AIM: What do we need
to study for the
midterm?
Do Now: List 3 topics we have
studied so far.
HW: Study
Transcontinental Railroad
• Opened new markets in the west and
brought products of western farms
and mines east.
Capitalism
• The economic system based on
private initiative, competition, profit,
and the private ownership of the
means of producing goods and
services.
Laissez-Faire
• Noninterference; has come to mean a
policy by which the government
minimizes its regulation of industry
and the economy.
Free Enterprise
System
• An economic system based on private
ownership, individual enterprise, and
competition.
Rise of Corporations
• After the Civil War – many
businesses became corporations to
raise capital for expansion.
Andrew Carnegie
• Industrialist and philanthropist who
built Carnegie Steel Company, later
part of US Steel
John D. Rockefeller
• Industrialist and philanthropist
• Founder of the Standard Oil Company
J.P. Morgan
• Banker
• Controlled electrical, insurance, and
shipping companies
• Morgan bought Carnegie Steel in
1901, merged it with other companies
and created the US Steel
Corporation, the worlds largest.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
• Started with steamship lines
• Began to buy up railroad lines in NY
state.
• Eventually bought up most of the
lines between Chicago and Buffalo.
Monopolies
• Company that controls all or nearly all
the business of an industry
Government’s Response
to Big Business
• Interstate Commerce Commission –
regulate railroads.
• Sherman Anti-trust Act – prohibits
monopolies in “restraint of trade”
Interstate Commerce
Act
• Regulates Railroads
• Forbade the practice of pools and
rebates.
Sherman Anti-trust
Act
• Prohibited trusts or other businesses
from limiting competition.
Labor Unions
• Knights of Labor – Terence Powderly
– open to skilled and unskilled
workers
• American Federation of Labor –
Samuel Gompers – Skilled workers in
specific trade unions.
Urbanization
• A process by which more of a nation’s
population becomes concentrated in
its cities.
Strikes, Picketing,
Boycotts
• Strikes: Union workers refuse to do
their jobs.
• Picketing:
• Boycotts: refusal t buy or use a
product or service
Child Labor Laws
• Knights of Labor called for end to
child labor.
Immigration
• Old: up to 1850, came from northern and
western Europe, especially Ireland,
Germany, and Scandinavia. Some settled in
the cities, but most went out west to start
farms.
• New: 1850-924, came from southern and
eastern Europe, especially Italy, Poland,
and Russia. Did not assimilate well.
Settled in cities – ghettos.
Ellis Island
• Receiving station – immigrants would
be given a medical inspection
Ethnic Ghettos
• Urban areas that are dominated by a
single ethnic group.
Homestead Act
• Provided for the settlement of
western lands – gave 160 acres had to
work the land for 5 years (build a
well and put up a fence)
Causes and Results of
Great Depression
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Stock market crash
Overproduction
Unequal distribution of wealth
Buying on Margin/Installment buying
New Deal – relief, recovery, reform
End - WWII
Populist Party
• Farmers formed this party – goals
were: graduated income tax, direct
election of United States senators,
and government ownership of
railroads, telegraphs, and telephones.
Progressive Party
• Progressives supported the use of
government power to bring about
reform.
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Secret ballot
Initiative
Referendum
Recall
Direct primary