1. To cover with or as if with a thin gold layer. 2. To give an often deceptively attractive or...
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UNIT 9: THE GILDED AGE
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Transcript of 1. To cover with or as if with a thin gold layer. 2. To give an often deceptively attractive or...
UNIT 9: THE GILDED AGE
Gilded:1. To cover with or as if with a thin
gold layer.2. To give an often deceptively
attractive or approved appearance to.
Term originally coined By Mark Twain.
The New Industrial Age:
3 ingredients that turned the nation into the world’s leading economy:
Ingredient #1: Abundant and Available resources:
a) Coal fields of the Appalachians (PA, WV, KY)
b) Iron ore in The Great Lakes regionc) Petroleum (PA, TX, WY, OK, etc.)
Huge Labor Pool:
Ingredient #2: Huge labor pool (Two Sources):
A) Immigration:a. 1840-90, most from
northern Europe (GB,
Germany, Scand.)b. 1890-1920, most
from southern eastern Europe (Italy, Poland, Russia). Called “New
immigrants.
Huge Labor Pool, cont.:
Please note: Asians were not a part of these two huge waves of immigration.
Why?1. Chinese Exclusion Act (1882):
Congress made it illegal for Chinese to enter US.
2. Gentlemen’s Agreement (1907): Japan agrees not to issue passports to their citizens and US agrees to accept immigrants already here.
Huge Labor Pool, cont.:
B)Migration from the deep south (poor southern whites and former slaves left the rural south and went to large cities in the north).
Many found work as unskilled laborers in mines, factories, and mills.
Ingredient #3:
Strong Business Leadership: Most talented young men went
into business, not politics or professional careers (doctor, lawyer, etc.).
Many built large corporations that controlled entire industries.
Some became very wealthy at the same time the avg. worker struggled to survive.
A Few of the “Robber Barons”:
John D. Rockefeller: Standard Oil
Rockefeller's Standard Oil Video - The Men Who Built America - History.com
Andrew Carnegie: SteelAndrew Carnegie clip
J.P. Morgan: FinanceThe Rise of J. P. Morgan Video - The Men Who Built America - History.com
Cornelius Vanderbilt: Railroads and Shipping
The Rise of Cornelius Vanderbilt Video - The Men Who Built America - History.com
John Jacob Astor & James B. Duke: Tobacco
Philip Armour & Gustavus Swift: Meatpacking
Charles Pillsbury: Milling
How They Lived:
Justifying their wealth
Social Darwinism Belief that, as in the animal
kingdom, in the world of business, only the strong survive.
The rich justified their wealth by arguing that it was the “natural order” of life…
Any effort by gov’t to regulate business was argued to go against nature
How Did They Become So Wealthy?
Vertical and Horizontal Integration
1. Horizontal: Buying out all your competitors
2.Vertical: Control of an industry from top to bottom (raw materials to finished product).ex. Carnegie: owned mining companies (iron and coal) owned rail lines and freight ships owned steel mills (finished products).
The Labor Movement
The effects of Industrialization:● Workers became machine
operators, skilled at one aspect of production, not craftsmen who knew every step (job satisfaction lost).
● Factories took away personal freedom
● $ gap grew between workers and employers
● Economic conditions forced more children to work
Stop Whining About Homework!
Workers joined unions
Unions established in many industries
for example:
- International Cigar Makers Union- American Railway Union- United Mine Workers
The Labor Movement
Labor’s Main Goals:1. Higher wages
2. Better/safer working conditions3. Fewer hours
Labor’s main tactics to achieve goals:1. Negotiation & bargaining
2. Work slowdown3. Strikes4. Violence
The Labor Movement:
Management’s Main Weapons to Break the Unions:1. “Yellow Dog” contracts2. Lockouts3. “Scab” labor4. Strikebreakers (armed thugs)5. “blacklisting”
Labor Strikes and Violence:
There had been a # of local strikes before 1870, but in 1877 there was the first nationwide strike…
The Great Strike of 1877:-wages for workers on Baltimore & Ohio RR were cut 2nd time in 2 months workers go on strike.
The Great Strike of 1877, cont.
Result:1. Work stoppage stalled nation’s RRs as strike spread to other lines.2. President Rutherford B. Hayes ordered federal troops in to run the RR. (US Constitution gives fed gov’t the right to regulate interstate commerce).-The strike was broken soon thereafter.
More Conflict
The Haymarket Riot (1886):1. Get a book…use the index at the
back2. Read first, then make a few notes
on what happened that day3. Most important: what were the
outcomes/results of the riot?
More Strikes and Violence…
1. Homestead Steel Strike (1892): Homestead, PA.
take notes on this as you did for the events at Haymarket
Homestead Strike Video - The Men Who Built America - History.com
Gov’t, Business, and Labor
Gov’t sided with big business from 1870-1890 (“laissez faire” capitalism).
Teddy Roosevelt earned national reputation as a “trust buster”... Break up monopolies
Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890): made monopolies illegal.
