The Impact of Industrialization and Urbanization in Late 19th Century America

This document discusses the economic reconstruction and reformation in late 19th century America, the massive demand for labor, immigration and urbanization, and the social problems and conflicts that arose. It also explores the impact of the second industrial revolution on Native Americans and their struggle to adapt to the changing environment.

Running head: AME

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At the end of the nineteenth century from the era of Reconstruction, the American nation
(the United States) went an economic reconstruction and reformation. With the help of maturity
of the industrial economy, the rapid and fast expansion of big business, the development of large
scale agriculture, the rise of vast labor demand and the simultaneously development of biggest
labor unions and industrial conflict, the late nineteenth century was marked by the massive and
colossal growth and development of America in terms of economy and socio-economy as well as
politics (Bénétrix, O’Rourke & Williamson, 2015).
With a massive growth and development of the country, there has been massive demand
of labor, both physical as well as mechanical. However, with the exponential growth of the
business market and the industries in every sphere, there have also been demands for all kinds of
employment, be it blue collar or white collar jobs. Therefore, the country witnessed a massive
magnitude of immigration and urbanization all over the country. Immigrants from various other
states and countries accumulated in America, built ghettos and survived in order to get work and
thrive on the soil (Perlman, 2016). On the other hand, there has been a massive construction of
urban centers as there were more industries as well as branch industries were getting built all
through the country. However, it also has to be remembered that over urbanization caused the
building of ghettos and slums where the workers were densely populated, giving rise of urban
crimes and scarcities of water and resources. With the increase in work, the working hours and
patterns of work also increased. The workers worked for long hours in order to keep up with the
high demands of the manufactured goods but their salaries did not increase even a bit which
made them vulnerable socio-economically and estranged completely from the different sections
of the society, making them marginalized in American society. The social problems that crept up
with the industrialization fueled the rise in National Labor unions which had clashes with the

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capitalists very often. Therefore, such clashes were well grasped by the social and political
reformers who changed the shape and future of America and the fate of her laborers and workers
(Abramitzky & Boustan, 2017).
Second industrial revolution completely changed the course of the life of the Americans,
especially the native Americans. Railroads have been largely responsible for the great burst of
economic explosion throughout the country, however, the sufferers of the respective situation
were Native Americans (Donaldson & Hornbeck, 2016). The railways changed the human as
well as natural environment of the West, which led a monstrous conflict with the Native
Americans or the Red Indians who had bee living there throughout the generations. The Native
Americans were either ruthlessly eradicated from their native homelands or were given the
opportunity to take the path of the mainstream and enter into the urban and modern way of
living, shedding their indigenous and traditional ways of surviving and thriving in the
environment. However, such situation was a great blow to the Native Americans because they
were the ancestors of the American land and their indigenous habits, tradition, culture and
customs possessed a greater significance in the world heritage and shedding away their
indigenous culture would alienate them completely from their clan (Perlman, 2016).

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References:
Abramitzky, R., & Boustan, L. (2017). Immigration in American economic history. Journal of
economic literature, 55(4), 1311-45.
Bénétrix, A. S., O’Rourke, K. H., & Williamson, J. G. (2015). The spread of manufacturing to
the poor periphery 1870–2007. Open Economies Review, 26(1), 1-37.
Donaldson, D., & Hornbeck, R. (2016). Railroads and American economic growth: A “market
access” approach. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131(2), 799-858.
Perlman, E. R. (2016). Dense enough to be brilliant: patents, urbanization, and transportation in
nineteenth century America. Working paper, Boston University.