Prior to the Industrial Revolution, agriculture was where the “common man” spent his working years, but after the I.R began, many went from the fields to the factories. During The Gilded Age (1865-1900) agriculture in the United States took a massive nosedive. The Gilded Age was infamous for government corruption, and this hurt the field of agriculture very much. Things such as changes in agriculture, government policy, and economic conditions changed agriculture in the United States significantly, and farmers had much to say about it. Changes in agriculture played a huge role during this time period. As seen in Document 1, where we are given a chart that shows the prices of wheat, cotton, and corn and also how much was produced during The Gilded Age. When reading this chart, two things stand out: the falling prices of these crops, and the overproduction of them as well, most of this happened because of new technology that was able to produce more than what was needed, and this hurt farmers very …show more content…
In Document G, a speech by Mary Elizabeth Lease, which has her explaining how political parties were lying to farmers, and how they promoted farmers to overproduce, which led to prices falling. This ideology would eventually led to the Populist Party, which was essentially the Farmer’s Party during this The Gilded Age. In Document H, a letter from Susan Orcutt to Lorenzo D. Lewelling, which is stating that the Orcutts were starving. What this was proving was that farming in The Great Plains was very difficult. In Document J, which is a few excerpt from a speech by William Jennings Bryan, a member of the Populist Party, explains how farmers are vital for the survival of cities, and how the Gold Standard was hurting farmers and favoring cities. This is showing that Democrats and Populist party members favored the coinage of silver, while Republicans favored the Gold Standard. Farmers were obviously not happy with these
From the expanding of railroads country wide, to limiting laws on the goods farmers sold and transportation of the goods,to starvation of the economy, agriculture began to take its own shape from 1865 through to 1900 in the United States.
Through the period of 1865-1900, America’s agriculture underwent a series of changes .Changes that were a product of influential role that technology, government policy and economic conditions played. To extend on this idea, changes included the increase on exported goods, do the availability of products as well as the improved traveling system of rail roads. In the primate stages of these developing changes, farmers were able to benefit from the product, yet as time passed by, dissatisfaction grew within them. They no longer benefited from the changes (economy went bad), and therefore they no longer supported railroads. Moreover they were discontented with the approach that the government had taken towards the situation.
The Gilded Age was known as the Second Industrial Revolution because there was change in the economy, politics, and society. Most of the change was occurring because of the growth of large companies. The in the 1900s up to the 1920s, the companies started to decrease in power but not all since Henry Ford was being successful because of his automobile company that allowed the people to move more, and think differently depending on their sexuality. Even though Ford was successful, the businesses still didn’t run the people anymore, the people started to control the government more.
As in any time period, significant technological advances were made from 1877 to 1933. Since the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in America, new technologies and advancements are being made every day. This Revolution has transformed the economy and in turn transformed every aspect of American life. An important effect of the Industrial Revolution was the Agricultural Revolution, when new advances in farming were made. In the area of farming, the government passed laws and regulations that were significant in the ...
The exact period of time in which the Gilded Age occurred is ever-debatable, but most historians can at least agree that it started within the 20 years after the Civil War ended and lasted until the early 1920s. (West) The Gilded Age itself was characterized by the beginnings of corporations and corrupt political machines. Policies such as the General Incorporation Laws allowed business to grow larger more easily, and with less red tape involved. New technology allowed faster and more efficient production, but this explosive growth of industry called for not only more resources, but new business practices and leaders as well. (Moritz 10-12)
5. Perry, Elisabeth Israels, and Karen Manners Smith. The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: a student companion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.
Between 1865 and 1900 technology, economic conditions, and government policy influenced American Agriculture greater than it ever had before. Technologically, Railroads, factories, and farm equipment changed American agriculture by allowing the production of farmed goods to be increased substantially, while economic conditions caused the prices of these goods to go down and then fluctuate. Farmers hurting from the economic disarray began influencing the laws being passed to help them in their economic troubles. Because of the influence of technology, government policy, and economic conditions between the 1865 and 1900 American agriculture was affected.
Expansive growth was the moniker which expressly defined the Gilded Age. Industry in all sectors, witnessed massive growth leading to the creation of an American economy. Due to the rapidly changing nature of industrialization important men of both the public and private sectors attempted to institute their own controls over it. However this transforming landscape integrated both economic and political changes, but also cultural and social interactions. In turn, those who controlled the flow of business would also steadily impact the American social scene by extension. Alan Trachtenberg, professor of American studies at Yale and author of The Incorporation of America, argues that the system of incorporation unhinged the idea of national identity that all American’s had previously shared. As a result incorporation became the catalyst for the great debate about what it meant to actually be American, and who was capable of labeling themselves as such. Throughout his work Trachtenberg consistently tackles the ideas of cultural identity and how those ideas struggled against one another to be the supreme definition of Americanism. This work not only brings to life the issue of identity but it attempts to synthesize various scholarly works into a cohesive work on the Gilded Age and demonstrates that concepts developed during the incorporation of the time period have formed the basis for the American cultural, economic, and political superstructure. The Incorporation of America sets a high standard for itself one in which it doesn’t necessarily meet; however the work is still expansive and masterful at describing the arguments of the Gilded Age.
Name the three men credited with pioneering the new strategies that created the fortunes of the Gilded Age. Identify the business that each made their money in and briefly describe how they made their money.
Farmers wished that the government would stop trying to spin straw into gold and just give them some silver instead. From 1880 to 1900 agrarians faced many issues, the price of agrarian goods was too low, transportation costs were far too high, and the financial system in place became more questionable. The dissatisfaction that agrarians felt certainly was very reasonable.
The gilded age was a time of scandal, poverty and a little progress. Almost all of these improvements were done after issues arose, but it was not until someone important noticed them and made everyone aware of them but also when it affected powerful people such as the government or an enormous amount of people. The gilded age was mostly a time of making up for previous mistakes.
The lower working class and immigrants, also known as the poor, are the last major group that was influenced during the Gilded Age. Even though this era was a time of great success, many Americans still struggled to get by. This caused many
The Gilded Age contained rapid social and political transformations in the U.S. With large companies helping foster the growing economy which was at its prime, there was a veneer of crippling poverty along with the implosive number of immigrants. Reform back in the Progressive Era was hard but gradual. The Progressive Era is the age in America's history in which there were social and political reforms to bandage the wounds of the Gilded Age. The prominent division between the middle/upper class and the lower class were shaped through Victorian morality and wealth gap. To fix this issue, many took
To begin with, the Gilded age caused for the extreme growth of the wealth of some people, but others did not benefit at all. The wealthy were able to live a lavish life and even own their own homes in the suburbs, “Many of the moderately well-to-do dwellers took advantage of the less expensive land on the edges of the cities and settled in new suburbs, linked to the downtowns by trains or streetcars.” The poor could barely afford homes, “Most urban residents, however, could not afford either to own a house in the city or to move to the suburbs.” Both groups face different obstacles, the rich were able to live in safer neighborhoods, while the poor were at risk of health issues, “An even greater hazard than fire was disease, especially in poor neighborhoods with inadequate
Agriculture has changed dramatically, especially since the end of World War II. Food and fibre productivity rose due to new technologies, mechanization, increased chemical use, specialization and government policies that favoured maximizing production. These changes allowed fewer farmers with reduced labour demands to produce the majority of the food and fibre.