1865 - 1898 (Industrialization)

Question 1

“New South”

Answer 1

• Beginning in 1865
• The “New South” is a term coined for the post-Civil War South, in contrast to the slavery-based “Old South.”
• Proponents of the New South called for a move from plantations to a mixed economy with increased industrialization.
• The hope was that Northern industries and businessmen would flock to the South.
• Plantation owners continued to control the majority of Southern land following Reconstruction.
• A biased sharecropping system limited access to land ownership for black and poor whites.
• Even though slaves were emancipated in the South, their integration into Southern society would lead to conflicts with whites over land ownership, political rights, and their place in society.

Question 2

Transportation from 1860 - 1900

Answer 2

• 1860 - 1900
• The government gave land grants to the railroads.
• The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 with Golden Spike at Promontory Point, Utah; it joined the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads.
• Railroad transportation provided opportunities for movement of goods and people to the west and raw materials to the east.
• Their construction affected population movements and made Chicago one of the most populous cities in the nation by 1900.
• New technology for transportation, manufacturing, communication, and agriculture increased America’s economic growth.

Question 3

Knights of Labor

Answer 3

• Established 1869
• The Knights of Labor were a militant organization seeking solutions to labor problems.
• It allowed skilled and unskilled workers (along with women and African Americans) to join.
• Members wanted an eight-hour work day, and end to child labor, equal pay for equal work, and the elimination of private banks.
• Under Terrence Powderly’s leadership, the Knights reached membership of more than 700,000.
• The Knights’ downfall was caused by the emergence of the AFL, mismanagement, and financial losses from unsuccessful strikes.
• The advance of American industry would bring with it a growing population of laborers and the need to protect the rights of these workers.

Question 4

Gilded Age

Answer 4

• 1870s - 1890s
• The term Gilded Age describes the new industrial era and its impact of society.
• The phrase was coined by Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), an American novelist whose works, such as “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (1876), portrayed life and speech of the era.
• During the Gilded Age, America emerged as the world’s leading industrial and agricultural producer.
• Profits became increasingly centralized in the hands of fewer people.
• The economy boomed during the Gilded Age; however, racist and nativist sentiments grew, the disparity between the wealthy and the poor increased, and civic debate focused on political corruption.

Question 5

U.S. Fish Commission and Department of the Interior

Answer 5

• Commission created in 1871.
• Congress formed the United States Fish Commission to investigate and respond to the decline in fish and aquatic populations.
• The commission joined the Department of the Interior in 1939.
• The department was established earlier in 1849 to handle domestic matters, which originally included exploration of the Western wilderness, regulation of territorial governments, oversight of American Indians, and management of public parks.
• The department’s responsibilities, such as protecting American Indian rights and selling federal lands, were sometimes at odds.
• The growth of America geographically, economically, and industrially necessitated the protection of America’s natural resources.

Question 6

Henry George and the “Single-Tax” Proposal

Answer 6

• 1839 - 1897
• Henry George was a writer, economist, and politician.
• He was the author of “Progress and Poverty” (1879), which promoted his belief in a land value tax (“single-tax”) as a path to economic equality.
• His work influenced economic reform during the Progressive Era; it focused on the idea that people fairly own the value they create, but land is a natural resource and therefore owned by the community.
• U.S. thinkers, economists, politicians, and authors debated economic equality and how to achieve it as big business boomed during the latter half of the 1800s

Question 7

Social Darwinism

Answer 7

• 1880s
• This is the theory that wealth is based on the survival of the fittest; it is associated with Charles Darwin’s work.
• Wealthy industrial leaders used the doctrine to justify vast differences in classes.
• Its supporters included Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner.
• U.S. thinkers, economists, politicians, and authors debated economic equality and how to achieve it as big business boomed during the latter half of the 1800s

Question 8

Thorstein Veblen and “Conspicuous Consumption”

Answer 8

• 1857 - 1929
• Thorstein Veblen was an American economist and sociologist who wrote “The Theory of the Leisure Class” (1899).
• He argued that society was split between those who exploit and those who produce.
• He coined the phrase “conspicuous consumption”: extravagant spending by the wealthy in part to make a statement about their accomplishments and class.
• Scholars and reformers focused in the disparity between the wealthy and the impoverished as urbanization and industrialization spread.

Question 9

Captains of Industry / Robber Barons

Answer 9

• 1880s
• “Captain of Industry” was a term for a leader of a large, efficient corporation.
• The tern “robber baron” applied to those business leaders who people felt used political means to achieve their goals, often through questionable practices.
• Certain tactics grew profits while concentrating wealth in fewer hands, such as the creation of large trusts and holding companies.
• Monopolies by large companies led to demands by small businessmen and laborers for government regulation.
• John D. Rockefeller’s tactics were exposed in Ida Tarbell’s “The History of the Standard Oil Company.”
• The U.S. economy changed from agrarian and regional in nature to an industrialized national economy during the late 1800s, as the country’s technology, business practices, and culture evolved.

Question 10

John D. Rockefeller

Answer 10

• 1839 - 1937
• John D. Rockefeller was the founder of Standard Oil Company.
• He used business practices such as horizontal integration, trusts, and rebates to grow Standard Oil.
• Rockefeller also invested in banks, railroads, and timber.
• He focused on philanthropy toward the end of his life, including the Rockefeller Foundation and the University of Chicago.
• New business practices and structures led to tremendous industrial growth and wealth managed by a small group of businessmen.

Question 11

Andrew Carnegie and the Gospel of Wealth

Answer 11

• 1835 - 1919
• After making money through investments in oil and in a sleeping car company, Andrew Carnegie went into a position in the War Department.
• Later, he worked in the iron business and then moved into steel after learning the Bessemer Process, which formed steel from pig iron.
• He grew his Carnegie Steel Company through acquisitions.
• Carnegie Steel Company was involved in the Homestead Strike with the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers.
• He wrote the article “Gospel of Wealth” for the North American Review, which promoted the belief that the wealthy were just trustees of their money and that they must use their efforts to benefit society.
• His philanthropic ventures included Carnegie Hall and public libraries.
• New business practices and structures led to tremendous industrial growth and wealth managed by a small group of businessmen.

Question 12

J.P. Morgan

Answer 12

• 1837 - 1913
• J.P. Morgan was a Wall Street banker whose company financed railroads, banks, and insurance companies.
• He bough out Andrew Carnegie for $400 million.
• He turned to philanthropy and pledged money to help shore up the U.S. banking system after the Panic of 1907.
• New business practices and structures led to tremendous industrial growth and wealth managed by a small group of businessmen.

Question 13

Monopolies and Business Consolidation

Answer 13

• 1880s - 1890s
• Industrialization led to larger, stronger companies managed by the likes of Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt.
• The lack of government regulations created monopolies, in which single companies controlled the market for a product.
• Carnegie utilized vertical integration, in which he owned all aspects of the steel production process.
• Rockefeller utilized horizontal integration, in which he controlled the majority of the oil processing industry.
• The U.S. economy changed from agrarian and regional in nature to an industrialized national economy during the late 1800s, as the country’s technology, business practices, and culture evolved.

Question 14

Mary Harris Jones (Mother Jones)

Answer 14

• 1839 - 1930
• Mary Harris Jones was once known as the “most dangerous woman in America” as she strove to establish equality for industrial workers.
• Jones was an organizer of Coxey’s Army, a group of unemployed men who marched on Washington and in mine strikes.
• She worked against Andrew Carnegie’s U.S. Steel to improve the lives of steel workers.
• She co-founded Industrial Workers of the World.
• Unions, community leaders, and workers battled with management over wages and working conditions.

Question 15

William Randolph Hearst

Answer 15

• 1863 - 1951
• William Randolph Hearst inherited the San Francisco Chronicle.
• He built a media empire, including newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and movie studios.
• His “yellow journalism,” or writing that dealt with sensational news stories, helped lead the United States into the Spanish-American War.
• The growth of literacy and mass publishing gave the media more influence on public opinion during the Gilded Age.

Question 16

Jim Crow Laws

Answer 16

• 1880s - 1900s
• Jim Crow Laws separated whites and African Americans in public facilities and restricted the legal guarantees due to African Americans, such as the right to vote.
• The laws were often part of state statutes.
• Support for these laws was provided in the Plessy v. Ferguson case, demonstrating the limits of the Fourteenth Amendment.
• The name of the laws in said to be derived from a character in a minstrel song.
• Reconstruction legislation reflected the North’s ideals and sought to give representation to traditionally disenfranchised groups, while the South continued to battle against such charges.

Question 17

Booker T. Washington

Answer 17

• 1856 - 1915
• Booker T. Washington was the son of a slave and a white man.
• He taught at the Hampton Institute and, in 1881, helped organize a school for African Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama.
• The Tuskegee Institute emphasized industrial training to assist African Americans in gathering wealth and becoming influential in society.
• Washington claimed that it was a mistake for African Americans to push for social equality before they had become economically equal.
• His ideas were denounced by some leaders in the African American community.
• He lectured throughout the United States and Europe and wrote various works, including his autobiography, “Up From Slavery”.
• African American leaders, thinkers, and scholars worked diligently to help African Americans find a place in the post-Civil War nation.

Question 18

James Garfield

Answer 18

• 1881
• James Garfield was the twentieth president of the United States.
• He was a former Ohio congressman and Union general.
• Charles Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker, shot and killed Garfield.
• His assassination spurred the passage of the Pendleton Act.
• The election and actions of U.S. presidents reflect the major issues concerning the federal government, the country’s stance in the world, political parties, and the American people.

Question 19

Chester Arthur

Answer 19

• 1881 - 1885
• Chester Arthur was the twenty-first president of the United States.
• He assumed the office when President Garfield was assassinated by Char;es Guiteau.
• He worked to outlaw polygamy in Utah and to strengthen the Navy.
• Arthur supported the Pendleton Act, which established open competitive exams for civil service jobs and officially ended the spoils system that had been popular under Andrew Jackson.
• The election and actions of U.S. presidents reflect the major issues concerning the federal government, the country’s stance in the world, political parties, and the American people.

Question 20

Chinese Exclusion Act

Answer 20

• 1882
• The Chinese Exclusion Act was the only legislation passed to limit immigration of any one group of people.
• It was passed in response to the Chinese who settled in California after building the railroads.
• The economy boomed during the Gilded Age; however, racist and nativist sentiments grew, the disparity between the wealthy and the poor increased, and civic debate focused on political corruption.

Question 21

Glover Cleveland

Answer 21

• 1885 - 1889 and 1893 - 1897
• Grover Cleveland was the twenty-second and twenty - fourth president of the United States.
• Cleveland was the first Democrat elected after the Civil War.
• He was the only president elected to nonconsecutive terms.
• He vetoed many private pension bills for Civil War veterans who submitted fraudulent claims.
• Cleveland signed the Interstate Commerce Act.
• He sent in federal troops to enforce an injunction against striking railroad workers in Chicago.
• The election and actions of U.S. presidents reflect the major issues concerning the federal government, the country’s stance in the world, political parties, and the American people.

Question 22

The Grange and Granger Laws

Answer 22

• 1860s - 1880s
• The Grange was an agricultural organization throughout the Midwest that was established to protect farmer’s rights.
• It helped create laws in Midwestern states to regulate unfair pricing and practices for the railroad and for grain elevators.
• Initially, these laws were upheld by the Supreme Court in Munn v. Illinois.
• Later, they were overturned in Wabash v. Illinois, in which the court ruled that states couldn’t regulate interstate commerce.
• The nation moved away from an agrarian society as technology and industrialization evolved, necessitating support from farmers.

Question 23

Colored Farmers’ Alliance

Answer 23

• 1886
• African American farmers in the South formed this group after they were barred by the Southern Farmers’ Alliance.
• The group fought the rising price of farming and promoted self-sufficiency.
• It dissolved after a failed cotton-picker strike.
• The nation moved away from an agrarian society as technology and industrialization evolved and industrialization evolved, necessitating support for farmers.

Question 24

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Answer 24

• 1886
• The American Federation of Labor was a combination of national craft unions representing labor interests in wages, hours, and safety.
• Individuals were members of their local unions, which in turn were members of the AFL.
• Rather than revolutionary changes, they sought a better working life; their philosophy was “pure and simple unionism.”
• The AFL’s first president was Samuel Gompers.
• Unions, community leaders, and workers battled with management over wages and working conditions.

Question 25

Haymarket Square Riot

Answer 25

• May 4, 1886
• The Haymarket Square Riot was a large rally in Haymarket Square in Chicago shortly after striking began at McCormick Harvesting Machine Co.
• Police were attempting to disperse the crowd when a bomb exploded.
• 11 were killed and more than 100 were injured.
• Eight anarchists were put on trial, and four were executed.
• The incident was used to discredit the Knights of Labor.
• Unions, community leaders, and workers battled with management over wages and working conditions.

Question 26

Ida Wells-Barnett

Answer 26

• 1862 - 1931
• Ida Wells-Barnett was an African American journalist and activist.
• She fought for African American justice and spearheaded anti-lynching campaigns.
• She was forcibly removed from a train for refusing to give up her purchased first-class ticket, she sued the railroad.
• African American leaders, thinkers, and scholars worked diligently to help African Americans find a place in the post-Civil War nation.

Question 27

Interstate Commerce Act

Answer 27

• 1887
• The Interstate Commerce Act established the Interstate Commerce Commission in part to monitor discrimination within the railroad industry.
• It prohibited rebates and pools and required railroads to publish their rates.
• It also prohibited unfair discrimination against shippers and outlaws the practice of charging more for short hauls than long hauls.
• In general, the act increased competition, the goal of which was to preserve equality and spur innovation.
• Legislation, as well as social and economic reform, was enacted to curb the growth of big business and government corruption.

Question 28

American Protective Association

Answer 28

• Founded in 1887
• The American Protective Association was founded in Iowa to counter the growth of Roman Catholic immigrants, who were seen as a threat to the members’ political, economic, and social beliefs.
• The group feared that the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope as its leader were becoming too influential with the U.S. government.
• It advocated immigration reform and free public schools to counter the growth of parochial schools.
• The economy boomed during the Gilded Age; however, racist and nativist sentiments grew, the disparity between the wealthy and the poor increased, and civic debate focused on political corruption.

Question 29

“New Immigration”

Answer 29

• 1820s - 1920s
• Immigrants from Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Canada and northern Mexico moved to American industrial centers for economic opportunities.
• These immigrants were key in transforming America not only with the increased industrial output but also by adding cultural diversity.
• Immigration provided the workers that industrialization required, leading to new cultural influences and urban growth but also to class tensions and lower working wages.

Question 30

Dawes Severalty Act

Answer 30

• 1887
• The Dawes Severalty Act was legislation that encouraged the breakup of American Indian tribes with the aim of assimilating them into American society.
• Helen Hunt Jackson’s “A Century of Dishonor” was a catalyst, as it depicted injustices to American Indians.
• The act distributed American Indian reservation lands among individual members of the tribe to form a system of agriculture more similar to the white man’s.
• It gave each head of an American Indian family 160 acres of farmland or 320 acres of grazing land.
• Its effect was to disrupt the reservation system, as the remaining tribal lands were opened up for white people.
• The U.S. government used legislation and military force to push American Indians toward assimilation, with significant consequences to native peoples’ culture and landholdings.

Question 31

Jane Addams

Answer 31

• 1860 - 1935
• Jane Addams was an American social reformer.
• She provided the services of the Hull House in Chicago (1889) to help poor immigrants settle.
• She was a member of the “Social Gospel” movement, which applied lessons from the Bible to address problems of immigration and urbanization.
• Addams won the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize.
• The Progressive movement sought to curb corruption and to reform economic and social inequalities through government intervention and the creation of activist organizations.

Question 32

Benmin Harrison

Answer 32

• 1889 - 1893
• Benjamin Harrison was the twenty-third president of the United States.
• He was a former senator and lawyer.
• He was nominated for the presidency on the eighth ballot at the 1888 Republican Convention.
• Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland despite receiving fewer popular votes.
• He submitted to the Senate a treaty to annex Hawaii, although President Cleveland later withdrew it.
• Harrison signed many appropriations bills for naval improvement and internal improvements.
• The election and actions of U.S. presidents reflect the major issues concerning the federal government, the country’s stance in the world, political parties, and the American people.

Question 33

Battle of Wounded Knee

Answer 33

• 1890
• Sioux natives wished to practice a dance that they believed would free their lands and lead to prosperity, but this plan frightened settlers.
• The federal army believed Chief Sitting Bull was organizing a rebellion, and, acting on the settlers’ fear and their suspicions, the army captured the chief.
• In a sudden exchange of gunfire between the tribe and the army, Chief Sitting Bull and others were killed.
• The remainder of the tribe fled to a camp near Wounded Knee Creek.
• When the army reached this camp, a shot was fired, and in reaction, the army killed 200 men, women, and children in what is considered the last battle of the Indian Wars.
• The U.S. government used legislation and military force to push American Indians toward assimilation, with significant consequences to native peoples’ culture and landholdings.

Question 34

National American Woman Suffrage Association

Answer 34

• Formed in 1890
• The National American Women Suffrage Association was created by the merger of the National Women Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association.
• It fought for a woman’s right to vote on the local, state, and federal levels.
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the organizer of the Seneca Falls Convention, and Susan B. Anthony, a women’s rights leader, served as the first two presidents.
• In the Progressive Era, advocates used legislation to promote social reforms and to broaden democratic representation.

Question 35

Progressivism

Answer 35

• 1890 - 1914
• Progressivism was social, political, and economic reform that came as an American response to problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, and immigration.
• Democratic reforms were made throughout states and the the national government.
• Reforms led to the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Nineteenth Amendments.
• The Progressive movement sought to curb corruption and to reform economic and social inequalities through government intervention and the creation of activist organizations.

Question 36

Sherman Antitrust Act

Answer 36

• 1890
• The Sherman Antitrust Act was based on Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce.
• It declared every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of interstate trade to be illegal.
• Corporate monopolies were exposed to federal prosecution if they were found to conspire in restraining trade.
• The Supreme Court applied the act to both labor unions and corporations.
• The unsavory link between big business and the government at the end of the 1800s brought with it the demand for reform, which came through legislation and new political parties.

Question 37

Populist Party

Answer 37

• 1890
• The Populist Party consisted mostly of farmers.
• Members who met in Nebraska wrote their “Omaha Platform.”
• The demands of the platform included free and unlimited coinage of silver, a graduated income tax, and government ownership of the telephone, telegraph, and railroad industries.
• Many of these ideas were later adopted by the Progressive Party.
• The unsavory link between big business and the government at the end of the 1800s brought with it the demand for reform, which came through legislation and new political parties.

Question 38

John Muir and the Sierra Club

Answer 38

• May 28, 1892
• John Muir helped develop Yosemite National Park from a state park.
• He organized the Sierra Club to preserve the environment.
• The club attempted to check the federal government’s expansion efforts.
• Its early goals included establishing Mount Rainier Park.
• The Progressive movement brought with it the desire to protect the nation’s natural resources through legislation and social action.

Question 39

Homestead Strike

Answer 39

• 1892
• The Homestead Strike was an iron and steel workers strike against Carnegie Steel Company in Pittsburgh to protest salary reductions.
• Henry Clay Frick hired Pinkerton security guards to protect Carnegie’s plant, but fighting resulted in deaths among both the protesters and the guards.
• The Pennsylvania State Militia was brought in to take control.
• Unions, community leaders, and workers battled with management over wages and working conditions.

Question 40

Eugene V. Debs

Answer 40

• 1855 - 1926
• Eugene V. Debs became the president of the American Railway Union in 1893.
• He led successful strikes against the Great Northern Railway and against the Pullman Palace Car Company.
• He was a founder of the Social Democratic Party.
• Debs ran for president as a Socialist candidate five times between 1900 and 1920.
• Unions, community leaders, and workers battled with management over wages and working conditions.

Question 41

Las Gorras Blancas and La Mano Negra

Answer 41

• 1880s - 1890s
• Las Gorras Blancas is Spanish for “The White Caps,” and La Mano Negra is Spanish for “The Black Hand.”
• After the Mexican American War, the Mexican and American Indians began to lose their lands as Anglo Americans moved in and fraudulent claims over landownership occurred.
• Both groups resisted the taking of their lands by Anglo Americans and held raids to intimidate new immigrants.
• The rights of native landowners versus recent migrants became a growing issue in the latter part of the 1800s.

Question 42

Hawaii

Answer 42

• Republic founded in 1894
• American sugar planters worked in Hawaii and expanded the American-Hawaiian sugar trade.
• Queen Liliuokalani opposed foreigners, which alienated Americans.
• Revolution against the Queen occurred in 1893 with the encouragement of American leaders.
• Feeling that most islanders did not support this revolution, Grover Cleveland unsuccessfully attempted to restore Queen Liliuokalani.
• Sanford Dole, son of American missionaries in Hawaii, shepherded the process of annexing Hawaii.
• Dole became Hawaii’s first governor when the United States annexed it in 1898.
• As expansion within North America drew to a close, the United States aimed to acquire new territories abroad to promote its economy and culture.

Question 43

The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660 - 1783

Answer 43

• Published in 1890
• Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840 - 1914), a naval officer an historian, wrote “The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660 - 1783.”
• It further encouraged those in favor of American imperialism and seaward expansion.
• Themes in the book were used as a partial justification for the United States’ taking of the Philippines.
• As expansion within North America drew to a close, the United States aimed to acquire new territories abroad to promote its economy and culture.

Question 44

Plessy v. Ferguson

Answer 44

• 1896
• Homer Plessy refused to leave a railroad car restricted to whites only.
• The Supreme Court upheld the Louisiana state law that required “separate but equal” facilities.
• The majority stated that the Fourteenth Amendment protected only political equality and not social equality.
• Justice Harlan’s dissent argued that “all citizens are equal before the law.”
• The case laid the foundation for Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which would overturn “separate but equal.”
• Court decisions, combined with growing racism and nativism, created conditions for physical confrontations and public discrimination.

Question 45

Cross of Gold Speech

Answer 45

• 1896
• William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic presidential nominee, gave the Cross of Gold speech during the national convention of the Democratic Party.
• The speech criticized the gold standard and advocated the coinage of silver.
• Bryan’s beliefs were most popular with debt-ridden farmers.
• The last and most famous words of his speech were “You shall not press down on the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind on a cross of gold.”
• The imbalance between the agrarian sector and industry furthered the desire for stronger economic control by the government.

Question 46

William McKinley

Answer 46

• 1897 - 1901
• William McKinley was the twenty-fifth president of the United States.
• He was a former Republican congressman from Ohio.
• Businesses rallied to support McKinley against his opponent, William Jennings Bryan.
• While Bryan toured the country, McKinley stayed at home and hosted important visitors, building an honest, “presidential” image.
• He defeated William Jennings Bryan for office in 1896.
• McKinley’s election over Bryan influenced future political races by setting up interest groups and alliances that lasted for more than a decade.
• McKinley was reelected in 1900, but Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, assassinated him one year into his second term.
• The election and actions of U.S. presidents reflect the major issues concerning the federal government, the country’s stance in the world, political parties, and the American people.