American Industry

American Industry (1860-1900)
I. Industrialization
 by
 the
 1860s II. The
 Industrial
 Transformation

A. Contribution
 of
 the
 Civil
 War B. Population
 Resources C. Money
 Capital D. Government
 Support E. Growth
 of
 Technology F. The
 Railroads
 &
 Telegraph III.
 The
 Rise
 of
 Big
 Business

Industrialization by the 1860s In
 1860
 there
 were
 more
 than
 140,000
 factories
 in
 the
 United
 States.
 About
  1.5
 million
 Americans
 worked
 in
 factories.
 Still,
 however,
 the
 United
 States
  continued
 to
 be
 primarily
 an
 agricultural
 nation.
 Seventy
 percent
 of
 all
  Americans
 were
 farmers.
 The
 great
 majority
 of
 industrial
 workers
 in
 1860
  were
 women
 and
 children.
 For
 this
 reason
 they
 had
 little
 impact
 on
 the
  political
 scene.
 This
 changed
 in
 1877
 when
 a
 nationwide
 strike
 of
 railroad
  workers
 took
 place.
 Americans
 came
 to
 realize
 that
 workers
 had
 the
 power
 to
  bring
 America
 to
 a
 standstill.
 By
 1900
 5.5
 million
 Americans
 were
 involved
 in
  industry.
 In
 1980
 only
 about
 20
 percent
 of
 the
 population
 even
 lived
 in
 a
 rural
  environment. It
 could
 be
 argued
 that
 the
 transformation
 of
 the
 United
 States
 from
 a
 rural,
  agricultural
 nation
 before
 the
 Civil
 War,
 into
 an
 industrialized
 nation
 by
 1900
  is
 one
 of
 the
 most
 dramatic
 changes
 in
 history.
 Before
 the
 Civil
 War,
  manufacturing
 in
 the
 United
 States
 was
 on
 a
 small
 scale.
 The
 United
 States
  was
 about
 5th
 in
 the
 world
 in
 industrial
 production.
 By
 1890
 the
 United
 States
  had
 become
 the
 leading
 industrial
 nation
 in
 the
 world.
 By
 1900
 American
  exports
 topped
 $11
 billion
 –
 by
 1924,
 $24
 billion. The
 decades
 after
 the
 Civil
 War
 shaped
 the
 growth
 patterns
 of
 modern
  American
 corporations.
 Some
 historians
 have
 argued
 that
 the
 war
 did
 a
 great
  deal
 to
 retard
 the
 growth
 of
 industry,
 but
 it
 cannot
 be
 denied
 that
 the
 demand
  for
 arms,
 supplies,
 transportation
 and
 the
 industrial
 community.
 In
 the
  decades
 after
 the
 war,
 America’s
 industry
 began
 to
 apply
 the
 lessons
 learned
  in
 supplying
 the
 needs
 of
 war
 to
 the
 creation
 of
 consumer
 goods. American
 industry
 had
 an
 enormous
 domestic
 market
 and
 labor
 source.
 The
  population
 of
 the
 United
 States
 tripled
 between
 1860
 and
 1910.
 The
 nation’s
 

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population
 grew
 from
 30
 million
 in
 1860
 to
 90
 million
 in
 1910.
 During
 the
  same
 period
 urbanization
 grew
 as
 never
 before.
 In
 1840
 only