DBQ Essay American Industrialization from civil war to WWI

Between the Civil War and the end of World War I, industrialization played an ever increasing role in the economic, social, and political development of the United States. Industrialization had a huge impact on American in all of these ways, such as many Americans moving from the rural areas to urban areas, living the big city lifestyle with Industrialization on the rise. Social Darwinism also known as Survival of the fittest took an impact during this time period, the nation was facing great changes causing many people to begin new lifestyles. People began working in factories and big buildings instead of on farms. Labor unions also were formed to protect the workers from unfair wages, long days, unsafe conditions, etc. Although there were positive effects during this time there were also negative effects on the social, political, and economic, aspects of the United States. First I will go over how industrialization affected America economically. Industrialization was at a rise during this time many “Big Shot” industrialists became quite wealthy from this, although most industrialists used ruthless business tactics to accumulate their wealth. Andrew Carnegie believed in the moral duty of the rich giving back to the community so he spent much of his wealth paying for libraries, universities, trust funds, and Carnegie Hall to be built also creating more jobs (Shown in Document 8). Another Economic effect on the United States was the American entry into WWI. The army for the United States wasn’t as prepared for the modern campaigning military action like other European nations. America’s productive strength made up for that by boosting billions of dollars and our industrial potential caused its share of world manufacturing output to be 2 and a half times that of Germanys. Our entry transformed the balances and compensated for the collapse of Russia at the time (Shown in Document 9) this being a positive of American industrialization.