8th Grade Unit 1 (Economy, Industrial Revolution)

Question 1

economics

Answer 1

the study of how people use limited resources to make, distribute, and consume goods

Question 2

supply

Answer 2

the stock or availability of a good or service

Question 3

demand

Answer 3

how many people want a good or service and how much they are willing to pay for it

Question 4

land

Answer 4

natural resources, or productive resources that are provided by nature

Question 5

labor (factors of production)

Answer 5

any form of human effort exerted in production

Question 6

capital

Answer 6

a manmade factor of production used by labor in making other products, including tools, factories, machines, etc.

Question 7

entrepreneurship

Answer 7

the individual responsible for organizing and combining the 4 Factors and assumes the risks of failure and/or providing the creativity and managerial skills necessary for production to take place

Question 8

2nd Industrial Revolution

Answer 8

occurred in the late 1800’s, built on the 1st Industrial Revolution with new technology and sources of power. A period of rapid economic growth in US manufacturing in the late 1800s.

Question 9

Bessemer Process

Answer 9

a way to quickly and cheaply manufacture steel (created by Henry BESSEMER). The increased production of cheaper steel led to several other industrial advancements. For example, railroads laid 1000^3 miles of new track.

Question 10

trust

Answer 10

a legal arrangement grouping companies under 1 board of directors.

Question 11

Captain of Industry

Answer 11

men of inventiveness whose hard work and ingenious strategies transformed the American economy of the post Reconstruction era and the early 20th century.

Question 12

Robber Baron

Answer 12

self-centered entrepreneurs who took advantage of workers to accumulate wealth

Question 13

tenement

Answer 13

poorly built, overcrowded apartments that housed immigrants. In 1901 the New York State Tenement House Act was passed to have better ventilated buildings and running water.

Question 14

labor (not the factor of production)

Answer 14

work (usually refers to hard physical labor). Many people were dissatisfied with working conditions (long hours like 12 a day and 6 days a week, low wages, easily replacable since so many people needed jobs, unsafe, unsanitary) and decided to strike.

Question 15

Ellis Island

Answer 15

an immigration center near or housing the Statue of Liberty in NY

Question 16

Angel Island

Answer 16

an immigration center in CA

Question 17

newsies

Answer 17

a common immigrant job, involving selling newspapers. Most newsies were boys, but a few girls were newsies, too.

Question 18

sweatshops

Answer 18

hot, unhealthy working environments

Question 19

Chinese Exclusion Act

Answer 19

Passed in 1882, the Chinese were not allowed to come to America (to work, but this kept most Chinese out of America. It was hard to prove you weren’t there to work) for 8 years. A lot of anti-Chinese sentiment was because they were being protected by the government in comparison to the common man, were willing to work for even lower wages than usual factory wages (cutting jobs for others unless you would lower your standards more), and the stereotype that they were barbarians.

Question 20

American Federation of Labor

Answer 20

Founded in 1886, led by Dutch Jewish cigar maker from Britain (Samuel Gompers). Over 1 million members by 1901. Federation of 111 unions representing 27,000 locals. Organized by crafts, with each union independent. Bread and butter issues: better pay, better houses. Included only skilled workers and no blacks or women, bigger than the Knights and had more bargaining power.

Question 21

Knights of Labor

Answer 21

the first national labor union founded in 1860 by Philadelphia tailors, included all workers in 1870s. .1 person convicted of conspiracy in the Haymarket Riot had a membership with the Knights so Knight membership fell. (Local chapters supported the strike, but not the entire organization) Sought cooperative society (alliances between employer and employee, producer and consumer; govt. ownership of utilities; trust reform; child labor), got Congress to create the US Bureau of Labor, and declined after 1886; lost strike to Jay Gould.

Question 22

Haymarket Riot

Answer 22

There was a strike for an 8 hour workday in Haymarket Square in 1886 in Chicago. 2 of them were killed in a police fight, so people went to protest again. A bomb was thrown at the second protest, wounding police, killing 8. Police fired, killing several and wounding 100 people in the crowd. 8 people were convicted of conspiracy. 1 person convicted had a membership with the Knights so Knight membership fell. (Local chapters supported the strike, but not the entire organization)

Question 23

collective bargaining

Answer 23

all workers acting together to have a greater chance of success with (bargaining with? wasn’t in notes but maybe I cut corners) management

Question 24

Pullman Strike

Answer 24

There was a financial depression, and Pullman laid off half of his workers and cut the remaining workers’ pay without lowering their rent. The strike stopped traffic on railroad lines until the strikers were ordered to go back to their jobs. President Grover Cleveland sent troops to stop the strike, damaging the labor movement.

Question 25

mass culture

Answer 25

leisure and cultural activities shared by people. Spread through newspapers, published books, retail stores, entertainment. The rise of the middle class is somehow related.

Question 26

settlement houses

Answer 26

neighborhood centers in poor areas offering education, recreation, social activities. The most famous settlement house was the Hull House.

Question 27

Henry Bessemer

Answer 27

invented the BESSEMER Process

Question 28

Henry Ford

Answer 28

Model T Ford, implemented the assembly line (which allowed for cheaper production, which allowed for an affordable car. He wanted to make cars accessible to the common man so he wanted to lower the price. How to do this while still making a profit? Efficiency. So he had the assembly line invented by Frederick W. Taylor, line led to less attention to working conditions). Captain of Industry

Question 29

Andrew Carnegie

Answer 29

started at the bottom and worked up (to railroad superintendent), worked in steel, bought out competitors @ low prices, in 1901 Carnegie’s mills made more steel than all of Great Britain, used vertical integration (the ownership of businesses involved in each step of a manufacturing process, so like an assembly line except with buildings instead of people), Homestead Strike. Captain of Industry

Question 30

John D. Rockefeller

Answer 30

vertical integration, oil (biggest refiner in US), horizontal integration - owning all businesses in a field, trusts, Robber Baron

Question 31

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Answer 31

worked in steam ship transport, eventually added railroads. Captain of Industry

Question 32

Samuel Gompers

Answer 32

leader of the American Federation of Labor, a Dutch Jewish cigar maker from Britain.

Question 33

Jacob Riis

Answer 33

exposed conditions of New York tenements in How the Other Half Lives.

Question 34

corporation

Answer 34

many entrepreneurs formed these in the late 1800s, pool capital needed for growth from many sources, had stockholders

Question 35

monopoly

Answer 35

when only one company/person is selling a service or good

Question 36

corporation (stock details)

Answer 36

stockholders in a corporation get a cut of the profits (dividends) based on the amount of stock they own, stockholders elect a board of directors that chooses the corporation’s main leaders such as the president, if a corporation fails financially stockholders only lose the $ they invested, stockholders are usually free to sell to who/when they want

Question 37

(anti) monopoly and trust

Answer 37

according to critics, unfair business practices that reduced necessary competition (by wiping out the competition in various ways like buying them out), small businesses and citizens wanted the government to control monopolies, but trust supporters said they’re dependable and efficient. Congress favored big business, but passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, which was a law saying you can’t create monopolies or trusts restraining trade. The law didn’t define trusts, so corporations and trusts just kept growing.

Question 38

immigrants (who, what, why)

Answer 38

a person who leaves their old country to start their life in a new one. There were new immigrants, people from a wave of immigration beginning in 1880. From Eastern Europe, there were people from Greece, Hungary, Russia, Ireland, Czech, and Slovak (Czechoslovakia back then). From Southern Europe, people were from Italy. Obviously, religions and cultures varied. Many were fleeing oppression and wanted the potential of riches, being treated just like anybody else, and perhaps the romance of stories such as those of the Wild West. Came in ship steerage (bad conditions).

Question 39

immigrant arrival and life

Answer 39

arrived at immigration centers (Ellis Island, NY; Angel Island, CA; El Paso; TX). Not all immigrants were allowed in (they had to undergo a medical exam, background checks, and interviews). Once they arrived, they found work (in factories, steel mills, construction sites, mines, commercial farms, sweatshops, and lucky ones owned small businesses such as banks, barbershops, and trade centers, etc.). They moved to immigrant neighborhoods with fellow former countrymen (the Italians lived with Italians, etc.).

Question 40

attitudes towards immigrants

Answer 40

Nativists were people who have lived in a country for a long time and hold racial/ethnic prejudices and oppose immigration.

Question 41

city life

Answer 41

skyscrapers, mass transit (elevated trains, Barnaby!, subways) in New York 1904. The middle class was rising (people who could afford to spend on leisure and things in mass culture, but not exactly rich).