Gilded Age Through Populism 1865-1899 .
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Transcript of Gilded Age Through Populism 1865-1899 .
Gilded Age Through Populism
Gilded Age Through Populism
1865-1899 1865-1899
http://img.nextag.com/image/Target-Victoria-Hagan-Gilded/1/000/005/697/977/569797748.jpghttp://img.nextag.com/image/Target-Victoria-Hagan-Gilded/1/000/005/697/977/569797748.jpg
FORGING AN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
Forging an Industrial Society
From Civil War (1861) until Spanish American War (1898) America becomes an INDUSTRIAL NATION
http://images.jupiterimages.com/common/detail/45/02/22850245.jpghttp://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/homestead-act/images/homesteading-family.gif
SHEER SCALE OF IT ALL!
SHEER SCALE OF IT ALL!
Industrial Employment
Transcontinental Railroads
Megamillionaires
http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/2669149.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=6E41E83E90A345BDDD8DCBCD74304702A55A1E4F32AD3138
ROBBER BARONS AND REBELSBETWEEN CIVIL WAR AND 1900
steam and electricity replaced human muscle, iron replaced wood, and steel replaced iron
machines drove steel tools
oil lubricates machinery and lights homes and factories
people and goods move by railroad
Machines Change FarmingBefore the Civil War - it took 61 hours of labor to produce an acre of wheat
By 1900 - it took 3 hours and 19 minutes to produce an acre of wheat
manufactured ice enables transportation of food over long distances and the meatpacking industry is born
Machines Change Manufacturing
steam drove textile mill spindles
it drove sewing machines
IT CAME FROM COAL
1860- 14 million tons of coal mined
1884- 100 million tons of coal mined
more coal makes more steel
RailroadsFirst transcontinental railroad built of blood, sweat, politics, and thieveryUnion Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads
construction done by 3,000 Irish and 10,000 Chinese over 4 years
Credit Mobilier company (scandal) gained $94 million for a job that cost $44 million
RR built longer, twister routes to get subsidies from towns they went through
Railroads1890s most of the country’s railways mileage was concentrated in 6 huge systems
Four of these were completely or partially owned by the House of JP Morgan
During Civil War JP Morgan bought five thousand rifles @ $3.50 from army arsenal then sold them to a general in the field for $22.00 each. Rifles were defective and would shoot off the thumbs of soldier using them.
Congressional investigation cleared Mr. Morgan http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Jpmorgan.jpg
Shrewd, Efficient Businessmen
John D. Rockefeller - Standard Oil Company
secret agreements w/ RR to ship his oil with them if they gave him rebates (discounts) on their prices and he drove competitors out of business
Shrewd, Efficient Businessmen
John D. Rockefeller - Standard Oil Company
Standard Oil Company was a HOLDING COMPANY - profits of $81 million a year
$1,752,854,150.85 in 2006.
Shrewd, Efficient BusinessmenAndrew Carnegie - Wall Street broker - Steel plants
tariffs meant no foreign competition
1880 he was producing 10,000 TONS of steel a month!
making $40 million a year$835,092,665.93 in 2006.
Shrewd, Efficient BusinessmenAndrew Carnegie - Wall Street broker - Steel plants
at dinner party sells his steel plant ($492,000,000) to JP Morgan
JP Morgan forms the U.S. Steel Corporation combining Carnegie’s with others
He sold stocks and bonds for $1,300,000,000 ($400 million more than combined worth of companies) and took a fee of $150 million
how to keep that profit? Make sure Congress passes tariffs and pay some 200,000 men twelve hours a day for wages that barley kept their families alive
STRUGGLE TO ADAPT OLD IDEALS OF PRIVATE AUTONOMY TO NEW REALITIES OF CIVILIZATION
SWEEPING CHANGES
Spirit of capitalism
Spirit of the Western frontier
Spirit of individualism
mushrooming cities
anti-immigrant
social and political turmoil
labor violence: Chicago and Homestead, Pa
Small farmers squeezed by debt and foreign competition gather behind the People’s Party or the POPULIST PARTY - they attack Wall street, big bankers, and RR executives
BITTER DISPUTES OVER MONETARY POLICY AND TARIFFS
DEBTORS
FARMERS
WEST AND SOUTH
LENDERS
MANUFACTURERS
NORTHEASTVS
CORRUPTION
PLAINS INDIANS
federal gov’t subdue - large army force in the West
federal gov’t control resources
SOUTH
untouched by Industrial Revolution!
rural and race relations untouched
NATIONAL SELF CONFIDENCE