Gilded Ages Flashcards
At the close of the Civil War, what lay to the west of the Mississippi River?
Millions of acres of fertile/mineral-rich land roamed by herds of buffalo that provided; meat/food, shelter, clothing, etc.
What important advancement brought tens of thousands of newcomers to the west and stimulated the expansion of farming, mining and other enterprises in the West?
The transcontinental railroad, a symbol of the reunited nations.
What did the Nez Perce leader, Chief Joseph condemn in his talks before various presidents?
the policy of confining Indians to reservations adopted the language of freedom and equal rights.
How did the Dawes Act attack “tribalism” in the West?
The act broke up the land of nearly all tribes into small parcels to be distributed to Indian families, with the remainder auctioned off to white purchasers.
How did Sherman’s Special Field Order 15 help create the idea of “forty acres and a mule” and why was that concept so important to the freed slaves of the South?
Sherman’s orders raised hopes that the end of slavery would be accompanied by economic independence that they, like other Americans believed essential to genuine freedom.
How was sharecropping supposed to serve as a compromise between the freed slaves’ desire for land and white landowners need for labor?
The system allowed each black family to rent a part of a plantation, with the crop divided between worker and owner at the end of the year, guaranteed the planters a stable labor force.
What was the crop lien system and how did it affect poor, white farmers?
farmers were forced to take up the growing of cotton and pledge a part of the crop as collateral (property the creditor can seize if a debt is not paid). Interest rates were high, the price of cotton fell steadily, still found themselves in debt and had no choice but to continue to plant cotton to obtain loans.
How did the Compromise of 1877 (Bargain of 1877) signify the end of Reconstruction and the return of white control to the South?
Hayes became president and quickly ordered federal troops to stop guarding the statehouses in Louisiana and South Carolina, allowing Democratic claimants to become governors. Southern Democrats failed to live up to their pledge to recognize blacks as equals.
What were some of the factors behind the country’s explosive economic growth after the Civil War?
An abundance of natural resources, a growing supply of labor, an expanding market for manufactured goods and availability of capital for investments. Federal governments actively promoted industrial/agricultural developments.
Where did most of U.S manufacturing take place?
in industrial cities
What made the second industrial revolution possible?
the railroads
What were some of the methods businesses used to reduce competition in the market-place?
formed “pools” that divided up markets between competing firms fixed prices, established “trusts” - legal devices, the affairs of several rival companies managed by 1 single director.
Why could men like Andrew Carnegie and J.D. Rockefeller be considered both “captains of industry” and “robber barons”?
Their energy and vision pushed the economy forward, they wielded power without any accountability in an unregulated marketplace. Their dictatorial attitudes, methods, repressive labor policies, and exercise power without democratic control lead to fears that undermined political and economic freedom.
How did urban politics fall under the sway of corrupt political machines lie New York’s Tweed Ring?
Tweed’s organizations reached every kind of neighborhood, he won support from the cities immigrant poor by fashioning a kind of private welfare system that provided food, fuel, and jobs in hard times.
What areas of the U.S did the Republicans and Democrats control during the Gilded Ages and what groups of the population were they particularly strong among?
The Republicans controlled the North/Midwest and the Agrarian West strong among members of revivalist churches, Protestant immigrants, and blacks.
Democrats dominated the South, did well among Catholic voters and Irish-Americans.
