Chapter 5 Study Guide

Transcription

1 Chapter 5 Study Guide The Morrill Act gave federal land to the states to help finance agricultural colleges The Battle (Massacre) of Wounded Knee: the U.S. Army fired cannons on 350 starving freezing Sioux; within minutes, 300 of them were dead; this battle signaled the end of the frontier wars between the federal government and the Plains Indians. The Dawes Act was supposed to Americanize Native Americans by encouraging in them the desire to own property and to farm reservation land distributed to Native American families; The life and culture of the Native Americans valued the buffalo, the horse, and the extended family; The Exodusters were former slaves from the South who settled on the Great Plains; William McKinley (Republican from Ohio) defeated William Jennings Bryan (Democrat & Populist nominee from Nebraska) in the 1896 presidential election; The Populist Party basically dissolved after the election; Bimetallism would allow for the exchange of paper currency for either gold or silver; It was one of the major issues of the 1896 election; The Grange is a social organization that promoted agricultural interests and worked to protect farmers; in the United States; Specifically, the Grange worked to elect political candidates that supported the interests of farmers fight against the unfair shipping prices charged by the railroads force banks to provide farmers with lower interest rates provide the public with the opportunity to directly elect their U.S. Senators The cotton gin, the steel plow, and the mechanical reaper were among the agricultural developments that contributed to the transition from farming for the family to the production of cash crops; The process of westward expansion in the USA in the late 1800 s occurred at the expense of Native Americans; The Treaty of Fort Laramie ultimately failed because the Sioux migrated with the buffalo and wouldn t stay on the reservations; Also, their main leader, Sitting Bull, refused to sign the treaty; The Populist Party platform called for An 8-hour workday A graduated income tax A federal loan program Restricting immigration to protect American jobs

2 Chapter 6 Study Guide: A New Industrial Age Edwin Drake-1 st to use steam engine to drill for oil The Bessemer Process-process for refining iron ore into quality steel New uses for steel-railroads, barbed wire, farm machinery, bridges, skyscrapers Thomas Edison-established 1 st research lab in U.S.; numerous inventions including: light bulb, electric power plant Christopher Sholes-inventor of the typewriter (revolutionized the workplace) Alexander Graham Bell-inventor of the telephone impact of the typewriter and telephone on society-improved communication and efficiency in the workplace, also created many new jobs for women; transcontinental railroad-rail system that spans the entire country; Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869; the development of time zones-proposed by C.F. Dowd to help standardize time across the country (and eventually worldwide); George Pullman-inventor of the sleeping car (on a passenger train) Cre dit Mobilier-Name of the railroad construction company that bribed government officials and stole money from the railroads; The scheme was eventually discovered and prosecuted; railroad abuses-railroads sold their land grants (that they received for free from the government) to businesses, instead of families; high shipping prices that kept farmers in debt; Munn v. Illinois-Court case that gave the government the right to regulate (make rules for) private industry; Interstate Commerce Act of 1887-Law granting Congress authority to regulate railroad activities; passed to help curb the abuses of the railroad companies; The Panic of 1893-the U.S. economy experienced a severe depression in which many businesses failed; Railroads were hit particularly hard during the Panic, and many of them were taken over by financial firms; Andrew Carnegie-Scottish immigrant who rose to become a giant in the steel industry; Carnegie exemplifies the theory of Social Darwinism; Carnegie s new business strategies-employee stock options, improved accounting systems to track expenses and inventory, encouraged competition among employees, vertical integration, horizontal integration;

3 vertical integration-process in which a company buys out its suppliers (a.k.a. eliminating the middle man ; horizontal integration-process in which companies producing similar products merge, thus reducing, if not eliminating the competition; Social Darwinism-theory that societies evolve by a natural process through which the most fit members survive and demonstrate their fitness by accumulating property, wealth, and social status; this theory is used to justify the government s laissez faire (hands off) economic policy; It also suggests that anyone might rise from humble beginnings to good fortune through hard work, intelligence, and perseverance; laissez faire-economic policy of the U.S. Government at the beginning of the Industrial Age; belief that government ought not interfere with (regulate) industry; J.P. Morgan and U.S. Steel-a banker who operated one of the most successful holding companies; purchased Carnegie Steel (the largest steel producer of the day) to form the world s largest business. Standard Oil Company-founded by John D. Rockefeller; utilized trust agreements with other oil companies to basically operate as one company, although they were not considered official mergers (which would be subject to more vigorous regulation by the government); Standard Oil controlled approximately 90% of the country s oil refining industry; John D. Rockefeller-established the Standard Oil Company and pioneered the use of trust agreements; trust agreements-similar, but not identical (under the law) to a business merger; participants in a trust turn their stock over to a group of trustees -who in turn ran the separate companies as if they were all one big company; In return, the companies received payment (dividends) on the profits earned by the trust; trust agreements reduced, if not eliminated competition (if you can t beat em, join em ) robber barons-term used to describe leading industrialists of the day (Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, etc ) who used aggressive tactics to gain their wealth, but also were great philanthropists (gave away a lot of their $ to establish various charities) Sherman Antitrust Act-a law that made trust agreements illegal economic stagnation of the South-the South was still trying to recover from the Civil War; southerners were mostly farmers and were at the mercy of the railroads to get their crops to market; few people were willing to invest in industry in the South because it seemed risky; working conditions in factories, mines, and steel mills-dirty, poorly ventilated, limited safety equipment, long hours, low wages, no health care, lack of child labor laws, etc

4 NLU-National Labor Union; the 1 st large scale national organization of laborers; successfully persuaded Congress to agree to an 8-hour work day for government employees; Knights of Labor-union that utilized arbitration (negotiation) first, and reserved strikes as a last resort; eventually faded, but reinforced the positive role a labor union could serve; Samuel Gompers-founded the AFL AFL-American Federation of Labor; focused on collective bargaining (negotiation between representatives of labor and management) to resolve differences on wages, working conditions, etc ; When collective bargaining failed, the AFL would utilize the strike tactic effectively; Eugene Debs-founder of the ARU (American Railway Union) socialism-an economic and political system based on government control of business and property and equal distribution of wealth; IWW-Industrial Workers of the World; Union of radicals and socialists nicknamed the Wobblies; provided a sense of solidarity and dignity to unskilled workers; The Great Strike of 1877-the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) cut wages twice in two months; in response, workers went on strike; passenger and freight transportation was delayed over a week until President Hayes used federal troops to force the workers to end their strike The Haymarket Affair-3,000 people gathered at Chicago s Haymarket Square to protest the shooting of a striker at the McCormick Reaper plant the previous day; Amidst the protest, a bomb was thrown from the crowd killing and injuring police officers; Although the bomber was never identified, leaders of the protest were blamed and ultimately tried, convicted, and executed for the deaths; This event turned public opinion against labor unions The Homestead Strike-workers at Carnegie Steel plant in Pennsylvania went on strike in protest of poor wages and working conditions; Carnegie hired scabs (non-union workers) to replace the strikers; The strikers physically prevented the scabs from entering the steel mill to work; In response, Carnegie hire the Pinkerton Detective Agency (basically security cops) to protect the scabs and help keep the plant operating; Eventually, the Pennsylvania National Guard was called in to end the fighting; The union was broken and would not reorganize at Carnegie Steel for many years; Pullman Company Strike-George Pullman created a company town in Illinois to house his employees; they later would strike against unfair rent increases and low wages; Led by Eugene Debs, this strike became violent and required the government to send in federal troops to restore order; Mary Harris Jones-a.k.a. Mother Jones; union supporter and advocate for coal miners and children; helped get child labor laws enacted; Pauline Newman-advocate for women working in sweatshops

5 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire-a garment factory in New York that caught fire and trapped and killed 146 women employees; it raised public scrutiny of the poor working conditions in the garment factories-which were mostly operated by women yellow-dog contracts -a contract that required an employee to swear they would not join a union; designed to dissolve union membership