Gilded Age timeline

By ch4se
  • Homestead Act

    Abraham Lincoln created the Homestead Act as an opportunity for anyone, including immigrants, women, and freed slaves, to acquire 160 free acres of land to farm and participate in the economy.
  • Period: to

    Native Assimilation

    The national government pushed the entirety of native populations either into society or onto reservations. Their land and resources were taken, such as mass buffalo slaughter. This period included the Dawes Act and Indian Reorganization act.
  • Transcontinental Railroad

    Transcontinental Railroad

    With the opening of this major form of transportation, connection between commercial markets and consumers was accessible. Travel and industry was hugely improved.
  • Period: to

    Panic of 1873

    This economic depression spread through the US and Europe after the collapse of federal investment bank Jay Cooke, and helped with bringing an end to Reconstruction.
  • Mark Twain's 'The Gilded Age'

    This time period's name was coined after the satirical novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, which highlights the rampant corruption of government and industry.
  • Great Railroad Strike

    For 52 days, workers revolted against their third wage cut by destroying facilities and railcars before the National Guard and federal troops shut it down.
  • Chinese Exclusion Act

    All Chinese immigrants were banned from entry for 10 years in the first and only law that prevented a certain national group from entering the US.
  • Ellis Island

    Ellis Island

    The federal government opened this reception center to process the heavy influx of around 20 million immigrants during the Gilded Age.
  • Battle at Homestead Steel

    During a steel production plant strike, 2 barges landed at the Homestead carrying 300 armed Pinkerton agents who fought against thousands of workers. The battle lasted 14 hours and resulted in 10 deaths.