APUSH Period 6: 1865-1898

Gilded Age

1870s - 1890s; time period looked good on the outside but bad on the inside, massive US industrialism & economic growth BUT corrupt politics & growing gap between the rich & poor

Transcontinental Railroad

Completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, it linked the eastern railroad system with California's railroad system, revolutionizing transportation in the west & bringing millions of Irish & Chinese immigrants as workers

Federal Land Grants

Federal gov. granted land for railroad companies to build more railroad routes, often leading to companies to own enormous amounts of land & become corrupt

Subsidies

A contribution of money by the government to a business to help in their development & production - can be good or bad

Credit Mobilier Scandal

1870s: railroad construction company's stockholders used funds that were supposed to be used to build the Union Pacific Railroad for their own personal use. To avoid being convicted, stockholders used stock to bribe congressional members

Black Friday Gold Panic 1869

Speculators tied to Grant corner the gold market by buying up all the gold - making it rare & expensive & sell it before the price crashes; ruins the economy for several years

Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall

an American politician "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York City and State by stealing from peoples' tax dollars

Thomas Nast

A famous cartoonist in the 19th century, artwork based on political corruption & helped people realize the corruption of some politicians such as in the case of Boss Tweed

Whiskey Ring Scandal

1870s: Republican politicians stole millions in federal taxes on liquor; the scheme involved an extensive network of bribes involving tax collectors, storekeepers, & some of it was meant to help fund Grant's re-election

Election of 1876/Compromise of 1877

Hayes chosen as President if he promised to show concern for Southern interests and end Reconstruction in exchange for the Democrats accepting the fraudulent election results. Hayes took Union troops out of the South.

trust

A group of corporations/businesses run by a board of directors

monopoly

Complete control of a product or business by one person or group

Robber Barons/Captains of Industry

Refers to the industrialists or big business owners in the Gilded Age who gained huge profits by paying employees extremely low wages. Drove competitors out of business by selling their products cheaper than it cost to produce it., then when they controlled the market, they hiked prices high above original price

Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877)

Started out in the steamship business and from there moved into the railroad business where he then controlled the New York Central Railroad & many others under his control, $1 million to Vanderbilt University

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)

A Scottish-American businessman founder of the Carnegie Steel Company, later became U.S. Steel, known for building one of most powerful and influential corporations and later gave away most of his riches to fund the establishment of many libraries, schools, and universities worldwide. His book, The Gospel of Wealth, argued that the wealthy had an obligation to give something back to society.

John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937)

In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, which was his first step in creating his vast oil empire. Eventually, he perfected a company that controlled other companies by holding all or at least a majority of their stock. Donated over $500 million in charitable contributions.

J.P. Morgan

An influential banker and businessman who bought and reorganized many companies including US Steel company from Carnegie, which became the largest business in the world in 1901; funded Edison & his failed DC electricity but helped created General Electric & JP Morgan Chase bank still used today

First Industrial Revolution 1780s-1850s

started in Great Britain in the late 18th century; centered around developments in coal-powered steam engine, textile machines (spinning thread and weaving cloth), and blast furnaces to produce iron; helped increase the growth of the early American economy

Second Industrial Revolution 1860s-1900s

Involved development of chemical, electrical, electricity, oil, and steel industries. Mass production of consumer goods through the manufacture of food and clothing, popularization of cinema and radio. Provided widespread employment and increased production

Vertical Integration

Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product from all levels of its production: from the raw materials to distribution (upward)

Horizontal Integration

Absorption of several firms into a single firm, involved in the same level of production and sharing resources at that level (sideways)

Gould and Fisk

Financiers that worked for the Erie Railroad and cheated Vanderbilt by selling him watered down stock & printing fake money to sell to him; also wanted to corner the gold market to drive the price up - plan was successful

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

First federal action against monopolies, it was signed into law by Harrison and was extensively used by Theodore Roosevelt for trust-busting. However, it was initially misused against labor unions

Capitalism

an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state

laissez-faire capitalism

Policy that government should interfere as little as possible in the nation's economy.

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

Promoted laissez-faire, free-market economy, and supply-and-demand economics in his 1776 book

Social Darwinism

The application of ideas about evolution and "survival of the fittest" to human societies - particularly as a justification for their imperialist expansion & racism

The "Gospel of Wealth" 1889

Book written by Andrew Carnegie that described the responsibility of the rich to be philanthropists. This softened the harshness of Social Darwinism & promoted philanthropy to use their wealth for the benefit of society by sponsoring the arts, science, libraries, etc.

telegraph

A device that used electrical signals to send messages quickly over long distances, invented by Samuel Morse in 1844

telephone

invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876

Thomas Edison (1847-1931)

One of the most prolific inventors in U.S. history. Among other things, he invented the phonograph, first practical light bulb, electric battery, mimeograph, and the moving picture. Menlo Park in NJ was his laboratory.

Nicola Tesla (1856-1943)

a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

George Westinghouse

An American entrepreneur and engineer who invented the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, bought Tesla's patents & supported him in his AC plan vs. DC

Horatio Alger Myth

the belief that due to limitless possibilities anyone can get ahead & rise in social status if he or she tries hard enough; everyone has same priviledges

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

A large number of railroad workers went on strike because of wage cuts. After a month of strikes, President Hayes sent troops to stop the strike (example of how government always sided with employers over workers in the Gilded Age). The worst railroad violence was in Pittsburgh, with over 40 people killed by militia men

Knights of Labor (1869)

Nationwide labor union that was open to all workers, even women and blacks The union reached its peak in 1886 until it declines after its involvement with the Haymarket Riots

Haymarket riots

Labor protest in Chicago in 1886, anarchists bombed the crowd & killed police officers. bombing forever associated anarchists with the labor movement and hurt the labor cause

Samuel Gompers/AFL

formed the American Federation of Labor, a labor union which is a craft union and a loose organization of skilled workers from some 100 local unions devoted to specific crafts of trades.

Homestead Strike (1892)

Against the Homestead Steel Works, which was part of the Carnegie Steel Company, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in retaliation against wage cuts; put down by Pinkerton Police and the state militia, violence further damaged the image of unions.

Pullman Strike (1894)

A staged walkout strike by railroad workers upset by drastic wage cuts in Pullman, IL & high rents being maintained by Pullman in their towns; led by socialist Eugene Debs; President Cleveland intervened because it was interfering with mail delivery and federal troops ended it; it highlighted the government's willingness to use armed force to combat work stoppages.

Comstock Lode

Nevada gold and silver mine discovered by Henry Comstock in 1859

Boomtown

a community experiencing a sudden growth in business or population due to a discovery of a resource nearby

Chinese Exclusion Act

(1882) US law tat denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate.

cattle drive

Method cowboys used to move large herds of cattle north from ranches in Texas towns along railroads in late 1800's.

Homestead Act of 1862

Act that allowed a settler to acquire as much as 160 acres of land by living on it for 5 years, improving it, and paying a nominal fee of about $30

Sodbusters

name given to Great Plains farmers because they had to break through so much thick soil, called sod, in order to farm; no trees nearby so they used sod & mud to build

Exodusters

the African Americans migrating to the Great Plains states after the Civil War (ie: Kansas & Oklahoma) in 1879 to escape conditions in the South

barbed wire

Used to fence in land on the Great Plains, eventually leading to the end of the open frontier

Great Sioux War (1876-1877)

Conflict between federal troops and Sioux and Cheyenne tribes in Dakotas in 1870s; Battle of Little Bighorn all of Custer's troops defeated; eventually Sioux and Cheyenne defeated & forced onto a reservation

Sitting Bull

American Indian medicine man, Sioux chief, and political leader of his tribe at the time of the Battle of Little Bighorn with Custer during the Sioux War

Nez Perce War & Chief Joseph

Nez Perce tribe from OR try to out flee the federal army on their way to Canada, but army finds them and Chief Joseph surrenders

Ghost Dance Movement

Religious practice among the Plains Indians' in hope that they could, through sacred dances, resurrect the great bison herds and their dead ancestors would help drive whites back across the Atlantic.

Wounded Knee Massacre, 1890

US army slaughtered 200-300 Sioux & Cheyenne in Dakotas in order to suppress the Ghost Dance movement; ended Native American resistance in the Great Plains

Carlisle School for Indians

Carlisle, Pennsylvania- school to "civilize" natives into American culture: no native culture or language, had to accept christianity, physical & sexual abuse; over 10% killed there

Dawes Act of 1887

Law to try to civilize Indians and make them more like white settlers by giving them land to farm in hopes they would break up the reservations; instead it harmed their native culture & the land given to them was worthless & barren

Yellowstone National Park

Established in 1872 by Congress, Yellowstone was the United States' first national park; spreads across Wyoming & Montana

George Washington Carver

A black chemist and director of agriculture at the Tuskegee Institute in AL, where he invented many new uses for peanuts. He believed that education was the key to improving the social status of blacks.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Allowed for legalized segregation in publicly owned facilities on the basis of "separate but equal", although the facilities for whites & blacks were never equal; allowed for Jim Crow laws

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931)

African American journalist. published statistics about lynching, urged African Americans to protest by refusing to ride streetcars or shop in white-owned stores

Booker T. Washington

Prominent black American, born into slavery, who believed that racism would end once blacks acquired useful labor skills and proved their economic value to society & to make the best out of segregation

W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963)

Opposed Booker T. Washington. Wanted social and political integration for Blacks; 1st black to earn Ph.D. from Harvard, encouraged blacks to resist systems of segregation and discrimination, helped create NAACP in 1910

Sharecropping

A system used on southern farms after the Civil War in which farmers worked land owned by someone else in return for a small portion of the crops

Ellis and Angel Islands

Immigrants would have to go through one of these posts to come into the US or stay there until they were healthy - In NYC Harbor & San Francisco Bay

Nativists

U.S. citizens who opposed immigration because they were suspicious of immigrants and feared losing jobs to & feared they would impose their Roman Catholic beliefs on society

Urbanization

Movement of people from rural areas to cities

ethnic enclave

A place with a high concentration of an ethnic group that is distinct from those in the surrounding area, ex: "Chinatown" & "Little Italy"

Frederick Law Olmsted

Designer of New York City's Central Park, who wanted cities that exposed people to the beauties of nature; gave a rise to the influential "City Beautiful" movement

Progressive Era

1890 - 1920,reformists who tended to be women, middle class, and live in urban areas; sought to use government influence to solve societal problems of education, voting, freedoms, alcohol, slums, etc.

Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives

Early 1900's muckraking writer/photographer who exposed social and political evils in the U.S.; his photography helped capture the hardships faced by the poor & lead to reforms in the slums of New York

Hull House-Jane Addams

Settlement house founded in Chicago 1889 to provide social and educational opportunities for immigrant workers in surrounding neighborhoods.

Social Gospel

A movement in the late 1800s / early 1900s which emphasized charity and social responsibility as a means of salvation by using Christian principles to help fix social issues of the poor

Cary Nation

Temperance Movement Leader, carried and used a hatchet to smash everything in bars after she tried talking with people (mostly men) there about how alcohol was at the root of all evil

Jazz Music

musical style developed by African-Americans at the beginning of the 20th century that is an amalgamation of African and European music, using African cultural beats

blues music

music developed in southern African-American communities at the end of the 19th century that fused work songs, spirituals, and chants often expressing the pain of the Black experience

Party Patronage

politics was a game of gaining office, holding office, providing jobs to party faithful, more about who got jobs than the issues; aka spoils system; very widepsread in Gilded Age of late 1800s

Stalwarts, Halfbreeds, and Mugwumps

3 factions of Republican Party in late 1800s: Conkling's supporters ____ ; Conkling's rivals led by Blaine____ ;

Republicans who did not play the patronage game____

Rutherford B. Hayes

1877-1881 Gilded Age President, won in a fraudulent election when he agreed to end Reconstruction; tried to make govt. honest, temperance supporter, supported Chinese laborer immigration

James Garfield

1881 Gilded Age President; Halfbreed, assassinated by Stalwart Charles Guiteau who was angry he didn't receive a job from Garfield

Chester A. Arthur

1881-84 Gilded Age President; appointed customs collector for the port of New York, once implemented a heavy spoils system but then worked hard to have civil service reformed & use merit system instead with the Pendleton Act

Pendleton Act (Civil Service Reform Act)

Established terms of employment on the basis of merit (education, skills, performance) and created the Civil Service Commission to administer the personnel service.

Grover Cleveland

1884-88 & then Gilded Age President, civil service reform, believed in small govt, took land from railroads, Dawes Act, Panic of 1893 but didn't help to make things better with a hands-off approach, had JP Morgan to bail out the govt. in debt

Greenbacks and the Greenback Party

Organized in 1876 to campaign for expanding the supply of paper money; first issued to help pay for the Civil War. The idea of maintaining a flexible supply of paper money served the interests of working class & farmers

Gold Standard

A monetary system in which paper money and coins are equal to the value of a certain amount of gold in order to give it value - debated

Benjamin Harrison

1889-1893, Gilded Age President, effective Congress unified under Republican party who was most active it had been in years, increased pension for veterans, Sherman Antitrust Act, increased silver usage

The Grange

an association formed by farmers in the last 1800s to make life better for farmers by sharing information about crops, prices, and supplies; originally a social organization, it developed into a political movement for government ownership of railroads

Interstate Commerce Commission

Govt. agency that regulated the economics and services of businesses conduction transportation between states including - railroads, trucking companies, bus lines, water carriers, oil pipelines, etc.; made prices be reasonable

Populist Party

U.S. political party formed in 1892 representing mainly farmers, favoring free coinage of silver and government control of railroads and other monopolies; combining the platforms of the National Alliance, Grange & Ocala & Omaha platform

Bi-metalism

supporting American currency with silver and gold, instead of just using gold; goal of Populism

William Jennings Bryan

Democratic candidate for president in 1896 who wanted "free silver coinage" which won him support of the Populist Party, famous "Cross of Gold" speech, lost campaign for Presidency but his ideas did go away

William McKinley

1897-1901 Gilded Age President, won against Bryan, had financial support of robber barons, economy naturally recovered after the Panic, farm prices rose, he increased tarrifs but assassinated in 1901

New South

After the Civil War, southerners promoted a new vision for a self-sufficient southern economy built on modern capitalist values, industrial growth, and improved transportation but still racism & sharecropping resembling slavery