US History 2 Unit 1 Terms

Grandfather Clauses

The Grandfather Clause was a statute enacted by many American southern states in the wake of Reconstruction (1865-1877) that allowed potential white voters to circumvent literacy tests, poll taxes, and other tactics designed to disenfranchise southern blacks. Poll taxes were used in many southern states after the Reconstruction period to restrict African-American citizens' right to vote. Grandfather clause. A clause in registration laws allowing people who do not meet registration requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867.

The Great Migration

The Great Migration was the relocation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest and West from about 1916 to 1970. The economic conditions of World War I led to a massive movement of African Americans from the South to the North, known as the Great Migration.

The Great Uprising

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, sometimes referred to as the Great Upheaval, began on July 14 in West Virginia, United States after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) cut wages for the third time in a year. Because of economic problems and pressure on wages by the railroads, workers went out on strike. An estimated 100 people were killed in the unrest across the country.

La Gorras Blanca

(Spanish for "The White Caps") A group active in the New Mexico Territory and American Southwest in the late 1880s and early 1890s, in response to Anglo-American farmers and ranchers settling in the territory. Founded in April 1889 by brothers Juan Jose, Pablo, and Nicanor Herrera, with support from neighbors in the New Mexico Territory.

The McKinley Tariff 1890

- An act of the United States Congress framed by Representative William McKinley that became law on October 1, 1890. - After 450 amendments, the Tariff Act of 1890 was passed and increased average duties across all imports from 38% to 49.5%. McKinley was known as the "Napoleon of Protection," and rates were raised on some goods and lowered on others, always in an attempt to protect American manufacturing interests. - Tariffs are taxes placed on foreign goods by federal govs. By placing taxes on foreign goods, these products become more expensive.

Mugwumps

- Elitist & conservative reformers who favored stable money, limited government, & opposed tariffs and the spoils system - The Mugwumps were Republican political activists. Started to support Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland instead of the U.S Republican party (James G. Blaine) during the United States presidential election of 1884. The Mugwumps viewed their own party's candidate, James G. Blaine, as corrupt. During the Third Party System, party loyalty was in high regard and independents were rare.

The Railroad-Farm Frontier

- Encourage farming on Great plains, 160 acres of public free land for a family who settle 5 years. Promotions of railroad introduced hundreds of thousands of people in attempt to farm the great plains - Although 160 acres of the land was free, but thousands of people had to purchase their land b/c the best public land ended up w/ railroad companies and speculators.

National Woman Suffrage Association

- The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was formed on May 15, 1869 in New York City. - The National Association was created in response to a split in the American Equal Rights Association over whether the women's movement should support the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Mainly it was coordinated to ultimately and successfully campaign to achieve women's right to vote.

Social Darwinism

- The belief that only the fittest survive in human political and economic struggle. The theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals. Now largely discredited, social Darwinism was advocated by Herbert Spencer and others in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was used to justify political conservatism, imperialism, and racism and to discourage intervention and reform.

Horatio Alger

A 19th-century American author, best known for his many formulaic juvenile novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of respectable middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. - Ex: "Ragged Dick" (1867)

Jacob Riis

A Danish-born police reporter with a knack of publicity and an abiding Christian faith, Jacob Riis won international recognition for his 1890 bestseller, How the Other Half Lives, which exposed the desperate and squalid conditions of New York Citys tenement slums and gave momentum to a sanitary reform movement.

Monopoly Capitalism

A capitalist system typified by trade monopolies in the hands of a few people. One corporation/group controls an entire market in a region without competition. Used by Rockefeller to control the oil business. Companies are allowed to set prices at whatever they want and the consumer only has that one option for that item.

Thomas Alva Edison

A deaf Edison invented the phonograph and by 1900 it was used in over 150,000 homes. His invention made going to the symphony obsolete. He also invented the light bulb. This invention changed the way of life for thousands of Americans.

Booker T. Washington

A former slave. Encouraged blacks to keep to themselves and focus on the daily tasks of survival, rather than leading a grand uprising. Believed that building a strong economic base was more critical at that time than planning an uprising or fighting for equal rights. Washington also stated in his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech in 1895 that blacks had to accept segregation in the short term as they focused on economic gain to achieve political equality in the future. Served as important role models for later leaders of the civil rights movement.

The Glided Age

A name for the late 1800s, coined by Mark Twain to describe the tremendous increase in wealth caused by the industrial age and the ostentatious lifestyles it allowed the very rich. The great industrial success of the U.S. and the fabulous lifestyles of the wealthy hid the many social problems of the time, including a high poverty rate, a high crime rate, and corruption in the government.

Sweatshops

A pejorative term for a workplace that has poor, socially unacceptable working conditions. Workers in sweatshops may work long hours with low pay, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage; child labor laws may also be violated. A factory or workshop, especially in the clothing industry, where manual workers are employed at very low wages for long hours and under poor conditions. While countries can make it illegal for sweatshops to pay low wages, they cannot prevent sweatshops from shutting down and paying no wages. And when that happens, the workers all lose their jobs.

The New Middle Class

A prestigious "new middle class" developed as number of educated, trained professionals and standardized professions grew. Members of the new middle class were building organizations and establishing standards to secure their position in society. As one of their principal vehicles, they created the modern, organized professions. - New middle class: managers, accountants, clerks, engineers, chemists, designers, salesmen, advertising executives, and store managers

The Populist Party

A revolt by farmers in the South and Midwest against the Democratic and Republican Parties for ignoring their interests and difficulties. For over a decade, farmers were suffering from crop failures, falling prices, poor marketing, and lack of credit facilities. Party adopted a platform calling for free coinage of silver, abolition of national banks, a subtreasury scheme or some similar system, a graduated income tax, plenty of paper money, government ownership of all forms of transportation and communication, election of Senators by direct vote of the people. 1892 in Nebraska

Vertical Integration

A single company owns and controls the entire process from raw materials to the manufacture and sale of the finished product. Andrew Carnegie. A Scottish immigrant who grew to monopolize the steel industry through vertical integration, but eventually sold out to JP Morgan. The Gospel of Wealth.

The Great White Fleet

A sixteen battleship fleet that sailed on a world voyage from December 16, 1907 - February 22, 1909. Its primary purpose was to showcase American naval power. The Great White Fleet was an important show of America's naval power to the rest of the world. It was also an important event in the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Within two weeks of the fleet docking in Hampton Roads in February of 1909, Roosevelt left the presidency. Also to pressure Japan into the "Gentlemen's Agreement."

Horizontal Integration

A technique used by John D. Rockefeller. Horizontal integration is an act of joining or consolidating with ones competitors to create a monopoly. Rockefeller was excellent with using this technique to monopolize certain markets. It is responsible for the majority of his wealth.

The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty

A treaty signed by the United States and the United Kingdom on 18 November 1901, as a preliminary to the creation of the Panama Canal. Diplomatic agreement of 1901 that permitted the United States to build and fortify a Central American canal alone, without British involvement.

The Hay- Herran Treaty

A treaty signed on January 22, 1903 between United States Secretary of State John M. Hay of the United States and Tomás Herrán of Colombia. A treaty proposed in 1903 between the United States and Colombia over Panama. It was rejected by the Colombian Senate and caused the U.S. to support a bid for the independence for Panama, so that they could build the canal.

The Hay- Bunau Varilla Treaty

A treaty signed on November 18, 1903, by the United States and Panama, which established the Panama Canal Zone and the subsequent construction of the Panama Canal. The treaty signed in 1903 with Panama. The United States leased the 10-mile wide canal zone with a down payment of $10 million and an annual payment of $250,000 for ninety-nine years. This enabled the U.S. to build the Panama canal.

Ida B. Wells

African-American journalist who was an early leader in the Civil Rights movement. Documented lynching, showing how whites used them to control and punish blacks. Traveled the country, started organizations, and was a well-known speaker and rhetorician.

United States v. E.C. Knight Company

Also known as the Sugar Trust Case in 1895; legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court first interpreted the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The case began when the E.C. Knight Company gained control of the American Sugar Refining Company, and it limited the government's power to control monopolies.

Mark Hanna

An American businessman and Republican politician, who served as a United States Senator from Ohio as well as chairman of the Republican National Committee. So basically, he was a wealthy Ohio industrialist. Hanna supported McKinley's for high tariffs since "it would revive prosperity that would appeal to workers as well as industry and business". Hanna used the fundings from Eastern financial and business to organize an unprecedented campaign for McKinley. Mark Hanna brought groups of Republicans from all over the country to visit McKinley every day, and McKinley reiterated his simple promise of prosperity.

J. Pierpont Morgan

An American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation in the United States of America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He directed the banking coalition that stopped the Panic of 1907. One of the most powerful bankers of his era, he financed railroads and helped organize U.S. Steel, General Electric and other major corporations.

The USS Maine

An American naval ship that sank in Havana Harbor during the Cuban revolt against Spain, an event that became a major political issue in the United States. The USS Maine explosion started the Spanish American War, Galileo was born, the teddy bear was introduced and inspired by Teddy Roosevelt, and the Canadian flag changed in This Day in History video. The date is February 15th. The USS Maine was blown up in Cuba's Havana harbor.

William Jennings Bryan

An American orator and politician from Nebraska in 1890. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the Democratic Party, standing three times as the party's nominee for President of the United States. He starred at the 1896 Democratic convention with his Cross of Gold speech that favored free silver, but was defeated in his bid to become U.S. president by William McKinley.

Grover Cleveland

An American politician and lawyer who was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, the only President in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office. He fought political corruption, patronage, and bossism. He was also the only Democratic president to win election during the period of Republican domination of the White House

Eugene Debs

An American union leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies), and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States. Debs became active in the labor movement in the 1870s and created the American Railway Union (ARU), an industrial union, in 1893. He also was a labour organizer and Socialist Party candidate for U.S. president five times between 1900 and 1920.

The Atlanta Compromise

An agreement struck in 1895 between Booker T. Washington, other African-American leaders, and Southern white leaders. It was first supported, and later opposed by W. E. B. Du Bois and other African-American leaders. Reconstruction had failed by offering African Americans 'too much too soon' and in the Atlanta Compromise speech he urged racial cooperation and the acceptance of social segregation as the price for acquiring education and economic security. Booker T. Washington spoke before a predominantly white audience at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta.

The Gospel of Wealth

An article written by Andrew Carnegie in June of 1889 argued for a broad social and cultural role for fellow industrialists. Also known as Gospel of Success, was the term for a notion promoted by many successful businessmen that their massive wealth was a social benefit for all. Three impacts of the "Gospel of Wealth": (1) it's a significant break with the individualist narrative that we are often given. (2) It spoke to issues of contribution, legacy, and community as important values. (3) Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and their movement to give money back have been influenced by Carnegie.

The Trust (system)

An economic method that had other companies assigns their stocks to the board of trust who would manage them. This made the head of the board, or the corporate leader wealthy, and at the same time killed off competitors not in the trust. This method was used/developed by Rockefeller, and helped him become extremely wealthy. It was also used in creating monopolies.

The Gentleman's Agreement

An informal agreement between the United States of America and the Empire of Japan whereby the United States would not impose restrictions on Japanese immigration, and Japan would not allow further emigration to the United States. Agreement when Japan agreed to curb the number of workers coming to the US and in exchange Roosevelt agreed to allow the wives of the Japanese men already living in the US to join them.

The Filipino-American War

Armed conflict between the Philippines and the United States from 1899-1902. It was a continuation of the Philippine struggle for independence and descended into a savage guerrilla war in which the United States ultimately defeated the Philippine rebels.

Working Conditions

Average weekly wage for a working woman was $5.24, average weekly expenses for women was $5.51. at first it was viewed that women should work in factories that were produced necessities for the household, so women generally were garment manufacturers. Later the number of women in clerical positions grew enormously. Working conditions were poor, workers were prevented from any sort of leisure, and the newly introduced machinery sort of functioned as a metronome for the pace at which the workers must be working. Skilled workers earned $8.37 a week, unskilled workers earned $5.50 a week. Workers in south earned 30pct less than east and Midwest workers.

The Boxer Rebellion

Boxer Rebellion, officially supported peasant uprising of 1900 that attempted to drive all foreigners from China. "Boxers" was a name that foreigners gave to a Chinese secret society known as the Yihequan ("Righteous and Harmonious Fists"). The direct consequence of the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 was that the ruling Chinese Qing dynasty became even weaker and foreign influence in China continued. The Boxer Rebellion was a rebellion staged by an anti-foreigner Chinese society known for their "boxing" skills in physical exercise and defense.

Chester A. Arthur

Chester Alan Arthur was an American attorney and politician who served as the 21st President of the United States from 1881 to 1885; he succeeded James A. Garfield upon the latter's assassination. As president from 1881 to 1885, Arthur advocated for civil service reform. A Vermont native, he became active in Republican politics in the 1850s as a New York City lawyer.

"Birth of Nation"

Controversial, but highly influential and innovative silent film directed by D.W. Griffith. It demonstrated the power of film propaganda and revived the KKK. The film came out in 1915.

Tom Watson

Elected to the U.S Congress, became known as a champion of Georgia's farmers, and he sponsored and pushed through a law providing for RFD-rural free delivery.

The Grange

Formally known as the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, the organization was originally a social network. Local branches were called 'Granges' and its members were called 'Grangers.' The Grange's primary target was the monopolistic pricing of the railroads.

Dr. John Pemberton

Georgia pharmacist, John Stith Pemberton, sold the first glass of his newly concocted drink in Atlanta's Jacobs Pharmacy in 1886. The drink would become world-famous as Coca-Cola. John Stith Pemberton the inventor of the Coca-Cola beverage.

The HMS Dreadnought

HMS Dreadnought was a battleship built for the Royal Navy that revolutionized naval power. She was also the first capital ship to be powered by steam turbines, making her the fastest battleship in the world at the time of her completion. - Entered into service in 1906 and marked an advance in naval technology. Had a uniform main battery. Sparked a naval arms race as navies around the world rushed to match especially in the build-up to WWI, but didn't participate in any WWI battles.

Gustavus Swift

He monopolized the meat industry. Swift recognized the importance of keeping meat fresh in transit, and invested in a fleet of refrigerated cars. By 1900, his firms produced almost 90% of the meat shipped in the interstate commerce.

George Dewey

He was Admiral of the Navy, the only person in United States history to have attained the rank. He is best known for his victory at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. U.S. naval commander who led the American attack on the Philippines. Upon his graduation from the Naval Academy in 1857, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1861. During the Civil War he served with Admiral Farragut during the Battle of New Orleans and as part of the Atlantic blockade.

Philippe Bunau- Varilla

He was a French engineer and soldier (during WW1). The United States quickly recognized the independent Panama and received its first minister, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, who negotiated the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty (1903), giving the United States the right to build a canal in Panama.

Alfred Thayer Mahan

He was an American naval officer and historian who was a highly influential exponent of sea power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His book The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, won immediate recognition, especially in Europe. The book is about a revolutionary analysis of the importance of naval power as a factor in the rise of the British Empire. Its successor, The Influence of Sea Power Upon the French Revolution and Empire made him world-famous and perhaps the most influential American author of the nineteenth century.

The New City

Immigration from abroad and migration from American farms to cities resulted in an urban explosion during the late 19th century.The nation's population tripled between 1860-1920, but the urban population increased ninefold.Urban growth highlighted the growing divisions in American society.

Imperialism

Imperialism is the policy and practice of exploiting nations and peoples for the benefit of an imperial power either directly through military occupation and colonial rule or indirectly through economic domination of resources and markets. An important benefit of imperialism is the development of modern technologies, like steam-powered ships to aid in the expansion of European empires. Due to imperialism, exploration was in the minds of people. Their motive was to explore unknown territory in order to conduct scientific experiments and medical searches.

John. D. Rockfeller

In 1870, Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company; first billionaire. horizontal integration. A technique used by John D. Rockefeller. Horizontal integration is an act of joining or consolidating with ones competitors to create a monopoly.

The Samoan Annexation

In 1878 the United States signed a treaty for the establishment of a naval station in Pago Pago Harbor. An 1899 agreement (Treaty of Berlin) between colonial powers divided Samoa into spheres of influence: Germany gained control of the western islands, and the United States took the eastern islands. The U.S. took control of its allotted region on June 7, 1900, with the Deed of Cession. Tutuila Island and Aunuu Island were ceded by their chiefs in 1900, then added to American Samoa. Manua was annexed in 1904, then added to American Samoa. Guam became a territory of the United States after the Spanish-American War. Under the December 10, 1898 Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded the island to the United States.

The Greenback Party

In 1878, a congressional election year, the organization changed its name to the Greenback-Labor Party and supplemented its membership by taking in workers. The Greenback Party made an important contribution to American politics by demonstrating the monetary policy could and should be part of the national debate. James Weaver emerged as leader of the party and was its presidential candidate in 1880.

The Chinese Exclusion Act

In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by the U.S.Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law that restricted immigration into the United States of an ethnic working group. The Chinese Exclusion Act had a ripple effect on the United States' legal history. It was followed by the Geary Act of 1892 which extended the provisions of the Exclusion Act for another ten years. In 1902 the ban against the immigration of Chinese laborers was made permanent.

The People's Grocery Incident

In 1892, a man named W.H. Barrett is aggravated by an African American grocery store opened across the street because it was taking away business. after allegedly starting a fight with the white grocery store owners across the street, the black men were arressted and taken to jail. Three of the men were kidnapped from the jail from a mob, and were lynched (hanged).

The Hawaiian Revolution

In January 1893, a revolutionary "Committee of Safety," organized by Sanford B. Dole, staged a coup against Queen Liliuokalani with the tacit support of the United States. In other words, Hawaii's monarchy was overthrown when a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate. Two years later, Hawaii was organized into a formal U.S. territory and in 1959 entered the United States as the 50th state.

Working Women

Increase in working women from 29 mil. in 1970 to 66 mil. in 2000 was the broad shift from manufacturing to service jobs, reducing demand for factory workers and manual laborers and increasing the needs for such "women's jobs" as data-entry clerks, reservation agents, and nurses. Nevertheless, job types were more segregated by sex than by race in the 1990s.

James A. Garfield

James Abram Garfield was the 20th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881, until his assassination later that year. He is the only sitting House member to be elected president. He was assassinated after only a few months in office

James B. Duke

James Buchanan Duke was an American tobacco and electric power industrialist best known for the introduction of modern cigarette manufacture and marketing, and his involvement with Duke University. The Duke Endowment was also established to support other educational institutions, health care organizations, children's homes, and churches. James Buchanan Duke pioneered the development of the U.S. tobacco industry and made significant contributions to philanthropy and business.

John B. Raynor

John Baptist Rayner was born a slave in North Carolina to mixed race parents Kenneth Rayner and Mary Hicks in 1850.After college, he moved to Tarboro, North Carolina, where he taught and served in several public offices. He defected from the Republican Party in 1892 to join the newly formed Populist Party, and emerged soon after as one of the party's most active black spokesmen.

The Knights of Labor

Knights of Labor (KOL), the first important national labor organization in the United States, founded in 1869. The Knights of Labor were founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and they began initially as a secret society structured after Free Masonry with the goal of promoting the organization of working people. Named the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor by its first leader, Uriah Smith Stephens, it originated as a secret organization meant to protect its members from employer retaliations.

Jim Crow Laws

Laws written to separate blacks and whites in public areas/meant African Americans had unequal opportunities in housing, work, education, and government. Between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950s

Political Machines

Machines would grant jobs and government building contracts to those that did them favors. Sometimes the favor was voting and party work in getting others to vote. One of the most infamous of these political machines was Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party machine that played a major role in controlling New York City and New York politics and helping immigrants, most notably the Irish, rise up in American politics from the 1790s to the 1960s.

The Teller Amendment

On April 11, 1898 McKinley sent a war message to Congress urging armed intervention to free the oppressed Cubans. This was favorably received by Congress which responded with a declaration of war. The Teller Amendment was an amendment to this declaration which declared that when the United States had overthrown Spanish rule of Cuba it would give the Cubans their freedom. In short, the U.S. would help Cuba gain independence and then withdraw all its troops from the country.

The Spanish-American War

On April 25, 1898 the United States declared war on Spain following the sinking of the Battleship Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. Causes: -Yellow Journalism -The U.S.S. Maine was sunk -Protection of American business interest in Cuba -To fight against Spain's oppressive government Effects: -Cuba -Philippines -Guam -Puerto Rico -Cuban Protectorate

The Platt Amendment

On March 2, 1901, the Platt Amendment was passed as part of the 1901 Army Appropriations Bill. It specified seven conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops remaining in Cuba at the end of the Spanish-American War, and an eighth condition that Cuba sign a treaty accepting these seven conditions. It's established the terms under which the United States would end its military occupation of Cuba (which had begun in 1898 during the Spanish-American War) and "leave the government and control of the island of Cuba to its people." The Platt Amendment was followed by the Cuban-American Treaty, which allowed the U.S. to lease land in Guantanamo Bay for a naval station.

W.E.B Dubois

One of Washington's harshest critics, believing that Washington's pacifist plan would only perpetuate the second-class-citizen mindset. He felt that immediate "ceaseless agitation" was the only way to truly attain equal rights. As editor of the black publication "The Crisis," he publicized his disdain for Washington and was instrumental in the creation of the "Niagara Movement," which later became the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). He eventually grew weary of the slow pace of racial equality in the United States and renounced his citizenship and moved to Ghana in 1961, where he died two years later. Served as important role models for later leaders of the civil rights movement.

The Pan American Union

Pan-American Union, Organization formed in 1890 to promote cooperation among the countries of Latin America and the U.S. It was established as the International Union of American Republics. In 1948 it was reconstituted as the Organization of American States. At the first Pan-American conference, which was called by U.S. secretary of state James Blaine in order to reach agreements on various common commercial and juridical problems among the countries of the Americas.

New Mexico Raid

Pancho Villa raided a train, kidnapped 16 American mining engineers, and killed them. He and his men raided Columbus, New Mexico and killed 19 more people. Wilson sent the Army, headed by Gen. John. J. Pershing, after Pancho Villa.

The Sherman Anti-trust Act

Passed in 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act was the first major legislation passed to address oppressive business practices associated with cartels and oppressive monopolies. The Sherman Antitrust Act is a federal law prohibiting any contract, trust, or conspiracy in restraint of interstate or foreign trade. It's also known as the "competition law" that was passed by Congress under the presidency of Benjamin Harrison.

Patronage

Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists such as musicians, painters, and sculptors.

The Homestead Act

President Abraham Lincoln, July 4, 1861. The Homestead Act of 1862 was one of the most significant and enduring events in the westward expansion of the United States. By granting 160 acres of free land to claimants, it allowed nearly any man or woman (including freed slaves & immigrants who applied for citizenship) a "fair chance." US federal government gave away 10% of US land away for free.

The Interstate Commerce Act

President Grover Cleveland signed the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 and created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), the U.S. government's first regulatory agency. The initial purpose of the ICC was to control railroads and their unfair business practices, particularly its monopolistic practices. In 1887 Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act, making the railroads the first industry subject to Federal regulation. Congress passed the law largely in response to public demand that railroad operations be regulated. The Act required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just," but did not empower the government to fix specific rates.

Dollar Diplomacy

Refers to the use of diplomacy to promote the United States commercial interest and economic power abroad by guaranteeing loans made to strategically important foreign countries. One of the important events during his presidency was Taft's Dollar Diplomacy. President Taft's policy of linking American business interests to diplomatic interests abroad.

The "New South"

Reformers use it to call for a modernization of society and attitudes, to integrate more fully with the United States, and reject the economy and traditions of the Old South and the slavery-based plantation system of the antebellum period. The term was coined by its leading spokesman and Atlanta editor Henry W. Grady. Slogan used after 1877.

Andrew Carnegie

Scottish-born industrialist who developed the U.S. steel industry; his is a rags-to-riches story as he made a fortune in business and sold his holdings in 1901 for $447 million. He spent the rest of his life giving away $350 million to worthy cultural and educational causes.

The Solid South

Southern bloc was the electoral voting bloc of the states of the Southern United States for issues that were regarded as particularly important to the interests of Democrats in the southern states.

The 10th U.S Cavalry

The 10th Cavalry Regiment is a unit of the United States Army. Formed as a segregated African-American unit, the 10th Cavalry was one of the original "Buffalo Soldier" regiments in the post-Civil War Regular Army. The 10th Cavalry was one of the original six regiments of the regular army set aside for black enlisted men. These were authorized by Congress in the act of July 28, 1866 reorganizing the army for post-Civil War service, mainly against native peoples in the West.

The Anti-Imperialist League of America

The American Anti-Imperialist League was an organization established on June 15, 1898, to battle the American annexation of the Philippines as an insular area. (1898-1921) A diverse group formed in order to protest American colonial oversight in the Philippines. It included university presidents, industrialists, clergymen, and labor leaders. Strongest in the Northeast, the Anti-imperialist League was the largest lobbying organization on a U.S. foreign-policy issue until the end of the nineteenth century. It declined in strength after the United States signed the Treaty of Paris (which approved the annexation of the Philippines), and especially after hostilities broke out between Filipino nationalists and American forces

Jacob Coxey

The American reformer and an Ohio businessman, Jacob Coxey, was a well-to-do businessman who, distressed by the economic depression of the 1890s and impelled by the era's reform ideas, led a march of unemployed workers to Washington, D.C., in 1894. Coxey's Army was a protest march by unemployed workers from the United States. The second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in United States history to that time.

The Columbus

The Battle of Columbus (Burning of Columbus or the Columbus Raid), March 9, 1916, began as a raid conducted by Pancho Villa's Division of the North on the small United States border town of Columbus, New Mexico, located 3 miles north of the border.

The Vera Cruz Invasion

The Battle of Veracruz was a 20-day siege of the key Mexican beachhead seaport of Veracruz, during the Mexican-American War. Lasting from March 9-29, 1847, it began with the first large-scale amphibious (land/water) assault conducted by U.S military forces, and ended with the surrender and occupation of the city. The vitally important Mexican port and stronghold of Veracruz fell to American forces. General Winfield Scott, with the assistance of Commodore David E. Conner's Home Squadron, landed an army of 10,000 men at Collado Beach to the south of Veracruz on March 9.

The Battle of the Little BigHorn

The Battle of the Little Bighorn was the most successful action fought by the American Indians against the United States Army in the West. It was part of the Campaign of 1876, an effort by the United States Government to force the Sioux tribes onto their Reservations. Commonly referred to as "Custer's Last Stand". The battle took place between the U.S. Cavalry and northern tribe Indians, including the Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho. Despite having won this battle, the Indians were not victorious.

The "Crime of 1873"

The Crime of 1873 refers to the omission of the standard silver dollar from the coinage law of February 12, 1873. Congress had discontinued the minting of silver dollars, even though the gold and silver coinage was the basis of monetary standard of the U.S at the time. As a result of the Coinage Act of 1873 (fourth coinage act), silver was demonetized and gold became the monetary standard. However, this act caused a lot of uproar among many citizens, including miners.

The Dawes Severalty Act

The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887), 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. The Dawes Severalty Act was important for tribal life because it helped to reduce the tribes' ability to live in their traditional ways. The Dawes Act ended communal ownership of the land and parceled it up into pieces to be owned by individual Native Americans.

The Southern Farm Alliance

The Farmers' Alliance was an organized agrarian economic movement among American farmers that developed and flourished in 1875. One of the goals of the organization was to end the adverse effects of the crop-lien system on farmers in the period following the American Civil War.

Halfbreeds and Stalwarts

The Half-Breeds supported civil service reform, and often blocked legislation and political appointments put forth by their main congressional opponents, the stalwarts, led by Roscoe Conkling of New York. The "Half-Breeds" were a political faction of the United States Republican Party in the late 19th century. The Stalwarts were in favor of political machines and spoils system-style patronage, while the Half-Breeds, led by Maine Senator James G. Blaine, were in favor of civil service reform and a merit system.

The Olney Doctrine

The Olney interpretation (also known as the Olney corollary or Olney declaration) was United States Secretary of State Richard Olney's interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine when a border dispute occurred between British Guiana and Venezuela. Olney extended the meaning of the Monroe Doctrine, which had previously stated merely that the Western Hemisphere was closed to additional European colonization. The border dispute was settled in 1897, and the Olney interpretation was discontinued by 1933.

The Open Door Notes

The Open Door Policy is a term in foreign affairs initially used to refer to the United States policy established in the late 19th century and the early 20th century (1899-1900). Secretary of State John Hay's Open Door Note, dated September 6, 1899 and dispatched to the major European powers. Statement of principles initiated by the United States for the protection of equal privileges among countries trading with China and in support of Chinese territorial and administrative integrity. - After the Boxer Rebellion, Hay feared that European powers would carve up China outright, so he announced his 2nd Open Door note which stated that Open Door would embrace the territorial and commercial integrity of China.John Hay's clever diplomatic efforts to preserve Chinese territorial integrity and maintain American access to China.

The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal was built to shorten the distance that ships had to travel to pass between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (East/ West coast of America). The canal permits shippers of commercial goods, ranging from automobiles to grain, to save time and money by transporting cargo more quickly. It paid $10 million to Panama and $40 million to the French. U.S. engineers decided a canal lock would protect ships from landslides in the Andes Mountains. It opened in 1915, and the U.S turned the canal over to Panama on Jan 1, 2000.

The Pendleton Act

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act is a United States federal law, enacted in 1883, which established that positions within the federal government should be awarded on the basis of merit instead of political affiliation. The Pendleton Act is important because it stopped the appointment of people to governmental offices merely because of their political affiliation or their connection to the president. The Pendleton Act required qualified people to be elected to governmental offices based on the individual's merit.

The Roosevelt Corollary

The Roosevelt Corollary was an addition to the Monroe Doctrine articulated by President Theodore Roosevelt in his State of the Union address in 1904 after the Venezuela Crisis of 1902-03. The Monroe Doctrine had been sought to prevent European intervention in the Western Hemisphere, but now the Roosevelt Corollary justified American intervention throughout the Western Hemisphere.

The Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War held great international significance, as it was the first all-out war of the modern era in which a non-European power defeated one of Europe's great powers. As a result, the Russian Empire and Tsar Nicholas II lost considerable prestige, along with two of their three naval fleets. The war began on February 8, 1904, when the main Japanese fleet launched a surprise attack and siege on the Russian naval squadron at Port Arthur.

The Sand Creek Massacre

The Sand Creek massacre (also known as the Chivington massacre, the Battle of Sand Creek or the massacre of Cheyenne Indians) was a massacre in the American Indian Wars that occurred on November 29, 1864, when a 675-man force of Colorado U.S. Volunteer Cavalry under the command of U.S. Army Colonel John Chivington

The Treaty of Portsmouth

The Treaty of Portsmouth formally ended the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. The negotiations took place in August in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and were brokered in part by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. By 1904, Russia and Japan had endured several years of disputes over control of Manchuria. It was signed on September 5, 1905 after negotiations lasting from August 6 to August 30, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, United States.

The Election of 1896

The United States presidential election of November 3,1896, saw Republican William McKinley defeat Democrat William Jennings Bryan in a campaign considered by historians to be one of the most dramatic and complex in American history. Voter turnout was unprecedented, at around eighty percent of the electorate. Bryan carried most states of the predominantly rural South and the mountain West (especially the silver states of the Rocky Mountains).

The Venezuela Boundary Dispute

The Venezuelan Boundary Dispute officially began in 1841, when the Venezuelan Government protested alleged British encroachment on Venezuelan territory. In 1814, Great Britain had acquired British Guiana (now Guyana) by treaty with the Netherlands. The Venezuelan crisis of 1895 occurred over Venezuela's longstanding dispute with the United Kingdom about the territory of Essequibo and Guayana Esequiba, which Britain claimed as part of British Guiana and Venezuela saw as Venezuelan territory.

The Treaty of Paris of 1899

The cession of the Philippines involved a payment of $20 million from the United States to Spain. The treaty was signed on December 10, 1898, and ended the Spanish-American War. The Treaty of Paris came into effect on April 11, 1899, when the documents of ratification were exchanged. America got Guam, Puerto Rico and they paid 20 million dollars for the Philippines; Cuba was freed from Spain.

The "Concentration" Policy

The concentration policy was a broad term used to describe the many policies, treaties, and systems enacted in an effort to move all of the Native Americans in the east into the west, and then later force them into small, defined reservations throughout the west.

Plessy v. Ferguson

The court case in which the Supreme Court validated the South's segregationist social order; ruled that "separate but equal" facilities were constitutional under the "equal protection" clause in the Fourteenth Amendment; in reality the quality of African American life was grotesquely unequal to that of whites 1896.

The Range-Cattle Frontier

The development of the railroad made it profitable to raise cattle on the Great Plains. In 1860, some five-million longhorn cattle grazed in the Lone Star state. Cattle that could be bought for $3 to $5 a head in Texas could be sold for $30 to $50 at railroad shipping points in Abilene or Dodge City in Kansas. The long cattle drives came to an end due to overgrazing, blizzards and droughts that destroyed the grass, and homesteaders (settlers) who blocked off land with barbed wire.

The Mining Frontier

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 did more than trigger the migration of tens of thousands of people hoping to make their fortune in the mineral‐rich West. It created a body of prospectors willing to go wherever a strike was made. Although the gold rush brought many settlers to the west it stimulated economic and political problems in the nations and also caused N.A to lose their land to miners.

The Omaha Platform

The party program adopted at the formative convention of the Populist (or People's) Party held in Omaha, Nebraska on July 4, 1892. Although historians often speak of a "Populist movement" in the 1880s, it wasn't until 1892 that the People's or Populist Party was formally organized. The Omaha Platform, adopted by the founding convention of the party on July 4, 1892, set out the basic tenets of the Populist movement.

Nativism

The policy of Nativism was adopted protecting the interests of native-born or established US residents against those of immigrants.Nativism gained its name from the "Native American" parties of the 1840s and 1850s. Nativism in America: The massive increase in immigration gave rise to significant social changes and huge disparities in wealth between the rich and the poor. Nativists objected primarily to Irish Roman Catholics because of their loyalty to the Pope and also because of their supposed rejection of republicanism as an American ideal.

Theodore Roosevelt

The presidency of Theodore Roosevelt began on September 14, 1901, when he became the 26th President of the United States upon the assassination and death of President William McKinley. He's known for conservationism, trust-busting, Hepburn Act, safe food regulations, "Square Deal," Panama Canal, Great White Fleet, Nobel Peace Prize for negotiation of peace in Russo-Japanese War. The Roosevelt Corollary (addition to the Monroe Doctrine) said US could act as int'l police in LatAm to protect (you guessed it!) "Am interests" & safety.

New Immigration

There were many, many more "New Immigrants'" than old, 20 million people between 1880 - 1920. Unlike earlier immigrants, who mainly came from northern and western Europe, the New Immigrants came mostly from southern and Eastern Europe. Largely Catholic and Jewish in religion, the new immigrants came from the Balkans, Italy, Poland, and Russia.

The Election of 1884

United States presidential election of 1884, American presidential election held on Nov. 4, 1884, in which Democrat Grover Cleveland defeated Republican James G. Blaine. The election was marked by bitter mudslinging and scandalous accusations that overshadowed substantive issues such as civil service reform.

Tenements

Urban dwellings occupied by impoverished families. They are apartment houses that barely meet or fail to meet the minimum standards of safety, sanitation, and comfort. In the 1860s and 1870s, hundreds of tenements are built as more poor immigrants are arriving in New York City. When these tenements were built, there were almost no laws regulating tenement construction.

William Randolph Hearst

William Randolph Hearst Sr. was an American businessman, politician, and newspaper publisher who built the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company Hearst Communications. Publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst built his media empire after inheriting the San Francisco Examiner from his father. He challenged New York World publisher Joseph Pulitzer by buying the rival New York Journal, earning attention for his "yellow journalism."

Missionary Diplomacy

Woodrow Wilson's idea of the United States' moral responsibility to deny recognition to any Latin American government that was viewed as hostile to American interests. This was the first time America had failed to recognize any government, besides the Confederacy. - It was America's responsibility and destiny to spread its institutions and values to the far corners of the globe; also called "moral diplomacy". Moral diplomacy is a form of diplomacy proposed by US President Woodrow Wilson in his 1912 election. Moral diplomacy is the system in which support is given only to countries whose moral beliefs are similar to that of the nation.

"Yellow" Journalism

Yellow Journalism is a term first coined during the famous newspaper wars between William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer II. Pulitzer's paper the New York World and Hearst's New York Journal changed the content of newspapers adding more sensationalized stories and increasing the use of drawings and cartoons.