-
The Bessemer Process
Sir Henry Bessemer created a process to turn iron into steel through the Bessemer process. It was a process by which carbon and other impurities were removed from the iron to create steel. It was the first method discovered for mass-producing steel. -
Period: to
Gilded Age
-
Vanderbilt merges truck lines
Cornelius Vanderbilt merges the railroad truck lines from New York City, Buffalo, and Chicago to his Central. This made Vanderbilt the most powerful man in business, he now controls multiple railroad lines, making his company a threatening monopoly. This also displays an example of vertical integration since he now controls several railroads. -
Transcontinental Railroad is finished
The transcontinental railroad would connect the West coast to the East coast of the United States, therefore connecting the nation into one. The vast number of people who traveled the line, and the complex web of connecting routes that followed, set the USA on the path to economic abundance. But with this started the struggle of workers at the time who faced the harshest conditions with no breaks, long hours, and little pay. -
Standard Oil is formed
Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company was incorporated in Ohio. By the early 1880's it controlled some 90 percent of U.S. refineries and pipelines. Standard Oil gained a monopoly by buying rival refineries and developing companies for distributing and marketing its products worldwide. Standard Oil dominated the oil market through horizontal integration. With the growth of his company demand for workers increased and the conditions workers faced caused conflict as well, leading to worker's strikes. -
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 is the first global depression brought about by industrial capitalism. Industrial capitalism is controlled by the productivity of capital investments in stocks and bonds. As a result, average wages fell by nearly a quarter, thousands of American companies defaulted on over a billion dollars in debt, 9 out of 10 U.S. railroad concerns failed, and the country faced double-digit unemployment for over a decade. All of this caused outbreaks in monopoly's and the workers included. -
Railroad strike of 1877
As result of reduced wages and unemployment On July 16, a spontaneous strike erupted in Martinsburg, West Virginia and quickly spread to multiple cities. Men, women and children, protesting the troops' presence and expressing support for the strikers, sought to prevent military action. Troops then opened fire on the crowd leaving at least twenty dead and twenty-nine wounded. This was the first time in U.S. history that federal troops were utilized against strikers and labor protests.
