U.S. History 2
Mr. Mulry
Rise of Industrial America, 1877-1900
Timeline of Events
May 10, 1869
Transcontinental railroad completed
* The first transcontinental railroad was
completed when the Union Pacific and
Central Pacific met*
January 10, 1870
Standard Oil Organized
*In Ohio, John D. Rockefeller’s
Standard Oil company was
incorporated.*
1871-1880
2,812,191 Immigrants Arrived
*More than 2,812,191 immigrants arrived
in the United States, primarily from
Europe, between 1871 and 1880.*
October 8, 1871-October 10, 1871
Great Chicago Fire
*In Chicago, a disastrous fire destroys
nearly four square miles of the city, leaving
300 people dead and 100,000 homeless.
The city soon redevelops and rebuilds,
emerging as a major industrial and
economic center.*
March 1, 1872
Yellowstone National Park Act
*The Yellowstone National Park
Act set an area of the Wyoming
and Montana territories aside as
“the people’s pleasuring ground.*
September 4, 1872
Credit Mobilier Scandal
1875
Nation’s largest steel plant opened.
*Andrew Carnegie opened the nation’s largest
steel plant just outside of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.*
*News broke that members of Congress
had been involved in rail industry
corruption. The Union Pacific Railroad
company had been hired to build part of
the transcontinental railway. Instead of
hiring outside contractors to complete
the construction, however, Union Pacific
vice president Thomas Durant and
Union Pacific’s other largest
stockholders organized their own
construction company—Crédit Mobilier
—and awarded the UP building contract
to themselves. Durant and other Crédit
Mobilier executives reaped major profits
for themselves from the construction,
which was financed largely by
government subsidies, overcharging for
the cost of construction and nearly
bankrupting Union Pacific. Durant also
distributed Crédit Mobilier stock to
several members of Congress who had
been influential in railroad legislation.
Union Pacific came to be worth almost
nothing, and while Durant and other
major UP stockholders had made
themselves rich, many others were left
with worthless securities. After Durant’s
scheme came to light, eleven members
of Congress were accused of accepting
shares of Crédit Mobilier's stock and
contributing to the corruption of the rail
industry.
May 10, 1875
Whiskey Ring Scandal
*In St. Louis, a ring of distillers and federal
officials were discovered to have colluded in tax
evasion. Those indicted in the scandal included
many of President Grant’s appointees.*
March 7, 1876
Telephone Patented
*Inventor Alexander Graham Bell
patented the telephone.*
June 25, 1876
Battle of Little Bighorn
*In the war against western Sioux, General
George Custer and more than two hundred of
his men died along Montana’s Little Bighorn
River at the hands of Sioux and Cheyenne
warriors.*
1877
Nez Perce War
*Hostilities between settlers and the Nez
Perce Indians became violent in June
1877. For the next four months, the Nez
Perce were pursued by the US Army, and
the two sides clashed across Montana
and Idaho. In October, led by Chief
Joseph, the Indians surrendered. Though
promised a safe return to their Oregon
homeland, the Nez Perce were relocated
to Kansas and Oklahoma.*
March 2, 1877
Compromise of 1877
*Rutherford B. Hayes was declared winner of a
presidential election fraught with accusations and
arguments. The final outcome of the election hinged
on the disputed results in four states—Florida,
Louisiana, Oregon, and South Carolina—which
prevented either candidate from securing a majority
of electoral votes. At a meeting in February 1877,
Democratic leaders accepted Hayes’s election in
exchange for Republican promises to withdraw
federal troops from the South, provide federal
funding for internal improvements in the South, and
name a prominent southerner to the president’s
Cabinet. When the federal troops were withdrawn,
the Republican governments in Florida, Louisiana,
and South Carolina collapsed, bringing
Reconstruction to a formal end. Under the
Compromise of 1877, the national government could
no longer intervene in state affairs. This permitted
the imposition of racial segregation and the
disfranchisement of black voters.*
July 14, 1877
Great Railway Strike of 1877
Railroad workers in
Martinsburg, West Virginia,
initiated a strike to protest
working conditions and wages.
The strike spread and lasted
more than a month, sparking
violence and damaging the
economy before being put
down by federal troops.
1878
Bannock War
*Conflict broke out when the United States
failed to honor its 1868 treaty promising to
assign prairie lands to the Bannock Indians.
Pushed west by white incursion and
suffering from starvation, the Bannock and
Northern Shoshone tribes raided white
settlements for food. The Army put down the
raids, and the Bannock surrendered and
were returned to their reservation near Fort
Hall, Idaho.*
February 28, 1878
Bland-Allison Act
*In an attempt to counteract deflation, and over
President Hayes’ veto, Congress passed the
Bland-Allison Act, which authorized a limited
amount of silver dollars.*
1879
Progress and Poverty
*Henry George’s Progress and Poverty, on the
cycle of industrial economy, was published.*
1880-1889
Harsh weather affected livestock in the
West
*Drought and harsh winters during the
1880s devastated cattle herds
throughout the West.*
November 2, 1880
James Garfield elected president
*James Garfield was elected the
twentieth president of the United
States over Democrat W.S.
Hancock.*
July 2, 1881-September 19, 1881
James Garfield Assassinated
*President James Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881, by
Charles J. Guiteau. Garfield died two months later on
September 19, 1881.*
September 19, 1881
Chester Arthur Became
President
*Chester A. Arthur became
president upon James Garfield’s
death.*
May 8, 1882
Chinese Exclusion Act
*The Chinese Exclusion Act was the
nation’s first law to ban immigration by race
or nationality. The act, which was renewed
and enforced until 1943, banned Chinese
immigration for ten years and prohibited
Chinese from becoming citizens.*
August 5, 1882
Standard Oil Trust Organized
*John D. Rockefeller created Standard
Oil Trust by trading stockholders’
shares for trust certificates. The trust
was designed to allow Rockefeller and
other Standard Oil stockholders to get
around state laws prohibiting one
company from owning stock in
another.*
January 16, 1883
Pendleton Act
*The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was
passed. In an attempt to curb corruption and
patronage, the act introduced federal exams
and merit requirements for the hiring of civil
servants.*
September 8, 1883
Northern Pacific Railroad
Completed
*The completion of the
Northern Pacific railroad was
celebrated with a “golden
spike” ceremony at Gold
Creek, Montana.*
November 4, 1884
Grover Cleveland Elected President
*The presidential campaign of 1884 was one of the most memorable in American history. The Republican
nominee, James G. Blaine of Maine, was nicknamed the “plumed knight,” but disgruntled Republican reformers
regarded him as a symbol of corruption. These liberal Republicans indicated to Democratic leaders that they
would bolt their own party and support a Democrat, provided he was a decent and honorable man. Grover
Cleveland seemed to meet these qualifications. He had started his career as sheriff of Erie County where he
personally hanged two murderers to spare the sensibilities of his subordinates. He had been known as the “veto”
mayor of Buffalo for rejecting political graft, and as governor of New York, he had repudiated Tammany Hall.
Some Republicans attacked Cleveland for avoiding service during the Civil War; he had hired a substitute to
take his place. Democrats, in turn, claimed that Blaine had sold his influence in Congress to business interests.
Then a Buffalo newspaper dealt Cleveland a devastating blow by revealing that he had fathered a child out of
wedlock. Even worse, Republicans charged, Cleveland had placed the child in an orphanage and the mother in
an insane asylum. These attacks failed to ignite much public indignation against Cleveland, however, and in the
election, white southerners, Irish Americans, and German American voters turned out in record numbers. Grover
Cleveland was elected the twenty-second president of the United States, making him the first Democrat elected
to the office since Buchanan.*
May 4, 1886
Haymarket Square Riot
In Chicago’s Haymarket Square, anarchists
gathered to protest the police killing of labor
strikers. When police attempted to end the
demonstration, a bomb was thrown and
exploded in the crowd. In the ensuing clash,
police fired into the crowd and eight policemen
and several protestors were killed and many
more injured.
December 8, 1886
American Federation of Labor Founded
*The American Federation of Labor was formed by trade
unions to organize skilled workers, with Samuel
Gompers as its first president.*
1887
Alternating Current Motor Invented
*Nikola Tesla invented the alternating
current (AC) motor, making it possible to
transmit electricity over great distances.*
February 4, 1887
Interstate Commerce Act
*Under pressure from small businesses and
farmers, Congress passed the Interstate
Commerce Act creating the Interstate Commerce
Commission, the first federal regulatory
commission.*
November 6, 1888
Benjamin Harrison Elected President
*In office, Grover Cleveland had pleased
conservatives by advocating sound
money and reduction of inflation, curbing
party patronage, and vetoing
government pensions. But he alienated
business and labor interests by
proposing a lower tariff and was
defeated in the presidential race of 1888
—winning the popular vote but losing the
electoral vote to Republican Benjamin
Harrison.*
1890
How the Other Half Lives Published
*Jacob Riis’s book How the Other
Half Lives documented living
conditions among immigrants in New
York City
1890
Immigrants at 14.7% of Population
*Foreign-born immigrants made up 14.7% of
the population, up from 9.7% in 1850.*
July 2, 1890
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
*Congress passed the
Sherman Anti-Trust Act to
prohibit trusts and prevent
monopolies.*
October 1, 1890
McKinley Tariff
December 29, 1890
Wounded Knee
*US Troops slaughtered
about 200 Sioux, many of
whom were women and
children, at Wounded Knee
Creek, South Dakota.*
*After 1887, the tariff became the central issue in
American politics. Democrats, led by Grover Cleveland,
charged that the tariff raised prices, enriched the
wealthy, and fostered inefficiency. Republicans argued
that tariffs promoted infant industries, protected
established industries, raised workers’ wages and
protected them against low-wage competition, and
fostered a rich home market for farm goods. In fact, the
tariff was not especially important for manufacturers.
European manufacturers could not compete with the
American advantages of large efficient factories, vast
internal markets, ample raw materials, sophisticated
advertising, and a highly efficient distribution system.
By 1885, the United States had become the world’s
low-cost, high-volume manufacturer. In October 1890,
the McKinley Tariff was passed. Named for one of its
authors—future president William McKinley—it
increased tariff rates, making it the highest protective
tariff ever adopted. It also provided for reciprocal trade
agreements. The actual beneficiaries from a high tariff
were sugar growers and producers of wool, leather
hides, coal, timber, and iron ore. The McKinley Tariff
was unpopular with American consumers and labor and
inflicted substantial political damage on the Republican
Party in the election of 1892.*
January 17, 1891
Overthrow of Hawaii
*In Hawaii, foreign entrepreneurs, fearing Queen
Lili’uokalani’s plan to restore the kingdom to indigenous
Hawaiians, staged a revolt by declaring Hawaii a
republic and seeking annexation by the US. American
Marines invaded, Lili’uokalani surrendered, and the US
minister to Hawaii declared it a protectorate of the
United States.*
January 5, 1892
Ellis Island Opened
*Fifteen-year-old Annie Moore of Ireland
became the first immigrant to pass through
Ellis Island.*
June 30, 1892
Homestead Steel Strike
*In response to falling steel prices, Henry C. Frick, the general
manager of Andrew Carnegie’s steel plant in Homestead,
Pennsylvania, cut wages and attempted to quash the workers’
Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. The workers
protested, and Frick closed the mills and refused to negotiate with
the union, declaring that he would only deal with individual workers.
The workers tried to appeal to Carnegie, who had defended
unionization, but Carnegie made himself unavailable. The workers
voted to strike, and Frick hired a private army to disperse the
strikers. The ensuing violent conflict lasted fourteen hours and was
put down by the Pennsylvania state militia. The strike’s leaders were
blacklisted, and Carnegie’s company successfully broke unions in
Homestead and throughout Pennsylvania steel country.
November 8, 1892
Grover Cleveland Elected President Again
*Grover Cleveland was elected the twenty-fourth
president of the United States thanks in part to a
third party movement—the Populists—that
siphoned off some of the strength of the
Republican Party, and by a vigorous campaign
against the extravagance of the Republican
“Billion Dollar Congress.” But his second term
would be ruined by the economic depression of
the mid-1890s, the worst economic crisis that the
country had ever seen. Insisting on sound money,
in his second term Cleveland would seek to keep
the country on the gold standard and convince
Congress to enact an income tax (which was
declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court).
By 1896, Cleveland’s policies were repudiated by
his own party.*
January 6, 1893
Great Northern Railway Completed
*In scenic, Washington, the Great Northern
Railway, which crossed the Cascades and
reached Seattle, was completed.*
1893
Panic of 1893
The stock market crashed, prompting the
Panic of 1893 and leading to the bankrupting
of the United States Treasury. The already
weakened economy collapsed as people
withdrew deposited funds and banks failed.
Exports also declined and unemployment
grew
July 12, 1893
Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis”
*Historian Frederick Jackson Turner presented
his “frontier thesis” in an address in Chicago,
the site of the 1893 World’s Columbian
Exposition. Turner pointed to expansion as the
most important factor in American history. He
claimed that “the existence of an area of free
land, its continuous recession, and the advance
of American settlement westward explain
American development.” In 1890, however, the
Census Bureau stated that all the land within
the United States was claimed, and there was
no longer a frontier. “Now, four centuries from
the discovery of America, at the end of a
hundred years of life under the Constitution, the
frontier has gone, and with its going has closed
the first period of American history,” Turner
asserted, questioning how American culture
and history would develop and whether
Americans would retain “that coarseness and
strength combined with acuteness and
acquisitiveness that dominant individualism”
bred by expansion now that the frontier was
closed.*
May 18, 1896
Plessy v. Ferguson
*In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court
ruled a Louisiana law segregating train cars
was constitutional based on the doctrine of
“separate but equal.”*
July 11, 1894
Pullman Steel Strike
*Pullman Palace Car Company workers initiated a
boycott of Pullman train cars through the American
Railway Union. The boycott, observed by 150,000
members of the American Railway Union, stopped
rail traffic in and out of Chicago and affected rail
traffic across the country. The US Attorney General
issued an injunction against the striking workers,
and President Grover Cleveland sent federal forces
to protect trains being run by non-union
strikebreakers. Pro-union mobs destroyed trains and
buildings, leading to the jailing of union and strike
leaders and the end of the American Railway
Union.*
November 3, 1896
William McKinley Elected President
*In the presidential election of 1896,
Republican William McKinley defeated
populist Democrat William Jennings
Bryan to win the executive office.*
April 11, 1898-December 10, 1898
Spanish-American War
*The debate over America’s global role intensified
when Cubans began to fight for their independence
from Spain in 1895. Americans were sympathetic to
Cuba’s struggle for independence, but were divided
about how to help. President William McKinley was
deeply ambivalent about war against Spain.
Ultimately, however, the pressure of public opinion
forced McKinley into the war that made the United
States an international power. Newspaper
publishers like William Randolph Hearst and Joseph
Pulitzer worked up war fever among the public with
reports of Spanish atrocities against Cuban rebels.
Then, Hearst’s New York Journal published a leaked
letter in which the chief Spanish diplomat in
Washington described President McKinley as “weak”
and a “petty politician.” Hearst publicized the letter
under the screaming headline “WORST INSULT TO
THE UNITED STATES IN ITS HISTORY.” Days later
an explosion sank the USS Maine in Havana harbor.
A naval court of inquiry blamed the explosion on a
mine, further inflaming public sentiment against
Spain. After ten days of debate, Congress declared
war, but only after adopting the Teller Amendment, in
which the United States made it clear that it did not
harbor imperialist ambitions. The amendment
announced that the United States would not acquire
Cuba. But after the United States defeated Spain, it
set up a military government on Cuba and made the
soldiers’ withdrawal contingent on the Cubans
accepting the Platt Amendment, which gave the
United States the right to intervene in Cuba to
protect “life, property, and individual liberties.” The
144-day war also resulted in the United States
taking control of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and
Guam.*
July 7, 1898
Annexation of Hawaii
*A joint resolution of Congress
approved the annexation of Hawaii.*
December 10, 1898
Annexation of Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam
*In the 1898 Treaty of Paris, which ended the SpanishAmerican War, Spain ceded the Philippines, Puerto
Rico, and Guam to the United States.*
1899-1902
Philippine-American War
The Philippine-American War, fought from February 1899 to July 1902, claimed 250,000 lives and
helped establish the United States as a power in the Pacific. On June 12, 1898, a young Filipino
general, Emilio Aguinaldo, proclaimed Philippine independence and established Asia’s first republic. He
had hoped that the Philippines would become a US protectorate, but pressure on President William
McKinley to annex the Philippines was intense. On February 4, 1899, fighting erupted between
American and Filipino soldiers leaving fifty-nine Americans and approximately 3,000 Filipinos dead.
American commanders hoped for a short conflict, but in the end more than 70,000 would fight in the
archipelago. Unable to defeat the United States in conventional warfare, the Filipinos adopted guerrilla
tactics. The war was officially declared over in July 1902, but fighting continued for several years.
The Philippine War convinced the United States not to seize further overseas territory. More than 4,000
American soldiers and about 20,000 Filipino fighters died. An estimated 200,000 Filipino civilians died
during the war, mainly of disease or hunger. Reports of American atrocities led the United States to turn
internal control over to the Philippines to Filipinos in 1907 and to pledge to grant the archipelago
independence in 1916. The 1916 Jones Act, however, delayed Philippine independence until a "stable
government" was established. US leaders tried to transform the country into a showcase of Americanstyle democracy in Asia, but there was a strong undercurrent of condescension. US President William
Howard Taft, who had served as governor-general of the Philippines, called the Filipinos “our little brown
brothers.” The Philippines were finally granted independence in 1946.
March 14, 1900
Gold Standard Act
*Congress passed the Gold Standard Act,
making gold the sole monetary standard for US
currency.*
November 6, 1900
McKinley Re-Elected
With Theodore Roosevelt as his running mate, William
McKinley again beat out William Jennings Bryan to win
re-election to the presidency.
April 1, 1901
Formation of U.S. Steel
John Pierpont Morgan merged
several of Andrew Carnegie’s
companies to form US Steel.
September 6, 1901
Assassination of William McKinley
President William McKinley was shot twice by Leon Czolgosz,
the anarchist son of Polish immigrants. McKinley died eight
days later on September 14. He was succeeded by Vice
President Theodore Roosevelt.