Ch. 16 - America's Gilded Age
In 1883, railroad companies divided the nation into what?
4 time zones
What was The Grange?
A group of members that called on the state governments to establish fair freight rates and warehouse charges and regulated some railroad practices
Henry George offered what as a solution for the problem of inequality in America?
A single tax
What factors contributed to the explosive economic growth during the Gilded Age?
Abundant natural resources, a growing supply of labor, an expanding market for manufactured goods, and the availability of capital investments
The economic development of the American West was based on what industries?
Agriculture, lumber, and mining
How can we describe the second industrial revolution?
An expansion of industries
Who were the Knights of Labor?
An inclusive organization that advocated for a vast array of reforms
How is Standard Oil depicted in the magazine Puck, illustrating the company as a dangerous monopoly?
An octopus
What did hunters shoot while riding the railroads across the West?
Buffalo
What was the Social Gospel?
Called for an equalization of wealth and power
Why were Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller important?
Carnegie headed the most technically advanced steel companies in the world, Rockefeller had major success in the oil industry
What did Crédit Mobiler and the Whiskey Ring symbolize about the Grant Administration?
Corruption among the officials in charge of the Grant Administration
After the Civil War, what became a symbol of life of freedom in the open range?
Cowboys
What was the Civil Service Act of 1883?
Created a merit system for federal employees
What were living conditions of the American working class like during the Gilded Age?
Desperate
Republican economic policies strongly favored what industries?
Eastern industrialists and bankers, and worked to the disadvantage of farmers
What were industries that made the second industrial revolution possible in the U.S.?
Factory production, mining, and railroad construction
Over 150 utopian and cataclysmic novels were published during the last quarter of the nineteenth century because?
Fear of class warfare
A significant economic impact of the 2nd industrial revolution was?
Frequent and prolonged economic depressions
What did economist and social historian Thorstein Veblen mean by "conspicuous consumption"?
How the upper-class focused on spending money not on needed or desired goods, but simply to demonstrate the possession of wealth
What was the importance of the court case Elk v. Wilkins?
It agreed with lowering court rulings that the 14th and 15th amendments did not apply to Indians
What did William G. Summer believe social classes owed each other?
Nothing
The Indian victory at Little Bighorn had what effect?
Only delayed the expansion of white settlement in the West
Thomas Edison invented what things that helped the 2nd industrial revolution?
Phonograph, light bulb, motion picture, and a system for generating and distributing electric power
Describe pools, trusts, and mergers. What did manufacturers use them for
Pools: divided up markets between competing firms and fixed prices. Trusts: legal devices whereby the affairs of several rivaling companies were managed by a single director. Mergers: small companies combined to form a large one. Merchants used these to control their economy
Which mode of transportation is usually associated with the second industrial revolution?
Railroads
What was the aim of the Dawes Act of 1887?
Sought to break up the tribial system
What was the Haymarket Affair?
Started after a bomb was thrown at an officer at a labor protest
The Supreme Court in Lochner v. New York held?
That contract decisions would be up to the employee and employer, instead of the state
The Greenback-Labor Party ran on what platform?
That the federal government stop taking "greenback" money out of circulation and condemned the use of the militia and police against strikes. It controlled the government in industrial and mining communities
During the 2nd industrial revolution, how did the courts tend to rule on economic issues?
That the state regulation of business, especially laws restricting maximum hours of work, was an insult to free labor
What is the theory of Social Darwism?
That the theory of evolution applied to humans, thus explaining why some were rich and some were poor
The Plains Indians included which tribes?
The Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Kiowa, and Sioux
Who was Chief Joseph?
The Nez Percé leader, who condemned the policy of confining Indians to reservations and asked for him and his tribe be freed
Who insisted that freedom and spiritual self-development required an equalization if wealth and power and that unbridled competition mocked the Christian ideal of brotherhood?
The Social Gospel
What was the impact of the 2nd industrial revolution on the trans-Mississippi West?
The agricultural empire grew
Who was William M. Tweed?
The boss of New York's Tweed Ring, which helped support New Yorkers
In his speech "A Second Declaration of Independence," labor leader Ira Steward argued that the most pressing problem facing the nation was?
The growing gap between the rich and the poor
What was the white reaction to the Ghost Dance?
The religious revitalization campaign was believed to be an uprising, so whites opened fire, killing 150-200 Indians
In How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis focused on what?
The wretched conditions in NYC slums
What was the aim of Carlisle, a boarding school for Indians?
To "civilize" Indians
The Interstate Commerce Commission was established in 1887 for what purpose?
To ensure that the rates railroads charged farmers and merchants to transport their goods were "reasonable" and they didn't underprice/overprice certain shippers over others
What were Bonanza farms?
Typically consisted of areas of land 3,000+ acres that consisted of Bonanza plants, the only crop that would thrive in the arid land and limited rainfall
Between 1897 and 1904, a wave of financial mergers led to the creation of what corporations?
U.S. Steel, Standard Oil, and International Harvester
Why is the Great Strike of 1877 important?
Was evidence of worker solidarity and the close ties between the Republican Party and the new class of industrialists
The single most important natural resource of the American West was?
Water
What effect did the 2nd industrial revolution have on workers?
Workers' economic independence became reliant on technical skill
What event marked the end of the Indian wars?
Wounded Knee Massacre
