Week 3 Reflection: Industrialization and the Gilded Age

This week's topic is something I enjoy learning about. I learned about the rise of capitalism and the corrupted gilded age in AP US history in high school. This was one of my favorite topics that we touched own because it is interesting to see how modern capitalism came to be, and the trials and tribulations we had to face to create a more just system. Capitalism is an economic system that encourages private enterprise; in this case, capitalism grew alongside industrialization in the United States. The free market began to emerge, and people began to start businesses without the involvement of the government. The free market began to develop due to the passing of the laws of incorporation. The government passed these laws to encourage investment and the growth of companies. Because of this, the number of corporations and businesses skyrocketed. Although the idea seems nice in theory, the government did not think about the consequences. These laws made it possible to eliminate competition and created a plethora of monopolies, making it nearly impossible for other companies to enter the market. People justified these laws as being apart of the American dream and survival of the fittest. This is funny to me because that is almost the same justification Americans use to this day to excuse the harsh competitiveness that comes with capitalism. Since the country was continually growing and people were moving west for their manifest destiny, they made a plan to create the transcontinental railroad. The railroad established a lot of jobs and made it possible to ship large amounts of goods across the country. Many Americans began to move westward in hopes of hitting the jackpot in the gold rush. Since building the railroads was a difficult job, the majority of the workers building it were African Americans and immigrants looking for work. Although it is not often acknowledged, immigrants are the ones who built this country and made it what it is today. Without immigrants, America would have never been great.

 During this period, America was facing significant reconstruction of their societal norms and began to enter the age of industrialization. America was on the rise as a world power and began to produce an abundance of goods in factories. When I think of the period of industrialization, I think of bad working conditions in factories and horrible regulations for workers. Literal children were working in these dangerous factories, and I am pretty sure many of them suffered terrible accidents.
Since the country was evolving, the labor laws had to as well. Many people began to go on labor strikes and bonded together to create the labor movement. The movement focused on having better wages, work conditions, and other benefits from employers. But since this was during the Gilded Age of corruption, we all know nothing came of that, and employers only cared about themselves.
Overall, this period of American history served as a testing ground to figure out what we need to reform as a country to improve.

A political cartoon of the gilded age

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=9&smtID=1

https://ligaswiatowa.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/kapitalistyczna-utopia-dnia-dzisiejszego-powstala-1880/