APUSH Period 6: The Gilded Age (1865-1898)

PERIOD 6 DATES TO KNOW

APUSH PERIOD 6 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

1. How did industrial capitalism affect US business and politics?
2. What were the motives and consequences of 19th century migrations?
3. In what ways were social norms challenged during the Gilded Age?

Past Essay Questions from Period 6

PERIOD 6 KEY CONCEPTS - COURSE OUTLINE

6.1. Rise of Industrial Capitalism

1. Industrialization led to massive economic development.
   1. New transportation and communication systems opened new markets.
   2. Technological innovations dramatically increased the production of goods.
   3. Wages increased and prices decreased, which improved standards of living.
   4. Businesses increased profits by consolidating power, which concentrated wealth.
   5. The US expanded markets by gaining influence and control in Asia and Latin America.
   6. The South saw New South reforms lead to some industrialization in what was previously farmland
2. Financial downturns sparked new perspectives on the economy.
   1. Some opposed government intervention in support of laissez-faire policies.
   2. The work force expanded because of migrations.
   3. Laborers formed unions and battled management on wages and conditions.
   1. ✊ Study Guide - Labor in the Gilded Age
   4. The South continued to rely on agricultural industries.
3. Farmers responded to new systems of production and transportation.
   1. Industrialization increased production and substantially decreased food prices.
   2. Farmers created local and regional cooperatives.
   3. Populism gained momentum to fight economic instability.

6.2. Migrations

1. Urban populations increased because of international and internal migrations.
   1. Cities attracted immigrants from Asia, south and eastern Europe, and African Americans from the south as they escaped oppression and sought opportunities.
   1. ⛴ Study Guide - Migration and Immigration and Responses to Immigration
   2. Ethnic neighborhoods formed in cities.
   3. Immigrants had to assimilate to American culture, while preserving traditions.
   4. Political machines powered cities by providing the poor with social services.
   5. The middle class continued to grow as access to education increased, which expanded consumer culture.
   1. 💰 Study Guide - The Growth of the Middle Class
2. Many people moved west in search of land and opportunity, provoking conflict.
   1. Study Guides - Economic Impacts and Societal Impacts of Western Migration
   2. The transcontinental railroads created new communities and centers of activity.
   3. Motivated by ideals of self-sufficiency, migrants moved west building railroads, mining, farming, and ranching.
   4. Increased migrations decimated the bison population, which increased competition for land and resources between white settlers, Natives, and Mexican-Americans.
   5. In response to migrations, the US government violated treaties with Native Americans and then resorted to military force, confining Natives to reservations.
   6. American Indians attempted to preserve tradition, despite oppression.

6.3. The Gilded Age

1. Social norms were challenged by new intellectual movements.
   1. Theories of social darwinism were used to justify racial hierarchies.
   2. Some business leaders advocated philanthropy through the Gospel of Wealth.
   3. Alternative economic theories spread including utopian, socialist, and communist.
2. Social changes inspired debates over the relationship between business and government.
   1. Political parties sparred over tariffs and currency issues as reformers argued that greed had corrupted government.
   1. Study Guide - Gilded Age Politics
   2. Women fought for more equality with men through social and political reforms.
   1. Study Guide - Gilded Age Reform
   3. Racial segregation was upheld in the courts through Plessy v. Ferguson. Increased violence against black communities sparked debates about race and reform.

LIST OF CONCEPTS & VOCABULARY FROM PERIOD 6

• Alexander Graham Bell
• American Federation of Labor
• Andrew Carnegie
• assimilationists
• Bessemer Process
• Booker T. Washington
• boomtown
• Chief Joseph
• Chinese Exclusion Act
• Civil Rights Cases of 1883
• civil service reform
• Commerce Act
• conservationists
• Cornelius Vanderbilt
• Dawes Act
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Ellis Island
• ethnic enclaves
• Eugene Debs
• Frank Lloyd Wright
• Frederick Jackson Turner
• Ghost Dance
• Gilded Age
• Gospel of Wealth
• Haymarket Strike
• Horatio Alger
• horizontal consolidation
• Hull House
• Ida B. Wells
• impressionism
• Interstate Commerce Act
• Jane Addams
• jazz
• Jim Crow Law
• John Muir
• John Rockefeller
• Joseph Pulitzer
• JP Morgan
• Knights of Labor
• labor unions
• laissez faire
• Land-Grant Colleges
• Las Gorras Blanca
• lynching
• Mark Twain
• Mother Jones
• Munn v. Illinois
• NAWSA
• New South
• Ocala Platform
• Pendleton Act
• political machine
• Populist Party
• preservationists
• Protestant work ethic
• public high school
• Pullman Strike
• Queen Liliuokalani
• railroad strike of 1877
• realism
• referendum
• refrigeration
• Salvation Army
• Samuel Gompers
• Second Industrial Revolution
• Sherman Antitrust Act
• social darwinism
• socialism
• Solid South
• spectator sports
• stalwart
• survival of the fittest
• Tammany Hall
• temperance
• tenant farming
• tenements
• The Grange
• transcontinental railroads
• trust
• Tuskegee Institute
• vertical integration
• W.E.B. DuBois
• Wabash v. Illinois
• white supremacy
• William Hearst

• William Jennings Bryan