History III test

3 factors of production (land, labor, capital)
Land provided natural resources, labor was abundant due to immigration, and capital fueled investment in industry and infrastructure. Together, they enabled rapid U.S. economic growth during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Free-market capitalism
In the U.S., free-market capitalism encouraged individual economic freedom and market-based pricing, driving innovation, growth, and wealth — though sometimes leading to corruption.

Urbanization (urban migration)
As factories expanded, immigrants and rural Americans moved into rapidly growing cities to find factory jobs, transforming America's demographics and boosting urbanization.

Great Migration
Thousands of African Americans and rural whites left the South for Northern and Western cities, seeking better factory jobs and escaping harsh segregation and poverty.

Andrew Carnegie
Carnegie built a steel empire that fueled America's infrastructure growth and later promoted the "Gospel of Wealth," arguing that the rich had a duty to help the poor. Used the bessemer process to allow the mass production of steel to help build things like skyscrapers, bridges, and ships.

John D. Rockefeller
Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company dominated the oil industry through aggressive practices, creating one of the most powerful monopolies in American history.

Monopolies (vertical vs. horizontal integration)
Vertical integration (like Carnegie) involved controlling all production steps, while horizontal integration (like Rockefeller) involved controlling one level of production to eliminate competition.

Crony capitalism
Businesses bribed government officials to secure tax breaks and contracts and to suppress labor unions, creating widespread corruption known as crony capitalism.

Working class struggles (working conditions, low pay, long hours, tenements)
Factory workers, often immigrants, faced unsafe workplaces, extremely low wages, long hours, and lived in overcrowded, unsanitary tenements.

Jacob Riis
Jacob Riis was a journalist and photographer who exposed the harsh living conditions of the urban poor in his work How the Other Half Lives.

Rise of Unions - collective bargaining
Workers began forming labor unions to negotiate better wages and conditions, using collective bargaining as a tool to demand improvements from employers. Heavily opposed early on by the government due to crony capitalism.

Homestead Steel Strike
At Carnegie’s Homestead Steel plant, workers went on strike over wage cuts, leading to a violent clash with Pinkerton agents and a major setback for labor unions.

Pinkerton
The Pinkerton Detective Agency was a mercenary agency often hired by companies like Carnegie’s to break strikes, often leading to violent confrontations with workers.

Nativism
As immigration increased, nativism grew — favoring native-born Americans and pushing to restrict immigration to protect jobs and "American culture."

New Immigrants - push and pull factors
Push factors included poverty and persecution; pull factors were U.S. job opportunities and promises of freedom and prosperity.

Angel vs. Ellis Island
Ellis Island processed mostly European immigrants on the East Coast, while Angel Island processed mostly Asian immigrants on the West Coast. Angel Island is known to be more harsh towards the immigrants likely due to their race.

Chinese Exclusion Act
Passed in 1882, it was the first major law to ban a specific ethnic group — Chinese laborers — from immigrating to the United States.

Immigration Act of 1891
This act established federal oversight of immigration and barred entry to individuals with certain diseases, criminal records, or those deemed undesirable.

Current Wars - Edison vs. Tesla
Edison, who is supported by J.P. Morgan’s General Electric, promoted direct current (DC) while Tesla, supported by Westinghouse, promoted alternating current (AC), leading to a fierce battle over how America would be electrified.

Effects of electric power
Electricity replaced steam, making factories more efficient, enabling longer work hours, and transforming everyday life with electric lights and machines.

General Electric - J.P. Morgan
J.P. Morgan financed Edison and later formed General Electric, one of the first major corporations to dominate the new electric industry.

Assembly Line - Henry Ford
Henry Ford revolutionized manufacturing with the assembly line, speeding up production, lowering costs, and making products like automobiles affordable to average Americans.

Efficiency
Efficiency became the focus of industrial production, increasing output and profits while also emphasizing standardization and cost-cutting measures.

Second Industrial Revolution
This era saw rapid industrial advances with electricity, standardized parts, the internal combustion engine, and mass production boosting American economic and military power.

Internal combustion engine
Petroleum-powered internal combustion engines transformed transportation, enabling faster, cheaper movement of goods and people via cars, boats, and trucks.

Gospel of Wealth
Andrew Carnegie’s idea that the rich had a moral duty to distribute their wealth to help improve society, such as funding libraries and universities.

Social Darwinism
This misapplication of Darwin’s theory justified economic inequality and imperialism, claiming that stronger individuals and nations naturally prevailed over weaker ones.

Hawaiian Annexation - Sanford Dole, Queen Liliukalani, Bayonet Constitution
American settlers and businessmen, including Sanford Dole, overthrew Queen Liliuokalani and forced Hawaii’s annexation, using the Bayonet Constitution to strip native power.

Alaska Purchase - William Seward, resources, Russia
In 1867, William Seward arranged the purchase of Alaska from Russia, acquiring vast natural resources and expanding U.S. territory.

Cuban Revolution - General Wyler and concentration camps
In response to Cuban revolutionaries, Spanish General Wyler used brutal tactics, including concentration camps that fueled U.S. outrage and calls for intervention.

Spanish American War and gains from
In 1898, the U.S. quickly defeated Spain, gaining control of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, and emerging as a global power.

USS Maine
The battleship USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor; though likely accidental, it was blamed on Spain and sparked the Spanish-American War.

Yellow Journalism
Sensationalized and exaggerated news stories, especially about the USS Maine, stirred public support for the Spanish-American War.

Hearst and Pulitzer
Newspaper owners William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer fueled American war fever with yellow journalism that dramatized Spanish abuses in Cuba.

Platt Amendment
This amendment allowed the U.S. to intervene in Cuba’s affairs and established American control over Guantanamo Bay, protecting U.S. economic interests.

Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
President Roosevelt asserted that the U.S. could intervene in Latin American nations to protect European debts, effectively positioning the U.S. as the Western Hemisphere’s police force.