Moi Banerjee
1/7/14
CP: 1
APUSH DBQ
Technology, government policy and economic conditions changed the American agriculture drastically in the period 1865-1900. Technology increased hugely over the years but the prices were outrageous to the agriculture society. Because farmers could not afford anything, they lived in poor conditions. Although the farmers were the “front-face” of the society and provided everything for the country, people were forgetting about the, and they were not being represented enough in the government and its policy. The United States were growing very fast; technology made job conditions easier to work with. With the new technological advancements, the country was getting easier to access. The railroads were replacing old methods of transportation. From 1870 to 1890, the number of railroads grew immensely with the major land grants (Document B). With technological innovations such as steel plows and mechanical reapers, it made agriculture easier. But, it hurt farmers more as they did not receive much money since they were taken by the power hungry railroad
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They were a laissez-faire type of government. The Republicans favored all the power-hungry company heads and the large, booming industries and represented them well. So, the farmers were not well represented in the US Government and was not helped anywhere. But, the people in Illinois were able to secure a victory when the Supreme Court allowed Illinois legislature to pass a law to decrease freight rates (Document C). Strong leaders like Mary Elizabeth Lease suggested to the people that the government was lying and deceiving them and she backed her argument with overproduction (Document G). The Republicans did not support the farmers and they hurt the economy because they were the type of government who would not help their fellow
In addition, influential in the struggles of the American farmers were the Indians who constantly struggled with the white invaders. As is displayed in document B, the railroads covered the United States by 1890. The purpose of this document is to show the sprawling of the national railroad service and just how dependent the railroads were of outside influence. In
While laissez-faire enabled corporate powers to burgeon, farmers and social workers did not benefit from the bureaucratic government. American agriculture endured many hardships during the Gilded Age and was profoundly affected by the technological advancements, government policies, and economic conditions between 1865 and 1900. The declining position of American Farmers was the corollary of novel technology and mechanized agriculture. Because subsistence farming was no longer a viable option, farmers transformed their estates into commercial businesses and became heavily dependent on machinery and producing at commercial scales. Much of the new technology farmers invested in for example, steel plows, harrows, grain binders, threshers, windmills,
In the working poor’s opinions, everything was to be blamed on Republican Grant’s corrupt administration. It cannot be said that Grant did nothing to try to ease the Panic. He sided with business leaders and adopted their policies. This established the Republican Party as the party of economic conservation and fiscal restraint. It also abolished
The Federalists thought that the path to greatness was to have a strong economy and to support the growth of businesses and trade. Their idea was to create a national bank that would collect taxes, print the national currency, and give loans for the building of new ships and factories. The Democratic-Republicans were in great opposition to this because it was “unconstitutional” and would hurt the farmers. A Democratic-Republican leader named Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, If ever He had a chosen people.” They wanted the economy to be based on agriculture.
They distrusted the constitution and believed in a strong state government. Republicans were mostly southern farmers who also believed in America to remain a country-side nation of small farmers dedicated to republican values. This political party was known as Jeffersonian Republican because of Jeffersons influence. Jefferson believed in localized state governments held together, untied by a federal government. Democratic Republicans did not trust the national government and they defended states’ rights.
To contrast, the railroads not only helped with coal, cattle, and steel, but also with the growth of cities. Many major cities were near major resources and railroads. The growth in America, were deeply dependent on railroad companies, like the Pacific, to create positive change and increases of products and resources in the American
The economy is the collection of resources and money. Also all across the world, all countries that trade and use some sort of money. The economy includes tariffs, banking, trusts, railroads and all about the new transportation, and acts that expand the power of the federal government. Some issues with the economy that affected all people were railroad corruption, banking expansion, working conditions, trusts, and most of all, the corruption within the government. The changing economy positively impacted the common people.
They wanted to create a relationship with France, focused on agriculture over commercialism, and free trade. Over time the Federalist party weakened while the Jeffersonian republicans evolved into the Democrats.
Railroads also led to the downfall of the farmer seeing as they jacked up the prices for transporting goods. The price of simply moving their produce took a huge bite out of their
The railroad also contributed greatly to economic wealth in, such improvements as faster public transportation, the spreading of new ideas and the discovery of new territories. The creation of the Transcontinental Railroad also led to the expansion of foreign as well as domestic markets. The railroad was not good for everyone,
Most farmers struggled to make a living due to key issues. There was often a high tax on railroads which had cut a large profit from the farmers. The farmers had no other option other than the railroad since the farmers were often very far off westward in the Great Plains, while the market with a large population was still in eastern cities like New York. Likewise farmers had to pay a middle man in the East to sell their commodities in the East, because the poor farmers were unable to travel all the way to the East to sell their products then come back to start farming for the next year. Surprisingly, farmers were often detrimental to themselves due to
Throughout American History, revolutions in transportation have affected the American society politically, socially and economically. Soon after the war of 1812, American nationalism increased which leads to a greater emphasis on national issues, the increase in power and prevalence of the national government and a growing sense of the American Identity. Railways, canals, and Turnpikes began to increase making many people employed. The era of 1830-1860 represents a shift from agrarianism to industrialism. Overall, during the transportation revolution, construction of turnpikes, roads, canals, and railroads led to the market economy expansion, an increased population in America and alternations of the physical landscape of America.
After the Civil War many problems arose. For farmers- shipping rates, freight rates, silo prices, and interest rates all skyrocketed. Many businessmen, such as middlemen, would try to take advantage of the farmers needs to mooch more money off of them. All of these issues caused the Farmer’s Alliance to form. The farmers that were participating in the alliance were being directly affected by the rise in rates and prices.
Farm technology made a lot of progress from 1890-1920. Before this time, all the farming was done by hand. There were many inventions from wire to tractors to help make farming easier. Three inventions that really changed farming were gas tractors, cream separator and horse drawn combine. Gas tractors were created so that you didn’t have to use your horses so much and so you could pull more.
Nallely Sagastume Pillsbury US History February 27, 2018 The Great Depression The 1920s was a chaotic time, it dealt with a worldwide depression that affected many countries but most specifically the United States. During this time the economy drifted into a deep decline and left many people jobless and struggling to financially support their families. Many things were going off balance and there seemed no way to solve it, the farming industry fell, unequal distribution of wealth was going around and overproduction was losing a great amount of money, these problems greatly contributed to the Great Depression.