[APUSH] Period Six, "Gilded Age" - Study Guide

Wave of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe after 1880

New Immigrants

Immigration processing center in New York Harbor

Ellis Island

Immigration station in San Francisco, primarily for Asian immigrants

Angel Island

Favoring native-born Americans over immigrants

Nativism

First major law restricting immigration based on nationality

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Overcrowded and unsanitary apartment buildings where many immigrants lived

Tenement Houses

Organizations that controlled city politics, often helping immigrants in exchange for votes

Political Machines

Community centers (like Jane Addams’ Hull House) that helped immigrants adjust to life in the U.S

Settlement Houses

Reform movement emphasizing Christian duty to help the poor, including immigrants

Social Gospel Movement

Programs aimed at assimilating immigrants into American culture

Americanization Movement

The belief that the government should not interfere in the economy

Laissez-Faire Capitalism

Business structures that controlled entire industries, reducing competition

Monopolies & Trusts

Strategies used by industrialists like Carnegie and Rockefeller to dominate industries

Vertical & Horizontal Integration

Andrew Carnegie’s idea that the wealthy should give back to society

Gospel of Wealth

The belief that the wealthy were naturally superior and the poor were responsible for their own condition

Social Darwinism

Early labor union open to all workers that sought broad reforms

Knights of Labor

Skilled labor union led by Samuel Gompers that focused on wages and working conditions

American Foundation of Labor

Violent labor protest in Chicago that hurt the reputation of labor unions

Haymarket Affair (1886)

Steelworkers’ strike at Carnegie’s factory, crushed by private security and the government

Homestead Strike (1892)

Nationwide railroad strike led by Eugene V. Debs, ended by federal troops

Pullman Strike (1894)

Law that gave free land to settlers willing to farm it for five years

Homestead Act

Railroad that connected the East and West, boosting trade and settlement

Transcontinental Railroad

Law that attempted to assimilate Native Americans by dividing tribal land into private property

Dawes Act (1887)

Major victory for Native Americans against U.S. forces (Custer’s Last Stand

Battle of Little Bighorn (1876)

The killing of hundreds of Sioux by U.S. troops, marking the end of Native resistance

Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)

The argument that the frontier shaped American democracy and character

Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis

African Americans who moved west to escape racism and seek opportunities

Exodusters

Provided land for agricultural and technical colleges

Morrill Land Grand Act (1862)

Invention that helped farmers fence off land, leading to the decline of the open range.

Barbed wire

A farmers' organization that pushed for railroad regulation and political reforms

Granger Movement