Chapter 20 | Industrial Era - The Gilded Age | Honors U.S. History

Essential Questions for this Unit: * What impact did technology have on the industrial development of the United States and the Global World? * How does technology change the way people live and work? * What global factors caused immigrants to come to the United States and how did they impact society?

Consolidation

combining of railroad companies in the 19th C.

Railroad Baron

powerful and aggressive businessmen who controlled the nation's railroads

Standard Gauge Track

all train tracks after the Civil War became a standard width to make travel easier. This way all trains could use the same tracks

rebate

a discount or refund to large customers of railroad companies

pool

a group sharing in some activity, for example, among railroad barons who made secret agreements and set rates among themselves

Model T

A cheap and simple car designed by Ford. It allowed for more Americans to own a car.

Assembly Line

In a factory, an arrangement where a product is moved from worker to worker, with each person performing a single task in the making of the product.

Mass Production

production of goods in large numbers through the use of machinery and assembly lines

Factors of Production

Land, labor, and capital; the three groups of resources that are used to make all goods and services

Entrepreneur

a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.

Corporation

A business that is owned by many investors.

Stock

A share of ownership in a corporation.

Vertical Integration

Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution

Horizontal Integration

Type of monopoly where a company buys out all of its competition. Ex. Rockefeller

Monopoly

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

Pure Competition

A market structure characterized by an extremely large number of sellers, none strong enough to significantly influence price or supply

merger

Combination of two or more companies into a single firm

sweatshop

A shop or factory where workers work long hours at low wages under unhealthy conditions

labor union

An organization of workers that tries to improve working conditions, wages, and benefits for its members

collective bargaining

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

Strikebreakers

workers hired to do the jobs of striking workers until the labor dispute is resolved

injunction

a court order that prevents a person or group from performing a certain act. Example - an order to prevent a union from striking.

factors of production

materials, labor, and capital; the three groups of resources that are used to make all goods and services

John D. Rockefeller

Was an American industrialist and philanthropist. Revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy.

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.

Bessemer Process

A way to manufacture steel quickly and cheaply by blasting hot air through melted iron to quickly remove impurities.

Samuel Gompers

He was the creator of the American Federation of Labor. He provided a stable and unified union for skilled workers.

Terence Powderly

led the Knights of Labor, a skilled and unskilled union, wanted equal pay for equal work, an 8hr work day and to end child labor

Mary Harris Jones

Labor organizer, known as Mother Jones. She fought for coal workers' rights by speaking in Appalachian mining towns, encouraging them to join unions. She also faught for child labor laws.

Homestead Strike

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

mccormick harvester company strike

strike over low wages. led to the haymarket square event in chicago.

Haymarket Square Riot

A demonstration of striking laborers in Chicago in 1886 that turned violent, killing a dozen people and injuring over a hundred.

Pullman Strike

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

Knights of Labor

labor union that sought to organize all workers and focused on broad social reforms

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.