Big Business and the Gilded Age

Transcontinental Railroad ‘62

• Bessemer process• Union Pacific v. Central Pacific• Chinese laborers (12,000/90% CPR) • Land grants = $133-500 m. to rail co.• Completed 1869 at Promontory Point,

Utah• Govt. & Big Business stimulate, not regulate

– Land (131 million acres)– Eminent domain– Indian removal

fig16_04.jpg

The Railroad Network, 1880 • pg. 596

The Railroad Network, 1880

• Investments in Rails by RR companies – 1850 $300 million– 1870 $2.5 billion

• 1865 = 35,000 miles of rail• 1880 = 93,000 “ “• 1890 = 166,000 “ “

Catch-up slide…take a breather

fig16_04.jpg

Mining Frontier

• Gold in Cali (they were going back to Cali.)

• Comstock Lode (Nevada) = silver

Cattle Frontier

• Causes– Expansion of rail/Transcontinental railroad– Barbed wire– Refrigerated rail cars

• Effects– Massive drives from Tex. Neb. – Train to Chicago– Beef begins to “do the body good”

fig16_15.jpg

Changing Indian Policy

• 1881 A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson

• Reservation policy since 1850s• Dawes Act 1887 ~ Americanization

– reservations into 160 acre farms– citizenship– 25 yrs.

• Forced assimilation breeds…• Ghost Dance…which leads to…• Wounded Knee Massacre…The End

Wounded Knee

– On December 29, 1890, soldiers opened fire on Ghost Dancers encamped on Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota, killing between 150 and 200 Indians, mostly women and children

Effects of Dawes Act

• 90 m. of 138 m. acres of N.A. land became white-owned in just 45 years

• boarding schools tear apart N.A. families

Causes of Industrialization

• Railroads (1st “Big Business”)– Steel– Transport goods = national market

• Inventions

• Natural resources coal, iron ore

• Pop. Growth– Immigration– Natural pop. increase high

Causes of Industrialization

• Entrepreneurs– “Captains of industry” or

“Robber barons”– Vanderbilt, Rockefeller,

Carnegie, Swift, Morgan, Duke

fig16_20.jpg

fig16_07.jpg

Causes of Industrialization

• Laissez-faire gov’t. – few regulations

• Gov’t. aid– Land grants rails

colleges (Morrill Land Grant Act ’62)

• tariffs

Land Grant Colleges:A Sampling

ALABAMA Alabama A&M University Auburn University Tuskegee University ALASKA University of Alaska, Fairbanks ARIZONA University of Arizona ARKANSAS University of Arkansas CALIFORNIA University of California COLORADO Colorado State University CONNECTICUT University of Connecticut DELAWARE University of Delaware FLORIDA Florida A&M University University of Florida

GEORGIA University of Georgia IDAHO University of Idaho ILLINOIS University of Illinois INDIANA Purdue University IOWA Iowa State University KANSAS Kansas State University KENTUCKY University of Kentucky LOUISANA Louisana State University MAINE University of Maine MARYLAND University of Maryland MASSACHUSETTSMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyUniversity of Massachusetts MICHIGAN Michigan State University MINNESOTA University of Minnesota MISSISSIPPI Mississippi State University

MISSOURI University of Missouri MONTANA Montana State UniversityNEBRASKA University of Nebraska NEVADA University of Nevada, Reno NEW HAMPSHIRE University of New Hampshire NEW JERSEY RutgersNEW MEXICO New Mexico State UniversityNEW YORK Cornell University NORTH CAROLINA North Carolina State University NORTH DAKOTA North Dakota State University OHIO Ohio State UniversityOKLAHOMA Oklahoma State University OREGON Oregon State University PENNSYLVANIA Penn State University PUERTO RICO University of Puerto Rico RHODE ISLAND University of Rhode Island SOUTH CAROLINA Clemson University SOUTH DAKOTA South Dakota State University TENNESSEE University of Tennessee TEXAS Texas A&M University UTAH Utah State University VERMONT University of Vermont VIRGINIA Virginia Tech WASHINGTON Washington State University WEST VIRGINIA West Virginia University WISCONSIN University of Wisconsin-Madison WYOMING University of Wyoming

Second Industrial Revolution: Effects

• Industrial Economy – By 1913, US produced one-third of the

world’s industrial output

– Factory work majority work non-farming jobs

Table 16.1 • pg. 594

Second Industrial Revolution: Effects

• Cities grow esp. west Appl. Mtns.

• Gap btw. rich and poor grows– Social Darwinism says its ok– Horatio Alger

• New business models vertical v. horizontal

New Business models

• Vertically integrated– Own all aspects of an manufacturing

• Horizontally integrated– Own all/most of one industry (steel)

Government and the Economy• Gov’t not equipped

• Republican economic policies favor industrialists and bankers

• Reforms begin Civil Service (Pendleton) Act of 1883 created a merit system for federal employees civil service exams

• Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) in 1887

• Sherman Antitrust Act 1890