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Horizontal Integration
Horizontal Integration, first utilized by John D. Rockefelller, is an act of joining or consolidating with one's competitors to create a monopoly. -
Vertical Integration
Vertical Integration, first utilized by Andrew Carnegie, is when a company combines all parts of manufacturing products/services into one company. This makes supplies more reliable and improved efficiency. It controlled the quality of the product at all stages of production. -
Laissez-Faire Capitalism
In the Gilded Age, Laissez-faire combined Social Darwinism with free-market capitalism Applying Darwin’s theory of evolution to human institutions, people believed that competition was necessary for progress. Any measures that interfered with complete freedom—defined as the freedom to buy and sell your labor and property any way you chose—went against natural selection and impeded the march of civilization. -
Grange Movement
The Nation Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry was a group of agrarian organizations that worked to increase the political and economic power of farmers. They opposed corrupt business practices and monopolies, and supported relief for debtors. Although technically not a political party, local granges led to the creation of a number of political parties, which eventually joined with the growing labor movement to form the Progressive Party. -
Purchase of Alaska
Secretary of State William Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia for the United States in 1867. For $7.2 million the deal added 586,412 square miles to the United States—one-fifth of the present United States. The purchase was originally known as “Seward’s Follly” but the land proved to contain natural resources in vast amounts. -
Standard Oil
In Ohio, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil company was incorporated in 1870. By 1880, the company had grown into an empire, controlling about 90 percent of oil refining in the United States. This was done through horizontal integration. -
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 was prompted by international economic problems and led to a major national depression. Congress passed the Resumption Act of 1875, which created compensatory deflationary pressure that contributed to a general decline prices. -
Pendleton Act
Passed in 1881, an Act that created a federal civil service so that hiring and promotion would be based on merit rather than patronage -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act banned Chinese immigration for ten years and prohibited the Chinese from becoming citizens. The Act contributed to anti-Chinese violence. -
Harmarket Bombing
The Haymarket Riot started as a rally in support of striking workers. An unknown person threw a bomb at the police. The bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of eight police officers and an unknown number of civilians. In the internationally publicized legal proceedings that followed, eight anarchists were tried for murder. -
American Federation of Labor (AFL) Founded
The AFL was founded to protect skilled workers. It was concerned with practical matters of labor like hours, pay, and working conditions rather than political or social issues. The AFL eventually grew to be the largest labor union of its time. -
Dawes Act of 1887
The Dawes Act, also known as the General Allotment Act, allowed Indian reservation land to be broken up into small allotments for sale to individuals. The purpose of the act was to encourage American Indians to become farmers, but the plots were too small to support families or to raise livestock. -
Hull House
The Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago offering services to the poor, the working class, and immigrants. By 1887, there were 74 settlements in the United States, and the number had ballooned to more than 400 by 1890. -
Ocala Platform
The Populist Party (or People’s Party of America) held its first convention in Omaha, Nebraska, and ratified the Omaha Platform documenting the tenets of the party. Later on, they developed their political party based off the Ocala Platform. -
Sherman Antitrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act requires the Federal government to investigate and pursue trusts, companies, and organizations suspected of violating the Act. It was the first Federal statute to limit cartels and monopolies, and today still forms the basis for most antitrust litigation by the United States federal government. It was not used much for its main purpose until the Roosevelt Presidency -
Wounded Knee
US troops slaughtered approximately 200 Sioux, many of them women and children, at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota where they had gathered as part of the Ghost Dance movement. In 1973 Members of the American Indian Movement staged an armed occupation of Wounded Knee. They declared an independent Sioux nation and held the area for seventy-one days, surrendering after an AIM member was shot and killed by federal authorities. -
Ellis Island Opens
Ellis Island is an immigration station for immigrants located in the New York Harbor 1892-1954, Many European immigrants passed through Ellis Island, while many Asian immigrants passed through Angel Island., Opened in 1892 as an immigration center. New arrivals had to pass rigorous medical and document examinations and pay entry before being allowed into the U.S. -
"Cross of Gold" Speech
The "Cross of Gold" speech was an impassioned address by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic Convention, in which he attacked the "gold bugs" who insisted that U.S. currency be backed only with gold. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Homer Plessy was arrested for violating the Separate Car Act in 1890. He appealed his conviction all the way to the US Supreme Court, which ruled that, as long as the accommodations were equal, states could legally enforce segregation. This decision stood until a unanimous Supreme Court verdict overturned it in 1954 in the Brown v. Board ruling. -
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall was a political machine that played a key role in controlling New York City politics and helping immigrants (most notably the Irish) rise up in American politics.
