American History Exam 2
Which development changed the U.S. garment industry in the 1850s? A) Foreign countries began to manufacture most of the world's clothing. B) Independent tailors were replaced by sweatshop workers. C) Women became the dominant force in its labor unions. D) The supply of cheap labor dried up.
B
Which event in the 1870s effectively stopped rail traffic and paralyzed the nation? A) The panic of 1873 B) The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 C) The economic depression D) The invention of the motor car
B
Which event sparked the Homestead lockout and the ensuing strike in 1892? A) Henry Clay Frick fired several workers for refusing to adopt the company's new ten-hour workday. B) The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers tried to renew its contract. C) Workers demanded higher wages, shorter days, sick pay, and safer working conditions. D) Andrew Carnegie left for Scotland after refusing to shorten workers' shifts
B
Monroe Doctrine
President Monroe's 1823 declaration that the Western Hemisphere was closed to interference by European powers. In exchange, he said that the U.S. would not become involved in European struggles.
Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894
Strike by the Western Federation of Miners in response to an attempt to lengthen the workday to 10 hours. With support of local businessmen and the governor of Colorado, they kept an 8-hour day.
spoils system
System in which politicians doled out government positions to their loyal supporters. This patronage system led to widespread corruption during the Gilded Age.
Jim Crow
System of racial segregation in the South lasting from after the Civil War into the 20th century. It segregated African Americans in public facilities & curtailed voting and other civil rights.
yellow journalism
Term given to sensationalistic newspaper reporting & cartoon images rendered in yellow. A circulation war that used yellow journalism tactics fueled popular support for the Spanish-American War.
free silver
Term used in the late nineteenth century by those who advocated minting silver dollars in addition to supporting the gold standard and the paper currency backed by gold.
Knights of Labor
The first mass organization of America's working class. Founded in 1869, the Knights of Labor attempted to build a "universal brotherhood" of all workers.
gospel of wealth
The idea that the financially successful should use their wisdom, experience, and wealth to help the poor. Andrew Carnegie promoted this view in an 1889 essay.
Boxer uprising
Uprising in China led by the Boxers, an antiforeign society, in which 30,000 Chinese converts and 250 foreign Christians were killed. European powers imposed the Boxer Protocol on China in 1901.
"typewriters"
Women who were hired by businesses in the decades after the Civil War to keep records and conduct correspondence, often using equipment such as typewriters.
World's Columbian Exposition
World's fair held in Chicago in 1893 that attracted millions of visitors. The pavilions of the "White City" included exhibits of technological innovation and embodied an urban ideal.
civil service reform
1880s effort to end the spoils system and reduce government corruption. The Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883 created the Civil Service Commission to award government jobs under a merit system.
Sherman Antitrust Act
1890 act that outlawed pools and trusts, ruling that businesses could not enter into agreements to restrict competition. Government inaction & Supreme Court undermined the law's effectiveness.
Homestead lockout
1892 lockout of workers at the Homestead, PA, steel mill after Carnegie refused to renew the union contract. Strikers attacked the guards protecting the mill; the National Guard broke the strike.
Spanish-American War
1898 war between Spain & the U.S. that began as an effort to free Cuba from Spain's colonial rule. This war left the U.S. in control of Cuba & colonies in Puerto Rico, Guam, & the Philippines.
cult of domesticity
19th-century belief that women's place was in the home, where they should create havens for their families. This ideal led to an increase in domestic servants and freed white middle-class women.
How did Alexander Graham Bell's telephone revolutionize both communications and business in America? A) He used a complicated organizational structure in his new company that allowed both local and cross-country communication. B) He installed telephones in every office building in New York to facilitate communications between business and the stock exchange. C) He sold the rights to his invention to John D. Rockefeller, who put it into national use. D) He had an instant monopoly on the communications market when he combined telephone and telegraph services in AT&T.
A
How did Morgan achieve his stunning reorganization and consolidation of businesses in the late nineteenth century? A) He sometimes formed a community of interest comprised of a handful of directors. B) He used rebates to put his competition out of business. C) He sometimes formed holding companies to run his operations. D) He refused to get involved in the steel industry, which he considered too speculative.
A
How did the federal government respond when American sugar interests requested that the United States annex Hawai'i in 1893? A) President Grover Cleveland withdrew the annexation request from Congress when he learned that Hawaiians opposed it. B) The Senate tabled the request in order to respect the president's wishes. C) Congress lowered the tariff on sugar in order to avoid the complications associated with annexation. D) President Benjamin Harrison opposed the plan because he did not believe the United States could annex geographically distant territory.
A
Samuel Gompers, the founder of the American Federation of Labor, A) fought for higher pay and better working conditions for skilled labor. B) worked primarily to elect politicians who were sympathetic to labor. C) absolutely opposed strikes as a strategy for change. D) envisioned a union that would include skilled and unskilled workers.
A
Secretary of State John Hay initiated the Open Door policy in 1900 A) to guarantee access to trade in China for all colonial powers. B) for the protection of trade between the United States and Latin America. C) in order to allow Asian immigrants to enter the United States. D) to ensure trade between the United States and Africa.
A
Which goal did the United States hope to secure with the Spanish-American War? A) Cuban independence from Spain B) A part of Florida claimed by both Spain and the United States C) Naval bases in Cuba and the Philippines D) The area in which the United States hoped to build the Panama Canal
A
Which issue sparked conflict in the Democratic and Republican parties as the election of 1896 approached and the depression worsened? A) The unlimited coinage of silver B) Increasing crop prices C) The parties' positions on labor reforms D) The question of whether or not to control trusts
A
Which statement describes the lifestyles of the majority of immigrants in the United States after 1900? A) They lived in cities because jobs were available there and they could not afford to move. B) They had come to America to escape harsh economic conditions in Germany and Ireland. C) The majority had left overcrowded conditions in their homeland to settle in America's farmlands. D) They lived in temporary housing in the United States and soon returned to their homes.
A
Working as a skilled craftsman in America in the late nineteenth century A) did not ensure financial security. B) meant guaranteed wages and year-round work. C) was not much different from being a common laborer. D) required a secondary education.
A
Working-class courtship rituals in urban, industrial America in the late nineteenth century A) consisted of informal meetings at dance halls and other commercial settings. B) changed in that women met prospective husbands only through their families. C) remained remarkably similar to those of preindustrial America. D) favored working-class women who no longer had to rely on men to pay for their entertainment.
A
sweatshop
A small room used for clothing piecework beginning in the late 19th century. As mechanization transformed the garment industry, independent tailors were replaced with sweatshop workers.
social Darwinism
A social theory popularized in the late 19th century by Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner. Proponents believed that only relentless competition could produce social progress.
Plutocracy
A society ruled by the rich.
trust
A system in which corporations give shares of stock to trustees who hold the stocks "in trust" for their stockholders, ensuring profits to the participating corporations and curbing competition.
Great Railroad Strike
A violent multicity strike that began in 1877 with West Virginia railroad brakemen who protested against sharp wage reductions and quickly spread to include roughly 600,000 workers.
Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
All-women organization founded in 1874 to advocate total abstinence from alcohol. The WCTU provided important political training for women, which many used in the suffrage movement
How did American women respond to the denial of their right to vote in the late nineteenth century? A) They conceded that politics was a man's game and confined themselves to domestic concerns. B) They participated in the political process though other movements like temperance. C) They decided to take up a major role in the behind-the-scenes work of presidential politics. D) They turned inward and refused to engage in the political process
B
How effective was the Interstate Commerce Commission, the nation's first federal regulatory agency? A) It was so powerful initially that the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional. B) It was so weak in its early years that it served as little more than a historical precedent. C) It had unprecedented power to clean up and regulate the railroads. D) It was authorized to set interest rates for small-business loans.
B
How was William Jennings Bryan's 1896 presidential campaign unique? A) He pioneered dramatic campaign tactics by traveling the country carrying a large gold cross. B) He set a new style for presidential campaigning by traveling and speaking widely. C) His campaign strategies led him to win the popular vote but lose the electoral college vote. D) He reversed his opinion mid-campaign to support retention of the gold standard.
B
How were U.S. industrialists able to hire cheap labor from around the world in the 1870s? A) There were no political barriers to hiring immigrants from northern Europe. B) Railroad expansion and low steamship fares brought many immigrants to America. C) Native-born Americans refused to work for the low wages offered by industrialists. D) Only immigrants were willing to work as hard as the industrialists demanded.
B
President Grover Cleveland hoped to increase the nation's flagging gold reserves during the economic depression in the winter of 1894-1895 by A) asking Americans to contribute whatever gold they had to an important national cause. B) making a deal with a private group of bankers who would buy government bonds with gold. C) sending an increasing number of miners to the West in an effort to find new gold mines. D) sending the army to Mexico to capture gold mines that the Mexicans could not exploit because of their lack of technology.
B
The "Chicago school" of the late nineteenth century was A) an assembly of scholars and reformers who sought to address the city's urban decay. B) a skilled group of architects who made commercial architecture a new art form. C) a group of painters who embraced the fin de siècle impressionists in Europe. D) a coalition of mob bosses and thugs who ruled the city's politics after the Great Fire.
B
Which statement describes the beliefs of American businessmen who subscribed to the economic theory of laissez-faire regarding the role of the government in the economy? A) It should always intervene in the nation's economic affairs. B) It should not interfere in economic affairs except to protect private property. C) Only state governments should intervene in the nation's social and economic affairs. D) It had the responsibility to foster competition in industry.
B
Which statement describes the purpose of Andrew Carnegie's strategy of vertical integration? A) It restructured the administrative hierarchy and, in the process, revolutionized managerial productivity. B) It placed all aspects of the business, from mining raw materials to marketing and transporting finished products, under the control of the chief operating officer. C) It focused on the systemic promotion of immigrants and African Americans who were working for Carnegie Steel. D) It concentrated on one aspect of production to the exclusion of all others.
B
Why did the American temperance movement attract women in the late nineteenth century? A) It gave them a higher social standing. B) Drunkenness adversely affected women in many ways. C) It promoted churchgoing for women and men. D) It wanted to keep the issue of alcohol consumption out of national politics.
B
Why was it difficult for the United States to win control of the Philippines after 1898? A) U.S. business interests saw no reason to develop markets in that part of the world. B) Filipino revolutionaries fought against the United States for seven years. C) A majority of people in the United States at the time opposed imperialism. D) Congress did not adequately support the war effort.
B
Compared to the Homestead lockout, the success of the strikers at Cripple Creek demonstrated A) the weakness of Colorado's Populist governor Davis H. Waite. B) the benevolence of western mine owners. C) the importance of state support in the outcome of labor disputes. D) the power of united, dedicated, and politicized workers.
C
How did business expansion and consolidation affect the social structure in the late-nineteenth-century United States? A) Women were able to earn higher wages and become managers. B) Racial differences in the U.S. workforce largely disappeared. C) A new class of white male salaried managers emerged. D) Class differences in U.S. society largely disappeared.
C
In the late nineteenth century, some established immigrant groups viewed more recent immigrants as A) being more dependent on government aid. B) having an easy time assimilating to life in the United States. C) not part of the white race. D) being too critical of the United States.
C
The Pendleton Act of 1883 established the Civil Service Commission and A) made an examination a requirement for holding any federal job. B) placed fifty thousand federal jobs under a merit system that required continuing education and yearly examinations. C) made it impossible to remove people in civil service jobs for political reasons. D) legalized the removal of jobholders with a change of presidential administration.
C
Which factor contributed significantly to the astonishing growth in America's urban population between 1870 and 1900? A) The combination of a rising birthrate and urban annexation B) The annexation of the rural areas surrounding America's major cities C) The migration of people from the rural areas of Europe and the United States D) The dramatic increase in the American birthrate
C
How did the Populists propose to help American farmers in the 1890s? A) They suggested that farmers increase both the production and the price of crops. B) They advocated decentralizing the railroads to make them fairer to small businesses. C) They recommended that farmers join forces with industrial workers in American cities. D) They recommended creating a government-sponsored subtreasury.
D
In the decade between 1882 and 1892, lynching rose in the South by an overwhelming 200 percent, with more than 241 black people killed. Lynching was used as a means of social control to terrorize and intimidate blacks. Which cultural myth was used to justify and legitimate the practice of white mobs lynching black people? A) The economic gains of black communities caused poverty in white communities. B) The Readjusters organized whites to protect Christianity from "racial mixing." C) The government spent more money on public education for blacks. D) Black men were a dangerous threat to white women.
D
The tariff posed a threat to America's prosperity in the 1880s because A) it was too low to be effective. B) it exempted manufactured goods such as textiles. C) a number of foreign nations refused to export their goods to the United States. D) it created a surplus that was not used to produce goods and services.
D
Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)
Federal regulatory agency that oversaw the railroad industry. It was created through the 1887 Interstate Commerce Act after a Supreme Court decision denied states the right to regulate railroads.
Which idea was promoted by the theory of social Darwinism in the late nineteenth century? A) Competition led rich Americans to have an unfair advantage over the poor. B) Charles Darwin actually was writing about people when he authored On the Origin of Species. C) Certain inequities should be ameliorated by government intervention. D) Progress is the result of competition where the strong survived and the weak died out.
D
Which issues formed the basis of farmers' dissatisfaction in the late nineteenth century? A) Weather and mechanization B) Family farming, homesteading, and agribusiness C) Sharecropping and tenant farming D) Banking, railroading, and speculation
D
Which of these significantly boosted nineteenth-century railroad construction in America? A) The transportation demands of homesteaders B) The deterioration of the National Road C) Federal restrictions of rates and railroad company competition D) Land grants from federal and state governments
D
Which statement describes the National Woman Suffrage Association, formed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in 1869? A) It was the most conservative group of women in America. B) It was the first women's group in America. C) It focused on both voting rights and wage equalization. D) It demanded the vote for women.
D
Which statement describes the amenities of American city life in the 1890s? A) They came at great cost to immigrants and the poor. B) They enriched political bosses more than urban communities. C) They were equally available to people of all races and social classes. D) They were not easily accessible to the poor residents of cities.
D
family economy
Economic contributions of multiple members of a household that were necessary to the family's survival. From late 19th-20th cent, many working-class families depended on the wages of all members.
Ellis Island
Immigration facility opened in 1892 in NY harbor that processed new immigrants coming into NYC. In the late 19th century, some 75% of European immigrants to America came through NY.
finance capitalism
Investment sponsored by banks that typified the American business scene at the end of the nineteenth century. After the panic of 1893, bankers reorganized major industries to stabilize them.
bossism
Late 19th century pattern of urban political organization in which a corrupt "boss" maintains inordinate power through command of a political machine that distributes services to constituents.
Haymarket bombing
May 4, 1886, conflict in which workers and policemen were killed or wounded during a labor demonstration in Chicago. The violence began when someone threw a bomb into the police at the gathering.
global migration
Movement of populations across large distances. In the late 19th century, large-scale immigration from southern and eastern Europe into the U.S. contributed to changes in American demographics.
Farmers' Alliance
Movement to form local organizations to advance farmers' collective interests that gained wide popularity in the 1880s. In 1892, the Farmers' Alliance gave birth to the People's Party.
Pullman boycott
Nationwide railroad workers' boycott of trains carrying Pullman cars in 1894 after Pullman workers, suffering radically reduced wages, joined the American Railway Union (ARU).
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Organization created by Samuel Gompers in 1886 that coordinated the activities of craft unions throughout the U.S. The AFL worked to achieve immediate benefits for skilled workers.
National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
Organization formed in 1890 that united the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association. The NAWSA pursued state-level campaigns to gain the vote for women.
Gilded Age
Period of economic growth and displays of wealth during the last quarter of the 19th century. Industrialization created a newly dominant group of rich entrepreneurs and a poor working class.
Open Door policy
Policy by Secretary of State Hay in 1899-1900 recommending that the U.S., Britain, Japan, Germany, France, & Russia have access to trade with China & that Chinese sovereignty be maintained.
People's Party (Populist Party)
Political party formed in St. Louis in 1892 by the Farmers' Alliance to advance the Populist movement. Populists sought economic democracy, promoting land, electoral, banking, & monetary reform.
Coxey's army
Unemployed men who marched to Washington, D.C., in 1894 to urge Congress to enact a public works program to end unemployment. The movement failed to force federal relief legislation.
