Changes and Challenges
What group of foreigners were immigrating to America's western coast?
Chinese
After a successful steamship line on the Great Lakes and gaining control over NY water shipping, this man set his eyes on his most profitable venture yet, railroad.
(his network went from the northeast to Chicago)
Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt
When you own stock in a corporation, you are known as a
shareholder
What group of labors were able to get laws passed in order to protect them from being over worked or placed in very dangerous work conditions?
Children
The first labor unions formed in America were created by
Craft/skilled workers
The Chinese Exclusion Act was in effect for how many years that barred new Chinese immigrants from entering the US?
30 years (1882-1912)
Which "robber baron" was known for his extreme generosity and gave away 90% of his fortune to charities by the time he died in 1919, worth $350M ($6.6B in 2025)?
Andrew Carnegie
No states allowed corporations to buy stock in another business, to get around this, _______ were formed.
Trusts (Standard Oil set the example on how to buy out competing companies with trusts).
What were two ways that employers actively discouraged their workers from joining unions?
1) Sign contracts to not join.
2) Fired workers who tried to unionize
3) Hired detectives to investigate organizers to get them black listed
During the Haymarket Riot in 1886, how did strikers and anarchists respond after the Chicago police killed 4 strikers?
They started a riot after they through a bomb at the police
The 2 major political issues during this time (besides monopolies) were what?
Corruption and civil service reform (getting rid of the spoils system)
Name 3 new products created by Standard Oil.
Gasoline, petroleum jelly (Vaseline), paraffin wax, machine lubricants, and asphalt
This economic system allows for innovation, brought a higher standard of living, and lifted the most amount of people out of poverty.
Capitalism (free markets)
Anarchist and communists basically want the same end result, so what is the difference between anarchism different than Marxism?
Anarchist want it now, abolition of government and capitalism. while Communists want a stepping stone from capitalism to communism.
During the Pullman Strike of 1894, who did the workers appeal to for help after strikers removed worker's credit from the company store?
Eugene Debs (a socialist)
What president was assassinated 4 months into his term, but was known as a very honorable man and was working hard to dismantling government corruption and reforming civil service.
James Garfield
During this time Americans gained more leisure time and with it the created of 3 new sports. What were they?
Baseball, basketball, and football
America's first billionaire (achieved in 1916).
John D. Rockefeller
Which strike involved the Carnegie Steel CEO who hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency for security of property and to protect scab workers?
Homestead Strike (1892)
President Cleveland deployed troops to stop the Pullman Strike. How did he justify this?
The strike stopped the movement of mail, so he used troops to get the mail moving again.
Which Congress became known as the "Billion-Dollar Congress" because the federal government's budget went over $1 billion?
Congress term (1889-91)
51st Congress
J.P. Morgan formed America's first billion dollar corporation. What is it called?
United States Steel Corporation
What were the railroads companies doing that led to Congress writing the Interstate Commerce Act that regulated its industry and created the first regulatory agency?
Rates set on the presence or absence of competitors.
EX: Route 1 w/ no competition is 20 mi: cost $.50/mi; while Route 2 w/ competition is 200 mi: cost $.15/mi
In Marxism, what is dialectical materialism?
Entirety of human history can be summed up as a class struggle between the proletariat (workers), and the bourgeoise (owners)
According to Marx, how would a society achieve communism?
Proletariat launch a violent revolution and sets up a Dictatorship of the Proletariat (socialism), eventually through reeducation and wealth redistribution, the gov will disband itself and people will freely give to one another (communism)