Transcontinental Railroad
The railway line that connected the Central Pacific and Union Pacific lines.
Protective Tariff
A tax or duty on foreign producers of goods coming into or imported into the United States.
Treaty of Kanagawa
Treaty that allowed American ships to refuel at 2 ports in Japan.
Burlingame Treaty
Treaty that guaranteed the rights of US missionaries in China and set official terms for the emigration of Chinese laborers to work in the US.
Munn v. Illinois
Case that affirmed that states could regulate key businesses if those businesses were "clothed in the public interest."
gold standard
Practice of backing a country's currency with its reserve of gold.
Crime of 1873
Term for an 1873 Law directing the US Treasury to cease minting silver dollars, retire Civil War-era greenbacks, and replace them with notes backed by the gold standard from an expanded system of national banks.
Homestead Act
1862 act that gave 160 acres of free western land to any applicant who occupied and improved the property.
Morill Act
An 1862 act that set aside 140 million federal acres that states could sell to raise money for public universities.
Land-grant Colleges
Public universities founded to broaden educational opportunities and foster technical and scientific expertise.
Comstock Lode
Immense silver ore deposit in Nevada that touched off a mining rush, bringing a diverse population into the region and the establishment of boom towns.
Long Drive
System by which cowboys herded cattle hundreds of miles north from Texas to Dodge City and the other cow towns of Kansas.
"rain follow the plow"
theory that setlement of the Great plains caused an increase in rainfall.
Exodusters
African Americans who walked or rode out of the Deep South following the Civil War.
Yellowstone National Park
The US 1st national Park.
US Fisheries Commission
A federal bureau est. in 1871 that made recommendations to stem the decline in wild fish.
Sand Creek massacre
Massacre of more than a hundred peaceful Cheyennes, largely women and children.
Fetterman Massacre
Massacre in which 1500 Sioux warriors lured Captain William Fetterman and 80 soldiers from a Wyoming fort and attacked them
Lone wolf v. Hitchcock
ruling that congress could make whatever Indian Policies it chose, ignoring all existing treaties.
Dawes Severalty Act
Law that gave Native Americans Severalty by dividing homesteads into homesteads.
Battle of Little Big Horn
1876 battle began when American cavalry attacked an encampment of Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne Indians who resisted removal to a reservation.
Ghost Dance Movement
Religion that combined elements of Christianity and traditional Native American religion.
Wounded Knee
Massacre of Sioux Indians by American cavalry at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota.
Transcontinental Railroad