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Imperialism (Expansionism)
Imperialism is the policy of expanding a country's power through diplomacy and military force. Expansionism is a policy of territorial or economic expansion. A good example of imperialistic/expansionist policies is the Manifest Destiny idea that many Americans had in the 19th century. -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was a declaration by President James Monroe in his annual message to Congress, declaring that the Old World and the New World had different systems and must remain distinct spheres. Monroe made four basic points, which in summary state: "don't mess with us, and we won't mess with you." -
Great Plains
The Great Plains is a grassland prairie region of North America and extends from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, in Canada, south through the west-central United States into Texas. This region is known for supporting extensive cattle ranching and dry farming. The Great Plains was also well known for being the home of many and various tribes of Native Americans, the Great Plains Indians. -
Homesteader
Homesteaders were settlers who took up the lifestyle of homesteading. Homesteading is the ability to be self-sufficient, being able to provide oneself with subsistence agriculture, home preservation of food, and may also include the small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for household use or sale. Homesteading was very common when the Homestead Act of 1862 was signed into law. -
Homestead Act of 1862
The Homestead Act was signed into law in 1862 by the 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, to encourage Western migration by providing settlers with 160 acres of public land. In exchange, settlers paid a small filing fee and were required to live on this land continuously for 5 years before receiving ownership of it. -
"Civil War Amendments" (13, 14, & 15)
The Civil War Amendments, also known as the Reconstruction Amendments are the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments added to the U.S. Constitution, all passed between 1865 and 1870. All were intended to restructure the United States from its old ways, in Abraham Lincoln's words: "half slave and half free." The 13th Amendment, proposed and ratified in 1865 abolished slavery. The 14th Amendment, proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868, required the states to provide equal protection under the law to all. -
Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad went by various names, the Great Transcontinental Railroad, known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland Route", was a 1,912 mile long railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the eastern United States with the west. The railroad opened for traffic when CPRR President Leland Stanford ceremonially drove the gold "Last Spike", later often referred to as the "Golden Spike", with a silver hammer at Promontory Summit. -
Industrialization
Industrialization is the development of industries in a country or area in a wide scale; an overhaul of the technology used for manufacturing goods. A specific example of this is the U.S. industrial reform, the Industrial Revolution, in which a lot of manned labor was replaced by machinery, making it much more efficient. -
Immigration
Immigration is the act of moving to live in a foreign country permanently. Immigrants usually take up jobs such as migrant workers, or temporarily as foreign workers. Most immigrants in the early years of the United States worked for railroads, such as the Irish and Chinese immigrants. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law which was signed to prohibit the immigration all of Chinese laborers. It is the first significant law to restrict immigration of an ethnic group into the United States -
"Closing of the Western Frontier"
The Western Frontier was coming to a point in which it was being settled by many people, and urbanization was soon to occur, as well. A year after the Oklahoma Land Rush, the director of the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the frontier was closed. The 1890 census had showed that the frontier line, a point beyond which the population density was less than two persons per square mile, no longer existed. -
Yellow Journalism
Yellow journalism, also known as the yellow press, is sensationalist media that is not completely based in reality and is usually crudely exaggerated to prove a point. Yellow journalists present little to no legitimate research and use eye-catching headlines to draw in more viewers for increased sales. -
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration of an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike Region of the Yukon in the north-western region of Canada close to Alaska. Gold was discovered there on August 16th, 1896 and when news hit Seattle and San Fransisco it drew in a stampede of gold prospectors. Some became wealthy but most efforts went in vain. -
Spanish-American War
The Spanish-American War was a conflict between the U.S. and Spain that eventually ended the Spanish Colonial rule in areas of the Americas, and allowed for the United States to acquire territories in the western Pacific and Latin America. Hostilities really began between the two when the U.S. backed the Cuban revolts for independence against Spanish rule. -
Major Spanish-American War Acquisitions
The Spanish-American war earned the United States lots of land that the Spanish used to own in the Americas. Such land acquisitions that were ceded by Spain in the 1898 Treaty of Paris included Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The United States compensated Spain with 20 million dollars. -
Urbanization
Urbanization is the process of making an area more fit for an urban lifestyle. The urbanization of the United States occurred after the Industrial Revolution in which rural and agricultural areas were transformed into urban, industrial areas which attract many people. -
Americanization
The action of making a person, place, or thing American in its nature and character, or nationality. An example of Americanization is the Americanization Movement, which was a nationwide organized effort in the 1910s to bring millions of recent immigrants into the American cultural system. -
Assimilation
Assimilation is the process of taking information or ideas and wholly being able to understand them. Immigrants recently moved to the United States were often assimilated into the culture. Full assimilation occurs when members of a society become indistinguishable from those in the dominant group. -
Rural & Urban
Rural areas in the U.S. were mostly dedicated to farming and ranching. Urban areas were where most of the industrialization of America occurred, and where most people lived. The 1920s census marked the first time when more than 50% of the U.S. population was defined as living in an urban area.
