Essay On America As A Land Of Opportunity

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The definition of opportunity (provided by google) is “ a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something”. Often this term is used to describe America, namely it is considered “a land of opportunity”. With this being said there are many ways or instances where America offered and took away wonderful opportunities. Considering the time period of 1870-1910 and the topics of Industrialization, The Homestead act, Minority Biases, Second Industrialization Inventions, as well as Captains of Industry vs Robber Barons. We can come to the conclusion that America would be viewed as a land of opportunity for the majority and would not be viewed as land of opportunity for minorities. To begin, rapid industrialization had a huge impact …show more content…

Specifically, the transcontinental railroad system helped. The railroad system helped the lives of poor people because of the fact that it helped people get to where they needed to go if their travel distance was long. The railroad system also helped bring America together in many different backgrounds. It ultimately brought up the economic power of America because the increasing population leads to increase in demand and an increase in profit. Additionally, many different inventions improved the lives of the masses significantly. Without inventions such as the telegraph and the streetcar are very influential inventions that helped the life of Americans in the 19th century. Three specific inventions are the telegraph, streetcar, and plumbing system. The telegraph helped send messages across long distances in a short amount of time. The streetcar helped provide transportation to those that were poor or couldn’t afford a horse to get around . Industrialization changed life in the cities because you could go to work for longer at different time periods of the day. This increase in business would lead to an increase in profit ultimately leading to an increase in greater economic power. The plumbing system was another invention that helped the American economy through improving the lifespan of the population. Prior to the invention of the plumbing system people died from diseases as a result of them throwing the waste outside and the fumes developing in the air. Following the introduction of the plumbing system less people died from disease because their waste actually had somewhere to go. Leading to less toxic fume development. Without these inventions curated by industrialization many people would not have been able to fully live their life with

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