APUSH Chapter 16 Vocab

trusts

companies combined to limit competition

vertical integration

company’s avoidance of intermediaries by producing its own supplies and providing for distribution of its product

horizontal expansion

the process by which a corporation acquires or merges with its competitors

robber barons

Gilded Age Industrial figures who inspired both administration, for their economic leadership and innovation, and hostility and fear, due to their unscrupulous business methods, repressive labor practices, and unprecedented economic control over entire insutries

the Gilded Age

the popolar but derogatory name for the period from the end of the Civil War to the turn of the century, after the title of the 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley WarnerS

Social Darwinism

Application of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection to society; used the concept of the “survival of the fittest” to justify class distinctions and explain poverty

Great Railroad Strike

a series of demonstrations, some violent, held nationwide in support of striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, who refused to work due to wage cuts

Knights of Labor

founded in 1869, the first national union; it lasted, under the leadership of Terence V. Powderly, only into the 1890’s; it was supplanted y the American Federation of Labor

single tax

concept of taxing only landowners as a remedy, promulgated by Henry George in Progress and Poverty (1879)

Social gospel

ideals preached by liberal Protestant clergymen in the the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries; advocated the application of Christian principles to social problems generated by industrialization

Haymarket affair

violence during an anarchist protest as Haymarket square in Chicago on May 4,1886; the deaths of eight, including seven policemen, led to the trial of eight anarchist leaders for conspiracy to commit murder

bananza farms

large farms that covered thousands of acres and employed hundreds of wage laborers in the west in the late nineteenth century

Batle of the Little Bighorn

Most famous battle of the Black Hills war; took place in 1876 in the Montana Territory; Lakota and Cheyenne warriors massacred a vastly out-numbered u.s cavalry commanded by Lieutenant colored George Armstring Custer

Danes Act

Law passed in 1887 meant to encourage adoption of white norms among indians; broke up tribal holdings into small farms for indian families with the remainder sold to white populations

Ghost dance

a spiritual and political movement among Native Americans whose followers performed a ceremonial “ghost dance” intended to connect the liviing with the dead and make the Indians bulletproof in battles intended to restore their homelands

Wounded Knee Massacre

last incident of the Indian wars; it took place in 1890 in the Dakota territory, where the U.S cavalry killled over 200 sioux men, women, and children

gold standard

policy at various points in American history by which the value of the dollar was set at a fixed price in terms of gold

Civil Service Acts of 1883

Law that established the civil service commission and marked the end of the spoils system

interstate commerce commision

organization established by Congress, in reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Wabash Railroad v. Illinois (1886) in order to curb abuses in the railroad regulating rates

Sherman Antitrust Act

passed in 1890, first law to restrict monopolistic trusts and business combinations; extended by the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914