America's Industrial Revolution In The Post Civil War Period

The Development of the American Economy
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The Development of the American Economy
The end of civil war in America came along with massive developmental changes. These changes permanently brought an end to slavery, which had greatly dominated in many states. Economically, the growth of more industries, the introduction of large scale farming through mechanization and the building of railroads led to the expansion of big businesses to other parts of the nation which were unreachable. Due to this development, billions of immigrants from Asia and Europe made their way into the states as immigrants also abandoned farming in the rural areas and headed to the urban places in search of employment (Wells, 2013). The existence of the immigrants provided cheap labor in the industrial sector, hence an economic boom was realized within a short time. However, the people that benefited were the unscrupulous business leaders and not the poor workers. The low wages given to the employees, together with unbearable working conditions forced them to form movements such the labor unions, which later helped to bring an end to social injustices.
The post civil war led to the industrial revolution in the United States. The availability of raw materials such as oil, steel, timber and iron ore gave rise to expansion of more industries which led to the refining of petroleum, steel manufacturing and electrical power (Wells, 2013). The steel manufactured was used to build railroads. Journeys that took several weeks could now take a few days and large amounts of raw materials could be easily transported to factories using the same railroads. For instance, Industrialists like John. D. Rockefeller used railroads to transport the natural products from Pennsylvania to other areas which could later be turned into commercial products such as steel and gasoline. Through industrialization, the use of hands to make goods was substituted with power machinery which lessened labor.During the period, 1870-1916, the value of goods produced increased compared to the earlier years. More products such as typewriters, barbed wires, electric light and petrol-engine cars were produced. Communication also improved due to the invention of the telephone, thereby making businesses grow steadily.
The industrial revolution made it possible for business leaders to run the economy. It is in this era that the competition became stiff and small scale entrepreneurs were kicked out. The leaders took control of the economy and turned their businesses into massive corporations. Having the corporations on board, they st...