Term | Definition |
Homestead Act | Policy to stimulate economic growth, passed in 1862, gave up to 160 acres of government claimed land to any person who built a house and farmed said land for 5 years |
Land-Grant College Act | in 1862, gave land to each state to fund a required public university |
Pacific Railway Act | in 1862, gave loans and land, 10 square miles for every mile of track laid, which doubled in 1864, to Pacific Union and Central Pacific companies |
mail-order sales | railway connections made it possible to produce a wide variety of products to be shipped thruogh out the nation |
John Pierpont Morgan | in 1880' he was the nation's leading investment banker, he went to school in Switzerland and Germany |
Andrew Carnegie | built the nation's largest steel plant, he cut cost to show profit while charging less than his competitors |
Social Darwinism | a philosophical perspective that competition among people, produced progress through "survival of the fittest" |
Gospel of Wealth | the idea that the wealthy should return their riches to the community |
Thomas A. Edison | set up the first modern research lab, promised "a minor invention every 10 days and something big every 6 months |
department stores | offered a wide range of ready-made products that could be returned or exchanged |
New South | effort by some southerners to modernize their region during Reconstruction, promoted a more diverse economic base with more manufacturing |
Henry Grady | Proponent of the New South, through skillful journalism, helped Atlanta to emerge as the symbol of the New South- a center of transportation, industry and finance |
horse culture | nomadic indian who lived in tipis year-round and followed the buffalo heards |
Lakota | meaning allies, the French often called them Sioux, |
Crazy Horse | killed when resisting to be put in army jail, he lead the Lakota and Cheyenne people in the Powder River Region. He defeated Custer at Little Big Horn River |
Sitting Bull | along with Crazy Horse, led his people of the great Sioux, when Crazy Horse was killed he and a band escaped to Canada until 1881 when he finally surrendered |
Great Sioux War | federal authorities decided to Force all Lakota and Cheyenne people onto the reservation |
Little Big Horn River | Colonel George A. Custer, sent his Seventh Calvary against the largest encampment on the plains, he unwisely divided his force and he and more than 200 men died |
Chief Joseph | Led the Nez Perces against that attempt of the U.S. government to move them to a new reservation, he surrendered under conditions that his people would be able to return to their previous home |
Ghost Dance | new religion taken up by some Lakota, which promised to restore buffalo and sweep away the whites |
Wounded Knee Creek | Surrounded and refusing to give up their weapons as many as 250 Lakota died. Marked the end of armed conflict o the Great Plains |
Reclamation Act | in 1902 the law became a major power in the West as it moved the regions water to areas where it could be used for irrigation |
Sierra Club | Formed in 1892 dedicated to preserving Sierra Nevada wilderness |