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Robber Barons
Robber Barons is originally referred to prominent United States' business men who became rich in the late 19th century. Robber Barons became rich through ruthless and unscrupulous business practices. These Robber Barons were greedy capitalist that basically grew rich by shade business practices. The were political manipulators and would exploit workers. Some examples of Robber Barons are: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, etc. -
Farmers
Struggles in the 1800s, droughts would occur and insects would be known as the crop killer in the late 1800s, prices decreased (foreign wheat), foreclosed farms, large farms were the most profitable. Most farmers in the Midwest lived in single room log cabins. Injuries were very common while farming with these tools. Another important tool that defined this period in Midwest farming was the reaper, a device that could cut grain better than the scythe. -
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Transforming the West
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Homestead Act
The Homestead Act was a law passed by Congress in 1862 that granted 160 acres of federal land to any U.S. citizen. An individual was given ownership of the land for free if that person lived on the land for five years and improved the land by building a home and producing a crop. -
Morrill Land Grant College Act
An Act donating Public Lands to the several States and Territories which may provide Colleges for the Benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges in U.S. states using the proceeds of federal land sales. -
Horizontal Integration
Horizontal integration is the process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain. A company may do this via internal expansion, acquisition or merger. The process can lead to monopoly if a company captures the vast majority of the market for that product or service. Carnegie started as with a vertical integration but then changed to horizontal. He did this to buy all sources of supply and therefore undercut his competition. -
Western Settlement
The Western Settlement was a group of farms and communities established by Norsemen from Iceland around 985 in medieval Greenland. Pioneer settlers were sometimes pulled west because they wanted to make a better living. Others received letters from friends or family members who had moved west. -
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist who amassed a fortune in the steel industry then became a major philanthropist. Carnegie grew up poor. He decided to begin investing. After retiring in 1901 at the age of 66 as the world's richest man, Andrew Carnegie wanted to become a philanthropist, a person who gives money to good causes. He believed in the "Gospel of Wealth," which meant that wealthy people were morally obligated to give their money back to others in society. -
Laissez Faire
Laissez Faire, meaning "allow to do" in French was a policy of minimum interference of the government in the economic affairs of individuals and society. Individuals believed that the government should stay out of their private lives, and the market would take care of itself. There was no regulations or rules between government and market. -
Vertical Integration
Vertical integration is a strategy where a company expands its business operations into different steps on the same production path, such as when a manufacturer owns its supplier and/or distributor. Vertical integration is basically the combination in one company of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate companies. An example of vertical integration was when Carnegie allowed for his company to control all phases of production. -
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Becoming an Industrial Power
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Transcontinental Railroad
In 1863, the Pacific Railroad Act chartered the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies, and tasked them with building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west. Over the next seven years, the two companies would race toward each other from Sacramento, California. The Railroad was finally finished and opened in 1869. -
Killing The Buffalo
Native Americans would hunt buffalo for a living. They used almost every part of the animal, including horns, meat and tail hairs. Native Americans learned to use horses, which dramatically expanded their hunting range. But then guns were introduced to Americans in the West, which resulted in the killing millions more buffalo. Americans killed buffalo because they figured that buffalo was one of the main sources of Native Americans, which meant that less buffalo there is, less Native Americans. -
Mail-Order Catalogues
Mail-Order Catalogues(Catalogs) were started by two historically distinct American retail enterprises known as Montgomery Ward. These catalogs brought department stores to rural America. One very famous catalog in this time was the "Sears Catalouge". Other department stores follow and created their own catalogs.Due to Mail-Order Catalogues, the perfect consumer culture was formed and shared across the country. -
Red River War
The Red River War was a military campaign launched by the United States Army in 1874 to remove the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Native American tribes from the Southern Plains and forcibly relocate them to reservations in Indian Territory. Lasting only a few months, the war had several army columns crisscross the Texas Panhandle in an effort to locate, harass, and capture highly mobile Indian bands. -
Gilded Age
The Gilded Age is one of the most "corrupted" era in the United States. The Gilded Age is defined as the time between the Civil War and World War I during which the U.S. population and economy grew quickly, there was a lot of political corruption and corporate financial misdealings and many wealthy people lived very fancy lives. The Gilded Age was casued by the rapid immigration, along with the explosion of Americans moving from farms to the cities. -
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The Gilded Age
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Exodusters
Exodusters was a name given to African Americans who migrated from states along the Mississippi River to Kansas in the late nineteenth century, as part of the Exoduster Movement or Exodus of 1879. It was the first general migration of black people following the Civil War. -
Nativism
Nativism is the policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants. Americans weary of immigration again. They try to stop immigrants from coming in the country. Slums and strikes propel the idea. In 1887, they make the American Protection Association, which was an American anti-Catholic secret established by protestant. Americans begin deporting criminals, diseased, radical people. -
Political Machines
Political machine is a party organization, headed by a single boss or small autocratic group, that commands enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of a city, county, or state.Huge problems for city governments, which were often poorly structured and unable to provide services. Political machines then were able to build a loyal voter following, especially among immigrant groups, by performing such favors as providing jobs or housing. -
Bessemer Process
The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. Carnegie was the first one to invest in this process. This process created a mass production of steel at high rates, but low prices. He brought in Henry Clay Frick as a partner in 1881, and put him in charge of company operations. -
John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller was an American oil industry business magnate, industrialist, and philanthropist. John D. Rockefeller was like the "Carnegie" of oil. He basically did the same thing as Carnegie. He controlled 90% of the domestic oil. He started with vertical integration, but later switched to horizontal integration. John D. Rockefeller invented two important elements: he invented TRUSTS and HOLDING COMPANIES. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first law implemented to prevent a specific ethnic group from immigrating to the United States.This act benefited white people because there would be less competition for jobs, since Chinese would always take almost every job. -
The Pendleton Act
The Pendeleton 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. This act was passed after the assassination of President James Garfield. The act provided that Federal Government jobs be awarded on the basis of merit and that Government employees be selected through competitive exams. -
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show
Buffalo Bill was a former scout and hunter who stated his own western show in the eastern United States. His shows dealt with Indian fights, cowboys and cattle drives, and lassoing. Many former cowboys, sharpshooters, and even some Indians were part of this show. The American view of the "west" was developed by this show. -
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was a federal law prohibiting any contract, trust, or conspiracy in restraint of interstate or foreign trade. In other words, it originally made trusts illegal. Trusts brought different companies in the same industry under the control of a board of trustees. This act made corporations buy politicians. At first, it was essentially useless to tackle monopolies, but this act will later be successful. -
Great Migration
The Great Migration was the migration of African Americans from the South to the North. African Americans migrated to flee the Jim Crow. About 300 thousand African Americans migrated North between 1890 and 1910, and about 7 million migrated between 1890 and 1970. African Americans were looking for a better economic life. The also migrated to escape war, persecution, and starvation. -
Farmer's Alliance
The Farmers' Alliance was an organized agrarian economic movement among American farmers. The Northern or Northwestern Alliance sought to protect farmers from industrial monopolies and promote regulations on commerce and tax reform. This movement consisted of 5 million and only white people could be part of it. They negotiated higher crop prices, and had better loans and insurance. Framers also overcharged in shipping crops with a high interest. -
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Imperial America(Imperialism)
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People's Party/ Populist Party
The People's Party, also known as the Populist Party was formed by farmers, workers, and reformers to represent the common people against monopolies. They were better served interests, and were independent of establishment. This party fought corruption and greed: eliminated monopolies,coinage of silver, graduated income taxes, and storage surplus. -
Depression of 1893
The Depression of 1893, also known as The Panic of 1893 was one of the worst economic depressions in the history of the United States. It began in 1893 and ended in 1897. The panic cause banks, railroads, and everyday businesses to fall. This panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures. -
Pullman Strike
The Pullman Strike was a nationwide railroad strike in the United States and a turning point for US labor law. Following the economic depression caused by the Panic of 1893 George Pullman increased working hours, cut wages and cut jobs. The workers belonged to the American Railroad Union. The workers protested and started the Pullman Strike on May 11, 1894 and violence broke out. -
W.E.B DuBois
W.E.B. DuBois was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer and editor. In1895, he became the first African American to earn a Ph.D.from Harvard University. DuBois wrote extensively and was a very known spokesperson for African American rights during the 1900's. W.E.B DuBois was also a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also known as the NAACP. -
Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community. Booker T. Washington was born as a slave in a farm in Virginia. He rose to become one of the most influential African-American intellectuals around the 1900's. He founded the Tuskegee Institute, which was a black school in Alabama that was devoted to train teachers. -
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The Progressive Era
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Election of 1896
The Presidential Election of 1896 the election between the Republican William McKinley and the Democrat William Jennings Bryan. This campaign was considered by historians to be one of the most dramatic and complex in American history. McKinley defeated Jennings 51% to 47%. Republicans who supported McKinley were mainly from the Midwest and Northeast, and Democrats who supported Jennings were from the South and the West. -
Yellow Journalism
Yellow journalism is an American term for journalism that uses eye-catching headlines for increased sales. In other words, yellow journalism is journalism that is based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration. A yellow journalism cartoon about the Spanish-American war was made. The newspaper publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst are both attired as the Yellow Kid comics character of the time, and are competitively claiming ownership of the war. -
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was fought between the United States and Spain in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. This conflict between the United States and Spain ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America. -
Rough Riders
The Rough Riders was a nickname given to the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry raised in 1898 for the Spanish–American War. The Rough Riders charged and took a great victory in the battle of San Juan Hill. Wood's second in command, Theodore Roosevelt, was former Assistant Secretary of the Navy. When Colonel Wood became commander of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade, the Rough Riders then became "Roosevelt's Rough Riders." -
Battle of San Juan Hill/ San Juan Heights
The Battle of San Juan Hill, also known as the battle for the San Juan Heights, was a decisive battle of the Spanish–American War. The San Juan heights was a north-south running elevation about 2 kilometers east of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. United States forces, including Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, defeated greatly outnumbered Spanish forces at San Juan Hill and Kettle Hill near the Spanish stronghold of Santiago de Cuba. -
Treaty of 1898
Ending the Spanish-American War. Following the Spanish defeats in Cuba and Puerto Rico, an armistice was arranged on August 12, 1898. Fighting was halted and Spain recognized Cuba`s independence. The U.S. occupation of the Philippines was recognized pending final disposition of the islands. he war officially ended four months later, when the U.S. and Spanish governments signed the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. -
The Election of 1900
The United States presidential election of 1900 was the 29th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1900. President McKinley was easily renominated at the Republican Convention, in Philadelphia, in June 1900. In the 1896 race, Republican President William McKinley had already defeated his Democratic challenger, William Jennings Bryan. Once again, President William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan, winning 292 electoral votes to Bryan’s 155. -
The Big Stick Policy
The Big Stick Ideology, Big Stick Diplomacy, or Big Stick p\Policy refers to U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy: "speak softly, and carry a big stick." At the crux of his foreign policy was a thinly veiled threat. Roosevelt believed that in light of the country’s recent military successes, it was unnecessary to use force to achieve foreign policy goals, so long as the military could threaten force. -
Teddy Roosevelt
Teddy Roosevelt was William McKinley's Vice president. He became president when McKinley was assassinated in September 14, 1901. Roosevelt was very energetic and enthusiastic. People saw him as a "big little kid." Roosevelt's attitude was very likable. In addition, in 1902, Roosevelt went in a hunting trip in Mississippi. He tracked down a bear but decided no to shot it because he thought this would give an "unsportsmanlike" view of him. This is why teddy bears are named after Theodore. -
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. Soon after, they unleashed torpedoes against Russian ships in a surprise attack that began the Russo-Japanese War. The conflict grew over competition between Russia and Japan for territory in both Korea and Manchuria, in northern China. -
Muckraker
Muckrakers were reform-oriented investigative journalists during the Progressive Era. The muckrakers’ work called attention to the problems of the time, including poor industrial working conditions, poor urban living conditions, and unscrupulous business practices. Prominent muckrakers included novelist Upton Sinclair, photographer Jacob Riis, and journalists Ida M. Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens. Muckrakers were in charge to bring all the negative things out to the public. -
The Meat Inspection Act (1906)
The Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 (FMIA) is an American law that makes that states that the government can condemn meat. Meat Inspection Act of 1906, was an United State's legislation, signed by President Theodore Roosevelt on June 30, 1906, that prohibited the sale of adulterated or misbranded livestock and derived products as food and ensured that livestock were slaughtered and processed under sanitary conditions. -
The Great White Fleet
The "Great White Fleet" sent around the world by President Theodore Roosevelt from 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909 consisted of sixteen new battleships of the Atlantic Fleet. The battleships were painted white. The Atlantic Fleet battleships only later came to be known as the "Great White Fleet." The fourteen-month long voyage was a grand pageant of American sea power. The squadrons were manned by 14,000 sailors. They covered some 43,000 miles and made twenty port calls on six continents. -
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an American industrialist who revolutionized factory production with his assembly-line methods. He created a revolutionized auto industry which changed the way people lived and traveled. Henry Ford wanted to create a cheap, but effective car, which then became as the Model T. He used the assembly line process, used standardized auto parts, improved its machinery, produced more cars for less, and passed his savings onto consumers. -
Ford Model T
The Model T changed the way Americans live. Henry Ford’s revolutionary advancements in assembly-line automobile manufacturing made the Model T the first car to be affordable for a majority of Americans. For the first time car ownership became a reality for average American workers, not just the wealthy. More than 15 million Model Ts were built in Detroit and Highland Park, Michigan, and the automobile was also assembled at a Ford plant in Manchester, England, and at plants in continental Europe. -
William Howard Taft
As U.S. president from 1909 to 1913 and chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1921 to 1930, William Howard Taft became the only man in history to hold the highest post in both the executive and judicial branches of the U.S. government. Taft easily defeated William Jennings Bryan in the presidential election of 1909. Taft was very well (out of politics) know because he was the fattest president of the United States weighting over 300 pounds. -
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution, which began in 1910, ended dictatorship in Mexico and established a constitutional republic. A number of groups, led by revolutionaries participated in the long and costly conflict. It started when liberals and intellectuals began to challenge the regime of dictator Porfirio Díaz, who had been in power since 1877, a term of 34 years called El Porfiriato, violating the principles and ideals of the Mexican Constitution of 1857 -
Pancho Villa
Born on June 5, 1878, in San Juan del Rio, Durango, Mexico, Pancho Villa started off as a bandit who was later inspired by reformer Francisco Madero, helping him to win the Mexican Revolution. After a coup by Victoriano Huerta, Villa formed his own army to oppose the dictator, with more battles to follow as Mexican leadership remained in a state of flux. He was assassinated on July 20, 1923, in Parral, Mexic. -
Angel Island
Angel Island was an immigration station located in San Francisco Bay which operated from January 21, 1910 to November 5, 1940, where immigrants entering the United States were detained and interrogated. It was also used as an island used for cattle ranching at one point. Because of its use as an immigration station, and because approximately 1 million Asian immigrants were processed there, Angel Island is sometimes referred to as the Ellis Island of the West. -
Bull Moose Party
The Bull Moose Party was a Progressive Party of 1912, which was an American third party. It was formed by former President Theodore Roosevelt after he lost the presidential nomination of the Republican Party to President William Howard Taft. The new party was known for taking advanced positions on progressive reforms and attracting some leading reformers. The Progressive Party was named the "Bull Moose Party" after journalists quoted Roosevelt saying that he felt "fit as a bull moose". -
17th Amendment
The 17th Amendment was passed by Congress May 13, 1912, and ratified April 8, 1913. It modified the Constitution by allowing voters to cast direct votes for U.S. Senators.In other words, it states that the Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. -
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World War I
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Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was born on December 18, 1863, in Graz, Austria. In 1900, Ferdinand gave up his children's rights to the throne in order to marry a lady-in-waiting. While in power, he attempted to restore Austro-Russian relations while maintaining an alliance with Germany. In 1914, a Serb nationalist assassinated him. One month later, Austria declared war on Serbia and World War I began -
Mustard Gas
On April 22, 1915, German forces shock Allied soldiers along the western front by firing more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions. This was the first major gas attack by the Germans, and it devastated the Allied line. At the outbreak of World War I, the Germans began actively to develop chemical weapons. In October 1914, the Germans placed some small tear-gas canisters in shells that were fired at Neuve Chapelle, France, but Allied troops were not exposed. -
Zimmerman Telegram
The Zimmermann Telegram was a secret diplomatic communication that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico. The American public learned about a German proposal to ally with Mexico if the United States entered the war. Months earlier, British intelligence had intercepted a secret message from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the Mexican government, inviting an alliance that would recover the southwestern states Mexico lost to the U.S. during the Mexican War. -
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was one of the most explosive political events of the twentieth century. The violent revolution marked the end of the Romanov dynasty and centuries of Russian Imperial rule. During the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks, led by leftist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, seized power and destroyed the tradition of csarist rule. The Bolsheviks would later become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. -
Espionage Act
in 1917, some two months after America’s formal entrance into World War I against Germany, the United States Congress passes the Espionage Act. The Espionage Act essentially made it a crime for any person to convey information intended to interfere with the U.S. armed forces prosecution of the war effort or to promote the success of the country’s enemies. Anyone found guilty of such acts would be subject to a fine of $10,000 and a prison sentence of 20 years. -
The Spanish Flu
The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, the deadliest in history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims, including some 675,000 Americans. The 1918 flu was first observed in Europe, the United States and parts of Asia before swiftly spreading around the world. At the time, there were no effective drugs or vaccines to treat this killer flu strain. -
Sedition Act
On May 16, 1918, the U.S. Congress passes the Sedition Act, a piece of legislation designed to protect America’s participation in World War I. Aimed at socialists, pacifists and other anti-war activists, the Sedition Act imposed harsh penalties on anyone found guilty of making false statements that interfered with the prosecution of the war; insulting the U.S. government; agitating against the production of necessary war materials; or advocating, teaching or defending any of these acts. -
Temperance Movement
This movement was an organized effort to encourage moderation in the consumption of intoxicating liquors or press for complete abstinence. The movement was mostly filled by women who had children,and had endured the effects of unbridled drinking by many of their menfolk. This convinced many citizens that a huge percentage of Americans were living an immoral manner. People feared that this could be a threat to America's political system, which resulted in the temperance movement. -
Al Capone
Al Capone was the most famous American gangster, who dominated organized crime in Chicago from 1925 to 1931. Capone’s parents immigrated to the United States. Al quit school in Brooklyn after the sixth grade and joined Johnny Torrio’s James Street Boys gang, rising eventually to the Five Points Gang. In a youthful scrape in a brothel-saloon, a young hoodlum slashed Capone with a knife or razor across his left cheek, prompting the later nickname “Scarface.” -
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was the development of the Harlem neighborhood in New York City as a black cultural mecca in the early 20th Century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted. Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, the period is considered a golden age in African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance and art. -
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The 1920's (The Roaring Twenties)
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Eighteenth (18th) Amendment
Congress ratified the 18th Amendment in January 17, 1920, prohibiting the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors. Prohibition proved difficult to enforce and failed to have the intended effect of eliminating crime and other social problems–to the contrary, it led to a rise in organized crime, as the bootlegging of alcohol became an ever-more lucrative operation. Later on, the 21st Amendment was ratified, which repealed Prohibition. -
Nineteenth (19th) Amendment
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote, a right known as women’s suffrage, and was ratified on August 18, 1920, ending almost a century of protest. Stanton and Mott, along with Susan B. Anthony and other activists, raised public awareness and lobbied the government to grant voting rights to women. After a lengthy battle, these groups finally emerged victorious with the passage of the 19th Amendment. -
Tea Pot Dome Scandal
The Teapot Dome Scandal shocked Americans by revealing an unprecedented level of greed and corruption within the federal government. The scandal involved ornery oil tycoons, poker-playing politicians, illegal liquor sales, a murder-suicide, a womanizing president and a bagful of bribery cash delivered on the sly. In the end, the scandal would empower the Senate to conduct rigorous investigations into government corruption. -
Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey became a leader in the black nationalist movement by applying the economic ideas of Pan-Africanists to the immense resources available in urban centers. He founded the Negro World newspaper, an international shipping company called Black Star Line and the Negro Factories Corporation. During the 1920s, his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) grew to be the largest secular organization in African-American history. -
Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924 was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States as of the 1890 census. President Calvin Coolidge signed this law, which was the most stringent U.S. immigration policy up to that time in the nation’s history. -
Spirit of St. Louis
An American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, on the world’s first solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean and the first ever nonstop flight between New York to Paris. He flew northeast up the East Coast and then left Newfoundland and headed across the North Atlantic .After flying 3,610 miles in 33 1/2 hours, Lindbergh landed at Le Bourget field in Paris, becoming the first pilot to accomplish the solo, nonstop transatlantic crossing. -
Charles Lingbergh
Charles A. Lindbergh was an American aviator, who rose to fame by piloting his monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, on the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris in 1927. After the kidnap and murder of his infant son, he moved to Europe in the 1930s and became involved with German aviation developments. Despite objecting to American involvement in World War II, Lindbergh eventually flew 50 combat missions. -
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover was America’s 31st president, took office in 1929, the year the U.S. economy plummeted into the Great Depression. Although his predecessors’ policies undoubtedly contributed to the crisis, which lasted over a decade, Hoover bore much of the blame in the minds of the American people. As the Depression deepened, Hoover failed to recognize the severity of the situation or leverage the power of the federal government to squarely address it. -
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The Great Depression
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Valentine's Day Massacre
Al Capone sought to consolidate control by eliminating his rivals in the illegal trades of bootlegging, gambling and prostitution. This rash of gang violence reached its bloody climax in a garage on the North Side on February 1929, when 7 men associated with the Irish gangs, were shot to death by several men dressed as policemen. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, as it was known, was never officially linked to Capone, but he was generally considered to have been responsible for the murders. -
The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl refers to the drought-stricken Southern Plains region of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during a dry period in the 1930s. As high winds and choking dust swept the region from Texas to Nebraska, people and livestock were killed and crops failed across the entire region. The Dust Bowl intensified the crushing economic impacts of the Great Depression and drove many farming families on a desperate migration in search of work and better living conditions. -
The New Deal Coalition
The success of the new New Deal enabled FDR to construct a new political coalition, referred to as the New Deal Coalition, that established a solid Democratic majority. The coalition brought together liberal interest groups and voting blocks that supported the New Deal and voted for Democratic presidential candidates from 1932 until approximately 1966, which made the Democratic Party the majority party during the Fifth Party System, which is also known as the New Deal Party System. -
Election of 1932
American presidential election of 1932, in which Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican President Herbert Hoover. The 1932 election was the first held during the Great Depression, and it represented a dramatic shift in the political alignment of the country. Republicans had dominated the presidency for almost the entire period from 1860, but Roosevelt’s victory would be the first of five successive Democratic presidential wins. -
Alphabet Soup Agencies
The alphabet soup were a series of U.S. federal government agencies created as part of the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The earliest agencies were created to combat the Great Depression in the United States and were established during Roosevelt's first 100 days in office in 1933. Some were established to provide relief for the unemployed, and others also provided a program intended to boost both industries and working Americans. -
Twentieth (20th) Amendment
The Twentieth Amendment (Amendment XX) to the United States Constitution moved the beginning and ending of the terms of the president and vice president from March 4 to January 20, and of members of Congress from March 4 to January 3. It also has provisions that determine what is to be done when there is no president-elect; In also defines who succeeds the president if the president dies. Unfortunately, this amendment failed. -
The Holocaust
The Holocaust wast he mass murder of 6 million European Jews by the German Nazi leader, Hitler. Adolf Hitler believed that the Jews were an inferior race; an alien threat to German racial purity and community. After years of Nazi rule in Germany, during which Jews were consistently persecuted, Hitler’s final solution, now known as the Holocaust, came to fruition under the cover of world war, with mass killing centers constructed in the concentration camps of occupied Poland. -
The New Deal
The whole economy during the Great Depression was pretty much dead. When President Franklin Roosevelt took became president in 1933, he acted swiftly to try and stabilize the economy and provide jobs and relief to those who were suffering. Over the next eight years, the government instituted a series of experimental projects and programs, known collectively as the New Deal, that aimed to restore some measure of dignity and prosperity to many Americans. -
Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA)
The FERA's organization purpose was initially to distribute 500 million dollars in federal funds to state agencies.The Federal Emergency Relief Administration was part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Roosevelt hoped that his New Deal would allow Americans to cope with the Great Depression, would help end the current economic downturn, and would help prevent another depression from occurring in the future. -
The Glass-Steagall Act
The Glass-Steagall Act was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1933 as the Banking Act, which prohibeted commercial banks from participating in the investment banking business. The Act was passed as an emergency measure to counter the failure of almost 5,000 banks during the Great Depression. The Glass-Steagall lost its potency in subsequent decades and was partially repealed in 1999. It describes four provisions of the U.S. Banking Act of 1933 separating commercial and investment banking. -
Twenty-First (21st) Amendment
The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the era of national prohibition of alcohol in America. Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the requisite 3/4s majority of states’ approval. In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, ending national Prohibition. After the repeal of the 18th Amendment, some states continued Prohibition by maintaining statewide temperance laws. -
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World War II
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Navajo Code Talkers
Navajo Code Talkers were bilingual Navajo speakers specially recruited during World War II by the Marines to serve in their standard communications units in the Pacific Theater. Code talkers transmitted these messages over military telephone or radio communications nets using formal or informally developed codes built upon their native languages. Their service improved the speed of encryption of communications at both ends in front line operations during World War II. -
Dunkirk Evacuation
As the German army advances through northern France during World War II, it cuts off British troops from their French allies, forcing an enormous evacuation of soldiers across the North Sea from the town of Dunkirk to England. Naval vessels and hundreds of civilian boats were used in the evacuation, which began on May 26. When it ended on June 4, about 198,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian troops had been saved. -
Battle of Leningrad
After the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, a German army surrounded the city of Leningrad in an extended siege beginning that September. In subsequent months, the city sought to establish supply lines from the Soviet interior and evacuate its citizens. A successful land corridor was created in January 1943, and the Red Army finally managed to drive off the Germans the following year. -
Pearl Harbor
On a Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the U.S naval base know as Pearl Harbor, where they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. -
Battle of Stalingard
The Battle of Stalingrad was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad in the U.S.S.R. during World War II. Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in history. -
Battle of Moscow
The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It lasted from October 1941 to January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitler's attack on Moscow, which was the capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the Soviet Union's largest city. Moscow was one of the primary military and political objectives for Axis forces in their invasion of the Soviet Union. -
D-Day
During World War II (1939-1945), the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. The battle known as D-Day began on June 6, 1944, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. -
Battle of the Bulge
On Dec.16, after the Allied forces' successful D-Day invasion of Normandy, the German army launched a counteroffensive that was intended to cut through the Allied forces in a manner that would turn the tide of the war in Hitler's favor. The battle that ensued is known historically as the Battle of the Bulge. This was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. -
Battle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin was the last major battle in Europe during World War II. It resulted in the surrender of the German army and an end to Adolf Hitler's rule. This battle began in April 16, 1945, and lasted until May 2,1945. This battle was mainly fought between the Germany Army and the Soviet Army. On May 2nd, German generals inside Berlin surrendered to the Soviet Army. Five days later, the rest of the Nazi Germany leaders surrendered to the Allies. This finally finished the war. -
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism is the controversial Theory of Evolution 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. It was like "survival of the fittest". Rich people were intelligent, strong, and adaptable. Poor people were unfit/underling.
