1. SSUSH11 Big business, the growth of labor unions, and technological innovations

2. Railroads

3. Railroads
Railroads increased the amount of steel being used in two ways-
1st: The railroads used steel for their rails
2nd: Railroads made it much easier to transport large quantities of the natural resources needed to produce steel (iron, coal), which increased the demand for those products

4. Railroads
The steel industry developed inexpensive ways to mass produce steel to keep up with the demand of the railroads
Railroads helped to spur the “Gilded Age”

5. Railroads and oil
Railroads made it easy to ship oil from remote fields in a quick and inexpensive manner.
The ability to ship oil by rail, made the product more accessible to consumers

6. John D. Rockefeller Founded Standard Oil Company in 1870
To remove competition, Standard Oil bought up oil refineries, so that by 1880 they owned 90% of the refineries in the US, forming a monopoly
To avoid violating state laws, Standard Oil formed a trust, a way of merging and controlling other companies

7. John D. Rockefeller
Standard Oil was a monopoly controlling all aspects of the oil industry
Standard Oil was broken up by the government in for being a monopoly

8. What happened to Standard Oil? (this is just FYI)

9. Andrew Carnegie Made his fortune in the Steel industry
Bought and owned the mines, factories, railroads and ships associated with the industry and its transportation.
Monopolized the industry
Carnegie sold his steel business in 1901, for what today would be $6.5 billion! He gave most of that away!

10. Key Inventions
Edison invented the phonograph, motion pictures, and the LIGHT BULB all in the late 1800s
The light bulb allowed houses, and business to more easily operate at night-helped to extend work hours

11. Key Inventions Telegraph Found widespread use in the mid to late 1800s
Used electricity to send dots and dashes aligned to letters
Able to transmit messages over a long distance instantly!
Telephone
Invented in 1876
Allowed for instant voice messages across long distance
How might these inventions change how Americans lived and did business?

12. New Immigration Ellis Island
New York Harbor: Large warehouse type buildings
European immigrants arrived at Ellis for processing (health screenings, exams)
Ellis is not the Statue of Liberty

13. Ellis Island
Most of the immigrant in the late 1800s early 1900s came from Southern and eastern Europe (Italy, Poland, Greece, Hungary)
They looked different, and had many cultural differences then the immigrants who arrived in the early to mid 1800s
(where were the earlier immigrants from?)
Did you know…. That between 1900 and 1914, 5,000 to 10,000 immigrants a day were processed through Ellis Island!

14. Angel Island San Francisco Bay
Processed immigrants from Asia (China, Japan)
Open in 1910, was much more difficult for Asians to gain admittance to the US-some were held on the islands for months
Most settled in California, or in major cities

15. New Immigrants
In general many of the new immigrants settled in the city of their arrival, or in other major cities
They tended to live in the same areas, and developed places like, “Little Italy”, or “Chinatown”.
Why would the New Immigrants tend to stay together?

16. The rise of Labor Unions
Unskilled workers had very few rights, and often had low wages, and poor working conditions
Early Unions (groups of workers), formed to try and negotiate as a group
When negotiations failed, Unions often resorted to strikes
Unskilled workers had less leverage against business owners (Why?)

17. American Federation of Labor
Formed in 1886, the AFL accepted only skilled workers, and was organized by profession or craft
Believed in trying to work with the owners to negotiate, but would strike when necessary
Was very powerful until the Great Depression

18. Questions?????
How did the railroads help big business and the steel industry grow?
Why were railroads important in the settling of the west?
How was John Rockefeller able to control the oil industry?
What were the results on American life that many of Thomas Edison’s inventions had?