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Key Concept 6.1: Technological advances, large-scale production methods, and the opening of new markets encouraged the rise of industrial capitalism in the United States.
[2014: The rise of big business in the United States encouraged massive migrations and urbanization, sparked government and popular efforts to reshape the U.S.
economy and environment, and renewed debates over U.S. national identity.] |
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I. Large-scale industrial production -- accompanied by massive technological change, expanding international communication networks, and pro-growth government policies -- generated
rapid economic development and business consolidation. |
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A. Following the Civil War, government subsidies for transportation and communication systems helped open new markets in North America. |
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B. Businesses made use of technological innovations, greater access to natural resources, redesigned financial and management structures, advances in marketing, and a growing labor force to dramatically
increase the production of goods. |
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C. As the price of many goods decreased, workers' real wages increased, providing new access to a variety of goods and services; many Americans' standards of living improved, while the gap between rich and poor grew. |
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D. Many business leaders sought increased profits by consolidating corporations into large trusts and holding companies,
which further concentrated wealth. [2014: "and defended their resulting status and privilege through theories such as Social Darwinism.] |
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E. Businesses and foreign policymakers increasingly looked outside U.S. borders in an effort to gain
greater influence and control over markets and natural resources in the Pacific Rim, Asia, and Latin America. |
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II. A variety of perspectives on the economy and labor developed during a time of financial panics and downturns.
[2014: "II. …[L]eaders of big business and their allies in government [faced significant challenges as they] aimed to create a unified industrialized nation….] |
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A. Some argued that laissez-faire policies and competition promoted economic growth in the long run, and they
opposed government intervention during economic downturns. |
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B. The industrial workforce expanded and became more diverse through internal and international migration; child
labor also increased. |
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C. Labor and management battled over wages and working conditions, with workers organizing local and national unions
and/or directly confronting business leaders. |
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D. Despite the industrialization of some segments of the Southern economy -- a change promoted by Southern leaders who called
for a "New South" -- agriculture based on sharecropping and tenant farming continued to be the primary economic activity in the South.. |
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III. New systems of production and transportation enabled consolidation within agriculture, which, along with periods of instability, spurred a
variety of responses from farmers. |
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A. Improvements in mechanization helped agricultural production increase substantially and contributed to declines in food prices. |
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B. Many farmers responded to the increasing consolidation in agricultural markets and their dependence on the evolving railroad system
by creating local and regional cooperative organizations. |
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C. [2014: "The growth of corporate power in agriculture and] Economic instability inspired agrarian activists to create the People's (Populist) Party, which called for a
stronger governmental role in regulating the American economic system. |
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Key Concept 6.2: The migrations that accompanied industrialization transformed both urban and rural areas of the United States and caused dramatic social and cultural change. |
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I. International and internal migration increased urban populations and fostered the growth of a new urban culture..
[2014: "but gender, racial, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic inequalities abounded, inspiring some reformers to attempt to address these inequities."] |
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A. As cities became areas of economic growth featuring new factories and businesses, they attracted immigrants from Asia and
from southern and eastern Europe, as well as African American migrants within and out of the South. Many migrants moved to escape poverty, religious persecution, and limited opportunities for
social mobility in their home countries or regions. [2014: "Cities dramatically reflected divided social conditions among classes, races, ethnicities, and cultures, but
presented economic opportunities as factories and new businesses proliferated."] |
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B. Urban neighborhoods based on particular ethnicities, races, and classes provided new cultural opportunities for city dwellers. |
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C. Increasing public debates over assimilation and Americanization accompanied the growth of international migration. Many
immigrants negotiated compromises between the cultures they brought and the culture they found in the United States. |
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D. In an urban atmosphere where the access to power was unequally distributed, political machines thrived, in part
by providing immigrants and the poor with social services. [2014: "settlement houses helped immigrants adapt to the new language and customs, and women's clubs and self-help groups
targeted intellectual development and social and political reform."] |
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E. Corporations' need for managers and for male and female clerical workers as well as increased access to educational institutions, fostered
the growth of a distinctive middle class. A growing amount of leisure time also helped expand consumer culture. |
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II. Larger numbers of migrants moved to the West in search of land and economic opportunity, frequently provoking competition and violent conflict.
[2014: "II. As transcontinental railroads were completed, bringing more settlers west, U.S. military actions,
the destruction of the buffalo, the confinement of American Indians to reservations, and assimilationist policies reduced the number of American Indians and threatened native culture and identity."] |
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A. The building of transcontinental railroads, the discovery of mineral resources, and government
policies promoted economic growth and created new communities and centers of commercial activity. |
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B. In hopes of achieving ideals of self-sufficiency and independence, migrants moved to both rural and
boomtown areas of the West for opportunities, such as building the railroads, mining, farming, and ranching. |
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C. As migrant populations increased in number and the American bison population was decimated, competition
for land and resources in the West among white settlers, American Indians, and Mexican Americans led to an increase in violent conflict. |
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D. The U.S. government violated treaties with American Indians and responded to resistance with military force, eventually
confining American Indians to reservations and denying tribal sovereignty. |
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E. Many American Indians preserved their cultures and tribal identities despite government policies promoting
assimilation, and they attempted to develop self-sustaining economic practices. |
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Key Concept 6.3: The Gilded Age produced new cultural and intellectual movements, public reform efforts, and political debates over economic and social policies.. |
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I. New cultural and intellectual movements both buttressed and challenged the social order of the Gilded Age.
[2014: Gilded Age politics were intimately tied to big business and focused nationally on economic issues--tariffs, currency, corporate expansion, and laissez-faire economic
policy--that engendered numerous calls for reform.] |
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A. Social commentators advocated theories later described as Social Darwinism to justify the success of those at the top of the
socioeconomic structure as both appropriate and inevitable. [2014: Corruption in government--especially as it related to big business--energized the
public to demand increased popular control and reform of local, state, and national governments, ranging from minor changes to major overhauls of the capitalist system.] |
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B. Some business leaders argued that the wealthy had a moral obligation to help the less fortunate and improve society, as articulated in the
idea known as the Gospel of Wealth, and they made philanthropic contributions that enhanced educational opportunities and urban environments. |
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C. A number of artists and critics, including agrarians, utopians, socialists, and advocates of the Social Gospel,
[2014: "challenged the dominant corporate ethic in the United States and sometimes capitalism itself"] championed alternative visions for the economy and U.S. society. |
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II. Dramatic social changes in the period inspired political debates over citizenship, corruption, and the proper relationship between business and government. |
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A. The major political parties appealed to lingering divisions from the Civil War and contended over tariffs and
currency issues, even as reformers argued that economic greed and self-interest had corrupted all levels of government. |
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B. Many women sought greater equality with men, often joining voluntary organizations, going to college, promoting
social and political reform, and, like Jane Addams, working in settlement houses to help immigrants adapt to U.S. language and customs. [2014: "Challenging their prescribed 'place,' women
and African American activists articulated alternative visions of political, social, and economic equality."] |
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C. The Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson that upheld racial segregation helped to mark the end of most of the
political gains African Americans made during Reconstruction. Facing increased violence, discrimination, and scientific theories of race, African American reformers continued to fight for political and social equality. |
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