Progressive Era Review Sheet

Vocabulary Words:

Transcontinental Railroad: connected the east and west and increased the settlement of the west. Created the 4 time zones and made it possible to transport goods for trading.

Laissez Faire: little government control in the market economy

Corporation: a large business where people can buy stock and invest in the company e.g. Walmart

Urbanization: development of cities

Trust: a legal body to hold stock in many companies---it leads to monopolies. Bad for consumers because it eliminates competition. No competition leads to high prices for consumers.

Muckrakers: a group of journalists that focused on the negatives of immigration, the tenements, and big businesses.

Monopoly: business that gains control of an industry by eliminating other competitors

Nativity: native-born Americans who wanted to eliminate foreign influence--immigrants

Robber Baron: ruthless business owner e.g. Carnegie, Rockefeller

Tariffs: taxes on imported good----positive for domestic business because foreign goods cost more

Jacob Riis: muckraker that expose the unsanitary condition of the tenements

Ida Tarbell: muckraker that expose John Rockefeller bad business practices

Margaret Sanger: social reformer—created Planned Parenthood for the poor

Concepts:
Benefits of Transcontinental Railroad. How did it help America? What did it do to improve America’s economy? Increase the industrialization process in the United States and communication/trade was made easier.

What were the impact of Rockefeller and Carnegie on America and the growth of big businesses.

  • Created monopolies that led to corporations. Help America businesses grow in the oil and steel areas.
  • Negatives: created bad working conditions, low wages, long hours, poor remains poor, horrible tenements. Higher prices for products.
  • Creation of more labor unions

Trusts and Monopolies and why theywere bad for American consumers in thelong run?

High prices because there was NO COMPETITION

Why tariffs were beneficial to American Industrial Growth?

They(American businesses) got more money because foreign goods cost more and Americans wanted to buy cheaper products.

Importance of Edison’s inventions

The light bulb: people participated in night activities e.g. watching sports, going to the movies,

The phonograph: brought music to people homes

Urbanization and how it impacted America (Positives and Negatives of Urbanization)

Positive: cities grew quickly, brought in more work opportunities, development of skyscrapers

Negatives: low pay, developments of tenements—slums, increase in immigration, nativism,

Advantages/Disadvantages of Industrialization

Advantages: help the America society in the business sector, increase high school graduates, creation of cities, jobs, new inventions, made the American lives easier—e.g. washing machine

Disadvantage—poor class, immigration, unsafe working conditions, e.g. mines increase in child labor

How did Muckrackers help change America for the better? Started the progressive era and caused the government to start passing reform acts.

Government Actions:
Laissez Faire Economics: Without government control

Sherman Anti Trust Act: law that prevented monopolies----this is why America does not have monopolies present day

17th Amendment: direct election of senators---in order to stop Political Machines e.g. Boss Tweed

Why would Government want toregulate businesses?

To protect consumers/the people and prevent monopolies, unsafe working condition and unfair business practices. E.g. Shirtwaist T-shirt Factory, young girls died from the fire

Study Guide

  1. Who were the robber barons?
  2. How did laissez-faire capitalism promote the growth of big business? No government influence therefore allowing Americans to create as many businesses as they wanted, sometime leading to monopolies.
  1. Identify the industries dominated by the following individuals:
  2. Andrew Carnegie: Steel
  3. J.D. Rockefeller: Oil
  4. J.P. Morgan: Banking
  5. Cornelius Vanderbilt: Railroad
  1. What is a trust and how does it become a monopoly? Trust buys out all of the business leading to a monopoly
  2. Why was the Sherman Anti-Trust Act adopted in 1890? To prevent monopolies and their high prices
  3. During the 1880s and 1890s, immigrants to American came primarily from what regions in Europe? Southern part—Slavic regions, Austria-Hungary
  1. What was life like for the new immigrants after they reached America? Hard life—e.g. lived in unsanitary conditions e.g. tenements did not have AC, running water, plumbing, most of the appliances did not work. Low wages and bad working conditions—long hours and low wages—unsafe working environment
  1. What was a political machine and how did it benefit immigrants? The political machine protected the immigrants and did favors for them
  2. Which was the most notorious of the political machines and who was its “boss”? Boss Tweed
  1. Why were Americans fearful of the new immigrants coming into America and how did they especially deal with the Chinese immigrants? New competition and they enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act—limited the amount of Chinese coming to America.
  1. During the late nineteenth century, how did cities in America change? Development of the skyscraper, increase in leisure activities e.g. going to a park, the movie, or a sports game (the invention of the lightbulb), development of slums (tenements)
  1. How could a settlement house help the problems faced by Americans in the big cities? Created by Jane Addams to help the poor with health, child care, and social issue they needed help with.
  2. Who was Jane Addams? Social reformer to help the poor
  3. Why was the late nineteenth century referred to as the Gilded Age? The different business owners and inventors became VERY wealthy. E.g. Rockefeller
  1. How did Boss Tweed and his ring control the city government of New York? Through fear and bribing politicians they were able to control the city government.
  1. How did the telephone, telegraph, and typewriter aid industrialization in America? Increased the speed of communication---it allow people to communicate over longer distances in a shorter time.
  2. How did steel provide the building block for industrialization? The development of the skyscraper
  3. What category of people made up the new working class by 1900? Poor and Immigrants
  4. What were the three major problems facing laborers during this time period? Low wages, poor working conditions, long hours, unsafe working environment, no heat
  5. Identifythe following terms as they related to labor movement.
  6. American Federation of Labor: a labor union that was founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886—focused on shorter work hours. One of the largest labor unions.
  7. Haymarket Square Riot: union protest for shorter work hours, but violence took place because someone threw a bomb
  1. Collective bargaining: a group of workers come together to go on strike and meet with the business owners to demand certain working condition rights (e.g. higher wages, shorter work hours)
  2. Pullman Strike: Strike on the rail industry in 1894.
  3. Yellow dog contracts: OMIT
  4. Lock-outs: a tactic that business owners to prevent a strike from happening
  5. Sweatshop: overcrowded workplace that had horrible working conditions---e.g. no AC

Know the difference between Booker T. Washington & Dubois

  • Booker T. Washington: vocational education e.g. carpentry, plumbing
  • Wrote the Atlantic Compromise
  • White Americans loved him because he believed African Americans should continue to work with their hands and not go into politics or fight for immediate civil rights
  • WEB Dubois: liberal arts education e.g. English, philosophy, & history
  • African Americans should fight for IMMEDIATE civil rights
  • Help create the NAACP
  • Wrote the Souls of Black Folks
  • DuBois & Booker T. Washington did not like each other
  • Jim Crow Era: Plessy v. Ferguson