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Vanderbilt was born in New York, and started his own ferry service at the age of 16. He built his empire through railroads and shipping during the 1830's - 1850's. He was a very competitive and ruthless business owner.
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Andrew Carnegie was known for leading the expansion of the American Steel Industry. He used Vertical Integration to help dominate the steel market. Carnegie eventually sold his company to J.P. Morgan in 1901.
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J.P. Morgan was born into a wealthy family and built one of the most powerful banking houses in the world. He loaned money to the U.S. Treasury in 1893, and orchestrated an end to that panic in 1907.
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Rockefeller was know for founding the Standard Oil Company and monopolizing the oil market at the time. He owned 90% of the countries oil at the time. He used Horizontal Integration to get ahead of his competition.
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A political machine is a corrupt relationship between citizens and people of power in order for political support. Typically corrupt politicians would bribe immigrants with the materials for a set life, in exchange for votes. One of the biggest political machines was William "Boss" Tweed.
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This act provided land for people as long as they farmed it. The land would either sell for cheap, or the owner would take a share of the profit each season. This act worked well a lot of the time, but sometimes lots of people would get scammed out of money.
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20 million immigrants from Europe immigrated to the U.S. during this time. This created mass fear and resulted in nativism. Nativism is the idea that native born citizens are better than immigrants. An increase in immigrants meant a lot less jobs for the American people, because it was cheaper to higher immigrants than Americans.
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Mark Twain popularized the name of The Gilded Age in one of his books. It referred to the "superficial glitter" of the new wealth that developed in the late 1800s.
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This act prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the country. The Chinese were targeted because they were highly sought after by employers, leaving less jobs for the American people. This act was not lifted until 1943, during WWII.
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This act was passed by President Chester Arthur, and provided that federal government jobs had to be awarded through competitive exams instead of votes. This put an end to political machines and based government employment on merit instead of corruption.