Vocab Flashcards
Great Plains
a semiarid territory, populated by Native Americans, perfect for faming and agriculture
Transcontinental Railroad
gateway to the West
Treaty of Fort Laramie
confined tribes on the northern plains to designated areas in an attempt to keep white settlers from invading their land, white miners did not keep this agreement
Treaty of Medicine Lodge
provided reservation lands for the Comanche, Kiowa Apache, and Southern Arapaho to settle, white hunters invaded this territory
Battle of the Little BigHorn
876 Indians beat American troops in Montana as they waged a merciless war of annihilation against the Indians
Buffalo soldiers
represented a cross section of the postwar black population looking for new opportunities that were now available after their emancipation, battled the Indians
Dawes Act
1887, ended tribal rule and divided Indian lands into 160-acre parcels, eventually indians would receive american citizenship and have to abandon their religious and cultural rites and practices
Ghost Dance
Dance performed by thousands of Lakota Sioux in the northern plains hoping of renewed Indian resistance, influenced the massacre at Wounded Knee
Comstock Lode
Sierra Nevada, where miners extracted around $350 million worth of silver
Long Drive
along the Chisholm Trail, cowboys move cattle from ranches in Texas through Oklahoma to rail depots in Kansas towns, cattle then shipped by train eastward to slaughterhouses in chicago
Homestead Act
an incentive for western migration, established procedures for distributing 160 acre lots to western settlers on condition that they develop and farm their land
Mormons
sought refuge in the West for religious reasons, attracted more than 85,000 settlers in Utah
Californios
Mexicans and Spaniards in California that established themselves as farmers and ranchers - lost that land after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican American War
Chinese Exclusion Act
1882, banned Chinese immigration into the United States and prohibited those Chinese already in the country from becoming naturalized American citizens
New South
term popularized by newspaper editor Henry Grady in the 1880s. Grady believed that industrial development would lead to the emergence of a New South.
Convict lease
the system used by southern governments to furnish mainly African American prison labor to plantation owners and industrialists and to raise revenue for the states. In practice, convict labor replaced slavery as the means of providing a forced labor supply.
Vertical Integration
The control of all elements in a supply chain by a single firm. For example, Andrew Carnegie, a vertically integrated steel producer, sought to own suppliers of all the raw materials used in steel production
Horizontal integration
The ownership of as many firms as possible in a given industry by a single owner. John D. Rockefeller pursued a strategy of horizontal integration when he bought up rival oil refineries.
Corporation
A form of business ownership in which the liability of shareholders in a company is limited to their individual investments. The formation of corporations in the late nineteenth century greatly stimulated investment in industry.
Trust
Business monopolies formed through combining of two large companies and combing of many little companies into 1 that inhibited competition and controlled the market
Sherman antitrust act
1890 act that outlawed monopolies that prevented free competition in interstate commerce.
Laissez-faire
French for “let things alone.” Advocates of laissez-faire believed that the marketplace should be left to regulate itself, allowing individuals to pursue their own self-interest without any government restraint or interference.
Social darwinism
The belief that drew upon some of the ideas of Charles Darwin. Stressing individual competition and the survival of the fittest, used to justify economic inequality, racism, imperialism, and hostility to federal government regulation.
The gospel of wealth
1889 essay by Andrew Carnegie in which he argued that the rich should act as stewards of the wealth they earned, using their surplus income for the benefit of the community.
Gilded age
Term coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner to describe the late nineteenth century. The term referred to the opulent and often ostentatious lifestyles of the era’s superrich.
Jim Crow
late-nineteenth-century statutes that established legally defined racial segregation in the South. Jim Crow legislation helped ensure the social and economic subordination of southern blacks
Plessy v. Ferguson
1896 Supreme Court ruling that upheld the legality of Jim Crow legislation. The Court ruled that as long as states provided “equal but separate” facilities for whites and blacks, Jim Crow laws did not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
Billion Dollar Congress
The Republican-controlled Congress of 1890 that spent huge sums of money to promote business and other interests
unskilled workers
Workers with little or no specific expertise. Unskilled workers, many of whom were immigrants, made up the vast majority of the late-nineteenth-century industrial workforce
skilled workers
Workers with particular training and skills. Skilled workers were paid more and were more difficult for owners to replace than unskilled workers
unions
Groups of workers seeking rights and benefits from their employers through their collective efforts
collective bargaining
The process of negotiation between labor unions and employers.
Noble Order of the Knights of Labor
Labor organization founded in 1869 by Uriah Stephens. The Knights sought to include all workers in one giant union
Haymarket Square
1886 rally and violence in Chicago. In the aftermath of the events in Haymarket Square, the union movement in the United States went into temporary decline.
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Trade union federation founded in 1886. Led by its first president, Samuel Gompers, the AFL sought to organize skilled workers into trade-specific unions.
Homestead strike
1892 strike by steelworkers at Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead steel factory. The strike collapsed after a failed assassination attempt on Carnegie’s plant manager, Henry Clay Fric
Pullman strike
1894 strike by workers against the Pullman railcar company. When the strike disrupted rail service nationwide, threatening the delivery of the mail, President Grover Cleveland ordered federal troops to get the railroads moving again.
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
Organization that grew out of the activities of the Western Federation of Miners in the 1890s and formed by Eugene V. Debs. Known as Wobblies, the IWW attempted to unite all skilled and unskilled workers in an effort to overthrow capitalism
Grangers Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)
Members of an organization founded in 1867 to meet the social and cultural needs of farmers. Grangers took an active role in the promotion of the economic and political interests of farmers.
Farmers’ Alliances
Regional organizations formed in the late nineteenth century to advance the interests of farmers. The most prominent of these organizations were the Northwestern Farmers’ Alliance, the Southern Farmers’ Alliance, and the Colored Farmers’ Alliance.
subtreasury system
A proposal by the Farmers’ Alliances in the 1880s for the federal government to extend loans to farmers and store their crops in warehouses until prices rose and they could buy back and sell their crops to repay their debts
Populists
the People’s Party of America, formed in 1892. The Populists sought to appeal to both farmers and industrial workers.
depression of 1893
Severe economic downturn triggered by railroad and bank failures. The severity of the depression, combined with the failure of the federal government to offer an adequate response, led to the realignment of American politics
Coxey’s army
1894 protest movement led by Jacob Coxey. Coxey and five hundred supporters marched from Ohio to Washington, D.C., to protest the lack of government response to the depression of 1893
Chinese Exclusion Act
1882 act that banned Chinese immigration into the United States and prohibited those Chinese already in the country from becoming naturalized American citizens.
Ghettos
Neighborhoods dominated by a single ethnic, racial, or class group
mutual aid Societies
Voluntary associations that provide a variety of economic and social benefits to their members.
nativism
The belief that foreigners pose a serious danger to a nation’s society and culture. Nativist sentiment rose in the United States as the size and diversity of the immigrant population grew.
eugenics
The pseudoscience of producing genetic improvement in the human population through selective breeding. Proponents of eugenics often saw ethnic and racial minorities as genetically “undesirable” and inferior
melting pot
Popular metaphor for immigrant assimilation into American society. According to this ideal, all immigrants underwent a process of Americanization that produced a homogeneous society
skyscrapers
Buildings more than ten stories high that first appeared in U.S. cities in the late nineteenth century. Urban crowding and high prices for land stimulated the drive to construct taller buildings
tenements
Multifamily apartment buildings that housed many poor urban dwellers at the turn of the twentieth century. Tenements were crowded, uncomfortable, and dangerous.
sweatshops
Small factories or shops in which workers toiled under adverse conditions. Business owners, particularly in the garment industry, turned tenement apartments into sweatshops
Triangle Shirtwaist Company
Site of an infamous industrial fire in New York City in 1911. Inadequate fire safety provisions in the factory led to the deaths of 146 workers.
political machine
Urban political organizations that dominated many late-nineteenth-century cities. Machines provided needed services to the urban poor, but they also fostered corruption, crime, and inefficiency.
Boss
Leader of a political machine. Men like “Boss” George Washington Plunkitt of New York’s Tammany Hall wielded enormous power over city life
Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act
1883 act that required federal jobs to be awarded on the basis of merit through competitive exams rather than through political connections
settlement houses
Community centers established by urban reformers in the late nineteenth century. Settlement house organizers resided in the institutions they created and were often female, middle-class, and college educated
13th amendment
forever abolished slavery as an institution in all U.S. states and territories.
14th amendment
granted citizenship to all persons “born or naturalized in the United States,” including formerly enslaved people, and provided all citizens with “equal protection under the laws,”
15th amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Themes of this time period
- What does democracy and freedom both mean in america?
- What is the importance of land in america?
- What’s the relationship between economic power and political power?
- Labors and Business owners and unions
