us h chapter 16
describe the political scene in the United States during the Gilded Age
-Americans during the Gilded Age saw the country as an island of democracy in a world dominated by undemocratic governments. -Powerful new corporations raised disturbing questions about the American understanding of political freedom and self-government.
describe farming on the Great Plains
-The Homestead Act led to thousands of families moving westward to farm. -Wheat and corn were primary crops grown on the Great Plains for the national and international markets. -women did more
Eric Foner discusses court decisions held against labor on the grounds of individual freedom, specifically liberty of contract. What were the most important decisions made by the Court?
-The Supreme Court ruled that state laws regulating corporate behavior, limiting the number of hours a person could work, were unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment. -The Supreme Court overturned laws that made it illegal for companies to pay their employees in scrip that could only be used at certain stores on the grounds it violated the right of property of these corporations.
Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee massacre.
Fearful of a general uprising on the reservations, the U.S. government sent troops in response to the Ghost Dance. U.S. troops opened fire on Ghost Dancers, killing 150 to 200 of them.
(octopus)What does this cartoon reveal about popular attitudes toward companies like Standard Oil in the 1900s?
Industries had become too big to control, and they threatened to take over the world. Industries disregarded the rights of individual employees. Industries functioned outside the law and were viewed as more powerful than the government.
The conquest of the American West was a unique phenomenon in global history, whereby settlers moved boldly into the interior of regions of a great continent with a temperate climate, bringing their families, crops, and livestock, and establishing mining and other industries
false,Argentina, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Africa all experienced some form of the white settler experience. India and most of Africa were the only places the indigenous populations were able to resist and turn back colonial expansion.
Between the end of the Civil War and the early twentieth century, the United States experienced stagnant economic growth and the loss of international markets.
false,The United States enjoyed an explosive level of economic growth as the nation benefited from abundant natural resources, a growing supply of labor, an expanding market for manufactured goods, and the availability of capital for investment. In addition, the federal government actively promoted industrial and agricultural development. It enacted high tariffs that protected America from foreign competition, granted land for railroad companies to encourage construction, and used the army to remove Indians from western lands desired by farmers and mining companies.
how did the workers' ideas of freedom differ from those held by the owners and managers of the industry, and how did the courts construe freedom?
Laborers looked to the government to protect their rights and ensure fair working conditions. Owners did not want the government to regulate business or interfere in the economy. The courts overturned numerous laws that controlled aspects of economic activity.
In Gilded Age America, dissatisfaction with the new social order extended beyond the working class and into the middle class. Some of the most popular works of literature in the era concerned the crumbling social order or the means of fixing it. Match the authors to their literary contributions.
Looking Backward Edward Bellamy Progress and Poverty Henry George The Cooperative Commonwealth Laurence Gronlund
Battle of Little Big Horn, 1876
Native American victory over the U.S. army in June of 1876
Gilded Age national politics did not entirely lack accomplishments. Some reform legislations were passed.
Sherman Antitrust Act, Interstate Commerce Commission, Civil Service Act of 1883
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinists believed that the poor were essentially responsible for their own fate. Evolution was a natural process of survival of the fittest; as such, the government must not intervene to aid the less fortunate.
Identify the events and actions that illustrate the "overwhelming labor question."
The federal government built National Guard armories in major cities to ensure troops would be on hand if strikes got out of control. Troops fired on striking workers in Pittsburgh, killing twenty people. the Great Railroad Strike
What are Chief Joseph's complaints about the treatment of his people?
The white men do not keep their word to his men. Despite his view that all men are brothers, the white men do not treat Indians as equals. didnt pay
Wounded Knee Massacre
U.S. soldiers opened fire on unarmed Ghost Dancers, killing 150 to 200 of them out of fear of an uprising.
describe American westward expansion
Western states used land donated by the federal government to establish public universities. In the twentieth century, the American West became the focus of many federally funded public works projects.
Christian moral reform
Women's Christian Temperance Union Gambling, prostitution, polygamy, and birth control were all targets of the legislation attempts to control or eliminate by Evangelical Christians in the Gilded Age. Mann Act of 1910(dont travel prostitutes)
Sherman Antitrust Act
banned all combinations and practices that restrained free trade
Dawes Act
broke up the land of nearly all the western tribes
robber baron
business leaders who wielded power without any accountability in an unregulated marketplace
Civil Service Act of 1883
created a merit-based system for federal employees, with appointment via competitive testing rather than political appointment
Interstate Commerce Commission
established to ensure that railroads charged farmers and merchants reasonable rates and did not offer better treatment to some shippers
Every Republican candidate for president from 1868 to 1900 except for James G. Blaine had fought in the Confederate army in the Civil War.
false
According to Social Darwinism, the evolutionary process in humans was based on the survival of communities working together. Democratic Social Darwinists wanted the state to be the means of alleviating poverty to ensure the survival of the community.
false,To Social Darwinists, evolution was a natural process in human society as in nature, and government must not interfere
Most of the farms on the Great Plains were bonanza farms that covered thousands of acres and employed large numbers of agricultural wage workers.
false,While there were a few bonanza farms, most of the farms west of the Mississippi were still small, family farms. Even these farms had become more commercially oriented as they were connected to the wider world and its markets by the railroads.
states primary industries
gold, silver, and copper Colorado timber Washington oil and cattle Texas
horizontal expansions
practice of buying out competing firms in an industry to monopolize an industry
vertical integration
the process of controlling all aspects of business from procuring raw materials, to manufacturing, transporting, and distributing the final product
The era from 1870 to 1890 was called the Gilded Age because it suggested that outward appearances were misleading, and one needed to look under the surface to understand what was happening.
tru
The Gilded Age marketplace proved to be chaotic as businesses in all industries engaged in ruthless competition. In response to this chaos, many businesses created trusts—legal devices whereby the affairs of several companies were managed by a single director.
true
describe the relationship between Native Americans and white America
-The Bureau of Indian Affairs established boarding schools where Indian children were sent to become "more American." -In 1871, Congress eliminated the treaty system that dated back to the revolutionary era, by which the federal government negotiated agreements with Indians as if they were foreign nations.
economic changes that occurred between 1870 and 1920.
Between 1870 and 1920, the percentage of people employed in agriculture decreased significantly. The GNP per capita between 1870 and 1920 more than doubled. Between 1870 and 1920, the percentage of people employed in industry grew significantly.
Haymarket Affair
Eight men were charged with carrying out the bombing. Four strikers were killed by police on May 3, 1886, when they clashed with strikebreakers.
In 1879, the United States went off the gold standard to help debt-ridden farmers.
false,in 1879 the United States returned to the gold standard by which currency was exchangeable with gold at a fixed rate. This limited inflation, which did not help debt-ridden farmers who needed more money in circulation. For example: if a farmer borrowed $100 at face value, with inflation, the purchasing power (actual value) declined. The face value of $100 was still on the bill, but it purchased the equivalent of $80 a few years later. This meant that farmers could pay back those loans at face-value and not actual purchasing power. The gold standard benefited big banks and eastern industrialists as they controlled the value of the currency. Farmers faced higher prices for manufactured goods as the value of their crops plummeted.
political stalemate between 1876 and 1892? Match the region with its political alignment.
most likely to vote Democratic the South most likely to vote Republican the North most likely to vote irregularly the West
Andrew Carnegie was an industrial giant of the Gilded Age
scottish immigrant, Carnegie distributed much of his wealth to various philanthropies. He leveraged vertical integration to create the largest and most technologically advanced steel factories in the world. Carnegie ran his companies with a dictatorial hand. His factories ran nonstop, with two twelve-hour shifts a day. The only day his factories closed was the Fourth of July.
Describe the Knights of Labor
this group was open to all workers, besides asians, believed strikes were the last result, believed in equal pay for genders
The Battle of the Little Bighorn was an example of how the Indians occassionally managed to defeat army units as they sought to defend thier tribal lands.
true
The Social Gospel movement originated as an effort to reform Protestant churches by expanding their appeal in poor urban neighborhoods and making them more attentive to the era's social ills.
true,attempted to alleviate poverty, combat child labor, and encourage the construction of better working-class housing. They even worked with the Knights of Labor and other working-class organizations.
