Big Business and Industry
This method allowed industrialists like Carnegie to control raw materials, production, and distribution in order to reduce costs.
What is vertical integration?
This 1877 strike revealed the federal government’s willingness to side with business interests over labor unrest.
What was the Great Railroad Strike?
These large-scale farms on the Great Plains relied on mechanization, railroads, and national markets.
What were bonanza farms?
This 1876 battle symbolized Native resistance but led to intensified federal suppression.
What was the Battle of Little Bighorn?
This 1883 law attempted to reduce political corruption by requiring merit-based federal hiring.
What is the Civil Service Act of 1883 (Pendleton Act)?
This consolidation strategy eliminated competition by combining companies producing the same product.
What is horizontal integration?
This national labor organization attempted to unite skilled and unskilled workers before declining after public backlash.
What were the Knights of Labor?
This economic proposal argued that taxing land values would reduce inequality without discouraging productivity.
What is the single tax?
This federal law aimed to assimilate Native Americans by breaking up tribal lands into individual plots.
What is the Dawes Act?
This 1887 agency marked the first major federal attempt to regulate private industry.
What is the Interstate Commerce Commission?
These organizations were created to control prices and limit competition, prompting public backlash and calls for reform.
What are trusts?
This 1886 incident severely damaged the labor movement by linking unions to radicalism and violence.
What was the Haymarket Affair?
Supporters of this monetary system argued it stabilized the economy, while critics claimed it hurt farmers and debtors.
What is the gold standard?
This 1890 massacre marked the violent end of large-scale Native resistance in the United States.
What was Wounded Knee?
Although designed to limit monopolies, this law was initially weak and inconsistently enforced.
What is the Sherman Antitrust Act?
Critics used this term to describe wealthy industrialists who accumulated fortunes through monopolies and exploitation rather than public service.
Who were robber barons?
Courts used this legal doctrine to strike down labor laws regulating wages, hours, and working conditions.
What is liberty of contract?
Courts often used this legal principle to undermine labor protections and reform legislation.
What is liberty of contract?
This late-19th-century era saw explosive industrial growth alongside corruption, inequality, and minimal government regulation.
What was the Gilded Age?
This religiously inspired reform movement argued that Christianity required addressing poverty and inequality caused by industrial capitalism.
What was the Social Gospel?