Market Economy and Transformation of Society Calvin Coolidge (President ): “The Business of America is Business”

Recommendations

Key problems of the ‘Gilded Age’ Initial situation in the early 1860s Revolution in Transport and Communication Removal and Partial Extinction of Native Americans in the West Character of American Industrialization Immigration Urbanization Social Relations

The ‘market revolution’ (1830s-1860) Rapid population growth Developments in infrastructure (canals, roads, early railroads) Commercialization of agriculture Early industrialization especially in the North

Revolution in Transport and Communication

Expansion of Railways Union and Central Pacific Railroad ( ) Chinese migration (by 1880: more than ) Railroad network increased to miles in 1890

Consequences Expansion of the iron- and steel industry and of coal production Expansion of mechanical engineering Improvement and standardization of railroad technology Regional specialization of the economy, increasing division of labor – the preconditions for the emergence of mass production Reduction in freight costs by more than 50% between 1870 and 1890 Shortening of travel time between New York and Chicago by 50% (24 hours trip) Increase in the number of immigrants arriving from Europe and the increased settlement of the West through massive advertising campaigns by railroad companies and selling of land New conception of time and space by individuals Creation of four standard time zones in the 1880s Emergence of “big business” (railroad companies as model)

Westward Movement of Iron and Steel Production

Global Connections

Destruction of Native American Cultures Man and nature Buffalos and the collapse of subsistence culture

Treaty of Fort Laramie, Wyoming (1868) Continuous fighting on the “frontier” Treaty on re-settlement of Native Americans to two large reservations in the Dakotas and Oklahoma not observed by white settlers and returning Native Americans

Policies and Notions Forced assimilation in white society Push towards marginal lands and continuous reduction of land on reservations by white settlers and land-hungry speculators By 1900, only native Americans remained, the low point of population size Mood of the time: native Americans cannot obstruct modernity and progress. Social Darwinists: those who cannot adapt will perish – law of nature

Native American Land “Cessions”

The Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)

Back to business Distinctions between economic developments and industrialization in Europe and the United States Little state control, much more decentralized and less regulated – no development of a strong regulatory state no serious clash between capitalist market economy and political democracy. There were conflicts of interest between capital and labor, but there occurred no class ruptures. Reasons: pluralistic society of immigrants, higher living standards, inclusive mechanisms of the constitution and American civil religion

Uneven Economic Development ( ) Boom and bust Indicators of economic progress Value of all produced goods increased from 3 to over 13 billion Dollar between 1869 and 1896 National product increased by 550% Per-capita income by 150% net income of workers increased by 50%

Immigration Population increase from 40 to 60 million ( ) 30% increase due to immigrants, of which 5,5 million arrive from Germany Emma Lazarus: “The New Colossus”: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses Yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse Of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, Tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp Besides the golden door.

Changing composition of immigrants

The rise of the city

Aspects of City Life Kansas City 1873

Aspects of City Life New York City: Broadway 1875

Aspects of City Life New York City 1895

Changes in the Workforce