APUSH Period 6 Key Concepts

How were new MARKETS opened in North America post Civil War?

Govt subsidies for transportation and communication helped open new markets, growth of farms, cities, & lumber industry

• Govt gave $ & LAND for construction of rail roads

• Telegraph lines often linked with rail roads

How did businesses INCREASE the PRODUCTION of goods?

Technological advances:

• Taylorism (Frederick Taylor focused on improving efficiency through TIMED, specific tasks for workers. Bad for workers.)

• Greater access to natural resources (lumber)

• REDESIGNED financial & management structures (Monopolies-- businesses sought to have complete control over an industry)

• MARKETING advances (Sears mail order catalog)

• Growing LABOR FORCE

What was the impact of 2nd (POST Civil War) Industrial Revolution?

Price of goods DECREASED and workers' wages INCEASED.

New goods/services emerged: sewing machines, household items.

Americans' living standards INCREASED

However a GAP grew btwn rich & poor (esp during the *Gilded Age)

How did business leaders try to increase profits?

Trusts (like monopolies)

Holding companies: One company owns stock in several other countries, so they basically control them.

Where did businesses and policymakers look outside of the US for markets & resources?

Pacific Rim: Hawaii (calls for annexation in the 1890s for their SUGAR)

Asia: (Philippines), 1899 Open Door Policy in China where the US sought to trade freely w/ China

Latin America: "Big Brother" policy, opened up MARKETS to the US

Why did some people want the govt to take a hands off approach economically?

• Compeition and laissez-faire policies promoted economic growth.

Led to it becoming the dominant economic philosophy: LITTLE govt regulation of industries

How did the industrial workforce expand?

Migration: farmers moved to cities.

"New" Immigrants (Southern and Eastern Europe). China.

Child labor also increased.

Labor vs. Management

Battles over WAGES and WORKING CONDITIONS.

Local/national Labor unions formed to confront businesses.

Knights of Labor -- skilled & UNskilled workers, women, African-Americans. Downfall: Haymarket Riot 1886

AFL -- Samuel Gompers, skilled workers, bread and butter issues

"New South"

Called for by leaders for increased Southern industrialization. Textile factories began to appear in the South (but south was still mostly rural until the 1950s)

• Sharecropping and tenant farming remained. Af-Americans were share croppers throughout 1800s into 1900s

What led to agricultural overproduction?

Improvements in mechanization.

• Mechanized tractors, reapers, etc. led to faster cultivation of crops

• Grain elevators allowed for crops to be stored easier

Increased production led to a DECREASE in food worth.

How did farmers respond to the consolidation in businesses/railroads & their dependence on the railroad system?

Created local & regional organizations:

The Grange 60-70s: sought to bring farmers together to share techniques.

Granger laws: state laws that regulated the RR

The Farmers Alliance 70-90s

The People's (Populist) Party (1890-1896)

Wanted a STRONGER govt role in the economic system.

Formed because: Growth of CORPORATE power (RRs), economic instability (panics of 1873 & 1893)

GOALS: Graduated income tax; inflation; "free silver", direct elections, govt owned RRs.

Migration to cities

Cities saw tremendous growth.

New Immigrants: 1860-1890

African Americans moving out of South to escape sharecropping.

Why did migrants move to cities?

Escape POVERTY

Religous persecution (Jews in Russia fled to US)

Social mobility, "rags to riches" (Horatio Alger stories)

Emergence of new URBAN neighborhoods

Based on class, ethnicity, & race.

Little Italy, Chinatown.

Provided new cultural oppurtunities

What DEBATES over assimilation happened over the rise of international migration?

Rise of NATIVISM

APA (American Protective Association) -- wanted to limit immigrants, prevent Catholics from office (CONNECTION: Know Nothing Party 1840s-50s)

Political Machines

THRIVED -- due to the urban atmosphere where access to power was unequally distributed.

• Provided jobs & services for constituents (voters), esp IMMIGRANTS & poor

Tammany Hall

What led to the emergence of a distinctive middle class?

• New managerial workers in factories (male & female clerical workers)

• CONSUMER culture grew during time period (Baseball, Vaudeville Shows)

What led to the westward growth of the time period?

Transcontinental RR built by Irish & Chinese

Discovery of mineral resources: mines, Comstock Lode (town made around mining)

Govt policies: Homestead Act, subsidies to RRs

Why did migrants (people already living in US) move to rural and "boomtown" (booming town undergoing rapid growth) areas in the Wst?

Independence & self-sufficiency. "Safety-valve" theory

Oppurtunities: building RRs, mining, farming, ranching

How did western migration lead to an increase in conflict?

Decimation of buffalo (bison).

Conflict over land w/ Natives and Mexican Americans. (Sand Creek Massacre 1864: US soldiers killed 133 Natives, mostly women & children)

US govt relations with Natives.

Violated treaties, used military force (Wounded Knee 1890: 300 Native women & children killed. ENDS conflict w/ Natives out west)

Natives moved to reservations, loss of SOVEREIGNTY

Why did Natives need to preserve their culture?

ASSIMILATION policy: Dawes Act 1887 which sent Native children to boarding schools to speak english. Carlisle School.

Ghost Dance: Ceremony where Natives envisioned the buffalo's return & elimination of whites

Tried to self-sustain themselves economically (farming)

What was one of the cultural/intellectual movements that supported the SOCIAL order of the Gilded Age?

SOCIAL DARWINISM:

Survival of the fittest, used by rich businesses to justify their success.

The Gospel of Wealth

Written by Andrew Carnegie, said the wealthy should give back to society (philanthropy).

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