Social studies

Patent

Document giving inventors sole rights to make and sell their products.

Natural resource

Materials such as minerals, timber, oil, coal that occur in nature and can be used for economic gain.

Bessemer Process

A process developed in the late 1850s that led to faster and cheaper steel production.

Andrew Carnegie

Industrialist and humanitarian who focused on steelmaking and made a fortune through vertical integration.

Vertical Integration

Ownership of the businesses involved in each step of the manufacturing process.

Business cycle

Pattern of good and bad economic times.

John D. Rockefeller

American industrialist and philanthropist who made a fortune in the oil business using horizontal integration.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Railroad tycoon.

J.P. Morgan

Banking and finance leader who bailed out the US Government during the Panic of 1873.

Laissez-Faire

"Hands-off" approach where the government does not interfere with big business.

Survival of the Fittest/Social Darwinism

The concept that only the best and biggest companies survive.

Horizontal integration

Ownership of all businesses in a certain field.

Industrial Pioneer

Entrepreneur considered a leader in their industry because of positive contributions.

Robber Baron

A business leader who became wealthy through unfair or questionable business practices.

Monopoly

Complete control over an entire supply of goods or a service in a particular market.

Assembly Line

A process that greatly reduced the cost of building a product, thus making cars more affordable.

Mass production

Producing large quantities of goods which results in lower prices.

Old immigrants

Term used for immigrants who arrived in the United States before the 1880s.

New immigrants

Term for immigrants who arrived in the United States beginning in the 1880s.

Steerage

An area of the ship in the lower levels where cramped quarters were provided for people who could only afford a cheap passage.

Tenements

Poorly built, overcrowded apartment buildings.

Sweatshops

Workplaces with long hours of labor in hot and unhealthy working conditions.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Law that banned Chinese people from entering the United States for ten years, starting in 1882.

Push factor

Reasons that cause people to move from one country to another.

Pull factor

Reasons that attract people to a new country.

Assimilation

Process by which a person or a group's language and/or culture come to resemble those of another group.

Ellis Island

Entry port where immigrants from Europe arrived.

Angel Island

Entry port where immigrants arriving from Asia were processed.

Nativist

A person who wanted to limit immigration and protect the interests of people born in the United States.

Communism

An economic and political system where all property is owned by the government and wealth is shared equally among citizens.

Capitalism

An economic system where private individuals or businesses own property and operate for profit.

Emma Lazarus’ Poem

"The New Colossus," a poem written on the Statue of Liberty that welcomes immigrants to America.

America’s Description vs. Reality

America was described as a land of freedom and opportunity, but many immigrants faced discrimination, poverty, and poor living and working conditions.

Union

A group of workers organized to protect their rights and improve wages and working conditions.

Pullman Strike

A major 1894 strike by railroad workers protesting wage cuts; the U.S. government sent troops to end it.

Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion

An uprising in 1794 where farmers protested a whiskey tax; President Washington sent federal troops to stop it, proving the new government’s authority.

Political Cartoons

Drawings that criticized powerful business leaders like Rockefeller and opposed laissez-faire policies, advocating that the government should regulate big business.