The Rise of Industry in the United States:

Homestead Act: Federal government gave free land in the West to anyone who would farm it for five years

Transcontinental Railroad: Union Pacific Railroad would begin laying track from Omaha, NE headed west, while the Central Pacific would begin in San Francisco and head east. Land grants were issued to the companies around the track that they laid.

Andrew Carnegie: Scottish born immigrant who came to PA and introduced the Bessemer process to the United States. This process purified iron ore and helped create the steel boom and soon made Carnegie a millionaire. As steel became cheaper, more and more people replaced iron with steel and Carnegie became one of the richest men in the world.

Corporations: Businesses owned by many people

Stock/Stockholders: Shares of companies and the people who own them

John D. Rockefeller: An Ohio man realized that refining, or purifying, oil was the key to the industry. Rockefeller created Standard Oil and soon controlled 90% of the industry. He became a billionaire.

Monopoly: Total control of a company

Thomas Edison: Patented 1,093 inventions, including the phonograph, motion picture camera, light bulbs, and the electric power plant.

Henry Ford: Used interchangeable parts and the assembly line to bring auto production to the forefront.

Robber Barons: people believed these men ruthlessly took advantage of workers and destroyed competitors in order to grow rich

Urbanization: The movement of people from rural areas to urban ones

Immigration: Between 1865 and 1890 more than 12 million people came to the US in search of jobs. Most European immigrants settled on the Northeast and the Midwest, while the Chinese settled on the West Coast to work on railroads

Tenements: Crowded apartments with little rooms, few window, sparse plumbing and as little electricity as possible. Repairs were rarely made

Inflation: A rise in prices as people charged more money for the same goods and services

The Populist Party wanted:

·  Govt control of transportation and communication businesses

·  A graduated income tax, in which people with higher incomes would pay a higher percent

·  Secret Ballot

·  Laws protecting Unions

·  Better working conditions

·  An 8-hour work day

·  Higher wages

Labor Unions: Organizations that help their members bargain for better wages and conditions

Strike: To stop working in protest

Progressivism: Reform for the cities. Middle-class Americans who believed that the government should solve social, economic political problems

Initiative: Voters propose laws for new legislation

Referendum: allows voters, rather than legislatures, to approve or disapprove of laws

Sherman Anti-Trust Act: Law that made it illegal for one company, or a group of companies, to control an entire industry

Muckraker: Exposed corruption by writing stories about corruption in government, child labor, working conditions…