two parties: little to distinguish each, most active locally unless in election year.

patronage: using connections and wealth to get into places of power. Jobs were not given based on merit but instead were based on political support creating an undemocratic system. Seen in the 'spoils system'.

money: currency was based on both silver and gold until 1873 when America went onto the gold standard. This did see a rise is the value of the $.

lack of party difference: both Democrats and Republicans held the same stance on many issues giving very little choice to the people.

no national party dominance: 1876-1892 the margin for the Presidential election was less than 1%. Additionally, the elections to Congress were close as well so it was difficult for either party to maintain a programme.

weak presidency: after Johnson, there was little prestige that surrounded the Presidency. Johnson damaged this and Presidents became figureheads - often tainted by scandal - whilst Congress held the power.

civil service: most jobs were given by the President - often unfairly. A merit based system was needed.

tariffs: an incredibly divisive issue. Tariffs were the main source of govt revenue,

pensions: govt had been paying the pensions of ex-civil war veterans.

big business/regulation: big business went unregulated and dominated politics also. Both on the main parties relied heavily on the support of big business.

POSITIVES:

• ended reconstruction
• forbid the involvement of federal employees in politics
• was the last president of this era with egalitarian beliefs.

NEGATIVES:

• in power via the electoral college vote only
• militant response to railroad strikes
• pulled troops out of south to end reconstruction and become president

assassinated after only 200 days by someone who believed that they were owed a job but not given one.

was devoted to laissez-faire and hard money so was unpopular.

came into power as previous VP after Garfields assassination.

POSITIVES:

• Pendelton Civil Service Act 1883: created a merit based system for the civil servie and made it illegal to fire govt officials due to political reasons
• Tariff Act 1883: lowered taxes to reduce govt revenue

NEGATIVES

• one of the most politically corrupt presidents
• only 10% of govt employees were covered by the Pendelton Act
• his reforms arguably failed - including the Tariff Act which worsened the situation
• signed into law the 1882 CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT which was to stop Chinese immigrants entering the country
• failed to reduce the power of Southern Democrats
• white settlers continued to take over the land of Native Americans under his presidency

POSITIVES:

• COMMERCE CLAUSE: gave congress power to regulate and negotiate with foreign powers to promote competition and stop monopolies. This helped to regulate the railroads
• 1880s tariff reform: cut tariffs from 47% to 40%
  

NEGATIVES:

• blamed for 1893 depression which was due to a fall in the gold treasury whilst the US was on the gold standard
• he vetoed most bills including military pensions and subsidies for farmers
• he remained silent of the issue of female suffrage

POSITIVES:

• negotiations of seal hunting treaty with Great Britain
• completed treaties of commercial reciprocity with foreign govts
• facilitated creation of national forest reserves: 1891 LAND REVISION ACT
• 1890 SHERMAN ANTI TRUST ACT

NEGATIVES:

• tariffs were particularly high so there was a surplus of money in the treasury. Tariffs were then removed from imported raw sugar and this over compensated the issue and the surplus evaporated and prosperity seemed about to disappear as well.
• lost the 1892 election after just one term

in their actions they justified social darwinism.

ANDREW CARNEGIE:

• steel industry
• first to use Bessemer converters to make better and cheaper steel
• philanthropic philosophy
• paid low wages and demanded long hours
• crushed competition both nationally and internationally.

THOMAS EDISON:

• inventions and ideas
• invented first safe incandescent light bulb for domestic use
• created general electric company
• controversy around idea of lightbulb with tesla
• he killed an elephant

J. P. MORGAN:

• finance industry
• major force behind complicated deals and the creation of large companies
• involved in the first billion $ corporation - The US Steel corporation
• interest was with the companies not the public
• didn't use his money to help those in need.

required to help the expansion west and grow the country both physically and industrially

1862 PACIFIC RAILWAY ACT:

• grant given to countries to build rails to be paid back 30 years later as well as allowing companies to take sufficient materials for building from land alongside railway line.
• protection against attacks from Native Americans
• free land given.

HOMESTEAD ACT 1862 encouraged people to move west and they needed an easier more accessible way in which to do this.

construction provided employment for immigrants on either side of the coast.

RAILROADS:

• The Transcontinental Rail - completed 1869
  +The Northern Pacific - completed 1883
• The Southern Pacific - completed 1883
• The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe - completed 1884
• The Great Northern - completed 1893

effects:

• cheaper and more efficient - a journey that previously would have taken 9 months could now take 9 days on the pacific railroads.
• consumerism improved through easier transportation of goods
• ease of travel
• escalation in conflict with native americans
• exploitation of western resources - forests destroyed for materials and space and the buffalo almost became extinct
• urbanisation of western towns and cities - e.g. LA, San Francisco, Seattle - and population growth due to this also
• expansion ad boosting of iron, steel, lumber, coal etc industries

• Rockefeller had made great profits of oil and was concerned about the fluctuation in the industry due to factors out of his control.
• ships, trains, and whole forests for supply barrels were bought in order to avoid this.
• the company grew to a monstrous size and competing oil companies had to sell or would go bankrupt.

in 1882 the STANDARD OIL TRUST was organised which folded all companies into a trust that Rockefeller could control and operate as a monopoly.

broken up in 1911 by supreme court for being too big. new competition was established which allowed room for what was arguably a better economy.

1886 haymarket bomb outrage

• strike at McCormick Harvester Works in Chicago
• battle took place between strikers, strike breakers + police
  police fired into crowd and some were killed and many injured
• a bomb was later thrown by anarchists but blamed on the regular strikers leading the strike to massively fail and momentum from the unions movement to drop.

THE KNIGHTS OF LABOUR UNION - initially est in 1869 - grew as a result of the strike

1885 american federation of labor - established to support unions in winning recognition and securing agreements from employers

1894 PULLMAN RAILWAY STRIKE

• Pullman Rail Co. cut wages and raised rent prices simultaneously
• Cleveland sent in troops to ensure mail was delivered and strike was dealt with
• violence occured and shocked the US people as the govt had held the attitude that money and mail was more important than the workers themselves
• the supreme court jailed the workers

pull factors:

• advertisements very common
• steamship companies promoted move to benefit from more passengers
• states + railroads contributed to this also

push factors:

• political, economic and religious discontent in home countries
• industrial and agricultural revolution
• increasing populations
• industrial and agricultural depression
• unemployment and poverty

• 1885 JAPANESE EXODUS
• 1881 ASSASSINATION OF ALEXANDER II IN RUSSIA - caused rise in anti-semitism

reactions:
without immigration US industrialisation wouldn't have increased in the way it did but economic fear bred ethnic intolerance

segregation was less prominent in the north but inequality and discrimination still took place

Jim Crows prevalent in south and lynching had become commonplace

corruption was prevalent within railroad companies as they bribed state and federal govts to exploit other companies

railroads stimulated growth of iron, steel, lumber etc.

American production of wheat increased massively - although this fell rapidly after only to grow again in the late 1870s

cattle-ranching and concept of cowboys became incredibly popular

lost wilderness + freedom aspect of america which to some had been freeing.

decreasing support for isolationism as the frontier had ended

• was arguably require in order for the country to prove it was a global power
• Captain Mahan argued that nations wiht powerful navies + overseas bases to maintain them could only grow in strength

1887 permission to establish a naval base at Pearl Habor was secured

the US was interested in some of the pacific islands as half way station and provisions point - also as physical represnetation of growing sphere of influence

Blaine - secretary of state under Garfield - believed the US should act as a leader across both american continents. This belief was later resurrected under Harrison