Unit VII Terms

Question 1

The Reservation Policy

Answer 1

Pushing tribes onto reservations. Made Indians wards of the government until they were deemed “ready” for white culture. Reservations were often inhospitable – many resisted being put on them.

Question 2

The Dawes Act

Answer 2

1887, divided reservation lands into individually owned plots. Forced them to have private dwellings/ middle class life – way of abolishing their culture. Was very damaging.

Question 3

Wounded Knee Massacre

Answer 3

1890, Lakota Reservation, where Indians were camped protesting Dawes Act. US forces were sent, killed over 200 men, women and children.

Question 4

Other Native American Intergration

Answer 4

Indian Boarding Schools - designed to strip Native American children of their culture. Forced to assimilate to white culture – “Kill the Indian, save the man.”

Question 5

Homestead Act of 1862

Answer 5

Government encouraged Western expansion by providing settlers with 160 acres of land (public), only had to pay a small fee and live on it for at least 5 years.

Question 6

Pacific Railroad Acts

Answer 6

1860s
Promoted government bonds and land grants to railroad companies to complete rail lines to Pacific Ocean.

1869
First transcontinental railroad.

Question 7

Morrill Land Grant Act

Answer 7

1862, transferred substantial public acreage to the state governments, who were to sell the lands and use proceeds to finance public education.

Question 8

Chinese Discrimination

Answer 8

Workers did jobs many avoided. 90% of railroad workforce. Federal naturalisation laws denied citizenship to Asian immigrants. Blamed for the Panic of 1873.
Workingmen’s Party formed in 1876 to argue for prevention of Chinese immigration.

Question 9

The Chinese Exclusion Act

Answer 9

1882, legislation excluding Chinese from entrance into the US. A result of activism such as Workingmen’s Party.

Question 10

Mining, Ranching and Lumber

Answer 10

Mining Boomtowns in the west: very ethnically and racially diverse, resembled established industrial cities.

Ranching on Great plains, drove large heard of cattle.

Timber – homesteaders would receive more land if they grew trees on a portion of it.

Question 11

Farming

Answer 11

Homestead Act and transcontinental railroad helped bring settlers. Hard conditions, many found themselves isolated and impoverished. Very different climate then the South/East.

Question 12

Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis”

Answer 12

Expansion west was responsible for key characteristics of American culture – individualism, political democracy and economic mobility.

Question 13

Decimation of Bison/Salmon

Answer 13

Buffalo: railroads sponsored buffalo hunts, mass killing for hides, decimated parts of Native American culture.

Salmon: commercial fisheries began overfishing salmon, competing with Native Americans. Not enough breeding.

Question 14

Formation of National Parks

Answer 14

Overcutting of forests, expansion of timber and mining industries, decrease of animal population. John Muir wrote articles bringing attention to the problem. Teddy Roosevelt transferred 125 million acres to reserves, created 5 national parks (the Sierra Club).

Yellowstone in 1872, Yosemite 1890

Question 15

John Muir, Sierra Club

Answer 15

Was a naturalist, writer, and explorer, conservationist. Started the Sierra Club w/ Teddy Roosevelt – environmental organisation/preservationists. Wrote about the importance of Nature - established Yellowstone, preserved others too.

Question 16

Innovations

Answer 16

Henry Ford and the automobile industry: spawned massive industry, set up assembly line so products would cost less.

Electricity: indoor lighting, sound and images, dynamic and flexibility helped companies and home life.

Steel: new, stronger, harder metal. Machines needed to be stronger, fostered mass production of steel.

Chemicals: fertilisers, gunpowder, dyes and other chemicals.

Assembly line: requires less specialisation – faster, more efficient, cheaper production, could pay workers less.

Question 17

Titans of Industry

Answer 17

Andrew Carnegie: Carnegie Steel Company, used vertical monopoly.

John D. Rockefeller: Standard Oil Company Inc, monopoly.

JP Morgan: corporate finance and industrial consolidation – huge influence.

Cornelius Vanderbilt: railroads and steamships, bought many companies and made new ones.

Gustaves Swift: Swift and Company, meat-packing industry – complete monopoly, vertical.

Question 18

Pools and Trusts

Answer 18

Pools: alliances between companies who agreed on how much to sell their products and sharing profits.

Trust: one company could control an industry by luring or forcing stockholders of smaller companies to yield control of their stock “in trust” to larger companies – horizontal integration.

Question 19

Holding Companies

Answer 19

Company which owned partial or complete interest in other companies and merged their holding’s assets under single management. Vertical integration

Question 20

Social Darwinism

Answer 20

William Graham Sumner.
Argued that inequalities of wealth were due to survival of the fittest, that government should be laissez-faire, should not interfere in social and economic spheres.

Question 21

Gospel of Wealth

Answer 21

Carnegie argued that rich must be modest, and invest their wealth by providing jobs, giving back to the community.

Question 22

Industrial Workers

Answer 22

Unions
Knights of labour: 1863, Philly garment cutters recruited workers, welcomed skilled and unskilled workers, provided alternative to industrial capitalism. Wanted workers to own factories, mines and railroads. Wanted higher wages and union recognition.

American Federation of Labour
1886, alliance of national craft unions, most skilled workers. Wanted concrete goals: higher wages, shorter hours, and right to bargain collectively. Did not want unskilled workers or women.

Question 23

Ghost Dance Movement

Answer 23

Tribes adapted the spiritual practice of the Ghost Dance, created by a Northern Paiute prophet known as Wovoka, which emphasised cooperation among tribes, cleaning living, and honesty that led to a spiritual revival for natives.

Question 24

Immigrants in the West

Answer 24

There were known to be Irish, Chinese, German, Italians, Mexicans, Scandinavians, African Americans immigrants hoping to gain wealth in the West, as well as Native Americans.

Question 25

Desert Land Act 1877

Answer 25

The federal government offered discounted land in the west to people if they agreed to irrigate it.

Question 26

Election of 1896

Answer 26

Bryan and McKinley were very close in popular vote. Big cities support Republicans and farming areas (South and Midwest) support Democrats. Since Democrats absorbed the Populist party, the farmers were very supportive of the Democrats.

Question 27

Free Silver

Answer 27

Populists wanted free coinage of silver in order to end rich privilege and return the government to the people.

Question 28

Coxey’s Army

Answer 28

Jacob Coxey believed that the government should issue $500 million of “legal tender” paper money and make lower interest loans to local governments, who would use the funds to pay unemployed men to build roads and other public works. He protested for these ideals with an army of 200 began marching from Ohio to Washington. When they arrived, they had 500 supporters and tried to speak from the Capitol steps, but was dragged away by the police. His supporters were arrested and clubbed, ending the protest for more jobs and better living conditions.

Question 29

Eugene Debs

Answer 29

Eugene Debs headed the American Railway Union and became a socialist leader. The group united around him and became the Socialist Party of America in 1900. He participated in a strike that he refused to end and went to the Supreme Court. This decision gave the government the ability to control interstate commerce.

Question 30

Depression of 1893

Answer 30

There were large unemployment rates and poverty due to the currency problems. People could not afford basic necessities. This continued until gold was discovered in Alaska in the late 1890s.

Question 31

Gold vs. silver (repeal of Sherman Silver Act

Answer 31

The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 had committed the government to use of Treasury notes (silver certifications) to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver each month. Because silver was more plentiful than gold, holders of certificates for silver and greenback wanted to to be repaid in gold, causing the nations gold reserve to drop and investors to fear for the economy because they believed the gold reserve was almost gone. President Cleveland repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act to protect the gold reserve, but the run on gold continued. Cleveland agreed to sell the government’s remaining gold to J.P. Morgan in return for $65 million dollars worth of bonds that the bankers would resell to the public. This angered the public because the government was interacting with large businesses.

Question 32

the Grange

Answer 32

The Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange, was an group of farmers dedicated to improving economic and social conditions. As membership flourished, they began backing the Greenback Labour Party, formed in 1876, who advocated for the expanding of the money supply. Their ability to challenge the power of business interests was lost after the Supreme Court overturned the Granger law by denying states the power to regulate transportation and storage rates.

Question 33

Federal Reserve Act

Answer 33

Out of suspicion that banks were working more for the stock market than the people, President Wilson passed this act in 1913, which created the Federal Reserve Bank. They bank was a national bank that was partially private controlled partially public controlled, which was meant to regulate economic growth.

Question 34

Federal Trade Commission

Answer 34

Created in 1914, the FTC regulated business practices by reducing the power of trusts and guarding against unfair practices.

Question 35

Clayton Antitrust Act

Answer 35

Strengthening the antitrust powers of the Sherman Antitrust Act, Wilson passed this act in 1914, which was meant to exempt labour unions from being targeted by antitrust actions, as the Sherman Act had often been used to break up strikes.

Question 36

Election of 1912

Answer 36

Tensions were high between Roosevelt and Taft, despite Roosevelt’s previous backing of him. This caused tension within the Republican party and division. Roosevelt and his supporters walked out of the Republican Party nominating convention after the party voted Tuft for reelection. The democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, won the presidency due to the split within the Republican party.

Question 37

Women’s Suffrage

Answer 37

The National American Woman Suffrage Association formed in 1890 successfully gained the right for women to vote with the 19th Amendment passed in 1920

Question 38

Trust-busting

Answer 38

Roosevelt used the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) to pursue trusts that interfered with commerce and challenging monopolies

Question 39

The Jungle

Answer 39

In a novel by Upton Sinclair written in 1906, depictions of the horrible conditions of the meatpacking industry were captured. The story brought to light the unsanitary and dangerous conditions of the industry. This caused a public cry for legislation that fixed the meat-processing conditions.

Question 40

The Meat Act

Answer 40

The Meat Inspection Act passed in response to The Jungle made it illegal to misbrand meat, requiring sanitary practices.

Question 41

The Pure Food and Drug Act

Answer 41

Passed in response to The Jungle, establishing the Food and Drug Administration.