History 112 Chapter 18 – Flashcards

A period of enormous economic growth and HUGE displays of wealth during the last quarter of the 19th century. Industrialization changed US society and created a newly dominant group of rich entrepreneurs and poor working class. The divide between the two got bigger.

a system where corporations give shares of their stocks to trustees who hold the stock "in trust" for their stockholders. This curbed competition.

Investment sponsored by banks and bankers. After the panic of 1839, bankers stepped in to stabilize major industries, leaving power in the hands of few.

A social theory made popular by Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner. Believed that wealth was a sign of "fitness" and poverty a sing of "unfitness".

The idea that the financially successful should use their wisdom, experience and wealth as 'stewards' for the poor (guides, protectors). Andrew Carnegie promoted this view.

System where politicians doled out government positions to their loyal supporters. It led to widespread corruption.

System of racial segregation in the south from after the civil war into the 20th century. Separated african americans in public facilities, streetcars, trains, etc. and denied them other basic rights.

An all women organization founded in 1874 to advocate for total abstinence from alcohol.

Effort in the late 1880's to end the Spoil System.

Federal Regulatory agency designed to oversee the railroad industry, created in 1887

An 1880 act the outlawed pools and trusts, ruling that their businesses could no longer enter into agreements that would threaten their competition.

term used in the late 19th century by those who advocated minting silver dollars in addition to supporting the gold standard and the paper currency backed by gold. Western silver barons and poor farmers from west & south hoped this would help with debt relief by inflation.

Trust, Finance Capitalism, Trains, Telegraph + Telephone. Aided my Global Migration

Social Darwinism, Spoils System, Jim Crow, Women's Christian Temperance + Women's Suffrage

Women's Christian Temperance + Women's Suffrage

The Interstate Commerce Commission and the Sherman Antitrust Act

First one completed in 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah. The idea was present for decades, however southern Democrates opposed the idea. During the Civil War, Dems were absent from Congress, so Republicans voted on constructing the transcontinental railroad without them. Two independent companies, the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad developed the line which was supported by US government bonds. The American economy was revolutionized because the transport of goods was made much faster and cheaper. links the economies of the east and west; promoted settlement of western plains, connected towns/cities => bigger markets

Social Darwinism legitimized business success, emphasized traditional American ideas of individualism and freedom, and justified business tactics. Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner crudely applied Charles Darwin's work on evolution to enunciate a social theory known as social Darwinism. It held that only fierce competition could produce progress. Applying the principle of "survival of the fittest" to society, they argued that intervening to assist the poor violated laws of nature and would only impede progress.

Background on politics and citizenship as white and male: From its beginnings, American citizenship and its prerogatives were defined as male. With the advent of universal white male suffrage in the early nineteenth century, gender eclipsed class as the defining feature of citizenship. The concept of separate spheres dictated women's exclusion from traditional electoral politics.

"Hayes dealt with the problem of corruption by advocating a "thorough, radical, and complete" reform of the civil service. This "fair and balanced" way of giving out jobs did not sit well within a corrupted civil service program where people were not given jobs based on their merit and skill."

Economic issues such as protective tariffs (joined the North, Midwest, and West against the Democratic South); curbing the power of large business combinations, the need to regulate the railroads forced politicians to pass laws regulating the railroads; ICC oversaw the industry and the Sherman Antitrust Act outlawed businesses agreeing to restrict competition. Miners wanted the government to buy silver and mint it to increase the money supply with silver dollars and create inflation. However Pres. Cleveland supported the gold standard of which prolonged the depressions of 1894-95, favored creditors over debtors and hardship for millions of Americans.