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Unit 4 Vocabulay
U.S. History
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| assimilation | the absorption of people into a dominant culture. |
| civil service | nonmilitary government employees. |
| Dawes Act | an 1887 federal law distributing land to individual Indians rather than to tribes, thereby encouraging Indians to become assimilated. |
| Exodusters | African Americans who migrated from the South to the Great Plains following the Civil War. |
| gold standard | A monetary police requiring that every paper dollar in circulation be backed by a dollar's worth of gold in the U.S. Treasury. |
| Homestead Act | an 1862 federal law that granted tracts of land called homesteads to western settlers who agreed to work the land and live on it for five years. |
| industrialization | the transformation from producing goods by hand to producing goods by machine. |
| labor union | a group of workers organized to protect the interests of its members. |
| philanthropist | a person who gives money to support worthy causes. |
| political machines | an organization consisting of full-time politicians whose main goal was to retain political power and the money and influence that went with it. |
| populism | a political philosophy that favors the common person's interests over those of wealthy people or business interests. |
| Populist party | a political party founded in 1892 calling for policies to help working people, such as government ownership of railroads and coinage of silver. |
| reservation | an area of federal land reserved for Indian tribes. |
| Social Gospel | A religious movement of the late 1800's based on the idea that social reform and Christianity go hand in hand. |
| Transcontinental railroad | a railroad that spans the continent. |
| urbanization | the growth of cities. |