Gilded Age

Question 1

Name 3 corruption scandals that happened under Grant

Answer 1

Credit Mobilier Scandal
Salary Grab 1873
Gold Scandal 1869

Question 2

What was the Credit Mobilier Scandal?

Answer 2

Union Pacific railroad stockholders were syphoning off profits for themselves and members of Congress like Vice President Colfax were covering it up

Question 3

What was the Gold Scandal of 1869?

Answer 3

Friends of President Grant spread rumours that the price of gold had risen so then due to that the price did rise and they sold theirs at a higher price

Question 4

What was the Salary Grab of 1873?

Answer 4

Congress voted for a 50% salary increase which was retroactive for 2 years - was eventually cancelled due to unpopularity

Question 5

What were the 3 factions of republicans during the Gilded Age?

Answer 5

Stalwarts
Half Breeds
Mugwumps

Question 6

Which faction of the Republicans supported the spoils system?

Answer 6

The Stalwarts

Question 7

Which 2 factions of the Republicans supported Civil Reform

Answer 7

Half Breeds

Mugwumps

Question 8

Which groups voted for the Republicans?

Answer 8

Middle class whites, former slaves, pensioners, Protestants and businessmen

Question 9

Which groups voted for the Democrats?

Answer 9

Catholics, The South and immigrants

Question 10

List all 6 forgettable presidents of the Gilded Age

Answer 10

Hayes
Garfield
Arthur
Cleveland
Harrison
Cleveland

Question 11

Which trade union opposed immigration and why?

Answer 11

The AFL (American Federation of Labour) because immigrants provided competition for ‘Natives’ and brought wages down by making Labour more dispensable

Question 12

Give an anti immigration act

Answer 12

1882 Chinese Exclusion Act stopped them entering the country

Question 13

How did the press fuel anti immigration sentiments with an example paper?

Answer 13

The New York Herald Tribune said “English must change their ways” to fit with American life

Question 14

What is Nativism and who supports it?

Answer 14

Nativism is the view that Americans should come first and that immigration is the source of problems like crime and cultural divisions. WASPs supported it.

Question 15

Give a social reason for westward expansion

Answer 15

Religious persecution of the Mormons due to the Anti Polygamy Law of 1862 led to them being the biggest group to move West

Question 16

Define manifest destiny

Answer 16

The belief that Americans were chosen by God to populate the continent

Question 17

Who and when was manifest destiny first used?

Answer 17

It used by John L Sullivan in terms of the Annexation of Texas which he described as proof that America was “the great nation of the future”

Question 18

When and where was the first gold rush?

Answer 18

1848 in Nevada and California led to the movement of the Forty Niners

Question 19

When and where was the Second Gold Rush

Answer 19

The 1870s in Dakota which led to the creation of the town of Deadwood which thousands of settlers moved to

Question 20

Give a key piece of 1862 Lincoln legislation

Answer 20

The Homestead Act which gave land to farmers for free as long as they farmed it for 5 years

Question 21

Define bonanza farm

Answer 21

Very large farms that there were over 1000 of by 1880

Question 22

Give another piece of land legislation

Answer 22

Timber and Culture Act 1873 - an 160 acres were given to settlers if they promised to play trees on at least 40 acres

Question 23

How many people had settled on the plains by 1865?

Answer 23

20,000

Question 24

What was the Pacific Railroad Act 1863?

Answer 24

It let two companies build the Transcontinental Railroad and got workers through ‘but now, pay later’ schemes

Question 25

How many passengers did the Transcontinental Railroad have by 1882?

Answer 25

1 million

Question 26

By 1900 how much railroad was Transcontinental?

Answer 26

Half of all national railroads

Question 27

What led to inflation and lower living standards in the North?

Answer 27

Population increase and migration

Question 28

What was a negative consequence of the railroads on the North?

Answer 28

Led to social tensions with trade unions and the Great Railroad Strike 1877

Question 29

What race divisions were there in the south?

Answer 29

Reconstruction and the abolition of slavery had challenged the white southern elites who responded with violence and lynchings as the KKK rose to power

Question 30

What class divisions were there in the south?

Answer 30

Different classes of African Americans disagreed on how moderate or radical the actions could be for example some viewed Booker T Washington’s Washington Address as too lenient

Question 31

What was the Granger Movement in the Wild West?

Answer 31

Settler farmers who felt they were not represented politically - this led to the Populist movement later on