Industrial Revolution Notes

Industrialization

• American went from ag → manufacturing

• Powered machinery and factories for mass production 

• Changed: economy, business, human settlement, family life, labor, society

• Inventions were a major part of industrialization

Invention vs Innovation

• Invention = new idea/product

• Innovation = improvements to an existing invention

Factors of American Industrialization

• Labor, Raw materials, Laissez-faire, Patent

Labor

• Drastic increase in immigration

• Immigrants were used for labor work, cheap labor

• The laborers helped to drive industrialization forward

Raw Materials

• Abundant supply from the West

• Coal, Oil: Energy for factories and machines

• Iron: Made steel

• Steel: Used to construct structures (railroads, machines, bridges, buildings)

Laissez-faire

• No gov regulation for businesses

Patent

• Protects ideas and inventions

• Encourages progress

• Exclusions applied

Assembly Line

• Each person in the line has one job to do in the production

• Mass production in less time

• Changed nature of work, little to no skills require

  • Could push out skills craftsmen

  • Forced laborers to work at a significant speed

• Increased consumerism, productivity

Monopoly

• Complete control over a service/product within a given area

• Trust

  • A new way to merge business

  • Bought smaller companies and combined firms through legal agreements

  • Destroys competition

• Vertical integration

  • Controlling from mines, shipping facilities, and steel mill to integrated steel company

• Horizontal integration

  • Control all of one step of production, for example all independent steel mills

Corporations

• Investors purchased stock in companies to expand capital in the form of machinery and workers

Andrew Carnegie

• Scottish steel magnate

• Led the expansion of the American steel industry

• Built the Carnegie Steel Corporation into the largest in the world

• Social Darwinism

  • He fought against this theory

    • Idea that hard work, perseverance led to success and intervention by the rich in poor lives was not necessary

• Horizontal integration

John D. Rockefeller

• America's first billionaire

• Revolutionized the oil refining industry

• Saw the potential for oil refining

• Reducing price of oil for railroads led to big profits

• Finding a way to transport oil through pipelines greatly reduced cost of railroad transportation

• Used trusts

• Horizontal integration

J. Pierpont Morgan

• London banker born into wealth and became more wealthy as investment banker

• J.P. Morgan and Company invested family's wealth in promising companies

• His company led to the success of Carnegie and Rockefeller

• Purchased Carnegie Steel, led to U.S. Steel Corporation, country's first billion-dollar firm

• Horizontal integration

New American Consumer Culture

• Chain stores

• Mail order catalogs

• Increased consumer options and ads

Railroad Company Corruption

• Companies established pools

  • informal arrangements between companies to keep rates above a certain level

• Bribery of public officials

• Secret shipping rates

Central Pacific and Union Pacific

• Companies who built Transcontinental Railroad

• Central Pacific was built eastward from Sacramento, California and included Chinese laborers

• Union Pacific was built west from Omaha, Nebraska and included Irish, German, and Italian immigrants

Improvements of Railroads

• Air brake

• Dining cars

• Sleeper cars

Bessemer Process

• Allow for mass production of steel

• Lower price of steel

• Provide new building material

• Increase in industrial growth

Gilded Age

• A thin layer of wealth covering the underside of poverty

Captains of Industry

• Inventing, hard-working business leaders who positively transformed the American economy

• Increase productivity, expanded markets, provided jobs

• Praised for their skills and charity

Robber Barons

• Ruthless businessmen

• Would not stop at anything to achieve great wealth

• Exploited workers, ignored horrible working conditions, imposed unfair labor practices

Innovations that Shaped Urbanization

• Electric lighting

• Communication improvements

• Intra-city transportation

• Rise of skyscrapers

Immediate Challenges of Urban Life

• Congestion in homes and streets

• Pollution on streets

• Crime on streets

• Disease spread from unsanitary conditions and lack of ventilation

Where Immigrants Came From

• Northern and western Europe during the old immigration

• Southern or Eastern Europe during the new immigration

• Larger numbers of immigrants during the new immigration

• Old immigrants were treated better b/c new immigrants were more diverse and poor

Immigrant Travel

• Barely any food

• Cramped space

• Foul odors and no ventilation

• Unsanitary conditions

• Arrived at either Ellis Island or Angel Island

  • Ellis Island admitted Europeans

  • Angel Island refused Asians

Arriving Immigrants

• 3rd class passengers were checked more than 1st and 2nd class

• Medical, physical, legal exams

• Women were not allowed to be independent

• About 2% were sent back

Immigrant Experience

• Economic instability

• Lived in congested tenements

• No school for immigrant children b/c of child labor 

• High crime rates, unsafe areas for innocent families

• Low wages despite grueling, long hours of work

• Religious oppression, especially Jews

• Dressmaking was a common occupation in the Lower East Side tenements

• Assimilation with American culture and language

KOL (Knights of Labor)

• Organization built during the Panic of 1873

• Modeled “industrial unionism,” which welcomed workers from all trades regardless of gender

• Eight-hour workday

• Equal pay regardless of gender

• Elimination of convict labor

• Creation of greater cooperative enterprises

AFL (American Federation of Labor)

• Efforts for economic gains

• Rarely going into political issues

• Strict policy of not interfering in each union’s individual business

Collective Bargaining

• Compromise between employer and a labor union usually on wages, benefits, hours, and working conditions

Scab/Strikebreaker

• A person who works in place of the employees

Sherman Antitrust Act

• Investigate trust companies and outlaw monopolies

Effect of Rise of Corporations

• Promoting scientific advancements and capital investment