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Warm-up How might expansion into the West help to define or redefine the national identity? How do interactions with native Americans shape national identity?
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The Gilded Age Rise of industry/ Economics Ch.3
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Industrialization Abundance of natural resources Large workforce – LARGE FAMILIES – IMMIGRANTS GNP – Gross National Product – the total value of all goods and services that a country produces during a year Increasing GNP
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Free Enterprise System In many respects the United States practiced Laissez-Faire– “Let Do” Economics Rise of the entrepreneurs – people who risk their capital in organizing and running a business Reliance on supply and demand rather the Government intervention and regulation How might laissez-faire policies during a peak impact the American economy? Why? How might laissez-faire policies during a recession impact the American economy? Why?
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Railroads Railroad industry booms by 1862 with Pacific Railway Act and spurs economic growth – creation of the Transcontinental Railroad Integrated railway systems – more efficient and cheaper method Land grants – federal govt. gave land to many railroad companies, they in turn sold it to others; helps close the frontier
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Robber Barons Wealthy railroad entrepreneurs with a reputation of swindling investors, bribing government officials, and cheating on their contracts and debts. – Jay Gould – most well known of the robber barons, practiced “insider trading” and manipulated stock prices
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Robber Barons The Credit Mobilier Scandal – railroad construction company, secretly set up by the Union Pacific Railroad, tried to get Congress to give the railroad more grants. The Great Northern Railroad – became the most successful transcontinental railroads and one of the few railroads that didn’t go bankrupt
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Big Business By 1900 Big business dominated the economy, operating vast complexes of factories, warehouse, offices and distribution facilities. Andrew Carnegie – Steel industry – Invented a new process for making high quality steel efficiently and cheaply John D Rockefeller – Standard Oil Company
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Vertical integration- owns all of the different business it depends on for its operation Horizontal integration- combining many firms engaged in same type of business Monopoly – total control of a type of industry by one person or one company Trusts – a combination of firms or corporations formed by a legal agreement, especially to reduce competition Holding companies – doesn’t produce anything but instead holds stock in companies that do Most successful was J.P. Morgan and his United States Steel Company
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Unions Working conditions: – Monotonous, unhealthy, dangerous – deflation – Uneven distribution of income Leads to Formation of Trade Unions and Industrial Unions
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Union opposition Industry opposes unions – Blacklist – Lockout – Strikebreakers Does this happen today? Marxism: argues class struggle would lead to revolution where government would seize all property and equally distribute it.
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Worker’s Rights Great railroad strike of 1877 Knights of Labor The Haymarket Riot The Pullman Strike AFL (American Federation of labor) Samuel Gompers
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The Great Railroad strike of 1877
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Haymarket riot Chicago, 1886. Protest led to bomb explosion- 11 dead
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Pros and Cons of Big Business? ProsCons
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Innovation Alexander Graham Bell – Telephone Thomas Edison – Phonograph – Light bulb – Electric generator Orville and Wilbur Wright What Opportunities arise from changes in technologies? What Problems Arise from changes in technology?
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