WESTWARD EXPANSION INDUSTRIALIZATION URBANIZATION 1870 1900
AMERICAN INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT IN THE GILDED AGE
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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They invested heavily in barons’ stock
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They robbed the rich industrialists and distributed their stock to investors
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They had made their fortunes by crushing their competitors.
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They robbed investors of their stocks
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Detailed explanation-1: -These individuals became some of the wealthiest Americans the country had ever known. Midwest farmers, angry at large railroad owners for their exploitative business practices, came to refer to them as “robber barons, ” as their business dealings were frequently shady and exploitative.
Detailed explanation-2: -The term robber baron derives from the Raubritter (robber knights), the medieval German lords who charged nominally illegal tolls (unauthorized by the Holy Roman Emperor) on the primitive roads crossing their lands or larger tolls along the Rhine river.
Detailed explanation-3: -Among the richest of the rich were the so-called robber barons, whose extreme avarice drove them to use unethical business practices and exploit workers to create lucrative monopolies, and in the process amass fortunes that would amount to billions of dollars in today’s money.
Detailed explanation-4: -robber baron, pejorative term for one of the powerful 19th-century American industrialists and financiers who made fortunes by monopolizing huge industries through the formation of trusts, engaging in unethical business practices, exploiting workers, and paying little heed to their customers or competition.
Detailed explanation-5: -Instead of physically robbing individuals, the 19th century robber barons were said to have stolen control over natural resources, paid unfairly low wages, and pushed out their competition using questionable business practices.