How Did John D Rockefeller Grow During The Era Of Industrialization

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At the end of the Civil War (1865), the era of industrialization began. The states from the north and the south seek for economic growth. There was a large amount of natural resources “unused” and “undiscovered” such as: iron, coal, oil, gold, silver and cooper, and they were ready to be exploited. Suddenly, Americans have the essentials to build a strong united nation. At first, there was a lot of competition, but the key of success was technology. During the Civil War, the Homestead Act of 1862 allowed people to own properties to any person who had lived and farmed for five years. Rapidly, there were a lot of land owners that allowed them to grow corn, wheat and cotton. Unfortunately, the production tripled and supply increased while demand was decreasing, which means they were producing more than they could sell. On the other hand, John D. Rockefeller explains how easy it was to cleanse crude petroleum that even butchers and bakers began to do it. Everybody saw the opportunity to make oil, because the profits were very large, up to the point where suddenly there was so much oil in the market that they had to drop the prices. However, Rockefeller created a strategy to stop the situation by gathering other businessmen and suggesting to increase capital to produce larger …show more content…

Rockefeller was born in New York State in 1839 and educated in Cleveland, Ohio. Rockefeller became the first billionaire in America by monopolizing oil. The oil business had a lot of competition, and Rockefeller had the great idea of creating a cartel, named South Improvement Company, to reduce competition. He took opportunities, made deals with Railroad companies with strategies like spying and bribing. By 1872, Rockefeller’s Standard Oil controlled 90 percent of the refining oil business, and became the first monopoly of the era. He retired in the mid-1890s and devoted his time to philanthropy. Also, he contributed money to churches and donated money to schools, mostly for

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