The Gilded AgeIndustrialization, Immigration,

Urbanization in the U.S.1865-1910

Essential QuestionsHow did America industrialize after the Civil War?

How did America’s cities grow into the major urban centers we see today?

What positive and negative results did industrialization and urbanization have on the country as a whole and on individual citizens?

How did immigration change in the late 1800s?

Was the harsh government regulation of immigration justified?

Unit SummaryNew technologies and new forms of business

organization helped create a new industrial age in the late 19th century America.

Millions of immigrants came to the US in this period lured by job opportunities.

By 1900, these developments had transformed the US into an urban nation and an industrial power.

IndustrializationFrom 1865-1910 the US had a surge of industrial

growth- a second industrial revolution that involved the mass production of goods using large factories and the assembly line process.

-development of cheap steel-completion of nationwide railway network-invention of the telephone and typewriter-new sources of energy-rise of big business (large corporations and monopolies)

2nd Industrial RevolutionFueled by production of

cheap steel:-used to make heavy machinery in factories, railways, bridges, skyscrapers…

Steel and the Bessemer Process The process of creating this material which was used to make heavy machinery in factories, railways, bridges, skyscrapers to build America

Growth of Railroads

-promoted westward travel and settlement-stimulated urban growth-spurred growth of other industries and helped build a national market

CommunicationsThe Telegraph started to be used for business: A

communication device that was used to speed communication through short messages in Morse code.

The invention of telephone in 1876 :A communication device invented and used in the Gilded Age that was used to transmit audio communication between two people through electrical wires.

Invention of the typewriter in 1867:A communication device invented and used in the Gilded Age that was used to type documents.

Communication

*All of these developments increased industrialization by speeding

communication

New Sources of EnergyAmerica’s transportation and communication

developments depended on plentiful sources of energy.

In the late 1800s Americans tapped into two new sources of power:

oil and electricity.

Energy Sources

Oil: A new source of liquid energy that fueled America’s transportation and communication developments

ElectricityA new source of powering America’s transportation and communication developments, aided by the work of Thomas Edison.

The Rise of Big BusinessAlong with new technological developments came

new ideas in the business world. It was an age of:

Laissez-faire Capitalism: calls for no government regulation of economic matters. -If businesses were free from government regulation, the economy would prosper.

Results: industrialists get rich off new business organizations like the corporation, trust, and monopoly.

New Business FormsCorporation: organizers raise capital by selling

shares of stock, or certificates of ownership, in the company. Stockholders then get a percentage of profits (dividends)

Trust: a group of companies turn control of their stock over to a board of directors, who then run the companies as a single enterprise.

Monopoly: an organization that has complete control of an industry.

Government Regulation? In response to the general public’s discontent with big

business Congress passed:

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890): declared all monopolies and trusts restraining trade illegal.

-However, because the law failed to define what a monopoly or trust was, it was almost impossible to enforce.