Industrial Innovations
What is mass production?
Producing large quantities of goods quickly and cheaply using standardized methods.
What is a monopoly?
When one company controls an entire industry, limiting competition.
What is a strike?
When workers stop working to demand better wages, hours, or conditions.
Name one push factor for immigrants.
Poverty, famine, war, or religious/political persecution.
What is a tenement?
A crowded, often unsafe apartment building where many immigrants lived.
What is the assembly line?
A production method where a product moves from worker to worker, each performing one task.
How did big businesses benefit consumers?
Mass production lowered costs, making goods more affordable.
Why did workers join unions in the late 1800s?
To fight for better wages, shorter hours, and safer working conditions.
Name one pull factor for immigrants.
Jobs, safety, freedom, land, or economic opportunity.
Why did many Americans fear “new immigrants”?
They were culturally different, took low-wage jobs, and some feared political radicalism.
How did the assembly line change factories?
It made production faster, cheaper, and more efficient.
What did the Sherman Antitrust Act try to do?
Limit monopolies and protect competition in business.
Choose one major strike and explain its cause and its long-term impact.
Haymarket Riot – caused by demands for shorter hours; violence weakened public support for unions.
Pullman Strike - Rail traffic stopped; federal government intervened, siding with business.
How were “new immigrants” different from earlier groups?
They came mostly from Southern/Eastern Europe, had different languages and religions.
What was one challenge faced by new immigrants?
Discrimination, language barriers, low-paying jobs, or crowded tenements.
Explain how mass production changed American society, not just factories.
More affordable goods, growth of consumer culture, more jobs, and urbanization.
Explain why the government began regulating big business during this era.
Monopolies controlled prices, limited competition, and sometimes exploited workers.
Explain why labor unions sometimes failed to win public support.
Strikes sometimes turned violent; media and government often sided with business; feared radicalism.
Describe two major challenges immigrants faced and how they overcame them.
Challenges: discrimination, language, poor housing. Overcame through ethnic communities, mutual aid societies, and cultural adaptation.
How did immigrants help shape American culture in the late 1800s?
Introduced foods, traditions, languages, religions; worked in factories, railroads, and construction.