Key Themes of AP US History: Period 6 (1865-1898)

APUSH

Industrialization

Large scale industrialization and advances in technology gave rise to capitalism and the era of big business.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

A business tycoon who amassed a fortune in the steamboat business and invested this fortune in the consolidation of many smaller rail lines under one company, the New York Central Railroad.

Andrew Carnegie

A businessman who became one of the wealthiest individuals in America through the steel industry.

John D. Rockefeller

A businessman who became one of the wealthiest individuals in America through the oil industry.

New York Central Railroad

A railroad company founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt that consolidated many smaller rail companies, standardized gauges, and popularized steel rails.

Union Pacific Railroad

One half of the Transcontinental Railroad that began building its portion from Omaha, Nebraska, and moved westward.

Central Pacific Railroad

Led by Leland Stanford, it set out to build the most difficult stretch of the transcontinental railroad from Sacramento, California, through the Sierra Nevada mountains and eastward.

Leland Stanford

A wealthy merchant during the California Gold Rush who served as Governor of California and as its Senator, and led the Central Pacific Railroad.

Promontory Point

The point at which the rail lines of the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad finally met on May 10, 1869.

Social Darwinism

An intellectual movement that attempted to justify a wealthy elite class as natural and inevitable.

Gospel of Wealth

A view that urged the wealthy and big business to help the less fortunate.

Plessy v. Ferguson

A Supreme Court case from 1896 that upheld racial segregation and marked a major setback for African Americans.

Migration

The increase of movement to and within the United States, particularly to cities that became areas of economic growth.

Gilded Age

A period characterized by new intellectual and cultural movements, often associated with the rise of big business and economic growth.

Economic downturns

Financial crises caused by aggressive financial methods during the rise of big business.

Farmers and unions

Groups that called for stronger governmental protections to regulate the economy and safeguard the rights of workers due to the rise of big business.

Ethnic groups

Multiple groups that vied for control of the Western frontier during the period of increased migration.

Cultural tensions

Conflicts that continued nationwide as various ethnic groups migrated and settled in the United States.

African American reformers

Individuals who continued to strive for political and social equality in the face of escalating violence and discrimination.

Chinese laborers

Workers who built most of the Central Pacific's line during the construction of the transcontinental railroad.

Chinese Exclusion Act

A law that restricted Chinese immigration and labor, reflecting the tensions of the time.

Promontory Point

The point at which the rail lines of the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad finally met on May 10, 1869. This marked the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Robber barons

A pejorative name for investors who artificially inflated the value of their company's stock, sold the stock to the public, and pocketed the profits.

Alexander Graham Bell

A Scottish-born scientist best known for patenting the telephone in 1876 and founding the Bell Telephone Company in 1879.

Bessemer process

Developed by an English inventor, this process revolutionized steel production by making it faster and cheaper.

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish immigrant who became a titan of industry, focusing on innovation, investment in technology, and keeping costs low.

Carnegie Steel Company

A company founded and owned by Andrew Carnegie that supplied over half the world's steel at its height.

Vertical integration

The process of controlling every aspect of the production process for a product, from the acquisition of raw materials to the distribution of the final product.

J.P. Morgan

A notable investment banker who helped railroads and other major corporations raise capital and consolidated the steel industry to form U.S. Steel.

U.S. Steel

The first corporation in history with a capitalization of over one billion dollars, formed by J. P. Morgan.

John D. Rockefeller

The richest American of all time, worth well over $300 billion when adjusted for inflation, who monopolized the oil industry.

Standard Oil Company

An oil refining company owned by John D. Rockefeller that controlled 95 percent of U.S. refineries at its height.

Horizontal integration

The process of merging companies that all compete in one aspect of a long production process, creating either a monopoly or an oligopoly.

Trust

Also called a corporate trust, it was a common form of monopoly around the turn of the twentieth century. Essentially, the stockholders of several companies would sell their stock to the owner of a larger company in exchange for trust certificates, which entitled them to a share of the profits as silent partners.

Panic of 1893

An economic depression caused by the failure of the Reading Railroad company and by over-speculation artificially inflating the price of stocks. The market did not recover for almost four years.

Interlocking directorates

When the members of a company's board of directors also serve on the board of other companies, thus linking those companies at the management level. This practice often leads to accusations of corruption and conflict of interest.

Monopolies

The total or near-total domination of an industry by one business. Monopolies can artificially fix prices and stifle innovation, as a lack of competition means they have little reason to reinvest their profits in improving their products.

Laissez-faire

First articulated by the economist Adam Smith in his treatise The Wealth of Nations, laissez-faire economics states that natural market forces, not government regulations or subsidies, should control the marketplace.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

A nationwide strike that took place from July 14 to September 4, 1877. More than 100,000 railroad workers were ultimately involved, and the strike affected such cities as Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Chicago.

Rutherford B. Hayes

Nineteenth President. Served 1877-1881. While a Civil War veteran and a Republican, he ended Reconstruction as part of the Compromise of 1877 to resolve the disputed 1876 election.

Scabs

A type of strikebreaker. Specifically, someone who crosses a picket line of striking workers in order to take up a striking worker's job.

Locking out

A practice where workers were locked out of their place of employment before a strike even started, in order to avoid a sit-down strike or work stoppage.

Blacklisting

A method of subverting labor organizing. 'Difficult' workers were barred from being hired, or forced to knuckle under and sign a yellow-dog contract.

Yellow-dog contract

A document that a prospective employee was forced to sign in order to secure a job. The worker agreed to not join a union.

National Labor Union

The first attempt to organize all workers nationwide.

Knights of Labor

Founded as a secret society in 1869, and elected Terence V. Powderly its leader the following year 1879. Under his leadership, the union announced itself in 1881. One of their strengths was that it was a broad industrial union: all wage workers (skilled, unskilled, women, and minorities) were invited to join. The Knights advocated for both economic and social reforms, such as the development of labor cooperatives, an eight-hour workday, and federal regulation of business. They preferred to use arbitration rather than violent strikes. Entered terminal decline after the Haymarket Square Riot.

Panic of 1873

A financial crisis that created an economic depression (1873-1879). It had several interlocking causes that reflected the period's increasingly globalized economy. Initially referred to as the Great Depression until the far more severe economic crisis of that name in the 1930s.

Terence V. Powderly

Leader of the Knights of Labor. Elected in 1879, he preferred use of arbitration to settle disputes between labor and management, rather than violent strikes.

Haymarket Square Riot

On May 4, 1886, a rally in support of the eight-hour workday was held in Chicago's Haymarket Square. When police began to break up what had been a peaceful public meeting, someone in the crowd threw a bomb at the police, and police fired into the crowd. Several dozens were killed. Rumors circulated that alleged the Knights of Labor were tried to the anarchist bombing, which fatally weakened the Knights. However, Haymarket Square ultimately became a global rallying point for the eight-hour workday. May Day began, in part, as an international commemoration for Haymarket Square.

American Federation of Labor

Founded in 1886, the AFL was a federation of 20 craft unions (unions of skilled workers, each representing a particular trade). The AFL concentrated on what they considered to be basic economic issues, such as the eight-hour workday and higher wages, rather than social change. Because the AFL was made up of skilled rather than unskilled laborers, their workers could not be as easily replaced by scabs if a strike were called.

Collective bargaining

The practice of negotiating between owners and a designation group of employees that represent all other employees.

Closed shops

Businesses in which all employees had to be members of the union. Meant to deter exploitation of laborers by owners.

Strikebreaking

The process of breaking a strike to avoid making concessions to workers, either through violence or through the use of replacement workers. In the nineteenth century, the government often sided with businesses, and would authorize the use of the National Guard or U.S. Army troops on striking workers.

Homestead Strike

A major strike in 1892 at the Carnegie Steel Company's Homestead, Pennsylvania factory. After the workers went on strike, and the factory's manager hired 300 private Pinkerton detectives to protect the plant and enable strikebreakers to enter and restart the steel operations. After an exchange of gunfire between the Pinkerton men and the workers, nine strikers and seven Pinkerton men were dead and many more people were wounded. Pennsylvania's governor sent in 8,000 state militia to assist scabs to enter the mill.

Pullman Palace Car Company

A company that manufactured sleeping cars for the railroads and constructed a 'model town' for its employees outside Chicago.

Grover Cleveland

Twenty-second and twenty-fourth President, the only president to serve non-consecutive terms, and supported the gold standard.

In re Debs

A landmark 1895 Supreme Court case that ruled the use of court injunctions to break strikes was justified in support of interstate commerce.

Turner's 'Frontier Thesis'

An idea articulated by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893, arguing that the frontier's existence shaped the American character.

Forty-Niners

Nickname for an influx of immigrants to California in 1849 seeking riches in the gold rush, including many Chinese immigrants.

Greenback Party

A third party formed in 1874 and disbanded in 1889, existing alongside the Farmers' Alliance and later merging into the Populist Party.

Homestead Act of 1862

A law providing a settler with 160 acres of land if they promised to live on it and work it for at least five years.

Sodbusters

A nickname for homesteaders on the Great Plains, who faced difficulties such as drought and insect plagues.

National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry

Founded in 1867 by Oliver H. Kelley, it was a fraternity of farmers seeking to break the hold of railroad owners and middlemen.

Populist Party

Also known as the People's Party.

Panic of 1893

An economic crisis that led to the termination of half the workers at Pullman Palace Car Company and a 25 percent wage cut.

Labor Day

A holiday created as a conciliatory gesture towards U.S. labor in the aftermath of the Pullman Strike and other strikes.

Haymarket Square Riot

An event associated with labor protests that contributed to the creation of Labor Day.

Panic of 1893

An economic downturn that significantly affected the Pullman Car workers and led to nationwide strikes.

Venezuelan crisis of 1895

An event resolved by Grover Cleveland that began the reconciliation between the United States and the British Empire.

Egalitarianism

A belief in human equality that is part of Turner's 'Frontier Thesis' regarding American character.

Individualism

A key aspect of American character as described in Turner's 'Frontier Thesis'.

Exorbitant prices

High costs charged by railroad owners and middlemen that the National Grange sought to combat.

Drought

A persistent problem faced by homesteaders on the Great Plains, contributing to their struggles.

Plagues of insects

A constant nuisance for homesteaders on the Great Plains, affecting their farming efforts.

Model town

A town constructed by Pullman Palace Car Company for its employees, where the company controlled living conditions.

Interstate commerce

The economic activity that the Supreme Court case In re Debs aimed to protect through the use of injunctions.

Silver standard

A monetary system in which the value of currency is directly linked to silver.

Graduated income tax

A tax system where the tax rate increases as the taxable amount increases.

Direct election of U.S. senators

A process where voters directly elect their senators, rather than being chosen by state legislatures.

Munn v. Illinois

Supreme Court ruling (1877) that held a state had the right to regulate the practices of a business if that business served the public interest.

Interstate Commerce Act

An 1887 law that regulated and investigated railroad companies participating in interstate rail trafficking.

Interstate Commerce Commission

Authorized under the Interstate Commerce Act, originally investigated railroad companies to ensure fair rates but lacked enforcement powers in its early years.

Battle of Little Bighorn

The most famous victory of American Indian forces over the U.S. military, where the Sioux killed over 260 troops and their leader, Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer.

George Custer

A Lt. Colonel who led his men into a trap at the Battle of Little Bighorn, resulting in their destruction by Sioux warriors.

Ghost Dance movement

A Dakota Sioux movement that began in 1870 aimed at a rebirth of native tradition and repulsion of white incursion.

Battle of Wounded Knee

A massacre of over 200 American Indian men, women, and children in December 1890 in South Dakota.

Dawes Severalty Act

An 1887 act that stripped tribes of their federal recognition and land rights, granting individual families land and citizenship after 25 years if they assimilated.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Landmark Supreme Court case (1896) that upheld segregation, establishing the doctrine of 'separate but equal.'

Jim Crow laws

Laws that enforced segregation, primarily in the South, named after a famous nineteenth-century blackface act.

Booker T. Washington

A self-educated former slave who advocated for the education of African Americans to access the growing economy.

Tuskegee Institute

Founded to instruct African Americans in the industrial arts and the ability to work within the system.

Chinese Exclusion Act

This 1882 law restricted Chinese immigration to the United States, prompted by racist attitudes toward Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Nativists

Anti-immigrant activists in the nineteenth century, primarily native-born Americans who disliked the large numbers of Irish and Germans arriving in the mid-1840s.

Tammany Hall

A famous political machine in New York City, led by Boss Tweed.

Boss Tweed

A famous leader of the Tammany Hall political machine, known for corruption and for aiding small business owners, immigrants, and the poor in exchange for votes.

Political machines

An authoritarian or oligarchical political organization that commands political influence and can decide or strongly influence the outcome of elections.

Thomas Nast

A political cartoonist for Harper's Weekly, known for drawing scathing commentaries on Tammany Hall's corruption, leading to Boss Tweed's capture.

Social Gospel

An influential Protestant social justice movement that stated Christians had an obligation to improve the lives of the less fortunate, especially the poor.

Settlement house movement

A social reform movement led by young female activists aimed at achieving social reform through mixed-income houses, offering education and daycare.

Jane Addams

A pioneer in social work and winner of the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize, known for innovating the settlement house concept to ease immigrants' transition into American society.