RAILROAD EXPANSION
Easier transportation of raw materials,
manufactured goods, and people
 transcontinental railroads
 westward expansion—assistance
 government subsidies to railroad
companies
 land grants
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS
Need for technological innovations due to
consumer products
 steel
 telephone—communications
 electricity—energy as well as light
CORPORATE CONSOLIDATION
Companies participate in horizontal and
vertical integration
 Carnegie Steel (vertical)
 Standard Oil Trust—Rockefeller
(horizontal)
 Anti-trust legislation (Sherman Act)
NATURAL RESOURCES
Raw materials for self-sufficiency and gained
capital by selling materials to other countries,
and drove technology change out of necessity
 iron ore—railroads
 oil—energy
CAUSES OF INDUSTRIALIZATION
LAISSEZ-FAIRE GOVERNMENT POLICY
“Hands-off” approach to the economy that
allows private sector industry to dominate
 corporate mergers
 little government regulations
 marketplace dictates prices (cheap goods)
MARKETING
Expansion of markets drives increase in
production
 transportation improvements
 patents—new innovations
 consumer economy
 international trade
POPULATION INCREASE
Large influx of [mostly unskilled] labor
allowed for rapid industrialization.
 “New Immigrants”
 internal migration (people moving to the
cities—urbanization)
 large workforce—large-scale production
 increase in infrastructure