The Gilded Age: Industry and Immigration

Flashcards covering key industry, labor, political, and social developments of the Gilded Age, including business leaders and Native American history.

The Gilded Age

A period from $1870$-$1900$ characterized by incredible industrial growth alongside fostered corruption and greed.

Laissez-Faire

An economic policy of letting businesses do as they please without government interference.

Bessemer Process

A technique used to mass-produce steel from iron, which fueled industrial expansion.

Alexander Graham Bell

The inventor who created the telephone during the new era of industrialization.

Thomas Edison

An inventor who perfected the incandescent light bulb, changing daily life and industry.

Transcontinental Railroad

A rail link completed in $1869$ that connected the East and West coasts of the United States.

Social Darwinism

A theory applying biological concepts like natural selection and survival of the fittest to human society and business.

Protestant work ethic

The notion of individual responsibility that made the ideas of Social Darwinism appealing to the wealthy.

Robber Barons

A negative term for powerful business leaders who grew wealthy through low wages, monopolies, and market control.

Captains of Industry

A positive term for business leaders whose innovations and philanthropy contributed positively to the country.

Philanthropist

A person who seeks to promote the welfare of others, often by the generous donation of money to good causes, such as Carnegie and Rockefeller.

Jay Gould

A financier and railroad tycoon who famously said, "I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half."

Andrew Carnegie

A businessman who controlled almost the entire steel industry using vertical and horizontal integration.

Vertical Integration

A business strategy identifying the purchase of companies at all levels of production, from raw materials to distribution.

Horizontal Integration

A business strategy involving the purchase of competing companies within the same industry.

John D. Rockefeller

The founder of the Standard Oil Company who established a monopoly through trusts and mergers.

Trusts

Firms or corporations that combine for the purpose of reducing competition and controlling prices.

Sweatshops

Workplaces associated with low wages and poor conditions, often the only jobs available for women and children.

Industrial Unions

Organizations that provided unskilled workers with dignity, solidarity, and the power to fight for better working conditions.

Haymarket Affair

An event involving a labor protest that turned violent, representing the struggle between workers and employers.

Political Machine

An organized group, such as NYC’s Tammany Hall, that controlled a city’s political parties and secured immigrant loyalty.

Political Bosses

Individuals who controlled access to city jobs, business licenses, and influenced courts and police.

Boss Tweed (William M. Tweed)

The leader of Tammany Hall in NYC who headed the Tweed Ring and defrauded the city of millions of dollars.

Tweed Ring Scandal

A political corruption scandal in NYC that broke in $1871$ involving the theft of public funds.

Ellis Island

The main U.S. immigration station in New York Harbor that processed about $17$ million immigrants between $1892$ and $1924$.

Angel Island

An immigrant processing station in San Francisco Bay where immigrants, primarily from Asia, endured harsh questioning.

Melting Pot

The idea that the US is a place where various cultures blend together, often requiring immigrants to abandon native traditions.

Nativism

Overt favoritism toward native-born Americans and the belief that Anglo-Saxons are superior to other ethnic groups.

Chinese Exclusion Act

An $1882$ law that banned entry to most Chinese immigrants, marking the first significant restrictive immigration law in the U.S.

Urbanization

The rapid growth of cities, largely driven by industrialization and the influx of immigrants seeking factory jobs.

Tenement Housing

Overcrowded, multi-family buildings where the working class lived in often unsanitary conditions.

Great Chicago Fire

An $1871$ conflagration that killed hundreds, destroyed $17,450$ buildings, and caused $200$ million dollars in damage.

The Great Plains

A region in the central U.S. that saw a boom in cattle industry and white settlement, impacting Native American life.

Sand Creek Massacre

An $1864$ attack by the US Army on a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians in Colorado where $150$ died.

Sitting Bull

A chief of the Hunkpapa Lakota and spiritual leader who resisted U.S. expansion and had a vision of victory at Little Bighorn.

Battle of Little Bighorn

An $1876$ confrontation in Montana where Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and Native American tribes killed George A. Custer and his men.

George A. Custer

The U.S. military leader who was killed along with all his men during the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Wounded Knee

The massacre in $1890$ at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota where $300$ unarmed Lakota Sioux were killed by the US military.

Cultural Assimilation

A policy aiming to integrate Native Americans into mainstream U.S. society by forcing them to adopt English and Christianity.

The Dawes Act

An $1887$ law intended to break up tribal lands and encourage Native Americans to take up individual farming.

Carlisle Indian School

A boarding school for Native American children with the motto: "Kill the Indian, save the man."

Tammany Hall

The New York City political machine that influenced local government through patronage and corruption.

Standard Oil Company

The oil monopoly founded by John D. Rockefeller that dominated the industry through aggressive mergers.