US History - Westward Expansion Vocab & Key Terms

Boom Town

BOOMTOWNS, settlements that sprang up or grew rapidly as the result of some economic or political development. Towns sprung up across the west following the Gold rush, the building of the Transcontinental railroad. etc.

"Cheap Money"

A Policy of inflated currency with low interest rates being issued on loans from banks . If the prices increased the farmers would pay less on their loans or debts.

Dawes Act

.Dawes General Allotment Act, also called Dawes Severalty Act, (February 8, 1887), U.S. law providing for the distribution of Indian reservation land among individual Native Americans, with the aim of creating responsible farmers in the white man's image, "Americanizing" the Native Americans . It was enacted in February 1887. Under its terms, the president determined the recipients and issued the grants, usually by a formula of 160 acres to each head of household and 80 acres to each unmarried adult, with the stipulation that no grantee could alienate his land for 25 years. The Native Americans who thus received land became U.S. citizens, subject to federal, state, and local laws.

Sherman Silver Purchase Act

A compromise bill, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, named for Senator John Sherman of Ohio, became law on 14 July 1890. The act provided for the issuance of legal tender notes sufficient in amount to pay for 4.5 million ounces of silver bullion each month at the prevailing market price. Farmers had immense debts that could not be paid off due to deflation, and they urged the government to pass the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in order to boost the economy and cause inflation, allowing them to pay their debts with cheaper dollars.

"Cross of Gold" Speech

A famous speech in American political history was delivered by William Jennings Bryan on July 9, 1896, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The issue was whether to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16 to 1. (This inflationary measure would have increased the amount of money in circulation and aided cash-poor and debt-burdened farmers.) In his speech Byran claims that, "you shall crucify man upon a cross of gold," denouncing the current gold standard. This speech and the support he gathered gained him the support of the democrative party in the 1896 election.

Inflation

A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money

Deflation

A reduction of the general level of prices in an economy.

Bimetallism

A system of allowing the unrestricted currency of two metals (e.g. gold and silver) as legal tender at a fixed ratio to each other.

Transcontinental railroad

A train route across the United States, finished in 1869. It was the project of two railroad companies: the Union Pacific built from the east, and the Central Pacific built from the west. The two lines met in Utah. The Central Pacific laborers were predominantly Chinese, and the Union Pacific laborers predominantly Irish. Both groups often worked under harsh conditions.

Buffalo Soldiers

African American soldiers who were stationed out west to protect the settlers.

Little Big Horn

At the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876, General George Armstrong Custer led 600 men into the Little Bighorn Valley, where they were overwhelmed by approximately 3,000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Crazy Horse. Custer and his men were all killed in the battle, known as Custer's Last Stand. Despite the decisive Indian victory, the U.S. government forced the Sioux to sell the Black Hills and leave the land.

Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse was an Oglala Sioux Indian chief who fought against removal to a reservation in the Black Hills. In 1876, he joined with Cheyenne forces in a surprise attack against Gen. George Crook; then united with Chief Sitting Bull for the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Farmers Alliance

Farmers' Alliance, an American agrarian movement during the 1870s and '80s that sought to improve the economic conditions for farmers through the creation of cooperatives and political advocacy.

Grange Movement

Granger movement, coalition of U.S. farmers, particularly in the Middle West, that fought monopolistic grain transport practices during the decade following the American Civil War.

Trail of Tears

In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, allowing the U.S. government to relocate Indians from their land east of the Mississippi River. In 1838, the government forcibly removed around 15,000 Cherokee from their homeland and made them walk more than 1,200 miles west. Over 3,000 Indians died on the grueling route, known as the Trail of Tears.

Wabash v. Illinois

In 1886 the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois declared that states could not regulate commerce that went beyond their boundaries. Instead, regulation had to come from the federal government. The decision provided the basis for the formation of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887.

Interstate Commerce Act

In 1887, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act which created the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first true federal regulatory agency. It was designed to address the issues of railroad abuse and discrimination and required the following: Shipping rates had to be "reasonable and just" Rates had to be published Secret rebates were outlawed Price discrimination against small markets was made illegal

Wounded Knee

In the late nineteenth century, Indian "Ghost Dancers" believed a specific dance ritual would reunite them with the dead and bring peace and prosperity. On December 29, 1890, the U.S. Army surrounded a group of Ghost Dancers at Wounded Knee Creek near the Pine Ridge reservation of South Dakota. During the ensuing Wounded Knee Massacre, fierce fighting broke out and 150 Indians were slaughtered. The battle was the last major conflict between the U.S. government and the Plains Indians.

Interstate Commerce Commission

Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), former independent agency of the U.S. government, established in 1887; it was charged with regulating the economics and services of specified carriers engaged in transportation between states The Interstate Commerce Commission, (1887-1996), the first regulatory agency established in the United States, and a prototype for independent government regulatory bodies

Indian Wars

Miners, farmers, and ranchers who wanted to obtain more lands out west led to a series of conflicts or skirmishes between them and the Native Americans living in the Great Plains region. This becomes known as the Indian war and lasts for about 25 years.

Great Plains

Rolling, treeless plains that stretched from Texas to North Dakota which received very little rainfall, especially on the western side closer to the rockies.

Munn v. Illinois

Munn v. Illinois, (1877), case in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the power of government to regulate private industries. The case developed as a result of the Illinois legislature's responding in 1871 to pressure from the National Grange, an association of farmers, by setting maximum rates that private companies could charge for the storage and transport of agricultural products.

Populist Party

Populist Movement, in U.S. history, politically oriented coalition of agrarian reformers in the Midwest and South that advocated a wide range of economic and political legislation in the late 19th century. Throughout the 1880s, local political action groups known as Farmers' Alliances sprang up among Midwesterners and Southerners, who were discontented because of crop failures, falling prices, and poor marketing and credit facilities. Although it won some significant regional victories, the alliances generally proved politically ineffective on a national scale. Thus, in 1892 their leaders organized the Populist, or People's, Party, and the Farmers' Alliances melted away

Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull was a Teton Dakota Native American chief who united the Sioux tribes of the American Great Plains against the white settlers taking their tribal land. The ensuing Great Sioux Wars culminated in the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn, when Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse led united tribes to victory against General George Armstrong Custer. Sitting Bull was shot and killed by Indian police officers on Standing Rock Indian Reservation in 1890, but is remembered for his courage in defending native lands.

Push and pull factors

Terms that are used to explain migration or the movement of people from one place to another. Push Factor - Are factors that push people to leave such as drought, famine, war, political or religious persecution. Pull Factors - Are factors that attract or pull people to a place - such as religious freedoms, economic opportunities, etc.

Granger Laws

The Granger laws were a group of laws enacted by states off Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois in the late 1860s and early 1870s intended to regulate rapidly rising crop transport and storage fees railroads and grain elevator companies charged farmers. Passage of the Granger laws was promoted by the Granger Movement

Homestead Act 1862

The Homestead Act, enacted during the Civil War in 1862, provided that any adult citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. Claimants were required to "improve" the plot by building a dwelling and cultivating the land.

Sand Creek Massacre

The Sand Creek Massacre (1864) occurred after about 750 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho led by Chief Black Kettle were forced to abandon their winter campsite near Fort Lyon in southeastern Colorado. When they set up camp at Sand Creek, volunteer Colorado soldiers attacked, scattering them while slaughtering 148 men, women and children.

Reservation

The government reserved particular lands for the Native American tribes to reside on and signed treaties with them. In the treaties the Indian were promised the reservation lands in exchange for not going beyond the reservation borders.

Ghost towns

Towns that were left emptied after the gold rush, mining rush, and transcontinental railroad had all been mined out or were completed.

Frontier

Was the line that separated denser settlement from "unsettled" territory.

Omaha Platform

Were the policies the populist party wanted to adopt, such as: -Free and unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1 meaning 1 ounce of gold should be equal to 16 ounces of silver. -The direct election of Senators -Government ownership of the railroads, telegraphs, and telephones. -The use of the secret ballot in elections so electors could not be unfairly pressured. -introduction of the graduated income tax - taxing the wealth at higher rates. -Postal savings banks, so that people would not have to rely on private banks to protect their savings. -Use of the "initiative" and "referendum" to make politicians more responsive to the people. -Restrictions on immigration -An 8 hour workday for industrial workers -Limit the Presidency to one term in office. -Use government warehouses to store farm goods until food prices were higher.

William Gennings Bryan

William Jennings Bryan, Democratic and Populist leader and a magnetic orator who ran unsuccessfully three times for the U.S. presidency (1896, 1900, and 1908). He was influential in the eventual adoption of such reforms as popular election of senators, income tax, creation of the Department of Labor, Prohibition, and women's suffrage. The height of Bryan's career was undoubtedly the 1896 presidential campaign. At the Democratic convention in Chicago, his famous "Cross of Gold" speech (July 8) won him the nomination at the age of 36. The concluding episode of his life was the famous Scopes trial in July 1925. A firm believer in a literal interpretation of the Bible, Bryan went to Dayton, Tennessee, to assist in the prosecution of a school teacher accused of teaching Darwinism, or the theory of the evolutionary origin of man, rather than the doctrine of divine creation.