Industrialization Study

Consolidation

Combining smaller companies into one larger company to reduce competition.

Railroad Baron

Powerful business leaders who controlled large railroad companies.

Standard Gauge

A uniform width of railroad tracks that allowed trains to travel across different lines more easily.

Rebates

Discounts given by railroads to their biggest customers, often hunting small farmers and businesses.

Pools

Agreements between railroad companies to divide business and set prices, limiting competition.

Invention

A new device or process created to solve problems or improve life.

Assembly line

A system where workers add one part at a time to products moving along a belt.

Mass production

Making large quantities of goods quickly and cheaply using machines and assembly lines.

Factors of production

The resources needed to produce goods. (Land, labor, and capital).

Entrepreneurs

People who start a business and take risks to make profits.

Corporation

A business owned by many investors who buy shares of stock.

Stock

Shares of ownership in a corporation.

Shareholders

People who own stock in a company.

Dividends

Payments of profits to shareholders.

Monopoly

When one company controls all or nearly all of an industry.

Merger

The combination of two or more companies into one company.

Sweatshops

Crowded factories with poor working conditions, long hours, and low pay.

Labor unions

Organizations of workers formed to protect rights and improve conditions.

Collective bargaining

Negotiations between union representatives and employers over wages and working conditions.

Strikebreakers

Workers hired to replace striking employees, often leading to conflict.

Injunction

A court order to stop a strike or labor action.

Emigrate

To leave one’s homeland to live elsewhere.

Ethnic group

People who share a common culture, language, or heritage.

Steerage

The cheapest deck on ship, where many immigrants traveled to America.

Assimilate

To adapt to and blend into a new culture.

Nativist

Someone who wanted to limit immigration and protect native born cities.

Urban/suburb

Urban= city areas, Suburb= residential areas outside cities.

Tenement

Crowded apartment buildings where immigrants lived.

Slum

Poor, run-down urban neighborhoods.

Middle class

A social group between the wealthy and the poor, often professionals and small business owners.

Settlement house

Community centers that offered services to the poor and immigrants.