Big Business, Industrialization, and the Gilded Age

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, influential figures, government policies, immigration stations, and labor developments during American industrialization and the Gilded Age.

Merger

When two companies combine into one.

Monopoly

When one company controls an entire industry or market.

Holding Company

A company that owns enough stock in other companies to control them.

Trust

A group of companies that join together under one organization to reduce competition.

Undercutting

Selling something for less than competitors to attract customers.

Christopher Sholes

Invented the first commercially successful typewriter.

Alexander Bell

Invented and patented the telephone.

George Pullman

Built railroad sleeping cars and operated a company town for his workers.

Social Darwinism

The belief that competition makes the strongest people and businesses successful.

Scabs

Workers who replace employees during a strike.

Andrew Carnegie

Steel industrialist who built a huge steel business.

Yellow Dog Contract

An agreement in which workers promised not to join a labor union.

Thomas Edison

Inventor who developed a practical incandescent light bulb and other inventions.

Orville & Wilbur Wright

Brothers credited with making the first successful powered airplane flight in 1903.

Pauline Newman

Labor organizer who fought for better working conditions, especially for women workers.

Uriah Stephens

Founded the Knights of Labor, a major labor organization.

Mary Harris Jones

Also called Mother Jones; a labor activist who fought for workers' rights.

Eugene Debs

Labor leader who helped organize the American Railway Union.

Samuel Gompers

Founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which fought for better wages and working conditions.

Sherman Antitrust Act

An 1890 law intended to limit monopolies and business practices that restrained trade.

Patronage

Giving government jobs to political supporters.

Pendleton Civil Service Act

A law requiring competitive exams for many federal government jobs.

Nativists

People who favored native-born Americans and opposed immigration.

Graft

Corrupt political practice exemplified by a politician accepting money in exchange for a government favor.

Standard Time and Time Zones

System introduced to coordinate railroad schedules and prevent confusion.

William Graham Sumner

Thinker who believed in Social Darwinism and applied ideas about competition and survival to society.

Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)

Agency through which the federal government was given the right to supervise railroad activities under the Interstate Commerce Act.

Tammany Hall

A powerful Democratic political organization in NYC known for its political machine.

Labor Union Objectives

Higher wages, shorter working hours, and better working conditions.

Ellis Island

Immigration station through which approximately 16 million immigrants passed from 1892–1924.

Thomas Nast

The political cartoonist who helped expose and bring down Boss Tweed.

Laissez-faire

The economic approach where the government does not regulate or interfere with the marketplace.

Horizontal Integration

When a company buys out all of its competition.

Vertical Integration

When a company buys out its suppliers.

Henry Bessemer

Inventor whose steelmaking process made steel production cheaper and faster, from whom Andrew Carnegie learned to make better steel.

Late 1800s New York City

An urban environment characterized by rapid population growth, immigration, crowded tenements, poverty, and political machines.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Legislation supported by nativists who opposed immigration.

Kickbacks

Illegal payments given in return for special treatment or a favor.

Angel Island

The immigration processing station located in San Francisco Bay.

Strike Violence Causes

Occurred when employers hired strikebreakers and private guards, and police or troops intervened.

Haymarket Affair

A labor rally in Chicago in 1886 that turned violent after a bomb exploded during a confrontation with police.

John D. Rockefeller

Industrialist who dominated the oil industry.

J. P. Morgan

Industrialist who acquired other businesses through investment banking.

Political Machines

Organizations that drew support from immigrants and the poor by offering jobs, food, housing assistance, and other help in exchange for votes.