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Period: to
United States 1876-1900
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The Great Railroad Strike
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 heralded a new era of labor conflict in the United States. Strikes and protests for labor reform followed for years to come. -
The Farmers' Alliance Emerges
Texas farmers met in Lampasas, Texas and organized the first Farmers' Alliance to restore some economic power to farmers as they dealt with railroads, merchants, and bankers. Farmers in the alliance would share machinery, work together to negotiate for higher prices for their crops, and negotiate lower prices from wholesalers. At its peak, the Farmers’ Alliance claimed 1,500,000 members meeting in 40,000 local sub-alliances. -
Edison Harnesses Electricity
Edison invented a system of power generation and electrical light, and exhibited his system to reporters and investors. -
Indigenous Powers Defeated
Sitting Bull and his followers at last laid down their weapons and went to a reservation. This marked the end of Native Resistance revolt in the Great Plains. -
Haymarket Riot
Labor leaders and radicals called for a protest at Haymarket Square in support of reform for an eight hour workday and in protest of Chicago police forces killing several workers while breaking up protesters at the McCormick reaper works, which ended in violence. As a result of this, the Knights of Labor collapsed, and the American Federation of Labor (AFL) emerged as a conservative alternative to the vision of the Knights of Labor. -
Dawes General Allotment Act
The Dawes General Allotment Act splintered Native American reservations into individual family homesteads. Each head of a Native family was to be allotted 160 acres, the typical size of a claim that any settler could establish on federal lands under the provisions of the Homestead Act.
This act was meant to be helpful, but it upended Native lifestyles and left them without control over their native lands. -
Homestead Steel Strike
The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers struck at one of Carnegie’s steel mills in Homestead, Pennsylvania. After repeated wage cuts, workers shut the plant down and occupied the mill in protest. The strikers were reluctant to end the strike and even fought back, but ultimately the strike was shut down by state militia and the mill was reopened. As a result of this, the union was destroyed. -
Populist Party Emerges
In a time with falling prices and rising debts, survival for family farmers was very tough, the two political parties seemed incapable of representing the needs of poor farmers. Farmers' alliance members organized a political party—the People’s Party, or the Populists, as they came to be known. The Populists nominated former Civil War general James B. Weaver as their presidential candidate at the party’s first national convention in Omaha, Nebraska, on July 4, 1892. -
Spanish-American War
This war began with the sinking of the USS Main in Havana Harbor in Cuba. Spain still had control over Cuba as one of its colonies, but there were revolts for Cuba to gain independence in which the United States supported. This war was fought in both the Caribbean and the Pacific, and ultimately ended with the Treaty of Paris which granted the United States ownership of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine islands. -
United States Establishes Economic Power
The United States becomes the world's leading manufacturing nation.