The Gilded Age: Industry and Immigration

Vocabulary flashcards covering the Gilded Age, industrialization, big business leaders, labor movements, immigration, and the impact on Native Americans.

The Gilded Age

A period from $1870$ to $1900$ characterized by incredible industrial growth, which also fostered corruption and greed.

Laissez-Faire

An economic policy of letting businesses do as they please, often justified by economists using the principles of Social Darwinism.

Bessemer Process

The industrial process used to make steel.

Transcontinental Railroad

A railroad completed in $1869$ that enabled westward expansion, created new markets, and forced the U. S. to adopt four different time zones.

Social Darwinism

The application of Darwin’s theories of evolution and "survival of the fittest" to individuals and groups in society, often used to justify wealth and the Protestant work ethic.

Robber Barons

Businessmen and industrialists who grew extremely wealthy by paying low wages, creating monopolies, and controlling markets.

Andrew Carnegie

An industrialist who controlled almost the entire steel industry through vertical and horizontal integration.

Vertical Integration

A business strategy involving the purchase of companies at all levels of production, such as buying out suppliers to control raw materials.

Horizontal Integration

A business strategy involving the purchase of or merging with competing companies in the same industry.

John D. Rockefeller

The founder of the Standard Oil Company who controlled the industry through mergers and the creation of trusts.

Trusts

Firms or corporations that combine for the purpose of reducing competition and controlling prices to establish a monopoly.

Haymarket Affair

A violent labor strike that occurred as workers fought for better conditions, including an $8$-hour work-day.

Political Machine

An organized group, such as New York City’s Tammany Hall, that controlled a city’s political parties and secured jobs or housing for immigrants in exchange for loyalty.

The Tweed Ring Scandal

A scandal involving William M. Tweed (Boss Tweed) who led Tammany Hall and defrauded New York City of millions of dollars until the ring broke in $1871$.

Ellis Island

The main U. S. immigration station located in New York Harbor, which processed approximately $17$ million immigrants between $1892$ and $1924$.

Angel Island

An immigrant processing station in San Francisco Bay where immigrants, primarily Japanese and Chinese, endured harsh questioning and long detention.

Nativism

Overt favoritism toward native-born Americans, driven by the belief that Anglo-Saxons were superior to other ethnic groups.

Chinese Exclusion Act

An $1882$ law that banned entry to most Chinese immigrants, marking the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States.

Tenement Housing

Overcrowded and unsanitary multi-family buildings where the working class lived in urban areas.

Great Chicago Fire

A devastating $1871$ conflagration that killed hundreds and caused $200$ million dollars in damage ($3.77$ billion in $2016$ dollars).

Sand Creek Massacre

An $1864$ attack by the U. S. Army on a Cheyenne and Arapaho village in Colorado Territory that resulted in the deaths of $150$ people.

Sitting Bull

The chief of the Hunkpapa Lakota who resisted U. S. expansion, led his people at the Battle of Little Bighorn, and was killed in $1890$ at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

Battle of Little Bighorn

An $1876$ confrontation in Montana where leadership from Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull led to the death of George A. Custer and all his men.

Wounded Knee

The $1890$ massacre of $300$ unarmed Lakota Sioux by the U. S. military at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

The Dawes Act

An $1887$ law intended to assimilate Native Americans by breaking up tribal lands into individual plots for farming and agriculture.

Carlisle Indian School

A boarding school for Native American children with the motto "Kill the Indian, save the man," where students were forced to learn English and give up tribal traditions.