The Gilded Age served an enormously critical role in shaping the American economy throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Manufacturing needs from the Civil War, advances in science and technology shifted the American economy into industrialization. Cities quickly became flooded with immigrants and workers from every corner of the country, creating a pool of cheap labor. Railways expanded massively, connecting the nation’s major cities and generating a nationwide marketplace for business to compete. A combination of industrialization, technology, and urbanization transformed the standard of living. During this time, much of the rapid growth that occurred was led by significant inventions that were created.
In the midst of the industrial economy exploding, people saw a wave of opportunity in the marketplace, and a chance to innovate further. There was value in delivering a products, and services that could be beneficial to people, businesses, and society. The timing of innovation often varied from one industry to another, having a ripple effect. Although, this resulted in an unprecedented level of productivity across every field. Profits for businesses were rising from the continuously increasing levels of production, while former workshops were replaced with assembly lines and factories. Larger scale production made economic sense to businessmen as it decreased the overhead costs.
While some people pursued career opportunities in the American frontier, others looked for new ways of doing things incorporating technology. Thomas Edison was one such person. In 1876, he and his colleagues opened an invention workshop in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where they intended to turn out “a minor invention every ten days and a big thing every s...
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...ation.Sir Henry says, converted wrought-iron bars into Bessemer cast steel in thirty minutes, wholly without skilled manipulation.
Reducing costs, labor, and time required to make steel using this valuable process allowed the creation of some of the most remarkable construction projects in history. The Bessemer process had an impact not only on on the manufacturing system, but largely in the US economy. The mass production allowed for, the possibility to use steel in the construction of buildings, bridges, and railroad lines. These infrastructures were crucial to the success of the US economy as it migrated to a free enterprise economy.
Each of these innovations and developments increased productivity, and was the backbone behind the the growth that occured during the Gilded age. Newly created jobs were meeting the demand from the population
The exact period of time in which the Gilded Age occurred is ever-debatable, but most historians can at least agree that it started within the 20 years after the Civil War ended and lasted until the early 1920s. (West) The Gilded Age itself was characterized by the beginnings of corporations and corrupt political machines. Policies such as the General Incorporation Laws allowed business to grow larger more easily, and with less red tape involved. New technology allowed faster and more efficient production, but this explosive growth of industry called for not only more resources, but new business practices and leaders as well. (Moritz 10-12)
The Gilded Age was the spark of technical innovations and advance in America. Railroads, steel, kerosene, light bulbs, ac/dc electrical lighting, etc., were all innovations that lead to technical advances. Inventors or businessmen helped take the Gilded Age to the peek. Men impacted their time by creating theories, efficient innovations, faster transportation. Each idea was a step into the right direction.
The Gilded Age was a time period of rampant development in the American Economy with a policy that minimized the intervention of the government in economic matters. In the late 1800’s starting with railroads, small businesses evolved to the point where the nation’s economy was monopolized by wealthy industrialists and financiers.1 With all this control in the hands of few wealthy individuals critics began to point out several inequalities among Americans.
He went to London in 1872, saw the new Bessemer method of producing steel, and returned to the United States to build a million-dollar steel plant. Foreign competition was kept out by a high tariff conveniently set by Congress, and by 1880 Carnegie was producing 10,000 tons of steel a month, making $1 1/2 million a year in profit. By 1900 he was making $40 million a year, and that year, at a dinner party, he agreed to sell his steel company to J. P. Morgan. He scribbled the price on a note: $492,000,000.”
Technology transformed the United States during the Gilded Age by the changing of American labor force. During this period, America changed into a more industrial society. Many Go-Getters sought the land of the United States very prosperous, and ventured in hopes of opportunity. The immigrants would soon shape the development of American labor in the latter part of the 19th century. The “four major trends—loss of control over workplace, labor con...
During the turn of the 19th century, the American economy rapidly switched from an agriculture base to one of the largest manufacturers in the world through Industrialization. This movement could be tied to the Gilded Age, or the time between the Civil War and WWI, where the rich were extremely poor and vice versa. The wealthier Americans during the Gilded Age were the poster children of the nation, the picture of American opportunity, and a large contributor to the spike in immigration to the United States during the turn of the 19th century. With developments in manufacturing, these wealthy citizens capitalized on the opportunity and became leaders during Industrialization, earning themselves the title of Industrialists. Industrialists during
The Gilded Age gets its name from a book by Mark Twain called The Gilded Age: a Tale of Today. It was written in 1873, and unfortunately was not that successful. While the Gilded Age conjures up visions of ostentatious displays of wealth and decorative parties, the over all topic was politics. The book gives an extremely negative assessment of the state of American democracy at that time. Which does not come as a huge surprise coming from Twain, who famously said "It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” So when faced with sweeping changes in the American economy after the Civil War, the American political system both nationally and locally dealt with these problems in the best way possible, by inevitably and incredibly becoming corrupt.
... than they did before. Thus widening the gap between being poor and being wealthy. Land value was also increasing due to the location of the factories. The North-East land became more valuable because that is were most of the factories were located.(Bailey) Overall, the Industrial Revolution brought more money to North America which caused the country to flourish and it kept the country alive and helped it grow to what it is today.
America had a huge industrial revolution in the late 1800”s. Many changes happened to our great nation, which factored into this. The evidence clearly shows that advancements in new technology, a large wave of immigrants into our country and new views of our government, helped to promote America’s huge industrial growth from the period of 1860-1900.
The Gilded Age was a time of transition for the citizens of the United States. They experienced great changes not only in economic status but also social change. This age witnessed the growth of many industries, unions, technology and the rise of many big businesses. However, there were some factors caused a great divide amongst Americans. Some of these factors include: the upper class reaping all the benefits that would not be possible without lower class workers, lower class workers demanding better conditions as they were usually underpaid and worked long hours, another factor was also the image of what the Gilded Age was to immigrants versus what the reality of it was. This is shown by John Mitchell in “The Workingman’s Conception of Industrial
The Gilded Age consisted of many new technological advancements such as the railroad. The gilded age is a time period where technology started increasing, many more jobs opened up. Also since there were more jobs the American wages were even higher then in Europe which caused many immigrants to migrate to the United Staes. However, the Gilded Age was also an era of poverty as very poor European immigrants came in to find jobs but the high wages were for skilled American workers. Railroads were the major industry, but the factory system, mining, and labor unions also increased in importance. But these improvements were only in the east and west, so the south remained economically devastated; its economy became increasingly tied to cotton and tobacco production.
The Gilded Age was a period of economic growth as the United States jumped to the lead in industrialization ahead of Britain. Though there were many new inventions during the era of the Gilded Age, the most important one the the creation of the transcontinental railway. In 1869, the First Transcontinental Railroad opened up the western mining and farming regions. It was helpful to the immigrants because it allowed more immigrants to come into the country. I think thar there was many inventors of this time, but I think that Thomas Edison was one of the most influential inventors because he developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the
One of the most important achievements of the Gilded Age was the creation of a network of railroads including the transcontinental railroad, which connected the United States from New York to California, facilitating transportation across the continent. During the Gilded Age the length of all the railroads combined increased threefold ("Second Industrial Revolution"). This was significant not only because it decreased travel time from the eastern to western parts of the U.S and vice versa down from months to weeks and allowed people to settle the central United States, but also opened new areas for commercial farming and gave an economic boost to steel...
In the years leading up to the industrial era, manual labor was required across the country in order to produce goods such as wheat, steel, or other raw materials. In order to create these, skilled workers were needed so they could produce the materials. While the materials that the skilled workers made were of a high quality, there was a drawback; in order to make such high quality materials, companies needed to pay these workers more than the average worker. In response to this, companies set out to find a way to make more product for cheaper. A prime example of how they did this is when they created the Bessemer process. This is a machine/process that converts iron into steel via injection of air into the raw iron. The process is credited with launching the steel industry and cheapening the cost of production because it was no longer necessary to employ high skilled workers (Document B). With this, the need for highly paid skilled workers was no longer necessary because steel companies could employ low skill workers and pr...
The Gilded Age in the United States was from 1870s to about 1900. This was an era of rapid economic growth, mainly in the North and West. As a result, American wages were a lot higher than countries such as Europe, workers migrate to the United States by the millions. In turn, cause the wages to grow rapidly. The most affect in the Gilded Age was the railroads. However, the Gilded Age was also an era known for poverty and discrimination against