Evaluate the extent to which reform movements changed United States society in the period from 1877 to 1914.
The Civil War radically transformed the economy and set in motion the GIlded Age.
America in the 1890s was
...
Evaluate the extent to which reform movements changed United States society in the period from 1877 to 1914.
The Civil War radically transformed the economy and set in motion the GIlded Age.
America in the 1890s was in a deep economic depression. This clash between traditional and modernity peaked political activism by farmers, and violent conflicts between industrial workers and employers that transformed into a clash between rival visions of America’s future. But by 1900, the United States emerged as one of the worlds greatest industrial powers.
The Gilded Age was a period of transformation for America into an industrial powerhouse, with the most important creation being new transportation systems. The rise of Big Business created a monopoly of railroads. During the Civil War Republicans had complete control and passed the Pacific Railroad Act. Turner’s “frontier thesis” encouraged Americans to move East to West, which needed railroads. Document 1 proves that this competition created a race to build more railroads, Union or Central Railroads. The federal government gave free land
to railroad companies so the area around railroads became more expensive and desirable.
Railroads would use taxes to pay but taxpayers are undermined because now the same land costs more. With evidence from Document 2, Congress and the federal government would continuously step in to tip the balance of power away from workers and towards Big Business.
New strikes were the arrival of a dangerous revolutionary movement and in violent conflicts.The organization of workers remains an uphill battle. President Rutherford B. Hayes set a precedent that the government would always openly side with the corporations over workers. Tensions formed in labor unions and farmer associations. And when workers would revolt, they would be labeled to diminish the legitimacy of unions. Proven in Document 3, The government would ignore labor unions requests for “just rights and privileges.” Pseudo-scientific social Darwinism was used to justify social hierarchy and the “even playing field” of the American economy. After the Civil War, states allowed all businesses, when before they would regulate them based on “public good” corporation laws. Competition, a virtue of capitalism, allowed for giant corporations to dominate the market. Capitalism and hard work would, in theory, create a nation of relative equality among independent white men based around economic and political independence. In reality, industrial capitalism made a few millionaires the new masters, and white workers compared themselves to slaves because their free ideology was false. Evidence of mistreatment in Document 4. The marriage between Big Business and government allowed for politics to be controlled by “rings” and each had a powerful “boss” which provided jobs, aid, or protection in exchange for political loyalty: a patronage system.
The government crushed radicalism and employer schemes. The national money supply
did not grow with the expanding economy. Currency deflation raised the cost of borrowing money as shrinking money supply enabled lenders to hike up interest rates on loans. To quote Document 2, only Congress has the power to “regulate interstate commerce.” The Granger Movement failed to address concerns of struggling farmers: declining crop prices and an inadequate amount of money in circulation. A new organization emerged in Texas called the Farmers Alliance, and by 1890 had 1.5 million followers. Members fought emphasized political action and economic cooperations and wanted an income tax on the wealthy. Their activism resulted in the subtreasury plan which included railroad regulation, currency inflation, state departments of agriculture, antitrust laws, and accessible loans. The Election of 1896 climaxed a generation-long struggle for political control of industrial America and shifted away from Congressional power. The Gilded era was an era of more political corruption than innovation. The struggle for a “clean government” consumed national politics. Alliances between business and political leaders widened the social and economic gap, and the close division between Democrats and Republicans during the Gilded Age gave “captains of industry” control.
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