Turn of the Century, WWI, and the 1920 S

Turn of the Century, WWI, and the 1920 S

Turn of the Century, WWI, and the 1920’s

Theodore Roosevelt – One-time Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he believed strongly in expansion. He also thought that a war with Spain would be good for the country. In 1901 he became Vice President of the U.S., and president a few months later after President William McKinley was shot

Alexander Graham Bell – During the 1870’s, he invented the telephone. His telephone greatly improved communication by allowing people to talk to one another despite being separated by great distances.

Thomas Edison – An inventor responsible for inventing the phonograph, the motion picture camera and later, the electric light bulb.

George Washington Carver – One of the first African Americans to make great contributions in American Science. He developed the crop rotation method.

ghettoes – Neighborhoods where immigrants from the same country lived because of the similarities they shared. The neighborhoods featured poor sanitation, unclean air, and disease.

Jazz Age – The first years of the 1920’s.

Harlem Renaissance – An important movement among the African American community. It involved black writers and artists. It was named for the mostly black community where it began.

Chisholm Trail – A cattle trail that ran from Texas, north though Oklahoma, and into Kansas. Texas cowboys used it to drive herds to Kansas towns where cattle could then be loaded onto trains and shipped east to market.

Panama Canal – A man-made waterway that officially opened in 1914. It allowed ships to travel back and forth between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans without having to sail around South America.

immigrants – People who moved to the U.S. from a foreign land.

tenements – Cheap, dirty, overcrowded apartments that often housed more than one family.

Spanish American War – Began in 1898. While the war quickly spread to other parts of the world, US naval commander Commodore George Dewey set sail and easily took control of the Philippines. US forces defeated Spain in Cuba in just a few months.

Louis Armstrong – One of the most famous Jazz musicians in history during the 1920’s.

World War I – A war that took place primarily in Europe between 1914 and 1918. It started when Serbian nationalists assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

reservations – Special areas where the U.S. government forced Native Americans to move so that whites could have their land.

Charles Lindbergh – The first person in history to fly a solo flight non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927 aboard a plane called the Spirit of St. Louis.

Henry Ford – Introduced the idea of mass producing cars and introduced a new kind of assembly line. Made the Model T affordable for many.

Babe Ruth – A popular baseball player. His 714 homeruns stood as a record until 1974, when Atlanta Brave, Hank Aaron finally broke it.

Treaty of Versailles – A treaty that was drafted at the end of World War I. It forced Germany to take total blame for the war. It also made Germany pay for the war and greatly decrease the size of its military. The Senate refused to ratify it, claiming it feared the treaty could lead to future wars.

Woodrow Wilson – President of the U.S. in 1912 and again in 1916, he wanted to keep the U.S. out of WWI.

Langston Hughes – Famous for his poems and stories about black life in America.

Lusitania – Over a hundred passengers were killed when a German U-boat sunk this ship. People in the US were furious. Along with the Zimmerman Telegram, it leads the U.S. to join the war against the Germans.

The Wright Bros. – Two brothers who built the world’s first successful airplane and flew it at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Great Western Cattle Trail – A famous path used by cowboys, it ran from Texas to Kansas, ending in Dodge City.

Black Cowboys – Common in places like Texas. Often, these were freed slaves who made their way west following the Civil War.

Battle of Little Bighorn – A battle that occurred in 1876 between Native Americans and the U.S. Army. Custer and the men under his command rushed recklessly into battle. They were quickly surrounded and killed by the Sioux.

Turn of the Century – The end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. A time of great change in the U.S. People took advantage of new inventions and moved West to seek new opportunities, as the U.S. became an imperialistic power.

William McKinley – Became president of the U.S. in 1897. He entered office at a time when many U.S. citizens wanted the nation to expand.

cattle trails – Known routes used by cowboys to drive cattle great distances.