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,
The Second Industrial Revolution was sparked by the creation of the railroad. During the Civil War, railroads existed and were helpful in bringing supplies to troops, but they weren’t very reliable as they would only go on for as long as the owner of the railroad had land. When the owner of the railroad ran out of land, the railroad would end, and people would have to move the things from the railroad to another railroad. People did realize, however, how well a railroad could work if they were all connected. They found that they could make money from the people using their railroad and riding on the trains, and soon people connected their local railroads together. Railroad barons, like Cornelius Vanderbilt, bought small railroads from
The Industrial Revolution was the development of industry that occurred in Britain and Europe or the USA between the years 1750 to 1900. It introduced the development of machinery. It was characterised by the use of steam power, growth of factories, and mass production of manufactured goods. The steam train used to transport people or goods over long distances on land.
During the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, the railroads themselves created a large market for the steel and iron industries.4 The steel and oil industries were booming and corruption was rampant. Andrew Carnegie had cornered the market in the steel industry and John D. Rockefeller had cornered the oil market. Rockefeller bought up his competition after essentially putting them out of business by flooding the market with refined oil bringing down prices and profits. He was determined to pay no one a profit because he wanted it all for himself. He created a plan called vertical integration which consolidated his businesses into one by creating The Standard Oil Trust.5 These two men became known as barons and got rich beyond belief. In 1890, the Government enacted the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to prevent large firms from controlling one single industry and finally put a stop to these monopolies and trusts, 6 but it was not rigorously enforced until the 1900’s. This act was designed to restore competition and
In the late 1800s, technological innovations began to revolutionize American lives. Every aspect of the US was changed dramatically. Modern businesses started and replaced aged ones. Americans were able to live more productively. However, this sudden progress for the American citizens seemed to strike the U.S. government during a time when they weren't equipped. The U.S. government had just finished recovering from the Civil War and was not prepared to deal with all these new advancements. Even though the second Industrial Revolution of machinery had a beneficial impact on the US economy in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was limited, and the lack of government regulation essentially hurt the country’s development as a whole.
The beginning of the second industrialization era, sparked the migration of people from rural communities to the new for of urban society. In the United States people were attracted by the big cities due to new jobs created .For example Chicago “symbolized the growing urbanization: In 1860, the city 's population was barely 109,000; thirty years later, it swelled to 1.1 million”. (Text) With the construction of a vast railroad system moving goods,cattle and people was a lot easier than ever. After 1880 American cities boomed, power cable cars replaced the horse car, and after the invention of electricity they were replaced too with streetcars and trolleys. Subways were constructed in New York Boston and Philadelphia, in order to prevent traffic jams. People with similar racial or ethnic backgrounds clustered together in the center of the cities. Suburbs were incorporated and formed large metropolis. Railroads companies built terminals gas and electricity were a new source of power for the city dwellers. By the 1920’s “Electricity drove technology in 1920s America, and technology helped drive prosperity. By 1928, two-thirds of the families in towns and cities had electricity in their homes, stimulating a huge demand for new appliances such as irons, vacuum cleaners, and the era 's great economic engine: radio.” (Text) Immigration was another big challenge for the big cities. The one way ticket immigration began, immigrants were defined as males , in search of a good life in a
The Industrial Revolution resulted in a shift from agriculture to industrial factories. In the United States, there were two phases of the Industrial Revolution. The first revolution, which happened between 1776 and 1789, was somewhat similar to Britain 's Industrial Revolution and more political. The second phase of the American Industrial Revolution, which happened from 1860 to 1900, was not only political but also led to great improvements of the economy and society. The Industrial Revolution first began in North America. This location was very important for the sparking of the revolution because the railroad, which was one of the causes of industrialization, was built here.
By the time of the Civil War, the technologies upon which the First Industrial Revolution was based were established in the United States. In the years following the war, the nation's industrial energies were focused on completing the railroad and telegraph networks of the North, rebuilding those of the South, and expanding those of the West. Once the devastating depression of the 1870’s depleted, the stage was set for the Second Industrial Revolution.
1 Second Industrial Revolution: Following the first Industrial Revolution, the Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, proceeded to emerge at the tail-end of the 19th century, going into the 20th century. Like the First Industrial Revolution, this revolution provided an advancement of technology, but with more tedious inventions. These advancements helped America pave ways for better communication with the telegraph, updated sanitation elements such as water supplies and sewage systems, and cumulated a new wave of globalization.
The fourteenth amendment protected corporations and big new companies were adept at market manipulations. The Populist platforms gave rise to hatred of the corporation and the corporation came to be viewed as alien to American life (Hughes & Cain 2011, p. 371-372). The major players were: J.P. Morgan in banking, Andrew Carnegie in steel, Thomas Edison inventor, just to name a few. Williams Jennings Bryan was the Populist leader and went after industry in a loosing battle. Eventually trusts were busted big government came in, after the era. There were great influencers of the time and these individuals may be thought of as the good, the bad, and the
The big businesses that dominated the United States during the nineteenth century should not be considered Robber Barons. Although some people’s livelihoods were destroyed, they were not setting out just to ruin people’s lives. They wanted to industrialize, make money, and make the United States’ economy more stable. If they continued to operate on a small scale, then the money would continue to be scarce for everyone as it had been in the past. They had to do something different in order to see any kind of change in the way things were going. Without people willing to try new innovative ideas, we would have never become this huge industrial powered nation America is today. The bigger businesses often swept up many of the smaller businesses in the process of industrializing, but in the end it all worked out to make the American economy better and avoid more depressions.
The second industrial revolution was the change of our world even though many people moved from rural homes into cities because they can't get accepted in jobs and it started in the 1870-1944 after the civil war because “ during this time, many advances in technology and factories made it easier and quicker for farmers and manufactures to produce more goods and products to be sold.”
The Second Industrial Revolution, which reached its peak during 1870 to 1914, marked a significant turning point in American history. Before this era of progression and industrial excellence, America was on the verge of expansion like never before. From the vast amounts of land gained through the Annexation of Texas in 1845, the British retreating from Oregon in 1846, and the Mexican cession of Southwest territory guaranteed by the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo of 1848, (Engelman) America was able to expand their territory and access new resources. Industrialization and factory growth in the North was just budding and beginning to create economic success, along with spurring a rise of urbanization and migration of foreign workers to America.
The Second Industrial Revolution tremendously helped our society become what it is today. Before it occurred, the universe was believed to work like a machine. It has reshaped society through the different inventions and ideas that were made. The Second Industrial Revolution also had ideas and inventions that hurt society. Although the Second Industrial Revolution has led to poor thoughts, it has made our society extremely advanced because of new social thoughts, inventions made by people, and different advances in human rights.
The causes of the Industrial Revolution were complex and remain a topic for debate, with some historians seeing the Revolution as an outgrowth of social and institutional changes wrought by the end of feudalism in Great Britain after the English Civil War in the 17th century. The Enclosure movement and the British Agricultural Revolution made food production more efficient and less labor-intensive, forcing the surplus population who could no longer find employment in agriculture into the cities to seek work in the newly developed factories. The colonial expansion of the 17th century with the accompanying development of international trade, creation of financial markets and accumulation of capital
The industrial revolution happened during the 18th and 19th century (1750 AD-1850 AD) in Great Britain, Europe. The industrial revolution could have happened in any place in the world but there are specific reasons that it happened in Great Britain than somewhere else. Reasons that the industrial revolution happened in Great Britain include the amount of coal and iron available, they were politically stable, and they had the highest wages in the world during the time. The industrial revolution lead to faster production of goods and decreased how much it cost to make products. The industrial revolution changed the way products were produced during the 18th and 19th century.