American Geography (late 1800s) - Notes

American Geography (late 1800s) - Notes

Created: 2023-09-27 13:49
SEPTEMBER 27/28 NOTES
America Post 1870

How Does Environment Affect Identity & Culture?

IDENTITY: "Your self view or how others view you; can also apply to group specificity"
CULTURE: "The traditions, values, language, and items a society holds"

NEED TO ANSWER THIS FOR YOURSELF LATER

What Caused People to Migrate During the Time of the Industrial Rev.
Civil Wars are terrible for a people
Destruction of land, food, and income (Economy)
Post Civil War:
The North had minimal economic suffering
Big factories were built
The South was economically devastated
They thought they REALLY needed slaves for their large agricultural economy
The people of the North who didn't like the factories went South and struggled, people
from the South came to the North for the new factories, and people who didn't like either
went west

Eastern Industrialization
A1: American Economy
Capitalism is the ideal
Laissez-Faire Theory: Freedom to do whatever. Means: "Let it happen" in French
The American goods were mostly Raw Materials in 1820-1850, but around the year 1890
America started producing more Manufactured goods than Raw Materials
 A2. Other Economic Theories
Capitalism Socialism Communism
private ownership and factors of production are owned all product is owned by the
investment of money to by the public and operate for the people, not private property, all
make a profit welfare of all goods are shared.
A3. Abuses Within Businesses
MONOPOLIES: one business with exclusive control over product/industry
Working Conditions:
6-7 days/week
12+ hrs/day
VERY, dangerous work
Immigration Encouraged
Vulnerable labor force
Tax Evasion
Rockefeller and Carnegie = Donating to charity to avoid taxes. Were known as
Robbery Barons
Shermann Anti-Trust Act
A form of monopoly - by a group of companies
A4. Labor Unions
United workers for better conditions
Gained popular support
Banned by employers
Some were violent

How Does Environment Affect Identity & Culture?

The way our world is can have a HUGE impact on who we identfy as and what
culture we identify with. For instance a community who lives in harsh deserts
might put more value into the sun and grasslands. The environment can also
affect our theology and what gods people choose to worship.

What caused people to migrate during the time of the industrial

revolution?
They did not like the fact that the South was in shambles and the North were
industrializing.
SEPTEMBER 29 NOTES
Transcontinental Railroad: The first railroad to link states in the east to those out west.
How Did The Transcontinental Railroad Change American Expansion?
It allowed people to travel to less developed areas with more speed and ease.

2A. Western Settlement

Creates a national market for mass production & consumption
Steel & Coal
Creation of time zones
Creation of the modern stock-holder corporation
SIGNS OF THE TIMES:
Year Description
Early-Mid U.S cities keep their own time based on their own solar noon (over 300 local time
1800s zones)
1809 Amateur astronomer, William Lambert, presents a plan to congress for establishing
time meridians
1862 Abraham Lincoln signs the Pacific Railway Act, authorizing the building of the
transcontinental railroad.
1869 Completion of the transcontinental railroad is marked by the driving of a golden spike
at Promontory Summit, Utah
1872 Charles Dowd submits a proposal for four U.S. time zones, the same plan that will be
adopted by the railroads in 1883.
1875 Cleveland Abbe, the first director ofstandardization.
the U.S. Weather Bureau, lobbies to develop time
1883 To standardize their train schedules, railroads adopt the plan submitted by Charles
Dowd back in 1872 that includes four regional time zones across the U.S.
1893 Stringent standards for pocket time watches are put into place by most railroads to ensure
is accurately kept.
Up until this point, wrist watches were worn mostly by women as jewelry pieces. They
1914 increased in popularity among the general population during WW1 being seen as
more practical and easily accessible than pocket watches on the battlefield
1918 Signing of the Standard Time Act marks the official adoption of the time zones
established by the railroads 35 years earlier.
TODAY The U.S. Departmentuniform of Transportation oversees the nation's four time zones and the
observance of Daylight Saving Time
2B. Issues & Regulations
 Credit Mobileier
Gave stock to members of Congress
Munn v. Illinois 1877
A state can create laws to regulate private business
Interstate Commerce Act of 1886
Federal regulation of railroads that cross state lines
2C. Industry Takeover
Businessmen like JP Morgan bailed out the railroads
By 1900, only 7 giant systems controlled 2/3 of the nations rail lines
Creates regional railroad monopolies
How Did The Transcontinental Railroad Unify America
It allowed bigger places to more quickly travel to smaller places and vise
versa.

How Did The Transcontinental Railroad Change American Expansion?

It allowed for more people to more quickly start moving east.

OCTOBER 3 NOTES
3A. Early Immigration
1854: 428,000
From Britain mostly
Why?
Transportation
Famine & Revolutions
"American Dream"
3B. "New" Immigrants
1890s - 1910s
Southern/Eastern Europeans
Why?
Displaced
Overcrowding
Religious Persecution
 3C. Ant-Immigrant Sentiments
First Wave Accepted; They did the factory work
Religious differences = intolerance
Culture clashes moved here
Immigrants votre
They competed with Americans for farmland
By late 1890's sentiment landed on Japanese and Mexicans
Get money and go home = not helping US economy
Nativism grows
A country favors native-born Americans (WASP) and supports laws restricting
immigration
Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 - banned Chinese workers
Gentlemen's Agreement - limited entry of Japanese people
How Does Environment Affect Identity And Culture?
The ever shifting environment shifted the way that peopled lived. Namely when
America industrialized it caused so many people to immigrate into America, so
many people who new faiths and of new ideas who all came to America. This
undoubtably changed the way we as a society Identified and the Culture we live
in/with.

What Short Term Outcomes On Internal Migration?

Lots of new people came in from 1854-1910s. This brought new ideas to America
but also promoted Nativism & Xenophobia.

October 10/12 Notes

4. The Lives of Minorities
The general time line of minorities:
Whites --> Black (Negro or of Negro Descent) --> Chinese; Japanese --> Indian -->
1900s
4A) Urbanization
"An increase in the percentage and in the number of people living in urban settlements" -
Definition of Urbanization
 Immigration and industrialization led to the rapid growth of cities
Poor living conditions/housing
Cities then began to improve living conditions for working-class families
NY banned tenement homes in 1901
Community centers and assistance houses aided those in need
4B) Segregation and Discrimination (Lasts through 1960's)
Voter suppression
A strategy to influence the outcome pf an election by discouraging or preventing
people from exercising the right to vote - Definition of Voter Suppression
Literacy tests
Jim Crow Laws
"Separate but equal"
Unwritten Laws
Black = 2nd Class Citizens
Mexicans and Asians
Forced to work off debts (Basically slavery)
How Does Environment Affect Identity And Culture?
The environment we live in affects our indentity and culture in a strong way.
The main reason I say this is because the environment includes the people who
already lived there. If I'm someone moving to a new location that will HEAVILY
affect the way that I indentify and what cultures I chose to follow due to the
idea of assimilation.

Why did minorities flock to more urbanized and industrialized areas?

They flocked there because those areas would be most developed and most
people; They most represented the "American Dream".