APUSH Period 6; Topics 6.1-6.6

Topic 6.1:

• Second Industrial Revolution:

• Caused by expanding markets

• Guilded age; controlled by "captains of industry"

  • Wealthy entrepreneurs

  • Lived in European-style houses

  • Controlled large corporations

• Wealthy Europeans and Americans sold stock and bonds to expanding industries

• New York housed many new businesses

  • Lots of banking

  • Stock exchanges

  • Families such as Vanderbilts

• All of this contributed in unequal wealth distribution

• Migration and Urbanization:

• Growing industries and westward expansion

  • More immigrants

  • More migration from rural areas

    • Large urban growth

      • Unsanitary cities

      • Weak law enforcement

      • Environmental harm

• Poor urban living conditions sparked reform movements

  • Farmers protested unfair railroad rates and bank policies

  • Industrial workers protested for better wages and working hours

  • Women lead temperance campaigns (No alchohol)

Topic 6.2

• Transcontinental Railroads:

• Promoted further settlement of the frontier

• Aimed to connect California and rest of union

• Constructed by:

  • Unemployed veterans

  • Irish immigrants

  • Chinese immigrants

    • Lead by Charles Crocker

• 5 Transcontinental railroads constructed

  • Many failed as businesses, little returning profits

• "Great American Desert" refers to land btween Mississippi and California before railroads

• Buffalo herds wiped out by settlers

• The Mining Frontier:

• Discovered gold at Sutters mill

• Discovered gold at Pike's Peak, Colorado

• Comstock Lode (discovery of lots of gold and silver)

  • Lead to the introduction of Nevada to the Union

• "Boom towns"

  • Rapid population growth

  • "Wild West"

• The Cattle Frontier:

• Cowboys (Vaqueros)

• Railroads opened up eastern markets to cattle

• Farmers Organize:

• Farmers became minority in U.S. by the end of 1800s

  • Faced threats from:

    • Railroads

    • Banks

    • Global markets

• National Grange Movement

  • Social and educational organization

  • Defend farmers against middlemen (retailers, wholesalers)

• Farmers' Alliances

  • Taught scientific farming methods

  • Goal of economic and political action

  • Wanted to create inflation by creating more money

    • Would raise crop prices

• Ocala Platform

  • Called for reforms:

    • Lower tariff rates

    • Direct election of Senators

    • People with higher income, pay higher tax rates

    • Banking regulated by federal government

Topic 6.3:

• Closing of the Frontier:

• Census Bureau closed the frontier in 1890

• Frontier culture shaped by manifest destiny, immigrants, and natives.

• Turners Frontier Thesis:

  • Settling of the frontier was an evolutionary process in the building of civilization

  • 300 years of frontier experience shaped American Culture

  • People became wasteful of natural resources

• American Without the Frontier:

  • Closing of frontier worried turner

    • Saw it as a safety valve for releasing discontent

    • Promised fresh starts

• American Indians in the West:

• Sioux, Cherokee, Comanche, Crow nomadic lifestyle impacted by white settlers and eradication of buffalo

  • Buffalo hunting was primary food source

• Revolutionary Policy

  • Jackson said in 1830s that land west of Mississippi was for Indians

• Indian Wars

  • Fighting between settlers and natives

    • Battle of Little Big Horn

      • Custer defeated by Sioux

• Ghost Dancers and Wounded Knee

  • Last effort by Indians to resist white settlers

  • Religiously inspired Ghost Dance movement

  • Battle of Wounded Knee

    • U.S. Gov.t killed hundreds of Indians in the Dakotas

    • Marked the end of the Indian Wars

• Injustices of Indian Assimilation were documented by Helen Jackson

  • "Century of Dishonor"

Topic 6.4:

• The new south

• Recovering from the civil war, the south began to industrialize more and develop a self-sufficient economy

  • Alabama ‒ Developed steel factories

  • Tennessee ‒ Lumber industry

  • Virginia ‒ Tobacco industry

  • Georgia and the Carolinas overtook New England as biggest textile industry

• South became integrated into the national railroad network

• Northern financing still dominated southern economy

• South faced challenges due to less education than the north

• Agriculture and Poverty

• Southern economy still relied on cotton

  • Cotton prices declined due to the influx of product

• Sharecroppers made up most of workforce

  • Typically black workers would be compensated for farm work with portion of the crops

• George Washington Carver promoted growing:

  • Peanuts

  • Sweet potatoes

  • Soy beans

    • Played a role in shifting southern economy to more diverse crops (not just cotton)

• Segregation

• Democrats in power in the south

  • Supported by white supremacists

  • Supported by wealthy

  • Known as "The Redeemers"

• Civil Rights Cases of 1883

  • Congress could not ban discrimination from businesses and private citizens

• Plessy vs Ferguson

  • Ruled for "separate but equal" railroad passengers

    • Allowed for segregation

      • Lead to the Jim Crow Laws

        • "Grandfather clauses" allowed someone to vote if their grandfather could (preventing black people)

• Response to Segregation

• Ida B. Wells (Editor of Memphis Free Speech)

  • campaigned against lynching and Jim Crow Laws

• Booker T. Washington

  • Believed that black people should not challenge segregation

    • Should work hard in their jobs instead

  • Founded Tuskegee Institute

    • Taught black people industrial and agricultural skills

• Atlanta Compromise

  • Black and white people were responsible for making the south prosperous

• Washington was praised by many whites for not opposing segregation, and supporting a strong southern economy

• W.E.B Du Bois argued for an end to segregation

  • Disagreed with washington

Topic 6.5

• Inventions

• Transatlantic Cable

  • Cyprus W. Fields

  • Allowed to send messages across the seas

    • Internationalized prices for products

• Telephone

  • Alexander Graham Bell

• Kodak Camera

  • George Eastman

• Steel Industry

• Henry Bessemer (New England), William Kelley

  • Discovered new way for mass producing steel from molten iron

    • Great Lakes region became main steel producer

• Growth of Cities and Technology

• Streetcar cities

  • Allowed people to live further from their jobs

• Electric trolleys

• Subways

• Elevated railroads

• The Brooklyn Bridge

• Skyscrapers

  • Allowed for upward expansion rather than outward

    • William Le Baron Jenny

• Consumer Economy

  • Refrigeration

  • Packaged foods

  • Advertising

  • Canning

Topic 6.6

• The rise of Industrial Capitalism

• Railroads

  • Nations first big business

    • Jay Gould; Example of people exploiting industry for quick profit

Landmark Events: 1850-1900:

• 1869→Transcontinental railroad

• 1870→John D. Rockefeller founds standard oil

• 1876→Custer defeated at Battle of Little Big Horn (lost to natives)

• 1882→Congress bans Chinese immigrantion

• 1886→Statue of Liberty opens

• 1890→Census Bureau closes frontier

• 1893→Workers strike and shut down railroads

• 1896→Plessy v. Ferguson approves segregation

• 1896→William McKinley becomes president (republican)

Significant Legislation:

• Homestead Act (1862):

  • Granted 160 acres of public land to settlers if they'd farm on it for 5 years.

  • Encouraged westward expansion and settlement, contributed to Native American displacement.

• Morill Land-Grant Act (1862):

  • Granted federal lands to states in order to establish agricultural colleges.

  • Promoted agricultural education; established land-grant universities.

• 13th Amendment (1865):

  • Abolished slavery in the United States

  • Lead to the creation of "Black Codes" in the south

• The Freedmen's Bureau Act (1865):

  • Assisted poor whites and slaves in the South by providing food, shelter, etc.

  • Defunded by congress in 1872 after facing lots of disagreement from southern whites

• The Civil Rights Act of (1866):

  • Granted citizenship and equal rights to all peoples born in the U.S. (including former slaves)

  • Vetoed by president Andrew Johnson and later overridden by congress

• The Reconstruction Acts (1867):

  • Divided the south into 5 military districts. Required southern states to ratify the 14th amendment and grant african-americans voting rights before they could be readmitted into the union.

  • Key component of reconstruction

• The Fifteenth Amendment (1870):

  • Prohibited the denial of rights based on skin color, race, or previously being a slave.

  • Granted african-americans the right to vote, but the south put literacy tests in place in order to further prevent black voters.

• The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882):

  • Prohibited Chinese immigration to U.S.

• Interstate Commerce Act (1887):

  • Established the ICC (interstate commerce comission) to regulate railroads.

  • 1st federal law to regulate interstate commerce, hoped to curb railroad monopolies.

• The Dawes Act (1887):

  • Authorized the federal gov.t to break up tribal lands into plots to be sold to individuals.

  • Aimed to assimilate Native Americans into white society.

• The Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883):

  • Creates a merit-based system for gov.t jobs, ending the patronage system (spoils system).

  • Helped reduce political corruption.

• Sherman Antirust Act (1890):

  • Made it illegal to restrain trade/commerce.

  • Prevented anti-competitive business practices (tries to prevent monopolies)

  • Was weak and lacked proper enforcement