Download Essay - Industrialization

Part III
DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION
(Aug. 07)
Historical Context:
Between 1800 and 1900, the United States experienced great economic growth. Two factors that
contributed to this growth were government policies and technological developments.
Task: Using information from the documents and your knowledge of United States
history, answer the questions that follow each document in Part A. Your answers to
the questions will help you write the Part B essay in which you will be asked to:
• Discuss how government policies and technological developments influenced
the growth of the United States economy between 1800 and 1900
(This outline was done as if the question was a Thematic Essay)
Body 1 - Government Policies that influenced the United States the growth of the United States
economy between 1800 and 1900
- Laissez Faire – “hands off”, the government does not regulate the economy
- Government did support the development of business by:
1) creating protective tariffs (i.e. the Tariff of Abominations placed a 40% tax
on imported goods when Andrew Jackson was president)
2) providing land and money to railroads as part of the Pacific Railroad Act,
which built the transcontinental railroad
3) supporting businesses when unions went on strike. Typically, the courts
issued injunctions to order the laborers back to work (i.e. In Re Debs) and
the government sent in troops to break strikers (i.e. The Great Railway
Strike)
4) have a policy of expansionism / imperialism. The US government supported
a company in overthrowing the government in Hawaii in an effort to
protect its market, raw materials, and natural ports.
- All of this allows for Social Darwinism (survival of the fittest) and the development of
trusts and monopolies (i.e. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil)
- Open Immigration allowed for immigrants from all over the world to come and work
in the US factories and mines. At first, immigrants from Northern & Western
Europe came during the Old Wave and the Middle Wave. Starting in the 1880’s,
new immigrants came from Southern & Eastern Europe, creating the First New
Wave. This cheap influx of workers allowed businesses to pay their workers very
low wages and to not have to provide job security or safety standards since there
was always ten more immigrants waiting for a job.
Body 2 - Technological developments also influenced the growth of the United States economy
between 1800 and 1900
- The development of the steam engine allows for a new means of propulsion. This new
engine allowed for faster voyages across the ocean for immigrants that were
needed to work in the northern factories and for the shipping of freight, like
cotton from the South to British markets.
- The development of the Bessemer process allowed for the more efficient production of
steel. 50% of the United States steel was produced by Andrew Carnegie’s
Carnegie Steel. Steel was stronger than iron, the metal that it replaced, and it
was used in constructing railroad tracks and the internal supports of the new
skyscrapers in the nation’s cities. Steel was also used to make stronger plows,
plows that were needed to plow through the thick sod found on the Great Plains.
- Henry Ford’s assembly line was another crucial development of this area. It allowed
for products to be product using removable parts in a quick and efficient manner.
One low-skilled employee would be responsible for only one task of the
production, and then the product would move down the line to have another piece
added to it by someone else. The assembly line allowed for the mass production
of many items, including Henry Ford’s Model T automobiles.