Why were the immigrants so welcome in America?

Inventions and industry caused a need for workers!

1. Government policies of laissez faire capitalism and special considerations (E. G. land grants to the railroads)2. The increasing labor supply (from immigration and migration from farms) 3. America’s possession of a wealth of natural resources and navigable rivers4. New technologies such as . . .

Reasons for economic transformation

Bessemer Steel Production

In order to convert molten pig iron (crude iron) into steel with a Bessemer furnace, air must be blown through it to burn away impurities. This engraving of a steel factory illustrates the process developed by Sir Henry Bessemer in 1855 and used until the 1950s.

Thomas Edison

Created over 1000 inventions. His most famous were: the phonograph (an early type of record player) in 1877; first practical light bulb in 1879, provided NYC with electricity in 1882 and invented movies with sound in 1913.

Inventors:

Alexander Graham Bell: 1876

Henry Ford

Captains of Industry?

Four individuals gained hold of America’s most important businesses during the later half of the 19th

century an the early 20th century:

Andrew CarnegieThanks to the Bessemer process, steel became a huge industry for buildings and railroads. Carnegie controlled all phases of steel production and the other industries associated with steel (Mining, shipping of goods, . . ). In other words, Carnegie Steel was a monopoly, a business with virtually no competition.

J. P. Morgan

Described as a coldly rational man, Morgan was the main force behind the Trusts and monopolies of his time, controlling virtually all the basic American industries. He then looked to the financial and insurance industries, in which his banking firm also achieved a concentration of control.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt sold his steamboats in 1862 and began to buy railroad stock; within five years he controlled the New York Central Railroad. He continued his policy of improving service and greatly expanded his railroad holdings. Although in 1868 he failed to gain control of the Erie Railroad, he established a direct rail route between New York City and Chicago in 1873.

John D. Rockefeller

In 1882 Rockefeller and his partners formed the first corporate trust, Standard Oil Trust, to merge many oil businesses throughout the United States into a single company. Rockefeller soon controlled 90 percent of the oil refineries in the country. Journalists, small oil refiners, and many others heavily criticized Standard Oil for monopolizing the industry.

How do you think these four lived?

The good and bad of

industrialization: We’re these four

Captains of Industry or

Robber Barons?

http://avery.med.virginia.edu/~eas5e/Sadlier/Tenement.html

It wasn’t much better on the outside either!