USA (Important Points & Concepts)

Format - Keyword: short description

Overview
1870-1916: The industrial growth that began in the United States in the early 1800's continued steadily up to and
through the American Civil War.
Machines replaced hand labor as the main means of manufacturing, increasing the production capacity of industry
tremendously.
A new nationwide network of railways distributed goods far and wide.
Inventors developed new products the public wanted, and businesses made the products in large quantities.
I. Industrial Growth and change
19th century: third Kondratiev (wave)
creative destruction: decline of Britain because of the tradition of "representative firms" and failure to introduce
modern managerial systems
USA inherited from Britain: development of steel, heavy engineering and electricity supply
Industry Supremacy: result of productivity growth, technical progress and labor force increase.
Cities: The new business activity centered on cities. As a result, people moved to cities in record numbers, and the
cities grew by leaps and bounds.
North American Industrial Revolution: The war-torn South lagged behind the rest of the country economically.
Notes:
- Kondratiev wave: a long economic cycle; cycle-like phenomena in the modern world economy. Measured by
value added, the leading industry in the U.S. from 1880 to 1920 was machinery, followed by iron and steel.
- Labor force increase = increase of European immigrants.
- South America: Some industry developed in the region, but the South remained an agricultural area throughout
the period of industrialization.
II. Americans as Borrowers
USA as worlds industrial powerhouse for most of the 20th century.
US population was wealthier than Britain which led to increased demand in the country's economy.
US strengths: available land and natural resources.
Developed electricity: centralization of energy generation but decentralization of energy application.
Notes:
- Land and resources: cheap land and materials, as much as by industrial prowess in advanced labor-saving
technologies. The nation's abundant water supply helped power the industrial machines. Forests provided timber
for construction and wooden products. Miners took large quantities of coal and iron ore from the ground.
III. Organization and Management: Americans as Initiators
Development of interchangeable parts led to: 1) cheap replacements; 2) dispensing with expensive and timeconsuming handicraft labor (fitters); 3) standardization; 4) developing the machines and tools; 5) speeds of
throughput.
learning by interacting/learning by doing": The know-how of knowledge is,
However, an accumulated skill or expertise that must be learned or acquired.
Big Business: integration of mass production with mass distribution within single business firms.
gentlemens agreements: secretly cutting off of prices by businessmen to cope with potentially ruinous price
wars.
Notes:
- Big businesses first began in railroad companies.
IV. Business
Monopolies: also called trustsproved a major concern for many. A monopoly destroys competition, can
control prices, and can produce inferior products because it does not have to worry about competing with goods
produced by other companies.
The business boom triggered a sharp increase in investments in the stocks and bonds of corporation.
Notes:
- Monopolies: The captains of industry led the list of monopolists during the Gilded Age. No one exemplified
this more than John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil.
- Stock: the total number of shares issued by a company or sector
- Bond: certificate promising debt repayment.
V. Products:
mass distribution: Because of the growth of demand, supply was addressed with this method developed by
retailers.
Products developed: The products included the typewriter (1867), barbed wire (1874), the telephone (1876), the
phonograph (early form of record player) (1877), the electric light (1879), and the petrol-engine car (1885).

VI. Life during the Industrial Revolution (optional)

Government Policy: "America is the natural habitat of the self-made man."
The lives of people in the cities contrasted sharply: A small percentage of them had enormous wealth and enjoyed
lives of luxury. Below them economically, the larger middle class lived comfortably. But at the bottom of the
economic ladder, a huge mass of city people lived in extreme poverty.
As the nation's population grew, so did the competition for jobs. The supply of workers outstripped the demand.
The oversupply of workers led to high unemployment.
The Gilded Age: (Mark Twain) culture of the newly rich of the period. Lacking tradition, the wealthy developed a
showy culture supposedly based on the culture of upper-class Europeans. The enormous mansions of the newly
rich Americans imitated European palaces. The wealthy filled the mansions with European works of art, antiques,
rare books, and gaudy decorations.
Notes:
- What is a 'self-made man?' Benjamin Franklin made the archetype of someone coming from low origins, who,
against all odds, breaks out of his inherited social position, climbs up the social ladder and creates a new identity
for himself. Key factors in this rise from rags to riches are hard work and a solid moral foundation. Franklin also
stresses the significance of education for self-improvement.
Notable Inventions
The Industrial Revolution that occurred in the 19th century was of great importance to the economic future of the United
States. Three industrial developments led the way to industrialization in America:
1. Transportation was expanded.
2. Electricity was effectively harnessed.
3. Improvements were made to industrial processes.
I. Railroad Building:

The First Transcontinental Railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland
Route") was a 1,907-mile (3,069 km) contiguous railroad line constructed in the United States between 1863 and
1869 west of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to connect the Pacific coast at San Francisco Bay with the
existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The new railways spurred economic growth. Mining companies used them to ship raw materials to factories over
long distances quickly. Manufacturers distributed their finished products by rail to points throughout the country.
The railways became highly profitable businesses for their owners.
Major points:
i. The building of the railroads is naturally connected with the settlement of the West and the gradual
destruction of Indian cultures.
ii. Three natural resources were needed to prosper in new territory: land, water, and timber. Out west two are
missing, and railroads carried wood to the plains areas.
iii. The Homestead Act of 1862 gave settlers 160 acres of free land, under certain conditions that encouraged
settlement.
iv. The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 set the wheels of railroad expansion moving. The Land Grant System gave
millions of acres to railroad builders.
v. Railroads enhanced the value of the land enormously, but made farmers dependent on railroads.
vi. Sale of extra land by railroad companies raised capital to finance railroad building.
vii. The race for the connection with the Pacific Coast led in 1869 to completion of the first transcontinental line
at Promontory, Utah.

viii.Railroad construction led to further settlement of the West, which in turn aggravated conditions for the Indian
tribes.
II. Other Inventions and Inventors

Person

Invention

Date

James Watt

First reliable Steam Engine

1775

Eli Whitney

Cotton Gin, Interchangeable parts for muskets

1793, 1798

Robert Fulton

Regular Steamboat service on the Hudson River

1807

Samuel F. B. Morse

Telegraph

1836

Elias Howe

Sewing Machine

1844

Isaac Singer

Improves and markets Howe's Sewing Machine

1851

Cyrus Field

Transatlantic Cable

1866

Alexander Graham Bell

Telephone

1876

Thomas Edison

Phonograph, First Long-Lasting Incandescant Light Bulb

1877, 1879

Nikola Tesla

Induction Electric Motor

1888

Rudolf Diesel

Diesel Engine

1892

Orville and Wilbur Wright

First Airplane

1903

Henry Ford

Model T Ford, Large-Scale Moving Assembly Line

1908, 1913

Table from: http://americanhistory.about.com/library/charts/blchartindrev.htm.

Suggestions:
- Place images of inventor + invention just as the previous presentations had done.
- Maybe stress on railroads a bit and their impact on the economy?
Sources:
Reading provided.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kondratiev_wave
http://tdl.org/txlor-dspace/bitstream/handle/2249.3/205/02_industrlztn.htm?sequence=24
http://sageamericanhistory.net/gildedage/topics/railroads_industry.html
http://americanhistory.about.com/library/charts/blchartindrev.htm
http://www.theusaonline.com/history/industrialization.htm