industrialisation 1880-1917 (completed)

key features of america's industrial revolution

- steel for industrial development

andrew carnegie

scottish immigrant

became wealthy through steel

- philanthropic philosophy

- profited from low wages to staff

John D Rockefeller

made money through oil

world's first billionaire

became a philanthropist

JP Morgan

enhanced fortune through banking skill

used money to donate paintings

when was the gilded age

1870s and 1880s

period of the 1870s was called what and why

the gilded age - seeming worship of money and ostentation

- corrupt politics and business dealings

what are robber barons

eg carnegie and the other industrialists

- willingness to take from the poor to enrich themselves and their investors

how did the state encourage corporations

- lack of rules and regulations

- encouraged freedom of action

USA advantages in industrialisation

- good sources of raw materials

- large scale immigration = workers

- demand for goods

- transport system

- unified nation

- nation without external threats to its security

industrialisation benefits

- expansion of white collar jobs in administration

- opportunities for jobs for women

- greater power given due to wealth

- rising wages as prices fell

industrialisation challenges to gov

- immigration - immigrants targeted by americans

- trade unions - violent strikes

- investigative journalism - exposed some of the unpleasantness of industrialisation

- farming - farmers objected to the power of bankers and corporations

challenges of industrialisation

- creation of powerful but unregulated corporations (often successful from unethical means)

- cities unable to cope with health and sanitation demands

- exploitation of workers = low wages and poor conditions

- ethnic and racial conflict

-

who were the progressives

- collection of groups who reacted to the social effects of industrialisation on ordinary people

- eg. campaigning for women's suffrage, improving lives of the immigrants and the poor

progressives differences made on society

- raising awareness on poverty and injustive

- demonstrating practical ways to help the poor

- encouraging ethical decisions instead of just profitable ones

progressives - changes that did not happen

- agencies helping those in need were often under-resourced

- did not end the influence of business and commerce on government

- little change on status of black workers