Laissez-faire economics
There was an extreme lack of government regulation of the economy at the time
Great railroad strike
Railroad companies cut salaries due to a recession. Railroad workers went on strike in 11 states. When the strike got violent, 11 people were killed before President Hayes sent in federal troops
Panic of 1893
A severe economic depression during which nearly a quarter of railroads declared bankruptcy. This caused bankers to buy up many of the railroads, leading to consolidation.
John D. Rockefeller
Railroads
Andrew Carnegie
Pioneered vertical integration, where one company controls every stage of the manufacturing process
Idea that the future of the south would be based on economic diversity and industrial growth. Massive growth of population, industry, and railroads. Only in limited industrial centers though.
Dawes act
Broke up tribal organizations and divided up tribal land and gave U.S. citizenship to natives who "Americanized" themselves
Views on immigration
Settlement houses
Provided resources to the poor to enrich the neighborhood. Largely led by women
Reservation system
Indian nations were assigned land called reservations. However this land was much less than before, and many decided to just keep following buffalo
Pullman strike
After a railroad car manufacturer cut wages, and the union tried to negotiate, the company failed them all. The railroad union decided to not work on any trains with Pullman cars in them. The railroad owners tied the Pullman cars to mail trains in order to get the government to keep them moving, and the union members were jailed
Starting in 1865 many Americans started pushing westward again after the interruption of the civil war
Growth of immigration
16 million immigrants (mostly from Europe) came looking for better economic opportunities
Government support for railroads
Railroads supported by the government through money and land grants
nationwide movement of resistance. They began to believe that if they took up the ritualistic ghost dance, that their ancestors would return and drive the Americans out.
Booker T. Washington
former slave who trained other black men to become economically self-sufficient, and argued this was a better way to gain power than to campaign for better voting rights
congress sparked a new fight with the Sioux, by passing a law that nullified all previous treaties made with native Americans
Jim Crow laws
Forced segregation and prevented african americans from exercising their civil liberties
White collar workers
All the industrialization created a new type of work for managers and administrators who ran the factories instead of working in them
Wanted to end indian culture by forcing them to assimilate to American values.
Ida B. Wells
Editor of a newspaper editorialized against lynching and jim crow. She fled north due to threats against her
Populist party
Wanted to correct the concentration of power held by banks and trusts. Proposed the Omaha platform: Direct election of senators, more referendums, graduated income tax, and an 8-hour workday
Homestead act
Sherman antitrust act
Haymarket square riot
Anarchists set off a bomb during a Knights of labor protest in Chicago for an 8-hour workweek. Many people began to see the labor movement as violent and radical
Changes in farming
Chinese exclusion act
Nativists successfully pressured Congress to stop the flow of Chinese immigrants who were coming over during the gold rush.
Bessemer process
Enabled manufacturers to produce huge quantities of steel
Political machines
Corrupt political bosses and their followers
