The Gilded Age

1870-1900

Gilded Age Themes

• Industrialization• Urbanization• Unions and Reform Movements• The Closing of the Frontier• Gilded Age Politics

The Gilded Age

America’s Industrial Revolution

Learning Target

• I can analyze the factors that contributed to America’s Industrial Revolution including new technology, new methods of conducting business, and the role the American government played in the process of Industrialization.

America’s Industrial Revolution: Causes

• Market Revolution (~1800-1850)– Broader markets– Faster manufacturing– Better consumers– EARLY RAILROADS

• The Civil War– New industries– Improved technology– New class of millionaires

America’s Industrial Revolution: Causes

• Abundant natural resources• People

– Laborers– Entrepreneurs– Inventors

• New Technology

America’s Industrial Revolution: Causes

• Government– Tariffs– Laissez faire– Favorable legislation

America’s Industrial Revolution:Role of the Railroads

• Pacific Railway Acts (1862-3)– Union Pacific– Central Pacific

• Paid by mile of track– $16,000– $32,000– $48,000

• Plus…

America’s Industrial Revolution:Role of the Railroads

• Paid with land• A lot of land• A whole lot of land. • A whole whole whole whole whole whole whole

whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole lot of land.

• 200 ft. on either side of the track• Plus…

America’s Industrial Revolution:Role of the Railroads

• Up to ten square miles of land per mile of track laid

Role of the Railroads:The First Transcontinental Railroad

Central Pacific• Eastward starting in

Sacramento, CA• Mostly Chinese labor• Through the Sierra Nevada

Union Pacific• Built westward starting in

Omaha, NE• Mostly Irish labor

Role of the Railroads:The First Transcontinental Railroad

Role of the Railroads:The First Transcontinental Railroad

Role of the Railroads:The First Transcontinental Railroad

• Promontory Point, Utah: May 10, 1869

Role of the Railroads: Impact

• Made lots of men really, really rich.

Role of the Railroads: Impact

• Other industries that fed the railroads grew.

Role of the Railroads: Impact

• Markets grew, spurring other industries

Role of the Railroads: Impact

• Growing opposition

America’s Industrial Revolution:Inventors, Inventions, and Entrepreneurs

• McCormick mechanical reaper

• Drake Oil Well

Inventors, Inventions, and Entrepreneurs

• Bessemer Converter • Seiman’s Open Hearth Method

Inventors, Inventions, and Entrepreneurs

Thomas Edison: The Wizard of Menlo Park• Telegraph work• Phonograph• Industrial Research

Laboratory• Electric light bulb work• Centralized power

distribution• Motion picture cameras

Inventors, Inventions, and Entrepreneurs

Cornelius Vanderbilt• Steamboats• Gibbons• Railroads in New York• Left 100 million his son,

William Vanderbilt

“The Commodore”

Inventors, Inventions, and Entrepreneurs

Andrew Carnegie• Born poor• Early work in telegraph

company• Began investing in steel• Pioneer of “vertical

consolidation”• Sold Carnegie Steel to JP

Morgan to create US Steel• “Gospel of Wealth”

Carnegie Steel

Inventors, Inventions, and Entrepreneurs

Business methods: Vertical IntegrationCarnegie

Steel

Unions/Labor/Company Towns

Delivery of Finished Products

Manufacture

Shipping

Raw Materials

Inventors, Inventions, and Entrepreneurs

John D. Rockefeller• Humble origins• Began his career as a book keeper

for a produce business• Invested in oil refining in Ohio in

1863• Used volume to reduce shipping

costs• Practiced both vertical and

“horizontal integration”• Pioneered the “trust” method of

organization• Billionaire by the time he died

Standard Oil

Inventors, Inventions, and Entrepreneurs

Business methods: Horizontal Integration

Standard Oil Board of Trustees

Standard Oil of Ohio

Standard Oil of New Jersey

Standard Oil of California

Inventors, Inventions, and Entrepreneurs

John Piermont Morgan JP Morgan, & Co

• Born into banking family• Obsessed with efficiency• Worked with businesses

between industries to reduce competition

• Twice worked to save the American economy:– Panic of 1893– Panic of 1907

Inventors, Inventions, and Entrepreneurs

Business methods: The Interlocking Directorate

JP Morgan andCompany

Oil Trust Beef Trust Steel Trust

Inventors, Inventions, and Entrepreneurs