APUSH time period 6

transcontinental railroads

Lines that cross the nation connecting East to West; Opened new markets and helped spur the Second Industrial Revolution

federal land grants

Land given by government to universities and railroad companies

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Titan of industry: Railroads

state and federal government regulation of the railroads

Nominally successful attempts by small farmers to get better shipping rates; Resulted in local laws aimed at railroad pools and rebates that benefited big business; And national laws that aimed to control interstate commerce; E.g. Wabash case (1886), Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

Interstate Commerce Commission (1887)

The first concerted effort to regulate business; Control commercial activities between states

business consolidation

Methods used to strengthen industrial corporations, including formation of trusts and holding companies, vertical integration, horizontal integration.

vertical Integration

Strategy to maximize profits by attempting to own every step of the manufacturing process (ex. Carnegie Steel)

horizontal Integration

Strategy to maximize profits by attempting to purchase competing companies in the same industry; monopoly-building (ex. Rockefeller's Standard Oil)

trusts

A.K.A. holding companies; A group of corporations run by a single board of directors; A form of business consolidation practiced during the Gilded Age of big business.

Andrew Carnegie

Titan of Industry: Steel; Author of "Gospel of Wealth"

John D. Rockefeller

Titan of industry: Oil

Standard Oil Company

John D. Rockefeller's company that gained a monopoly over the world petroleum market with the practice of trusts and swift elimination of competition.

J.P. Morgan

Titan of industry: Banking

laissez-faire policies

Free enterprise; Business is free from government intervention such as regulation, privileges, tariffs, and subsidies.

Social Darwinism

A philosophy based on the biologist Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection holding that a system of unrestrained competition (E.g. laissez-faire policies) will ensure the survival of the fittest.

Gospel of Wealth

Andrew Carnegie and others; The idea that those who accumulated wealth to share their riches for the betterment of society.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

Banned the formation of trusts and monopolies in the United States

New South

A development plan to bring manufacturing to where cotton was produced

Second Industrial Revolution

Spurred by machine tools, interchangeable parts, mass steel production, transcontinental railroad, immigrant labor

child labor

Use of under-age workers in farms, mills, and factories.

labor movement

An attempt to organize workers under the leadership of a Union

American Federation of Labor

Founded by Samuel Gompers; Sought better wages, hours, working conditions; Skilled laborers, arose out of dissatisfaction with the Knights of Labor, rejected socialism and communism.

Knights of Labor

American labor organization in the 1880s led by Terence V. Powderly. Organized a wide range of workers, including skilled and unskilled, and had broad reform goals.

Haymarket Affair (1886)

Labor dispute in Chicago that ended with a bomb being thrown at police resulting in many deaths; Led to an unfavorable public opinion of organized labor.

Samuel Gompers

Leader of the American Federation of Labor (AFL); A moderate who refuted socialism and radicalism

segregation

The separation into ethnic or racial groups in daily life: Restaurants, water fountains, public toilet, school, entertainment venues, transportation, residential neighborhoods.

Jim Crow laws

State-level legal codes, literacy requirement for voting, voter registration laws and poll taxes meant to deter blacks from voting

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

A landmark Supreme Court case that legalized segregation in public facilities on the basis of "separate but equal."

Gilded Age

A sarcastic description of the late 19th century in the United States; Suggested both the extravagant wealth of the time and the terrible poverty that lay underneath; Coined by Mark Twain.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Prohibited all Chinese except students, teachers, merchants, tourists, and government officials from entering the United States.

People's Party

(1892-96) A populist agrarian political movement that drew support from angry farmers in the West and South; Highly critical of big business and in favor of government regulation.

populism

A philosophy supporting the rights and empowerment of the masses as opposed to elites

Homestead and Pullman Strikes

Battles between corporations and labor unions; Ended with government intervention on the side of big business.

urbanization

movement of people from rural communities and settlements to big cities

New Immigrants

Eastern and Southern Europeans, especially Jews, Russians, Italians, and Poles

tenements

a multi-dwelling building, often poor and overcrowded

assimilation

the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another through language and customs

settlement houses

Private non-governmental institutions in growing cities that offered education, recreation, and social activities to poor or immigrant groups; E.g. Jane Addams's Hull House

Jane Addams

Reformer who helped poor immigrants; Established Hull House.

Booker T. Washington

Black leader who argued for gradual gain of equal rights for African-Americans through hard work and vocational training

W.E.B. Dubois

Critical of Washington's compliancy; Demanded complete equality for blacks

Ida B. Wells

Investigative journalistic accounts that showed lynchings were often caused by economic inequality and labor disputes

Susan B. Anthony

An American social reformer and feminist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement.

suffrage

the right to vote

National American Woman Suffrage Association

(Est. 1890) Organization dedicated to expanding voting rights; Significantly led by Carrie Chapman Catt

prohibition

forbidding by law the manufacture, sale, or consumption of liquor

Rutherford B. Hayes

won the election of 1876 in exchange for withdrawing the federal troops from the remaining southern states

civil service

Government employees appointed via spoils/patronage or merit

civil service reform

An extended effort led by political reformers to end the spoils system; Led to the Pendleton Act (1883), which called for government positions to be awarded based on merit rather than party loyalty.

poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses

methods used to suppress black voting in Jim Crow South

frontier

A wilderness at the edge of a settled area of a country; In the United States: the West.

frontiersman / pioneers / settlers

The migrants who first move into, live, and work into an undeveloped region

bison

the primary source of food, shelter, and clothing for the Plains Indians.

Great Plains

A mostly flat and grassy region of western North America

Plains Indians

A diverse group of Indian tribes and their languages that inhabited the West; Pacified and removed in the late 1800s Indian Wars.

Indian reservations

Ethnic cleansing into specified areas

Battle of Little Bighorn (1876)

(1876) Sioux victory over army troops led by George Custer; Also known as Custer's Last Stand.

Dawes Act

(1887) land given to individual Indians to discourage tribal mindset; encouraged Indians to farm for a living instead of communally owning land

Ghost Dance

A religious revitalization campaign among several Plains Indian tribes; An attempt to preserve cultures and tribal identities despite US government policies promoting assimilation; Outlawed by US.

Battle of Wounded Knee (1890)

Between US Army and Dakota Sioux; 200 Indians and 29 US soldiers died; Tensions erupted violently over the Sioux practice of Ghost Dance, which US Government outlawed, and dispute over whether Sioux reservation land would be broken up because of the Dawes Act.

Frederick Jackson Turner

United States historian who stressed the role of the western frontier in American history

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

Thesis argued by the historian Frederick Jackson Turner: the existence of cheap and unsettled land played a key role in making American society more democratic; the frontier helped create the American spirit of democracy and egalitarianism, acted as a safety valve for Americans to escape bad economic conditions, and stimulated nationalism and individualism

homesteaders

*Settlers who claimed land on the Great Plains under the Homestead Act.

Homestead Acts

*United States federal laws that gave an applicant ownership of land, typically called a "homestead", at little or no cost.

mechanized agriculture

Using machines in farming to increase farm production; displaced many farmers; farmers created organizations to resist corporate power, E.g. Grange, Farmers Alliance, Peoples Party

Panic of 1893

Serious economic depression due to rail road companies over-extending themselves, causing bank failures. Was the worst economic collapse in the history of the country until that point. Produced political upheaval that led to the realigning election of 1896 and the presidency of William McKinley.

New immigrant groups came from

Eastern/southern europe

new immigrant groups were primarily

catholic/orthodox/jewish

New immigrants were in search of

jobs, freedom

New immigrants left their home countries because of

overpopulation, pogroms

the 2nd generation of immigrants sought

Assimilation

Party bosses ruled in

cities. Dominated politics of late 1800s

Widening gap between rich and poor

in the late 1800s

National Labor union

Open to everyone. Led by William Sylvis. Better working conditions and pay.

Knights of labor

Open membership. Very radical. Led by terrence powderly

AFL

skilled white workers only. Only working conditions and wages. Led by samuel gompers

Politics in the gilded age consisted of

high party loyalty, high voter turnout

Women’s voting rights were expanded in

Western states

Sherman anti-trust act

bans monopolies and trusts. Rarely used.

Sherman silver purchase - 1890

leads to limited silver purchase

Populism

belief of common man

Populist party

Combination of farmers and workers unions.

Regulation of railroads. Debt, mortgages, drought caused issues.