The Gilded Age & The Progressives

1. Corporation

A business legally separate from its owners, often owned by shareholders.

2. Impact of corporations

Created jobs and goods but increased inequality and business power.

3. Vertical integration

Controlling every stage of production, from raw materials to sales.

4. Horizontal integration

Buying or merging with competing companies in the same industry.

5. Monopoly

When one company controls most or all of an industry.

6. Trust

A group of companies controlled together to limit competition.

7. Robber barons vs. captains of industry

Robber barons exploited workers; captains of industry contributed to economic growth.

8. Andrew Carnegie

Steel industrialist who used vertical integration and donated much of his wealth.

9. Gospel of Wealth

Carnegie's belief that the wealthy should use their money to help society.

10. Social Darwinism

The idea that the strongest succeed, used to justify wealth inequality.

11. Sherman Antitrust Act

An 1890 law intended to limit trusts and monopolies restraining trade.

12. Unions

Worker organizations that fight for better pay, hours, and conditions.

13. Sweatshops

Workplaces with low pay, long hours, and unsafe conditions.

14. Gilded Age working conditions

Long hours, low wages, dangerous workplaces, and little job security.

15. Collective bargaining

Workers negotiate with employers as a group, often through a union.

16. New immigrants and tenements

Many immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe and lived in crowded city apartments called tenements.

17. Immigrant experiences

Many faced poverty, discrimination, language barriers, and overcrowded housing.

18. Chain migration

Immigrants follow family or community members to a new country.

19. Settlement houses

Community centers offering education, childcare, and services to poor and immigrant families.

20. Chinese Exclusion Act

An 1882 law that banned most Chinese laborers from immigrating.

21. Nativism

Favoring native-born Americans and opposing immigration.

22. Gilded Age

Late 1800s era of industrial growth, extreme inequality, and political corruption.

23. Great Migration

Movement of millions of African Americans from the South to other regions, especially northern cities, seeking opportunity and escaping racism.

24. Transcontinental Railroad

Completed in 1869, it connected East and West, sped up trade, and encouraged western settlement.

25. Political machines and party bosses

Machines traded services and jobs for votes; bosses controlled the political organization.

26. Presidential power in the Gilded Age

Presidents were often limited by Congress and powerful party leaders.

27. Populist Party aims

Help farmers and workers through railroad regulation, income tax, and free silver.

28. Spoils system

Giving government jobs to political supporters.

29. Pendleton Civil Service Act

An 1883 law requiring merit-based exams for certain government jobs.

30. Interstate Commerce Act and ICC

The 1887 law regulated railroads; the ICC enforced federal railroad regulation.

31. Election of 1896

McKinley defeated Bryan, weakening Populism and strengthening Republican dominance.

32. Progressives

Reformers who fought corruption, inequality, unsafe workplaces, and other problems of industrial society.

33. Muckrakers

Journalists who exposed corruption and social problems.

34. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

A 1911 factory fire killed 146 workers and prompted stronger workplace safety reforms.

35. Upton Sinclair and The Jungle

A writer whose 1906 novel exposed unsanitary meatpacking conditions and helped inspire food safety laws.

36. Meat Inspection Act

A 1906 law requiring federal inspection of meat in interstate commerce.

37. Pure Food and Drug Act

A 1906 law targeting adulterated or mislabeled food and drugs.

38. Child labor

Children working in factories, mines, and mills, often in dangerous conditions for little pay.

39. Booker T. Washington

Black educator who emphasized vocational training and gradual economic advancement.

40. W. E. B. Du Bois

Civil rights leader who demanded immediate equality and higher education opportunities.

41. Washington vs. Du Bois

Washington emphasized vocational skills and gradual progress; Du Bois demanded immediate civil rights and higher education.

42. Niagara Movement

A 1905 civil rights movement led by Du Bois demanding equal rights.

43. NAACP

A civil rights organization founded in 1909 to fight racism and segregation.

44. Plessy v. Ferguson

An 1896 Supreme Court case that upheld segregation under 'separate but equal.'

45. Women's suffrage

Women's right to vote.

46. 19th Amendment

Ratified in 1920, it prohibited denying voting rights on the basis of sex.

47. Australian ballot

A secret ballot that reduced intimidation and political machine influence.

48. Trustbusting

Government efforts to break up monopolies and limit corporate power.

49. Theodore Roosevelt and trustbusting

He used antitrust laws against certain monopolies and supported consumer protections.

50. Woodrow Wilson

Progressive president who supported banking, trade, and antitrust reforms.

51. Federal Reserve Act and FTC

The 1913 act created the Federal Reserve; the FTC, created in 1914, targeted unfair business practices.

52. Clayton Antitrust Act

A 1914 law strengthening antitrust rules and protecting certain union activities.

53. Causes and effects of Progressivism

Causes: corruption, inequality, unsafe work, and monopolies. Effects: reforms, regulation, and expanded political participation.

54. 16th, 17th, and 18th Amendments

16th: federal income tax. 17th: direct election of senators. 18th: prohibition of alcohol.

55. Dawes Act of 1887

Divided tribal lands into individual allotments, encouraging assimilation and causing major Native land loss.

56. Battle of Little Bighorn

Native forces defeated Custer in 1876; the U.S. intensified its military campaign against Native Americans.

57. Battle of Wounded Knee

In 1890, U.S. troops killed hundreds of Lakota Sioux, symbolizing the suppression of Native resistance on the Great Plains.