Chapter 16 APUSH Terms

Key vocabulary from Chapter 16 in AMSCO.

Transcontinental Railroad (1869)

1) This connected the east and west coasts of the United States for the first time.

2) Authorized by the Pacific Railway Act of 1862, it took over 6 years to build and was eventually completed in Utah. The federal government paid for the construction of the railroad by offering land grants to the companies that were building it.

3) This dramatically improved transportation and stimulated the economy because before it took 6 months to go across the country but was now reduced to 6 days.

Cornelius Vanderbilt (1860s)

1) He first built his wealth in steamships before turning his attention to the rapidly expanding railroad industry.

2) He consolidated dozens of smaller railroad lines into the powerful New York Central Railroad system, which became one of the most important transportation networks in the nation and helped unify regional markets during the Second Industrial Revolution.

3) He was known for his ruthless business tactics, including cutting fares below cost to drive competitors out of business and manipulating stock markets to increase his control over major railroad lines. By the time of his death in 1877, his fortune had grown to more than $100 million, and his railroad empire had become an essential part of America’s economic growth during the Gilded Age.

Knights of Labor (1869)

1) Early labor union that organized all types of workers, including skilled and unskilled workers, women, and African Americans

2) Focused on broad social issues including having workers own the companies in which they worked (worker cooperatives), an end to child labor, and the abolition of monopolies.

3) Lost popularity after being blamed for the Haymarket Riot in Chicago in 1886.

Alexander Graham Bell (1876)

1) His most famous invention is the telephone.

2) He revolutionized communication because he figured out how to transmit actual speech, not just a paper message that had to be translated like a telegram.

3) Helped found the Bell Telephone Company, which by 1900 had 600,000 phones operating in its system. By 1905, the number of telephones had shot up to 2.2 million.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877 (1877)

1) First major labor strike in US history and one of the most violent labor disputes of the 1800s.

2) Workers of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad refused to work due to pay cuts which spread through the country.

3) President Rutherford B. Hayes used federal troops to restore order after workers were killed.

Andrew Carnegie (1880s)

1) He was a Scottish immigrant who became one of the richest Americans of all time.

2) He made his money by mass producing steel through the Bessemer Process and dominating the American steel industry.

3) He used vertical integration to control every aspect of the steel-making process, including owning the coal mines, railroad lines, and steel factories.

Standard Oil Trust (1880s)

1) This was created by John D. Rockefeller and controlled 90% of its industry.

2) Buying out his competitors made John D. Rockefeller, its head, the richest American of all time.

3) Eventually this company was deemed a monopoly and was broken up into smaller companies.

Thomas Edison (1879)

1) One of the most prolific inventors of the Gilded Age, holding over 1,000 patents. His most famous invention, the incandescent light bulb (1879), transformed daily life by making electric lighting practical and safe for homes, streets, and factories.

2) Created some of the first electric power plants, including one in New York City in 1882, which helped establish electricity as a central force in industrial and urban growth during the late 19th century. 

3) He developed a direct current (DC) system for distributing electricity that competed with Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse’s alternating current (AC) system in the late 1800s. The rivalry, known as the “War of Currents,” ended when AC proved more efficient for transmitting electricity over long distances and became the standard for power distribution in the United States.

Social Darwinism (Late 1880s)

1) A philosophy that applied the idea of "survival of the fittest" to the economy. Supporters of this idea argued that helping the poor would weaken the evolution of humans.

3) This was one theory meant to justify the wealth of many Americans during this time through science, and it was used as an attempt to explain the growing gap between the rich and poor during the Second Industrial Revolution.

3)This philosophy was based on the ideas first published in a work by Charles Darwin titled On the Origin of Species (1859). That book shocked society by arguing for evolution and natural selection, which suggested that humans and animals shared a common ancestry. These ideas became so widespread that they soon began to influence how people felt about all parts of society, including the economy and the accumulation of wealth.

Gospel of Wealth (Late 1880s)

1) Belief that the wealth of successful industrialists such as Carnegie and Rockefeller could be justified through religion. They believed they had earned God's favor through hard work.

2) In an article written by millionaire Andrew Carnegie, he argued that the wealthy have a God-given responsibility to share their riches for the betterment of society.

3) As a result of this, Andrew Carnegie gave away hundreds of millions of dollars and was the largest investor in public libraries in American history.

American Federation of Labor (1886)

1) Longest-lasting labor union of the Industrial Era

2) Founded by Samuel Gompers and organized only skilled workers.

3) Focused on “bread and butter” issues like better wages, shorter work days, and improved working conditions.

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

1) A law that forbade trusts or monopolies in business, which was important because it was one of the first Congressional attempts to regulate big business for the common good.

2) The law initially proved to be ineffective, because it was vaguely worded and was mostly used to restrain labor unions, which were considered trusts in the Gilded Age.

3) Federal government under President Theodore Roosevelt began to use it during the Progressive Movement to break up large trusts and corporations.

Homestead Strike (1892)

1) Began near Pittsburgh, PA at one of Andrew Carnegie's steel plants.

2) Steel workers were upset over wages being cut so they stopped working. The strike ended in an armed battle between the strikers, three hundred armed "Pinkerton" detectives hired by Carnegie, and federal troops, which killed ten people and wounded more than sixty. Ultimately, the strikers lost.

3) The strike was part of a nationwide wave of labor unrest that helped the Populists gain some support from industrial workers.

Pullman Strike (1894)

1) This took place in Chicago and involved manufacturers of railroad “sleeping” cars.

2) The workers received a cut in wages and went on strike. The strikers were joined by Eugene Debs and the American Railway Workers Union, which disrupted railroad travel in the U.S and put pressure on businesses. Eventually, President Grover intervened and ended the strike.

3) After union leaders were arrested, the Supreme Court approved the use of court injunctions to stop strikes, which essentially gave employers more power to break up unions.

Eugene V. Debs (1890s)

1) Leader of the American Railway Union.

2) He supported workers during the Pullman strike, and caused a massive disruption of railroads in the U.S.

3) He was jailed and turned to more drastic tactics to fight for better working conditions, including founding the American Socialist Party.

Sears and Roebuck (1890s)

1) One of the first and largest mail-order companies in the U.S., which demonstrated the rise of commercialism in the Gilded Age.

2) Used railroads to ship products to consumers all over the country.

3) Its 100+ page catalogs sold everything from clothing to medical supplies to toys to household appliances.

Laissez-faire capitalism (late 1800s)

1) Idea that government should be "hands off" and play as small a role as possible in economic affairs.

2) Popularized by Adam Smith in his book The Wealth of Nations (1776), it was used by businesses in the Gilded Age to justify their business practices and prevent government regulation of the economy.

3) The United States government has never had a truly "hands off approach" to the economy. And businesses in the Gilded Age enjoyed the benefits of protective tariffs, federal subsidies, land grants, and assistance with labor strikes.