The Gilded Age Study Guide

What is the meaning of the term “Gilded Age?”

• Many craftsmen’s “gilds” were established in the US, similar to those in the Middle Ages

• Mark Twain used this term to describe the time period in American history when many social problems were masked that made things look better than they actually were.

• A “gild” is a form of government similar to a democracy, and Mark Twain was making a comparison between the two.

• None of the above

What does “Melting Pot” mean and how is it related to the Gilded Age?

• The blending together of cultures in America due to high immigration numbers in the late 19th century.

• A term once used for New York City because the “heat” of so much political chaos in the late 19th century made people feel like the city government was “melting.”

• The summer of 1886 when major heatwaves swept the East Coast and the West.

• The fall of 1890 when severe wildfires swept across the South burning crops and “melting” the agricultural economy.

Nativism was —

• Nativism was a policy favoring native-born or established inhabitants over immigrants.

• Nativism was a movement to promote global immigration.

• Nativism was a policy supporting equal rights for all immigrants.

• Nativism was a campaign to encourage cultural diversity.

During the Gilded Age, Ellis Island was—

• A detention center for immigrants from Asia who were denied entry into the U.S. due to their race.

• A processing center for incoming European immigrants arriving in New York.

• Not a real island, rather a description of an Irish immigrant neighborhood in New York.

What was the main purpose of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?

• To encourage more Chinese immigration to the United States

• To restrict Chinese immigration to the United States

• To provide a path to citizenship for Chinese immigrants

• To promote cultural exchange between China and the United States

Urbanization is the —

• Development of suburbs outside cities.

• Growth of cities.

• Return of population numbers to rural areas.

John D. Rockefeller was most closely associated with—

• Standard Oil

• The Union-Pacific Railroad

• U.S. Steel

• General Electric

What was the primary goal of the Homestead Act of 1862?

• To provide free land to former slaves

• To encourage westward expansion and settlement

• To promote the development of large-scale farming

• To redistribute land from wealthy landowners to the poor

Many male Chinese immigrants came to the United States to work on/at—

• The railroad.

• The Hoover Dam.

• Fruit and vegetable farms in California.

• Silver mines in Colorado.

Promontory Summit was--

• The site of a massacre committed on a group of Arapahoe by the U.S. Army in Colorado.

• Later renamed Las Vegas and became the largest city in silver-rich Nevada.

• The place where the eastern and western parts of the Transcontinental Railroad met, linking both coasts of the United States for the first time.

• The site of the assassination of President Rutherford B. Hayes.