Causes of Rapid
Industrialization
1. Steam Revolution of the 1830s-1850s.
2. The Railroad fueled the growing US
economy:
 First big business in the US.
 A magnet for financial investment.
 The key to opening the West.
 Aided the development of other
industries.
Government Actions
• The Pacific Railway Act – gave land grants to
railroad to expand west – these are considered
subsidies. They cost the railroads nothing and
the companies sold the land to settlers and
speculators. The railroad companies then took
the profits from the sale
• Homestead Act of 1862 = settlers could get the
160 acres for nothing, agree to live there and
farm it for 5 years. At the end of that time they
paid a $10 filing fee and the land was theirs.
Causes of Rapid
Industrialization
3. Technological innovations.
 Bessemer and open hearth
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process
Refrigerated cars
Edison
o “Wizard of Menlo Park”
o light bulb, phonograph, motion
pictures.
The Light Bulb
Thomas Alva Edison
The Phonograph (1877)
Alexander Graham Bell
Telephone (1876)
Alternate Current
George Westinghouse
U. S. Patents Granted
1790s  276 patents issued.
1990s  1,119,220 patents issued.
Causes of Rapid
Industrialization
4. Unskilled & semi-skilled
labor in abundance.
5. Lots of money to invest.
6. New, talented group of businessmen
[entrepreneurs] and advisors.
7. Market growing as US population increased.
8. Government willing to help at all levels to
stimulate economic growth.
9. Abundant natural resources.
When did corporations first
appear in the New World?
Joint Stock Companies
VA Company that founded Jamestown
Factors of Production
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Land
Labor
Capital
Technology
Entrepreneurship
Industrial Growth
• Begins first in the first half of the 19th century
• It was enabled by government actions and
changes in each of the factors of production
• Government plays a large role in providing the
environment in which entrepreneurship can be
successful
Government Actions Prior to the
Civil War
• Protected businesses through regulating
interstate commerce
• Protective tariffs
Republican Congress During the
Civil War
• Established policies that would foster
economic growth both during and after the
Civil War
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Offered subsidies to railroads
Offered free land to settlers (Homestead Act 1862)
Reorganized banking during the war
Military contracts for war supplies stimulated the
economy
Other Government Actions
• Removed or controlled the Native Americans
who threatened to impede access to resources
• Open immigration policies that created a vast
pool of workers
• Court decisions that upheld contractsDartmouth v Woodard
• Patent laws that protected the rights of
inventors
Cont.
• Allowed open immigration
• After the transcontinental railroad was finished
in 1869 they limited the number of Chinese
who came in by passing the Chinese Exclusion
Act .
• Because there were so many available workers
the big businesses had a never ending supply
of labor, therefore they could treat them as
they wanted.
Workers
• Low wages because so many people wanted
jobs
• Worked them to death
• Tried to form labor unions to fight for better
job conditions, fewer working hours, and
higher wages.
• Prices were so high they couldn’t afford
consumer goods but the tariffs protected their
jobs.
Role of Westward Expansion
• Promoted by government actions through:
– Purchase (LA Purchase, Gadsden Purchase
– Treaties ( With Spain to gain FL, Guadalupe
Hidalgo with Mexico)
– War – With Mexico
– Opened up access to natural resources such as
coal and iron ore.
After The War
• Protected settlers from Native Americans
• Promoted immigration
• Kept its hands off business and supported the
business owners when workers threatened
strikes
• Raised tariffs to protect American businesses
from foreign competition
HOW WOULD EACH OF THESE PROMOTE
ECONOMIC GROWTH?
• The government also encouraged expanding to
international markets and established policies
that expanded our territorial influence and
protected investments abroad and that
promoted open trade.
• Europe had already industrialized and begun
their period of imperialism.
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Factors Supporting
Industrialization
Western Mining
Immigration
Government subsidies and tax breaks to railroads
Laissez faire attitude of the government
New sources of power
High Tariffs
Horizontal and Vertical integration
National Markets
Civil War profits and investment
Bessemer Process
How did this affect Native
Americans?
• We wanted their lands that were rich in natural
resources.
• People taking advantage of the Homestead Act
were moving onto their lands as well
• The western tribes involved actually engaged
in a series of wars with the American
government because they didn’t want to give
up the land and the government was not living
up to the treaties it had signed with the tribes.
Government Policy Toward
Native Americans
• Assimilation – bring them into the American
culture and make them like us.
• Dawes Severalty Act – The native’s land was
divided up into parcels to farm. Each family
got land.
• ANYONE SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS?
Cont.
• Native American’s view of the land did not
include the concept of ownership. To them it
was there for everyone to use,
• They didn’t know how to farm
• Their children were taken back east to
boarding schools to be “Americanized.”
How Did The Native Amricans
Resist ?
• Revived traditions like the Ghost Dance – it
was a traditional dance done to drive their
enemies away – that meant the Americans
• Attacks on American cavalry
– Fetterman Massacre
– Battle of the Little Bighorn – Custer’s last stand
All of the American Cavalry was
massacred.
How did the US react?
• Battle of Wounded Knee- was a response to
the massacre of Americans in both Fetterman
Massacre . An entire tribe of western Indians
was massacred by the US. Over 300 died
including women and children.
Wounded Knee was also in retaliation
because they refused to stop their “Ghost
Dance”
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End Result
• Native Americans left without their land as
well
• Also left in poverty with no rights and not
considered a part of this country.