APUSH UNIT 6

1865-1898

Thomas A. Edison's Workshop

• Built in 1876 in Menlo Park, New Jersey

• Produced important inventions of the century

• Edison's greatest invention was the light bulb

• Pioneer work in power plant development was immensely important

Light Bulb and Power Plants

• Allowed for the extension of the workday (previously ended at sundown)

• Wider availability of electricity

• Created new uses for electricity for industry and home

Age of Invention

• Last quarter of 19th century known as Age of Invention

• Many technological advances made (e.g. Edison's)

• Advances generated greater opportunities for mass production

Economic Growth

• Economy grew at a tremendous rate

• People known as "captains of industry" (or "robber barons") became extremely rich and powerful

• Owned and controlled new manufacturing enterprises

Industrialization:

introduction of faster machines in manufacturing leading to economies of scale and decreased cost per unit.

Assembly line production:

• employees performing repetitive tasks leading to increased efficiency but also dangerous working conditions and long working hours.

Horizontal and Vertical Integration

• Horizontal Integration: combining smaller companies within the same industry to form a larger company through legal buyouts or illegal practices.

• Vertical Integration: one company buys out all the factors of production from raw materials to finished product, still allowing competition in the marketplace.

Problems with Consolidation:

• required large amounts of money leading to financial panics and bank failures, public resentment, and government response in the form of antitrust legislation.

Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

• authorized the federal government to institute proceedings against trusts in order to dissolve them.

• law forbidding "restraint of trade" combination, ambiguous wording leading to pro-business Supreme Court interpretation.

U.S. v. E. C. Knight Co. 1895

• Court ruled that E. C. Knight, controlling 98% of the sugar refining plants, did not violate the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Gospel of Wealth

• idea that wealth should be used for the betterment of society and not just for personal gain, advocated by Andrew Carnegie.

Factories and City Life

• Factories were established in cities in the 19th century to reduce labor costs and maximize profits

• Women and children were hired, as well as newly arrived immigrants in search of work

• As a result, the cities suffered from poverty, crime, disease, and a lack of livable housing

• Factories were dangerous, and there was no insurance or workmen's compensation

• Middle class moved away to nicer neighborhoods, leaving mostly immigrants and migrants in the city

immigration

• Majority of immigrants arrived from Southern and Eastern Europe starting from 1880

• Ethnic neighborhoods, tenements were common, and minorities faced prejudice and limited job opportunities

• Municipal governments were practically nonexistent, and services for the poor were provided by churches, private charities, and ethnic communities, or by corrupt political bosses

political bosses

• Bosses helped the poor find homes, jobs, apply for citizenship, and voting rights but at a high cost of criminal means

• William "Boss" Tweed of Tammany Hall in New York City was a notorious political boss who embezzled millions of dollars through corruption

William "Boss" Tweed

• ran an organization that helped the Irish immigrants in neighborhood

• rose in politics as his society expanded.

• convicted in 1877 for stealing an estimated 1-2$million in taxes through political corruption.

• His political machine played a major role in controlling New York City politics.

Knights of Labor(1869)

• Advocated arbitration over strikes

• Became increasingly violent in efforts to achieve goals

• Popularity declined due to violence and association with political radicalism

• Terrence Powderly, failed strikes, and Haymarket Square Riot contributed to decline

• accepted low skill workers

• goals were 8-hour workday, equal pay for equal work, child labor laws, safety and sanitary codes

Homestead Steel Strike

1892

• Workers protested wage cut, refusal to form a union

• Factory manager Henry Clay Frick locked out workers, hired replacements, and called in Pinkerton Detective force

• Clash between Pinkertons and workers led to deaths and retreat of Pinkertons

• Pennsylvania state militia ended strike, Frick hired new workers

Pullman Palace Car Factory Strike

• 1984

• Workers faced wage cut, increased housing costs

• American Railway Union joined the strike, 250,000 railway workers walked off job, shutting down rail travel in 27 states

• ARU president Eugene Debs refused to end strike despite court order

• Debs convicted and jailed, became leader of American Socialist Party after release

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

• Samuel Gompers, focused on bread and butter issues, higher wages and shorter workdays

• Excluded unskilled workers, confederation of trade unions

• Refused to accept immigrants, Black people, women among membership, also refused low skill workers

Charitable Middle-Class Organizations

• Lobbied local governments for building safety codes, better sanitation, public schools

• Founded and lived in settlement houses in poor neighborhoods

• Community centers providing schooling, childcare, cultural activities

• Jane Addams, Hull House in Chicago(1889), awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1931

Improvement of Life

• Wealthy and middle class improved while poor suffered

• Access to luxuries, leisure time, popular diversions like sports, theater, vaudeville, movies

• Growth of newspaper industry with Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst

• Sensational reporting, yellow journalism became popular.

yellow journalism

a type of journalism that does not report much real news with facts. It uses shocking headlines that catch people's attention to sell more newspapers.

South during industralization age

• Agriculture continued as main form of labor

• Textile mills and tobacco processing plants emerged

• Majority of Southerners remained farmers

Postwar Economics in the South

• Many farmers forced to sell land

• Wealthy landowners bought and consolidated into larger farms

• Landless farmers (Black & white) forced into sharecropping

• Crop lien system designed to keep poor in debt

• Unscrupulous landlords kept poor in virtual slavery

Jim Crow Laws(1896)

• Federal government exerting less influence

• Numerous discriminatory laws passed by towns and cities

• Supreme Court ruled Fourteenth Amendment did not protect Blacks from private discrimination

• 1883 - Court reversed Civil Rights Act of 1875

• 1896 - Supreme Court ruled “separate but equal” facilities were legal Plessy v. Ferguson

Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Compromise Speech

• 1895

• Pledge for patient, sympathetic help of Black race

• Call for higher good (blotting out of racial animosities)

• Desire for absolute justice and law obedience

• asked whites to trust Blacks and provide them with opportunities so that both races could advance in industry and agriculture.

Integration and Equal Rights

• A far-off dream for most Black people

• Booker T. Washington: Born into slavery, no illusions of white society accepting Blacks as equals

• Promoted economic independence as means to improve Black lot

• Founded Tuskegee Institute for vocational and industrial training for Black people

• Accused of being an accommodationist

• Refused to press for immediate equal rights

• Reality of his time set his goals

Booker T. Washington vs. W. E. B. Du Bois

• Washington's Atlanta Exposition speech

• Washington viewed as submissive by Du Bois

• Du Bois referred to speech as "The Atlanta Compromise"

W. E. B. Du Bois

• african american suffrage

• created NAACP(1909)

The Railroads

• Lincoln challenged America to have a Transcontinental Railroad connecting the country within a decade (1863-1869)

• Railroad construction was paid for by the public but the rail proprietors resisted government control

• Railroad companies organized massive buffalo hunts, which nearly led to extinction of the species and caused conflict with Native Americans

• Rails transformed depot towns into cities and facilitated faster travel, contact with ideas and technological advances from the East, and contributed to the Industrial Revolution

• Rails also brought standardization of time telling through "railroad time" and time zones

Miners and Ranchers

• Ranchers and miners were growing industries in the western frontier

• Ranchers drove their herds across the western plains and deserts, disregarding property rights and Native American rights to the land

• Miners prospected for rich mines and sold their rights to mining companies when found

Developments in the West

• Statehood of North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho was achieved by 1889

• The result of the 1890 census prompted Turner's Frontier Thesis, argued that the frontier shaped the American character, spirit, democracy, and provided a safety valve for urban areas

• In the Great Plains, farming and ranching were the main forms of employment, aided by new farm machinery and mail-order retail

• The Homestead Act and Morrill Land-Grant Act to attract settlers and develop the West

• Agricultural science became a large industry in the US

enviromental Improvements

• With families and corporations heading West, government and conservation groups sought added protection of natural resources

• U.S. Fish Commission was established to protect fish species, which led to the creation of National Parks and Forest Services.

Gilded Age of American Politics:

• Era between Reconstruction and 1900

• America appeared prosperous but wealth built on poverty of many

• Shiny exterior of politics hiding corruption and patronage

• Political machines, not municipal governments, ran cities

• Big business bought votes in Congress and fleeced consumers

• Workers had little protection from employer greed

• Presidents were generally not corrupt but weak

arguments against gilded age beliefs

• Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester A. Arthur focused on civil service reform

• Grover Cleveland believed in minimal government intervention

• Benjamin Harrison and allies passed major legislation (meat inspection act, banning lotteries, battleships)

• Activism led to public discomfort and return of Cleveland to White House

Regulating Business and Government:

• First attempts at regulation in response to widespread corruption

• States imposed railroad regulations due to price gouging

• 1877 Supreme Court upheld state law regulating railroads in Munn v. Illinois

• 1887 Congress passed first federal regulatory law (Interstate Commerce Act)

• Set up the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to regulate railroad activities

• ICC was active until deregulated by Reagan administration in 1980s

Women's Suffrage:

• Became an important political issue

• Led by Susan B. Anthony

• Bill introduced to Congress every year

• Fight began in earnest

• American Suffrage Association fought for state suffrage amendments

• Partial successes achieved in gaining the vote on school issues

• Women gained right to vote with 19th Amendment in 1920 (50 years after male suffrage)

Post-Civil War Era:

• Increased production in both industrial and agricultural fronts

• Drop in prices due to greater supply

• Farmers faced trouble due to fixed payments in long-term debts

• Farmers supported increased money supply for easier payments and inflation

• Banks opposed the plan, preferring gold-backed money supply

• Farmers' plan called for liberal use of silver coins (supported by western miners and midwestern/southern farmers)

Grange Movement and Farmers' Alliances:

• Grange Movement founded in 1867, with over a million members by 1875

• Cooperatives for farmers to buy machinery and sell crops as a group

• Political endorsement and lobbying for legislation

• Replaced by Farmers' Alliances, allowing women's political activism

• Grew into political party People's Party (political arm of Populist movement)

• Other groups formed by minority farmers (e.g. Las Gorras Blancas, Colored Farmers' Alliance)

People's Party:

• 1892 convention, with platform called the Omaha Platform

• Call for silver coinage, government ownership of railroads and telegraphs, graduated income tax, direct election of senators, shorter workdays

• 1892 presidential candidate James Weaver received over 1 million votes

• Populist goals gained popularity during the financial crisis of 1893-1897

Granger Laws:

• Granger laws regulated the railroads in the 1870s and 1880s

Populist Movement:

• 1896 Populists backed Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan

• Bryan ran on platform of free silver, loosening control of northern banking interests

• Republicans allied with big businesses, McKinley received huge contributions from large companies

• Bryan lost election, Populist movement declined with improved economy

Before the Civil War

• Most Americans earned their living through farming

• No federal income tax until 16th Amendment in 1913

• Tariff was a huge controversy

Tariff of Abominations & Nullification Crisis

• Tariff of Abominations (1828) caused Nullification Crisis during Jackson's first administration

Tariff of Abominations

Tariff after Civil War

• Tariff dominated national politics

• Industrialists demanded high tariffs to protect domestic industries

• Farmers and laborers hurt by high tariffs

• Democrats supported lower tariffs

• Republicans advocated high protective tariffs

Tariff Laws

• McKinley Tariff (1890) raised duties on imported goods almost 50%

• Wilson-Gorman Tariff (1894) resembled McKinley Tariff

• Tariff issue dominated congressional debate and had impact on foreign relations

Spanish-American War

• Wilson-Gorman Tariff considered one of the causes of the Spanish-American War

Theodore Roosevelt

• Assistant Secretary of Navy in 1898 during Spanish-American War

• Ordered U.S. Pacific Fleet to Philippines, then led volunteer regiment in Cuba

Maternal commonwealth

• 1870s-1890

The values of WOMEN'S SPHERE — caretaking, piety, purity — would be taken out of the home and placed in the public life. The result was a broad reform movement that transformed America.

Contract Labor Laws of 1885

•  restricted temporary workers to protect American workers 

  • Literacy test for immigrants passed in 1917

  • Efforts to restrict immigration were supported by labor unions, a nativist society, and social darwinists

Helen Hunt Jackson’s “A Century of Dishonor”(1881) book

-documents the mistreatment of Native American peoples at the hands of the United States government.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

• - restricted immigration on the basis of race and nationality 

Dawes Act of 1887

• caused by Battle/ Massacre of Wounded Knee - more the 200 Natives killed by US army - marked end of the Indian Wars

• - break up tribal organizations to assimilate Natives into American culture

  • Former reservation land was sold to white settlers

  • Disease and poverty reduced Native population to 200,000 people

City reforms

• 1890s - “City Beautiful” movement - public parks, cultural attractions

City conditions

• Overcrowding in cities and filthy tenements helped spread disease

• Ethnic neighborhoods - each group could maintain its own language, culture, church, and social club

• Increasing disease, crime, waste, and pollution in cities inspired reformers of the need for water purification, sewerage systems, waste disposal, steer lighting, police departments, and zoning laws

Pendleton Act of 1881

•  - set up Civil Service Commission and created a system by which applicant for classified federal jobs would be selected based on an examination

• stopped spoils system

Populist Party

•  - wanted to do something about concentration of economic power in bankers and trusts

  • Increased in power of common voters through direct popular elections of senators and use of initiative and referendums (allowed citizens to vote directly on proposed laws)

  • Advocated unlimited coinage of silver, a graduated income tax, public ownership of railroads, telegraph/ telephone systems, loans and federal warehouses for farmers to stabilized prices for their crops

• Panic of 1893

stock market crash and bankruptcy 

Industralization and expansion

• American production capacity grew rapidly

• America looked overseas for new markets due to increased nationalism and search for new markets

Expansionism & Imperialism

• William H. Seward set precedent for increased American participation in Western Hemisphere

• American businesses developed markets and production in Latin America, gained political power in region

• Expansionism (business in regions) supported by most Americans, imperialism (control of another country) more controversial

Influence of Sea Power

• Book by Captain Alfred T. Mahan, "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History" (1890) popularized idea of the New Navy

• Successful foreign trade relied on access to foreign ports, colonies, and strong navy

• After upgrading ships, U.S. turned attention to foreign acquisitions

U.S interest in hawaii

• Search for port along trade route to Asia attracted U.S. to Hawaii

• in 1870s american sugar producers trading with Hawaiians

• Hawaii economy collapsed in 1890s due to U.S. tariffs and dependence on trade with U.S.

• White minority overthrew native government, U.S. annexed Hawaii, angering Japan (40% of Hawaii's residents were Japanese descent)

U.S and Cuba

• Cubans revolted against Spanish control, instigated by U.S. tampering with the Cuban economy.

• Cuban civil war followed and reported in detail by the Hearst newspaper

• The explosion of American warship Maine in Havana harbor led to war with Spain.

• U.S. drove Spain out of Cuba and Philippines in the Spanish-American War

• Spain ceded the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the U.S. in the Treaty of Paris

Annexation of cuba

• U.S. claimed it wouldn't annex Cuba through Teller Amendment, but troops stayed and made Cuba include Platt Amendment in its new constitution

• Platt Amendment granted U.S. control over Cuba's foreign affairs, U.S. troops eventually left in 1934 during FDR's administration

Arguments for annexation of phillipines

• Europe would conquer Philippines, U.S. moral obligation to "Christianize and civilize" Filipinos

Arguments against annexation

• promote independence and democracy, U.S. no better than British tyrants they overthrew

anexation of philipines

• Control of the Philippines raised the question of annexation or independence

• Senate voted to annex the Philippines by a close margin, but Filipino nationalists responded with a guerrilla war

• U.S. used brutal tactics to subdue the revolt and inflicted casualties on the civilian population

• The U.S. granted the Philippines independence in 1946

citizenship for annexed countries?

• The question arose as to the legal status of the native population in newly acquired territories, "Does the Constitution follow the flag?"

• Supreme Court ruled through Insular Cases that the Constitution didn't follow the flag and Congress could administer each overseas possession as it chose

• America hoped to gain entry into Asian markets through McKinley's Open Door Policy

Laissez-Faire Capitalism

• McKinley's Open Door Policy