The Rise of Industrial America the City 1865

The Rise of Industrial America & the City: 1865 -1900 Chapter 2

My Questions How are the robber baron and captain of industry perspectives different from each other? How did industrialization change work in America? How did technology change work on the farm? How did skyscrapers and electricity affect the city?

Big Business and Millionaires After the Civil War, big businesses boomed giving rise to more millionaires and wealth than ever before in American history. The railroad, steel, and oil industries expanded the most resulting in three of the most prominent millionaires in American History. The Railroad Industry and Jay Gould The Steel Industry and Andrew Carnegie Standard Oil and Nelson Rockefeller

Jay Gould: Railroad Tycoon

Andrew Carnegie and Carnegie Steel Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Steel

Rockefeller & Oil Rockefeller & Standard Oil

Robber Baron vs. Captain of Industry Gould, Carnegie, and Rockefeller have been considered throughout history as either “robber barons” or “captains of industry”. The robber baron perspective claims that these businessmen only looked to gain huge profits for themselves while ensuring their competitors and their workers would remain poor. On the other hand, the captains of industry perspective claims that these businessmen moved America to the very top of the business world and without them the United States would have lagged behind economically.

The Importance of Industrialism The rise of these big businesses, often referred to as Industrialism, resulted in more than just a few millionaires who profited greatly. Most importantly, American Industrialism, changed who was doing the work and where it was being done. Work in America would now be found in cities instead of rural areas. Also because big businessmen preferred cheaper labor, most American workers were now unskilled and predominantly immigrants.

The Growth of Cities The last three decades of the 19 th century experienced an urban explosion. Chicago expanded from 100, 000 people in 1860 to over a million in 1890! L. A. went from 5, 000 residents to 100, 000 in the same time span! By 1900, thirty-eight American cities had over 100, 000 people, up from just eighteen cities in 1870. So why were the cities’ populations exploding?

Industrialization Creates Global Migration Looking for jobs and adventure, poor, rural farmers from both the United States and around the world headed to the cities. Cheap transportation by both train and steamship motivated rural workers to relocate to cities with industrial jobs.

Changes in Farming In 1870, 80% of America lived on farms. By 1900, just 66% lived on a farm. Why did this occur? After the Civil War, farms lost many of their workers. Hundreds of thousands of farming men died in the Civil War and those who survived often moved to the city to find work in city factories. With less help in the fields, devoted farmers turned to technology and specialized, commercial farms.

New Agricultural Technology New steel plows and reapers made it two times faster to farm and required less workers. Mechanical combines could reap twenty acres of wheat a day, which would have required the work of 20 men in the past. As a result, farmers who used new technology not only could farm more land, but they did not have to pay as many workers.

Harvests Multiply Harvests multiplied using new technology. Farmers were able to produce: four times the corn five times the hay and seven times the wheat and oats.

Women Leaving The Farm Because farming increasingly became mechanized, men found little use of female workers—including their own family members— since they did not trust them with new equipment. So young farmwomen flocked to cities and typically found work in sweatshops sewing and making mass-produced crafts.

Technology for the City New forms of technology also allowed cities to grow. The creation of mechanized assembly lines and electrical motors made city factories more efficient. Because these factories now had the capability to produce more manufactured goods they were always looking to hire new people. With lots of jobs to offer, factories attracted hordes of men, women, and children to cities.

Technology for the City Continued One of the most important innovations of this era for cities was the skyscraper. Before skyscrapers, the tallest buildings in most large cities were actually churches, which only went up a few hundred feet. But starting in the 1880 s, cities like Chicago and New York began to build these towering structures made of stronger steel. With businessmen competing over valuable urban space, the skyscraper allowed the city to grow upward instead of taking up space on the ground.

Question: What invention needed to be perfected before people were comfortable working in skyscrapers?

city & The City Electricity One of the major reasons people decided to move to cities was the availability of electrical power in urban areas. Thomas Edison, probably the most important inventor of all time, typically worked 20 hours a day at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. At the height of his career, he averaged one invention every 11 days!

city & The City Continued Electricity However, probably the most important thing that Edison did was promote the use of electricity as a power source and come up with a cheaper, practical light bulb. Edison’s light bulbs lighted homes, apartments, factories, and office buildings. Electricity was so prevalent in cities that the two became linked together. Since less than 10% of farms had electricity, one of the reasons many people moved to the city was to enjoy the benefits of electricity.