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AM HIST 18 Vocab
AM HIST 18 Vocab Coursemate
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Alfred Thayer Mahan | Naval officer and historian who stressed the importance of sea power in international politics and diplomacy. |
| American Woman Suffrage Association | Boston-based women’s suffrage organization formed in 1869; it welcomed men and worked solely to win the vote for women. |
| antimonopolism | Opposition to great concentrations of economic power such as trusts and large corporations, as well as to actual monopolies. |
| arbitration | Process by which parties to a dispute submit their case to the judgment of an impartial person or group (the arbiter) and agree to accept the arbiter’s decision. |
| armistice | An agreement to halt fighting. |
| Australian ballot | A ballot printed by the government, rather than by political parties, and marked privately. |
| balance of power | In international politics, the notion that nations may restrict one another’s actions because of the relative equality of their naval or military forces, either individually or through alliance systems. |
| Benito Juarez | President of Mexico who led resistance to French troops occupying his country in 1864–1867; the first Mexican president of Indian ancestry. |
| Bland-Allison Act | 1878 law providing for federal purchase of limited amounts of silver to be coined into silver dollars. |
| Boxer Rebellion | Uprising in China in 1900 directed against foreign powers attempting to dominate China; suppressed by an international army including Americans. |
| caucus | A meeting of people with a common political interest—for example, to choose delegates to a party convention. |
| classified civil service | Federal jobs filled through the merit system instead of by patronage. |
| commodity market | Financial market in which brokers buy and sell agricultural products in large quantities, thus determining the prices paid to farmers for their harvests. |
| Crédit Mobilier | Company created to build the Union Pacific Railroad; in a scandalous deal uncovered in 1872–1873, it sold shares cheaply to congressmen who approved federal subsidies for railroad construction. |
| deflation | Falling prices, a situation in which the purchasing power of the dollar increases; the opposite of deflation is inflation, when prices go up and the purchasing power of the dollar declines. |
| Emilio Aguinaldo | Leader of unsuccessful struggles for Philippine independence, first against Spain and then against the U.S. |
| Enrique Dupuy de Lôme | Spanish minister to the United States whose letter criticizing President McKinley was stolen and printed in the New York Journal, increasing anti-Spanish sentiment. |
| Farmers’ Alliances | Organizations of farm families in the 1880s and 1890s, similar to the Grange. |
| filibuster | A speech by a bill’s opponents to delay legislative action; usually applies to extended speeches in the U.S. Senate, which has no time limit on speeches and where a minority may therefore “talk a bill to death” by holding up all other business. |
| Foraker Act | 1900 law establishing civilian government in Puerto Rico; provided for an elected legislature and a governor appointed by the U.S. president. |
| gold standard | A monetary system based on gold, under which legal contracts typically called for the payment of all debts in gold, and paper money could be redeemed in gold at a bank. |
| Gold Standard Act | Law passed by Congress in 1900 that made gold the monetary standard for all currency issued. |
| graduated income tax | Tax based on income, such that the percentage of income paid as tax increases with income level, so that those with the lowest income pay the lowest percentage and those with higher incomes pay a larger percentage. |
| Grange | Organization for farmers that combined social activities with education about improved farming methods and cooperative economic efforts; formally called the Patrons of Husbandry. |
| Granger Laws | State laws regulating railroads, passed in several states in the 1870s in response to lobbying by the Grange and other groups. |
| greenbacks | Paper money, not backed by gold, that the federal government issued during the Civil War. |
| haole | Hawaiian word for persons not of native Hawaiian ancestry, especially whites. |
| House Ways and Means Committee | One of the most significant standing (permanent) committees of the House of Representatives, responsible for initiating all taxation measures. |
| imperialism | The practice by which a nation acquires and holds colonies and other possessions, denies them self-government, and usually exploits them economically. |
| indemnity | Payment for damage, loss, or injury. |
| indigenous | Original to an area. |
| Insular Cases | Supreme Court decision (1901) concerning Puerto Rico; held that people in new island territories did not automatically receive the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens. |
| insurgent | Rebel or revolutionary; one involved in an insurrection or rebellion against constituted authority. |
| Interstate Commerce Commission | The first federal regulatory commission, created in 1887 to regulate railroads and require that rates be “reasonable and just.” |
| Joseph Pulitzer | Hungarian-born newspaper publisher whose New York World printed sensational stories about Cuba that helped precipitate the Spanish-American War. |
| kickback | An illegal payment by a contractor to the official who awarded the contract. |
| legation | Diplomatic officials representing their nation to another nation, and their offices and residences. |
| Lili’uokalani | Last reigning queen of Hawai’i, whose desire to restore land to the Hawaiian people and perpetuate the monarchy prompted haole planters to remove her from power in 1893. |
| machine | When applied to urban political organizations, a derogatory term implying that the organization concentrated on patronage and graft to the exclusion of issues and principles. |
| Maximilian | Austrian archduke appointed emperor of Mexico by Napoleon III, emperor of France; later executed by Mexican republicans. |
| McKinley Tariff | Tariff passed by Congress in 1890 that sought not only to protect established industries but by prohibitory duties to stimulate the creation of new industries. |
| mediation | An attempt to bring about the peaceful settlement of a dispute through the intervention of a neutral party. |
| monetary policy | Now, the regulation of the money supply and interest rates by the Federal Reserve. Before 1913, federal monetary policy was largely limited to defining the medium of the currency (gold, silver, or paper) and the relations between the types of currency. |
| Monroe Doctrine | Pronouncement by President James Monroe in 1823 that the Western Hemisphere was off limits for future European colonial expansion. |
| most-favored-nation status | In a treaty between nation A and nation B, the provision that commercial privileges extended by A to other nations automatically become available to B. |
| Mugwumps | Reformers, mostly Republicans, of the 1880s and 1890s who opposed political corruption and campaigned for reform, especially civil service reform, sometimes crossing party boundaries to achieve their goals. |
| National Woman Suffrage Association | Women’s suffrage organization formed in 1869 and led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony; accepted only women as members and worked for suffrage and related issues such as unionizing female workers |
| Open Door notes | Diplomatic messages in 1899–1900 by which Secretary of State John Hay announced American support for Chinese autonomy and opposed efforts by other powers to carve China into exclusive spheres of influence. |
| party convention | Party meeting to nominate candidates for elective offices and adopt a platform. |
| patronage system | System that lets the winning party distribute appointed government jobs to loyal party members; also called the spoils system. |
| Pendleton Act | 1883 law that created the Civil Service Commission and instituted a merit system of competitive examinations for federal hiring and jobs. |
| Philippine Islands | A group of islands in the Pacific Ocean southeast of China that came under U.S. control in 1898; an independent nation since 1946. |
| platform | A written statement of the principles, policies, and promises on which a political party appeals to voters. |
| Platt Amendment | An amendment to the Army Appropriations Act of 1901, sponsored by Senator Orville Platt; set terms for the withdrawal of the U.S. Army from Cuba, effectively making the island an American proctectorate. |
| policy | A course of action adopted by a government, usually pursued over a period of time and potentially involving several laws and agencies. |
| polygamy | The practice of a man having more than one wife; Mormons practiced polygamy, which they referred to as plural marriage, until 1890. |
| Populists | Members of the People’s Party;1st presidential nominating convention 1892; federal action to control big business, assist farmers,workers. Term populist refers to a politician who attacks, & seeks to mobilize people against, the existing power structure. |
| postmaster | An official appointed to manage a local post office. |
| prohibition | A legal ban on the manufacture, sale, and use of alcoholic beverages. |
| protectorate | A country partially controlled by a stronger power and dependent on that power for protection from foreign threats. |
| reconcentration | Spanish policy in Cuba in 1896 that ordered the civilian population into fortified areas so as to isolate and annihilate the revolutionaries who remained outside. |
| repudiate | To reject as invalid or unauthorized. |
| Samoa | A group of volcanic and mountainous islands in the South Pacific. |
| Senate Foreign Relations Committee | A standing committees of the Senate; its chairman often wields considerable influence over foreign policy. |
| Sherman Anti-Trust Act | Law passed by Congress in 1890 authorizing the federal government to prosecute any “combination” “in restraint of trade”; because of adverse court rulings, it had little initial effect. |
| Sherman Silver Purchase Act | 1890 law requiring the federal government to increase its purchases of silver to be coined into silver dollars. |
| sphere of influence | A region where a foreign nation exerts significant authority. |
| spoilsmen | Derogatory term for defenders of the patronage or spoils system. |
| stalemate | In chess, a situation where neither player can move, and therefore neither can win. Thus, any situation where neither side can gain an advantage. |
| Stalwarts | Faction of the Republican Party led by Roscoe Conkling of New York; Stalwarts claimed to be the genuine Republicans. |
| Tammany Hall | New York City political organization that often dominated city and sometimes state politics by controlling the Democratic Party in New York City. |
| Teller Amendment | Senate resolution in 1898 promising that the U.S. would not annex Cuba; introduced by Senator Henry Teller. |
| Theodore Roosevelt | (1858–1919) Twenty-sixth president of the U.S. Politician and writer who advocated war against Spain in 1898; elected vice president in 1900; became president in 1901 upon McKinley’s assassination. |
| Treaty of Paris | 1898 treaty ending the Spanish-American War, under which Spain granted independence to Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States, and sold the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. |
| Tweed Ring | Name applied to the political organization of William Marcy Tweed. “Ring,” in this context, means a group of people who act together to exercise control over something. |
| U.S.S. Maine | American warship that exploded in Havana Harbor in 1898, inspiring the motto “Remember the Maine!” which spurred the Spanish-American War. |
| Whiskey Ring | Distillers and federal revenue officials in St. Louis who were revealed in 1875 to have defrauded the government of millions of dollars in whiskey taxes. |
| William H. Seward | U.S. secretary of state under Lincoln and Johnson (1861–1869), a former abolitionist who had expansionist views and arranged the purchase of Alaska from Russia. |
| William Howard Taft | Governor of the Philippines, 1901–1904; president of the United States, 1909–1913; chief justice of the Supreme Court, 1921–1930. |
| William Jennings Bryan | Nebraska Democrat who advocated silver coinage, opposed imperialism, and ran for president unsuccessfully three times. |
| William Marcy Tweed | New York City political boss who used the Tammany organization to control city and state government from the 1860s until his downfall in 1871. |
| William McKinley | (1843–1901) Twenty-fifth president. Served in the House of Representatives and as governor of Ohio before winning the presidency in 1896. Assassinated in 1901. |
| William Randolph Hearst | Publisher and rival to Pulitzer whose newspaper, the New York Journal, distorted stories and actively promoted the war with Spain. |
| yellow journalism | The use of sensational exposés, embellished reporting, and attention-grabbing headlines to sell newspapers. |
Created by:
mcain1994
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