Life in the Gilded Age

• what metal helaped fuel industrialization?

  steel
• what is morse code?

  series of dots and dashes and is used on a telegraph
• who was thomas edison?

  made powerplant/lightbulb, with e-factories can work more hours and be everywhere
• what is alternating current?

  developed by tesla, sold to George Westinghouse, longer distances, used today
• who is alexander graham bell?

  inventor of the telephone
• who built the railroads?

  immigrants (Asian and Irish), African Americans
• why were time zones created?

  to keep railroad schedules
• what was the interstate commerce act?

  regulates trade, not strong enough
• what are robber barons?

  got rich, exploited workers
• what is laissez-faire?

  "hands off" little government regulation
• what is social darwinism?

  the best individuals will succeed
• who is andrew carnegie?

  built giant steel firm
• what is vertical consolidation?

  buying out companies
• who was john d rockefeller?

  robber baron or captain of industry?, standard oil, bought other oil companies and did not believe in digging in the ground for oil
• what is horizontal consolidation?

  controlling competition at one step in the process of a market
• what is a monopoly?

  a firm controls all competition
• what is a trust?


  companies agree to work together and have one board of trustees to control stock
• what's wrong with having monopolies and no competition?

  prices can go way up and quality can go way down
• what is the sherman anti-trust act?

  outlaws trusts and monopolies, difficult to enforce
• unions were usually illegal until 1840s for interfering in commerce
• what are knights of labor?

  unskilled/skilled workers demanded reformsin child labor, safety, 8hr work days, equal pay for women
• what is the American federation of labor?

  skilled workers demanded higher pay, shorter work week
• what did unions want?

  improved conditions
• what is the homestead strike?

  carnegie's partner Frick hired Pinkertons to violently end strike
• what is the great RR Strike of 1877?

  RR shut down, Hayes used army to end strike
• what is the Haymarket Square riot?

  bomb killed 7 policemen, police fired on strikers
• what is the pullman strike?

  RR shut down, federal troops brought in and people get hurt and lose their jobs
• how were unions prevented?

  not hiring union workers (black list), banning union meetings, using the courts and troops to stop unions