Chapter 5 Industrialization & The “Gilded Age” Between 1869 & 1899 the U.S. Population nearly tripled and during this time America emerged as an industrial and agricultural giant
Dec 27, 2015
Chapter 5 Industrialization & The “Gilded Age”
Between 1869 & 1899 the U.S. Population nearly tripled and during this time
America emerged as an industrial and agricultural giant
The Rise of Big Business• The Industrial Revolution
created huge corporations that came to dominate the economy as well as political & social life during the late 19th century
• There were many things that launch this economic growth like natural resources including forests, mineral wealth, & rivers
Carnegie Plant at Homestead, PA
The Second Industrial Revolution was spurred by three developments:
• The 1st was the creation of interconnected national transportation & communication network
• The 2nd happened in the 1880s w/ electric power
• The 3rd was the systematic application of scientific research to industrial processes
Building the Transcontinental Railroads
• A transcontinental railroad was not built before the Civil War b/c North-South sectional differences prevented Congress from selecting a route
• The first transcontinental railroad was built in just sixteen months
The celebration after the completion of the first transcontinental railroad
Those Who Build the Railroad
• The Union Pacific work crews were made up of ex-soldiers, former slaves & Irish & German immigrants
• The Central Pacific crews were made-up mainly of Chinese workers that came to the U.S. to CA b/c of the Gold Rush & railroad jobs
Chinese workers building the transcontinental railroad
Financing The Railroads• Railroad executives were
called “robber barons” b/c they were dishonest
• Credit Mobilier was a construction company that overcharged the railroads
• Jay Gould was the most notorious of the railroad “robber baron”
• Another baron was Cornelius Vanderbilt whose business consolidation put the control of railroads in the hands of the few
Jay Gould
Inventions Spur Manufacturing
• During the 1890s the U.S. patent Office registered almost 235,000 inventions
• Some of these inventions were refrigerated railcar, barbed wire, air brakes, typewriter, telephone
• Thomas Alva Edison invented the first successful incandescent light bulb
Thomas Edison, 1878
Nikola Tesla’s Alternating-Current Motor made it possible:
• For water sources to locate away from waterfalls
• To transmit high voltage electricity
• For power sources to locate away from coal deposits
• For Westinghouse to defeat Edison
Nikola Tesla
Rockefeller & the Oil Trust• In 1870 Rockefeller started
the Standard Oil Company and decided to take over all other oil businesses
• Rockefeller perfected the idea of the holding company or a company that controlled other companies by holding a majority of their stock
• Rockefeller became a leading philanthropist
Carnegie & The Steel Industry
• Andrew Carnegie rose from poverty
• Carnegie made money in many areas, including oil railroads, iron and steel, and bridge building
• Carnegie wrote “The Gospel of Wealth” in 1889
J.P. Morgan, Financier
• Morgan was born wealthy and was an investment banker
• By the 1890s he controlled 1/6 of the nation’s railway system
• Morgan’s U.S. Steel Corporation a holding company for a variety of interests was the 1st billion dollar corporation
Sears & Roebuck
• After the Civil War w/ all the new inventions manufacturers came up w/ many new products
• The question was: how to get these products to isolated farms & small towns?
• Sears, Roebuck & Company was a pioneer in selling goods by mail
Sears, Roebuck and Company Catalogue
Labor Conditions• By modern-day
standards working conditions were dreary and often dangerous
• By 1880 1 out of 6 children in the nation was working full time
• By 1881, only 7states had laws that children had to be at least 12 before they worked
Southern Cotton Mills
Disorganized Protest
• It was very difficult for workers to organize unions
• There were strikes in the Penn. coalfields by an Irish group called the Molly Maguires
• Many of the Mollies were hanged
The Railroad Strike of 1877
• This was a more widespread labor incident and the 1st major interstate strike in American History
• The RR strike started b/c of a cut to workers wages
• This strike ended when the workers, who lacked organized bargaining power, returned to work
The Sand-Lot Incident
• B/C of the 1870s depression there were anti-Chinese riots in San Francisco
• Denis Kearney started the Workingmen’s party of CA which was based on this anti-Chinese sentiment
• In 1882 Congress voted to prohibit Chinese immigration
Denis Kearney
Toward Permanent Unions• National Labor Union
started in 1866• Contract Labor Act• Knights of Labor started in
1869• Anarchism – many
European Anarchists emigrated to the U.S.
• The Haymarket affair was blamed, probably unfairly, on seven anarchist leaders
Gompers & the AFL
• Gompers served as president of the American Federation of Labor until 1924
• The AFL was concerned more with concrete economic gains that with social of political reforms
Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor
Mother Jones
• Lost her family in the 1867 yellow fever epidemic
• She worked for higher wages, shorter hours, safer workplaces, & restrictions on child labor
• She lost most of the strikes
Socialism & The Unions
• In 1877, followers of Karl Marx in America organized the Socialist Labor Party
• Daniel De Leon wrote that blue-collar violence and anarchy were the only paths to success
Daniel De Leon
The Stance of Government Toward Business
• During this period the stance of the Supreme Court on liberty of contract could best be described as favorable toward business
• Between 1887 & 1897, the efforts by state & territorial governments to protect workers were thwarted by pro-business conservative judges