Definition: small mining operations in which individuals used picks and shovels to mine for gold and other minerals

Definition: groups organized in the West to track down and punish wrongdoers

Definition: western towns that sprung up almost overnight once gold or other valuable minerals had been discovered nearby; marked by lawlessness and violence

Definitions: a vast area of grassland owned by the government and used free of charge by large cattle ranchers

Definition: long distance drives in which cattlemen took their cattle from ranches in Texas up to Kansas to sell them and load them on railroads to be shipped back East

Definition: stray calves with no identifying brands or symbols

Definition: developed to allow cattle ranchers to fence off large areas for private use; ended the long drives

Definition: the region extending westward to the Rocky Mountains from North Dakota to Texas

Definition: a tract of public land available for settlement

Definition: planting seeds deep in the ground where there is enough moisture for them to grow

Definition: those who plowed the soil on the Plains for farming purposes

Definition: large-scale farms, often 50,000 acres or more, in which large machinery was used to cultivate the soil

Definition: people who roam vast distances, following their main food and water sources (ex: buffalo were followed by Plains Indians)

Definition: payments made the government to Native American groups in exchange for the Indians giving up their nomadic ways and settling on reservations

Definition: to be absorbed; when a small group of people are peacefully absorbed into a larger group

Definition: individual parts created from a whole

Definition: the total value of all goods and services produced by a country in a given year

Definition: raw materials present in nature from which a nation uses to produce goods and services

Definitions: “hands off”—the belief that the government should NOT get involved in the running of business and industry

Definition: the owners of business and industry; those who risk their capital in organizing and running a business to make profits for themselves

Definition: another name for money

Definitions: developed to divide the United States into four time zones so that the running and operation of the railroads would be more efficient

Definition: large tracts of land given to the railroads by the government in exchange for the railroad companies building lines to connect the East to the West

Definition: wealthy industrialists who made massive profits and built huge financial empires during the Gilded Age

Definition: an organization owned by many people by treated by law as though it were a single person

Definition: those individuals who invest in corporations and own a portion (share) of it

Definition: individual certificates that are given to those individuals who want to invest in a corporation

Definition: the process in which a company/corporation produce large quantities of a good or service cheaply and quickly, which provides a huge profit for stockholders in the company

Definition: the profit an individual makes on his or her investment in a corporation

Definition: costs that a business has to pay for to make a good or service that does NOT vary from month to month (ex: light bill, utilities, rent on space)

Definition: costs that a business has to pay for to make a good or service that varies from month to month (ex: shipping costs, cost for materials/supplies, pay for workers)

Definition: when businesses come together to agree to maintain a price at a certain level

Definition: a process of steel making that blows air across melted iron ore, helping remove contaminants and creating a stronger steel; revolutionized the steel making industry

Definition: when a company owns all the different businesses it takes to create a specific good or service (ex: a company who owns the mines, the shipping lines, the factory where the product is made, the distribution, pricing, marketing, and store where you buy the good or service)

Definition: when a company combines many companies that all do the same type of business into one large corporation (ex: a trucking company that works to become the largest in the U.S. but does not get into any other type of business)

Definition: a way to merge companies together without “technically” becoming a monopoly

Definition: when there is only one company that provides a specific good or service, eliminating all other competitors. Not good because then the company sets the price and not the consumers

Definition: those individuals and groups in society who purchase goods and services

Definition: a company that does not produce anything itself but holds control of businesses and companies that do.

Definition: organizations of workers who unite in order to ensure better working conditions for its members

Definition: the overall decline in prices in an economy in which money has more value and can buy more for consumers

Definition: the overall increase in prices in an economy in which money has less value and consumers can buy less; prices for goods and services are above what things actually are worth

Definition: united all craft works and common laborers in a particular industry (ex: auto workers

Definition: united all people with a specific skill (ex: carpenters)

Definition: a list of “troublemakers” that owners of business and industry used to not hire those workers they considered a threat to their business

Definition: when companies locked their workers out of the factories

Definition: when workers all agree that no one will go to work, hoping to force business owners to comply with their demands

Definition: those replacement workers who “break” through the picket lines outside the factories and work in place of the workers on strike

Definition: formed by workers outside factories who march in protest, often carrying “pickets” or signs on which their complaints are written

Definition: an economic belief/theory formulated by Karl Marx in which he believed that eventually workers would unite and take over businesses and industry and then take over the government itself

Definition: a process by which owners of businesses and workers agree to use a third party to resolve their differences; both sides agree to obey what the third party decides

Definition: a system in which businesses and workers agree that only members of the union can be hired for jobs (ex: only brick layers in the union already can be hired)

Definition: a system in which businesses and workers agree that any person can be hired for jobs (ex: any brick layer can be hired even if he or she isn’t in the union)

Definition: an individual who enters a nation where he or she plans to relocate and live

Definition: an individual who leaves a nation where he or she has lived

Definition: reasons someone would leave his country (ex: war, disease, persecution, bad economy)

Definition: reasons someone would enter a country (ex: free land, availability of jobs, peace, tolerance)

Definition: the most basic and cheapest accommodations on a steamship crossing the Atlantic or Pacific to America

Definition: meaning to cross the continent from the east coast to the west coast

Definition: a preference for native-born people and a desire to limit immigration

Definition: having to do with large cities and large concentration of people

Definition: having to do with small towns and countryside and less concentrations of people

Definition: building “up” and not “out” because of the scarcity of land and huge numbers of people needing places to work, shop, and work. Made possible by the availability of stronger, cheap steel

Definition: transportation systems developed in large urban areas to efficiently move people from one place to another (subways, streetcars, etc.)

Definition: dark and crowded multi-family apartments that were filthy and unsafe

Definition: an informal political group designed to gain and keep power and use whatever tactics necessary to keep others out

Definition: those who organized and ran the political machines

Definition: getting money through dishonest or questionable means; kickbacks

Definition: public money used as a reward to granting of favors by public officials (ex: a city council member who receives money from a company that was given a contract by the city)

Definition: the belief that each person is responsible for himself and capable of rising up in society to achieve his hopes, goals, and dreams

Definition: the belief that it was the responsibility of the wealthy to give back to society, the same society that made them wealthy

Definition: an attempt to portray realistically the world as opposed to portraying it romantically

Definition: live stage shows that featured cheap entertainment for the masses; featured animal acts, acrobats, gymnasts, and dancers

Definition: music genre that featured rhythms from riverside honky-tonks, saloon pianists, and banjo players as well as African American influences

Definition: style of literature that argued that people were often caught up in situations beyond their control and therefore could not improve their lives; therefore society needed to be reformed (fixed) to give these people a chance

Definition: located in poor neighborhoods, these places gave the poor and lower middle class and immigrants aid (food, shelter, training, etc)

Definition: a system in which American culture, language, history, and responsibility of citizenship was taught to immigrants

Definition: like the spoils system in which jobs are rewarded to those individuals who helped public officials win elections (ex: someone getting a city hall job who helped the mayor win his or her election)

Definition: Republicans who supported patronage and those who gave jobs as political favors

Definition: name given to Republicans who wanted to reform and stop patronage

Definition: money refunded to certain companies that used goods and services, while individuals who did not use the good or service were forced to pay higher prices (ex: giving someone a rebate for shipping goods to market while others had to pay a higher rate)

Definition: a tax placed on an import or export

Definition: a political movement by farmers to increase their political and economic power against big industry and businesses

Definition: paper currency that could be exchanged for gold and silver coins

Definition: marketing organizations that work for the benefit of their members grange—a farm organization

Definition: the basic theory that as an individual or company makes more money, its share of taxes increases as well

Definition: those who supported using only gold to back the paper money supply

Definition: hose who supported using both gold and silver to back the paper money supply

Definition: the forced separation of people based on race, religion, etc.

Definition: landless farmers who had to hand over to the landlord a “share” of their crops each year as payment for rent, seeds, tools, and other supplies

Definition: a money payment that one had to pay on election day before he could vote

Definition: allowing those in the South to vote if their ancestor had been on the voting rolls before 1867

Definition: forced voters to read and interpret the written word as a requirement for voting; kept uneducated and illiterate from voting

Definition: the execution of an individual without proper court proceedings