History Key Terms From Chapter 15

Front 1

Edwin Drake

Back 1

the man who "discovered" oil

Front 2

Bessemer process

Back 2

A method for making steel by blasting compressed air through molten iron to burn out excess carbon and impurities.

Front 3

Thomas Edison

Back 3

the man who invented the light bulb

Front 4

Christopher Sholes

Back 4

the man who invented the type-writer

Front 5

Alexander Graham Bell

Back 5

the man who invented the telephone

Front 6

transcontinental railroad

Back 6

A train route across the United States, finished in 1869. It was the project of two railroad companies: the Union Pacific built from the east, and the Central Pacific built from the west. The two lines met in Utah. The Central Pacific laborers were predominantly Chinese, and the Union Pacific laborers predominantly Irish. Both groups often worked under harsh conditions.

Front 7

George Pullman

Back 7

American industrialist and developer of the railroad sleeping car

Front 8

Credit Mobilier

Back 8

ephemeral construction company, connected with the building of the Union Pacific RR and involved in one of the major financial scandals in American history.

Front 9

Interstate Commerce Act

Back 9

a law, enacted in 1887, that reestablished the federal government's right to supervise railroad activities and created a 5-member Interstate Commerce Commission to do so

Front 10

Granger laws

Back 10

an organization of farmers

Front 11

Andrew Carnegie

Back 11

immigrant who went from rags to riches in the steel business

Front 12

Vertical integration

Back 12

a company's taking over its suppliers and distributors and transportation systems to gain total control over the quality and cost of its product

Front 13

Horizontal integration

Back 13

the merging of companies that make similar products

Front 14

Social Darwinism

Back 14

an economic and social philosophy supposedly based on the biologist Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection holding that a system of restrained competition will ensure the survival of the fittest

Front 15

John D. Rockefeller

Back 15

established Standard Oil company and used a trust to gain total control of the oil industry in America

Front 16

Sherman Antitrust Act

Back 16

an act formed in 1890 that made it illegal to form a trust that interfered with free trade between states or with other countries, but the act didn't clearly define trust so prosecuting companies wasn't so easy

Front 17

Samuel Gompers

Back 17

led the Cigar Makers' International Union ot join with other craft unions in 1886

Front 18

AFL (American Federation of Labor)

Back 18

an alliance of trade and craft unions formed in 1886

Front 19

Eugene V. Debs

Back 19

made 1st major attempt to form an industrial union with skilled and unskilled workers in a specific industry

Front 20

IWW (Industrial Workers of the World)

Back 20

a labor organization for unskilled workers, formed by a group of radical unionists and socialists in 1905

Front 21

Mary Harris Jones

Back 21

prominent organizer in women's labor movement

Front 22

Ellis Island

Back 22

the chief immigration station of the U.S. on the east coast from 1892-1943

Front 23

Angel Island

Back 23

an island used to process mainly Asian immigrants to the U.S. from 1910 to 1940

Front 24

melting pot

Back 24

a mixture of people of different cultures and races who blended together by abandoning their native languages and customs

Front 25

nativism

Back 25

overt favoritism toward native-born Americans

Front 26

Chinese Exclusion Act

Back 26

1892 act that banned all Chinese immigration except students, teachers, merchants, tourists, and government officials/ not repealed until 1942

Front 27

Gentlemen's Agreement

Back 27

a 1907-1908 agreement by the government of Japan to limit Japanese emigration to the United States

Front 28

urbanization

Back 28

growth of cities

Front 29

tenement

Back 29

multifamily urban dwellings that were overcrowded and unsanitary

Front 30

Settlement houses

Back 30

community centers in slum neighborhoods that provided assistance to people in the area, especially immigrants

Front 31

Jane Addams

Back 31

American social reformer and pacifist who founded Hull House (1889), a care and education center for the poor of Chicago, and worked for peace and many social reforms. She shared the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize.