Unit 2 Test- Industrialization Flashcards
Rebates
a secret discount railroads sometimes gave to their large customers
paybacks
you pay in full price, and the money you get back is your rebate.
Rockefeller would go to the railroad companies and force them to make the prices higher, but to give him rebates on the prices. This eliminated the smaller competition (oil companies) who couldn’t pay the higher price
Every person who could afford rebates became much more successful than those too poor to afford them.
Monopoly
an enterprise that is the only/biggest seller of a good or service
Had too much power over the price and production of goods
a company that wiped out its competitors and controls an industry
Trusts
A trust is a large grouping of business interests with significant market power, which may be embodied as a corporation or as a group of corporations that cooperate with one another in various ways.
trusts could artificially inflate prices, bully rivals, and bribe politicians
A legal body created to hold stock in many companies, often in the same industry.
Sweatshops
usually a small manufacturing establishment employing workers under unfair and unsanitary conditions.
poor working conditions, unfair wages, unreasonable hours, child labor, and a lack of benefits for workers
6 causes of industrialization
Human Talent & Labor:
Growing population, including millions of
immigrants brought new workers and talent
Railroads:
Improved transportation, allow exchange of resources, people, and goods throughout the U.S.
Inventions & New Technology:
New technology made new industries possible and more efficient
Government:
Government gave land away and gave
subsidies ($ to help grow) to railroads
Natural Resources:
Westward Expansion provided access to more resources like coal, iron, lumber etc
Investment:
Many hoped to profit so they lent money to businesses
What is a patent?
Why would an inventor need one?
a government document giving an inventor the sole right to make and sell an invention for a particular number of years.
To protect their idea and be able to profit from their innovation.
What changes occured in America in the mid and late 1800s?
Factory machines replaced hand tools.
Manufacturing and large-scale industries began to replace farming.
How was the Bessemer process a cause of industrialization?
The Bessemer process cut the cost of making steel, making it more affordable. The use of steel lead to the development of new industries.
What products used steel?
Plows, barbed wire, nails, beams for buildings (skyscrapers)
What specific contributions did Thomas Edison make?
Edison invented a practical, sage light bulb as well as a system to deliver electricity to people (power plant)
Explain the importance of Alexander Graham Bell
Bell invented the telephone which would revolutionize communication.
What other new technologies were developed at this time?
-Telephone networks rapidly expanded, especially with the development of the switchboard
-The typewriter opened up jobs for women
-Issac Singer’s sewing machine led to more factory produced clothing rather than homemade
What did the reorganization of the business world change?
The way that it was managed and financed, leading to less competition
Define corporation
a business that is owned by investors who purchase part of it through shares of stock
a business owned by shareholders
Define shareholder
an investor who purchases part of a business through shares of stock
Why did corporations develop in the late 1800s? How would a business be helped by turning into a corporation?
To be able to afford new technologies, business owners turned their businesses into corporations where investors would give money to the company in return for ownership of part of it.
How did John D. Rockefeller obtain a monopoly over the oil industry?
He bought out the other oil refineries, made deals with railroads to ship his oil at cheaper prices, and built or bought his own pipelines for carrying oil.
Why did Rockefeller develop the Standard Oil Trust?
To merge multiple corporations together under one body which then controlled 95% of the nations oil (monopoly)
Define “robber baron”
a business leader who uses dishonest methods to grow rich.
Reasons: Business leaders built their fortunes by stealing from the public.
They drained the country of its natural resources.
Why did this lead to Rockefeller being labeled as a “robber baron?”
Rockefeller raised the price of oil for customers. Since they could only get it from his companies, they had to pay whatever the price was.
How did Andrew Carnegie’s methods in the steel industry differ from Rockefeller’s with oil?
Carnegie tried to make the best and cheapest product in order to beat his competition rather than forcing them out of business like Rockefeller. To do this, he bought up all the phases of steel production, from the raw materials to the finished product. By cutting out the middle man, he was able to reduce the cost of his steel.
Describe Rockefeller and Carnegie’s philanthropy.
Both men gave away very large sums of money to universities and to build public libraries.
Define business cycle
cycle of economic “boom” times (up) and “busts” (down)
What constitutes and boom and bust period?
A boom period is where people are buying goods and investing in businesses. A bust is when spending and investing decrease which leads to industries laying off workers.
Define depression
a period of extremely low economic activity
What are examples of depressions during the period of industrialization?
There was an economic depression in 1873 which lasted five years and left 3 million unemployed. The depression of 1893 saw thousands of businesses close although industry grew steadily throught the 1800s.
Describe the varied impact of America’s economic growth on its people
Some Americans became very wealthy and the standard of living rose. Minorities, factory workers and many in the South did not benefit greatly from this growth, however.
How did many of the wealthy obtain their status?
They grew up wealthy and had the benefit of college, money, and family connections.
Define Gilded Age
Mark Twain’s nickname for the time period because of its outer layer of wealth and prosperity hiding the inner layers of poverty, dishonest business practices and corruption.
11 out of 12 million families lived below the poverty level in 1890.
What obstacles did the South face during this time?
-Industry grew much slower
-The price of cotton was low
-The sharecropping system kept most in debt
Inventions and Patents greatly increased in the late 1800’s
T or F
T
Modern-day monopolies include…
Google (internet)
Facebook (social media)
Visa (payment processing)
Luxotitta (eyewear)
Microsoft (technology)
Indian Railways (rail transportation)
Carnegie Steel (steel)
Alibaba (E-Commerce)
De Beers (diamond mining)
Rockefeller Breakdown
Rockefeller obtained a monopoly by buying oil refineries and built oil pipelines.
Created a trust – a legal body created to hold stock in many companies, often in the same industry (simply, a trust is many companies working together to form a monopoly)
He developed Standard Oil to merge multiple corporations under one body/company which then controlled 95% of the nation’s oil.
Vertical Integration
process or a company’s domination of every aspect of the production line or process for a particular product
buying out/controlling raw materials, distribution, etc.
Philanthropists
people who give large sums of money to charities
Henry Ford’s Assembly Line
Assembly line developed and perfected by Henry Ford to mass produce the car
increased speed of production, brought prices down
Individualized tasks
Before the car, people traveled by foot or horse, or only where rail lines went.
a system to mass-produce cars which made them more efficient and therefore cheaper to produce and buy
This connected America in a new way. New highways, cities, rest stops etc. emerged
An example of bettering the organization of business for economic growth, other than technological development
Define assembly line
a manufacturing method in which a product is put together as it moves along a belt; perfected by Henry Ford; allows products to be made faster and cheaper
Mother Jones
Mary Jones owned her own business and experienced great loss during her life
“Mother” Jones later worked to help better the conditions that workers of the time suffered through
advocate who tried to better the industrial working conditions of the time period
As a result of the terrible conditions enacted by the businesses, workers formed _______ __________ to make their voices heard
labor unions
Poor Working conditions include…
Long Hours
Low Pay
No Sick Days
Dangerous Working Conditions
Workers would lose money if they could not work due to injuries or sickness
Owners at the time cared more about ______ than ______ ____________
profit/safety equipment-people
Because of low salaries, all family members worked including _________
children
Knights of Labor
Terrence Powderly was the leader
one of the earliest unions that formed after the civil war
a loose federation of workers from different trades
Allowed all skilled & unskilled workers to join, eventually allowed women & African American workers to join unlike many unions
Refused to go on strike ( or stop working until demands met) → strikes were unsuccessful and often turned violent
preferred public rallies
Railroad strike of 1877
due to an economic depression in the 1870s, businesses had trouble providing the necessary conditions for their workers. This led to the Railroad Strike of 1877.
B&O Railroads cut workers’ salaries by 10% due to the depression
Workers in West Virginia refused to run the trains with workers all across the country joining in
President Rutheford B. Hayes called out troops to end the strike in which dozens were killed
Some Strikes ended successfully with improvements for workers and thousands joined unions.
Note
Racism and the Unions
Non-white workers were often refused membership in unions and were forced to work for less money for the same work by business leaders
Conflicts between business leaders and unions became bitter and _____ in the late 1800s
violent
Because of the disruptions to their businesses, industry leaders tried to portray union leaders as radicals who followed extreme, un-American ideas like ______ and ______
socialism/anarchy
Define socialism
a system in which the means of production and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government
Define anarchy
the abolition of all governments
In 1886, the Chicago McCormick Harvester Company tried to break a strike by _______ _____ striking workers and ______ strikebreakers (“scabs”) to replace them
locking out/hiring
Note: striking workers, strikebreakers, and police clashed violently
Haymarket Affair
The following day of the violent McCormick clash
A company in Chicago cut worker pay & the workers demanded shorter hours (wanted an 8-hour workday.)
The workers went on strike and the company hired replacements (strikebreakers/scabs.)
Violence broke out between the strikers and the replacements
The next day, seven police officers were killed by a bomb, and several strikers shot
The strike was unsuccessful, it ended in violence and gave unions a negative reputation for violence and radicalism. Associated with socialism (a system in which the means of production and distributing goods is owned collectively) & anarchy (abolition of government)
The Homestead Strike
In Pennsylvania
another defeat for labor unions
After Andrew Carnegie cut wages for workers in his steel mills, they went on strike
The striking workers were locked out, non-union workers were brought in to replace them, and private guards were hired
Ten people were killed when the striking workers clashed with the private guards and the Pennsylvania state militia was called out to escort the strikebreakers to work
all strike organizers were blacklisted (put on a list and never hired in that industry again)
American Federation of Labor (AFL):
Labor leader Samuel Gompers formed the American Federation of Labor in 1886
accepted only white, native-born, skilled workers
one of the early major labor unions in the US
made up of many smaller unions
a national organization of unions that used strikes, boycotts & collective bargaining (negotiating as a group with the owners)
Pullman Strike
during a depression, the Pullman Palace Car Company cut workers’ pay by 25% but did not decrease their rent for company housing, leaving workers with almost nothing
Pullman Car Company workers started the Pullman Strike which ultimately ended in violence and defeat
American railways worker Eugene V. Debs called on all railroad workers to refuse to work on Pullman cars
Rail traffic stopped in much of the country
President Glover Cleveland called out federal troops to end the strike
Some workers were blacklisted and Debs was put in jail.
What did most of the early labor strikes have in common?
Early labor strikes often ended in violence, were unsuccessful in achieving change for workers and the government intervened on behalf of the business owners.
What was the government’s role in most strikes? Which side did they favor? Why?
The government sided with big business–they usually put the strike down and favored big business because of the economic benefits these industries brought $$ to the U.S.
Never Back Down Never What?
NEVER GIVE UP CHAT!!!
Define Union
an organization of workers formed to try and get employers to meet their demands
Define strike
when workers stop working until their demands are met
Define laissez-faire
Leave alone
“hands-off” - when government does not get involved in the economy or control business by making laws they must follow
Describe a laissez-faire economy
businesses were allowed to operate freely, without government restriction
led to wealth inequality, and those in poverty were not helped by the federal government
Horizontal integration
merging companies that produce similar products
These were lists of people companies should avoid hiring
blacklists
entrepreneur
a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.
Samuel Gompers
successful leaders of the AFL (American Federation of Labor); used bargaining tactics with employers and then strikes as a last resort; believed only allowing skilled workers would strengthen the union since they could not be easily replaced
Eugene V. Debs
president of the American Railway Union; arrested for his part in the Pullman Strike; ran for president five times as a socialist
“Scabs” was another term for…
Strikebreakers
