Unit VI AP US History

Question 1

Transcontinental Railroad

The Industrialization of America

Answer 1

The Transcontinental Railroad linked the U.S. from Atlantic to Pacific by both rail and telegraph. This railroad accelerated the development and eventual closure of the frontier.

Question 2

Cornelius Vanderbilt

The Industrialization of America

Answer 2

A business tycoon who amassed a fortune in the steamboat business and invested this fortune in the consolidation of many smaller rail lines under one company, the New York Central Railroad.

Question 3

New York Central Railroad

The Industrialization of America

Answer 3

A railroad company founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt. It consolidated many smaller rail companies, standardized gauges, and popularized steel rails. It linked major cities on the East Coast and in the Midwest.

Question 4

Union Pacific Railroad

The Industrialization of America

Answer 4

One half of the Transcontinental Railroad. It began building its portion from Omaha, Nebraska, and moved westward.

Question 5

Central Pacific Railroad

The Industrialization of America

Answer 5

Led by Leland Stanford, it set out to build the most difficult stretch of the transcontinental railroad from Sacramento, California, through the Sierra Nevada mountains and eastward. Chinese laborers built most of the Central Pacific’s line.

Question 6

Leland Stanford

The Industrialization of America

Answer 6

He became a wealthy merchant during the California Gold Rush, and later served as Governor of California (1862–183) and as its Senator (1885–1893). Leader of the Central Pacific Railroad, Stanfold oversaw the construction of part of the transcontinental railroad. Considered a robber baron, he wielded tremendous wealth and influence due to his control over railroads in the American West.

Question 7

Promontory Point

The Industrialization of America

Answer 7

The point at which the rail lines of the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad finally met on May 10, 1869. This marked the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Promontory Point, Utah, is just north of the Great Salt Lake.

Question 8

Robber Barrons

The Industrialization of America

Answer 8

A pejorative name for investors who artificially inflated the value of their company’s stock, sold the stock to the public, and pocketed the profits. The company would then go bankrupt, leaving stockholders with nothing.

Question 9

Alexander Graham Bell

The Industrialization of America

Answer 9

A Scottish-born scientist. He is best known for patenting the telephone in 1876. He also founded the Bell Telephone Company in 1879 and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885.

Question 10

Bessemer process

Monopolies and Industrial Consolidation

Answer 10

Developed by an English inventor, this process revolutionized steel production by making it faster and cheaper. The increased availability and affordability of steel caused its use to increase in many industrial applications.

Question 11

Andrew Carnegie

Monopolies and Industrial Consolidation

Answer 11

A Scottish immigrant who became a titan of industry. He cornered the railroad business in the 1860s, focusing on innovation, investment in technology, operating at full capacity, and keeping costs (including wages) low. Authored “The Gospel of Wealth,” which asserted that wealth was a result of God’s will and that, in turn, the wealthy had an obligation to give money away to better society. In contrast to rival J. P. Morgan, Carnegie favored driving competitors out of business.

Question 12

Carnegie Steel Company

Monopolies and Industrial Consolidation

Answer 12

A company founded and owned by Andrew Carnegie. At its height, it supplied over half the world’s steel. Sold to J. P. Morgan to form U.S. Steel.

Question 13

Vertical Intergration

Monopolies and Industrial Consolidation

Answer 13

The process of controlling every aspect of the production process for a product, from the acquisition of raw materials to the distribution of the final product. A favored practice by Andrew Carnegie.

Question 14

J.P. Morgan

Monopolies and Industrial Consolidation

Answer 14

A notable investment banker who helped railroads and other major corporations raise capital. After purchasing Carnegie’s steel business, he consolidated the industry to form U.S. Steel, the first corporation with a capitalization of over one billion dollars. He essentially bailed out the U.S. economy during the Panic of 1893. In contrast to rival Andrew Carnegie, Morgan favored buying competitors out.

Question 15

U.S. Steel

Monopolies and Industrial Consolidation

Answer 15

The first corporation in history with a capitalization of over one billion dollars, at a time when the entire U.S. stock market was worth roughly nine billion dollars. It was formed by J. P. Morgan, who purchased Andrew Carnegie’s steel business and then went on to consolidate that whole industry.

Question 16

John D. Rockefeller

Monopolies and Industrial Consolidation

Answer 16

The richest American of all time, worth well over $300 billion when adjusted for inflation. He monopolized the oil industry with the Standard Oil Company. While an avowed Social Darwinist, in his later years he turned to philanthropy, such as by founding the University of Chicago among other schools.

Question 17

Standard Oil Company

Monopolies and Industrial Consolidation

Answer 17

An oil refining company owned by John D. Rockefeller. At its height, it controlled 95 percent of U.S. refineries through consolidation. This business strategy is called horizontal integration. In 1911, the Supreme Court ruled it an illegal monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and split it into 34 companies.

Question 18

Horizontal Intergration

Monopolies and Industrial Consolidation

Answer 18

The process of merging companies that all compete in one aspect of a long production process, such as refinement in the oil industry, thereby creating either a monopoly (total control by one company) or an oligopoly (control by few companies).

Question 19

Trust

Monopolies and Industrial Consolidation

Answer 19

Also called a corporate trust, it was a common form of monopoly around the turn of the twentieth century. Essentially, the stockholders of several companies would sell their stock to the owner of a larger company in exchange for trust certificates, which entitled them to a share of the profits as silent partners. The several companies still technically existed but were now effectively one entity. See: John D. Rockefeller, Square Deal, Theodore Roosevelt.

Question 20

Panic of 1893

Monopolies and Industrial Consolidation

Answer 20

An economic depression caused by the failure of the Reading Railroad company and by over-speculation artificially inflating the price of stocks. The market did not recover for almost four years. Investors began trading in their silver for more valuable gold, depleting the already dangerously low supply of gold.

Question 21

Interlocking directorates

Monopolies and Industrial Consolidation

Answer 21

When the members of a company’s board of directors also serve on the board of other companies, thus linking those companies at the management level. This practice often leads to accusations of corruption and conflict of interest. The Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) would later ban these by law if the companies were competing in the same industry, as such interlocking directorates would be creating what were functionally monopolies.

Question 22

Monopolies

Monopolies and Industrial Consolidation

Answer 22

The total or near-total domination of an industry by one business. Monopolies can artificially fix prices and stifle innovation, as a lack of competition means they have little reason to reinvest their profits in improving their products.

Question 23

Laissez-faire

Monopolies and Industrial Consolidation

Answer 23

First articulated by the economist Adam Smith in his treatise The Wealth of Nations, laissez-faire economics states that natural market forces, not government regulations or subsidies, should control the marketplace. However, the growth of monopolies during the Gilded Age prevented any natural competition from occurring, leading to antitrust laws. The term derives from the French for “let do,” or in essence “Let the economy run itself.”

Question 24

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 24

A nationwide strike that took place from July 14 to September 4, 1877. More than 100,000 railroad workers were ultimately involved, and the strike affected such cities as Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Chicago. The state National Guardsmen were often called in, but most militia members (and local residents) were sympathetic to the strikers. Ultimately, President Rutherford B. Hayes authorized the use of federal troops to break the strike. More than 100 workers were killed in the crackdown, and the strikers gained nothing. However, it led to more organized unionizing efforts.

Question 25

Rutherford B. Hayes

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 25

Nineteenth President. Served 1877–1881. While a Civil War veteran and a Republican, he ended Reconstruction as part of the Compromise of 1877 to resolve the disputed 1876 election. Enacted modest civil service reform. Ordered federal troops in to break up the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Pledged not to run for reelection and returned to Ohio.

Question 26

Scabs

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 26

A type of strikebreaker. Specifically, someone who crosses a picket line of striking workers in order to take up a striking worker’s job.

Question 27

Locking out

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 27

A practice where workers were locked out of their place of employment before a strike even started, in order to avoid a sit-down strike or work stoppage.

Question 28

BlackListing

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 28

A method of subverting labor organizing. “Difficult” workers were barred from being hired, or forced to knuckle under and sign a yellow-dog contract.

Question 29

Yellow-dog contract

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 29

A document that a prospective employee was forced to sign in order to secure a job. The worker agreed to not join a union.

Question 30

National Labor Union

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 30

The first attempt to organize all workers nationwide. Founded in 1866, its goals included better working conditions, higher wages, an eight-hour workday, and equal rights for women and African Americans (but also the exclusion of Chinese-Americans). Members included skilled and unskilled workers as well as farmers; these groups had different, sometimes incompatible, needs. The Panic of 1873 contributed to its decline, as did the failure of Great Railroad Strike of 1877.

Question 31

Panic of 1873

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 31

A financial crisis that created an economic depression (1873–1879). It had several interlocking causes that reflected the period’s increasingly globalized economy. Initially referred to as the Great Depression until the far more severe economic crisis of that name in the 1930s.

Question 32

Knights of Labor

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 32

Founded as a secret society in 1869, and elected Terence V. Powderly its leader the following year 1879. Under his leadership, the union announced itself in 1881. One of their strengths was that it was a broad industrial union: all wage workers (skilled, unskilled, women, and minorities) were invited to join. The Knights advocated for both economic and social reforms, such as the development of labor cooperatives, an eight-hour workday, and federal regulation of business. They preferred to use arbitration rather than violent strikes. Entered terminal decline after the Haymarket Square Riot.

Question 33

Terence V. Powderly

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 33

Leader of the Knights of Labor. Elected in 1879, he preferred use of arbitration to settle disputes between labor and management, rather than violent strikes.

Question 34

Haymarket Square Riot

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 34

On May 4, 1886, a rally in support of the eight-hour workday was held in Chicago’s Haymarket Square. When police began to break up what had been a peaceful public meeting, someone in the crowd threw a bomb at the police, and police fired into the crowd. Several dozens were killed. Rumors circulated that alleged the Knights of Labor were tried to the anarchist bombing, which fatally weakened the Knights. However, Haymarket Square ultimately became a global rallying point for the eight-hour workday. May Day began, in part, as an international commemoration for Haymarket Square.

Question 35

American Federation of Labor

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 35

Founded in 1886, the AFL was a federation of 20 craft unions (unions of skilled workers, each representing a particular trade). The AFL concentrated on what they considered to be basic economic issues, such as the eight-hour workday and higher wages, rather than social change. Because the AFL was made up of skilled rather than unskilled laborers, their workers could not be as easily replaced by scabs if a strike were called.

Question 36

Collective Bargaining

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 36

The practice of negotiating between owners and a designation group of employees that represent all other employees.

Question 37

Closed Shops

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 37

Businesses in which all employees had to be members of the union. Meant to deter exploitation of laborers by owners.

Question 38

Strikebreaking

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 38

The process of breaking a strike to avoid making concessions to workers, either through violence or through the use of replacement workers. In the nineteenth century, the government often sided with businesses, and would authorize the use of the National Guard or U.S. Army troops on striking workers.

Question 39

Homestead Strike

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 39

A major strike in 1892 at the Carnegie Steel Company’s Homestead, Pennsylvania factory. After the workers went on strike, and the factory’s manager hired 300 private Pinkerton detectives to protect the plant and enable strikebreakers to enter and restart the steel operations. After an exchange of gunfire between the Pinkerton men and the workers, nine strikers and seven Pinkerton men were dead and many more people were wounded. Pennsylvania’s governor sent in 8,000 state militia to assist scabs to enter the mill. It was a major setback in unionizing the steel industry.

Question 40

Pullman Palace Car Company

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 40

A company that manufactured sleeping cars for the railroads. Its owners constructed a “model town” for its employees outside Chicago, where the company controlled everything, to the point of only renting rather than selling homes to residents. When management, affected by the Panic of 1893, terminated half the workers and announced a 25 percent wage cut, Pullman Car workers went on strike. The protests spread nationwide. President Cleveland eventually intervened to break the strike. The Labor Day holiday was created as a conciliatory gesture towards U.S. labor in the aftermath of Pullman and other strikes, as an alternative to the more radical May Day.

Question 41

Grover Cleveland

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 41

Twenty-second and twenty-fourth President. Only president to serve non-consecutive terms, in 1885–1889 and 1893–1897. The first Democratic Party president since before the Civil War. Supported the gold standard. His second term was defined by the Panic of 1983, which caused a severe depression. Sent federal troops in to break up the Pullman Strike. His resolution of the Venezuelan crisis of 1895 began the reconciliation between the United States and British Empire.

Question 42

In re Debs

Industrialization and Organized Labor

Answer 42

A landmark 1895 Supreme Court case. It ruled that the use of court injunctions to break strikes was justified in the support of interstate commerce. In effect, the federal government had permitted employers to not deal with labor unions.

Question 43

Turner’s “Frontier Thesis”

Expansion and Conflict in the West

Answer 43

An idea articulated by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893. He argued that the frontier’s existence shaped the American character: a propensity for democracy, egalitarianism, individualism, and violence, as well as a disinterest in high culture. However, by 1890 the U.S. had no unsettled lands left. The Frontier Thesis partly reflects a then-budding romanticization of the American West, leading to the preservation of wilderness by conservationist and such things as the name for Kennedy’s “New Frontier” agenda.

Question 44

Greenback Party

Expansion and Conflict in the West

Answer 44

A third party formed in 1874 and disbanded in 1889. It existed alongside the Farmers’ Alliance. Its elements later merged into the Populist Party.