-
Urbanization
In the 1790 more than 95% lived in country side the other percent lived in the villages. -
Immigration & the American Dream
The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity, and equality in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society. -
Industrialization
Industrialization is the process by which an economy is transformed from primarily agricultural to one based on the manufacturing of goods. Individual manual labor is often replaced by mechanized mass production, and craftsmen are replaced by assembly lines. 1820-1840 -
Political Machines
a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses (usually campaign workers), who receive rewards for their efforts. -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was important because it stated that the newly independent United States would not tolerate European powers interfering with the nations in the Western Hemisphere, and if the European powers did interfere, then the United States would retaliate with war. -
Initiative, Referendum, Recall
Initiative, Referendum, Recall are the three powers reserved to enable the voters, by petition, to propose or repeal legislation or to remove an elected official from office. Proponents of an initiative, referendum, or recall effort must apply for an official petition serial number from the Town Clerk. -
Manifest Destiny
The Manifest Destiny was significant to the expansion of the United States in the 19th century. It was the primary force that caused the United States to expand west across North America. To the Americans, expansion offered self-advancement, self-sufficiency, income and freedom. -
Nativism
Favoritism toward native-born Americans, caused immigrants issues with jobs and adapting to the new culture and language. The Nativists went public in 1854 when they formed the 'American Party', which was especially hostile to the immigration of Irish Catholics and campaigned for laws to require longer wait time between immigration and naturalization. -
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. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. -
Robber Barons (Captains of Industry)
The term "robber baron" contrasted with the term "captain of industry," which described industrialists who also benefitted society. Nineteenth-century robber barons included J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, Andrew W. Mellon, and John D. Rockefeller. -
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was an American industrialist who amassed a fortune in the steel industry then became a major philanthropist. Carnegie worked in a Pittsburgh cotton factory as a boy before rising to the position of division superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1859. -
Homestead Act
The Homestead Act of 1862 was one of the most significant and enduring events in the westward expansion of the United States. By granting 160 acres of free land to claimants, it allowed nearly any man or woman a "fair chance." -
The Gilded Age
A Tale of Today, which satirized an era of serious social problems masked by a thin gold gilding. Late 19th century, from the 1870s to about 1900. -
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. -
Haymarket Riot
The Haymarket Riot was a labor protest rally near Chicago's Haymarket Square that turned into a riot after someone threw a bomb at police. At least eight people died as a result of the violence that day. Despite a lack of evidence against them, eight radical labor activists were convicted in connection with the bombing -
Social Gospel
Social Gospel was a religious movement that arose during the second half of the nineteenth century. Ministers, especially ones belonging to the Protestant branch of Christianity, began to tie salvation and good works together. They argued that people must emulate the life of Jesus Christ. -
Dawes Act
The Dawes Act of 1887 which is also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, adopted by Congress in 1887, authorized the President of the United States to survey American Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians. -
Jane Addams
Jane Addams was a pioneer American settlement activist/reformer, social worker, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in women's suffrage and world peace. She created the first settlement house in the United States, Chicago's Hull House. -
Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells was a journalist, she led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s, and went on to found and become integral in groups striving for African-American justice. -
Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony was raised in a Quaker household and went on to work as a teacher before becoming a leading figure in the abolitionist and women's voting rights movement. She partnered with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and would eventually lead the National American Woman Suffrage Association -
Eugene V. Debbs
Eugene V. Debbs was a socialist, presidential candidate, war opponent.Born of French immigrant parents in Terre Haute, Indiana. Debs became active in the labor movement in the 1870s and created the American Railway Union (ARU), an industrial union, in 1893. -
Yellow Journalism
Yellow Journalism is a term first coined during the famous newspaper wars between William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer II. The "Yellow Kid" was also used to sway public opinion on important issues such as the Spanish-American war. 1895-1898 -
William Jennings Bryan
Became a congressmen in 1890, he starred at the 1896 Democratic convention with his Cross of Gold Speech that favored free silver, but was defeated in his bid to become U.S. president by William McKinley. -
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration with an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1896 and 1899. -
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt was known as the first modern President of the United States. His presidency endowed the progressive movement with credibility, lending the prestige of the White House to welfare legislation, government regulation, and the conservation movement. -
Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to expose the appalling working conditions in the meat-packing industry. His description of diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat shocked the public and led to new federal food safety laws. -
Pure Food and Drug Act
An Act preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes. -
Muckraker
During the Progressive Era, which lasted from around 1900 to 1917, muckraking journalists successfully exposed America's problems brought on by rapid industrialization and growth of cities. Influential muckrakers created public awareness of corruption, social injustices and abuses of power. -
Dollar Diplomacy 1909
From 1909 to 1913 president William Howard taft followed a foreign policy characterized as dollar diplomacy. -
16th Amendment
The 16th amendment allows the federal (United States) government to collect an income tax from all Americans. Income tax allows for the federal government to keep an army, build roads and bridges, enforce laws and carry out other important duties. Passed by Congress on July 2, 1909, and ratified February 3, 1913, the 16th amendment established Congress's right to impose a Federal income tax. -
17th Amendment
the Constitution specified that senators were elected by state legislatures. Consequently, the Constitution was changed with the 17th Amendment so that 'the Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years. -
Federal Reserve Act
Federal Reserve Act is an Act of Congress that created and established the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States, and which created the authority to issue Federal Reserve Notes. -
18th Amendment
The 18th Amendment did not prohibit the consumption of alcohol, but rather simply the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. -
19th Amendment
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote a right known as woman suffrage. At the time the U.S. was founded, its female citizens did not share all of the same rights as men, including the right to vote. -
Tea Pot Dome Scandal
Tea Pot Dome Scandal was a bribery incident that took place in the United States from 1921 to 1922, during the administration of President Warren G. Harding -
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Darrow volunteered to defend John Scopes' right to teach evolution, Clarence Darrow had already reached the top of his profession. The year before, in a sensational trial in Chicago, he saved the child-killers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb from the death penalty. -
Indian Removal
Indian Removal act was a law that was signed by Pres. Andrew Jackson in 1830. It is signficant because it led to the eviction of Native Americans from their lands in the Southeast. It also led to them being forced to go to what is now Oklahoma in a movement known as the "Trail of Tears." -
Populism & Progressivism 1869
This was knights of labor that started by individuals. This allowed anyone to join regardless of sex or skill.
