Industrial Revolution Test Flashcards
What is the Union Pacific RR?
began to build westward from Nebraska to California
issues by Congress to try and help California bind to the republic
Central Pacific Railroad
Railroad starting in California that would extend east - backed by “The Big Four”
Leland Stanford
Part of the Big Four
ex-governor of California
Collis P. Huntington
Part of the Big Four
adept lobbyist
the four transcontinental railroads
Northern Pacific Railroad
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe
Southern Pacific
Great Northern
Cornelius Vanderbilt
financed the successful western railroads, invented the steel rail, standard track, and track gauge. overall, made railroad more efficient
Pullman Palace Cars
luxurious but dangerous passenger cars
“like home on the railroad”
Jay Gould
a leading railroad developer that played the game of dazzling the public while making multi-million dollars at their expense
“stock watering”
companies grossly over-inflated the worth of their stock and sold them at huge profits
“pools”
a group of supposed competitors who agree to work together, usually to set prices
The Grange
political group formed by farmers to combat such corruption
Wabash Case
Supreme Court ruling which ruled that states could not regulate interstate commerce
Interstate Commerce Act
1887, banned rebates and pools
required railroads to publish their rates openly as to not cheat customers and forbade unfair discrimination
Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)
set up to enforce the Interstate Commerce Act
Richard Olney
a shrewd corporate lawyer, noted that they could use the Interstate Commerce Act to act to capitalist advantage
Alexander Graham Bell
invented telephone in 1876, launched new age of communication
Thomas Edison
invented a lot of things, most remembered for electric light bulb in 1879
“horizontal integration”
when someone allies with other competitors instead of controlling everything themselves
John D. Rockefeller
dominated oil industry - “rule or ruin”
“vertical integration”
when someone buys out and controls all aspects of an industry (ex. mined iron, transported it, refined it, turns it into steel, and sells it) - takes out middleman
“interlocking directorates”
placing someones own men on boards of directors of other rival competitors to gain influence and reduce competition
Bessemer process
invention that made steel-making cheaper and more effective
William Kelly
an American who discovered the Bessemer process, but an Englishmen got credited