The Gilded Age 1877-1890

Question 1

The spoils system

Answer 1

• political patronage
• rewards key voters with gov jobs
• conflicts principle of meritocracy
• party loyalty over administrative competence

Question 2

New York Custom House

Answer 2

• main port for importing goods
• huge opportunities for extortion
• if tariffs are not accepted, imports would be undervalued and declared as forfeit
• 1/2 of total goes to head of custom house
• 1874 - $50,000 bribe paid by Phelps Dodge and Co. to Senator Conkling

Question 3

Views on politics

Answer 3

Traditionist: CORRUPT and GREED.
Revisionist: Corruption overmphasised, many politicians did want to make a difference.

Question 4

Economic developments

Answer 4

• continued growth
• increased urbanisation
• increased immigration
• labour movement emerged

Question 5

Robber Barons Overview

Answer 5

By 1890, USA led Britain, Germany and France in terms of industrial power.
Economy grew by 3.8% annually
Innovation unregulated by laissez-faire gov

Question 6

Laissez-faire

Answer 6

Opposed gov subsidies, state aids and tariffs
Social Darwinism - ‘survival of the fittest’
Justification to RB

Question 7

RB Businessmen

Answer 7

Cornelius Vanderbilt - Railroads
John D. Rockefeller - Standard Oil
Andrew Carnegie - Steel
J.P. Morgan - Banker/financer
Jim Fisk - Wall street trader
Jay Gould - Wall street trader

Question 8

Andrew Carnegie - Steel

Answer 8

• Needed for RR and other industries
• Anti-union = strike - Homestead Strike 1892
• Vertical integration to monopolise steel for lower costs and higher profits
• Contributed millions to make libraries and cultural institutions
• Universities - Carnegie trust for universities of Scotland (1901)
• ‘Gospel of Wealth’
• 1901 sold company to J.P. Morgan

Question 9

John D. Rockefeller - Standard Oil

Answer 9

• Monopolised oil, owned 90%
• Horizontal integration to buy out competition and used fixed prices
• 1911, split into 34 separate entities
• Gave $550mn to medicine, Baptist church and AA educational institutions
• Helped create University of Chicago, Rockefeller Institute and Rockefeller Centre

Question 10

Cornelius Vanderbilt - RR

Answer 10

• Engaged in ‘fare wars’ and some competitors paid him to not compete with them
• Bought out RR companies in the east to cut operation costs
• Gained control of the Hudson River by cutting fares and offering luxurious ships - his competitors paid him to move his operation elsewhere
• Offered first RR service from NYC to Chicago
• Gave $1mn to build Vanderbilt University
• Ordered building of Grand Central Depot to give thousands of jobs to the unemployed during 1873 Panic

Question 11

National Labour Union 1866

Answer 11

Aim - 8 hr day, better working conditions
300,000 members but short lives in panic of 1873 and members decreased to 50,000 in 1877

Question 12

Knights of Labour 1869

Answer 12

Aim - 8 hr day, end to child labour
750,000 members with ineffective strikes, however it’s downfall was due to the Haymarket Bomb Outrage 1866

Question 13

American Federation of Labour

Answer 13

Samuel Gompers
1892 - 250,000 members
Aim - higher wages, shorter work days
Union for skilled workers (men)

Question 14

National Railroad Strike 1877

Answer 14

Workers walked out due to a pay cut, Hayes sent in violent federal troops.

• 25 killed
• $10mn worth of property damaged
• RR yards attacked
• Burned trains and tore up tracks
• 500 cars, 104 locomotives, and 39 buildings set on fire

Shows Hayes and fed gov were in favour of big business

Question 15

Haymarket Bomb Outrage 1886

Answer 15

Strike at McCormick Harvester where police fired so Anarchists rebelled.
Bomb thrown at police and 160 wounded, retaliatory police fired and wounded 100+.
7 arrested and executed in 1887.

Public opinion towards Anarchists hostile. 8 hr day movement FAILED

Question 16

Nativism and its effects

Answer 16

Ethnic nationalism, anti-immigration sentiment.
- extremist groups (KKK)
- Chinese Exclusion Act 1882
- Gentlemen’s Agreement
- APA (exclude Irish from politics)
- Literacy test to enter USA

Question 17

Americanisation

Answer 17

R.B. Hayes wanted to reform corrupt Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Rights Association.
Congress funded boarding schools to Americanise and assimilate children - 1899, $2.5mn on 148 boarding schools.

Question 18

Dawes Act 1887

Answer 18

Lift NA out of poverty and assimilate them into mainstream society via education, farming and religious conversion.
Dawes Commission set up in 1893 go persuade 5 civilised tribes to agree to allotment plots.

Question 19

Curtis Act 1898

Answer 19

Amended Dawes Act to extend provisions to those 5 tribes and required abolition of its government, dissolving tribal court.
Completed extinguishement of tribal land, preparing it to be admitted to the Union as the state of Oklahoma.

Question 20

Reactions to NA treatment

Answer 20

Positive: defended gov policy, economic self-sufficiency, tendency to glorify.
Negative: critical of destruction to way of life, poor conditions led to diseases and poverty, failed transformation into Americans creating people without an identity.

Question 21

End of the Frontier

Answer 21

• 1885-87 = Harsh winters and drought killing 90% of cattle.
• Survivors retreated into smaller land
• Changed eating habits
• 1890 Census Bureau declares that there is no longer a frontier

Question 22

Benefits of RR

Answer 22

• Government benefit, 50% discount on lines they provided grants for
• Ensured ‘flood’ of goods and people to the west
• Produced new gen of farmers and cattlemen
• Stimulated growth in steel, lumber and iron