Industrialization During The 19th Century

Imagine having to wait a long period of time for a letter from your beloved because they had to send it through horse. Or even better, imagine having to wait for wheat or meat restock in your city due to the distance the store purchased it from. America industrial growth couldn’t have occurred without the industrial giants of the period. The industrial giants gave the states more opportunity to create and move quicker to provide the nation.

    During the mid 1860’s America started to change. Railroads were growing faster than ever, factories were popping up everywhere, and the country took its “next step” in its development and industrialization began to occur. Of course like any other thing, it caused a ripple effect on those involved. The development of industries had both great and not so great consequences on those who were impacted. A few of the groups it both helped and damaged were cities, immigrants, and factory workers. The effects industrialization had on cities, immigrants, and factory workers were growth, job opportunities, and the ability to keep wages cheap.

There are many causes and effects of America’s Industrialization, some of the main reasons include: migration to cities, improved transportation, and laissez-faire philosophy, while the primary effects generated by these causes include; consumerism, expansion of the market, and changed working conditions.

America was a time of rapid growth for people all across the country. The Industrial Revolution began a few years after the Civil War with the invention of steam powered machines. From there, America faced a time of massive expansion and modern industrialized cities popped up across the United States. While there was much success across the nation, such as manual labor becoming easier and a huge population growth, the negative effects of industrialization outweigh the positives. A few of the issues that made industrialization an atrocious time for many was the racism and segregation towards immigrants and unsafe and unfair working conditions/the deprivation of a regular childhood for kids across the nation.

The period from 1877-1900 mark the years of Industrialization America. Rockefeller, Carnegie, and J.P Morgan were the people that shaped this time period. Rockefeller created the oil company Standard Oil, Carnegie created Carnegie steel, and J.P Morgan was a powerful banker. These successful people brought America to surpass many of the European global powers.

Industrialization changed the way of living for Americans. Before industrialization, there were not many consumer goods and those goods that were there was very expensive for the under privileged families. American household had maybe a few sets of clothing for each family member. After industrialization, things changed. Goods were produced in large quantities and became more reasonable for purchase. What does this mean? American households were now able to buy material goods at an affordable price (Backer, 1948-1984)

“No place is free of the threat implied in such phrases as economic growth, job creation, natural resources, human capital, bringing in industry, even bringing in culture—as if every place is adequately identified as the environment and its people as readily replaceable parts of a machine. Devotion to any particular place now carries always the implication of heartbreak (Berry, 2007).” During the Civil War, government contracts were issued to factories in order to produce shoes, clothes, weapons, food, and other goods for the troops. Business owners wanted the money being offered by the government and knew how to get it. People were willing to give up life as they knew it in order to work in the factories and stores, despite the conditions

Industrialization occurred between the late 1800s and early 1900s. During this time period, America was tremendously changing. This was the age of machines and electricity being formed and developed. The first automobile, light bulb, and steam engine were all invented. However, what people might consider these as all positive, industrialization had an overall negative impact on American society. For example, working conditions for workers were beyond dreadful, while their tenements they lived in after a 16 hour work day were atrocious, and then having immigrants come in and trying to steal jobs was just unimaginable.

In 19th century America there were many changes in industrialization and capitalism which impacted the working class. One such change was the rise of unskilled labor; before the industrial revolution most people if not employed in agriculture relied on skilled trade. Meaning people had to have training and skill in order to create merchandise of a higher quality. However, with the rise of industrialization large factories began to take over the production of goods. These big businesses also began to turn to unskilled labor due to the fact that it was easier than hiring skilled laborers. Factories employed unskilled laborers because they were cheap and easily replaceable. This allowed factories to significantly grow in size and dominate the market. Such domination of the market forced the majority of smaller business to close their doors due to the fact that the factories could produce a higher quantity of goods for a smaller price. This affected the working class because their options for employment quickly decreased to the extent that their only option was to work for these big businesses. Due to the fact that unskilled laborers were easily disposable, large factories began to take advantage of their employees. Big businesses would take advantage of their workers by forcing them to work in unsanitary, unhealthy, and even dangerous conditions for very little pay. The life of a working class citizen was a difficult one, and the lives of these workers are reflected in the

Industrialization in the Unites States occurred between 1850 and 1950. It was the approach from the United States to become larger with enhanced technology to produce a life which cost less and was more efficient. While some might dispute that Industrialization had primarily positive consequences for society because of an abundance of job opportunities, it had a negative impact on society. Therefore, industrialization’s negative effects were atrocious working conditions, children’s little or no education, and pollution from factories.

Industrialization in the United States occurred between 1850 and 1950. It was the approach from the United States to become larger with enhanced technology to produce a life which cost less and was more efficient. While some might dispute that Industrialization had primarily positive consequences for society because of an abundance of job opportunities, it had a negative impact on society. Therefore, industrialization’s negative effects were atrocious working conditions, children’s little or no education, and pollution from factories.

The industrialization of America in her postbellum period led to a booming economy. During this time, there was an explosive growth in the manufacturing industry and millions of immigrants came to the New World in search for work and fortune. As the workforce almost tripled, the wealth gap grew bigger as the country developed a new, cheap industrial workforce from the previous agrarian economy. In this day, the only power held by the laborers lied in the unions they were apart of. It was in these unions that workers could bargain their working conditions, hours, and wages. Disputes led altercations and many violent strikes in this era.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the United States experienced an urban revolution unparalleled in world history up to that point in time. As factories, mines, and mills sprouted out across the map, cities grew up around them. The late nineteenth century, declared an economist in 1889, was “not only the age of cities, but the age of great cities.” Between 1860 and 1910, the urban population grew from 6 million to 44 million. The United States was rapidly losing its rural roots. By 1920, more than half of the population lived in urban areas. The rise of big cities during the nineteenth century created a distinctive urban culture. People from different

In the late nineteenth century between 1880 and 1900 urban industrialism changed how the city looks, feels, smells and sounds. Many people flooded the cities for opportunities. There were immigrants, business men and women, poor laborers, blue blood, salesgirls, sweatshop laborers, millionaires, political officials, architects unskilled and skilled workers. Overall, Immigrants flooded the cities to work from all over the world. People from the rural areas also moved to the city and also helped change the cities appearance. Cities now had noise, pollution, traffic, slums and sanitation problems. All this growth caused more jobs, income and more money to be made and spent.

There are three major aspects of industrialization from 1865 to 1920 that influenced U.S. society, economy and politics. These are urbanization, working conditions and laissez-faire government. Urbanization created cities who offered large numbers of workers for new factories. In turn, more factories were built. Workers, both native born and immigrants, moved to cities looking for jobs. Industrialism and post-industrialism let to a decline in patriarchy within the family because of the changes that were made to society.