Gilded Age and Progressive Era Review

Business Consolidation Strategies

• Horizontal Consolidation: Buying out competing businesses in the same industry.

• Vertical Consolidation: Owning every step of a product's creation/distribution process.

Captains of Industry/Robber Barons and Their Industries

• J.P. Morgan: Banking ($Horizontal$)

• Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt: Railroads and Steel ($Both$)

• John D. Rockefeller: Standard Oil ($Horizontal$)

• Andrew Carnegie: Steel ($Horizontal$)

Monopolies and Their Impact

• Definition: Exclusive control of a commodity or service.

• Negative Impact: No competition, no capitalism, no economic opportunity, leads to an oligarchy (rule by a $few$).

• Government Monopoly (Communism): Government has total ownership of industry, no internal competition (e.g., North Korea).

Gilded Age Issues

• Wealth Gap: Significant disparity between rich and poor.

• Discrimination: Against African Americans (especially in the South) and immigrants (especially in cities like New York and San Francisco).

• Poor Conditions: Unlivable working conditions, overcrowding in cities, employer-employee strikes.

Progressive Movement Goals ($1877$ - $1920$)

• Expand Democracy: Increase participation in the democratic system.

• Root Out Corruption: Address corruption in government and big business.

• Reform Society: Improve living and working conditions.

Key Amendments

• Reconstruction Amendments:

  • $13^{th}$ Amendment: Abolished slavery.

  • $14^{th}$ Amendment: Guaranteed citizenship and equal protection under the law.

  • $15^{th}$ Amendment: Guaranteed voting rights regardless of race (for men).

• Progressive Era Amendments (Key):

  • $16^{th}$ Amendment: Established the federal income tax (graduated tax on the wealthy).

  • $19^{th}$ Amendment: Granted women's suffrage (right to vote).

Major Acts and Organizations

• Freedmen's Bureau: Established after the Civil War to help freedmen secure their rights ($closed$ in $1877$).

• NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People): Succeeded Freedmen's Bureau, advocated for African American rights.

• Southern Poverty Law Center: Provided legal protection to minorities, especially against discriminatory laws (e.g., Black Codes).

• Sherman Antitrust Act: Aimed to regulate and eliminate trusts and monopolies.

Industrialization and Urbanization

• Industrialization: Shift from handmade goods to mass production by machines.

• Urbanization: Rapid increase in city populations; people moved from rural to urban areas for factory jobs.

Immigration

• Sources: Primarily Europe (via Atlantic Ocean to New York) and East Asia/China (via Pacific Ocean to San Francisco).

US Foreign Policy at the Time

• Isolationism: US largely focused on its own domestic affairs during this period.

• Progressive View: Progressives often favored interventionism and greater US involvement in global affairs.

Reconstruction Outcomes

• Reunification: Achieved the reunification of the Southern formerly Confederate states with the United States.

• Economic Impact: Led to the economic collapse/process of the South due to destroyed infrastructure and loss of labor force.

Labor Unions

• Goals: Better wages, fewer working hours (e.g., $8$-hour workday from $14$/$16$ hours), and safer workplaces.