-
The Bessemer Process. Chapter 17
The Bessemer Process was perhaps the most important technological development in a nation whose economy rested so heavily on railroads. Steel itself had become the product of technological discovery. Working along side an American named William Kelly, both Bessemer and Kelly almost at the same time, developed a system where iron was converted into the much more durable and versatile steel. -
Homestead Act
The Homestead Act of 1862 permitted settlers to buy plots of 160 acres for a small fee if they occupied the land they purchased for five years and improved it. Supporters of the Homestead Act believed it would create new markets and new outposts of commercial agriculture for the nations growing economy. -
National Grange Founded
Fraternal organization for American farmers which encourages farm families to band together for their common economic and political well-being. It is the oldest surviving agricultural organization in America. The motto of the Grange is: "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity." Seven men co-founded the Grange: Oliver Hudson Kelley, William Saunders, Francis M. McDowell, John Trimble, Aaron B. Grosh, John R. Thompson, and William M. Ireland. -
Transcontinental Railroad Completed
Beginning in 1865, over 12,000 Chinese found work building the transcontinental railroad, forming 90% of the labor force of the Central Pacific. The company preffered Chinese workers over whites because they worked hard, made few demandds, and accepted relatively low wages. In 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed, and thousands of Chinese lost their jobs. -
Knights of Labor. Chapter 17.
Under the leadership of Uriah S. Stephens, the Knights of Labor was the first major effort to create a genuinely nation labor organization. Membership for the organization was open for all including women. Also, the Knights of Labor became interested in long-range reform of the economy. -
Standard Oil. Chapter 17.
Teaming up with other wealthy capitalists, John D. Rockefeller formed the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. Rockefeller built his own factories, terminal warehouses and pipelines. Unfortunately, by the 1880's Rockefeller had established such dominance within the petroleum industry that to much of the nation he served as a leading symbol of monopoly. -
The Chicago Fires
Fires destroyed large downtown areas and encouraged the construction of fireproof buildings and establish professional fire departments. The fires forced cities to reconstruct and rebuild at a time when new technological and architectural opportunities were available. Some of the high-rise cities of America arose from the rubble of the great fires. -
Barbed Wire Invented
Farming on the plains presented special problems. One of the problems was fencing. Farmers had to enclose their land, but materials for traditional wood or stone fences were unavailable. In the mid-1870's, however, two Illinois farmers, Joseph H. Glidden and I.L. Ellwood, solved this problem by developing and marketing barbed wire, which became standard equipment on the plains and revolutionized fencing practives all over the world. -
Battle of the Little Bighorn
In 1875 the Sioux rose ulp and left their reservation. White officials demanded they return, but they refused under the leadership of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Led by Colonel George A. Custer, three army columns set out to round up the Sioux. At the Battle of Little Bighorn in Southern Montana in 1876, an unprecedentedly large army, perhaps 2,500 tribal warriors, surprised Custer and part of his regiment, surrounded them, and killed every man. -
Introduction of Chain and Department Stores
There were changes in marketing because the chain stores and department stores were able to sell more goods for a cheaper price because buy buying in bulk it conserved money. In larger cities the surfacing of big department stores helped transform shopping into a more “glamorous activity”. -
Desert Land Act
The Desert Land Act allowed claimants to buy 640 acres at $1.25 an acre, provided they irrigated part of their holdings within three years. Following the Timber Culture Act, the Desert Land Act along with other laws ultimately made it possible for individuals to acquire as much as 1,280 acres of land at little cost. -
The Migrations
African Americans and Europeans were migrating to the Industrial cities to escape poverty, violence and oppression they faced in the South. They were also seeking new opportunities in cities such as factory workers, cooks, etc. Urban blacks usually worked as cooks or janitors because white men occupied the others. The European migration held the greatest number of arrivals. -
AFL (American Federation of Labor). Chapter 17.
Rejecting the Knights' idea big union of one big unionization for everybody, the federation was an association of essentially autonomous craft unions that represented the mainly skilled. The powerful leader of the AFL concentrated on labor's immediate objectives. The AFL demanded a national 8 hour workday and called for a general strike. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
This Act banned Chinese immigration into the United States for ten years and barred Chinese already in the country from becoming naturalized citizens. Congress renewed the law for another ten years in 1892 and made it permanent in 1902. It had a dramatic effect on the Chinese population, which declined by more than 40% in the 40 years after the act's passage. -
Education for Women
After the Civil War, the opportunities of education for women expanded, although they were behind men’s status and education was initially denied to all black women. Most public high schools accepted women but higher education furthering high school opportunities were low. By this time only three colleges in America were coeducational. Larger private colleges such as Harvard, Columbia and Radcliffe began opening separate schools on their campuses for women. The growth of female education was a l -
Twain's Huckleberry Finn
In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain produced a character who repudiated the constraints of organized society and attempted to escape into a more natural world. This yearning for freedom reflected a larger vision of the West as the last refuge from the constraints of civilization. -
US Gains Base at Pearl Harbor
The United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom signed the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 as supplemented by Convention on December 6, 1884 and ratified in 1887. On January 20, 1887, the United States Senate allowed the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base (the US took possession on November 9 that year). The Spanish-American War of 1898 and the desire for the United States to have a permanent presence in the Pacific both contributed to the decision. -
Dawes Act
The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 provided for the gradual elimination of most tribal ownerships of land and the allotment of tracts to individual owners: 160 acres to the head of a family, 80 acres to a single adult or orphan, 40 acres to each dependent child. Adult owners were given U.S. citizenship, but unlike other citizens, they could not gain full title to their property for twenty-five years (supposedly to prevent them from selling the land to speculators). -
Settlement House Movement
In Chicago during 1889, a Hull House was built and was also created by Jane Addams. She was a social worker and her Hull House became a model for more than 400 similar institutions throughout the nation. This led to more professions for women. (CH. 20) -
The Ethnic City
By this time, most of the population of the major cities was immigrants such as Chicago, Milwaukee, New York and Detroit. No single national group dominated buy most ethnicities stuck together to form communities within the cities and maintained close ties with their native countries’ heritage. Central Park was formed to provide a cure to the congestion of the city landscape and give the people some breathing room to relax and socialize. -
Battle of Wounded Knee
On December 29th, 1890, the Seventh Cavalry tried to round up a group of about 350 cold and starving Sioux at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Fighting broke out in which about 40 white soldiers and up to 200 Indians died. An Indian may have fired the first shot, but the battle soon turned into a one-sided massacre, as the white soldiers used their new machine guns on the Indians and mowed them down in the snow. -
Homestead Strike
In 1890, Carnegie and his chief lieutenant, Henry Clay Frick, had decided that the Amagamted Association of Iron and Steel workers Union "had to go". At first the union didnt think they would be succesful or strong enough for a strike. Then in 1892, the company stopped even discussing its decisions with the union and gave it two days to accept another wage cut, the Amalgated called for a strike. -
Henry George
Henry George was a California writer as well as an activist. He wrote a nonfiction book called "Progress and Poverty" which was published in 1897 and became one of the best-selling nonfiction works in American publishing history. Henry, being the activist that he is, blamed social problems on the ability of a few monopolists (i.e.Rockefeller) to grow wealthy as a result of rising land values. -
Universal Schooling
The growing demand for specialized skills and knowledge created the demand for higher education. The late 19th century was a time for rapid growth and expansion of American schools and Universities. Free publi8c schools were also spreading rapidly. Not quick universal because black in south had little to no access to any schools. -
Pullman Strike
In the Pullman strike, wages were slashed by twenty-five percent, citing its own declining revenues in the depression. The employees that lived in the trim orderly houses that George M Pullman had constructed, never got their rent reduced even when their wages were cut, and shortly after the workers went on strike. -
Henry Ford
Henry Ford produced the first of the famous cars that would bear his name. Out of this determination came the Model T and the assembly line, both these innovations changed America to what it is today. Henry Ford didnt invent the car, but he produced an automobile that an average American could afford. -
McKinley Elected President
The Republican nominating convention met in St. Louis in 1896. The Republican national convention nominated him for president, on a platform stressing protective tariffs and the maintenance of a monetary standard based on gold. -
War with Spain
On April 25, 1898 the United States declared war on Spain following the sinking of the Battleship Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. America's short war with Spain in 1898 was the nation's first step on the pathway to becoming a world power. -
Period: to
Phillipines Revolt
The Philippine–American War, also known as the Philippine War of Independence or the Philippine Insurrection (1899–1902), was an armed conflict between the United States and Filipino revolutionaries. The conflict arose from the struggle of the First Philippine Republic to gain independence following annexation by the United States. The war was part of a series of conflicts in the Philippine struggle for independence. -
US Annexes Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Phillipines
On 7 July 1898, McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution (named after Congressman Francis Newlands) which officially annexed Hawaii to the United States. A formal ceremony was held on the steps of ʻIolani Palace where the Hawaiian flag was lowered and the American flag raised. The Treaty also assured that Spain would cede to the United States the island of Puerto Rico and other islands then under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies, as well as the island of Guam in the Marianas or Ladrones. -
Treaty of Paris
Was signed on December 10, 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American War, and came into effect on April 11, 1899, when the ratifications were exchanged.[1]
The Treaty signaled the end of the Spanish Empire in America and the Pacific Ocean (see also the German–Spanish Treaty (1899)), and marked the beginning of an age of United States colonial power. -
The Wright Brothers
In Ohio, both Wilbur and Orvile Wright began to construct a glider that could be propelled through the air by an internal-combustion engine. By 1904 they had improved the plane to the point where they could fly over 23 miles. The U.S goverment created the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, in 1915, which was twelve years after the Wright Brothers flight, and American planes became a significant presence in Europe during World War I. -
Progressivism, early 19th century
Society was capable of improvement and growth. These people thought that direct, purposeful human intervention was essential for a better society. Progressives were people that strongly believed the idea of progress, therefore, how the name came about. (CH. 20) -
McKinley Reelected
The United States presidential election of 1900 was a re-match of the 1896 race between Republican President William McKinley and his Democratic challenger, William Jennings Bryan. The return of economic prosperity and recent victory in the Spanish–American War helped McKinley to score a decisive victory. President McKinley chose New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt as his running mate as Vice-President Garret Hobart had died from heart failure in 1899. -
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as Boxer Uprising or Yihetuan Movement, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" in China between 1898 and 1901, opposing foreign imperialism and Christianity. The uprising took place in response to foreign "spheres of influence" in China, with grievances ranging from opium traders, political invasion, economic manipulation, to missionary evangelism. -
Medical Science
Invention of the X-Ray, more advanced microscopes and devices made it capable to distinguish diseases as well as classify them. Other new technologies such as laboratory tests were able to identify typhoid and dysentery, a crucial first step to the proper treatment for disease. New meds such as Aspirin were created in 1899. Also, the acceptance of the Germ Theory occurred. The awareness of the importance of infection was discovered. -
Professions
More professions were created and led to more jobs in education. Many industries needed managers, technicians, and accountants as well as workers. New technology that was created needed scientists and engineers to train them. All these jobs created what historians have called a “new middle class.” (CH. 20) -
Theodore Roosevelt
Theordore Roosevelt was an admired public figure and even an idol to some people. He attracted attention and devotion from many people also. Theodore Roosevelt, also known as Teddy Roosevelt, was the 26th President of the United States from 1901-1909. After the assassination of President William McKinley, he was a leader during the progressive moment and allied himself with progressives who urged regulation of the trust. (CH. 20) -
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
The triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a tragic event that trapped many workers inside a burning building because the managers locked the emergency exists to prevent malingering. Three years later in 1914, the commission issued a series of reports calling for major reforms in these working conditions of modern labor. This created strict regulations on factory owners and established effective mechanisms for enforcement. (CH. 20) -
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson was the governor of New Jersey in 1902, and also the only progressive candidate in the race who became the party’s nominee. Wilson was first a professor of political science at Princeton. He became a presidential candidate and won in 1912, and he presented a progressive program that was called “New Freedom” which would reform international leadership in building a new world order. (CH. 20) -
“The New Women”
The new women were known to come from the "new women’s" colleges and from coeducational state universities. They were more educated, had less children, and were single with no family. (CH.20) -
Prohibition/18th Amendment
Prohibition was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol. By 1916 nineteen states passed prohibition laws. After The US entered WWI, it helped prohibition reach congress, especially with the support of fundamentalist and religious grounds who opposed alcohol. Two years later about every state ratified (except Connecticut and Rhode Island) the Eighteenth Amendment became a law and took effect in January 1920. (CH. 20) -
Women’s Suffrage/19th Amendment
Women's Suffrage was a large movement during the progressive era throughout the 19th century. The (NAWSA) National American Woman Suffrage Association had over 2 million members in 1917. Finally in 1920 suffragist won ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which guaranteed voting rights to women throughout the nation. (CH. 20) -
Invention of the Telephone
Invention of the Telephone – 1876 Invented by Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone is considered the most important discovery of communication. Initially there would have to be direct wire links to who you were calling. The Bell system, which controlled all American telephone services hired young white women to work as operators, hoping that a pleasant female voice would make the experience of using a telephone more appealing. Most owners of phones around the 1890s were businesses
