Industrialization and Inventions
What transportation system connected factories, resources, and markets across the country?
Railroads
Which industrialist built his fortune through Standard Oil?
John D. Rockefeller
What is a strike?
When workers stop working to pressure an employer to meet their demands.
What immigration station in New York Harbor processed millions of immigrants?
Ellis Island
What were the crowded apartment buildings where many urban immigrants lived called?
Tenements
What fuel made from refined oil was widely used in American households during the Gilded Age?
Kerosene
What economic system allows individuals to own businesses and operate them for profit?
Capitalism
Why did workers form labor unions?
To work together for better wages, shorter hours, and safer working conditions.
From which two regions of Europe did many “new wave” immigrants come?
Southern and Eastern Europe
What settlement house did Jane Addams help establish in Chicago?
Hull House
What legal protection prevents others from copying an inventor’s invention without permission?
A patent
What is a monopoly?
A business that controls all or nearly all of a particular market.
What federal law was passed in 1890 to limit monopolies and business practices that restricted competition?
The Sherman Antitrust Act
A family leaves because of religious persecution and moves to the United States for jobs. Identify the push factor and the pull factor.
Push factor: religious persecution. Pull factor: job opportunities.
Why did many immigrants settle in industrial cities? Give two reasons.
Jobs were available, and established immigrant communities offered support, familiar languages, and cultural connections.
Identify three factors that helped the United States industrialize during the Gilded Age.
Any three: abundant natural resources, a large workforce, inventions/new technology, investment capital, or expanding railroads.
A steel company buys iron mines and railroads. An oil company buys competing oil companies. Identify the business strategy used by each.
Steel company: vertical integration. Oil company: horizontal integration.
During the Homestead and Pullman Strikes, did government intervention generally help workers or business owners? Explain.
Business owners. Government forces helped restore order and protect business operations, weakening the strikes.
What did the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Gentlemen’s Agreement have in common?
Both restricted immigration from Asian countries: China and Japan, respectively.
How did political machines gain support from immigrants and other city residents?
They provided jobs, food, assistance, and other services in exchange for votes and political loyalty.
Explain one economic benefit and one environmental cost of industrialization.
Economic benefit: more jobs, greater production, cheaper goods, or expanded trade. Environmental cost: air pollution, water pollution, or depletion of natural resources.
Explain how vertical and horizontal integration could help a company increase its profits or power.
Vertical integration gives a company control over stages of production and can lower costs. Horizontal integration reduces competition and increases the company’s share of the market.
Explain how the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire increased support for workplace reforms.
The deaths exposed unsafe factory conditions and inadequate exits and fire protection. Public outrage increased support for safety inspections and stronger workplace safety laws.
Identify three requirements generally associated with becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen today.
Any three: required period of lawful permanent residence, good moral character, English requirements, civics requirements, or taking the Oath of Allegiance.
Explain why a city resident might support a political machine even though it was corrupt.
The machine provided practical help the resident needed, such as employment or food. Residents might value that assistance despite the machine’s misuse of political power and public money.