Leaders of Industrialization

During the 1865-1900 time period, Industrialization had many great “leaders.” These leaders achieved the great challenge of booming the growth of industries and the economy of the United States and also fueled the United States to become the leading industrial power in the world. As historians have reviewed the achievements of these leaders, people have been questioning how honest the fortunes of these leaders were. They questioned the tactics of Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie. The main question that arose was whether to classify these men as “robber barons” or “industrial statesmen”. By looking at the achievements of these men it appears that not only were they entrepreneurs, but they were also generous to the community and the common good. Rockefeller gave millions of dollars to various missionaries, education boards, universities, and foundation before he died in 1937. Even though these men did give back to their nation, it is often said they only gave back to improve their image and to have their names live on forever. Rockefeller controlled more than 95% of the world’s oil market. His Standard Oil Company was the monopoly of the oil market. That is where he also got the title a robber baron, from his oil monopolies. He used his intelligence to find a way to refine oil. But once he got enough money raised, he found a way to control all of the oil industry. Instead of having to deal with the middle men in his business, he started his own barrel, refinery, pipeline and protection companies. This is what mainly established his wealth. He used the power that he had to skillfully gain the railroad companies money when they should have been paying other oil refineries. He also flushed out other competition by starting his “trust” methods. He also was accused of horizontal monopoly which gave him the right to set his prices to however much he wanted. For these reasons, Rockefeller is considered a “robber baron”, though he was a great influence to the