During the years of 1870-1916 the U.S. went through an industrial boom that manifested the country we live in today. At the time, the nation was rebuilding it’s connections back up once again making the south and the north together as one union. In between all of the changes happening nationally, there were major developments in booming cities like inventions including new forms of industrial idealization, transportation, and the uprising of electricity and along with these inventions came users who would take advantage.
As for transportation, one of the major effects of industrialization in the U.S. was the creation of the steamboat. This invention created a more efficient and reliable way of transporting goods along the Erie Canal which greatly benefited the economy and helped found New York City as one of the great trading centers. To increase trade even more, the United States enforced railroads across the nation giving the building blocks for the transcontinental railroad built in 1869. However with all of the booming industry strengthening the economy it also hurt it.
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Rockefeller took advantage of the well oiled railroad system and created what is known as a monopoly. As seen in Document 7, George Rice tells a short tale of how Rockefeller drove him to a breaking point as Rockefeller owned most of the oil companies and also had the lowest prices that George himself and many other competitors couldn’t compete with. As Rockefeller became one of the wealthiest men in America, he used others downfalls to raise himself to the top. Many other people including members of congress even full under the shadow of gaining personal earnings based on controlling the railroads. As seen in Document 3, there were heavier hands at play in the congress and as shown there were many who participated. However, through all this corruption within the system and the economy it didn’t stop the speed of how fast industrialization was molding