The Economy and the West After the Civil War

The Economy and the West After the Civil War After the Civil War, the government’s role in the economy and westward expansion changed. They became more focussed on helping big industrial businessmen and no longer need to worry about taming the West. The economy itself changed greatly in the post Civil War era. The Industrial Revolution led to a new kind of big business. Now men like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt had huge monopolies and trusts, making it nearly impossible for the common man to get ahead. Many government officials were bribed to make policies favorable to big business. Also, the power of the Presidents was a joke at this time. The US went through a period of nearly useless presidents, who turned a blind eye to corruption and bribery within their cabinets, Congress, and the House of Representatives. With protective tariffs on imports, and monopolies in industry, the common person was left with no choice but to pay whatever the businessmen charged. The government did little to stop the monopolies, and the unfair decisions the Supreme Court made regarding them, such as using the Fourteenth Amendment to say that industries were people, and therefore had the same property rights as people. The economy flourished under the government’s lack of action, but the common people were left in the dust. As the rich got richer, the poor got poorer. Another interesting change at this time was the West. As more people settled there, it lost its mystery. The Wild West was no longer wild, and the government reflected those changes in their new actions. First, they granted land to railroad companies to build tracks throughout the West, connecting the rural land with the cities. The railroad brought all the newest inventions to the farmers and other people, modernizing the once rugged frontier. Another much sadder government action was the massacre at Wounded Knee. About 150 Sioux were killed in 1890, in what became the last major conflict