THE GILDED AGE OF AMERICAN HISTORY
chapter 8
sections 1 & 2
When is the GILDED AGE?
• End of the Civil War until end of century– 1865-1900 GILDED AGE– 1900-1917 Progressive Era– 1917-1918* WWI– 1920s Roaring ’20s– 1930s Great Depression– 1941-1945* WWII– 1945-1989 Cold War
What is the GILDED AGE?
• Time of growth in America– 2nd Industrial Revolution– Cumulative wealth increases
• Visible only on the surface
• Beneath the surface– Unstable economic infrastructure– Immigration issues
• Poverty & crime
– Corruption
GILDED Economics
• Unhindered capitalism– Social Darwinism– Laissez-faire
• Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations• Free marketplace
• Government involvement– Subsidies for key industries– Corruption
• Credit Mobilier scandal
Credit Mobilier Scandal
• Government loans given to Union Pacific for TCRR– Union Pac hires out Credit Mobilier company
• CM overcharges Union Pac, then bribes key congressmen tokeep funds coming– Not investigated
until 1872
GILDED Politics
• Ending the Spoils system– Rutherford B. Hayes bucks the trend– James A. Garfield gets shot– Pendleton Civil Service Act
• Other reform– RR’s were overcharging farmers– Interstate
CommerceCommission• Standardized shipping rates
Economic Depression, 1893
• Part of business cycle• Laissez-faire policies
IMMIGRANT
S!
chapter 8, section 2
Where did America’s workers come from during this time of unusual industrial growth?
• New farm technology decreased the need for farm labor
• Former farmers moving to the cities to escape the poor working conditions in rural America, and…
• IMMIGRANTS!
Why did they come?
• PUSH– Crop failures– Land shortages– Unemployment– Rising taxes– Political persecution– Religious persecution
• 1890s pogroms against Russian Jews
• PULL– Free land
• Homestead Act
– Availability of FACTORY JOBS– Personal freedoms– Educational opps– Not forced to serve long years in Army– Participation in democratic gov’t
• American farmers and immigrants contributed to a huge rise in urban population• URBANIZATION!
Who was coming to America?
• 1865-1890• 1st Wave
– 10 million from central & NW Europe• 3 million from
Germany• 3 million from
British Isles
– Looked white,mostly Protestant,blended well
Who was coming to America?• 1890-1920• 2nd Wave
– 10 million from southern & eastern Europe• 4 million Italians• 3 million Jews (mostly Russia)• Greeks, Slavs, Armenians
– Darker skin,different religions,did not blend in as well
Their Journey
• 1-3 weeks across Atlantic– Steerage
• 70% came thru New York City• Physical exams upon entrance• Find families
– Ghettos• Westward migration
Non-Europeans
• Chinese– Mid-1800s recruitment
to railroads– Separate communities– Treated with suspicion– Chinese Exclusion Act
• 1882, 1892, 1902,permanent until 1943
• Immigration laws discriminated most against incoming Asians
Non-Europeans
• Japanese– Later than Chinese– 1894 treaty
granting free entry– 200,000 by 1920
• Immigration laws discriminated most against incoming Asians
Non-Europeans
• Mexican– Early 20th century– New irrigation in SW,
labor needed– 1910 Mexican Revolution– Immigration Restriction Act of 1921
• Did not apply to North Americans