THE GILDED AGE OF AMERICAN HISTORY chapter 8 sections 1 & 2.

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