Unit 6 Notes 1

1. “He is no doubt the greatest inventor of all time. Why, without his creative genius, we would have no recording of sounds, no televisions, no movies… Even more than that, we’d still be reading books by candle light and saying our good nights by 8 pm”

 Who is the above quote talking about? A. Andrew Carnegie B. Thaddeus Stevens C. Thomas Edison D. John D. Rockefeller

2. Railroad workers laid some 150,000 miles of railroad track following the Civil War. The track linked cities and small towns across America. What was one effect of the growth of railroads in the United States?

A. Greater use of the Oregon Trail B. Reduced employment in industry C. Increased migration west of the

Mississippi River D. A decrease in the amount of farm

goods sent to market

Railroads were the beginning of the Industrialization of America!

Pacific Railway Act: Allowed Central Pacific and Union Pacific to create a transcontinental railroad

Created in 1862 by Congress Track ran from Missouri River to Pacific

Ocean Railroads Connect Coasts To build railroads, companies hired

Chinese immigrants.

Chinese Immigration: About 15,000 Chinese immigrants

worked for the railroad companies Once the railroad was completed there

were no jobs for the Chinese and they could not become American Citizens

The Chinese Exclusion Act stopped Chinese immigration from 1882 until 1943.

Two men, Jay Gould and Cornelius Vanderbilt, bought smaller railroad companies and became very wealthy business men!

With new easy travel 3 main things happened:

People moved out west (manifest destiny)

Cattle and farm products were sold around country

Interstate Commerce Act was passed to control shipping rates!

Robber Barons: A group of wealthy business men that owned corporations and sought to eliminate their competitors.

Robber Barons usually ran a business known as a Corporation.

They would eliminate competition, buy other companies, and eventually created trusts!

Big_Business__Rockefeller__Carnegie

ROBBER BARON COMPANY

Andrew Carnegie Carnegie Steel Company

Controlled all of the steel industry

Steel was increasingly important because of the growth of railroads

John D. Rockefeller

Standard Oil Company

Eventually created a monopoly because he

owned virtually all oil production

The United States government did not like monopolies so they passed the Sherman Anti-trust Act in order to limit the growth of monopolies.