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Sand Creek Massacre
The slaughter of the Indian groups Cheyenne and Arapaho in the Indian Wars. The U.S. army was fighting over control of the land in the Great Plains of Colorado. 675 men in the Colorado Calvary came and utterly destroyed the villages of these Natives. -
Cattle Drives
A large number of cattle were driven and herded by Cowboys to the railroads so they could be shipped off to people in the East where they would be slaughtered. -
Standard Oil
J.D. Rockefeller's company which was a symbol of the Gilded age because of the trusts and monopolies. In 1897 it controlled around 95% of all the oil in the U.S. and the Supreme Court ordered this company to break up into several smaller companies to try and stop the monopoly. -
Social Gospel
The Protestantism movement that used the application of Christian values to try and solve social problems such as inequality, crime, and alcoholism. -
Social Darwinism
The idea of Darwinism in evolution-survival of the fittest-but applied into the American economy where it was believed that the wealthy had won the competition and that they didn't owe anything to the poor. This was also applied to entire nations and races saying that some were more at a predisposition to be superior than others. This theory provided justification for things like the Spanish-American war. -
Vertical Integration
This was a process that took all phases of manufacturing and combined them into one. It was pioneered by Andrew Carnegie and helped with controlling production. -
Telephone
An invention by Alexander Graham Bell that changed the way America and other countries worked. It revolutionized the way that we communicate and employed several female workers in this new industry. -
Horizontal Integration
The act of a company joining in with their competitors which result in creating a monopoly. -
Tuskegee Institute
Started by Booker T. Washington in Tuskegee, Alabama, it was a school for young African Americans to help them learn to achieve economic independence and helped bring racial equality -
Chinese Exclusion Act
A law passed in 1882 and prevented Chinese immigrants from coming over to the United States and working, it was the first act that excluded an entire ethnic group. It also took away Chinese immigrants right to citizenship in the U.S.. -
Time Zones
Time zones were created after the transcontinental railroad systems, the shifts typically started at daybreak because railroad schedules needed a set time. -
Haymarket Bombing
This happened in the midst of a riot because two workers had been killed. The bombing killed several police men and was the demise of the Knights of Labor union because it gave a bad reputation to radicalism, which the entire event was blamed on -
Hull House
A settlement house founded by Jane Addams who aimed at providing a home for immigrants, children born into the slum and fought for Child Labor laws to be put into place. This house inspired for many others to be created across the country, although it often had a poor reputation associated with it. -
Indian Wars
Conflicts between early American settlers and Native Americans. Involved the Battle of Little Bighorn which was significant because the worst U.S. defeat during the Plain Wars and showed how strong Indians were. -
Ellis Island
Ellis Island was an immigration station in the New York Harbor. This was mainly used for European immigration while Asians used Angel Island. Immigrants had to go through rigorous medical and document examinations before entering the country. -
Panic of 1893
An economic depression that came from railroad companies overextending themselves and caused several bank failures. It was brought to an end when England had a food supply shortage which caused the U.S. to be involved in trade. -
Plessy v Ferguson
A Supreme Court hearing that upheld segregation and said it was a part of the Constitution. This happened after an African American (Homer Plessy) refused to sit in a car that was only for blacks. -
Cross of Gold speech
A speech that was given by William Jennings Bryan at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Bryan supported free silver, which he thought would make the United States prosperous. He famously stated that "you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold". Because of this speech he was put on the Democratic presidential nomination. Brought division in the nation on the monetary standard -
US Steel
After Carnegie sold his company in 1900 for approximately 400 million to a new steel combination headed by JP Morgan. The new corporations, United States Steel, was the first billion dollar company and also the largest enterprise in the world, employing 168,000 people and controlling over 3/5th of the nations steel business -
American RR Association
Divided the United States into four different time zones, and became the standard time for Americans.
