Nineteenth Century Industrialization in the United States

Nineteenth Century Industrialization in the United States

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the United States experienced an urban revolution unparalleled in world history up to that point in time. As factories, mines, and mills sprouted out across the map, cities grew up around them. The late nineteenth century, declared an economist in 1889, was “not only the age of cities, but the age of great cities.” Between 1860 and 1910, the urban population grew from 6 million to 44 million. The United States was rapidly losing its rural roots. By 1920, more than half of the population lived in urban areas. The rise of big cities during the nineteenth century created a distinctive urban culture. People from different ethnic and religious backgrounds came into the cities and settled down in large apartment building and tenement houses. They came in search of jobs, wealth, and new opportunities. Urbanization brought a widening of the gap between the poor and the rich. Nineteenth century American industrialization relied upon poverty and immigration for its success. Industrialization grew due to an increase of workers and cheap labor.

The ideal of success in business and prosperity fueled the rise in immigration. Immigrants came in search of riches but they were soon to find out that wealth was not what they received. The industrial revolution brought huge numbers of new immigrants from every part of the world. By the end of the century, nearly 30 percent of the residents of major cities were foreign-born. Their arrival to America brought the laborers that the industries and factories needed. Their arrival also created unsightly racial and ethnic tensions. Most immigrants were lured to America by the promise of affluence even though they were doing just fine in their own countries. American industries, seeking cheap labor, kept recruiting agents on watch abroad and at American ports. “From 1820 to 1900, about 20 million immigrants entered American ports, more than half of them coming after the Civil War. The tide of immigration rose from just under 3 million in the 1870s to more than 5 million in the 1880s, then fell to a little over 3.5 million in the depression decade of the 1890s, and rose to its high-water mark of nearly 9 million in the first decade of the new century. The numbers declined to 6 million in the 1910s and 4 million in...

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...a prominent strike in American history and therefore brought about a change in workers rights. The formation of labor unions like the AFL, and the Knights of Labor lead to a more socialist system. The American worker changed because of unions and much was for the better. The worker would no longer stand for unjust treatment and thus the American worker did counteract the relationships between themselves and their employers.

American industrialization relied upon poverty and immigration for its success. If immigrants had not worked for low wages at factories and industries the economic boom would not have taken place. The money made during the early nineteenth century was necessary to stimulate the growth in business. American workers finally became fed up with the unfair treatment they had been receiving, therefore they joined unions. Unions changed the capitalist system into the socialist system that remains today.

Works Cited

Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle, Bantam Books, New York, 1906.

Sumner, William. What the Social Classes Owe Each Other, www.xroads.virgina.edu,

Tindall, George. America: A Narrative History, W.W. Norton and Company New York, 1999.