World Fair Dbq

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In 1893 a world fair was held in Chicago Illinois to celebrate the 4thcentenniel of Columbus discovering the Americas. The exposition displayed grand buildings with beautiful architecture, hundreds of exhibits ranging from exotic tribes of Africa, to new inventions, expertly constructed landscape, and astounding attractions such as the first Ferris wheel. The fair lasted for six months and had over 27 million visitors, including ¼ of the American population.
Aside from the pulchritude of the fair, it also displayed multiple elements of society at that time. The fair was a nexus of the current and future products of industrialization. The fair introduced many people to what the future of society would be like. The fair displayed the new world …show more content…

New inventions in communication such as the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 and soon after radio communication made long distance communication quicker and easier than using a telegraph http://www.skwirk.com/p-c_s-14_u-424_t-1100_c-4258/the-second-industrial-revolution/nsw/history/the-industrial-revolution/the-impact-of-the-industrial-revolution. Transportation was influenced by the invention of electric traction and the electric motor which were used in streetcars and subway systems. Manufacturing was also influenced by electricity; it allowed production to rely on artificially generated power rather than the force of human strength or steam power which greatly increased work productivity http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24470.
Aside from the world of business and technology that the industrial revolution brought, a new world of human behavior and crime developed. Violent murders committed by people like Jack the Ripper and H.H Holmes started to occur. The H.H Holmes murders occurred at the same time as the Columbian exposition. This was another aspect of future society that the exposition introduced to people to. This transition was brought about by poverty, and the unsanitary crowded conditions that people were forced to live in http://www.txstate.edu/gii/projects/jack-the-ripper.html …show more content…

A significant amount of people were in Chicago looking to take advantage of what it had to offer. Holmes used this lust people had for opportunity to exploit and attract his victims. His offerings of jobs, rooms, wealth, marriage and a multitude of other things combined with the opportunity Chicago had, composed an irresistible offering to women (The devil in the White City pg 162). They could not justify reasons to refuse moving into his building. From here Holmes treated women well and seduced them into positions where he could easily murder

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