APUSH Period 6 (1)

Historical Period Overview

• Period 6 (1865-1898)

  • Key themes include:

    • Industrialization

    • Urbanization

    • Labor Movement

    • Immigration

    • Westward Expansion

    • Native American Assimilation & Genocide

    • Political Corruption

    • Jim Crow laws

    • Mass Production

    • Socialism, Communism & Anarchism

Industrialization

• 2nd Industrial Revolution (1870-1914)

  • Transition from:

    • First Revolution: Mechanical production

    • Second Revolution: Mass production, electrical power, assembly line

  • Important milestones include:

    • Speed of production and technological advancements

    • Continued evolution through third (1969) and fourth revolutions (continued expansion into AI, robotics, etc.)

Key Figures in Steel Production

• Bessemer Process: Innovated steel production leading to mass availability

• Andrew Carnegie: Founded Carnegie Steel and implemented vertical integration

Iron and Steel Production Growth (1870-1900)

• Tracking of production in millions of tons:

  • Steel and iron production steadily increased across decades

Railroads

• Key Figures:

  • Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, James Fisk, Russell Sage

• Technological advancements:

  • Standardized gauge railways

  • Morrill Land Act (1862)

  • Innovations like Pullman Palace Cars and Westinghouse Airbrake

  • Establishment of time zones in 1883

Labor Movement

• Labor Unions:

  • Origins and causes of labor strikes:

    • National Labor Union (1866)

    • Knights of Labor (1869) led by Terrance Powderly

    • Significant events:

      • Great Railroad Strike (1877)

      • Haymarket Incident (1886)

• Challenges faced by unions:

  • Employers' responses included: strikebreakers, lockouts, and blacklists

Businesses Attack Organized Labor

• Tactics used against unions included:

  • Strikebreakers/Scabs

  • Lockouts & Blacklists

  • Private guards and state militias

Government and Monopolists

• Key court cases:

  • Munn v. Illinois (1877): Affirmed government's authority to regulate private industries for the common good.

  • Wabash v. Illinois (1886): Led to Interstate Commerce Act (1887).

  • Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890): Banned monopolies but was infrequently enforced.

Key Leaders of the Black Community during the Gilded Age

• Figures:

  • Frederick Douglass

  • Booker T. Washington (Atlanta Compromise)

  • W.E.B. Du Bois (Talented Tenth & NAACP founding)

  • Ida B. Wells (active against lynching)

Women's Roles and Movements

• Organizations & activisms:

  • Suffrage movements including NAWSA (1890) founded by Stanton and Anthony

  • Temperance movements led by Frances Willard (WCTU) and Carrie Nation.

Immigration Patterns (1865-1924)

• Significant increases in Southern & Eastern European immigration including:

  • Italians, Poles, Greeks, and Russians

  • Push factors: factory jobs, Gold Rushes, Homestead Act

  • Assimilation vs. segregation of immigrant neighborhoods

Social Reform Movements

• Social Gospel Movement:

  • Key figures: Walter Rauschenbusch and Washington Gladden advocating social reforms

• Settlement House Movement:

  • Volunteer organizations aimed to assist immigrants and the urban poor through community centers led by figures like Jane Addams.

Preservation of Land

• Formation of national parks (e.g. Yellowstone National Park in 1872) reflects growing awareness of conservation issues.

• Advocacy by figures like John Muir leading to the founding of the Sierra Club (1892).

Cultural Landscape

• Shifts in American culture through literature, art, and entertainment:

  • Emergence of realism and naturalism in literature, highlighted by authors like Mark Twain and Stephen Crane

  • New forms of journalism developing, including sensationalism alongside the Yellow Press led by Hearst and Pulitzer.