Unit VII Terms Flashcards
The Reservation Policy
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.
The Dawes Act
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.
Wounded Knee Massacre
1890, Lakota Reservation, where Indians were camped protesting Dawes Act. US forces were sent, killed over 200 men, women and children.
Other Native American Intergration
Indian Boarding Schools - designed to strip Native American children of their culture. Forced to assimilate to white culture – “Kill the Indian, save the man.”
Homestead Act of 1862
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.
Pacific Railroad Acts
1860s
Promoted government bonds and land grants to railroad companies to complete rail lines to Pacific Ocean.
1869
First transcontinental railroad.
Morrill Land Grant Act
1862, transferred substantial public acreage to the state governments, who were to sell the lands and use proceeds to finance public education.
Chinese Discrimination
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.
The Chinese Exclusion Act
1882, legislation excluding Chinese from entrance into the US. A result of activism such as Workingmen’s Party.
Mining, Ranching and Lumber
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.
Farming
Homestead Act and transcontinental railroad helped bring settlers. Hard conditions, many found themselves isolated and impoverished. Very different climate then the South/East.
Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis”
Expansion west was responsible for key characteristics of American culture – individualism, political democracy and economic mobility.
Decimation of Bison/Salmon
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.
Formation of National Parks
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
John Muir, Sierra Club
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.
Innovations
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.
Titans of Industry
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.
Pools and Trusts
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.
Holding Companies
Company which owned partial or complete interest in other companies and merged their holding’s assets under single management. Vertical integration
Social Darwinism
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.
Gospel of Wealth
Carnegie argued that rich must be modest, and invest their wealth by providing jobs, giving back to the community.
Industrial Workers
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.
Ghost Dance Movement
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.
Immigrants in the West
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.
