the glided age
3.5. Towards a Global Presence
1. The Gilded Age
The term “The Gilded Age” → title of a satire written by Mark Twain together with Charles Dudley Warner in 1873 on the materialism, opportunism, corruption, and uncontrolled speculation which characterized the era. There was a new dominant speculative economy.
Derogative term: gilded (as opposed to “golden”) → glitter is only a surface based on corruption and that covers an empty core.
Unprecedented economic growth and technological and industrial advancements (limited to North and West, South stagnates). The country became one of the leader economic countries in the world.
Boom largely based on speculation related to the railroad construction → this led to two profound depressions (1873-1879;1893-1897). Steel was needed to make the railroad, also land and labour to make it.
Wealth was unequally distributed: only 1% of the population was rich and millionaire (Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller).
Ulysses S. Grant
He was a Northern Civil War hero and the 18th President of the US (1869-1877). His government was so corrupt that the term “Grantism” was coined to refer to the fraud, bribery and corruption of the office.
He tried to protect black freedmen’s civil rights in the South:
One of his main measures: he had the last remaining States ratify the 15th Amendment (guaranteed voting rights) in 1870.
He put into practice the Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871 (“the Ku Klux Klan Acts”) forbidding discrimination against voters based on race, use of federal troops allowed to defend black voters (Klan declined in 1872).
The end of Reconstruction
The Reconstruction ended in 1877, when federal troops were removed from the South.
The North and the West lost interest in the “Southern question”, they were more interested about economics, unemployment, labour unrest.
In 1883 the Supreme Court invalidated the Civil Rights of 1875 (against segregation because of race except of the schools). Later it would uphold
1. The Gilded Age
The term “The Gilded Age” → title of a satire written by Mark Twain together with Charles Dudley Warner in 1873 on the materialism, opportunism, corruption, and uncontrolled speculation which characterized the era. There was a new dominant speculative economy.
Derogative term: gilded (as opposed to “golden”) → glitter is only a surface based on corruption and that covers an empty core.
Unprecedented economic growth and technological and industrial advancements (limited to North and West, South stagnates). The country became one of the leader economic countries in the world.
Boom largely based on speculation related to the railroad construction → this led to two profound depressions (1873-1879;1893-1897). Steel was needed to make the railroad, also land and labour to make it.
Wealth was unequally distributed: only 1% of the population was rich and millionaire (Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller).
Ulysses S. Grant
He was a Northern Civil War hero and the 18th President of the US (1869-1877). His government was so corrupt that the term “Grantism” was coined to refer to the fraud, bribery and corruption of the office.
He tried to protect black freedmen’s civil rights in the South:
One of his main measures: he had the last remaining States ratify the 15th Amendment (guaranteed voting rights) in 1870.
He put into practice the Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871 (“the Ku Klux Klan Acts”) forbidding discrimination against voters based on race, use of federal troops allowed to defend black voters (Klan declined in 1872).
The end of Reconstruction
The Reconstruction ended in 1877, when federal troops were removed from the South.
The North and the West lost interest in the “Southern question”, they were more interested about economics, unemployment, labour unrest.
In 1883 the Supreme Court invalidated the Civil Rights of 1875 (against segregation because of race except of the schools). Later it would uphold