Post on 13-Jan-2016
World Class Educationwww.kean.edu
The New Industrial Order in
The Post-Civil War Period
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Topic 7
Natural resources – iron and oil Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments Favorable state and federal Government policies Immigration – influx of cheap labor New sources of power – oil / electricity American inventions and innovations Improved transportation – regional and
transcontinental railroads Giant corporations drive industrialization after the
Civil War
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New industrial products – factory-made goods
Improved standard of living begins Urban development Increased overseas trade / imperialism Problems of unregulated capitalism –
monopolies and ruthless competition Great fortunes accumulated
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Big corporations begin to replace single-owner business / partnerships with limited capital
Unfettered Competition Major investments in
railroads, steel, oil, telegraph and telephone communications
Corporations chartered to act as an “artificial legal person”
Emergence of powerful corporate tycoons
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Railroad empire begins1869
New York to Chicago
“What do I care for the law? Haven’t I got the Power?”
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Oil empire
Standard Oil Company of Ohio, 1870
90% of nation’s oil refineries
Supreme Court limits Rockefeller monopoly
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Steel empire
Carnegie Steel Company 1900
Iron ore deposits Railroads Steamships Steel mills
The Gospel of Wealth - the uses of wealth
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Finance – industrial consolidation
US Steel Corporation American Telephone
and Telegraph General Electric Northern Pacific RR
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Gustavus Swift – meatpacking
Philip D. Armour – meatpacking
Charles A. Pillsbury – flour milling
James B. Duke – cigarette manufacturing
Andrew Mellon – aluminum
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Created new industries
Efficiency Order out of
economic chaos Better services Improved quality of
products America becomes an
industrial giant Philanthropies –
endowment of museums, universities, libraries
Exploitation of workers
Corruption of government
Greed Destruction of small
producers Restraint of
competition - monopolies
Abuse of consumers Laissez faire
economics
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Haymarket Affair, 1886
Homestead Steel Strike, 1892
Pullman Strike, 1894 Anthracite Coal
Strike, 1902 Knights of Labor American Federation
of Labor The Industrial
Workers of the World
Low pay Long hours Unsafe working
conditions No minimum wage Employer lockouts
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“Mark Twain called the late 19th century the "Gilded Age." In the popular view, the late 19th century was a period of greed and guile, when rapacious robber barons, unscrupulous speculators, and corporate buccaneers engaged in shady business practices and vulgar displays of wealth. It is easy to caricature the Gilded Age as an era of corruption, scandal-plagued politics, conspicuous consumption, and unfettered capitalism. But it is more useful to think of this period as modern America's formative era, when the rules of modern politics and business practice were just beginning to be written.”
from www.digitalhistory.uh.edu
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Charles R. Morris, The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
Matthew Josephson, The Robber Barons: The Great American Capitalists, 1861–1901
Leon Litwack, The American Labor Movement
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