Chapter 16: The Rise of Industrial America Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, figures, legislation, and concepts from Chapter 16: The Rise of Industrial America.

Eastern Truck Lines

Major railroad lines that connected large eastern cities.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

A railroad leader who combined smaller railroads into larger systems.

Union Pacific Railroad

A railroad company that built west from Omaha, utilizing Irish immigrants and Civil War veterans as workers.

Central Pacific Railroad

A railroad company that built east from California using thousands of Chinese immigrant workers.

Promontory Point, Utah

The location where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met in 1869.

Jay Gould

A business owner known for railroad speculation and manipulating railroad stocks.

Rebates

Discounts given to certain large customers by railroad companies.

Pools

Secret arrangements in which railroad companies agreed to divide business and fix rates.

Panic of 1893

An economic downturn during which many railroad companies went bankrupt.

J.P. Morgan

A financier who reorganized and combined railroad companies after the Panic of 1893 and later bought Carnegie's steel company to create U.S. Steel.

Interstate Commerce Act of 1886

A law that created the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate railroads.

Bessemer Process

A faster and cheaper method used to produce strong steel.

Andrew Carnegie

A key leader in the steel industry who utilized vertical integration and supported the Gospel of Wealth.

Vertical Integration

A business strategy where a single company controls all different steps of making and transporting a product.

U.S. Steel

One of the largest corporations in the world, formed by J.P. Morgan by combining Carnegie's company with other steel businesses.

John D. Rockefeller

The industrialist who built Standard Oil into the nation's largest oil company through horizontal integration and trusts.

Horizontal Integration

A business approach where a company gains control over other companies operating within the same industry.

Trust

A business structure in which several companies are controlled by a single governing group.

Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

A law intended to limit monopolies and trusts by stopping businesses from preventing competition.

Laissez-Faire Capitalism

An economic belief that the government should interfere as little as possible in business.

Social Darwinism

An idea applying 'survival of the fittest' to human society, arguing that the most capable or strongest people and businesses earn their wealth and success.

Gospel of Wealth

The belief that rich individuals have a responsibility to use a portion of their wealth to benefit society.

Transatlantic Cable

A technological innovation allowing messages to travel rapidly between the United States and Europe.

Alexander Graham Bell

The inventor of the telephone.

George Eastman

The inventor who developed the Kodak camera.

Thomas Edison

An inventor who established a research laboratory and helped refine the electric light bulb and electrical systems.

George Westinghouse

An inventor who created key advancements involving electricity and railroads.