16 Gilded Age

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the key people, dates, and legislative acts associated with the California Gold Rush, the economic transformation of the American West, and the societal shifts of the Gilded Age.

Carnegie

STEEL industry

Rockefeller

OIL industry

Vertical vs Horizontal

Vertical:

1 industry

owns 1 chain

Ex. Amazon & Walmart

Horizontal:

buys premade companies

buys them out

same industry

Ex. Oil

Rober Barons

Exploit workers

crush competition

Unfair competition

amassed immense wealth thru unfair business practices

James Marshall

The individual who discovered gold on January 24, 1848, at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California.

Sutter’s Mill

The specific location in Coloma, California, where the discovery of gold sparked the California Gold Rush.

Forty-Niners

The name given to gold seekers who arrived in California in 1849, a group that included over 100,000 people from the U.S., Mexico, Chile, China, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Bonanza farms

Large-scale agricultural operations, particularly in California, that were dependent on significant capital and wage labor.

Dawes Act (1887)

Federal legislation that provided for the allotment of tribal lands into individual plots, which undermined communal landholding among Native Americans.

Massacre at Wounded Knee (1890)

An event occurring in 1890 that served as a tragic culmination of the era's conflicts between the federal government and Native Americans.

Oklahoma Land Rush

An 1889 event where the federal government opened land in Indian Territory to white settlers, leading thousands to race for land claims.

Sooners

Participants in the Oklahoma Land Rush who entered the territory early to claim land before the official signal was given.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

A law that banned Chinese immigration for decades, following anti-Chinese sentiment during an economic downturn in the 1870s.

Gilded Age

A period of industrial growth that created national wealth while simultaneously sparking national tensions over power, work, and inequality.

Corporate West

A region integrated into national markets through railroads and finance, characterized by commercial farming, corporate ranching, and intense conflicts over land and water.