SSUSH11.a Explain the impact of the railroads on other industries such as steel and on the organization of big business The modern united states was created by social changes associated with he growth of big business and advanced in technologies. After Reconstruction, railroad companies ad the steel and oil industries expanded and major inventions changed how people lived.
SSUSH11.b describe the impact of the railroads in the development of the west, including the transcontinental railroad, and the use of chinese labor Chinese laborers These Asian immigrants accepted lower pay than other laborers demanded. -The work was dangerous Many Chinese dies in the explosive blast they ignited to clear the path across the railroad companies land. -Many other died under rock slides and heavy snowfalls before the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869
SSUSH11.c Identify John D. Rockefeller and the standard oil company and the rise of trusts and monopolies - John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937), founder of the standard oil company, became one of the worlds wealthiest men and a major philanthropist. Born into modest circumstances in upstate New York, he entered the then fledgling oil business in 1863 by investing in a Cleveland, Ohio refinery, in 1870, he established standard oil, which by the early 1880s controlled some 90 percent of U.S. refineries and pipelines. Critics accused Rockefeller engaging in unethical practices, such as predatory pricing and colliding with railroads to eliminate his competitions his competitors, in order to gain a monopoly in the industry. In 1911, the u.s. supreme court found standard oil in violation of anti-trust laws and ordered it to dissolve. During his life Rockefeller donated more than five hundred million to various philanthropic causes
Element: SSUSH11.d Describe the inventions of Thomas Edison, including the electric light bulb, motion pictures, and the phonograph, and their impact on American life. -Thomas Edison invented the electronic light bulb and that had an impact on American life by giving us more time during the day and night to get more work done. Thomas Edison also invented motion pictures and that effected American life by giving us movies and videos Another thing he invented was the phonograph which now and days helps up communicated with people all the way around the world
New Immigration Ellis Island Element: SSUSH12.a Describe Ellis Island, the change in immigrants origins to southern and eastern Europe, and the impact of this change on urban America. The last quarter of the 19th century was marked by a great deal of turmoil in central and eastern Europe New Immigration -All inspired immigrants to come to the United States These groups formed the bulk of the “new immigration” coming to America Ellis Island -Ellis Island Immigrant Station located in New York Harbor was opened in 1892 -By 1924 the station had processed 12 million immigrants -By some estimates 40% of all Americans today can trace their port of entry back to Ellis Island
Element: SSUSH12.b Identify the American Federation of Labor, Samuel Gompers. The labor movement gained strength in the 1850s in such crafts as typographers, molders, and carpenters. Fixed standards of apprenticeship and of wages, hours, and working conditions were drafted. Although such agreements often broke down in periods of depression, a strong nucleus of craft unions had developed by the 1880s so that a central federation emerged. This was the American Federation of Labor. Gompers believed that labor had the most to gain by organizing skilled craft workers, rather than attempting to organize all workers in an industry. Gompers repudiated socialism and advocated a pragmatic "pure and simple" unionism that emphasized agreements with employees--which would spell out for a stipulated period the wages, hours of work, and the procedures for handling grievances.
Element: SSUSH12.c Describe the growth of the western population and its impact on Native Americans with reference to Sitting Bull and Wounded Knee. Old conflict -As eastern regions of the United States became more industrialized after the Civil War, people seeking rural livelihoods moved farther and farther west. In turn, Native Americans had to compete with these newcomers for land. For example, the Sioux signed a treaty with the U.S. government promising “no white person or persons shall be permitted to settle upon or occupy” Sioux territory in the Dakotas but, when gold was discovered there, the government tried to buy the land from the Sioux, who refused to sell it. The Sioux leader, Sitting Bull, then fought U.S. Army troops, led his people to a brief exile in Canada, and finally agreed to settle on a reservation. About 10 years later, Sitting Bull’s people became associated with a Sioux religious movement. The Native Americans believed their ceremonies would cleanse the world of evil, including the white man, and restore the Sioux’s lost greatness. Government officials ordered Sitting Bull’s arrest. He died in a brief gun battle. After Sitting Bull died, several hundred of his people fled to an area of South Dakota called Wounded Knee. U.S. soldiers went there to confiscate weapons from the Sioux. A gun was fired––nobody knows by whom––and U.S soldiers then opened machine-gun fire, killing more than 300 Sioux. This ended the Native Americans’ long conflict against Americans settling Native American lands.
Element: SSUSH12.d Describe the 1894 Pullman strike as an example of industrial unrest. Pullman Strike During poor economic times in the 1870s and 1890s, violence erupted when employers sought to fire some workers and to lower the wages of those still employed. In 1894, when the Pullman railcar factory near Chicago fired almost half its workforce and cut wages by 25% to 50%, its workers went on strike. Other railway workers refused to switch Pullman cars on or off trains. Rail traffic west of Chicago came to a halt. The Pullman company responded by hiring new workers, but these workers were attacked by strikers when they attempted to go to work. Leaders of the railroad industry convinced the government to declare the situation illegal. President Grover Cleveland sent the U.S. Army to restore peace. Both big business and the U.S. government feared labor unions were a menace to America’s capitalist economy.