Chapter 6 Flashcards
How did natural resources help boost industrialization
Natural Resources Fund Industrialization
- After the Civil War, the US was still an agricultural nation—before it became industrial.
- Factors that lead
- Natural Resources
- Government Support for Businesses
- Growing Urban Population
Who found oil?
Edwin L. Drake found oil: in PA, it became known as black gold-it was used for kerosene, but later was
used for gas
Who found steel
Henry Bessemer invented the Bessemer process where iron could be used to build more lightweight
and flexible steel
What was steel used for, what were some other inventions at the time, what did they do for living?
Steel was used for railroads, and machines for farms, also sky scrapers
Electricity: Thomas Alva Edison became an electricity pioneer when he established the worlds first
research lightbulb. He invented a system for producing electricity. Also,that helped electric power run
machines and factories,
Christopher Sholes invented the typwriter
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telegraph
Both appealed to women workers
Improved standard of living.
What was railroad time?
Railroads were used for many things, but the time was irritating. When the first transcontinental
railroad was formed when the Central Pacific and Union met in Promontroy Utah, they needed a new
time. But the railroads used Chinese and Irish immigrants and Civil War Vets (completely irrelevant).
So C. F Dowd propsed a time zone that divided the earth into 24 time zones, in the US there would be
Pacific, Mountain, Central, and Eastern
What was the result of railroads in terms of cities?
Many towns sprung up, Chicago was soo known for the stockyards and Minneapolis for grain.
What was the Pullman town?
Pullman built a factory for the manufacturing sleepers. There was nearby town that Pullman built for
his employees. They could live in clean spaces but they had to pay rent. The town ended in violent
strike.
What was the Credit mobilier scandal?
Credit Mobilier: construction company. Stock holders gave the company a contract to to lay track at 3 x
the actual cost and procketed the profits. They donated the shares to congress. Investigations proved
that the members had been involved.
What were some court cases?
Grange: A farmers organization, became angry because railroads took advantage of them and did not
fix prices.
Munn vs. Illinois: the supreme court ruled that states could regulated railroads. Also, fed. Gov. could
regulate private industry to serve the public intrest.
What was the ICC
ICC: was an act that established the right of the federal government to supervise the railroad activities
and established a five member Interstate committee. This was not easy to manage. The Panic of 1893
lots of businesses failed
What were some new business strategies?
New Business Strategies
-make products better products cheaper
-machines
Vertical integration- control all suppliers
Horizontal Integration:: Buy out all competition
What was Social Darwinism and Protestant work ethic?
Social Darwinism: Best adapted survive
New Definition of Success: Social Darwinism supported the notion of individual blame and
responsibility. It appealed to the Protestant Work Ethic. According to social darwinism, riches were a
sign of Gods favor, so the poor were inferior.
How did mergers occur?
-Many industrialists joined the businesses that they could not beat out.
-A Merger was when one coorperation bought out the stock of another (until they joined)
-A firm that bought out all of the competitors achieved total monopoly over the industry.
-Another way to create a monopoly was to set up a holding company, a corporation that did nothing but
buy ou the stocks of other companies.
-John D. Rockefeller took another approach. He joined with competing companies in trust agreements.
Participants turned hteir stock over to a group of trustees. People who ran the seperate companies as
one large corporation. IN return the companies were entitled to dividends of profits on the trust. It
bound the companies.
What were the robber barrons?
Rockefeller and the Robber Barons.
-Reaped huge profits, but kept employee wages low. And then he drove his competitors out of business
by selling his oil. Once he achieved monopoly, he raised prices. But in the end, he donated large sums
of money
What was the Sherman Anti Trust Act
Sherman Anti Trust Act- made it illegal to form trusts that interfered with trade between states or other
countries. Prosecution however was hard because the act did not clearly define what a trust was.
