U.S. History Part III - Gilded Age to Great Depression

The Gilded Age

1870s-1880s

The economic boom due to increased industrialization in the North and immigrant labor

John D. Rockerfeller

Oil tycoon

J.P. Morgan

Banking tycoon

Gustavus Smith

Meat processing tycoon

Andrew Carnegie

Steel tycoon

E.H. Harriman

Western Railroads (2nd wave)

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Eastern Railroads (1st wave)

Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

Aimed to end price-fixing, kickbacks for the wealthy corporations & discriminatory rates against farmers

Created a commission to regulate big business

American Federation of Labor (1886)

the largest and longest-lasting labor union to unite many Craft unions to address wages, hours, & safety

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

Aimed to break up monopolies & trusts to create competition

Unsuccessful until Teddy Roosevelt became Pres.

Social Darwinism

Survival of the fittest

Gospel of Wealth

Belief that the wealthy and powerful were biologically superior and worked harder, while the poor were naturally weak, lazy, or inferior.

Ellis & Angel Islands

the Fed’l govt assumed responsibility of processing immigrants

1892 - NYC

1910 - San Fran

The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

banned citizenship for Chinese Amer. & ended immigration from China to stop economic competition

Pres. C. Arthur

tenements

overcrowded, unsanitary, and unsafe housing apartments

Jacob Riis

Author of “How the other half lives” (1889) about the need for tenement reform

California in 1848

gold rush which led to the mining frontier

boomtowns

Ranching problems (3)

open-range grazing cattle

land conflicts between ranchers & farmers

barbed wire

The Homestead Act of 1862

gave incentives for settlers to move west & establish farms

dry farming

new farming technique to help agriculture in arid regions since there was a lack of water

• deep plowing

• dust mulch

• field rotation

Imperialism

the expansion of political, cultural, and technological influence beyond the borders of a country

The Economic Panic of 1893

• railroad expansion & debt

• silver crisis

• Mass unemployment

Reasons for Imperialism (4)

1. Social Darwinism - U.S. must expand for resources to survive

2. Spread Christianity

3. Expand Business - U.S. companies claimed land to exploit resources, labor, & reduce tariffs

4. Military interest - U.S. needed to exert its strength for ports & int’l trade

Spanish-American War (1898)

U.S. vs, Spain (in the Phillipines & Cuba)

Tariff of 1894

Restricted sugar imports to U.S. from Cuba

led to the Cuban Revolution against Spain

The U.S. role in the Cuban Revolution (2)

U.S. backed Cuba in the Revolution & launched an attack against Spain in the Philippines

The Rough Riders

Teddy Roosevelt resigned from gov’t to lead a volunteer cavalry to Cuba

The result of the Spanish-American War (1898) for the U.S.

The U.S. got the Philippines, Guam, & Puerto Rico

The 3 Imperialism Presidents

McKinley

Teddy Roosevelt

Taft

Causes of the Spanish-American War (1898) (4)

• Cuban Revolution

• Yellow Journalism (sensational stories in newspapers)

• The De Lome Letter (Sp-Amer. ambassador called McKinley weak)

• USS Maine sunk in Cuba

Pres. William McKinley known for (5)

• social darwinism

• Spanish-American War

• Annexed the Philippines

• Made the gold standard in the U.S.

• Assassinated (created secret service)

Results of the Spanish-American War (5)

• Teller Amendment - U.S. troops in Cuba, but Cuba would be independent

• Rough Riders gained international recognition

• Platt Amendment

• Philippine-American War - Filipinos did not want to be a U.S. territory

• 1904 World’s Fair Exhibit of Filipinos & the poor treatment of Filipinos under American occupation

Platt Amendment

Cuba can’t make treaties with other countries

Ceded Guantanamo Bay to the US

US has "the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence”

Annexation of Hawaii

1900 (state in 1959)

Sanford Dole wanted to seize fr sugar & fruit

Annexation of Alaska

1867 (state in 1959)

U.S. bought Alaska from Russia

Why did the U.S. want Alaska? (3)

• resources: gold, fur, fisheries

• trade with China & Japan

• To be more powerful in the Pacific

The Progressive Era years

1890s-1930s

Granges

farming community groups, who wanted labor reforms

The Greenback Party

a political party formed by farmers & labor reformers to fight economic hardship by increasing the nation's money supply.

16th Amendment

1913 - Federal Income Tax

17th Amendment

1913 - Direct Election of Senators by voters

18th Amendment

1919 - Prohibition - no sale/transport of alcohol

19th Amendment

1920 - Women’s Suffrage

20th Amendment

1933 - Lame duck period - Shortened the time between elections & taking office.

21st Amendment

1933 - Repeal of Prohibition - gave control of liquor laws back to the states

The Temperance Movement

social & religious crusade to ban alcohol

The Populist Party

Western and Southern farmers joined forces with urban factory workers to create a party that put the "common people" ahead of Wall Street industrialists.

Jane McCallum

led TX suffrage

became the first Secretary of State under 2 Governors

Frances Wright

founded the Working Women’s Association in NYC (1829)

Immigration Act of 1924

made immigrant quotas

Langston Hughes

world-famous American poet, novelist, and playwright who served as the leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance

Zora Neale Hurston