Unit 1 - Gilded Age: Important Terms (Liberty HS - 2021)

Lassiez Faire

idea that government should stay out of business and economic affairs as much as possible

Interstate Commerce Act

Established the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) - monitors the business operation of carriers transporting goods and people between states - created to regulate railroad prices

Sherman Antitrust Act

an 1890 law that banned the formation of trusts and monopolies in the United States

Jane Addams and Hull House

Social reformer who worked to improve the lives of the working class. In 1889 she founded Hull House in Chicago, the first private social welfare agency in the U.S., to assist the poor, combat juvenile delinquency and help immigrants learn to speak English. Also, major suffragist for women.

Samuel Gompers

He was the creator of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). He provided a stable and unified union for skilled workers.

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. By 1901, his company dominated the American steel industry.

Gilded Age

1870s - 1890s; time period looked good on the outside, despite the corrupt politics & growing gap between the rich & poor

John D. Rockefeller

Established the Standard Oil Company, the greatest, wisest, and meanest monopoly known in history

Cornelius Vanderbilt

United States financier who accumulated great wealth from railroad and shipping businesses (1794-1877).

Tenements

Urban apartment buildings that served as housing for poor factory workers. Often poorly constructed and overcrowded.

Homestead Act

1862 - Provided free land in the West to anyone willing to settle there and develop it. Encouraged westward migration.

Chinese Exclusion Act

1882 law that prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers

Alexander Graham Bell

Invented the telephone and improved the usage of commercial electricity.

Thomas Edison

Inventor of lightbulb, phonograph and numerous other innovations

ROSE Acronym

Railroads, oil, steel, electricity

Populist Party

U.S. political party formed in 1892 representing mainly farmers, favoring free coinage of silver and government control of railroads and other monopolies

Nativism

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

Trusts

Firms or corporations that combine for the purpose of reducing competition and controlling prices (establishing a monopoly). There are anti-trust laws to prevent these monopolies.

Monopolies

Corporations that gain complete control of the production of a single good or service.

Dawes Act

1887 law which gave all Native American males 160 acres to farm and also set up schools to make Native American children more like other Americans (assimilation)

Assimilation

the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another

push factors

Factors that induce people to leave old residences.

pull factors

Factors that induce people to move to a new location.

Pacific Railway Act

1862 legislation to encourage the construction of a transcontinental railroad, connecting the West to industries in the Northeast (Union Pacific and Central Pacific RR)

Transcontinental Railroad

Completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, it linked the eastern railroad system with California's railroad system, revolutionizing transportation in the west

Grange

an association formed by farmers in the last 1800s to make life better for farmers by sharing information about crops, prices, and supplies

Civil Service Act of 1883

Established the Civil Service Commission and marked the end of the spoils system.

Americanization movement

education program designed to help immigrants assimilate to American culture

Robber Barons

Refers to the industrialists or big business owners who gained huge profits by paying their employees extremely low wages. They also drove their competitors out of business by selling their products cheaper than it cost to produce it. Then when they controlled the market, they hiked prices high above original price.

Captain of Industries

People who became extremely wealthy, who give back to the community after becoming rich

Effects of Railroads

Encouraged further industrial growth

Provided millions of new jobs

Boosted agriculture

Influenced the travel of ordinary people

Labor Unions and Strikes

Labor unions were groups of workers who wanted to obtain better working conditions, strikes were held in order to obtain such conditions.

IWW (Industrial Workers of the World)

A labor organization for unskilled workers, formed by a group of radical unionists and socialists in 1905. Sometimes called Wobblies

Knights of Labor

1st effort to create National union. Open to everyone but lawyers and bankers. Vague program, no clear goals, weak leadership and organization. Failed

Communism

A theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.

Socialism

A system in which society, usually in the form of the government, owns and controls the means of production.

Ellis Island

An immigrant receiving station that opened in 1892, where immigrants were given a medical examination and only allowed in if they were healthy

Angel Island

The immigration station on the west coast where Asian immigrants, mostly Chinese gained admission to the U.S. at San Francisco Bay. Between 1910 and 1940 50k Chinese immigrants entered through Angel Island. Questioning and conditions at Angel Island were much harsher than Ellis Island in New York.

political machine

a party organization that recruits members by dispensing patronage

Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall

an American politician most notable for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York City and State.

Gospel of Wealth

This was a book written by Carnegie that described the responsibility of the rich to be philanthropists. This softened the harshness of Social Darwinism as well as promoted the idea of philanthropy.

Pendleton Civil Service Act

Passed in 1883, an Act that created a federal civil service so that hiring and promotion would be based on merit rather than patronage.

Haymarket Riot

1886 labor-related protest in Chicago which ended in deadly violence

graft

Illegal use of political influence for personal gain

Patronge

the power to control appointments to office or the right to privileges.

civil service

A system of hiring and promotion based on the merit principle and the desire to create a nonpartisan government service.