Captains or Robber Barons
A person who organizes a business and takes financial risks in hopes of earning a profit.
entrepreneur
Workers formed these organizations to seek higher wages, shorter hours, and safer working conditions.
labor unions
These organizations controlled many city governments by exchanging jobs and services for votes.
political machines
The rapid growth of cities caused by population movement is known by this term.
urbanization
Completed in 1869, this transportation system connected the eastern and western United States.
Transcontinental Railroad
This industrialist built a steel empire and later donated millions of dollars to libraries, schools, and universities.
Andrew Carnegie
This process occurs when union representatives negotiate with employers on behalf of workers.
collective bargaining
This leader of New York City’s Tammany Hall became a symbol of Gilded Age political corruption.
Boss Tweed
Many working-class immigrants lived in these crowded apartment buildings with poor ventilation and sanitation.
tenements
This improved metal made it possible to construct stronger railroads, bridges, and skyscrapers.
steel
This businessman used Standard Oil to gain control over much of the nation’s oil industry.
John D. Rockefeller
This labor organization generally focused on improving wages, hours, and working conditions for skilled workers.
American Federation of Labor, or AFL
Passed in 1883, this law required many federal employees to be selected through competitive examinations.
Pendleton Civil Service Act
Jobs, religious freedom, and the possibility of a better life are examples of these factors that attracted immigrants to America.
pull factors
Alexander Graham Bell’s invention made long-distance communication faster.
telephone
This economic policy supported limited government interference in privately owned businesses.
laissez-faire
During this 1894 strike, the federal government sent troops to keep mail and railroad traffic moving.
Pullman Strike
This 1887 law created the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate railroad practices.
Interstate Commerce Act
This 1882 federal law prohibited most Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States.
Chinese Exclusion Act
Electric power allowed factories to operate longer hours and cities to install this form of public illumination.
electric lighting
Supporters used this positive term for industrialists who created jobs and expanded the economy. Critics called the same men “robber barons.”
captains of industry
Long hours, low wages, unsafe factories, and child labor were all effects of this major economic change.
industrialization
This 1890 law attempted to prevent businesses from forming monopolies that restricted competition.
Sherman Antitrust Act
Programs that taught immigrants English and encouraged them to adopt mainstream American customs were part of this movement.
Americanization movement
Give two ways railroads helped the United States economy during the Gilded Age.
connecting national markets, transporting goods faster, encouraging western settlement, creating jobs,
and increasing demand for steel, coal, and oil?