APUSH Industrialization Key Terms – Flashcards
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Cornelius Vanderbilt
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railroad baron, a true symbol of the "Gilded Age," known as the Commodore. A college in Tennessee bears his name.
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Jay Gould
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United States financier who gained control of the Erie Canal and who caused a financial panic in 1869 when he attempted to corner the gold market (1836-1892).
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Panic of 1893
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Serious economic depression beginning in 1893. Began due to rail road companies over-extending themselves, causing bank failures. Was the worst economic collapse in the history of the country until that point, and, some say, as bad as the Great Depression of the 1930s.
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J. Pierpont Morgan
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He was a banker who financed the reorganization of railroads, insurance companies, and banks. He bought out Carnegie and in 1901 he started the United States Steel Corporation.
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William Vanderbilt
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Cornelius' son who inherited the railroad empire worth millions and doubled it.
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Second Industrial Revolution
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Steep growth in industry and the production of steel, petroleum, electric power, and the machinery to produce other goods.
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Bessemer Process
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A way to manufacture steel quickly and cheaply by blasting hot air through melted iron to quickly remove impurities.
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Andrew Carnegie
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Creates Carnegie Steel. Gets bought out by banker JP Morgan and renamed U.S. Steel. Andrew Carnegie used vertical integration by buying all the steps needed for production. Was a philanthropist. Was one of the "Robber barons".
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U.S. Steel
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The largest steel company of the US, created by J.P. Morgan by merging Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel and several other steel companies together; at the time, the largest corporation in existence.
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Vertical Integration
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A form of corporate organization in which one firm controls multiple parts of a commodity chain.
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Horizontal Integration
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Type of monopoly where a company buys out all of its competition. Ex. Rockefeller
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John D. Rockefeller
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Established the Standard Oil Company, the greatest, wisest, and meanest monopoly known in history
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Standard Oil
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This was a company owned by John D. Rockefeller in the 1890's. This Trust controlled 95 percent of all oil refining in the U.S.
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Protestant Work Ethic
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a work ethic of the protestants that encouraged individual endeavors towards gaining wealth.
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Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
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First federal action against monopolies, it was signed into law by Harrison and was extensively used by Theodore Roosevelt for trust-busting. However, it was initially misused against labor unions.
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United States v E.C. Knight
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The Court undermined the authority of the federal government to act against monopolies. Weakened the Sherman Antitrust Act.
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Laissez-faire Capitalism
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This was the style of capitalism in which the government had no interference with the economy.
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Adam Smith
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Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economics. Seen today as the father of Capitalism. Wrote On the Wealth of Nations (1776) One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment.
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Social Darwinism
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Applied Darwin's theory of natural selection and "survival of the fittest" to human society -- the poor are poor because they are not as fit to survive. Used as an argument against social reforms to help the poor.
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Gospel of Wealth
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This was a book written by Carnegie that described the responsibility of the rich to be philanthropists. This softened the harshness of Social Darwinism as well as promoted the idea of philanthropy.
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Samuel F.B. Morse
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Invented the telegraph and invented morse code, pioneer in the telegraph, first way people could mass communicate quickly, use the code to communicate
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Alexander Graham Bell
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He was an American inventor who was responsible for developing the telephone. This greatly improved communications in the country.
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Thomas Edison
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American inventor best known for inventing the electric lightbulb, acoustic recording on wax cylinders, and motion pictures.
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George Westinghouse
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developed the air-braking system and alternating current - this allowed power to be sent over long distances.
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Horatio Alger
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Popular novelist during the Industrial Revolution who wrote "rags to riches" books praising the values of hard work.
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David Ricardo; Iron Law of Wages
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(1772-1823)-English economist who formulated the "iron law of wages," according to which wages would always remain at the subsistence level for the workers because of population growth.
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Yellow-Dog Contract
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Agreements employers forced potential employees to sign in which the employees agreed not to join unions or go on strike.
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Knights of Labor
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Led by Terence V. Powderly; open-membership policy extending to unskilled, semiskilled, women, African-Americans, immigrants; goal was to create a cooperative society between in which labors owned the industries in which they worked
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Terence V. Powderly
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In the late 19th century the President of the labor union known as "The Knights of Labor" was a man
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Haymarket Square Bombing
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(1886); people were rallying for the workers who were striking in Chicago. The police came and someone threw a bomb; people killed, trial followed, and some men sentenced to death.
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American Federation of Labor
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Led by Samuel Gompers; alliance of skilled workers in craft unions; focus was bread-and butter issues such as higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions.
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Samuel Gompers
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led the AFL (American Federation of Labor), a skilled craft union, fought for wages and working conditions, they went on strike, boycotted and used collective bargaining.
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Homestead Strike
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1892 steelworker strike near Pittsburgh against the Carnegie Steel Company. Ten workers were killed in a riot when "scab" labor was brought in to force an end to the strike.
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Pullman Strike
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in Chicago, Pullman cut wages but refused to lower rents in the "company town", Eugene Debs had American Railway Union refuse to use Pullman cars, Debs thrown in jail after being sued, strike achieved nothing.
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Eugene Debs
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Leader of the American Railway Union, he voted to aid workers in the Pullman strike. He was jailed for six months for disobeying a court order after the strike was over.
