19th Century Industrialization

19th Century Industrialization

Nineteenth Century Industrialization

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the United States experienced an urban revolution unparalleled in world history up to that point in time. As factories, mines, and mills sprouted out across the map, cities grew up around them. The late nineteenth century, declared an economist in 1889, was "not only the age of cities, but the age of great cities." Between 1860 and 1910, the urban population grew from 6 million to 44 million. The United States was rapidly losing its rural roots. By 1920, more than half of the population lived in urban areas. The rise of big cities during the nineteenth century created a distinctive urban culture. People from different ethnic and religious backgrounds came into the cities and settled down in large apartment building and tenement houses. They came in search of jobs, wealth, and new opportunities. Urbanization brought a widening of the gap between the poor and the rich. Nineteenth century American industrialization relied upon poverty and immigration for its success. Industrialization grew due to an increase of workers and cheap labor.

The ideal of success in business and prosperity fueled the rise in immigration. Immigrants came in search of riches but they were soon to find out that wealth was

19th Century Industrialization 2.

not what they received. The industrial revolution brought huge numbers of new immigrants from every part of the world. By the end of the century, nearly 30 percent of the residents of major cities were foreign-born. Their arrival to America brought the laborers that the industries and factories needed. Their arrival also created unsightly racial and ethnic tensions. Most immigrants were lured to America by the promise of affluence even though they were doing just fine in their own countries. American industries, seeking cheap labor, kept recruiting agents on watch abroad and at American ports. "From 1820 to 1900, about 20 million immigrants entered American ports, more than half of them coming after the Civil War. The tide of immigration rose from just under 3 million in the 1870s to more than 5 million in the 1880s, then fell to a little over 3.5 million in the depression decade of the 1890s, and rose to its high-water mark of nearly 9 million in the first decade of the new century. The numbers declined to 6 million in the 1910s and 4 million in the 1920s, after which official restrictions cut the flow of immigration down to a negligible level." (Tindall, 938) Immigrants thought of America as a land of opportunity and felt that they only needed to make to trip across the ocean to become successful. The "roads paved with gold" theory led to the downfall of the vast majority of immigrants. They came with huge aspirations but ended up working for extremely low wages and living in awful living conditions.

Immigrants working for low wages and their constant availability was necessary for industrialization's success. Without the huge numbers of immigrants

19th Century Industrialization 3.

working their would have been no one to work in the factories. The immigrants were so large in number that they would take almost any job for any wage. Large owners of factories and business tycoons were able to make large amounts of money because labor was so cheap. In turn, the economy grew immensely during the period of industrialization. In What Social Classes Owe to Each Other by William Sumner, he gives evidence to the fact that the poor man is vital to a society. He writes, "There is no possible definition of "a poor man." A pauper is a person who cannot earn his living; whose producing powers have fallen positively below his necessary consumption; who cannot, therefore, pay his way. A human society needs the active co-operation and productive energy of every person in it. A man who is present as a consumer, yet who does not contribute either by land, labor, or capital to the work of society, is a burden. So much for the pauper. About him no more need to be said. But he is not the "poor man." The "poor man" is an elastic term, under which any number of social fallacies may be hidden. (www.roads.Virginia.edu) This shows that it was necessary for the lower class to remain in the work field in order to spur economic growth. Cities and industry grew in direct result with immigrant workers taking over the grunt jobs. Their low wages for the amount of work they put in was fundamental in the growth of industry and big business.

Capitalism was necessary to spark socialism. Capitalism was the catalyst for the incline in industry and business. Socialism grew because of capitalism. Upton