History USA- Part one 1865-1890 - economic growth and development
- Created by: H@r/3y
- Created on: 19-08-20 16:51
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- Economic growth in gilded age was spectacular enough - pushed US to front of world's economy
- economic legacy of the civil war was different for various regions; North-war stimulated business and brought bringing rapid modernisation; West-opened way for economic exploitation & land settlement; South-war represented loss and destruction, and most important economic impact was abolition of slavery destroying foundations of S economy.
- Years after civil war agriculture was important and still growing
- over half the pop. lived rural (people on farmers rose from 10million in 1865 - 25 million in 1890)
- industrialisation developed, pop. grew, rail expanded, more+ land under cultivation (number of farms doubled) - process encouraged by fed. gov. Homestead act of 1862 which made hundreds of thousands of acres free for settlers
- rail bought up large tracts making big profits selling the land to settlers
- 1865 most farms were household/small but was increase in large-scale agriculture and new markets assisted by technology of refrigeration and new machines like reapers, thrashers and wire binders
- Department of Agriculture carried out research & encouraged agricultural colleges
- farmers had little control over prices and depended on finance from banks, rail companies and local merchants for investment and to get products to distant markets
- they were vulnerable to fluctuations of market - an example is the period of depression after 1873 Panic
- N&E's agri. benefitted from expanding markets in growing towns and cities
- 1880s cities like Chicago were hubs of a wide distribution network - shipped meat products, cereal, canned foods to urban N/E and timber to construction of Great Plains
- Wisconsin was dairy production centre
- Rail were essential to this process, despite being monopolies and setting freight rates too high
- Agriculture was dependent on market forces it couldn't control
- 'King Cotton' still ruled the South
- political battles over reconstruction failed to break down traditional structures of S
- Small farmers (white & A-A) were in a difficult situation, unable to buy/keep their own land. falling back to tenant farmers, struggled to gain loans/ get produce to markets directly without being controlled or exploited by Big Business
- economic development in 'New South' - rail expansion, cotton/tobacco/sugar remained major commodities, trade and shipping expanded (ports like Mobile in Alabama)
- S did lag behind rest of country, fewn immigrants settled here
- 1879 thousands of black farmers moved away to Kansas searching for greater opps.
- Homestead Act 1862 accelerated movement to West
- first transcontinental Railroad, Union Pacific, finished in 1869
- conquest and colonisation of Native lands virtually complete by 1877 - vast open lands carved up by rail, ranches, farmes and mining towns
- W development driven above all by land hungry settlers seeking homesteads
- Vast tracks were brought under cultivation in states such as Nebraska
- 1889 thousands raced to acquire farms in Oklahoma land rush in response to Congress granting 2 million acres of Indian land as free
- rail played a key role - transported homesteaders, lent them money to acquire land and took cash crops (wheat) in return
- One key factor of rapid settlement was…
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