1860 Dbq Analysis

In 1860, the United States was primarily a land that contained small towns and farms. At the time, Americans had discovered that living on farms were more beneficial than factories, since the amount of land was immense, affordable, and labor was high-priced due to its insufficiency. However, in a matter of forty years, the nation had made an evolution and became the greatest industrial country in the world. Ever since the rapid increase production of raw materials, farm laborers had departed to work in factories and our population immensely developed from six million to over thirty million. Between the years from 1860 through 1900, many factors supported to promote the growth of America’s industry. For one thing, American industrialists
progressed sluggishly from one product to another. According to document 1, factories adapted a way to “...reduce labour in the movement of materials from one point to another...” In 1913, Henry Ford created a method called the assembly line in which a product could be pieced together as it moves through a belt. To improve manufacturing, factories used mechanized systems such as the early American mill, with conveyer belts, which adequately carried materials faster. Compared to manual labor from human workers, this method sliced production time in half and required fewer employees. In addition, according to document 3, the government favored to build railroads and to improve rivers and harbors.
Railroads fueled industrial growth as it transported people, agricultural products, and raw materials products in an inexpensive and swifter approach. Railroads such as the Pennsylvania Railroad used a technique to limit its competition and kept their prices high as they bought seventy-three smaller lines and forced them out of business. They became so important to industrialization that document 2 proved to state that railroad mileage expanded from approximately 30,000 miles to almost 200,000 miles. In just less than thirty years, Nevada, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming became a state in America. Railroads created new economic opportunities, stimulated the development of towns and communities, and generally tied the country
together. Likewise, Congress rarely made laws about business practices, resulting many huge monopolies which became part of industrialization.
In document 7 it states that “In 1882 the Carnegie Steel Company...inaugurated a policy whose object was to control all factors which contributed to the production of steel, from the ore and coal in the ground to the steel billet and the steel rail.” Andrew Carnegie’s company basically owned iron mines, steel mills, railroads, and shipping lines. Rockefeller used his profits to buy other oil companies and ended rivalry in the oil industry by forming the Standard Oil Trust. J.P. Morgan created a banking monopoly, Swift and Armour possessed meat packing, and Vanderbilt created a railroad
conglomerate. Furthermore, document 6 states that 8.8 million American Immigration had occurred in the 1900’s. The cost of labor had slowed the development of industrialism, but because of the increase of immigration, the price decreased. It has said to be that farmers, immigrants, and African Americans from the South all migrated to cities in search of jobs and excitement. The “old” immigration consists of Northern and Western Europeans like people in Germany, France, Scandinavia, Scotland, etc. New” immigrants came from Southern and Eastern Europe or Asia such as Russia, China, Japan, Korea, Greece, etc. Even though most of them lived in settlement homes or became homeless, they still stayed for a new opportunity. As can be seen, both the people and technology had a great impact towards industrialization. The production of raw materials increased, which created factories that needed workers and railroads for transportation. If America’s transition towards industry hadn't developed, our population wouldn't be as vast as it was and we wouldn’t be known as the greatest industrial nation in the world.