Unit 6 Flashcards
What caused westward settlement?
-Easier transportation via the railroad (the transcontinental railroad was built)
-Motivation via the Homestead Act
-Discovery of gold and silver
What did the mechanization of argiculture lead to?
-Production increased
-Small farmers became obsolete
Why were farmers having railroad problems during this time?
Railroad owners charged high prices for shipping crops
What was the National Grange Movement (1868)?
Collective aimed at bringing isolated farmers together for socialization and education
What was the Commerce Act of 1886?
Required railroad rates to be reasonable and established the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission)
What did the Homestead Act of 1862 do?
Granted potential migrants 160 acres of land if they farmed and settled it
What came from the gold and silver rushes of this period?
Boomtowns
Who were the sodbusters?
Homesteaders who were among the first to cut through the soil with their plows
What was the significance of Turner’s essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”?
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After the Civil War, what vision of the South did Grady have?
A future based on economic diversity, industrial growth, and laissaz-faire economics
What was sharecropping?
A system in which people who could not afford to rent or buy lan could work on the fields of a plantation if they give a portion of their harvest to the owner
What happened in Plessy v. Ferguson?
The court ruled that racial segregation was constitutional as long as the facilities are “separate but equal”
What were the Jim Crow laws?
They segregated many facets of society into racial divisions
What was the International Migration Society?
Facilitated the migration of black Americans to Africa (Liberia)
What did Booker T. Washington believe in?
That black people needed to become economically self-sufficient, which would lead to political equality
How did industry change in this time period?
Americans began self-producing goods to be sold all over the world
How did the railroad affect economy?
Established a nationally intertwined market for sales
What was the Bessemer process?
A method to develop refined steel by blasting air through molten iron
How did the telegraph change communications?
Communication could travel long distances at the speed of electricity;
After a transatlantic telegraph system was built, an international market was established
What happened during the Gilded Age with regards to corporstions?
The rise of large corporations and trusts that dominated industry
John D. Rockefeller used horizontal integration. What is it?
A company buys out its competitors until there are none
Andrew Carnegie used vertical integration. What is it?
A company acquires all the complementary industries that support its business
Why did big corporations rise in this period?
The proliferation of laissez faire economics (no government regulation);
Relied on underpaid laborers;
Social Darwinism to economics
What is the Gospel of Wealth?
The idea that the rich had a duty from God to invest their wealth back into society
With the rise of industry came what?
Conspicuous consumption (meaningless consumption for the sake of showing off wealth)
Why did labor unions form?
To advocate for workers’ rights as a group
What was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877?
In which unionized railroad workers went on strike to protest lower wages
What was the Pullman Strike?
Strike against lower wages but by members of the Pullman Company
Where did immigrants in this time period usually go?
To industrial cities
What did the middle class and wealthy do during this age with regards to migration?
They established suburban communities
What was the Exoduster Movement?
A mass migration of Southern black people into the West
What is nativism?
A policy of protecting the interests of native born folks against the interests of immigrants
What was the American Protective Association?
An organization against Catholics, more so because many of them were Irish
Why did labor unions fear immigrants?
You know.
Why did Social Darwinists oppose immigration?
Because they believed that immigrants were racially inferior to the true standard of American whiteness
What was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?
Banned Chinese immigration
How was Jane Addams significant?
She established settlement houses, where immigrants were given guidance to better assimilate into American society
What characterized the middle class?
Not too poor, not too rich
What came with the rise of the middle class?
The rise of leisure time
What were examples of leisure time?
-Coney Island
-P.T. Barnum’s circuses
-Sports
What was the Social Gospel?
Christian principles should be applied not merely to oneself but to the cure the ills of society as well
What did Carrie Nation do?
She used her hatchet and entered saloons to hack their barrels till their contents spilled
How was what large corporate owners made different from Smith’s view of an ideal economy?
Lack of competition
