US History: Reconstruction and The Gilded Age

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, figures, policies, and concepts from post-Civil War Reconstruction through the Gilded Age.

Reconstruction

The period of post-war rebuilding in the South following the American Civil War.

Andrew Johnson

Southern Democrat President and former Vice President under Lincoln who vetoed Radical Republican bills to stall Southern reconstruction and was impeached by Congress.

Radical Republicans

Members of the Republican-controlled House and Senate who wanted to rebuild the South by remaking it like the North.

Jim Crow laws

Laws created in the South that blocked African American men from voting or having social rights given by the 14th and 15th amendments, using measures like literacy tests and poll taxes.

Nativism

The thought or belief that people who have inhabited a place for a long time are by right the only people who should inhabit it.

Americanization/Anglicization

The process where immigrants adapt to American or English customs.

The Gilded Age

The era spanning from 1865 to 1914 characterized by rapid industrial revolution, massive consumption of natural resources, and big business growth in America.

Bessemer process

An industrial innovation that purified iron ore into steel.

Laissez-faire system

A free enterprise system allowing businesses to keep their earnings by paying minimal taxes with little to no government oversight.

Patents

Government-granted exclusive rights provided to inventors for their inventions.

Thomas Edison

Inventor granted 1,093 patents, including those for the lightbulb, motion picture camera, and phonograph.

Corporation

A linked system of business created by owners pooling resources, established by law with individual rights to buy and sell property as well as sue in court.

J.P. Morgan

Investor and financier who controlled Wall Street in the late 1800s and early 1900s, grew corporations like US Steel and General Electric, and had an estimated worth today close to 2 billion dollars.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Self-made shipping and businessman who owned the New York Central Railroad, restructured US transportation infrastructure through rail, and had an estimated net worth today close to 200 billion dollars.

Monopoly

Complete control of a product or how a product is delivered.

Cartel

An association where competing corporations agree to work together to keep prices high and limit production.

Trust

A business arrangement created to bypass laws against owning stock in other businesses by having a board run the stocks of multiple companies and combine them in separate organizations.

Horizontal integration

A expansion strategy where multiple firms are established under a single parent business, creating the illusion of consumer choice.

Vertical integration

A business method where every step of manufacturing and supply chain is owned by the parent company.