Gilded Age 1877-1890

Question 1

Positive views of the gilded age?

Answer 1

historians challenged the view that the gilded age was not just suffering and economic disparity.
- public scandals indicated corruption (but it was the same as other periods)
- presidential public attempts to reduce corruption via legal sources

Question 2

Negative views of the Gilded age?

Answer 2

Historians with cynical views
- Ray Gunger
- Hofstader
Traditional views criticise the spoils system.
-wish to be re-elected caused a diluting of ideological party differences (not bipartisan) —> criticised by historians of traditional views.

Question 3

Who were the four presidents of the Gilded age period?

Answer 3

Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland

Question 4

Hayes facts:

Answer 4

• republican
  -served 1877-1881
• against the spoils system, tried to convince congress to outlaw it but failed
• elected because of the compromise of 1877

Question 5

What is the compromise of 1877?

Answer 5

Formal agreement between southern democrats and allies of the republican Hayes to settle the result of the 1876 presidential election and marked the end of the reconstruction era.

Question 6

Garfield facts

Answer 6

• served in 1881
• assassinated in 1881
• supported reform of civil service, also against spoils system - believed it was ruining presidency
• republican
• his death increased the demand and support for the civil service reform

Question 7

Arthur facts

Answer 7

• 1881-1885
• passed the Pendleton act
• attempted civil service reform
• supportive of the spoils system
• Chinese exclusion act - banned all Chinese immigrants

Question 8

What is the Pendleton act?

Answer 8

• passed in 1883
• placed most federal employees on the merit system and marked the end of the “spoils system”

Question 9

What was the Chinese exclusion act?

Answer 9

• 1882
• provided an absolute 10 year ban on Chinese labourers immigrating to the United States.

Question 10

Cleveland facts

Answer 10

• 1885-89
• democrat
• not supportive of workers rights
• Passed the Dawes Act

Question 11

Dawes act

Answer 11

• 1887
• break up the power of the tribe by encouraging individual families to farm for themselves rather than rely on the tribes.

Question 12

What were Clevelands achievements?

Answer 12

• announced he would not fire any republicans doing well
• mostly used merit system for job appointments. However, more democratics got jobs later on.

Question 13

Unpopular policies for Cleveland

Answer 13

• Vetoed hundreds of private pension bills for AMerican Civil war veterans
• vetoed congress disability bill for non military personnel.
• Texas seed bill - congress wanted to give 10k for seeds after Texas went through drought however - Cleveland vetoed this.
  This shows that Cleveland had a Laissez-faire mindset, he did not believe the government should be supporting individual groups.

Question 14

What was the industry like in 1860s to 1890’s

Answer 14

• second rate industrial power but by 1890 the USA led Germany, Britain and France.
• industry was dominated by a few individuals and corporations = ruthless.

Question 15

What are robbers barons?

Answer 15

Successful industrialists whose business practices were often considered ruthless or unethical

Question 16

Robber barons facts

Answer 16

• benefitted from the Laissez faire attitudes of the governments - as they were no regulated y the gov, it gave them more freedom regarding business practices
• even though the big business men were not politicans, they had influence over them.
• idea of social Darwinism - survival of the fittest = adding to the idea that it was ruthless.
• supported by the Republican Party due to the norths industrialisation

Question 17

Vanderbilt

Answer 17

• Railroads
• William Vanderbilt made 100 billion in profits, upon death, he was the richest man in the US, later, he was the richest man in the world.

Question 18

Carnegie

Answer 18

• worked in the steel industry, brought a steel making process from the UK, made large profits in the US.
• notorious for making employees work 364 days of the year - one day off for the 4th of July. Shows the ruthlessness.
• monopolised the steel industry
• donated 350 million to charity - wanted to be more philanthropic to fix reputation however used his second in command to do his dirty work

Question 19

What were the two forms of criticism that Carnegie recieved?

Answer 19

• too socialist because of charity but also too money selfish (low wages given to employees)

Question 20

Rockefeller

Answer 20

-oil
- hated for secrecy and ruthlessness
- by 1880’s - controlled 85% of oil industry - would eliminate his rivals.
- defenders of Rockefeller say that his creation of monopoly rescued the industry from disaster
- critics of Rockefeller suggest that his secret arrangements with railroads prevented free and fair competition

Question 21

Technology in the gilded age

Answer 21

Thomas Edison - inventor of light bulb
Alexander bell - inventor of the telephone

Question 22

Early trade unions of the gilded age

Answer 22

• before 1877, organisation have been largely local
• national labour union formed in 1866, 77 delegates representing 60k workers

Question 23

National railroad strike gilded age date, event

Answer 23

• 1877
• when the owners of B&O railroad announced a pay cut, growing mass of enraged workers attacked railroad yards, burning trains and tearing up tracks.
• middle class urbanites that were removed from the harsh realities, began to see the horrible possibility of a social warfare.

Question 24

Who were the knights of labour gilded age?

Answer 24

Founded in 1869
- united workers of all races, genders and ethnicities
- aimed for democratic, collectively owned enterprises

Question 25

Decline of the knights of labour

Answer 25

When an 8 hour day rally in chicago turned violent, all supporters of the 8 hour day were turned on, knights of labour were condemned and lost all members within a decade.

Question 26

Haymarket bomb outrage gilded age

Answer 26

1886
A battle took place in between strikers and policemen
- when it began to rain, a bomb was launched into the crowd, killed a policeman and wounded 60.

Question 27

Why was the 8 hour movement considered a failure?

Answer 27

Because of the haymarket affair.

Question 28

American federation of Labour Gilded age

Answer 28

AFL was set up in 1885
- AFL only admitted skilled white men, objectives were also limited in comparison to the knights of labour
- AFL acknowledged discontent provoked by the knights and tried to avoid such mistakes

Question 29

Why did people immigrate during the gilded age?

Answer 29

Push factors
- shortages of land
- anti semitism
Pull factors
- opportunity for farmland
- rapid growth of americas economy, more job opportunities

Question 30

What were the reactions to immigration?

Answer 30

In 1890, 56% of the manufacturing industry was of foreign people
- immigrants were seen as more of a drain on American resources than a source of strength
- exclusion act 1882 - prohibited Chinese labourers from entering the United States, however some were allowed on a temporary basis.

Question 31

Progress for African Americans in terms of migration

Answer 31

+ there found employment in farming, building railroads - economic independence
- African Americans were frequently barred from trade unions and returned from work to poor quality housing.

Question 32

Progress in terms of Oppression for African Americans in gilded age

Answer 32

+ IDA B wells attacked the lynching fever in 1892, defending black males against the rape charge.
- she was run out of town for her article.

Question 33

Progress in terms of education for the native Americans

Answer 33

• in 1882, congress rejected an education bill that would have provided millions of dollars to southern black and white

+ by the 1890’s segregated schools were slowly disappearing, most high schools accepted black applicants

Question 34

What’s Americanisation?

Answer 34

The process of rejecting Native American cultures and pushing them to American cultures or lifestyles such as sending them to boarding schools or putting them on their own reserved land to farm

Question 35

Dawes act

Answer 35

• 1887
• native Americans would either receive 160 acres of land for the family or 90 acres for a single person, they need to use that land to farm
• within a very short time, most native Americans had lost their land or sold it to white people, going into poverty. (They did not understand the concept of private property)

Question 36

Battle of the wounded knee

Answer 36

1890
- was a massacre where US soldiers killed nearly 300 Lakota men, women and children, this marked the end of major Native American resistance.

Question 37

Historians views of the treatment of native Americans in the plains

Answer 37

Josephy jr wrote a series of sympathetic works strongly criticising the destruction of the way of live for the native Americans

Donald Parkman defended the policy of federal governments

Question 38

Agriculture 1877-1890

Answer 38

• dry farming methods allowed farmers to grow crops even when there was no precipitation.
• 1873 - Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire (kept the native Americans out)
• American wheat exports rose to 102 million by the 1900s. - fast industry

Question 39

Cattle ranching in gilded age 1877-1890

Answer 39

• Chisholm trail - Texas to Kansas , moved cattle
• 1868 - establishment of the meat packing business in Chicago
• as the railroads developed, new trails formed, making it easier to move cattle.

Question 40

Cowboys in gilded age 1877-1890

Answer 40

• wage of 25-30 dollars a month.
• worked 18 hours a day, managing cattle
• ex confederate soldiers

Question 41

What did turner claim?

Answer 41

• the harshness of the frontier created self reliant individuals
• the americas development had been different from that of Europe as it had no hierarchy or aristocracy relying on privileges to create a social class
• America had a unique form of democracy, it was the abundance of nature and its resources, so it made America free

Question 42

Criticisms of turners claims

Answer 42

• Glenda Riley argued that turners thesis ignored women.
• other criticisms included that it rested on hasty generalisations, that it ignores the role of immigrants and Native Americans, argued it promoted provincialism.

Question 43

End of the frontier gilded age

Answer 43

Settling in the west meant that they lost the ‘uncivilised’ part of the American continent as too much land was given away and occupied. Therefore, there was no longer a frontier as declared by the US census bureau.

Question 44

Foreign policies in the navy

Answer 44

• 1890 - Mayan argued that history proved that nations with powerful navies and overseas bases to maintain them would grow in strength.
• 1882 - Hunt advocated naval expansion

Question 45

Foreign policies in Hawaii 1877-1890

Answer 45

• 1875 - Hawaii refuses favourable trading rights, this made them reliant on US economically
• 1887 - friendship treaty with Hawaii - permission to build a naval base at pearl harbour

Question 46

Foreign policies with Latin america in gilded age

Answer 46

• James Blaine advocated a pan American conference in 1881 - saying that he believed that USA should act as a leader across the continent
• 1889 - delegates from 18 countries agreed to setting up the pan American union.

Question 47

End of the open range gilded age

Answer 47

• severe weather conditions resulted in the deaths of millions of western cattle.
• but the rise of the open range cattle industry and the extension of railroad development had changed the nations eating habits: from pork to beef.