Chapter 16: America's Gilded Age Flashcards
The Statue of Liberty was a gift from whom?
the french
Who was the supervisor of the Statue of Liberty?
Gustaf EIffel
Who was the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty?
August Bartholdi
How did the Statue of Liberty get to the New York Harbor?
was shipped disassembled in hundreds of boats
Who wrote “The New Colossus?”
Emma Lazarus
What primary factors stimulated the unprecedented industrial and agricultural growth in the late 19th century?
- natural resources
- water
- minerals
- expanding population
- new machinery
What were the four main transcontinental railroads?
- central pacific
- union pacific
- southern pacific
- northern pacific
What was the Pacific Railway Act?
the government gave 5 sq. miles of land per each mile of track
What were homesteaders?
- basically squatters
- stole the land granted from the Pacific Railway Act
What was the most important invention?
telephone
Who provided the labor force?
immigrants
What was a robber baron?
a person that became rich through sketchy business practices
What was the first big business?
railroads
How did Cornelius Vanderbilt originally make his money?
steamships
Who/What established time zones?
railroads
What was the Bessemer process?
removal of impurities from iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron
Where was oil first discovered?
Titusville, Pennsylvania
Who invented the telephone?
Alexander Graham Bell
Who invented the electric light bulb?
Thomas Edison
Whose name is associated with oil?
John D. Rockefeller
Whose name is associated with steel?
Andrew Carnegie
Who was the steel industry sold to?
J. P. Morgan
How did technology reach the rural population?
Mail-Order Catalogs
What book was widely read, second only to the Bible?
Mail-Order Catalogs
The West was settled thanks to ________.
the homestead act
Who made the most money from the mines?
corporations/monopolies
What was the Homestead Act of 1862?
government gave 160 acres of land to anyone that wanted to farm
What was the Timber Culture Act?
government gave 320 acres to anyone if they planted 80 acres worth of trees on it
What was the Timber and Stone Act?
- forested land for $2.50/acre
- bought by lumbar companies even though that wasn’t the purpose of it
Where was the breadbasket of America?
Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, the Dakotas
What was the Desert Land Act?
640 acres for $1.25/acre if they irrigated the land within 3 years
Who was Joseph Glidden?
invented barbed wire
Who was hurt by barbed wire?
cattle :(
What was the way of life for Indians living on the High Plains?
- buffalo used for hides, meat, and waste material
- horses used to chase enemies and buffalo
Who was Thomas Fitzpatrick? What did he do for the Indians?
- separated hunting grounds and created a divide and conquer concentration policy
- Fort Laramie Treaty allowed white settlers and road crews to go through
What two reservations were decided on for the Native Americans?
South Dakota and Oklahoma
Who oversaw Indian Affairs?
Department of Interior
What was discovered in 1874 in South Dakota?
Gold–Black Hill
What happened at Little Big Horn?
26 soldiers vs. 2500 Sioux
massacred
What was the Battle of Wounded Knee?
- whites thought Natives were on the war path and forbid the ghost dance
- Natives did it anyways
- a rifle went off
- 200 Natives and 20some soldiers were killed
What was the most single destructive act against the Natives? Why?
- decrease in buffalo population
- white men killed them for sport and to feed the men building the railroads
- the more buffalo they killed, the more Natives that died
What was the Dawes Severalty Act?
it split up tribal lands and granted citizenship to Natives when they could live a civilized lifestyle apart from the tribe
What was the Civilization Fund Act?
it sent children to boarding schools to introduce them to the “habits of civilization.” they had to abandon their traditional languages, cultures, and anything else associated with Native life and if they didn’t, they were physically punished. they had limited to no contact with family and food and medicine were scarece
What were ward/city bosses? What did they do? How were they in control and how were they compensated?
cities were divided into wards and there was a ward boss per ward and one boss overall. they provided immigrants with food, jobs, clothing, and entertainment. all they wanted in return was that the immigrants voted for the politicians they wanted in office. the politicians awarded the bosses with kickbacks and rebates
Who was Lemonade Lucy?
President Hayes’ wife that never served alcohol in the White House
Who succeeded President Hayes?
James Garfield
What reform did Hayes’ successor take on?
civil service reform
Who was Charles Giteau?
- wanted a diplomatic position
- said it was a calling from God
- visited the White House every day to plead his case
- once he realized he was being ignored, he shot the president twice on July 2. 1881
Who succeeded President Garfield?
Chester Arthur
What was the Pendleton Act?
civil service commission that administered tests for government positions
Who were the most powerful men in the US in the 1880s?
businessmen
What was the Interstate Commerce Act?
- rebate and kickbacks were illegal
- rates had to be published and couldn’t be changed without notification
- interstate commerce commission had a regulatory board
What was the Sherman Anti-Trust Act?
broke up monopolies
Who wrote the “Origin of the Species?” What social stratification was derived from the book?
- Charles Darwin
- Social Darwinism
How did Social Darwinism relate to business competition?
strongest rose to the top
Who were the Molly Maguires?
Irish labor union from mines in Pennsylvania
Who were the Knights of Labor?
labor union that strove for 8 hr days
What was the Haymarket Square incident?
Strike from McCormick Harvesting Machine Company workers went on strike and a striker was killed. There was a protest meeting in which a bomb killed demonstrators and policemen
What replaced the Knights of Labor?
American Federation of Labor
Who was Samuel Gompers? What was he concerned with?
- Founded American Federation of Labor
- Wanted people to focus on bread-and-butter issues (8hr day, safety, wages)
Describe the relationship between employers and their workers.
employers didn’t care about their workers and unionists were considered disloyal
What was the most important strike?
Pullman Palace Car Factory in Chicago
Who was Eugene Debs?
ran for president for the socialist party; lost
