Reflection Questions of the Gilded Age

1. What were the  causes and political results of the rise of agrarian protests in the 1890s?
The causes of agrarian protests emerged due to unhappiness with the railroad monopolies, which they thought had an unfairly high amount of control over crop prices, the limited silver coinage being produced, and the McKinley Tariff of 1890, which raised the duty on imports to almost 50%. Political results of the protests include the development of the Populist Party, which eventually merged with the Democrats, and the development of the Patrons of Husbandry.
2. What was the impact of the transcontinental rail system on American economy and society in the late nineteenth century?
Economically, the transcontinental railroad encouraged mass production, mass consumption, and economic specialization. It helped divide the country into four timezones, led to the creation of the modern stockholder corporation, the development of complex structures of finance and business management, and commenced the regulation of competition. The connection of the atlantic to the pacific made the US the greatest market in the world. Socially, the huge monopolies of the railroad led to agrarian unrest, Social Darwinism, and a spirit of laissez-faire capitalism.
3. How did industrial trusts develop in industries such as steel and oil, and what was their effect on the economy?
Industrial trusts developed in the oil industry developed with Andrew Carnegie's business strategy of vertical integration and in the steel industry with Rockefeller's method of horizontal integration, allowing these men to buy out their competitors and keep them under his own umbrella. Because of this, there was nothing stopping these industries from exploiting their customer base, which can be seen in the farmers' unrest in this time period.
4. What early efforts were made to control the new corporate industrial giants, and how effective were these efforts?
Early efforts include the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 and the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. These means were ultimately ineffective as they "had no teeth"- they were too vague to actually stop trusts. In the rare event that a trust was challenged, the Supreme Court consistently ruled in favor of businesses- the first to actually bring down the trusts would be Teddy Roosevelt.
5. What new opportunities did the cities create for Americans?
Cities created the opportunities for Americans to get an education at increasing rates, a center for immigration, a market for businesses, and a concentrated labor force.
6. What new social problems did urbanization create? How did Americans respond to these problems?
Urbanization led to the development of slums, ethnic ghettos, increasinly bad working conditions, monopolistic control, political machines, and widespread corruption as seen with Boss Tweed. Americans responded with the Labor Movement and joining unions such as the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor, a reawakening of reform movements, the development of settlement houses, and strikes.
7. New immigration differed from Old immigration in that New immigrants of the 1890s were mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe and were poor, illiterate, Catholic/Orthodox, and not easily able to assimilate. In response, America took action against immigration with measures such as the Chinese exclusion act, prohibition of contracted labor, and restriction of "undesirable" immigrants, such as criminals.