Westward Expansion
This federal policy granted settlers free land in the West if they lived on and improved it for five years.
What is the Homestead Act of 1862?
This inventor improved the light bulb and developed systems that made electric power practical for homes and cities.
Who is Thomas Edison?
This industry expanded rapidly after the Civil War and became the backbone of national markets, linking regions and accelerating economic growth.
What is the railroad industry?
This event in 1893 brought millions of visitors to Chicago and symbolized American industrial power and urban growth.
What is the World’s Columbian Exposition?
This group expanded during the Gilded Age and included managers, professionals, and skilled workers whose incomes rose with industrial growth.
What is the middle class?
This phrase describes the belief that the United States was destined to expand westward across the North American continent.
What is Manifest Destiny?
This 1844 invention by Samuel Morse revolutionized long-distance communication by sending messages through electrical signals.
What is the telegraph?
This business strategy involves controlling multiple stages of production and distribution, such as Carnegie’s control over steel from raw materials to shipping.
What is vertical integration?
These “push” factors encouraged Europeans to leave their homelands in the late nineteenth century, including overcrowding and religious persecution.
What are economic hardship and religious persecution?
This movement promoted moral responsibility, charity, and civic leadership among wealthy industrialists and reformers.
What is the Gospel of Wealth?
This economic activity became dominant on the Great Plains and was made possible by the invention of barbed wire.
What is cattle ranching?
This innovation allowed oil to be refined into kerosene, lubricants, and fuels, fueling industrial growth in the late 19th century.
What is oil refining?
This term describes a company dominating a market with little to no competition, often associated with large corporations in the late 19th century.
What is a monopoly?
This term describes African Americans leaving the rural South for northern cities in search of industrial jobs and greater freedom.
What is the Great Migration?
These residential areas outside major cities grew as transportation improvements allowed middle-class families to live farther from urban centers.
What are the suburbs?
These government-funded schools attempted to assimilate Native American children by erasing tribal languages and cultures.
What are Indian boarding schools?
This new system of production used standardized parts and assembly-line techniques to increase efficiency and lower costs.
What is mass production?
This federal law of 1890 aimed to limit business practices that restrained trade and competition among corporations.
What is the Sherman Antitrust Act?
This immigration station, opened in 1892, processed millions of new arrivals entering the United States through New York Harbor.
What is Ellis Island?
This type of public education reform emphasized practical subjects and preparation for industrial and technical careers.
What is vocational education?
This late-19th-century movement sought to preserve natural resources and protect land through national parks and forests.
What is the Conservation Movement?
This Supreme Court case allowed the federal government to regulate railroad rates under the Interstate Commerce Act.
What is Interstate Commerce Commission v. Illinois (often referenced as Munn v. Illinois in related regulation cases)?
By 1900, this percentage of U.S. corporate wealth was controlled by the richest one percent of Americans.
What is about one-third (33%)?
These urban neighborhoods formed by immigrants often preserved language and culture but were associated with overcrowding and poverty.
What are ethnic enclaves?
This popular late-19th-century form of entertainment featured traveling shows, music, and comedy acts for mass audiences.
What is vaudeville?