Labor Revolts In Response To Industrialization In The 19th Century

Hayley Estrada HIST 18 - 39395 – Summer 2024 Professor John Bradshaw 06/12/2024 Précis – Module One (1)

The United States experienced a period of unorganized labor revolts in response to industrialization in the 19th century. In 1877, the Great Railroad Strike led workers to shutdown railroads.1 Wealthy business leaders reacted quickly to military repression. This led to new strike uprisings in Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Chicago, disillusioned workers with their need for institutionalization, and convinced the government to implement a firmer political presence.2 Labor unrest grew due to harsh working conditions, low pay, and unrealistic labor hours. Taylorism only furthered this uneasiness, as Frederick Taylor urged manufacturers to increase
4. Industrial production relies on the leniency of marketplace competition. Business firms overrun markets, desperate to stabilize their profits amidst competition. Between 1895 and 1904, company mergers established “the great merger movement.” This spurred an event in which nearly 20 percent of America’s companies merged into larger rival firms and introduced monopolization.5 Massive companies also introduced a division between the industrial wealthy and the rural poor. Charles Darwin’s works popularly reasoned that the success of superior classes would encourage the survival of the weak, which would ultimately benefit their superiors.6 William Graham Summer supported Social Darwinism as well, believing that the wealthy were rich because of natural selection and perceived their efforts as a social service.7 In addition to this justification, large businesses looked to the Republican Party for protection. The party advocated for foreign tariffs, fueled railroad construction, and dominated politics. While Social Darwinism provided moral justification for advancing businesses, the Republican Party provided protection for American industrialists.8 However, Social Darwinism sparked anger among
Though the Democratic South opposed them, they became America’s third-largest party.11 However, its division made it difficult to implement official political change, and the Democrats eventually swallowed the Populists after their temporary fusion.12 The Socialist Party also advocated for America’s equal distribution of profits.13 After the Civil War, the U.S. expanded West to extract bison hides, find labor, seek religious freedom, and follow the Homestead Act.14 However, Native Americans in the west were not willing to relocate their homeland to “Indian reservations.” 15 The mytho Dakota Sioux, the Cheyenne tribe, and the Comanche bands.16 Chief Joseph of the New Perce tribe refused to move to a reservation and suffered as the U.S. military pursued him. He reasoned that they peacefully shared their ancestral lands in Oregon.17 Many Native Americans shared similar beliefs and only resolved to violence when provoked.18 When the U.S. sent Christian missionaries to reservations to replace native traditions, Native Americans continued to resist but eventually submitted to reservation life.19 Life outside of the Plains also encountered violent repression, seen through the Navajo’s Long March in 1863.20 Westward expansion was dependent on