AMH 2020
Chapter 16 Study Guide
Factors that encouraged economic growth in the Gilded Age- Natural resources, growing supply of labor, expanding market for manufactured goods, availability of capital for investment. Govt promoted agricultural & industrial development. Enacted high tariffs to protect American industry from foreign competition, granted land to railroad companies, and used the army to remove Indians from western lands (yikes). Lots of strikes.
Wage work- Paid people set amounts for works they did, made poor people stay poor and rich people stay rich. Everything controlled by Employers.
Second Industrial Revolution- Explosive economic growth, see ‘Factors that encouraged economic growth…”
Railroads – impact- Private investments & massive land grants, opened new areas for commercial farming and manufactured goods. Created a national market, and gave way to time zones. Helped steel market as railroads would now use steel as to not rust.
“Pools”- divided markets between supposedly competing firms and fixed prices.
Andrew Carnegie- established steel company that incorporated “vertical integration”, or one that controlled everything from transportation to manufacturing to distribution. He got a lot of money, also dominated the steel industry. Horrible work conditions, but he donated to libraries and shit so that’s something I guess. People still died tho. Two 12-hour shifts, nonstop except for the 4th of July.
John Rockefeller- Oil company guy, dominated the industry. People didn’t like him (his family also played a huge part in the American eugenics movement, but anyway). Horizontal expansion, i.e. buy everyone out until you have a monopoly on oil. He did vertical expansion later tho. He gave away money to like, education and medical stuff, but given context that makes me kind of uneasy. He was a dick to his workers, was really against workers unions because god forbid people have living salaries. Mixed feelings from people at the time, but strong feelings.
How the Other Half Lives- By Jacob Riis, shocking accounts of the urban poor in New York, along with pictures of the poverty people were in.
Little Bighorn- Native American Victory of 1876, General George A. Cluster and 250 men died.
Boarding schools for Indians- 1871, took many Native American children from their families and put them in boarding schools, where their culture was stripped from them and they were made to wear non-Native American clothes, given new names, and educated in white ways.
Dawes Severalty Act- Broke Native American land into pieces (this is my last resort)…((sorry)) and distributed it to Indians, told them that if they could act ‘civilized’ that they could be American citizens. Kind of screwed over the Native American’s values and located them in very dangerous areas. Erosion of cultural tradition, and white people took formerly Native American lands. Oof.
Ghost Dance- Religious Revitalization Campaign for Native Americans. Foretold a day when whites would disappear, buffalo would come back, and Native Americans could finally live with culture, free from disease, death, and misery. They sang and danced for days, until the US Govt came in and killed a bunch of them (Wounded Knee Creek). Native American population decreased significantly.
The “Wild West”- A lawless place ruled by “cowboys and Indians”, marked by gunfights, cattle drives and stagecoach robberies. Violent and romantic frontier. Big Hollywood image.
William Tweed- Considered an urban Robin Hood due to funding for food, fuel, and jobs among poor population. Corrupt guy though, plunged the US into debt with his organization. Lawmaker who held stock.
Civil Service Act 1883- Merit system for federal employees which appointed via competitive examinations instead of political influence. Removed office holding from political machines)
Interstate Commerce Commission- Ensured that rates people charged for good transport were reasonable, did not favor one or the other company. Had little impact because all they could so was sure, federally recognized.
Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890- Banned combinations and practices that restrained free trade, vague language, hard to enforce.
Social Darwinism- “Poor people can die and we shouldn’t help them” basically. Weird interpretation of Darwinism.
Great Railroad Strike of 1877- Workers protesting a pay cut paralyzed railroad traffic, govt came in and started killing workers, so workers burned down railroad yards. President had them “put down by force”
Henry George, Laurence Gronlond, and Edward Bellamy- H: Progress and Poverty, L: The Cooperative Commonwealth, E: Looking Backwards. Authors that called for a golden age of social harmony, optimistic remedies for the unequal distribution of wealth, best sellers. Henry suggested that we fix poverty through a “single tax” to replace all taxes, Laurence wanted American socialism. Edward wanted nationalism, weird scifi booc.
Social Gospel- Idea that freedom and spiritual self-development required an equalization of wealth and power, and that unbridled competition mocked the Christian idea of brotherhood.
Haymarket Affair- Rally in Haymarket square to protest the killing of four strikers by police. Someone threw a bomb into the crowd, killing a policeman. The police opened fire, police raided offices of labor and radical groups. Employers used this to paint the labor movement as dangerous and un-American. 8 men were convicted, although the evidence was not a lot, 4 were killed, one hanged himself, and the other three were imprisoned until John Altgeld, a pro-labor Illinois governor, commuted their sentences in 1893.














