Term | Definition |
The Gilded Age | term coined by Mark Twain |
The Pendleton Civil Service Act | designed to end the Spoils System |
Tammy Hall | New York Political Machine |
Tammy Hall | run by "boss" who stole as much as $200million from the government |
The Telegraph | greatly increased communication |
Thomas Edison | Light bulb, phonograph, motion picture camera, direct current |
The Bessemer Process | created steel that was cheaper and easier and Faster to produce |
Entrepreneurs | people who take risks in a business in order to make a profit |
Monopoly | a company that completely controls the market of a certain industry |
Horizontal consolidation | gaining control of companies in the same industry |
Vertical consolidation | gaining control of the many different businesses that make up all phases of a product's development |
Trust | a group of separate companies placed under the control of a single board to form a monopoly |
Cartel | an association of business making the same product that controls prices and supply to monopolize the market |
John D. Rockefeller | controlled nearly all the nation's oil refineries |
Sherman Antitrust Act | passed to prohibit monopolies |
Sherman Antitrust Act | ineffective until Theodore Roosevelt used it in 1902 |
Wright Brothers | first successful airplane. |
World' Columbian Exposition | also known as the Chicago World's Fair |
World' Columbian Exposition | to honor 400th anniversary of Columbus's "Discovery" of America in 1492 |
Economies of Scale | as production increases, the cost per item decreases |
Social Darwinism | belief that the fittest members of society that made the most money; those people who were poor were unfit |
Gospel of Wealth | Andrew Carnegie's belief that the rich had a right to make money and a responsibility to spend it properly by helping worthy causes. |
Child Labor | usually age 12 or 13; some as young as 6; their wages were necessary for the survival of their families |
Hardships | most labors worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week |
Sweatshops | overcrowded factories with poor working conditions. |
Piecework | workers are paid by what they produce, not by the hour |
Socialism | government controls the means of production |
Capitalism | private business controls the means of production |
Labor Union | an organization of workers formed to increase wages, reduce hours, and improve working conditions |
American Federation of Labor | founded by Samuel Compers |
Great Railroad Strike of 1877 | 1st major strike in the U.S. |
Great Railroad Strike of 1877 | broken up by the U.S. Army Troops |
Haymarket Riot, Chicago 1886 | led to the downfall of the Knights of Labor |
Nativism | the belief that the U.S. should be preserved for native-born Americans |
Chinese Exclusion Act | 1882; denied citizenship to people born in China |