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The Causes And Effects Of The Second Industrial Revolution

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The second Industrial Revolution came about after the Civil War ended and early into the Twentieth century. During this era, the nation underwent fast economic growth and there were several reason that led to this. The nation had and wealth of natural resources, an increasing market for factory-made goods, growing labor, and the availability of investment. The Industrial economy had a rapid growth with the increase of factory production, especially in the North and West. By 1913, the U.S made one third of the world’s industrial production. Most of this manufacturing took place in the large cities. With the growth of population, came the need for mass production, mass distribution, and mass marketing of goods. Businesses started to grow and engaging in ruthless competition. The marketplace was so chaotic that they formed pools that divided up markets between supposedly competing firms and fixed prices. This is when they formed the trusts, so the matters of rival companies were managed by one sole director. With this came the growth of national chains and they started to eat up the smaller companies. Andrew Carnegie who led the steel world and John Rockefeller who owned 90 percent of the nation’s oil industry controlled major amounts of the economy. Business men like Carnegie and Rockefeller were knows as robber barons because they got rich through ruthless business deals and exploiting workers. Many Americans suffered due the growth of corporations. One group in particular,

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