Unit 6 (1865-1898) APUSH

Gilded Age

The age between the Civil War and WWI when the American economy grew rapidly and individuals were able to use monopolies to amass great wealth.

The 2nd Industrial Revolution

Begun in the mid-nineteenth century and centered in the United States and Germany; sparked by an array of innovations and inventions in the production of metals, machinery, chemicals, and foodstuffs, and transformed the economy and society into its modern urban-industrial form.

Monopolies

When a business owns all of their competition and their business because they were able to buy out the competitors

Trusts

a type of business organization that became popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; a legal arrangement in which a group of companies turns over their stock to a board of trustees, who then manage the companies as a single entity.

Captains of Industry/Robber Barons

typically employed ethically questionable methods to eliminate their competition and develop a monopoly in their industry. Often, they had little empathy for workers.

Interstate Commerce Act (1886)

A Supreme Court decision that prohibited states from regulating the railroads because the Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

a landmark U.S. law that banned businesses from colluding or merging to form a monopoly. Passed in 1890, the law prevented these groups from dictating, controlling, and manipulating prices in a particular market. When it was first passed, it was ineffective at stopping industrial monopolies.

Vertical Integration

a business or corporation that holds control over every phase of the process of the business

Horizontal Integration

the idea in which the company controls the majority of ONE stage of the production of a good.

Social Darwinism

The belief that only the fittest survive in human political and economic struggle.

Gospel of Wealth

Carnegie argued that extremely wealthy Americans like himself had a responsibility to spend their money in order to benefit the greater good. In other words, the richest Americans should actively engage in philanthropy and charity in order to close the widening gap between rich and poor.

Conspicuous Consumption

the theory, developed by economist Thorstein Veblen that much spending by the affluent occurs primarily to display wealth and status to others rather than from enjoyment of the goods or services

New South

A vision for a self-sufficient southern economy built on modern capitalist values, industrial growth, and improved transportation

Grange Movement and Grangers

A group of agrarian organizations that worked to increase the political and economic power of farmers.

Farmers’ Alliance

an American agrarian movement during the 1870s and '80s that sought to improve the economic conditions for farmers through the creation of cooperatives and political advocacy. Derived from the Grange Movements

Populists (People’s Party)

A political group which began to emerge in 1891. They gained much support from farmers who turned to them to fight political unfairness.

Political Machines

organizations linked to a political party that often controlled local government

Settlement Houses

a house where immigrants came to live upon entering the U.S. At Settlement Houses, instruction was given in English and how to get a job, among other things.

Laissez-faire (in politics and economics)

is French for "leave alone" which means that the government leaves the people alone regarding all economic activities. It is the separation of economy and state.

Plessy vs. Ferguson

U.S. Supreme Court decision supporting the legality of Jim Crow laws that permitted or required separate but equal facilities for blacks and whites.

Jim Crow Laws

any state or local laws that enforced or legalized racial segregation. These laws lasted for almost 100 years, from the post-Civil War era until around 1968, and their main purpose was to legalize the marginalization of African Americans.

Social Gospel Movement

A reform movement led by Protestant ministers who used religious doctrine to demand better housing and living conditions for the urban poor.

Ellis Island and Angel Island

Chinese immigrants were held on Angel Island for weeks, months, or even years while awaiting hearings or appeals on their applications. In contrast, immigrants passing through Ellis Island on American's east coast—who were generally European—were processed within hours or days and merely had to pass medical exams.

Homestead Act

a federal law promoting westward expansion by allotting 160 acres of free public land to individual settlers.

Range Wars

conflict erupted between cattle drivers. Typically triggered by disputes over water rights or grazing rights for this land, they would involve farmers and ranchers.

Ghost Dance Movement

The last effort of Native Americans to resist US domination and drive whites from their ancestral lands

Dawes Act (1887)

authorized the federal government to break up tribal lands by partitioning them into individual plots. Only those Native Americans who accepted the individual allotments were allowed to become US citizens.

National Labor Union

sought to improve the rights and working conditions of all workers, regardless of their trade or skill level.

Knights of Labor

a secret society of garnet workers in Philadelphia, but emerged as a national movement by 1878. Members were skilled and unskilled workers, rallied for shorter work days, equal pay for men and women, and to end child labor. Its founding marked the beginning of union activism in the era.

American Federation of Labor

a labor union formed in 1886 by Samuel Gompers in order to voice the working class. It fought against labor forces and debated work conditions for skilled workers; used strikes to help improve hours, working conditions, and wages for skilled workers.

Homestead Steel Strike

a violent strike at the Homestead Works in Pittsburgh over a lock out following a decision to cut wages by nearly 20%. This strike ended with the destruction of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel workers

Haymarket Riot

a significant event in the history of labor unions in the United States. The riot occurred during a labor protest in support of workers striking for an eight-hour workday, and it turned violent when someone threw a bomb at the police, killing eight people

Pullman Strike

a manufacturer of railroad cars cut the workers wages by about 25 % but did not introduce corresponding reductions in rents and other charges at pullman, when workers came to the owner, he refused to meet with them and demanded them to be fired, so the delegation voted to strike and the workers walked out of work on may 11, 1894

Yellow Journalism

journalism that exploits, distorts, or exaggerates the news to create sensations and attract readers

Chinese Exclusion Act (1887)

a set of laws that barred Chinese immigration for 10 years and prevented Chinese already in the country from becoming citizens

Frederick Jackson Turner

American historian best known for The Frontier Thesis/Turner Thesis, which is the argument that the origin of the distinctive egalitarian, democratic, aggressive, and innovative features of the American character has been the American frontier experience.

William Jennings Bryan & Cross of Gold Speech

A speech delivered by William Jennings Bryan at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that occurred in 1896. Bryan supported bimetallism, or free silver, which he believed would bring the nation prosperity.

Bimetallism

A monetary standard where the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent to both a certain quantity of gold and to a certain quantity of solver.

Free Silver

A major policy issue in the late 19th century, advocates for free silver wanted an inflation in monetary policy using the free coinage of silver. Free Silver supporters were opposed by supporters of the Gold Standard (silverites), which was less inflationary.

Panic of 1873

stands as the first global depression brought about by industrial capitalism. It was caused by too many railroads and factories being formed than existing markets could bear and the over-loaning by banks to those projects.

Specie Resumption Act (1875)

This act provided for the redemption of paper currency in gold or silver and a reduction in the amount of outstanding paper bills, the so- called “Greenbacks”

Greenback Party

organized in 1876 to campaign for expansion of the supply of paper money—"greenbacks"—first issued by the federal government in 1862 to help pay for the Civil War.

Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)

Required the government to purchase an additional 4.5 million ounces of silver bullion each month for use as currency.

Gold Standard

It stated that all paper money would be backed only by gold. This meant that the government had to hold gold in reserve in case people decided they wanted to trade in their money.