The Birth of Modern America 1877-1900

  • Settling the West

    • Mines attracted settlers seeking riches.
    • Ranchers established cattle ranches on the Great Plains.
    • Native Americans' way of life was altered.

  • Industrialization

    • The Industrial Revolution resulted in a nationwide railroad system.
    • Shift towards business and industry.

  • Immigration and Urbanization

    • Immigrants and rural Americans moved to cities.
    • Cities adapted to increased population.

  • Early Reforms in a Gilded Age

    • Some espoused individualism and Social Darwinism.
    • Others tried to ease urbanization and industrialization’s problems.

  • Politics and Reform

    • Disagreement on how to deal with economic and reform issues.
    • African Americans faced discrimination and segregation.

  • Comparing and Contrasting

    • Authors use signal words to indicate similarities and differences.
    • Similarity: same, at the same time, like, still.
    • Difference: however, rather, but, or on the other hand.

  • Growth of the Mining Industry

    • Miners settled large areas of the West.
    • Early prospectors used placer mining.
    • Corporations used quartz mining.
    • Boom and bust cycle was repeated throughout the mountainous West.
    • Vigilance committees tracked down and punished wrongdoers.

  • Ranching and Farming the Plains

    • Ranchers built cattle ranches on the Great Plains.
    • Settlers staked out homesteads and began farming the region.
    • Texas longhorn was a breed adapted to living on the Great Plains.
    • Ranchers grazed their herds on the open range.
    • Railroads reached the Great Plains.
    • Homestead Act encouraged settlement.
    • Wheat Belt became the world's leading exporter of wheat by the 1880s.

  • Native Americans

    • Settlement of the West altered the way of life of the Plains Indians.
    • Native Americans resisted by attacking wagon trains, stagecoaches, and ranches.
    • Indian Peace Commission proposed creating two large reservations on the Plains.
    • Many Native Americans left the reservations.
    • Native American resistance came to an end at Wounded Knee Massacre.
    • Dawes Act allotted land to each head of household.
    • Assimilation policy proved a dismal failure.

  • The United States Industrializes

    • American industry grew rapidly after the Civil War.
    • Gross National Product (GNP) total value of goods and services produced by a country was eight times greater.
    • Abundance of raw materials.
    • Large workforce due to population growth and immigration.
    • Free enterprise system attracted entrepreneurs.
    • Laissez-faire: government should not interfere in the economy.
    • Tariffs protected American industry.
    • Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.
    • Thomas Edison perfected the lightbulb and the electric generator.

  • The Railroads: Linking the Nation

    • Railroad construction expanded after the Civil War.
    • Pacific Railway Act provided for the construction of a transcontinental railroad.
    • Railroads spurred American industrial growth.
    • 1883 American Railway Association divided the country into four time zones.
    • Federal government gave land grants to railroad companies.
    • James J. Hill built the Great Northern Railroad.

  • The Rise of Big Business

    • Big businesses dominated the economy.
    • Corporations are owned by many people but treated by law as a single person.
    • Corporations issue shares of ownership called stock.
    • Andrew Carnegie began the vertical integration of the steel industry.
    • Successful business leaders pushed for horizontal integration.
    • John D. Rockefeller gained control of approximately 90 percent of the oil refining industry.
    • When a single company achieves control of an entire market, it becomes a monopoly.

  • Unions

    • Industrial workers formed unions to improve their working conditions.
    • Uneven division of income between the working class and the wealthy.
    • Work became monotonous.
    • Working conditions were unhealthy and dangerous.
    • Karl Marx argued that the basic force shaping capitalist society was the class struggle between workers and owners.
    • Anti-immigrant feelings were strong in the United States.
    • American Federation of Labor founded by Samuel Gompers.
    • Gompers believed that unions should stay out of politics.

  • Immigration

    • Millions of immigrants settled in the United States after the Civil War.
    • Immigrants were eastern and southern Europeans.
    • Ellis Island served as the processing center for immigrants arriving on the East Coast.
    • Immigrants settled in neighborhoods separated into ethnic groups.
    • Chinese immigrants settled mainly in western cities.
    • Asian immigrants first stopped at Angel Island.
    • Nativism is a preference for native-born people and a desire to limit immigration.
    • American Protective Association was formed to stop Catholic immigration.
    • Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese immigration.

  • Urbanization

    • Urban population grew after the Civil War.
    • Engineers and architects developed new approaches to housing and transporting.
    • Developed mass transit.
    • Wealthy people and the working class lived in different parts of town.
    • City living posed threats such as crime, violence, fire, disease, and pollution.
    • Political machine developed to meet these urban problems.
    • Party bosses controlled the city's finances.
    • William M. "Boss" Tweed was the corrupt leader of Tammany Hall.

  • The Gilded Age

    • This was a time of tremendous change.
    • This was an era of great cultural activity.
    • Old ideas of society and culture no longer seemed to apply.
    • Strongest belief of the era was the idea of individualism.
    • Social Darwinism reinforced the idea of individualism.
    • Spencer argued that human society also evolved through competition and natural selection.
    • Andrew Carnegie believed in Social Darwinism and laissez-faire.
    • Gospel of Wealth wealthiest Americans bore the responsibility of engaging in philanthropy.
    • Realism attempted to portray people realistically.

  • The Rebirth of Reform

    • Tremendous changes triggered debate among Americans.
    • Government began to take a more active role.
    • Lester Frank Ward stated that people had succeeded because of their ability to cooperate.
    • Social Gospel movement strove to improve conditions in cities.
    • Settlement house movement attracted idealistic reformers.

  • Stalemate in Washington

    • Republicans and Democrats were so evenly matched that few reforms were possible.
    • Pendleton Act set up a civil service system.
    • Economic issues soon overshadowed the debate about political reform.
    • Interstate Commerce Act was the first federal law designed to regulate interstate commerce.
    • Harrison won the electoral vote with narrow victories in New York and Indiana.
    • Republican Party passed legislation to address points of national concern.
    • The election of 1888 gave the Republicans control of
      both houses of Congress as well as the White House.
    • Sherman Antitrust Act declared illegal any combination in the form or conspiracy
      in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states.
      It was not enforced due to vague wording.

  • Populism

    • Farmers embraced populism to increase their political power.

    • United States Treasury expanded the money supply.

    • Congress decided to stop making silver into coins.

    • Deflation hit farmers especially hard.

    • Populism a movement to increase farmers' political power and to work for legislation in their interest.

    • Grange Patrons of Husbandry.

    • Granges tried to create cooperatives.

    • Farmers' Alliance took its place.

    • Ocala Demands called for the free coinage of silver.

    • National People's Party.

    • William Jennings Bryan a strong supporter of silver.
      McKinley's administration increased ease of monetary conditions.

    • By embracing populism and its rural base, Bryan and the Democrats
      lost the more populous Northern industrial areas where votes were concentrated.

    • The Rise of Segregation

    • Southern states passed laws that denied African Americans the right to
      vote and imposed segregation.
      Rural African Americans often lived in a similar nature to slavery.

    • Disfranchisement of votes was common.

    • Segregation was made legal through a supreme court case
      called Plessy vs Ferguson. It was not necessarily equal but created a separate nature equal doctrine.

    • Legalized segregation by overturning the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

    • Jim Crow laws enforced segregation.

    • Washington and Du Bois opinions created a strong challenge.