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American History - temporary > The Gilded Age (1877 - 1890) > Flashcards

The Gilded Age (1877 - 1890) Flashcards

1
Q

2

Name some key events from the presidency of Hayes

A
  • Created a special cabinet committee to draw up new rules for federal appointments (move against the spoils system)
  • Railroad Strike of 1877
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2
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2 + 3

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Hayes presidency

A

Strengths:
- Won support of big business during railway strike
- Attempted Civil Service reform which paved the way for later legislation

Weaknesses:
- Lacked the support of Congress
- Faced strong opposition from the ‘Stalwarts’ (a faction of Republican Party led by Senator Conkling)
- Achieved very little

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3
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3

Name some key events from the presidency of Garfield

A
  • Supported Civil Service reform and took down Roscoe Conkling
  • Continued reform of the Post Office and forced the resignation of one of the ringleaders of the ‘Star routes’ conspiracy
  • Was shot on the 2nd July 1881 and died 19th September 1881
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4
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4

Describe how Garfield took down Roscoe Conkling

A
  • Strengthened federal authority over the New York Custom House, stronghold of Conkling
  • Appointed Conkling’s arch-nemesis William Robertson to run the Custom House
  • Conkling and a fellow senator resign, confident their legislature would vindicate their stand and re-elect them
  • In fact, 2 other men were elected and it was a victory for Garfield
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5
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3 + 2

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Garfield’s presidency

A

Strengths:
- Usurped Conkling, victory for Civil Service reform
- Forced resignation of Star Routes leader (occupy postal service)
- Decent progress for a short time in office

Weaknesses:
- Failed to make large scale change
- Presidency cut short by assassination

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6
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4

Name some key events from the presidency of Arthur

A
  • Pendleton Act of 1883 was the creation of the first Civil Service Commission
  • First federal immigration law, excluding paupers, criminals and the mentally ill
  • Chinese Exclusion Act 1882
  • Tariff Act of 1883 reduced tariffs by an average 1.47%
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7
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2 + 2

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Presidency of Arthur

A

Strengths:
- Made first legislative Civil Service reform (based on merit and competitive exams)
- Managed to weaken the initial Chinese Immigration Act (reduced from 20 to 10 years)

Weaknesses:
- Made little change to tariffs + congressional opposition
- Passed two anti-immigration laws

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8
Q

3

Name some key events from the Presidency of Cleveland

A
  • 1884 Presidential Campaign
  • Over time he replaced Republican office holders with democrats but more chosen by merit alone than in previous administrations (retained many republicans though)
  • Vetoes
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9
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3

Describe the 1884 Presidential election

A
  • The Republican candidate, James G Blaine, was charged with corruption involving railroad interest as well as being accused of anti-catholic bias and fathering an illegitimate child
  • Republicans against corruption (‘Mugwumps’) abandoned Blaine and became known as ‘goo-goos’
  • Cleveland won with a narrow margin of 37 electoral votes
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10
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5

Describe Cleveland’s abuse of vetoe

A
  • Believed Congress should have less power
  • Democratic President facing a Republican senate, used lots of vetoes
  • Vetoed hundreds of private pension bills for American Civil War veterans
  • Vetoed bill granting pensions for disabilities not caused by military service
  • Vetoed Texas Seed Bill in 1887 ($10,000 to purchase seed for farmers in several Texas counties whose crops who had been ruined by drought)
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11
Q

2 + 2

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Cleveland’s presidency

A

Strengths:
- Began to enact Civil Service reform
- Beat corrupt Republican candidate Blaine

Weaknesses:
- Abused power of veto
- Did not cooperate with Congress

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12
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6

Describe some key aspects of the North

A
  • Home of banking and commerce
  • Railroads connected national trade
  • Urbanisation fuelled by immigration and industrial expansion
  • 1860’s to 1890’s = 10 million immigrants
  • Fears of a socialist revolution
  • No/few trade unions
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13
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5

List some reasons for division within the North

A
  • Immigration
  • Railroad tensions
  • Urbanisation
  • Disunity of working class
  • Radical fringe
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14
Q

5

Describe how immigration caused divisions in the North

A
  • Between ‘districts’ of immigrants
  • Between ‘new’ and previous generation immigrants
  • Divisions immigrants brought with them (eg Orange Riots, Irish Catholics vs Irish Protestants , New York 1870 and 1871)
  • ‘Nativism’ = protection of ‘traditional’ American values from foreign influence
  • ‘Yellow Peril’ = immigrants from China, didn’t speak English, hardworking and cheap labour; Chinese Exclusion Act 1882
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15
Q

2

Describe how railroad tensions caused divisions in the North

A
  • ‘Freight rates’ (the amount charged by the railroad corporations to move goods)
  • Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, enables Congress to regulate railroads and freight rates
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16
Q

2

Describe how urbanisation caused divisions in the North

A
  • Overcrowding, poverty, poor housing and poor hygiene
  • Immigrants from all over forced to live in close quarters
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17
Q

2

Describe how disunity of the working class caused divisions in the North

A
  • No trade union movement
  • Serious divisions due to immigration and competitive labour prices
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18
Q

2

Describe how the radical fringe caused divisions in the North

A
  • Fears of a socialist revolution
  • Haymarket Bomb 1886
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19
Q

6

List some key aspects of the South

A
  • Post-reconstruction governments = Redeemers/ Bourbons
  • Little land redistribution
  • Cotton market
  • Black education
  • Industrialisation
  • Black rights
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20
Q

4

Describe the cotton market in the South

A
  • Struggling
  • Britain made other arrangements for cotton during the Civil War
  • USA’s market share in 1867 smaller than 1857
  • Lack of cash in the economy
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21
Q

2

Describe black education in the South

A
  • Government education fell through very quickly when money ran out
  • Prevented black leadership in business or politics
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22
Q

3

Describe industrialisation in the South

A
  • Encouraged by the growth of railroads
  • Focused on cotton industry (I.e textile factories in the South)
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23
Q

5

Describe black rights in the South

A
  • 1873 Slaughter House cases (14th Amendment did not prevent states setting their own citizens rights rules)
  • 1875 US vs Cruikshank (State could not set own rules but did not have to prevent infringements of rights by others)
  • 1883 the Court struck down 1875 Civil Rights Act
  • Jim Crow laws
  • Rise of racial violence and populism
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24
Q

3

Describe the divisions within the South

A
  • Black vs White
  • Black vs government/law enforcement
  • Landowners vs the poor
25
Q

4

Who were the 4 main robber barons and their specialist areas?

A
  • Vanderbilt and the railroad
  • Carnegie and steel
  • Morgan and finance
  • Rockefeller and oil
26
Q

7

Describe Vanderbilt and the railroad

A
  • Cornelius and son William Vanderbilt = railroad tycoons
  • Originally made fortune through steamboat operations (worth $11 million by 1962)
  • Used profit to buy out and consolidate rail companies in the East
  • Established a standard track gauge and one of the first to replace iron rails with steel
  • Cornelius Vanderbilt died in 1877, richest man in America
  • Fortune passed to his son William who expertly manipulated capital and handed strikes brutally
  • William Vanderbilt died in 1885, the richest man in world
27
Q

6

Summarise Andrew Carnegie and steel

A
  • Arrived in American as a poor Scottish immigrant
  • Started work in a railroad company where he sold iron during the Civil War and invested the profits in iron works
  • He used Bessemer Converters to make better and cheaper steel from iron
  • Made Homestead Steelworks in Pennsylvania which brought all processes of steel manufacturing together (vertical integration)
  • Initially manufactured rails but moved into bridges, machinery, wire and armour plaiting for the US Navy
  • In 1900, sold it all to J.P Morgan for $480 million
28
Q

3

Describe the practices of Andrew Carnegie

A
  • Rarely bought out competitors
  • Sold steel at competitive prices
  • Monopolised through vertical integration
29
Q

3

Describe Andrew Carnegie’s philanthropy

A
  • Self-made millionaire
  • Donated to unis, hospitals, free libraries, parks, swimming baths and churches
  • Set up Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
30
Q

2

Describe why Andrew Carnegie attracted criticism

A
  • For being a socialist and philanthropist
  • Exploiting workers (low pay & long hours) and being too ruthless to rivals
31
Q

4

Describe J.P Morgan and finance

A
  • Inherited $12 million but increased his fortune through his skills as a financier
  • Major force behind creation of large companies (eg US steel corporation)
  • 1871, began his own private banking company
  • Criticised for creating monopolies and flaunting wealthy
32
Q

6

Describe John D Rockefeller and oil

A
  • Bought his first oil refinery in 1862
  • 8 years later set up Standard Oil Company in Ohio
  • Ccleveland Massacre 1872 - 22/26 major rival refineries purchased in 6 week span
  • 1880’s = owned 85% of all American oil production
  • World’s first billionaire
  • Gave $550 million to medicine, African-American educational institutions and the Baptist Church
33
Q

7

Describe the National Railroad Strike 1877

A
  • Owners of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad announced a pay cut (the 4th in as many years)
  • Largest industrial disturbance to date

Worst in Pittsburgh:
- Workers burnt 500 cars, 104 locomotives and 39 buildings
- 25 killed in fights between militia groups and workers
- $10 million worth of property damage
- 5,000 workers fought 650 federal troops brought in by Hayes

34
Q

2

What were the key effects of the National Railroad Strike 1877?

A
  • Worker resolve to organise
  • Employers resolve to suppress
35
Q

3

Describe the Knights of Labour

A
  • Founded in 1869
  • Campaigned for the initiative and referendum and sought to build more cooperative labour management relations (wider goals)
  • Lobbied for 8 hour day and child labour restrictions
36
Q

3

Describe the Wabash Railroad Strike 1885

A
  • When Wabash Railroad tried to break a local Union, the knights walked out in sympathy
  • The entire Southwest System was paralysed and Wabash was forced to negotiate
  • Within a year of this, Knights 3/4 million members
37
Q

3

Describe the decline of the Knights of Labour

A
  • Lots of newly joined members attempted industrial action but were rarely supported by others
  • Haymarket Bomb Outrage 1886 was blamed on the Knights
  • Within a year, membership halved; within a decade, all but extinct
38
Q

5

Describe the Haymarket Bomb Outrage 1886

A
  • Strike at McCormick Harvester Works, Chicago
  • Police fired into crowd killing several
  • Black International organise rally in Haymarket Square the following evening
  • Someone threw a bomb - 1 policeman killed instantly, 60+ injured
  • Police retaliated, fired into crowd, some fatalities (8 deaths total)
39
Q

7

Describe the American Federation of Labour

A
  • Set up in 1885
  • Only skilled white men
  • Limited objectives

Learned from Knights mistakes:
- Recognised the autonomy of each trade
- Executive Council could not interfere in the internal affairs of member unions
- Taxed member unions to create a strike fund and maintain a secretariat
- Formed central and state federations

40
Q

7

Describe some push factors for immigration to America

A
  • Industrial and agricultural revolutions
  • Increasing population
  • Agricultural and industrial depression in Britain, Norway and Sweden
  • Agricultural mismanagement in Ireland
  • Persecution of the Jews in Russia
  • Revoked ban on emigration in Japan
  • Devastation from Taiping Rebellion in China
41
Q

5

Describe some pull factors for immigration to America

A
  • Adverts in guidebooks, pamphlets and newspapers

Railroads:
- Reduced fairly land and sea
- Loans with low interest
- Classes in farming
- Building of churches and schools

42
Q

1 + 4 + 3

Describe the reaction to immigration

A

Initial reaction:
- Allowed industrial development so welcomed

Economic fear bred ethnic intolerance:
- Drain on American resources
- Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882
- Racist jokes and stereotypes
- Antisemitism

Nativism:
- Native plutocracy (wealthy, white Americans in control of the government) vs foreign working class
- Protestants vs Catholics
- Nativism = Protecting the interests of native-born/established inhabitants against immigrants

43
Q

3

Describe the Dawes Act 1887

A
  • Authorised federal government to break up tribal lands and reservations into individual plots of 160 acres to head of family
  • Only Native Americans who accepted these individual allotments were allowed to become US citizens after 25 years
  • The object was to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream US society
44
Q

3

Describe the Massacre at Wounded Knee 1890

A
  • US 7th Cavalry Regiment surrounded a camp of Sioux Indians near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota
  • While attempting to disarm the Sioux, a shot was fired and the soldiers began to open fire
  • circa 200 Native Americans killed
45
Q

2

Describe the Ghost Dance movement

A
  • Spiritual movement
  • According to the teachings, the Ghost Dance ceremony would reunite the spirits of dead and living for a successful battle with the White Americans, restoring the Native American way of life
46
Q

2

Describe the aftermath of the Haymarket Bomb Outrage 1886

A
  • Seven arrested, all found guilty, several executed
  • Contributed to the failure of the 1886 eight-hour day movement
47
Q

Describe the Cleveland Massacre 1872

A

Rockefeller acquired 22/26 rival refineries

48
Q

5

Describe factors which developed life in the West

A
  • railways
  • agriculture
  • cattle ranching
  • cowboys
  • end of the open range - the free grazing of cattle on millions of unfenced acres of public land
49
Q

6

Describe how railroads contributed to Western Expansion

A
  • Union Pacific, first transcontinental railway, completed in 1869
  • Dangerous routes could now be avoided
  • Railroad track grew from 35k miles in 1865 to 200k in 1893
  • Vanderbilt and m&a/monopolisation of industry spurred railroad boom
  • Stimulated growth of oil and steel industries
  • Enabled greater social mobility for Eastern speculators
50
Q

5

Describe cattle-ranching

A
  • Invention of barbed wire in 1873 helped control land
  • Disputes between groups over unscientific assertions that sheep-dung poisoned water
  • Meatpacking business grew with Armour and Company in 1867, with a large facility in Nebraska
  • Force, fraud and perjury to maintian land rights
  • Severe winter of 1885-87 (+ drought in 1887) saw up to 90% of Western cattle die

meatpacking - slaughter and processing of animals for sale

51
Q

4

Describe farming inventions (1865-90)

A
  • Invention of barbed wire in 1873
  • By 1890, took just 15hrs to create 15 bushels of wheat compared to 35hrs in 1860
  • Bonzana farms
  • development of new machinery, like reapers and binders
52
Q

2

Detail the growth of bushel exports

A
  • 1867 - 6m bushels exported
  • 1890 - 102m bushel exported
53
Q

Detail the increase in people living on farms

A

1865 - 10m
1890 - 25m

54
Q

4

Describe other farming factors

A
  • More living on farms
  • Cotton sold for half price in 1890 compared to 1860
  • ‘agribusinesses’ grew
  • Reliant on banks and local merchants - worsened by Panic of 1873
55
Q

3

Describe the 1870s glut

A
  • Mass overproduction of wheat
  • Corn prices fell from 76c a bushel in 1867 to 31c a bushel in 1873
  • Farmers on credit went bankrupt
56
Q

3

Describe cowboy demography

A
  • Up to 40k cowboys
  • 1/3 were AA, NA, Mexican or Asian
  • Many were ex-confederates
57
Q

5

Describe cowboys

A
  • 18hr work days
  • Cow Towns
  • Little care given to land rights - at expense of NAs
  • Code of Honour mentality prevalent
  • Laws upheld by single Sheriff and federal laws rarely upheld
58
Q

4

Describe Cow Towns

A
  • e.g. Deadwood Dakota
  • Provide services for the cowboys going on ‘The Long Drive’ to take cattle east
  • Sporadic violence
  • Would quickly diminish (a la Ghost Towns)
59
Q

3

Describe Ghost Towns

A
  • Mining towns experienced sudden economic booms
  • Quickly deserted by prospectors once mineral riches had been found elsewhere
  • e.g. Virginia City in Nevada

American History - temporary (11 decks)

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