Unit 6: The Rise of Industrial America (1865-1900)

Unit 6: The Rise of Industrial America (1865-1900)

 The Turner (“Frontier”) Thesis

• Frontiers have been a part of American and has molded the American personality

Turner Argues:

1. Frontier path instilled individualism. America believes in rugged individualism vs Europe believes in economic equality

2. Definite sense of rejecting intellectualism. Good with fists and plough to survive. Reading and chess wouldn’t allow for survival. 

3. The West has made us more democratic and egalitarian. First country to build a government off of Enlightenment ideals (Freedom of speech, rights to trial, etc) in the West everyone gets to start over. 

4. The West meant hope (indigenous had to be subdued in order for settlers to realize that hope) Peaceful coexistence was not possible. God’s people (Americans) crowned as the new Israelites.

The Fort Laramie Agreement (1851)

• Discovery of the Oregon Trail, families could travel

• Indigenous population angry as more people traveled the Oregon Trail

• Fore laramie was situated on the Oregon Trail and would try to protect travelers

• An agreement was struck between the US government and Indigenous

• US agreed to pay a yearly income if the indigenous agreed to stay away from the trail

• Beginning of the reservation system

• Begins a 40 year process of confining Indigenous to smaller and smaller areas

The Homestead Act (1863) and Land Grants to Railroads (1870’s)

• Under the Homestead Act, the US government would give families 160 acres of American land

• Had to settle on the land to be farmers

• Encroachment of Indigenous land

• Land Grants were given to Railroad companies to build railroads

• Putting a lot of profit into few pockets

• More land grants meant less land for indigenous

Little Big Horn (1876)

• Indian tribe, Sioux, who had a chief (Sitting Bull)

• Gold was discovered in the black hills of the little big horn mountains

•  7th cavalry was under the command of George Armstrong Custard (266 soldiers)

• His task was to go into the valley of Sioux warriors (10,000)

• Greatest oop in American history. Custard went for it and attacked

• Guide told him no but he went in anyways

• Thousands of Sioux warriors came over the hill to surround the soldiers. Battle was over in 45 minutes and all were killed

• Custard had a sewing awe through his ear. Sitting Bull when asked “so he can hear better in the afterlife” Should have listened to warnings

• News told the story of Little Big Horn and ignited the people

• Before Little Big Horn the people were divided on the matter of Indigenous people

• Beginning of the end for the Indigenous

• US government confiscated the Dakota land belonging to the Indigenous and ordered them onto reservations

• With Indigenous out of the way the US slaughtered 60 million buffalos in 10 years leading to the starvation of the Indigenous

• Forced them into reservations

Dawes Act 1877

• Each Indigenous family will get 160 acres of land on these conditions

1. Accept that they may have been hunters before, now they have to farm (seen as feminine to Indigenous)

2. Accept the idea of private property

3. Learn English

4. Become Christian

• “Dawes Act made us come out of our skin”

• 160 acres they reviewed was doomed to fail, the land they received had no water while American settlers received land with water

• Forced to live in extreme poverty, sense of hopelessness

“Ghost Dance” Religion

• Hopelessness does strange things to the mind

• Begin to look for a savior to take you to a better place, a false prophet

• Preached there would be a coming of a Messiah who will kill the invaders and restore the land to the original

• Indigenous started believing they were impervious to bullets and became more aggressive

• Made military nervous so they banned the Ghost Dance Religion

Wounded Knee (1890)

• 150 Sioux people (mostly women and children)

• The new 7th cavalry walked into wounded knee and killed them all

AP Exam: What led to the demise of Indigenous People

• Government policies

• Technology; railroads, trains, telegraph, and guns

• Religion; Mormans moving into land (Utah)

The Industrial Revolution (1865-1914)

What was it?

• Replacement of skilled workers with unskilled workers and machines

• Skilled workers (example is a seamstress) would see the production process from start to finish. She could command a higher wage because she made it by hand

• Unskilled workers make individual pieces for a machine to assemble

• When machines enter the workforce, there will be a disruption

How Successful?

• Successful in facilitating wealth

• Concentration of economic power in the hands of few

• Wealthy is going into very few pockets

• Workers were disposable, if you weren’t happy 10 more workers were waiting for your job

• Made America into a country of tenants

• Incredible economic inequality, not sustainable in the long run

• Smokestack industries wreaked havoc on the environment and health

• Successful in facilitating wealth but not successful in distributing it

• The $ value of industrial products was greater than the value of agricultural goods

Why Here and Now?

1. America is blessed with a large amount of natural resources (treasure trove)

• Has the richest land on the plant that provides land, forests, mineral resources (gold, copper, tin, aluminum, iron ore, zinc, and oil)

2. The Civil War helped to facilitate industrial growth

• The North beat the South using factories to make weapons. Competition between 2 different philosophies (Hamiltonian-Modern free market capitalism vs Jeffersonian-Rural republic)

• North is free to pursue industrialization and create policies to facilitate

• Governments gave millions to corporations to facilitate growth

• Land Grants

3. Immigration

• White protestant americans were going to stay on their land/farms and not work in factories

• 1880s-1914 we started inviting in immigrants from Europe

4. Technology (technological innovation)

• Telephone was invented

• Refrigeration, electricity, typewriter, electric lamp, internal combustion engine

• Solves the problem of shortage of labor, using technology to do things humans can which can become dehumanizing

• Machines produce faster (mass production)

• More technology means a higher standard of living

• Capitalism has one goal, all values are put aside

5. European Capital

• Capital is money that goes into production

• Borrowed 10 million from Europe to finance the Industrial Revolution

6. Corporation

• Created for capital formation

7. Capitalists

• People who take the land, capital, and technology and turn it into industries

Capital vs Labor = Owners vs Workers

• They need each other

• Capital elites became wealthy by eliminating all competition within their industry

• Rockerfeller went after the most important part of oil industries (refineries)

• Eliminated competition by lowering prices. Willing to lose $ in the short run to acquire or eliminate the competition

• Rigged Game and it was legal at the time

The Industrial Revolution (1865-1914)

Capital vs Labor

Capital

• Owners innovation created jobs, wealth, and resources

• Not really capitalists, at the heart of true capitalism is competition. Owners were not interested in competition

• Were monopolists

• “The market will correct” “if there is capitalist excess the market will eliminate it” Only works if there is competition

• Can set the wages as an employer (below what the market would pay)

• Nowhere else to go cause only one person employing

• Can set prices high because there is no where else to buy from

• Products were poor quality because no standards

• Economics that benefit the few. Rich get richer while the poor get poorer

• Owners exploited the army of unemployed immigrants

• Government was embedded with big capitalism

• Child labor, low wages, and early death rates were common

• Protection from foreign policies (tariffs)

• Policies that protect the few at the expense of the many

Labor

• Every regulation was in response to something terribly wrong

• Child laborers would work in coal mines

• Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, doors were locked from the outside to prevent women from walking out. A fire broke out and 150 died either from fire, smoke, or jumping out the 5th floor. 

• Factories challenged the workers humanity

• Low wages, long hours, accidents, limb conditions

• 1914 35,000 workers died on the job

• Women could be forced to work as prostitutes 

• In order for the workers to have a shot at the American Dream they had to organize

1880’s Labor Unions

• Knights of Labor

• American Federation of Labor (AFL)

• Knights of Labor started in secret, a very inclusive labor union. Accepted both skilled and unskilled labor. Permitted women in their labor union, Catholics, Jews, Italians, etc

• AFl was not inclusive, didn’t permit women or unskilled workers. Predominant white labor union

• Knights of Labor were victim to nativism, xenophobism, racism, and sexism making them unpopular 

• AFL was white and prot. Popular

• Both wanted an 8hr work day and the right to collectively bargain

• Knights of Labor was seen as a threat to American values and ultimately died out

• Wasn’t what was being asked for but who was doing the asking

• Media as crucial in turning public opinion, was against Knights of Labor

• Government walking out on strike is a criminal act

• Pinkerton guards who shot/hit those who walked out

1886 Strikes

• Homestead Strike, against homestead steel plant of Andrew Carnegie who called out troops resulting in deaths

• Pullman Strike, ended in deaths

• Haymarket district, a bomb went off resulting in the deaths of several people. Unsure who did it but Hurts and Pullerton newspaper wrote that it was the Knights of Labor who were responsible for the deaths. 

• Knights of Labor and AFk were rather conservative, opposite of radical. They wanted reform but that’s not socialism

• Never attacked capitalist institutions, just reformers

• Wanted to conserve capitalism, needed to be a bit fairer distribution of the wealth

Politics in the ‘Gilded Age” (1865-1900)

Gilded - Shines on the outside but is rotten on the inside 

Mark Twain coined the phrase the Gilded Age

Democrats vs Republicans

• 2 democratic parties, north and south

• Northern Democrats are the party of industrial workers. Most liberal at the time. In favor of labor union requests

• Southern Democrats (Dixiecrats) Jim Crowe, white supremacy, party of slave holders KKK

• Republicans, the party of Lincoln, black equality, ending slavery in the past. Entire North were pro big business (Carnegie)

Issues

•  Civil War “Rum, Romanism and Rebellion” - Republicans

• Republicans accused Democrats of being the party of Run, Romanism, and Rebellion

• Rum refers to southern/eastern immigrants (drunkards)

• Romanism, Roman Catholicism, most immigrants coming North are Catholic. They see the pope as roman dictator

• Rebellion, Confederacy, party of the people who left the Union

• “Bloody Shirt” Politics, wave bloodied shirt saying the shirt was from someone killed by traitors

The Tariff Issue

• Tariff is a tax on imported goods

• First tariffs were revenue tariffs

• Now protected tariffs

• Owners of large manufacturing industries want to keep foreign goods out

• Republican party wants a high tax on foreign goods coming into America

• Want people to buy their own goods not the foreign ones

• Tariffs allow owners to drive up the price (inflationary)

• Tariffs eliminate competition which keeps capitalists honest

• Large businesses said putting tariffs on foreign goods could save jobs and is the American way

• Democrats want lower tariffs because they are mainly the working class

• Southern democrats get no benefit and have to pay higher prices

The Currency Issue

• The Gold standard idea was when perhaps 1/16 oz of gold is equivalent to $1 which is a strong dollar and a tight money policy. A weak dollar and loose money policy would be when 1/32 oz gold = $1

• In 1863 Lincoln initiated the Greenback Standard which led to mild inflation and the value of the $ going down

• Farmers were the debtors and thought inflation was good

• Bankers were the creditors and thought inflation was bad

• 1873 Coinage Act as considered the “Crime of 73”

• Compromise was Bimetallism (gold and silver)

• 1893, Panic of 1893

• Jacob Coxey’s Army, he marched on Washington DC demanding an end to the gold standard

Government Regulation

• Rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer

• Reform to reign in power of capitalists

1. Interstate Commerce Act - I.C.C 1887

• First law passed by Congress to regulate an industry (railroads) in America

• Mandate = charging “Reasonable and just rates”

• Looked like a reform but was a facade

• Group was charged with guarding the reform was made of the railroad monopolists

2. Sherman Trust Act 1890\

• Defined a trust “as a conspiracy in restraint of trade and therefore illegal

• Not one monopoly/trust was broken up

Government Corruption

• A lot of scandals due to political corruption

• Senators' votes were for sale. Facade of a Democratic Republic but they keep their seats (senate) because they are paid by monopolists

The Revolt of the Debtor/Farmer

True Populist Movement (1890’s) - Agrarian Protest

• The first economic reform movement in US history

• Response to industrialization, west +  midwest farmers

• Farmers of America are the best ever, they grow more crops per acre than ever before (chemical fertilizers)

• Killing them, prices are falling, profits are shrinking

• Deflation (prices are falling) leading to dollars being worth more, but they are debtors

• Farmers are going bankrupt, income down, debt “higher” resulting in banks taking the farms

• There are always winners and losers

• They hate the railroads, need to transport crops

• Business is cutthroat, high prices

• Realized they needed to industrialize

Populist Party Platform (Olala/Omaha)

1. Want US Government Loans

• Being played by the banks, want $ from the government

• Trust more than the robber barons

• Come be the referee

2. Monetary Policy of Bimetallism

• Don’t want gold standard -> stronger dollar -> want weak

• Gold + Silver = weaker dollar

• Makes harder to pay back debt

3. Tariff Reduction

• Get no benefit from tariffs, only help manufacturers

4. Progressive Income Tax

• Tax on wealthy people

• Farmers used to be taxed more than millionaires

5. 8 Hour Work Day

• Would get industrial workers on their side

6. Direct Election of Senators

• Couldn’t vote out senators -> got in 1913

• Meant to better the “have nots”

7. Gov. Ownership of the Railroads

• Socialism

• Didn’t happen

1896 Election

• William Jennings Bryan (populist leader) (pro union and farmer)

• He ran for president 4 times and never won. He was the Democratic popular candidate and from Nebraska

• William McKinley (rep candidate)

• He had a big business and won the election

• Argued that if bryan won, big businesses would fall, you’d befriend 

• The workers, out of fear, voted for McKinely, didn’t want to lose jobs

• Wants opposite of populist platform

• Trickle-Down Theory, what's good for the richest is good for us, they create jobs for us

• Every rep. has used it since

• End of the populist party -> Dems took platform

Assessing Populism

1. Stuck in both past and future

• Want agrarian republic (past) -> dead = industry

• Use futuristic means to get the past, gov. Loans, tariffs, regulation (net Jeff.)

• Using liberal means to pursue conservative end

2. Very anti semitic, nativist, evangelical christians, fundamentalists

3. Didn’t recognize biggest problem -> overproduction

• Prices fell

The Age of American Imperialism (1890s - 1920)

Early Examples

1. 1866 - French in Mexico (Not mexican pres)

• Gov. in Mexico put there by the French

• Goes against Monroe Doctrine (no more colonization in Americas)

2. 1867 - Alaska -> William Seward’s Folly

• Purchased from the Russians

• Can spy on the Russians

3. 1878 - Panama -> French invading and building a canal

• America threatened -> they left

4. 1898 - Hawaii -> US seized land

• State in 1957

The Spanish American War (1898)

• Over Cuba -> currently colony of spain since columbus

• Cubans rebelling against the spanish (it’s own rev. in 1895 to now)

• McKinley entered the war in 1898 to help win independence. Why? To facilitate US entry into cuba

1. Americans had investments in cuba (American Plantations)

• American owned mines

• Wanted to protect investments

2. “Yellow Journalism” -> based on lies to sell as many as possible

• Hearst newspapers painted biased picture of cuba

• Lies, half-truths, misleading photos, humor

• Sold papers, started war fever

• “You supply the pictures, i’ll supply the war”

3. Social Reformers - well intentioned, liberals

• Wanted to help cuba

4. Big Business (industrial capitalism) (R.)

• Lots of resources

5. McKinley (R.) -> pushed by “capitalists”

6. Expansionists/Imperialists -> believed in expansion (like English)

• Leader was Teddy Roosevelt -> (“McKinley has the backbone of a choc. eclair”)

• For some people think war is purifying -> survival of the fittest -> nationalism

• Old men send young men to war

• Quit his job and joined the war -> started a regiment

• “A lovely little war”

• Battleship called Maine -> it blew up in the harbor

• War fever swept the country

Effects: We Take Cuba

• US has access to natural resources (lumber, mines, gold, silver, and sugar)

• Cubans forced to sign Platt Amendment -> in cuban constitution (must allow US troops in Cuba)

• US also got Puerto Rico and Spanish Islands (Guam, Midway Island, Hawaii)

• US = Pacific Power

• Continued for control of the Philippines

• Sunk spanish fleet in Manila/harbor in philippines

• Went into 2 year war with philippines

• 20,000 soldiers went to 70,000 soldiers to kill indigenous in their land

McKinley

1. Believe it was his Christian Duty (civilize)

2. If we don’t, Japan will…

3. Last stepping stone to get to Asian markets

• Philippines saw differently -> “the war for Filipino independence” “Filipino insurrection”

• 4,000 Americans killed -> 20,000 Filipinos

The “Open Door” Policy (1900)

• McKinley + John Hay sec. of state

• Everyone wants China (US, England, Germany, France, and Japan)

• China had different spheres of influence

• Want to open door to china

• No more spheres, we will trade wherever we want

• The guiding rule is competition

• The other nations agree

Imperialism vs Nationalism

US vs China

• Leads to wealth and war

• Boxer Rebellion, chinese educated rose up and killed some foreign 

• Sent troops to China to crush rebellion

• As the 20th century dawns something has changed

• US is on the rise, Euro is on decline

• “The American Century”