-
Laissez-faire capitalism
Laissez-faire is an economic system in which transactions between private parties are absent of any form of government intervention such as regulation, tariffs and subsidies. Originally conceived by Adam Smith in "The Wealth of Nations" -
Bessemer Process
an industrial process for making steel using a Bessemer converter to blast air through through molten iron and thus burning the excess carbon and impurities -
Purchase of Alaska
The United States' acquisition of Alaska from the Russian Empire. Alaska was formally transferred to the United States on October 18, 1867, through a treaty ratified by the United States Senate and signed by President Andrew Johnson. -
Second Industrial Revolution
A phase of rapid standardization and industrialization from 1870 - 1914. A number of its events can be traced to earlier innovations in manufacturing, such as the establishment of a machine tool industry, the development of methods for manufacturing interchangeable parts and the invention of the Bessemer Process to produce steel. -
Standard Oil
An oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established by John D. Rockefeller and Henry Flagler in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world at the time. It was one of the world's first and largest multinational corporations, until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil was an illegal monopoly. -
Vertical Integration
Vertical integration is a system in which the supply chain of a company is owned by that company. For example when an Oil company builds their own pipelines, drills their own oil, and refines it themselves. -
Horizontal integration
Horizontal integration is an act of joining or consolidating with ones competitors to create a monopoly. Used by Rockefeller to form Standard Oil -
Panic of 1873
A financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted until 1877. The depression had several underlying causes: American inflation, rampant speculative investments (largely railroads), the demonetization of silver, ripples from economic dislocation in Europe resulting from the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), and other factors put a massive strain on bank reserves. -
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinists argue that the strong should see their wealth and power increase while the weak should see their wealth and power decrease. Loosely Based off of Darwin's Theory of Evolution -
Chinese Exclusion Act
Prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first law implemented to prevent all members of a specific ethnic or national group from immigrating. -
Haymarket affiar
The Haymarket affair was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration in Haymarket Square, Chicago. It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day, a day after police killed one and injured several workers. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at the police as they tried disperse the meeting, and the bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians. -
Interstate Commerce Act of 1887
United States federal law designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices. The Act required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just," but give the government power to fix rates. It also required that railroads publicize shipping rates and prohibit fare discrimination. This also formed the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission). -
Dawes Act of 1887
This act authorized the President to subdivide Native American tribal landholdings into allotments for Native American heads of families, transferring traditional systems into government-imposed systems of private property. The act also opened remaining Native land for appropriation by white settlers. -
Gospel of Wealth
An article written by Andrew Carnegie that describes the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich. He proposed that the best way of dealing with the new phenomenon of wealth inequality was for the wealthy to utilize their surplus means in a responsible and thoughtful manner. -
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
The Sherman Act broadly prohibits anti-competitive agreements and unilateral conduct that monopolizes or attempts to monopolize the relevant market. The Act authorizes the Department of Justice to enforce this. -
Omaha Platform
The Omaha Platform was the party program adopted at the formative convention of the Populist (People's) Party held in Omaha, Nebraska. -
Anti-Saloon League
The leading organization lobbying for prohibition in the United States in the early 20th century. It was strongest in the South and rural North, drawing heavy support religious figures. It concentrated on legislation. In 1895, it became a national organization and quickly rose to become the most powerful prohibition lobby in America, overshadowing the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. -
Panic of 1893
A serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. It affected every sector of the economy, and produced political upheaval that led to the election of William McKinley. -
Pullman Strike
A nationwide railroad strike in the United States lasting more than a month, it became a turning point for US labor law. It pitted the American Railway Union against the Pullman Company, the main railroads, and the federal government of the United States under President Cleveland. The strike and boycott shut down much of the nation's freight and passenger traffic west of Detroit. -
Plessy v Ferguson
A landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws as long as they were "separate but equal". The decision legitimized the many state laws re-establishing racial segregation that had been passed after the end of Reconstruction.
