Carnegie sold his company to this new steel combination headed by JP Morgan; first billion-dollar company and also the largest enterprise in the world, employing over a hundred thousand people and controlling more than three-fifths of the nations steel business
- 1901
- largest merger
John D Rockefeller
took charge of the chaotic oil refinery business by applying the latest technologies and efficient practices; able to export rebates from railroad companies and temporarily cut prices for Standard Oil kerosene to force rival companies to sell out; by 1881 his company controlled 90 percent of the oil refinery business; by eliminating waste in the production of kerosene, Standard Oil was also able to keep prices low for consumers
tldr: created the standard oil company and basically established a monopoly through horizontal integration
Standard Oil Trust
Rockefeller’s company; various companies that he had acquired, all managed by a board of trustees
Horizontal Integration
a technique used by John D Rockefeller, act of joining or consolidating with ones competitors to create a monopoly.
Sherman Antitrust Act
outlawed trusts, monopolies, and other forms of business that restricted trade
used by roosevelt for trust busting
first federal action against monopolies
didn’t work because it didn’t define trust well enough
Thomas Edison
inventor and businessman. developed the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb.
Gospel of Wealth
Book written by Carnegie. Belief that the rich had a responsibility to spend some of their wealth for the good of society
Social Darwinism
The belief that only the fittest survive in human political and economic struggle.
the idea that the best led companies would survive
Horatio Alger
prolific 19th-century American author, best known for his many juvenile novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security
tldr: rags to riches author + promoter
National Labor Union
- first large scale US union
- skilled AND unskilled
One of the earlier unions that excluded many Minorities (discredited by the great railroad strike of 1877)
Knights of Labor
umbrella union encompassing everyone, including radicals that are accused of the hay-market affair
Terence V Powderly
founded the Knights of labour
anti immigrant
American Federation of Labor
(Samuel Gompers) Only skilled laborers
- wanted better wages & working conditions
- started because Knights of Labor weren’t working
- non violent and rejected socialist/communist ideas
Samuel Gompers
He was the creator of the American Federation of Labor. He provided a stable and unified union for skilled workers.
Eugene V Debs
leader of American Railroad Union; directed railroad workers not to handle any trains with Pullman cars in the pullman strike
Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies)
This radical union aimed to unite the American working class into one union to promote labor’s interests. It worked to organize unskilled and foreign-born laborers, advocated social revolution and led several major strikes. Stressed solidarity.
Railroad Strike of 1877
One of the worst outbreaks of labor violence erupted in 1877, during economic depression, when railroad companies cut wages in order to reduce costs. It shut down 2/3 of country’s rail trackage. Strike quickly becoming national in scale. For the first time since 1830s federal troops used to end labor violence. More then 100 people killed.
Homestead Strike
It was one of the most violent strikes in U.S. history. It was against the Homestead Steel Works, which was part of the Carnegie Steel Company, in Pennsylvania in retaliation against wage cuts. The riot was ultimately put down by Pinkerton Police and the state militia, and the violence further damaged the image of unions.
Pullman Strike
A strike by railroad workers upset by drastic wage cuts. The strike was led by socialist Eugene Debs but not supported by the American federation of labor. Eventually President Grover Cleveland intervened, and federal troops forced an end to the strike.
brought about a shut down of western railroads
“New” Immigrants
immigrants who came to the United States primarily after the 1890s, mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe .
Ellis Island
An immigrant receiving station in New York Harbor that opened in 1892, where immigrants were given a medical examination and only allowed in if they were healthy.
Angel Island
The immigration station on the west coast where Asian immigrants, mostly Chinese gained admission to the U.S. at San Francisco Bay. Harsher than Ellis Island.
Nativism
A policy of favoring people born in a country over immigrants
Chinese Exclusion Act
first US law passed to exclude people based on nationality
- suspended chinese immigration into america and lasted until WWII
- shows extreme nativism
Political Machines
Gained power in the city and state governments by tending to the needs of the immigrants and poor and were often corrupt.
- designed to grab more votes for certain parties
Boss Tweed
William Tweed, head of Tammany Hall, NYC’s powerful democratic political machine in 1868. Between 1868 and 1869 he led the Tweed Reign, a group of corrupt politicians in defrauding the city. Example: Responsible for the construction of the NY court house; actual construction cost $3million. Project cost tax payers $13million.
Social Gospel
religious movement that arose during the second half of the nineteenth century. Ministers, especially ones belonging to the Protestant branch of Christianity, began to tie salvation and good works together. They argued that people must emulate the life of Jesus Christ.
tldr: emphasized charity and social responsibility as means of salvation
Settlement Houses
Community centers located in the slums and near tenements that gave aid to the poor, especially immigrants
Jane Addams
1860-1935. Founder of Settlement House Movement. First American Woman to earn Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 as president of Women’s Intenational League for Peace and Freedom.
