Big Business and The Robber Barons Essay -- Corporate America Consumer

The decades after the Civil War rapidly changed the saying of the United States. The rapid industrialization of the nation changed us from generally rural to the top industrial power in the world. Business tycoons thrived during this time, forging capital business empires with the use of trusts and pools. Farmers moved to the cities and into the factories, living off wages and ever-changing the face of the workforce. This rapid industrialization created wide gaps in society, and the government, which had originally taken a hands off approach to business, was forced to step in. galore(postnominal) individuals took advantage of the rapid industrialization and high influx of cheap labour in the form of immigrants. Among these entrepreneurs were John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and George Pullman. Each made a yell for themselves by forging their own corporate empire. Rockefeller was an industrialist and philanthropist who made his sequel by founding the S tandard crude Company in 1870. Attempting to control the industry and squeeze out the middle man, Rockefeller slowly gained almost round out control of the oil industry. He formed the powerful Standard Oil Trust in 1882, which united all of his companies and secured 95% of oil end product in the United States for himself. Rockefeller was an industrialist who stamped out all of his competition with his trust, eventually leading(a) to Congress intervention.Andrew Carnegie found his fortune in steel. Arriving in America in 1848, he quickly made his way up societys ladder and in 1870 founded the Carnegie Steel Company in Pittsburgh. Carnegie was opposed to monopolistic practices, but succeeded in eliminating the middle man. He pioneered the tactic of vertical desegregation... ...elped to widen the rift between rich and poor. Farmers, who were once self-employed, were rapidly seemly factory workers. In 1860 half the nation was self-employed, but by 1900 two-thirds were subordina te on wages. This trend caused the rapid urbanization of America, which brought out some issues. proceeds were rising, so it was good to be working, but with dependent wages the workers were susceptible to economic downturns. The workplace also became much less personable as people began to move to factory jobs. New machines would often locomote workers, and individual workers had little power to fight for their rights against the industries. There was always a fear of unemployment, and reformers struggled to protect wages and have provisions for temporary unemployment. As more people moved to the cities and the corporations grew, social rifts became larger and larger.