TODAY’S AGENDA ON EXIT TICKET

• Bell Ringer (20 Minutes) • Bell Ringer

• Introduce Lesson (5 Minutes) • Video Clip Answer(s)
• Video Clip (10 Minutes) • Section(s) Review
• 1 Thing you learned
• Lecture & Discussion (20
Minutes)
• Political Cartoon, Source
Document or Mini Debate (10
minutes)
• Whole Group Review (5
minutes)
• Section Review on Exit Ticket
(20 minutes)
 Industry and Railroads

The Main Idea

During the late 1800s,
new technology led
to rapid industrial
growth and the
expansion of
railroads.
 New Industries Emerge
• New technologies
– Electrical power
replaced steam and
water power.
– Larger factories
produced more
goods.
– Faster transportation
moved people and
goods more cheaply.
• Dramatic industrial
growth
– Period sometimes
called the Second
Industrial Revolution
 New Industries Emerge
Making steel
• The Bessemer process of
purifying steel helped to
make America the world’s
top producer and
transformed the U.S. into
a modern industrial
economy.
• Construction companies
could build bigger bridges
and taller buildings.
– John Roebling built Brooklyn
Bridge
• The low cost of steel made
ordinary items affordable.
Oil industry begins
• Oil was a key commodity
as a fuel source and for
lubrication.
• Edwin L. Drake drilled
the first commercial oil
well. Oil prospectors, or
Wildcatters, looked for
oil in other regions.
• Major sources of energy
from oil fueled a revolution
in transportation and
industry.
 Railroads expand
• Between 1865 and 1890, the number of miles of
railroad track increased nearly fivefold. Aiding
More tracks the growth, the federal government gave
thousands of acres of land to railroad companies.
• Some sold land to speculators
• Laid tracks westward from Omaha, Nebraska
Union Pacific • Prairie lands and gently rolling hills made for
quick progress.

• Tracks were laid eastward from Sacramento,

California. Chinese workers laid tracks through
Central tougher terrain, crossing deserts and blasting
Pacific through mountains.
• Transcontinental Railroad united the country
physically and economically, the two rail lines
met on May 18, 1869 at Promontory Summit,
Utah
 The Rise of Big Business
The Main Idea
Corporations run by powerful business leaders
became a dominant force in the American
economy.
Question of the day!

Who or what does the

octopus represent?

The cartoon portrays the

octopus controlling the
financial interests of other
industries. What other
industries are represented?
The subtext reads:
“History repeats
itself. The robber
barons of the
middle ages and
the robber barons
of today”
Robber Barons or Industrial Tycoons!
is a derogatory term applied to wealthy and powerful 19th
century American businessmen. By the late 1800's, the term
was typically applied to businessmen who used what were
considered to be exploitative practices to amass their wealth

Andrew Carnegie—Steel Industry

John D. Rockefeller—Oil Industry
Cornelius Vanderbilt—Railroad Industry
J.P. Morgan—Electric and Steel
George Pullman—Sleeper Cars
 A Favorable Climate for Business
The American ideal was one of self-reliant individualism. A
strong work ethic made one successful, and entrepreneurs
risked their money and talents in new ventures.
Free markets Social Darwinism
• With capitalism, competition • Many thinkers believed that
determines prices and wages, inequalities were part of the
and most industries are run natural order.
by private businesses.
• Charles Darwin believed that
• In the 1800s, business members of a species
leaders believed in laissez- complete for survival in a
faire capitalism with no natural selection process.
government intervention.
• Applied to society, stronger
• They believed government people, businesses, and
regulation would destroy nations would prosper, and
self-reliance, reduce weaker ones would fail in a
profits, and harm the “survival of the fittest.”
economy.
 Business Structures Change

• Proprietorships and partnerships

– Small businesses were run by individual proprietors or had more than
one owner in a partnership. In either case, owners are personally
responsible for all business debts and obligations.
• Corporations
– As industries grew, the structure of ownership changed. Businesses
were owned by stockholders; decisions made by a board of directors,
with day-to-day operations run by corporate officers. Investment
money was raised by selling stock, and investors were bound only by
the amount of their investment.
• Trusts and Monopolies
– Some companies merged and turned their stocks over to a board of
trustees who ran the group of companies as a single entity. Sometimes
a trust gained a monopoly, having complete control of an industry.
With no competition, prices could be raised or lowered at will.
 Industrial Tycoons
Starting with an oil refinery and superb business
Rockefeller sense, John D. Rockefeller used both vertical and
and oil horizontal integration to capture 90 percent of
the U.S. oil refinery business by 1879.
Rockefeller gave away over half of his fortune to
charity. He donated millions to education and good
works through his Rockefeller Foundation.

Andrew Carnegie rose from immigrant child to

Carnegie steel magnate. He used profits from various
and steel business investments to found his own company.
By the end of the century the Carnegie Steel
Company dominated the U.S. steel industry.
After retiring, Carnegie devoted his time to charity,
supporting education and building public libraries.
 Industrial Tycoons
Vanderbilt began investing in railroads during the
Civil War. By 1872, he owned the New York Central
Cornelius Railroad. At the height of his career he controlled
Vanderbilt 4,500 miles of track.
He supported few charities, but gave money to
what would come to be Vanderbilt University. He
died leaving an estate of $100 million.
 A Mixed Legacy

Critics
– Business tycoons were “robber barons” who
profited unfairly by squeezing out competitors.
They lived lavish lifestyles from their ill-gotten
rewards.
Proponents
– Business tycoons were “captains of industry”
who used their business skills to make the
American economy more productive. That in
turn made the American economy stronger.
 TODAY’S AGENDA ON EXIT TICKET

• Bell Ringer (20 Minutes) • Bell Ringer

• Introduce Lesson (5 Minutes) • Video Clip Answer(s)
• Video Clip (10 Minutes) • Section(s) Review
• 1 Thing you learned
• Lecture & Discussion (20
Minutes)
• Political Cartoon, Source
Document or Mini Debate (10
minutes)
• Whole Group Review (5
minutes)
• Section Review on Exit Ticket
(20 minutes)
 Workers Organize

The Main Idea

Grim working
conditions in many
industries led
workers to form
unions and stage
labor strikes.

*Write Down What is

in PURPLE (at a
minimum)—Don’t
write this, just know
it.
 Government and Business

• Hands-off policy--laissez-faire
– Government did not interfere with
business in the late 1800s, but as
corporations expanded and gained
power, that policy began to change.
• Controlling the giants
– The Sherman Antitrust Act was
passed in 1890, making it illegal to
form trusts that interfered with free
trade. It prohibited monopolies and
activities hindering competition.
– The law was vague, however, and it
was seldom enforced.
• Workers
– The government paid less attention
to workers, who scraped by on
small wages. By 1890, 10 percent
of the population controlled 75
percent of the nation’s wealth. The
rich were very rich, and many
industrial workers made less than
$500 per year.
 Industrial Workers
The workforce Working conditions
• Many factory workers were • Most unskilled laborers
immigrants or rural worked 10-hour days, six
Americans moving to the days a week.
cities for jobs.
• They had no paid vacation
• The best jobs went to and no sick leave.
native-born whites or
European immigrants. • Speed of production led to
terrible accidents. Injured
• Less well-paying jobs were workers were replaced.
open to African Americans,
as household help or • Sweatshops were
laborers. common. These cramped
workshops set up in
• By 1900, one in six shabby tenement buildings
children between the ages were common in the
of 10 and 15 held factory garment industry.
jobs.
 Strikes and Turmoil
The Haymarket Riot
• 1886 was a difficult year for
labor.
• One of the worst clashes was at
Haymarket Square in Chicago. A
bomb was thrown in a crowd
gathered to protest violent police
action. Gunshots rang out, and
eleven people were killed and
hundreds injured before it was
over.
• Foreign-born unionists were
blamed for the violence, and the
press fanned xenophobia.
• Eight men were charged with
conspiracy, but no evidence
connected them to the crime.
• All eight were convicted and
sentenced to death. After four
hangings and one suicide, the
last three were pardoned.
The American Federation of
Labor
• Employers struck back at
organized labor, forcing
employees to sign documents
saying they would not join a
union.
• Blacklists of people deemed
troublemakers were made and
shared by employers, who
refused to hire anyone listed.
• Striking workers were replaced
with “scabs,” or strikebreakers.
• Samuel Gompers led a group of
skilled workers to form the
American Federation of Labor in
1886.
• Using strikes and other tactics,
the AFL did win wage increases
and shorter workweeks.
 The Age of Invention

The Main Idea

Important innovations
in transportation and
communication
occurred during the
Second Industrial
Revolution.
What is going on in this
picture? What is the
political cartoonist trying
to show?
 Advances in Transportation

• Streetcars were horse-drawn

vehicles placed on rails on the
street to make the ride smoother.
Streetcars needed more power
than horses could provide, and
cable cars were invented in San
Francisco to get cars up the steep
hills there. The cars latched on to a
moving cable underground.
• Subways developed as a result of
increased traffic from horses and
electric streetcars competing for
space. Boston built the first
subway line in 1897, with New
York City following in 1904.
 Advances in Transportation

• Automobiles—inventors were
experimenting with vehicles for
personal use as well. A breakthrough
came with the invention of the
internal combustion engine in 1867.
The first practical motorcar in the
U.S. was built in 1893. Automobiles
were only for the wealthy; a new car
cost about $2,500.
• Airplanes—Ohio bicycle makers
Wilbur and Orville Wright were
the first to successfully fly an
airplane–for 12 seconds in 1903.
They followed this success with even
longer flights.
 Communications Revolution
The telegraph
• Samuel F. B. Morse patented
his method of communicating
by sending messages over
wires with electricity, calling
it the telegraph.
• Operators tapped out
patterns of long and short
messages that stood for
letters of the alphabet. The
system was known as Morse
code.
• After the Civil War, the
telegraph grew with the
railroads. Telegraph wires
were strung along the tracks,
and train stations had
telegraph offices in them.
The telephone
• Two men were working on
devices that could transmit
voices using electricity.
• Alexander Graham Bell
patented his device hours
before his competitor, and he
gets the credit for the
invention of the telephone in
1876.
• Companies found the
telephone to be an essential
business tool. People wanted
to have them in their homes
as well.
• By 1900, more than a million
telephones had been installed
across the nation.
 The Typewriter

Christopher Latham Sholes, a Milwaukee

printer, developed the first practical
typewriter in 1867.
new job opportunities for women.