Gilded Age Vocabulary

Flashcards for review

Great Plains Reservation

Area designated for Native Americans, often diminished by government actions.

George Pullman

Industrialist known for Pullman sleeping cars and the town he created for his workers.

Andrew Carnegie

Steel magnate who used vertical integration to dominate the industry.

John D. Rockefeller

Oil tycoon who controlled the industry through horizontal integration and trusts.

Ellis Island

Immigration station in New York Harbor, primarily for European immigrants.

Angel Island

Immigration station in San Francisco Bay, primarily for Asian immigrants.

Boss Tweed

Leader of Tammany Hall, a notorious political machine in New York City.

Tammany Hall

Powerful political machine in New York City.

Union Pacific Railroad

Railroad company that built westward from Omaha, Nebraska, as part of the transcontinental railroad.

Central Pacific Railroad

Railroad company that built eastward from Sacramento, California, as part of the transcontinental railroad.

Assimilation

Process by which immigrants adopt the culture of their new country.

Transcontinental Railroad

Railroad that connected the east and west coasts of the United States.

Social Darwinism

Belief that the most fit individuals and businesses would thrive, justifying wealth and power.

Monopolies

Control of an industry by a single company.

Vertical Integration

Owning all the steps in the production process from raw materials to distribution.

Horizontal Integration

Buying out competitors to control a single stage of production.

Captain of Industry

Term used to describe a business leader whose means of amassing a personal fortune contributed positively to the country in some way.

Robber Baron

Term used to describe a business leader that became wealthy through exploitation.

Unions

Organized associations of workers, often in a trade or profession, formed to protect and further their rights and interests.

Collective Bargaining

Negotiation between employers and employees about wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.

Strike

A work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work.

Immigration

The action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country.

Nativism

The policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants.

Melting Pot

A place where different peoples or cultures are mixed together.

Urbanization

The process of making an area more urban.

Tenements

Urban dwellings often crowded and unsanitary, inhabited primarily by poor immigrants.

Settlement Houses

Community centers providing assistance to immigrants and the poor.

Political Machines

Organized groups controlling a political party within a city.

Graft

The corrupt acquisition of funds through bribery or other illegal means.

Patronage

Granting favors or giving contracts or making appointments to office in return for political support.

Civil Service

Government jobs awarded based on merit.

Gilded Age

Period of rapid economic growth but also marked by corruption.

Standardized Time Zones

Created by the railroad companies to coordinate schedules.

Trusts

Business arrangements giving control to a board of trustees.

Dawes Act

Law aimed at assimilating Native Americans by dividing tribal lands into individual allotments.

Homestead Act

Law granting land to settlers in the West.

Pullman Strike

A nationwide railroad strike in 1894 that pitted the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Company.

Gentlemen’s Agreement

Informal agreement limiting Japanese immigration to the United States.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Law that prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the United States.

Americanization Movement

Effort to assimilate immigrants into American culture.

Pendleton Civil Service Act

Law establishing that positions within the federal government should be awarded on the basis of merit instead of political affiliation