Growing America Part 2: Industrialization

Industrialization Industrialization: During the late 1800s the United States began replacing farming with large-scale manufacturing using machinery.

Why? The steel industry boomed  Railroads, barbed wire, nails, beams for construction  Andrew Carnegie owned the majority of the steel industry  John D. Rockefeller opened and owned the majority of the oil industry Inventor Thomas Edison invented practical electrical lighting and made the world’s first safe light bulb Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876

Why did steel need factories? Iron, a natural element, is mined Then it is heated, melted, and mixed with other ingredients Finally, it is shaped into beams, tracks, etc

Robber barons Robber barons: Business owners like Carnegie and Rockefeller who did anything they could, including illegal activity, to become wealthy Example: Paid their workers unfair wages despite a booming economy and surplus Occurs when a company makes more money than it needs

Jay Gould, who controlled much of the railroad industry

Who is it? Who invented the useable light bulb? Thomas Edison Who controlled the steel industry? Andrew Carnegie Who invented the telephone? Alexander Graham Bell Who controlled the oil industry? John D. Rockefeller Who controlled much of the railroad industry? Jay Gould

The Rise of the Corporation From small businesses to large corporations  Corporation: A business held by shareholders, investors who buy part of the company through shares of stock Monopoly  Business owners such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie tried to wipe out their competition in order to have complete control of their industry

Results The United States became largely capitalistic, revolving around the spending of money  When business is booming, times are good Led to massive immigration  When business is struggling, times are bad Depression: A time period of extremely low economic activity Business cycle

Depression

Results This time period became known as The Gilded Age, a time when many rose to wealth  A bit misleading because 11 million of the nation’s 12 million families lived below the poverty line ($380 a year)  “Gilded” is when an object is coated in gold; thus it has an illusion of wealth

Gilded

The Popular Gilded Age

The Real Gilded Age

Results Urbanization: Urbanization was the movement from Rural to Urban, the growth of cities  Rural: A small populated agricultural area Mostly in the south and midwest; very few immigrants  Urban: A high populated city Large immigrant populations

Urban v. Rural

Growth of Cities

Results Continued racism toward African Americans  Segregation became permanent  Between 1885 and 1900, more than 1,500 African Americans were lynched, hanged without a trial

Results Workers experienced horrible working conditions in the factories  hour days  No sick days  Unsafe and unhealthy working conditions  Low pay  Dull, repetitive jobs  Employed children Many immigrant workers worked in Sweatshops, which had even worse conditions

Working Conditions

“In the first place, the great number of hands congregated together, in some rooms forty, in some fifty, in some sixty, and I have known some as many as 100, which must be injurious to both health and growing. In the second place, the privy is in the factory, which frequently emits an unwholesome smell; and it would be worth while to notice in the future erection of mills, that there be betwixt the privy door and the factory wall a kind of a lobby of cage-work. 3dly, The tediousness and the everlasting sameness in the first process preys much on the spirits, and makes the hands spiritless. 4thly, the extravagant number of hours a child is compelled to labour and confinement, which for one week is seventy-six hours, which makes 3,952 hours for one year, we deduct 208 hours for meals within the factory which makes the net labour for one year 3,744; but the labour and confinement together of a child between ten years of age and twenty is 39,520 hours, enough to fritter away the best constitution. 5thly, About six months in the year we are obliged to use either gas, candles, or lamps, for the longest portion of that time, nearly six hours a day, being obliged to work amid the smoke and soot of the same; and also a large portion of oil and grease is used in the mills.”

Recap The United States began to expand in size and population because of the Transcontinental Railroad, the rise in immigration, and the many industrial opportunities. These changes led to economic wealth for a minority of Americans and a difficult life for the majority.

Population Growth