Unit 3: Industrialization and Urbanization

immigration

Migration to a new location

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

law that suspended Chinese immigration into America. The ban was supposed to last 10 years, but it was expanded several times and was essentially in effect until WWII. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law that restricted immigration into the United States of an ethnic working group.

push factors

Incentives for potential migrants to leave a place, such as a harsh climate, economic recession, or political turmoil.

pull factors

A factor that draws or attracts people to another location

Corporation

A business owned by stockholders who share in its profits but are not personally responsible for its debts

Monopoly

Complete control of a product or business by one person or group

Trust

Several companies turn their stock over to a dominant company in exchange for trust certificates which allow them to share in the new company's profits but do not control its decisions

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. By 1901, his company dominated the American steel industry.

Social Darwinism

the theory that human groups and races are subject to the same laws of natural selection as Charles Darwin had perceived in plants and animals in nature.

Bessemer Process

A cheap and efficient process for making steel, developed around 1850

Assembly line

Production method that breaks down a complex job into a series of smaller tasks

Tenements

Poorly built, overcrowded housing where many immigrants lived

collective bargaining

Process by which a union representing a group of workers negotiates with management for a contract

Knights of Labor (1869)

Nationwide labor union that was open to all workers. The union reached its peak in 1886 before beginning a decline in membership.

American Federation of Labor (1886)

founded by Samuel Gompers; sought better wages, hrs, working conditions; skilled laborers, arose out of dissatisfaction with the Knights of Labor, rejected socialist and communist ideas, non-violent.

Urbanization

Movement of people from rural areas to cities

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

March 1911 fire in New York factory that trapped young women workers inside locked exit doors; nearly 50 ended up jumping to their death; while 100 died inside the factory; led to the establishment of many factory reforms, including increasing safety precautions for workers

Thomas Edison

Invented the light bulb

Company town

a town in which most or all buildings and small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations are owned by a single company

Free enterprise

Economic system in which individuals and businesses are allowed to compete for profit with a minimum of government interference

Entrepreneurship

the process of bringing together the three factors of production - natural resources, labor and capital - the person who does this is an entrepreneur.

Haymarket Riot

1886 labor rally protest called by Chicago anarchists and laborers which ended in deadly violence (7 police officers dead).

Homestead Strike

1892 steelworker strike near Pittsburgh against the Carnegie Steel Company. Pinkerton detectives fought with the workers and workers were killed in a riot when "scab" labor was brought in to force an end to the strike.

Pullman Strike

in Chicago, Pullman cut wages but refused to lower rents in the "company town", Eugene V. Debs had American Railway Union refuse to use Pullman cars. Debs was thrown in jail after being sued, strike achieved nothing.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

United States financier who accumulated great wealth from railroad and shipping businesses (1794-1877)

J. Piermont Morgan

A banker who took improved railroading systems by taking them over, reorganizing their administration, refinancing their debts, and building system alliances. Also founded US Steel Corporation.

John D. Rockefeller

Was a ruthless American industrialist and philanthropist. Revolutionized the petroleum(oil) industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy.

Gilded age

1870s-1890s
*Phase coined by Mark Twain to describe the new industrial era
*America emerged as the world's leading industrial and agricultural producer
*Profits became increasingly centralized in the hands of fewer people