Unit 1 – History – Flashcards
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Entrepreneur
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A person who organizes, manages, and takes on the risks of a business.
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Protective Tariff
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A tariff imposed to protect domestic firms from import competition
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Laissez Faire
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Economic liberalism that believes in unrestricted private enterprise and no government interference in the economy.
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Patent
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A document granting an inventor sole rights to an invention
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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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suspension bridge
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a bridge in which the roadway deck is suspended from cables that pass over two towers; the cables are anchored in housings at either end of the bridge
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Corporation
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A business owned by stockholders who share in its profits but are not personally responsible for its debts
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Monopoly
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Complete control of a product or business by one person or group
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Cartel
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A formal organization of producers that agree to coordinate prices and production
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Horizontal Integration
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Absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in the same level of production and sharing resources at that level
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Vertical Integration
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Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution
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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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ICC
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A former independent federal agency that supervised and set rates for carriers that transported goods and people between states
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Sherman Antitrust Act
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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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Trust
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A group of corporations run by a single board of directors
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Sweatshop
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A shop or factory where workers work long hours at low wages under unhealthy conditions
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Company Town
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Community whose residents rely upon one company for jobs, housing, and shopping
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Collective Bargaining
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Process by which a union representing a group of workers negotiates with management for a contract
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Socialism
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A system in which society, usually in the form of the government, owns and controls the means of production.
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Knights of Labor
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1st effort to create National union. Open to everyone but lawyers and bankers. Vague program, no clear goals, weak leadership and organization. Failed
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AFL
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A labor union formed in 1886 by Samuel Gompers in order to voice the working class (only highly skilled laborers). It fought against labor forces and debated work conditions for skilled workers. Utilized Strikes.
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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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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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1894 - nonviolent strike (brought down the railway system in most of the West) at the Pullman Palace Car Co. over wages - Prez. Cleveland shut it down because it was interfering with mail delivery
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Thomas Edison
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American inventor best known for inventing the electric light bulb, acoustic recording on wax cylinders, and motion pictures.
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J.D Rockefeller
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American industrialist and philanthropist. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. In 1870, Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company ; first billionaire
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Andrew Carnegie
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A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. By 1901, his company dominated the American steel industry.
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Terence V. Powderly
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Knights of Labor leader, opposed strikes, producer-consumer cooperation, temperance, welcomed blacks and women (allowing segregation)
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Samuel Gompers
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He was the creator of the American Federation of Labor. He provided a stable and unified union for skilled workers.
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Eugene V. 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.
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Would you characterize all of the government's policies in the late 1800s toward business as laissez faire?
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No, the government actively assisted corporations. an example would be that there here high tariffs to protect American industry from competition.
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How did the system of patents encourage innovation and investment?
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Patents give the inventor or patent holder rights to profit off of their creations.
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Explain why you agree or disagree with the following, "The late 1800s was a time of great progress for all Americans."
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Why did business owners create new formers of ownership like monopolies, cartels, and trusts?
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Payoffs
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How accurate is it to describe business leaders as both "robber barons" and "captains of industry"?
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Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller were captains of industries. They helped America become what it is today. They developed companies and industries that impacted us in such a way that it changed our ideas of supply and demand. But they didn't go about it the correct way.
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What does the fact that the government regulation of business was not very successful at first tell you about the relationship between government and big business?
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Government regulation showed that the only agency capable of bringing big business to heel was government, which required a thorough rethinking of Americans laissez-faire attitude towards capitalism & that the two would most likely always be at odds.
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What does the prevalence of child labor in the 1800s tell you about how society viewed children of the time?
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Why were employers generally opposed to labor unions?
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The main objective of the union is to raise the wage rate above the equilibrium rate. The employers are forced to pay more.
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Why did the major strikes of the 1800s lead to backlash against labor unions?
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violence, people didn't like the violence. strikes meant no production which cost the companies money. also the business owners didn't like the unions pushing for and getting concessions that cost them money.
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Steerage
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A section in some ships with the poorest accommodations, occupied by the passengers paying the lowest fare.
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Ellis Island
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Immigration processing center that open in New York Harbor in 1892
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Angle Island
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Angel Island is located in San Francisco Bay and immigrants passed through it. The immigrants were mostly of Asian decent.
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Americanization
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Belief that assimilating immigrants into American society would make them more loyal citizens
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Nativism
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Anti-immigration term distinguishing native born from immigrants
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Chinese Exclusion Act
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(1882) Denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate. American workers felt threatened by the job competition.
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Urbanization
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An increase in the percentage and in the number of people living in urban settlements.
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Rural-to-Urban Migrant
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a person who moves from an agricultural area to a city
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Skyscaper
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a very tall steel-framed building
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Mass transit
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Transportation system designed to move large numbers of people along fixed routes
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Suburb
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A residential district located on the outskirts of a city
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Tenement
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A building in which several families rent rooms or apartments, often with little sanitation or safety
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Elisha Otis
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Inventor who developed the first safety elevator in 1852.
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Frederick Law Olmstead
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Head of the voluntary association that provided quality medical care for the Union soldiers. Also the landscape architect who drew the plan for Greensward, more recently known as Central Park
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New Immigrant
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immigrants who had come to the US after the 1880s from southern and eastern europe
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Melting Pot
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A place where cultures blend
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How did the new immigrants differ from the old immigrants?
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Old immigrants were generally from North and West Europe while new Immigrants were from South and East Europe where they practiced non-Protestant religions and had different cultures than what Americans at that point were used to.
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What problems did immigrants face in coming to America?
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Immigrants faced the hardships of prejudice, hard jobs, low pay, and tenement life.
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In what ways did immigrants affect the American economy and culture?
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Shaped the city- brought their own cultures and languages, took jobs other Americans wouldn't and willing to work for less, provided surplus of labor which made city growth possibly, consumer demands rise
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Why did immigrants and rural immigrants move to cities?
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to achieve land ownership. farming was the main way of life and for jobs.
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Why did city planners try to improve city live?
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Why did cities of the late nineteenth century have many problems?
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In the late nineteenth century, cities faced rapid population growth. Lots of poverty.
