U.S. History Review: Unit 3

UNIT REVIEw

The Gilded Age

10

RESOURCES

American Culture in the Gilded Age

Politics in the Gilded Age

Industrial Work Life and the Labor Movement

Business in the Gilded Age

The Shift to Cities

The New Immigrants

The Second Industrial Revolution

Farmers and Populsim

The U.S. Grows Westward

Index

The U.S. Grows Westward

Section 01

Click the next page to review how Native American nations were affected by the westward growth of the United States

In the late 1800s, as many as 250,000 Native Americans, representing a variety of cultural groups, populated the Great Plains. Their way of life was disrupted and almost destroyed by the western expansion of the United States.

The U.S. Grows Westward

Homestead Act: promoted the settlement of the West by offering land to those who promised to improve that land

Pacific Railroad Act: authorized construction of the first transcontinental railroad connecting east + west coasts

General Allotment Act (or Dawes Act): distributed smaller plots of land to individual Native Americans, rather than setting it aside for an entire native nation

Assimilation: process in which the minority group adopts the culture of the dominant group

Farmers and populism

Section 02

Goal was to increase the amount of money in circulation to give farmers more money to meet their obligations

Farmers formed groups such as the National Grange Movement and the Farmers' Alliances to support their way of life. Members of these movements joined together to form the Populist Party

The Second Industrial Revolution

Section 03

Click to the next page to review the major industries that developed in this era and how their growth affected the industries

The Second Industrial Revolution is marked by the invention of numerous technologies and rapid innovations in manufacturing that resulted in the United States becoming the world's leading industrial nation by 1920

Click each image to learn more

Communication

Railroads

Oil

The Seocnd Industrial Revolution

Steel

The New Immigrants

Section 04

New immigrants maintained their language and traditions by settling in the neighborhoods in large cities where they were most likely able to find work in the rapidly growing industries

Before 1880, most immigrants, or "old Immigrants," came from England or other northern European countries. Most were either Protestant or Catholic. After 1880, the "new immigrants" came from mostly southern and eastern European nations

The New Immigrants

• Nativism is the belief that favors the interests of native-born people over the interests of immigrants or other groups to extremes
• Usually didn't oppose "old immigrants" because they were more likely white and practiced Protestant religions
• Discriminated against new immigrants' religious and cultural practices believed they were taking jobs away from native-born citizens

The Shift to Cities

Section 05

This addressed the crowded and unsafe housing conditions by passed laws requiring running water, windows in each room, and fire safety measures

The 1890 publication of Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives stirred public concern about New York tenements.This paved the way for the Tenement House Act of 1901

Business in the Gilded Age

Section 06

Corporations, like the steel and oil industries, flourished in a free market where the government mostly avoided regulating their business practices

The industrialists, or people who own or manage large-scale businesses, were able to accumulate tremendous personal wealth and dominated their industries during the Gilded Age

capitalism

monopoly

laissez-faire

trust

holding company

corporations

socialism

Click to review your knowledge on each vocabulary word from the lesson

Business in the Gilded Age

Industrial Work Life and the Labor Movement

Section 07

However, the government supported the interests of employers over the workers. For example, during the Homestead Strike and Pullman Strike, they sent federal and state troops to bring an end to those movements

During the Gilded Age, workers in many industries organized into unions to improve dangerous working conditions, advocate for an eight-hour workday, and raise their wages

However, most labor unions were more interested in improving the lives of their members than replacing the U.S. economic system of capitalism

Some unions, like the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), became closely affiliated with socialism

The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor was the first labor union to successfully organize workers on a national scale

Unions are organizations of workers in a trade or industry who join together to negotiate for their wages and working conditions as a group

Industrial Work Life and the Labor Movement

Politics in the Gilded Age

Section 08

Political machines met the immediate needs of immigrants, such as finding housing or jobs. In turn, immigrants became loyal voters to the machine candidates and paid corrupt officials with bribes or kickbacks for favors they may have provided

A political machine is an organized group of people who control the activities of a political party and the government in a city. The political machine leaders provided various services to the voters and the businesses who gave the machine financial and political support at the expense of taxpayers

Politics in the Gilded Age

Hover your mouse over each of the three positions within the political machine to learn more about the different roles

Politics in the Gilded Age

• Scandal and corruption highlighted the problem of political patronage
• Presidents often appointed their friends and supporters to jobs for which they were not qualified as a reward for the campaign contributions
• President Chester Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883 into law to ensure that the political appointees were qualified to perform their roles

American Culture in the Gilded Age

Section 09

Advertising promoted consumerism, the continuous acquisition of goods and services as a desirable goal or mark of successPopular entertainment, like attending the nickelodeon or amusement parks, was more accessible to the working class

Innovations of the Second Industrial Revolution helped to create greater shared experiences or a mass culture in the United States

These visual artists featured everyday industrial life in their work

The Ashcan School was a group of New York City artists who sought to portray life as it really existed, a style called Realism

Greater access to education and professional jobs contributed to the growth of the middle class

As cities and industries grew, a more distinct middle class began to emerge

American Culture in the Gilded Age

Resources

1. Guided Notes/Study Guide
2. Quizlet Flashcards
3. Quizizz Review Game

Steel

Iron was the common material used to make machine parts in the years up to the mid-1850s, but iron was very heavy, rusted easily, and broke under heavy use Steel, which is made by removing carbon from the iron, was a stronger, lighter, and more resilient metal, but it was very expensive to produce because it took a long time to process The Bessemer process of manufacturing steel provided an easier, faster, and cheaper way to produce steel

• Enabled the growth of railroads as railroad tracks were increasingly made out of steel
• Carnegie Steel was able to reduce the costs of steel railroad rails from $100 to $50 per ton

Oil

John D. Rockefeller was an early investor in the oil business, first discovered by Americans in Northeast Pennsylvania. In 1870, he organized the Standard Oil Company. By 1873, he had acquired about 80 percent of the refining capacity in Cleveland, pictured here. Rockefeller expanded into drilling for oil and marketing kerosene to customers, which was commonly used in lanterns as a source of light. It was not until the 1890s that gasoline or fuel oil was produced. With the development of the internal combustion engine, such as used in the automobile, Rockefeller would become the first billionaire in the United States.

• Alexander Graham Bell's innovation in telephone technology improved communication even more so
• Enabled immediate communication instead of depending on a telegraph operator to send and transcribe messages

Communication

The Pacific Telegraph Act in 1860 called for the construction of a telegraph line to connect the east and west coasts. In 1862, the Pacific Railway Act began the process of constructing a transcontinental railroad, along which the telegraph lines followed. These two acts greatly sped up communication in the nation.

Railroads

The transcontinental railroad transformed the west and opened it to massive settlements Railroads opened every area of the United States for settlement and growth. The railroads provided thousands of jobs and supported other industries such as farming, ranching, steel, and coal By 1900, it was possible to travel by train from San Francisco to New York in just six days, rather than the month that it had taken before the lines were combined and improved

• Enabled goods and people to move across a greater area faster