Industrialists
He made his fortune in the steel industry by utilizing the Bessemer process and championed the "Gospel of Wealth."
Andrew Carnegie
The major processing center in New York Harbor where millions of European immigrants entered the United States.
Ellis Island
The 19th-century belief that the U.S. was divinely ordained to expand across the North American continent from coast to coast
Manifest Destiny
Thomas Edison perfected this revolutionary invention at Menlo Park, which extended the working day and transformed home life.
Lightbulb
He coined the term "Gilded Age" to describe an era that appeared shiny and prosperous on the surface, but was corrupt underneath.
Mark Twain
This oil tycoon established the Standard Oil Company and used horizontal integration to create a monopoly.
John D. Rockefeller
Passed in 1882, this law banned Chinese laborers from entering the country, representing extreme nativist attitudes.
Chinese Exclusion Act
The 1896 gold strike in Canada's Yukon territory near Alaska that triggered a influx of thousands of prospectors.
Klondike Gold Rush
Alexander Graham Bell patented this invention in 1876, dramatically speeding up long-distance communication across the nation.
Telephone
Powerful political boss who controlled Tammany Hall, the democratic political machine in New York City.
Boss Tweed (William M. Tweed)
The economic policy where the government keeps a "hands-off" approach toward business regulation and intervention.
What is laissez-faire?
Overcrowded, poorly built apartment buildings where many working-class immigrants lived in major cities.
tenements
The post-Civil War route, like the Chisholm Trail, used to herd millions of Longhorn cattle from Texas north to Kansas railheads.
Cattle Drives
This groundbreaking industrial process made steel production cheaper, faster, and much stronger.
Bessemer Process
Unofficial political organizations in major cities that controlled local governments by offering jobs and favors to immigrants in exchange for their votes.
Political Machines
The derogatory term used by critics to describe wealthy business leaders who built fortunes through cutthroat tactics and low wages.
Robber Barons
The term for intense hostility toward immigrants favored by native-born Americans who feared losing jobs and cultural influence
Nativism
The 1862 federal law that provided 160 acres of free Western land to settlers who agreed to farm it for five years.
Homestead Act
This major infrastructure project was completed in 1869 at Promontory Summit, Utah, linking the East Coast with the West Coast.
Transcontinental Railroad
Passed in 1883, this federal law created the Civil Service Commission and ended the "spoils system" by requiring government jobs to be awarded on merit.
Pendleton Civil Service Act
The 1887 federal law passed to regulate railroad monopolies and prohibit unfair pricing, marking the first time the government regulated big business.
Interstate Commerce Act
The economic, social, and political reasons—such as religious persecution or job opportunities —that drive people to leave their home country for another.
Push and Pull factors
The assimilation policy designed to divide Native American tribal lands into individual family plots, passed in 1887.
Dawes Act
Because automated factory machinery reduced the need for physical strength, factory owners increasingly hired this demographic group to work in dangerous, tight spaces around moving equipment for low pay.
Children (Child Labor)
Passed in 1890, this was the nation's first federal law aimed at restricting monopolies and trusts, though it was initially weak in court.
Sherman Antitrust Act