Unit One Flashcards
What is the “Great American Desert”?
What it is, how it got its name, what the name caused
The plains east of the Rocky Mountains, down the middle of the country. Named by white explorers, due to its lack of trees; this unfavorable name decreased its colonization until after the Civil War.
What is the Frontier Thesis?
Who created it and when, what was it, what is its the major criticism
Fredrick Jackson Turner analyzed census data, and found the west (the frontier, or unsettled land) was essentially settled. He believed that the frontier was what gave America all its characteristics. The major criticism was that the west had already been settled, by Indians and Latin Americans, so it is better to say the expansion caused new interactions not a civilization of the land.
Culture of the Plains Indians?
(What are the major tribes (8), what is not considered a tribe)
(What are their major characteristics (7))
Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Kiowa, Pawnee, Sioux. Resettled tribes from the East are not considered plains.
Nomadic. Warlike. Nonagricultural. Dependent on buffalo. Organized into bands. Division of labor. More egalitarian (all jobs considered crucial, women may own property)
Anglo-American Attitudes?
How did they see them, how did they deal with them
Negative stereotypes and prejudices (inferior, lazy, unproductive, uncivilized, savage).
Anglos generally practiced separation (did not work together).
Government Policy
(What were the two approaches?)
(What are the three acts, and what did they define?)
Two approaches: Civilization/assimilation versus removal/annihilation.
Indian Removal Act-push indians west
Indian Intercourse Act-guranteed the Indians the west, and defined trade with them
Concentration/reservation policy-create reservations for certain tribes, both white people and indians violated this
What were the major Indian battles?
There are five events
1) Sand Creek Massacre: Black Kettle worked for peace, but a Colorado Militia committed massacre
2) Fetterman Massacre: past massacres prompt the Indians (sioux) to massacre US troops)
3) Peace attempts didn’t last because the younger generation wanted more freedom
4)Custer’s Last Stand/Battle of the Little Bighorn: both sides violated treaty, Custer
engaged Indians in Battle his soldiers were massacred
5)Wounded Knee: A new religion (Ghost dances) spread among defeated Indians, caused fear among white settlers, ended in the massacre of Indians
How were Indians Subjugated?
What major act caused this, and what other important development hurt the Indians
Dawes Severalty Act: Ended tribal leadership, by giving away plots of land to individuals, and taking what was left over; tried to change their religion, culture, and language
The buffalo were systematically exterminated, in order to decrease the Indian Population, this divested the Indians
What is important about the Mining Frontier?
(What was it?)
(With what, and how, did it start?)
(Who originally worked, and where did it progress to?)
(What were the impacts (6)?)
It was the first major attraction to the west
Started with California Gold Rush, and other small rushes, jumped from East to very west, then moved back East
Original workers are treasure hunters, then moved to corporations
Impact: stimulated settlement, business, and transportation, foundation of industry, political organization, western labor movement (union).
Land Legislation?
What were the two acts, and what did they say?
Homestead Act- gave away land for farming
Timber Culture Act- gave away land for tree planting, increased the land to make farming easier
Farming?
(What was it?)
(How did it effect the world?)
(What technological inventions helped them (4)?)
(What scientific studies helped them (3)?)
(What still occurred despite this?)
Dominant force in taming the West.
Vast farming region became the world’s bread basket.
Technological improvements: barbed wire, windmills, plow, mechanical harvester.
Scientific studies of grain, soil, climate.
High failure rates.
Ranching?
(What helped it increase (2)?)
(Where did it originate?)
(What caused its decline (3)?)
Railroads and growing cities.
Mexican origin: Tejano Longhorns.
Decline: barbed wire, refrigerated RR cars, harsh winters 1886-87.
Decline of black politics?
(Who came to power after Reconstruction?)
(What did Henry Grady do?)
(What did the people in question one do?)
(What limited black’s right vote (4)?)
Redeemers were Southern Democrats who came to power after Reconstruction.
Henry Grady promoted New South with modern industry, diversified agriculture.
Redeemers gradually reversed political gains African Americans had made.
Poll tax, literacy tests, grandfather clause, violence undermined vote for Blacks.
Segregation? (What did the Southern states do?) (What did the Civil Rights Cases do?) (What did Plessy v. Ferguson allow for?) (What continued to increase?)
Southern states imposed system of legal segregation.
Civil Rights Cases invalidated Civil Rights Act of 1875.
Plessy v. Ferguson implemented “separate but equal” doctrine.
Growing violence and lynching.
Sharecropping?
A job for former slaves, tenant farmers.
Buffalo Soliders?
African-American soldiers in US army who fought in Indian wars.
Exodusters?
African-American group who left the South after Reconstruction, to avoid discrimination, began farming in the West.
Rapid Industrialization Factors (6)?
Natural resources. Cheap labor force. Confidence of investors. Expanding markets. Technological progress. Supportive government policies.
Major Industrialists?
(Five (one group of two) and their field of work)
(The controversy)
John D. Rockefeller – oil.
Andrew Carnegie – steel.
Cornelius Vanderbilt/Thomas Scott – railroads.
J.P. Morgan – banking.
“Robber Barons”(bad, cheating, greedy people) or “Captains of Industry” (built American capitalism)
What did Carnegie do?
Who did he sell to, and what did they do?
Carnegie introduced vertical integration, controlled production from raw material to finished product.
Sold Carnegie Steel to J.P. Morgan, who created U.S. Steel, 1st Billion Dollar Corporation.
What did Rockefeller do?
What did he create?
Rockefeller began with horizontal (buy out all competition) and moved toward vertical integration.
Created Standard Oil Trust, later converted to holding company. (stock control less direct than trust)
Railroads? (Most Important...?) (Foundation of...?) (First...?) (End of...?) (Creation of...?) (Fuel for...?) (Ended as...?)
What is the main Transcontinental RR?
What occurred do to overbuilding?
Most important technological innovation. Foundation of industrial age. Alfred Chandler: “First big business.” End of rural isolation. Creation of national market. Fuel for new consumer culture. Integrated, standardized rail system.
Union Pacific & Central Pacific met at Promontory, Utah, 1869.
Mergers and consolidation.
J.P. Morgan reorganized, “morganized” RR business
Work Environment (3)?
Changed to working with strangers, loss of control, started unions
Knights of Labor? (Expanded by?) (Wanted to?) (Small goals (3)?) (Big goal (1)?) (Opposed to?) (Decline after?)
Expanded under Terence Powderly
Wanted to unite all workers.
Eight hour day, equal pay, ban child labor.
“Cooperative commonwealth,” worker-run factories.
Opposed to concentrated capital and political corruption.
Decline after violence
American Federation of Labor
(Organized?)
(Worked for? (4)?)
Organized skilled craftsmen.
Worked within system for shorter hours, better working conditions, higher wages, collective bargaining.
