Important Factors Leading to the Gilded Age

After the Civil War, the Second American Industrial Revolution or Gilded Age made the Americans the most industrialized people in the world. This economic phenomenon was unprecedented in history. There were several factors that led the American economic prowess and prosperity. The Americans were blessed with natural resources and a liberal immigration policy to ensure steady work force. Yet, the most important factors were technological innovation and entrepreneurial ability.
As America pushed further into the latter half of the nineteenth century, the country, as well as her people began to change. According to the United States Census of 1870, the U.S. resident population was approximately 38 million and an estimated 80 percent of Americans lived on farms. In comparison to the U.S. Census of 1900 which showed the resident population over 76 million and the percentage of those residents living on farms to half the amount 1870 at 40 percent. This was due to the dramatic change in the immigrants to the United States post 1880. Prior to the 1880s the immigrants to America were predominately from the British Isles, Germany, and Ireland, while significant amounts were also Chinese. During the 1880s American immigrants began to flow more from southern and eastern Europe, this included the Italians, Jews, Croats, Slovaks, Greeks, and Poles; furthermore, these new immigrants accounted for only 19 percent in the 1880s, but for 66 percent just after the turn of the century. The surge of new immigrants to the United States was partially due to the over growing population in the Old World, however, it was also due to “American fever” as America was portrayed as the land of opportunity in Europe. Americans would sell dreams thr...

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...iation of self-governing national unions, each of which kept its independence, with the AF of L unifying overall strategy” (Kennedy, Cohen, and Bailey 480). AF of L focused on achieving better hours, compensation, and working conditions through the use of strikes and boycotts. Though the AF of L had over 500,000 members by the turn of the century, this was only about 3 percent of the work force and didn’t include women or blacks. The AF of L is the longest standing labor union and is still in place today after a merge with the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
During the Pullman Strike of 1894, the American Railroad Union went on strike and boycotted against all trains that carried Pullman cars; this was due to reduction in wages. Eight million dollars in damages and thirty people died as a result to the riots. The AF of L actually opposed the boycott,