The Birth of Modern America

Industrialization 1. Gross National Product (GNP) 2. Henry Comstock 3. Boomtowns -American business and industry boomed Post Civil War 1.Total value of all goods and services -between – GNP 8x’s 2. Sold claim – couldn’t find gold -$230 mil. silver ore -financed Union Army 3. mining towns went from few 100 people to 30, AZ, Mont, SD/ND, CO 4. Hydraulic Mining4. High pressure water use -bad for envir.

Abundance of Natural Resources 5. Natural Resources 6. Alexander Graham Bell 7. Thomas Edison 8. George Westinghouse 5. timber, coal, iron, copper, petroleum -transcontinental railroad/settlement sped up industrial. 6.Telephone – now AT&T 7. lightbulb, phonograph, battery, motion picture -supplied NYC w/ elec power – now GE 8. air-brake system (trains)

Questions to Consider 1. What impact did the convergence of immigration, the influx of investment money, and technological change have on the United States after the Civil War? 2. How did the rise in the quantity of consumer goods affect daily life? What was lost? What was gained?

Bell Ringer 8/22/2013 What type of law did boomtowns have? A. Sheriffs B. Marshalls C. Vigilance committees D. None

Homestead Act of 1862 Encouraged settlement of Great Plains 160 acres/plot, title after 5 years

Problems w/ Homestead  160 acres Often too small for profits Hot/dry in summer, blizzards in winter Overpopulated -> led to “Dust Bowl”

Dawes Act of 1887 Assimilate – NA’s land divided up into allotments as the rest of the country  Families = 160 acres, single = 80 acres, children = 40acres  Stay for 25 years = citizenship  Problems?

Failure of Dawes Act NA’s weren’t farmers  Nomadic due to buffalo Often sold lands as other Americans 25 years?!? Not until 1924 that Congress passed Citizenship Act – making NA’s actual citizens AZ, Maine, NM – no right to vote until after WWII