Unit 11 timeline.

The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed a settler to acquire as much as 160 acres of land by living on it for 5 years, improving it, and paying a nominal fee of about $30. It was being given away to encourage settlement of empty spaces and to provide a stimulus to the family farm. Much of the land given away by the Act had terrible soil and the weather included no precipitation Many homesteaders were forced to give their homesteads back to the government.

Farmers formed the Farmers' Alliance in the late 1870s. They cooperated in buying and selling to gain control over the railroads and manufacturers. The Alliance had limited power because it excluded blacks and landless tenant farmers. The Colored Farmers' National Alliance was formed in the 1880s to attract black farmers.

The New Immigrants of the 1880s came from southern and eastern Europe. They came from countries with little history of democratic government, where people had grown accustomed to harsh living conditions. Some Americans feared that the New Immigrants would not assimilate into American culture. They began asking if the nation had become a melting pot or a dumping ground.

During this time period, public education and the idea of tax-supported elementary schools and high schools gained support. Teacher-training schools, called "normal schools", experienced great expansion after the Civil War. The New Immigration in the 1880s and 1890s brought new strength to the private Catholic parochial schools, which were becoming a major part of the nation's educational structure.Public schools excluded millions of adults.

In 1887, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act. It prohibited rebates and pools, required the railroads to publish their rates openly, forbade unfair discrimination against shippers, and outlawed charging more for a short trip than for a long trip over the same line. It also created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to administer and enforce the new legislation. The new laws provided a forum where competing businesses could resolve their conflicts in peaceful ways.

Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, which forbade business activities that the government deemed as anti-competitive. It also required the government to investigate trusts. The law was ineffective because it contained legal loopholes and it made all large trusts suffer, not just the bad ones.