In the 19th century, the period between 1865 and 1900 marked as a major threshold in the improvement of industrialization in America. The Northern society realized a profound positive change, due to the rapid expansion of industrialization. There were various factors that boosted the expansion of industrialization in America at the end of the 19th century. Some of these elements were improvement of the large-scale agricultural activities and increasement of the national labor unions. Also, the presence of technology necessitated the rise in industrial revolution in America at the end of the 19th century. Due to the rapid growth of enormous businesses, the activities were taken care of fewer people, despite the norm that all the citizens by then would benefit profoundly. United States was on the mark as the world’s greatest producer, during that period, due to mechanization. The whites, who were colonizers by then, took over the food production, due to greed.
Therefore, the notion people had about America having an opportunity for individual economic development in the late 19th century, was wrong. There was neither social equity nor democracy when it came to politics.
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The greedy whites taking over the food production in America led to war between the whites and the Native Americans of the Plains. Also, the indigenous people were removed from their original lands. Such removal was done to ensure that the ruling whites had all the benefits that came from the food production, with them, accordingly. in the verge of competition, most of the organizations resulted in taking control of the market place to eliminate competition (Jaremski, 2014). Competitors were eradicated through buying them out or crashing them, or even signing the non-competition agreements. For example, there were cartels created to share the places of market and come up with standard prices of goods and services. The businesses were consolidated in the 19th century to favor a few individuals in the market.
Another reason why the end of 19th century period was not of help to all but some individuals was destruction realized. Family farms were disrupted during this time of agricultural modernization. For example, the famers were provoked to come up with protest movements, something that has never happened before (Kennedy & Chen, 2015). The movement wasted time for the local famers as they always concentrated on airing their grievances instead of working for their better future, accordingly.
Overpopulation was another factor of consideration. Immigration led to the growth of numbers of the whites. These whites were forced to live in urban centers, making it hard for them to be well governed. There were issues like poor housing and medical care to the individuals due to industrialization growth (Schulz et al., 2015). Despite the merits that industrialization came up with, the growth in population was one of the worst aspects that proved poor individual development during the end of the 19th century.
Also, ordinary Americans had no place in terms of profits, in the presence of the big corporations. The government did not have any policies curbing the working predicaments. Thus, the working conditions for the normal Americans were very harsh, not allowing for their personal growth in the era of industrialization. In connection to the harsh working conditions many characters were either injured or killed in the line of duty (Williamson, 2015). When employees went ahead to sue for damages, the jurists gave verdicts in favor of the employers because there were no rules governing the working regions.
In addition, personal growth was limited due to the long hours for the employees. The overall hours for labor fell under overtime, making the workers strain and face danger in their working environment. There were changes that indicated long working hours like for example in the Carnegie steel, where employees worked for 12 hours a day, and seven days in a week. This was different before the changes had taken place where the workers went to a maximum of 12 hours in a day and worked for six days in a week. Various companies had different working rates, though increased ones, straining the employees. The tired people who worked under the heat from the furnaces ended up making mistakes and get burnt to death of got acute injuries.
Salaries increased, but that had no merits to the workers since the economy was tight too. Workers got employed during the peak periods and were badly laid off during the off-peak era. It was a disadvantage to the people living during those times because of the economy (Schulz et al., 2015). When one was laid off duty and the economy was tight, they had to strain to satisfy their basic requirements, accordingly. Therefore, most workers were not fully employed. The struggle was on parents who had to get various sources of income for the survival tactics. Therefore, child labor rose, due to the need of basic need satisfaction. The children had to work, in term of ‘helping’ their parents in feeding the family.
Another demoralizing factor was segmentations amongst workers. The American work force was segmented more than the European workforce. European workers shared various aspects in terms of ethnicity and language. There was easy time in organizing the European workers due to the similarity in the various backgrounds different from the American workers who had shoddy organizations amongst themselves (Kennedy & Chen, 2015). Accordingly, the American workers encountered bitter tension due to the different culture and races they had. The immigrant workers had resentment on the native-born workers. The American workers could not be united for this case.
Finally, the government took sides with the employers, oppressing the workers. Various confrontations during the 1890s confirmed sides taken by the government in the industries. Some of these confrontations were the Homestead Strike of 1892 and the Pullman Strike of 1894. Worker had to strike, as a means of passing their information of the oppression from both the employers and the government (Jaremski, 2014). Due to the government siding with the employers, the unions did not develop the workers as stated in their policies. Thus, individual’s growth, economic-wise, was short-lived. The industrial revolution was marked by economic development of few characters.
In conclusion, the thoughts of most people having individual economic advantage in the 19th century, alongside social equality and political democracy was invalid. People took sides to benefits themselves. The government went to the extent of collaborating with the employers to oppress the workers. Workers increased their duty time to make their ends meet, accordingly. child labor was developed in the urge of satisfying the family basic requirement due to most workers being laid off, during of-peak seasons. These conditions fully described the state of people during the end of 19th century, when industrialization took place. Greed was the cause of all these demerits encountered by individuals.
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