Causes of Rapid Industrialization

1. Causes of Rapid Industrialization • Steam Revolution of the 1830s-1850s. • The Railroad fueled the growing US economy: • First big business in the US. • A magnet for financial investment. • The key to opening the West. • Aided the development of other industries.

2. Government Actions • The Pacific Railway Act – gave land grants to railroad to expand west – these are considered subsidies. They cost the railroads nothing and the companies sold the land to settlers and speculators. The railroad companies then took the profits from the sale • Homestead Act of 1862 = settlers could get the 160 acres for nothing, agree to live there and farm it for 5 years. At the end of that time they paid a $10 filing fee and the land was theirs.

3. Causes of Rapid Industrialization • Technological innovations. • Bessemer and open hearth process • Refrigerated cars • Edison • “Wizard of Menlo Park” • light bulb, phonograph, motion pictures.

4. The Light Bulb Thomas Alva Edison

5. The Phonograph (1877)

6. Alexander Graham Bell Telephone (1876)

7. Alternate Current George Westinghouse

8. U. S. Patents Granted 1790s  276 patents issued. 1990s  1,119,220 patents issued.

9. Causes of Rapid Industrialization • Unskilled & semi-skilled labor in abundance. • Lots of money to invest. • New, talented group of businessmen [entrepreneurs] and advisors. • Market growing as US population increased. • Government willing to help at all levels to stimulate economic growth. • Abundant natural resources.

10. When did corporations first appear in the New World? Joint Stock Companies VA Company that founded Jamestown

11. Factors of Production • Land • Labor • Capital • Technology • Entrepreneurship

12. Industrial Growth • Begins first in the first half of the 19th century • It was enabled by government actions and changes in each of the factors of production • Government plays a large role in providing the environment in which entrepreneurship can be successful

13. Government Actions Prior to the Civil War • Protected businesses through regulating interstate commerce • Protective tariffs

14. Republican Congress During the Civil War • Established policies that would foster economic growth both during and after the Civil War • Offered subsidies to railroads • Offered free land to settlers (Homestead Act 1862) • Reorganized banking during the war • Military contracts for war supplies stimulated the economy

15. Other Government Actions • Removed or controlled the Native Americans who threatened to impede access to resources • Open immigration policies that created a vast pool of workers • Court decisions that upheld contracts- Dartmouth v Woodard • Patent laws that protected the rights of inventors

16. Cont. • Allowed open immigration • After the transcontinental railroad was finished in 1869 they limited the number of Chinese who came in by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act . • Because there were so many available workers the big businesses had a never ending supply of labor, therefore they could treat them as they wanted.

17. Workers • Low wages because so many people wanted jobs • Worked them to death • Tried to form labor unions to fight for better job conditions, fewer working hours, and higher wages. • Prices were so high they couldn’t afford consumer goods but the tariffs protected their jobs.

18. Role of Westward Expansion • Promoted by government actions through: • Purchase (LA Purchase, Gadsden Purchase • Treaties ( With Spain to gain FL, Guadalupe Hidalgo with Mexico) • War – With Mexico • Opened up access to natural resources such as coal and iron ore.

19. After The War • Protected settlers from Native Americans • Promoted immigration • Kept its hands off business and supported the business owners when workers threatened strikes • Raised tariffs to protect American businesses from foreign competition HOW WOULD EACH OF THESE PROMOTE ECONOMIC GROWTH?

20. The government also encouraged expanding to international markets and established policies that expanded our territorial influence and protected investments abroad and that promoted open trade. Europe had already industrialized and begun their period of imperialism.

21. Factors Supporting Industrialization • Western Mining • Immigration • Government subsidies and tax breaks to railroads • Laissez faire attitude of the government • New sources of power • High Tariffs • Horizontal and Vertical integration • National Markets • Civil War profits and investment • Bessemer Process

22. How did this affect Native Americans? • We wanted their lands that were rich in natural resources. • People taking advantage of the Homestead Act were moving onto their lands as well • The western tribes involved actually engaged in a series of wars with the American government because they didn’t want to give up the land and the government was not living up to the treaties it had signed with the tribes.

23. Government Policy Toward Native Americans • Assimilation – bring them into the American culture and make them like us. • Dawes Severalty Act – The native’s land was divided up into parcels to farm. Each family got land. • ANYONE SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS?

24. Cont. • Native American’s view of the land did not include the concept of ownership. To them it was there for everyone to use, • They didn’t know how to farm • Their children were taken back east to boarding schools to be “Americanized.”

25. How Did The Native Amricans Resist ? • Revived traditions like the Ghost Dance – it was a traditional dance done to drive their enemies away – that meant the Americans • Attacks on American cavalry • Fetterman Massacre • Battle of the Little Bighorn – Custer’s last stand All of the American Cavalry was massacred.

26. How did the US react? • Battle of Wounded Knee- was a response to the massacre of Americans in both Fetterman Massacre . An entire tribe of western Indians was massacred by the US. Over 300 died including women and children. Wounded Knee was also in retaliation because they refused to stop their “Ghost Dance”

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29. End Result • Native Americans left without their land as well • Also left in poverty with no rights and not considered a part of this country.