Industrialization In The 19th Century

After the civil war and then throughout the rest of the nineteenth century, became much larger, more industrialized, and became much more common. The new American city changed people’s lives and people continued to change the city. The most prominent factors that transformed places like New York, Boston, and Chicago were immigration, industrialization, and the expansion of the railway system. The Industrialization of cities in the mid to late 1800’s all started with the railroad system. Railroads were not brand new at the time, however the amount of railroad tracks laid went up exponentially during the civil war, especially in the North. This allowed people to travel farther, faster, and cheaper, as well as products and raw materials. This resulted in a nationwide market, and also big business for people like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. The Rockefellers and Carnegies of the nation did three very important things - they used horizontal and vertical integration, creating monopolies which controlled the market, keeping other company’s products cheaply priced. Also, they battled labor unions, even turning to violence to try to
Immigrants from Europe and Asia brought various foods, songs, dances and literature to the United States - as well as a willingness to work cheaply. Because the immigrants were willing to work cheaply, they threatened the jobs of Americans, especially unionists. This created a push for nativism, and a want to keep the job-threatening workers out of America. In fact, in 1882, the exclusion act was even passed to keep chinese immigrants out. This was the first Exclusion policy of the United States, a policy that still stands today with different countries. However, European immigrants were still coming in increasingly high numbers. The large influx of people required structures for shelter and food, which lead to the dumbbell tenements and food markets