Innovation
Who was Ferdinand de Lesseps
The French diplomat who raised money and obtained the rights to begin building the Panama Canal. His idea of a sea-level canal was not feasible for the Panama geography (eventually a series of locks that could be filled and emptied solved the problem). Poor working conditions, lack of technology, and misuse of funds caused the project to halt until America took over.
What business organization became much more common after the Civil War?
Corporations
How did Social Darwinists justify colonization?
They argued that according to rules of survival of the fittest, that those who survive are justified in all their actions and deserve to reap the rewards of their actions, despite how it might affect others. This idea also justified many racist beliefs about the superiority of white people over other races and justified taking control of their lands and replacing their cultures and religions with a western worldview.
What caused a large influx of Irish immigrants in the 1840s and 1850s?
The Potato Blight or Great Potato Famine
What record did Theodore Roosevelt set when he entered office as President?
The Youngest President at 42 years old.
The California Gold Rush resulted in American investment in what two significant feats of engineering?
The Transcontinental Railroad - the majority of the western half was built by Chinese immigrants, who had originally come to the United States to work the gold mines.
The Panama Canal - although not finished until much later, the American public first started calling for American intervention in the project on behalf of those wanting to travel out west in search of gold.
What is the name for when large corporations make informal agreements that unfairly take total control of a particular market?
A Pool, Trust, Monopoly, Holding Company, or Interlocking Directorate
Which island nation had its government overthrown by white plantation owners and the descendants of missionaries?
Hawaii
White Hawaiians who were eager for the islands to be Annexed and controlled by the United States were given powerful positions in the Federal Government that they used to leverage their position. Since Hawaii was both financially and politically valuable to the United States, many looked the other way when laws were passed that restricted the vote for annexation in a way that didn't allow Native Hawaiians to take part in the decision.
Which President ended Post-Civil War Reconstruction by pulling Federal troops out of the South?
Which President was the second to be assassinated?
Rutherford B. Hayes (19th President, 1877-1881)
James A. Garfield (20th President, Mar-Sept 1881)
He personally led which famous group in the battle of San Juan Hill, contributing to the invasion of Cuba in the Spanish-American War.
Roosevelt's Rough Riders
What are three ways that the Second Industrial Revolution changed America?
America's population doubled.
Manufacturing surpassed the value of farm production.
Railroads and telephones created a unified United States and national marketplace, focusing manufacturing on selling to large cities spread out over a large area, rather than selling to a small local area. This means that the consumer too began to look to familiar brands and corporations that were known nationally, rather than to local manufacturers.
Population shifted to a majority living in cities, made possible by railroads for ease of travel. Cities themselves were able to grow to great size and accommodate large populations thanks to the innovations in the production of steel for new larger buildings, and the spread of electricity and later automobiles that provided transport for workers to their jobs.
Why is this period of time sometimes called "The Gilded Age"?
This period is known for the rampant abuse and corruption of power by large corporations that controlled all manufacturing and employed a majority of people. Yet the owners of these businesses, making up an incredibly small portion of society, owned the grand majority of wealth, while their workers, the labor class that made up the majority of Americans, lived in abject poverty and slum conditions.
Name three territories that the United States gained control of at the end of the Spanish-American War.
BONUS: Which territory is still controlled by the United States, but does not have state status?
Cuba
The Phillipines
Puerto Rico
Guam
These territories signed treaties in the hopes that one day they would be independent. The US held on to most of them for the next half-century. Puerto Rico is currently America's only commonwealth territory. They have been given citizen status, but do not have voting rights in US elections.
What was Progressivism?
A mostly well-educated, young, urban middle class political position that sought for justice for the average American, especially in a time of corruption by the wealthy, and the poor living conditions of the labor class.
They sought for changes in election practices, particularly a secret ballot system, limiting working hours, raising minimum wages, providing safety measures for labor jobs, improved housing, and the prohibition of alcohol.
What is the origin of the Teddy Bear?
TR famously refused to kill a bear cub while on a hunting trip. This was used by his political rivals to mock him as sentimental and weak. A toymaker renamed his stuffed bear toys based on this association and they became very popular, the name far outliving the cartoons and political statements that tried to ruin Roosevelt's reputation.
How did the United States gain the rights to build the Panama Canal?
Panama revolutionaries, hoping to separate from the Colombian government and gain the rewards of being a lucrative crossroads for world commerce and trade, approached Theodore Roosevelt in aiding their revolution. Roosevelt refused, but also indicated they would not prevent this action. A US warship was stationed just off the Panama coast when revolutionaries overthrew the government, whose first official action was to sign a treaty with the United States to build the canal and lease the land for the next 99 years. Control was given back to Panama in the year 2000, on condition that the canal remain a neutral passage for world trade.
Why were the wealthy owners of 19th Century American corporations sometimes called "Robber Barons"?
The American ideal is that "all men are created equal", that America is a democratic nation that intentionally set itself apart from the social hierarchies of European nobility that revolutionary Americans saw as corrupt and unjust.
These business owners not only owned the majority of jobs, resources, and wealth, but also had major influence in the politics of the time, paying powerful lobbyists to ensure their continued power and influence in America.
Some Americans thought that this seemed awfully similar to the type of power and wealth the nobility of Europe had acquired and used the name "Robber Barons" to point out not only their corruption and unchecked power, but also the way they were the very opposite the American ideal as a land of opportunity.
What were the Chinese Exclusion Acts?
Since Chinese immigrants were often men sending money back to their families in China, they could work for lower wages, threatening low-income white workers. Racist ideas were spread about Chinese settlements being centers of sin and debauchery and soon citizens were pushing for a limitation on immigration.
President Hayes enacted the Acts, which placed a ten year ban on immigration, then further placed a limit on the number of Chinese allowed, and those who were allowed had to carry special identifications.
Chinese merchants tried to used a boycott to end the Acts, but President Theodore Roosevelt pressured the Chinese government into ending it.
The Acts were the first broad restrictions placed on a specific immigrant population and weren't repealed until 1942, to strengthen Chinese ties during WW2.
What was muckraking?
Authors and writers who investigated the scandals and corruption of American business and sought to expose it to the public.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is one of the most famous and influential pieces. The novel exposed the meat industry, both for its poor treatment of workers, and for its unsanitary production methods. The book was massively successful and helped to create new federal standards for sanitation in food industry.
Which Federal service did he help develop and contribute to in an impactful way?
Though the National Parks Service had not been organized yet, TR set the precedent that the Federal government would take responsibility for conserving America's natural resources and lands. His presidency protected over 230 million acres of land and set up many national forests, parks, and monuments.
Name five inventors and the inventions that they introduced to American life.
Thomas Edison - Light bulb, Motion Camera
Alexander Graham Bell - Telephone
Henry Ford - Mass Production of Automobiles
Wright Brothers - Airplane
Guglielmo Marconi - Radio
Name five major leaders of business from the Gilded Age and what their wealth was made from.
Cornelius Vanderbilt - Railroads
John D. Rockefeller - Oil
Andrew Carnegie - Steel
J. P. Morgan - Banking
Sears and Roebuck - Mail Order Catalogs
Describe the "splendid little war". Where it took place, how it started, who fought in it, and how it ended.
Cuba was Spain's last foothold in the "new world" of its previously expansive empire. Because of the increasingly lucrative sugar business, America became interested in owning it for itself. In 1890 President Mckinley issued a tariff that caused sugar sales to plummet. Poverty and unrest increased on the island, resulting in a Cuban revolt against the Spanish, in which they asked for American aid. When the USS Maine exploded in the Havana harbor, despite no evidence of Spanish involvement, Mckinley decided to go to war, beginning what is called the Spanish-American War. In 1898 the US launched a short invasion that resulted in the Spanish fleeing Cuba and also being forced to give up several other island nations as well.
What third political party gave Republicans and Democrats a run for their money and what were four of its desired reforms?
The Populist Party
Unlimited coinage of silver.
Restrictions on immigration.
Government ownership of railroads and telegraphs.
Direct election of Senators.
Higher taxes for the rich.
Shorter working hours for industrial laborers.
What did TR believe was America's "big stick" that his presidency dedicated major resources to develop and expand?
The Navy
Influenced by TR's own private historical interests, his time and the Naval Secretary, the opening of the Panama Canal, and the new abundance of steel made a modern fleet system possible. This culminated in the sailing of the Great White Fleet of 16 battleship all the way around the world as a grand declaration of America's newfound naval might to challenge and compete with any other world power.