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The Rise of Industrial America, 1865-1900. The Rise of Big Business 1900 – U.S. is leading industrial power Exceeds Great Britain, France, and Germany 4% growth per year. Reasons: Natural resources Massive labor supply Growing population Capital - $$$$ Labor-saving technologies - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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THE RISE OF INDUSTRIAL AMERICA, 1865-1900
The Rise of Big Business 1900 – U.S. is leading
industrial power Exceeds Great
Britain, France, and Germany
4% growth per year
Reasons: Natural resources Massive labor supply Growing population Capital - $$$$ Labor-saving
technologies Friendly govt. policies Talented
entrepreneurs
The Business of Railroads BIGGEST business 1865 – 35,000 miles of
track 1900 – 190,000 miles
1883 – split U.S. into four time zones
Created market for commercial goods
Eastern Trunk Lines: 1830-1860 – Huge
growth Different gauge tracks After Civil War – RRs
consolidated Cornelius Vanderbilt – 1867
– New York Central 4,500 miles of track NYC to Chicago
Western Railroads: Played a role in settling
West Promoted settlements on
Great Plains Linking East to West
creating one market
Federal land grants 80 rail companies Problems:
Hasty and poor construction Led to widespread
corruption
Transcontinental RR Pre-Civil War land grants Link CA to Union
Union Pacific – started at Omaha, NE
Central Pacific – Sacramento to ???
Constructed by Chinese and Irish
Met at Promontory Point, UT – May 10, 1869
Panic of 1893 ¼ of all RRs went
bankrupt
J. Pierpont Morgan Consolidated RRs Eliminated competition Controlled 7 companies by
1900
Industrial Empire Major shift in output
Antebellum Textiles Clothing Lumber Leather products
Postbellum Heavy industry Steel Petroleum Electrical power
Steel Industry 1850s – Henry Bessemer
and William Kelly
Bessemer Process
Great Lakes region becomes hotbed for steel
Minnesota’s Mesabi Range
Andrew Carnegie 1848 – Scottish
immigrant Superintendant of RRs
1870s – Pittsburgh, PA Technology Salesmanship
Horizontal and Vertical Integration
Carnegie Steel Corp. 20,000 employees Produced more steel than
ALL of Great Britain
U.S. Steel Carnegie retires Sold company in 1900 for
$400 million to J.P. Morgan
Control 3/5 of all steel 168,000 employees
Petroleum Industry 1859 – Edwin Drake –
Titusville, PA 1863 – John D.
Rockefeller – Standard Oil Company By 1891 – controlled 90%
of oil industry Established “trusts” –
conglomerates of businesses $900 million fortune
Laissez-Faire Capitalism
Adam Smith (1776) Wealth of Nations
Social Darwinism “Survival of the Fittest”
Gospel of Wealth Carnegie
Anti-Trust Movement Trusts came under harsh
scrutiny Middle class believed
trusts controlled everything
Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) Prohibited creation of trusts Tried to make trade honest
Marketing Consumer Goods Increased demand for
goods Increased output Decreased price
R.H. Macy Frank Woolworth
Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward
Inventions and Inventors Between 1860 – 19,591
patents By 1900 – over 400,000
patents
Changed the way we did everything!!!
American Workforce Workers were poor
Top 10% of wealthiest owned 90% of income
“New Money”
Working conditions were horrible
Living conditions were unsanitary
Horatio Alger Myth “Rags to Respectability”
Organized Labor National Labor Union
1860s First union to try to
unionize all workers Higher wages 8-hour day Equal rights Lost members during
Panic of 1873
Knights of Labor 1869 – secret society Wanted members from
ALL work forces
Demands: Worker cooperatives Abolish child labor Abolish trusts and
monopolies
Settled disputes legally
Haymarket Bombing – May 4, 1886
American Federation of Labor Samuel Gompers – 1886 Economic-minded
Method: Collective bargaining
1901 – 1 million members
Immigration 1850 – 23.2 million 1900 – 76.2 million
1850-1900 – 16.2 million immigrants entered U.S.
Pushes Poverty Overcrowding Religious persecution
Pulls: Tolerance Jobs!!! “Streets were paved with
gold”
Old vs. New
Old immigrants: England Germany Scandinavia
New immigrants: Russia Italy Greece Croatia Poland
Incoming Terminals
Ellis Island, New York Europeans
Angel Island, California Asians
Urbanization By 1900 – 40% of
Americans lived in cities
Tenements Lousy conditions Ethnic neighborhoods
Safe havens
Political Machines Tammany Hall – NYC
Boss Tweed 1860s – 1871 Backed and protected
immigrants
New York County Courthouse (1870)
Thomas Nast Harper’s Weekly
Mugwumps – wanted to end reform
Awakening of Reform: Problems in cities were
brought to attention
Books of social criticism How the Other Half Lives A History of Standard Oil
Company The Jungle
Settlement House Movement Educated reformers Moved into ghettos
Hull House – Chicago Jane Addams (1889) Taught immigrants English Childhood education Industrial arts education
By 1900 – 400 settlement houses
Women’s Movements Women’s Christian
Temperance Movement (1874) Frances Willard
Anti-Saloon League (1893) Cary Nation