APUSH Ch. 24 Vocabulary – Flashcards

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Cornelius Vanderbilt
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The railroad owner who built a railway connecting Chicago and New York. He popularized the use of steel rails in his railroad, which made railroads safer and more economical. This man was one of the few railroad owners to be just and not considered a "Robber Barron"
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Jay Gould
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Often regarded as the most unethical of the Robber Barons, he was involved with Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed early in his career. After damaging his reputation in a gold speculation that instigated the panic of Black Friday in 1869, he went on to gain control of western railroads and by 1882 had controlling interest in 15% of the country's tracks. Although mistrusted by many of his contemporaries, he was recognized as a skilled businessman.
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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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invented the phonograph and by 1900 it was used in over 150,000 homes. His invention made going to the symphony obsolete. He also invented the light bulb. This invention changed the way of life for thousands of Americans.
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Andrew Carnegie
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steel king; integrated every phase of his steel-making operation. Ships, railroads, etc. pioneered "Vertical Integration" ; his goal was to improve efficiency by making supplies more reliable controlling the quality of the product at all stages of production and eliminating the middle man
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John D. Rockefeller
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a man who started from meager beginnings and eventually created an oil empire. In Ohio in 1870 he organized the Standard Oil Company. By 1877 he controlled 95% of all of the refineries in the United States. It achieved important economies both home and abroad by it's large scale methods of production and distribution. He also organized the trust and started the Horizontal Merger.
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JP 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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Samuel Gompers
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is responsible for the formation of one of the first labor unions. The American Federation of Labor worked on getting people better hours and better wages. The formation of this triggered the formation of various others that would come later.
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land grant
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a grant of land by the federal government especially for roads, railroads, or agricultural colleges
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stock watering
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Price manipulation by strategic stock brokers of the late 1800s. The term for selling more stock than they actually owned in order to lower prices, then buying it back.
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rebate
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is a deduction from an amount to be paid, or money back. Rockefeller, oil king, employed spies to find the amount to be paid of railroads and forced the railroads to pay him it on the bills of his competitors.
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vertical integration
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It was pioneered by tycoon Andrew Carnegie. It is when you combine into one organization all phases of manufacturing from mining to marketing. This makes supplies more reliable and improved efficiency. It controlled the quality of the product at all stages of production.
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horizontal integration
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A technique used by John D. Rockefeller. Horizontal integration is an act of joining or consolidating with ones competitors to create a monopoly. Rockefeller was excellent with using this technique to monopolize certain markets. It is responsible for the majority of his wealth.
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trust
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an economic tool devised late in the 1800's. It was pioneered by men such as Andrew Carnegie of the steel industry and John Rockefeller of the oil industry. The purpose of it is to eliminate competition in business. One powerful company will have control of the stocks of many smaller companies in the same line of business, creating a monopoly. The monopoly allows price-fixing and benefits all companies involved. They were outlawed in the early 1900's.
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interlocking directorate
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situation occurring when the majority of members of the boards of directors of competing corporations are the same; in effect, having one group of people manage both companies
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plutocracy
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government or country governed by the rich
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injunction
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a court order that forces or limits the performance of some act by a private individual or by a public official
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Grange
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the Patrons of Husbandry - a social and educational organization through which farmers attempted to combat the power of the railroads in the late 19th century
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Wabash Case
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favorable to state regulation of those phases of interstate commerce upon which Congress itself had not acted. The court declared invalid an Illinois law prohibiting long- and short-haul clauses in transportation contracts as an infringement on the exclusive powers of Congress granted by the commerce clause of the Constitution. The result of the case was denial of state power to regulate interstate rates for railroads, and the decision led to creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission
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Bessemer Process
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an industrial process for making steel using a Bessemer converter to blast air through through molten iron and thus burning the excess carbon and impurities
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US Steel
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Carnegie sold his company in 1900 for over 400 million to a new steel combination headed by JP Morgan. The new corporations, United States Steel, was the first billion dollar company and also the largest enterprise in the world, employing 168,000 people and controlling over 3/5th of the nations steel business
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Gospel of Wealth
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Written by Carnegie; the belief that those entrusted with societys riches had to prove themselves morally responsible
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social Darwinism
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The application of ideas about evolution and "survival of the fittest" to human societies - particularly as a justification for their imperialist expansion.
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Haymarket Riot
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100,000 workers rioted in Chicago. After the police fired into the crowd, the workers met and rallied in Haymarket Square to protest police brutality. A bomb exploded, killing or injuring many of the police. The Chicago workers and the man who set the bomb were immigrants, so the incident promoted anti-immigrant feelings.
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American Federation of Labor
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Samuel Gompers, a union for skilled laborers that fought for worker rights in a non-violent way. It provided skilled laborers with a union that was unified, large, and strong.
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