Gilded Age Flashcards
When and where was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877?
July 14 in Martinsburg, WV
Why did the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 occur?
- a response to the cutting of wages for the 2nd time in a year by the Baltimore + Ohio Railroad
What was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 like?
- violent and unorganized
- President Hayes had to send troops to put down the strike
When and where was the Pullman Strike?
- May 11, 1894 in Pullman, Illinois
Why did the Pullman Strike occur?
- 3,000 workers response to reduction in wages
What was the Pullman Strike like?
- brought traffic west of Chicago to a halt
- the American Railway Union supported them by refusing to handle Pullman cars + equipment!
When was the National Time Zone established?
- November 18, 1883 at noon
What did the National Time Zone System do?
- divided the country into 4 time zones
- increased coordination + prevented collisions
When was the first Transcontinental Railroad built?
-1863-1869
What did the first Transcontinental Railroad do?
- linked the railway network of the East and West by rail
When and what was the Last Spike?
- May 10, 1869
- when the transcontinental road was finished, the railroads met at Promontory Point, Utah and laid the Last or Golden spike
What did labor unions do?
- used strikes as a method to attain fair wages, hours, and working conditions
What was AFL? (American Federation of Labor)
- founded by Samuel Gompers
- promoted shorter hours, higher wages, and safe working conditions
Who was Eugene Debs?
- founder of International Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World
- proposed industrial union for all railway workers
- famous socialist
- owner of American Railway Union (involved in Pullman Strike)
What is Social Darwinism?
- means survival of the fittest
Who were 2 men involved with Social Darwinsim?
Herbert Spencer + Charles Darwin
What did Herbert Spencer believe?
- believed riches was a sign of God’s favor and being poor was a sign of inferiority and laziness
What did Charles Darwin believe?
- theorized that some individuals in a species flourish and pass their traits on while other do not
What did Alexander Graham Bell invent?
- telephone in 1876
- used switchboards to connect
- mainly used by businesses until early 1900s
What did Nikola Tesla invent?
- remarkable number of electrical devices
What did Thomas Edison invent?
- general electric company
- established world’s first research lab in NJ
- invented incandescent light bulb
- invented an entire system for producing and distributing electricity
What did George Westinghouse invent?
- air breaks for trains
What did Theodore Vail invent?
- established the American Telephone & Telegraph Company
What did Henry Bessemer invent?
- the Bessemer steel process which removed carbon from iron resulting in steel
- created a lighter and more flexible compound that was rust resistant
