APUSH Unit 6

• Industrialization


  The change in the way goods were produced and sold, from local/regional to mass-production for a national/global market
• After the Civil War, many more Americans began pushing westward again, in hopes of achieving self-sufficiency and independence
• Time period covered in Unit 6 of the AP U.S. History curriculum

  1865 to 1898
• Industrialism


  Change in the way things are made for sale, specifically the move toward mass production and mass consumption of goods
• During the Gilded Age, a great dividing line was drawn between the rich and the poor
• New South


  A vision for the South after the Civil War, based on economic diversity, industrial growth, and laissez-faire capitalism
• By the time the 19th century drew to a close, the vast frontier of the American continent was basically closed and settled by Americans
• Explain the causes and effects of the settlement of the West from 1877 to 1898

  1. Causes:

  2. Effects:
• Immigration


  When a group of people moves from one country to another
• During the Gilded Age, European and Asian immigrants were arriving in America by the millions and settling in urban industrial centers, taking up work in factories with dangerous working conditions and low pay
• Migration


  When a group of people moves within the same country from region to region
• Conspicuous consumption


  The practice of purchasing expensive items to publicly display economic power and income
• Railroads


  • Provided quick and easy means of transporting goods, enabling a national market for sales
  • Expansion of railroads after the Civil War, with government land grants and subsidies
  • Four new transcontinental railroads built by the end of the century
• In the last part of the 19th century, the U.S. population grew by a multiple of three
• Debates sprang up over what to do about all these immigrants, as many Americans grew concerned over the identity of America with all these "non-Americans" arriving
• A large portion of the population explosion was due to a massive wave of immigrants arriving on the American shores, something like 16 million of them
• Nativism


  A policy of protecting the interests of native born folks over against the interests of immigrants
• Origins of immigrants


  • British Isles
  • Scandinavia
  • Europe
  • Russia
  • Italy
  • Balkans
• Gilded Age


  Period of American history when small, locally owned businesses became obsolete and large corporations and trusts dominated entire industries
• Nativist groups


  • American Protective Association (APA)
• Henry Grady


  • Editor of The Atlanta Constitution who coined the phrase "New South" and laid out his vision
• Reasons immigrants left Europe

  • Growing poverty
  • Overcrowding
  • Joblessness
  • Religious persecution
• The APA was against Catholics, as the millions of Irish immigrants coming to America were largely Catholic
• Homestead Act


  Encouraged westward migration
• Immigrants largely settled in industrial cities like Chicago, Pittsburgh, and New York
• Labor unions


  • Feared the influx of immigrants who were desperate for work and would agree to be hired for meager wages, undermining the unions' ability to negotiate with manufacturers
• America seemed to be a land of opportunity for immigrants, and thus the industrial workforce became far more diverse with all these new folks
• Social Darwinism


  A pseudoscientific idea that applied biological Darwinism to societal realities, leading to beliefs that immigrants, especially Irish, were racially inferior to the "true standard of American whiteness"
• Mechanization of agriculture


  • Farming becoming a task done more with machines than human/animal labor
  • Increased crop production (e.g. corn and wheat doubled 1870-1900)
  • Obsolescence of small farmers who couldn't afford new machines
• Chinese immigrants had been arriving since the California Gold Rush days in the 1840s and 1850s, and during this period Asian immigrants continued to arrive in substantial numbers
• Middle class


  A new class that developed during the Gilded Age, between the working class and the elite upper class
• Chinese immigrants on the West coast experienced similar hostility from nativists, who blamed them for economic troubles and passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to ban further Chinese immigration
• In the days before the Civil War, people from different social classes lived together in the cities, but during the Gilded Age, the middle class and the wealthy left the cities and moved away from the urban hustle
• Jane Addams


  Established settlement houses like Hull House to help immigrants better assimilate to American society by teaching them English, enrolling their children in education programs, and providing opportunities to learn democratic ideals and participate in recreational activities
• Structure of large corporations

  1. Executives on top

  2. Laborers in factories on bottom

  3. Managerial layer in the middle
• Bessemer Process


  A new method of steel production that enabled manufacturers to produce a greater quantity and quality of steel
• Example of conspicuous consumption


  • The Biltmore House, a 175,000 square foot private residence with 35 bedrooms and 43 bathrooms, owned as a vacation home by the Vanderbilt family
• The industrial cities were largely made up of the working class and the urban poor, many of them immigrants
• Immigrants had it hard during the Gilded Age, and many people worked against their inclusion in American society, but people like Jane Addams helped soften the nativist blow and assisted immigrants in getting on their feet
• Gilded Age


  • Like a gold covered turd - the gold represents the outward appearance, but the turd represents the underlying reality