Industrialization of America 1865-1900
Industrialization in America was a surprisingly quick process given the slow crawl in Europe toward the growth of manufacturing and industry. In 1860, America was fourth in the world in manufacturing but by the turn of the 20th century was the biggest industrial nation in the world by far. Profiteering during and after the Civil War as well as the favorable, pro-business presidencies of Ulysses Grant along with the hands-off presidencies of the Gilded Age led to an upsurge in wealth accumulation. This excessive accumulation in the hands of a few business leaders was then invested into expensive manufacturing operations, which was used to extract massive amounts of natural resources and import cheap labor from southern and eastern Europe. As well, this tangent of great wealth was fortunate to run into the creation of Bell’s telephone in 1876 and Edison’s light bulb in 1879 to create the first massive infiltration by businesses into the household. Prosperity and the want of prosperity were the signs that industrialization’s effects had reached communities across the United States.
Three major business figures emerged at the end of the 19th century. These “robber barons” were Andrew Carnegie in the steel industry, J.P. Morgan in the banking industry, and John Rockefeller in the oil industry. Morgan became the most important figure of the three major barons because his banking empire was able to tie together all of the other magnates to control a good portion of the American economy. This included consolidating businesses wounded by competition in order to run out competing businesses and forcing the hand of weak presidents and Congresses over four decades. Carnegie’s efficient steel making and marketing processes allowed America to outproduce Germany and England combined by the end of the century and the preeminence of Carnegie in steel meant that huge profits rolled in with little consideration to taxes. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil controlled 95 percent of the global petroleum market in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the introduction of home lighting and heating, along with the need of fuel in factories and vehicles, meant an almost endless amount of revenue sources for Standard. The cooperative alliances between the three industries, or “trusts,” provided cheaper goods, streamlined production and eliminated rate wars. However, it also led to poorer working conditions (leading to labor unions during this time), the promotion of elitism, and a danger to democracy when they held up Congress for greater profits and control over the economy.
One would be remiss in a discussion about industrialization in America without discussing the expansion of railroads, which allowed for the rapid expansion of industry across America. Between 1865-1900, railroad mileage in America increased from 35,000 miles to 192,000 miles thanks to congressional land grants and the end of partisan wrangling during the Civil War. Towns along the tracks and those that developed for the purpose of supporting rail workers flourished in the western territories and the profits of robber baron Cornelius Vanderbilt and his railroad business were made possible by the increasing property value for rail towns and the cheap labor brought in from China and Ireland. While the railroad was profitable and beneficial to the overall growth of the United States, it did expose the labor problems in the United States, along with the problems of non-regulation brought by the protests of early populist groups like the Grange movement. The industrialization of America, however, was beyond the control of politicians and the public alike as the Gilded Age was the era of big business. This would change, however slightly, during the 1900s and 1910s when the Progressive movement was able to take over Congress and the White House.
