U.S. History
O’Conner
SSUSH Standard 11
Directions: Use the Teacher Notes for Standard 11 to answer the following questions:
A) Explain the impact of the railroads on other industries such as steel, and on the
organization of big business
1) Why were railroads the biggest customers of the steel industry?
______________________________________________________________________________
2) What did the steel industry do to meet the demand of its biggest customer?
3) What was the result of this?
4) Consider the example of the Pullman Sleeping Car. How did railroads impact other
industries?
a) The car needed glass for ______________________________________________________
b) It needed cloth for___________________________________________________________
c) It needed wood for ___________________________________________________________
d) It needed bedding for__________________________________________________________
5) What were three innovations that increased train safety?
a)___________________________________________________________________________
b)___________________________________________________________________________
c)___________________________________________________________________________
6) Name 4 ways in which railroads changed the way businesses were organized
a) Huge amounts of _________________ were needed to create and maintain a nation-wide
business. This was created by both public ___________________ and private ______________.
U.S. History
O’Conner
b) Large professionally trained _____________________________ were needed to keep up
with passengers, cargo, and equipment.
c) New means of ___________________________ were created to make the railroads more
cost-effective and profitable.
d) Internal organization led to the ________________________________ of many railroads.
B) Describe the impact of railroads in the development of the West:
7) What 2 things made construction of a transcontinental railroad possible?
a) _________________________________________________________________________
b) _________________________________________________________________________
8) What two forms did public investment take?
a) _________________________________________________________________________
b) _________________________________________________________________________
9) Laborers from which two countries constructed the rail route from east to west?
a) _________________________________________________________________________
b) _________________________________________________________________________
10) Laborers from which country were eventually hired to construct the line from California to
the east?
____________________________________________________________________
11) Which laborers earned more money?
__________________________________________________________________________
12) The right-of-ways given to the railroads were how wide? ____________________________
13) What did the railroad companies do with this land?_________________________________
14) Railroads earned money by transporting settlers______________ and goods ____________
U.S. History
O’Conner
C) Identify John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company and the rise of trusts and
monopolies.
15) What advantages exist when a business owner consolidates (combines) formerly competing
corporations into a single entity? In other words, which 3 things can the owner of a large
corporation control?
a) ______________________ b)__________________________ c) _____________________
16) Several individuals from this era are known for the monopolies they created. What
industries did the following people dominate:
a) Andrew Carnegie ____________________________________________________
b) Cornelius Vanderbilt __________________________________________________
c) J.P. Morgan __________________________________________________________
17) Rockefeller started out as a clerk and a book-keeper in what city? _____________________
18) What business did Rockefeller start in the 1860’s? __________________________________
19) In 1863 what product did Rockefeller begin selling? _________________________________
20) What state was his business in?_________________________________________________
21) When an owner controls all elements of production from the raw materials to the sale of
the finished product, this is known as _____________________________________________.
22) A facility that changes oil into gasoline and other petroleum products is known as a
____________________________________________________________________________.
23) By 1879 Standard Oil controlled ___________________ percent of the oil refining capacity
in the United States?
D) Describe the inventions of Thomas Edison
24) What were 3 of Edison’s most famous inventions?
a) ____________________________________
U.S. History
O’Conner
b) ____________________________________
c) _____________________________________
25) Edison also invented a system for transmitting _____________________________________
26) What was the source of power for factories before electricity? ________________________
27) Edison’s inventions eliminated much of the ____________________ __________________
that had been associated with everyday activities.