period 6 pt 3

Key Concept 6.1 Overview

Tech advances, production, and new markets fueled rise of industrial capitalism

Dams and irrigation

Saved many western farms facing harsh conditions

Farm equipment impact

Small marginal farms driven out of business

Increased production effect

Crop prices dropped; caused deflation

Railroad effects

Created national market and standardized time zones

Gov support for railroads

Huge subsidies via loans and land grants

U.S. Steel significance

Largest enterprise in the world

Steel vs. iron

Steel is more durable

Standard Oil effect

Kept prices low, inspired trusts

Telegraph and global comm

Internationalized markets and pricing

Edison's lightbulb

Enabled lit cities, electric cars, subways, machinery

Consumer culture rise

Packaged food, department stores, advertising

Standard of living

Increased, but major class divisions remained

Mining boom effects

Created gold/silver currency crisis; harmed environment

"New South" vision

Southern self-sufficiency via capitalism

Henry Grady

Promoted economic diversity, coined "New South"

Northern financial control

Southern industry profits went to northern banks

Southern worker conditions

Less pay, longer hours than other regions

Sharecropping/Tenant farming

Farmers stuck in debt to landowners

Railroad loan consequences

Hasty building, federal corruption

Railroad bankruptcy (1893)

Bankers consolidated them to improve efficiency

Trust fears

Sherman Antitrust Act passed in response

Laissez-Faire Capitalism

Government hands-off approach to economy

Social Darwinism

Survival of fittest applies to business

Gospel of Wealth

Wealth justified by religious duty (Rockefeller)

Union suppression

Management used tactics to break strikes

Great Railroad Strike

Strike over wage cuts spread to 11 states, crushed

National Labor Union

1st to organize all workers; won 8-hour workday

NLU reform goals

Rights for women/Black people, monetary reform

Knights of Labor decline

Lost popularity after Haymarket bombing

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Focused on wages and work conditions

Homestead Strike

Steel strike, lockout, setback for unions

Pullman Strike

Supreme Court allowed injunctions to break unions

National Grange

Opposed railroads and middlemen; formed cooperatives

Wabash v. Illinois

States couldn't regulate interstate commerce

Farmers Alliances

Promoted economic and political reform; led to Populism

Key Concept 6.2 Overview

Migration and urbanization transformed society, causing reform efforts

Plessy v. Ferguson

Upheld "separate but equal"; justified segregation

Voting restriction methods

Literacy tests, poll taxes, white-only primaries

New Immigrants

From S/E Europe; poor, non-English speaking, urban

Ethnic enclaves

Immigrant communities preserving language/culture

Contract Labor Law (1885)

Restricted temporary foreign workers

1917 Literacy Test

Restricted immigrant entry

Immigration restriction support

Labor unions, nativists, Social Darwinists

Rural to urban migration

Driven by economic opportunities

Mass transit effect

Separated urban workers by income

City overcrowding

Helped spread disease

Western mines

Attracted skilled European, Chinese, Latin American miners

Miner's Tax ($20/month)

Taxed foreign-born miners in CA

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

First race-based immigration law

Environmental impact

Mining/ranching/farming damaged western lands

Western boomtowns

Grew fast from gold/silver rushes, often became ghost towns

Homestead Act

160 acres to settlers who stayed 5 years

Reservation policy

Tribes restricted to fixed lands—many refused

Indian Appropriation Act (1871)

Ended tribal sovereignty; nullified treaties

Ghost Dance

Native religious revival against U.S. control

Wounded Knee Massacre

Over 200 Native Americans killed—ended Indian Wars

Dawes Act (1887)

Aimed to assimilate Natives, sold reservation lands

Native population (1900)

Reduced to about 200,000 by disease and poverty

Key Concept 6.3 Overview

Gilded Age brought intellectual and political challenges to the status quo

Party loyalty

High turnout due to regional, ethnic, religious ties

Suburban ideal

Frederick Law Olmsted's model of comfortable living

City reform

Water, sewage, zoning laws to fight disease/pollution

City Beautiful Movement

Promoted parks and cultural buildings

Settlement Houses

Jane Addams' Hull House provided education and aid

Social Gospel

Apply Christian ethics to solve social problems

Family size

Economic burden; family size shrank

Education expansion

Public high schools became common

W.E.B. Du Bois

Called for full civil rights and integration

Social sciences

Promoted liberal reform and progressive legislation

Leisure rise

Sports, entertainment, and relaxation grew

Republican policies

Supported tariffs and business interests

Democratic policies

Supported states' rights and limited government

Pendleton Act (1881)

Created merit-based federal job system

Specie Resumption Act

Removed greenbacks from circulation

Tariff role in revenue

Over half of federal income by 1890s

McKinley Tariff

Raised taxes on imports

Sherman Antitrust Act

Banned combinations in restraint of trade

Sherman Silver Purchase Act

Increased silver coinage

Populist Party goals

Direct elections, silver coinage, income tax, rail/public ownership

Panic of 1893

Major stock market crash and economic depression