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Industrialization
With the industrialization came more advanced technical enterprises and other productive economic activity. Industrialization marked a shift to powered, special-purpose machinery, factories and mass production. The iron and textile played central roles in the Industrial Revolution. The industrialization took place from the 18th to 19th centuries. -
Nativism
Nativism is the policy of protecting the interests of native inhabitants against those of immigrants. Nativists believed they were the true Native Americans, despite their being descended from immigrants themselves. Nativism started in the early 19th century. -
Suffrage
Suffrage means the right to vote in political elections. The term is often used in the Women's Suffrage Movement. The campaign for women's suffrage began before the Civil War, the 1820s. -
Indian Removal
In 1828, pressure was building among white Americans for the relocation of American Indians. Indian Removal was a policy of the United States Government where Native Americans were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands. This happened in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi River. -
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was the belief that God wanted white Americans to settle the whole continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This was one of the reasons for the Native American removal and war with Mexico. Manifest Destiny was first used by John L. O'Sullivan in 1845. -
Homestead Act
Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862. The Homestead Act opened up settlement in the western United States, allowing any American, including freed slaves, to put in a claim for up to 160 free acres of federal land. 15.000 homestead claims had been established by the end of the Civil War. -
Dawes Act
In 1871, Congress declared that tribes were no longer separate, independent governments. The 1887 Dawes Act assigned reservation lands to individual Indians in units of 40 to 160 acres. The act was supposed to encourage Indians to become farmers, but most of the assigned lands were unsuitable for farming. -
Civil Service Reform
Civil Service Reform is movements for the improvement of the civil service. In the United States, civil service reform most commonly refers to the legislation that required government jobs to be given based on merit and not political allegiance. This was brought about by the Pendleton Act of 1883. -
Haymarket Riot
A labor protest rally near Chicago's Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886, turned into a riot after someone threw a bomb at police. Eight radical labor activists were convicted, even though there were lack of evidence against them. The Haymarket Riot was viewed a setback for the organized labor movement in America. At least eight people died that day. -
Clarence Darrow
A Lawyer, public speaker and debater. Darrow worked as defense counsel in many criminal trials, and in 1887 he attempted to free the anarchists charged in the Haymarket Riot. In 1894, Darrow defended Eugene V. Debs. -
Andrew Carnegie
A Scottish American industrialist who led the expansion of the American steel industry. Carnegie was one of the wealthiest 19th century U.S. businessmen. By 1889, he owned Carnegie Steel Corporation. -
Ida B. Wells
An African-American journalist and activist. Wells led an anti-lynching crusade in the U.S. in the 1890s. She was a part of groups that were striving for African-American justice. -
William Jennings Bryan
A liberal leader and orator. William Jennings Bryan was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1890. He ran unsuccessfully three times for the U.S. presidency. -
Populism
You believe in populism if you feel that ordinary working people should have the strongest political voice. A populist is a member of a political party claiming to represent the common people. This political party was formed in 1891. -
Susan B. Anthony
A pioneer crusader for the woman suffrage movement in the United States. Anthony was president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1892 to 1900. The work that she did helped giving women the right to vote. -
Eugene V. Debs
A labor organizer and socialist leader. Debs was elected to the Indiana State Assembly in 1885, and in 1894 he organized the American Railway Union. Late in his life, Debs was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his opposition to the United States' involvement in World War II. -
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush was an event of migration by an intended 100.000 people exploring to the Klondike region of north-western Canada in the Yukon region. This happened between 1896 and 1899. The Klondike Gold Rush is also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Last Great Gold Rush and the Alaska Gold Rush. -
Initiative & Referendum
In U.S. politics, the terms refer to processes that allow citizens of many states to vote directly on particular pieces of legislation. Initiative allows people to get the government to do what it should have and did not. Referendum give people the power to get the government not to do what they wanted to do. The first state to adopt the initiative was South Dakota in 1898. -
Political Machines
A political machine is a group that controls the activities of a political party. In the big cities of the late-19th and early-20th centuries in America, a political machine was an urban organization designed to win elections and reward its followers, both rich and poor. -
Theodore Roosevelt
Was governor of New York before he became the U.S. vice president. Roosevelt became the 26th President of The United States in 1901. He was known for his anti-monopoly policies and ecological conservationism, and he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his part in ending the Russo-Japanese War. -
Upton Sinclair
An activist writer. Sinclair wrote about the working conditions in the meatpacking industry that later became "The Jungle" in 1906. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1943 for "Dragon's Teeth". -
Muckraker
Muckrakers were reporters that exposed injustices, corruption or scandals by writing articles about them. The term muckraker was brought to popularity in 1906 when President Teddy Roosevelt used it in a speech. An example of an influential muckraker is Upton Sinclair. -
Pure Food and Drug Act
In 1906, the first Pure Food and Drug Act was passed. The purpose was to protect the public against adulteration of food and from products identified as healthy without scientific support. It was President Theodore Roosevelt who began the process by ensuring the passage of the Meat Inspection Act. -
Dollar Diplomacy
Dollar Diplomacy was a policy intended to increase American influence abroad by guaranteeing loans made by American banks to foreign countries. This policy is associated with President William Taft, and he followed the Dollar Diplomacy from 1909 to 1913. -
Progressivism
Progressivism refers to the belief that government or people acting on its behalf can be used to address social problems, inequalities or inequalities facing the nation. The Progressive Party was born in 1912. -
Third Parties Politics
In the U.s, third party refers to any party other than the major two, the Democratic and Republican parties. Third parties have sometimes launched large campaigns and have won public offices, but haven't obtained significant or consistent representation in the federal government. The Progressive Party of 1912 was an American third party, and was formed by President Theodore Roosevelt. -
17th Amendment
The 17th Amendment makes it possible for regular voters to elect their Senators. This Amendment was ratified in 1913. After the Civil War, an increasing number of issues in the selection of Senators led to a movement in favor of direct election. -
16th Amendment
The 16th Amendment allows the federal governor to collect an income tax from all Americans. Those taxes make it possible for the government to keep an army, build roads and bridges and enforce laws. The Amendment was adopted on February 3, 1913. -
Federal Reserve Act
The Federal Reserve Act was signed December 23, 1913 by President Wilson. It was a U.S. legislation that created the current Federal Reserve System. The act intended to establish a form of economic stability in the United States, and some may see it as one of the most influential laws concerning the U.S. financial system. -
18th Amendment
The 18th Amendment is the only amendment to be repealed from the constitution. It was really unpopular, and banned the sale and drinking of alcohol in the United States. Regular people found other ways to drink alcohol, and criminals made a lot of money selling alcohol to those people, The 18th Amendment took effect in 1919. -
The Teapot Dome Scandal
The Teapot Dome Scandal involved national security, big oil companies and corruption at the highest levels of the government of the United States. This happened in the 1920s. The incident surrounded the secret leasing of federal oil reserves. -
19th Amendment
The 19th Amendment gave woman the right to vote in 1920. It made it illegal for any citizen, regardless of gender, to be denied the right to vote. The movement to allow women the right to vote through the 19th Amendment was the Suffrage movement. -
The Gilded Age
The late 19th century was called the Gilded Age by Mark Twain. He meant that the period was glittering on the surface, but corrupt underneath. The Gilded Age was an era of rapid economic growth, and the period saw an influx of millions of European immigrants as American wages were much higher than those in Europe. The term for this period came into use in the 1920s and 30s. -
Jane Addams
Co-founded the Hull House in Chicago, Illinois, which was one of the first settlements in the United States. Addams was named a co-winner of the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize, and served as the first female president of the National Conference of Social Work. -
The American Dream
The American Dream is the hope to start a new and better life. That everyone should have the same opportunities to succeed in life. The term "American Dream" was first used by the American historian James Truslow in 1931. -
Immigration
Immigration is a term that is used for people who move to a country where they don't have a citizenship. In 2013, the United Nations estimated that there were about 2.5 million immigrants in the world. The United Arab Emirates has the largest amount of immigrants in the world. -
Urbanization
Urbanization is a term that is used when towns and cities are formed and become larger as more and more people begin living and working in central areas. More than half of the world's population now lives in towns and cities, and this number will grow to about 5 billion by 2030.
