Gilded Age

Question 1

What is the Gilded Age known for?

Answer 1

The Gilded Age was a period of economic growth as the United States jumped to the lead in industrialization ahead of Britain. The nation was rapidly expanding its economy into new areas, especially heavy industry like factories, railroads, and coal mining.

Question 2

What was Andrew Carnegie known for?

Answer 2

A generous philanthropist, he slashed the wages of the workers who made him rich. One of the captains of industry of 19th century America, Andrew Carnegie helped build the formidable American steel industry, a process that turned a poor young man into the richest man in the world.

Question 3

What was Cornelius Vanderbilt famous for?

Answer 3

Shipping and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) was a self-made multi-millionaire who became one of the wealthiest Americans of the 19th century. As a boy, he worked with his father, who operated a boat that ferried cargo between Staten Island, New York, where they lived, and Manhattan.

Question 4

What is John D Rockefeller best known for?

Answer 4

John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937), founder of the Standard Oil Company, became one of the world’s wealthiest men and a major philanthropist. Born into modest circumstances in upstate New York, he entered the then-fledgling oil business in 1863 by investing in a Cleveland, Ohio refinery

Question 5

What is Henry Ford most famous for?

Answer 5

Henry Ford’s impact stretches beyond cars and even his lifetime. He was instrumental in giving higher wages to employees, he changed the way manufacturing plants operated. He was even able to change the economy of a city. Lastly, but certainly not least, he changed the way people travel to this day.

Question 6

What did tariffs do in the 19th century?

Answer 6

The aim of American protective tariffs during the Gilded Age was to try to guarantee the American market to the American manufacturer of finished products at a profit. The federal government consciously sought to achieve this aim as a means of encouraging the industrial revolution after the Civil War.

Question 7

What happened in the 2nd industrial revolution?

Answer 7

The Second Industrial Revolution was a period when advances in steel production, electricity and petroleum caused a series of innovations that changed society. With the production of cost effective steel, railroads were expanded and more industrial machines were built

Question 8

How did farmers respond to the Gilded Age?

Answer 8

During the Gilded Age, more and more farmers lost their land and slipped down the agricultural ladder into tenant farming, sharecropping, and the crop-lien system. Tenant farmers rented the right to farm someone elseís land for a cash payment.

Question 9

Positive impacts of the Gilded age?

Answer 9

 Stimulated growth of other
industries (steel, iron, coal,
lumber, glass)
 Helped cities grow
 Helped increase westward
expansion of America
 Standard time zones were created
to get everyone on correct time

Question 10

Negative impacts of the Gilded age?

Answer 10

Charged much higher rates to
western farmers
 Credit Mobilier Scandal 1868
 Union Pacific
 Fake construction company
 Bribed members of Congress
 Represented corruption of
period

Question 11

What immigrants came during the Gilded Age?

Answer 11

During the Gilded Age there were a large number of immigrants that were coming to North America. During the Gilded Age there were around 11.7 million people that came to America. From those 11.7 million immigrants10.

Question 12

What was the transcontinental railroad in the Gilded Age?

Answer 12

In 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was finished and led to rapid settlement of the western United States. It also made it much easier to transport goods over long distances from one part of the country to another.

Question 13

Why did they call them robber barons?

Answer 13

The term robber baron derives from the Raubritter (robber knights), the medieval German lords who charged nominally illegal tolls (unauthorized by the Holy Roman Emperor) on the primitive roads crossing their lands or larger tolls along the Rhine river.

Question 14

how many miles of railroad track was there by 1890

Answer 14

163,597 miles

Question 15

Why did the US go to four time zones in 1883?

Answer 15

Due to this lack of time standardization, schedules on the same tracks often could not be coordinated, resulting in collisions. The major railroad companies as a result began to operate on a coordinated system of four time zones starting in 1883.

Question 16

How did Andrew Carnegie make all his money?

Answer 16

Carnegie made his fortune in the steel industry, controlling the most extensive integrated iron and steel operations ever owned by an individual in the United States.

Question 17

Which is better iron or steel?

Answer 17

Steel is stronger than iron (yield and ultimate tensile strength) and tougher than many types of iron as well (often measured as fracture toughness). The most common types of steel have additions of less than . 5% carbon by weight.

Question 18

What did J.P. Morgan do with steel?

Answer 18

In 1900, J.P. Morgan financed the creation of the Federal Steel Company, whom he quickly merged with Carnegie Steel Company and renamed United States Steel. The transaction for Carnegie Steel Company costed Morgan a cool $480 Million, more than the entire United States Federal Budget.

Question 19

Andrew Carnegie net worth

Answer 19

In his final years, Carnegie’s net worth was US$475 million, but by the time of his death in 1919 he had donated most of his wealth to charities and other philanthropic endeavors and had only US$30 million left to his personal fortune.

Question 20

John Davison Rockefeller

Answer 20

John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time[1][2] and the richest person in modern history.[3][4] Rockefeller was born into a large family in upstate New York that moved several times before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. He became an assistant bookkeeper at age 16 and went into several business partnerships beginning at age 20, concentrating his business on oil refining. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He ran it until 1897 and remained its largest shareholder.

Question 21

What did the Standard Oil Company do wrong?

Answer 21

During the 1880s, Standard Oil divided the United States into 11 districts for selling kerosene and other oil products. To stimulate demand, the company sold or even gave away cheap lamps and stoves. It also created phony companies that appeared to compete with Standard Oil, their real owner.

Question 22

What was John D. Rockefeller’s monopoly?

Answer 22

Rockefeller built an oil monopoly by ruthlessly eliminating most of his competitors. This made him the richest man in the world.

Question 23

What is an example of vertical integration?

Answer 23

Vertical integration occurs when the chocolate manufacturer (e.g. Mondelez) purchases a cocoa bean processor that is buying its beans from. As a result, the manufacturer can pay exactly the marginal cost – rather than profiting the processor. In turn, consumers may see lower prices in a competitive market place.

Question 24

What is meant by horizontal integration?

Answer 24

Horizontal integration is the acquisition of a business operating at the same level of the value chain in the same industry—that is, they make or offer similar goods or services.

Question 25

Did Standard Oil Use horizontal integration?

Answer 25

John D. Rockefeller used horizontal integration to build the Standard Oil empire by making agreements with railroads. Rockefeller’s business was big enough that he could negotiate favorable rates for transporting oil because he was transporting a lot of oil and the railroads wanted his business.

Question 26

What did the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890?

Answer 26

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act authorized the federal government to institute proceedings against trusts in order to dissolve them. Any combination “in the form of trust or otherwise that was in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states, or with foreign nations” was declared illegal.

Question 27

What did Wealth Against Commonwealth do?

Answer 27

It was written in an effort to expose the wrongdoings mainly of the monopoly Standard Oil but also discusses others. It contributed significantly to further rallying the Progressive Movement in the early twentieth century.

Question 28

What is Alexander Graham Bell best known for?

Answer 28

Alexander Graham Bell is most well known for inventing the telephone. He came to the U.S as a teacher of the deaf, and conceived the idea of “electronic speech” while visiting his hearing-impaired mother in Canada.

Question 29

Did Thomas Edison invent the telephone?

Answer 29

It was Alexander Graham Bell who patented the telephone in 1876. But Edison, with his knack for building upon others’ innovations, found a way to improve Bell’s transmitter, which was limited in how far apart phones could be by weak electrical current.

Question 30

What invention made Thomas Edison famous and what did it do?

Answer 30

Thomas Edison was a prolific inventor and savvy businessman who acquired a record number of 1,093 patents (singly or jointly) and was the driving force behind such innovations as the phonograph, the incandescent light bulb, the alkaline battery and one of the earliest motion picture cameras.

Question 31

What is the main idea of The Theory of the Leisure Class?

Answer 31

The Theory of the Leisure Class established that the political economy of a modern society is based upon the social stratification of tribal and feudal societies, rather than upon the merit and social utility and economic utility of individual men and women.

Question 32

conspicuous consumption

Answer 32

conspicuous consumption, term in economics that describes and explains the practice by consumers of using goods of a higher quality or in greater quantity than might be considered necessary in practical terms.

Question 33

What were politics like in the Gilded Age?

Answer 33

Politics in the Gilded Age were characterized by scandal and corruption, but voter turnout reached an all-time high. The Republican Party supported business and industry with a protective tariff and hard money policies. The Democratic Party opposed the tariff and eventually adopted the free silver platform.

Question 34

What is William Tweed famous for?

Answer 34

William Magear Tweed (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878), often erroneously referred to as William “Marcy” Tweed (see below),[1] and widely known as “Boss” Tweed, was an American politician most notable for being the political boss of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party’s political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th-century New York City and state.

Question 35

Why was Boss Tweed with Tammany Hall important?

Answer 35

However, Tweed’s greatest influence came from being an appointed member of a number of boards and commissions, his control over political patronage in New York City through Tammany, and his ability to ensure the loyalty of voters through jobs he could create and dispense on city-related projects.

Question 36

What is the Pendleton Civil Service Act?

Answer 36

Pendleton Civil Service Act, (Jan. 16, 1883), landmark U.S. legislation establishing the tradition and mechanism of permanent federal employment based on merit rather than on political party affiliation (the spoils system)

Question 37

What did the Interstate Commerce Commission do?

Answer 37

On February 4, 1887, both the Senate and House passed the Interstate Commerce Act, which applied the Constitution’s “Commerce Clause”—granting Congress the power “to Regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States”—to regulating railroad rates.

Question 38

What is the sherman antitrust act?

Answer 38

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act authorized the federal government to institute proceedings against trusts in order to dissolve them. Any combination “in the form of trust or otherwise that was in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states, or with foreign nations” was declared illegal.

Question 39

What is Social Darwinism and who created it?

Answer 39

The concept of Social Darwinism originated with English philosopher Herbert Spencer during the late 1800s. He based his ideas on the findings of scientist Charles Darwin, who developed the theory of evolution that species improved over time with the strongest triumphing over the weak.

Question 40

Political Machines

Answer 40

a political organization that controls enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of its community. The rapid growth of cities in the 19th century created huge problems for city governments, which were often poorly organized and unable to provide services.

Question 41

What problems exist in cities during the Gilded Age?

Answer 41

Housing shortages – crowded
apartment building with poor
standards of sanitation,
safety, and comfort  2. Transportation –struggled
to keep up with growth  3. Clean water – was difficult to produce and transport  4. Waste and garbage removal was a challenge and
often neglected  5. Fires were very common Great Chicago Fire -1871  San Francisco Earthquake 1906
 6. Crime rose with
urbanization

Question 42

Gospel of Wealth

Answer 42

Belief that the wealthy are the “fittest” citizens and are therefore responsible to look out for the well
being of those less fortunate

Question 43

Working conditions in the late 1800’s u.s?

Answer 43

 Most factory workers
worked 12 hour days, 6 days a week  Steel mills often demanded 7 days a week  No vacations, sick leave, unemployment compensation, or workers compensation for injuries on the job  Children as young as 5 often worked as much as 12 or sometimes 14 hours a day, for as little as .$27
a day. Video on factory work

Question 44

Why did labor unions rise in the Gilded Age?

Answer 44

Monopolies and trusts began to increasingly gain control over the United States’ economy as the country entered the gilded age. Consequentially, more factories were created, which then resulted in the necessity of cheap employment from unskilled workers, and ultimately expanded organized labor.

Question 45

What is the Knights of Labor?

Answer 45

The Knights of Labor, founded in 1869, was the first major labor organization in the United States. The Knights organized unskilled and skilled workers, campaigned for an eight hour workday, and aspired to form a cooperative society in which laborers owned the industries in which they worked.

Question 46

What is the Great Railroad Strike of 1877?

Answer 46

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was the country’s first major rail strike and witnessed the first general strike in the nation’s history. The strikes and the violence it spawned briefly paralyzed the country’s commerce and led governors in ten states to mobilize 60,000 militia members to reopen rail traffic.

Question 47

 Haymarket Riot 1886

Answer 47

The Haymarket Affair, also known as the Haymarket Riot, was a violent confrontation between police and labour protesters in Chicago on May 4, 1886, that became a symbol of the international struggle for workers’ rights. It has been associated with May Day (May 1) since that day’s designation as International Workers’ Day by the Second International in 1889.

Question 48

Pullman Strike 1894

Answer 48

Pullman Strike, (May 11, 1894–c. July 20, 1894), in U.S. history, widespread railroad strike and boycott that severely disrupted rail traffic in the Midwest of the United States in June–July 1894. The federal government’s response to the unrest marked the first time that an injunction was used to break a strike.

Question 49

Ellis Island

Answer 49

Ellis Island is a historical site that opened in 1892 as an immigration station, a purpose it served for more than 60 years until it closed in 1954. Located at the mouth of Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, Ellis Island saw millions of newly arrived immigrants pass through its doors.

Question 50

What is the melting pot?

Answer 50

The melting-together metaphor was in use by the 1780s. The exact term “melting pot” came into general usage in the United States after it was used as a metaphor describing a fusion of nationalities, cultures and ethnicities in the 1908 play of the same name.

Question 51

1882-Chinese Exclusion Act

Answer 51

Meant to curb the influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States—particularly California—the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and declared Chinese immigrants ineligible for naturalization. President Chester A. Arthur signed it into law on May 6, 1882.

Question 52

Why did the US ban Chinese immigration?

Answer 52

Meant to curb the influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States—particularly California—the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and declared Chinese immigrants ineligible for naturalization. President Chester A. Arthur signed it into law on May 6, 1882.

Question 53

What was Henry Frick known for?

Answer 53

Henry Clay Frick, (born December 19, 1849, West Overton, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died December 2, 1919, New York City), U.S. industrialist, art collector, and philanthropist who helped build the world’s largest coke and steel operations.

Question 54

Who was Carnegie’s mentor?

Answer 54

With his old mentor Tom Scott’s help, Carnegie raises $21m in today’s money and builds his first steel plant.

Question 55

What is the whiskey ring scandal?

Answer 55

The ring was an American scandal, broken in May 1875, involving the diversion of tax revenues in a conspiracy among government agents, politicians, whiskey distillers, and distributors. Whiskey distillers bribed Treasury officials to increase profits and evade taxes.