Andrew Carnegie Dbq

‘The reason for the United States of America having the strongest economy in the world is because of the work of entrepreneurs.’ Certain entrepreneurs had the vision to achieve their goals and to build empires that shaped the future of the United States of America’s economy, therefore making the USA the most powerful country in the world. These men included: Cornelius Vanderbilt through his shipping and railroad empire; John D Rockefeller through his oil, kerosene and gasoline empire; Andrew Carnegie through his steel empire; JP Morgan through his General Electric company as well as his contributions in banking and lastly Henry Ford for his perfection of the assembly line and creating a car affordable for the common man. These men not only

(Source 7) He eventually became a director in Scotts Company. Scott told Carnegie that the key to success was westward expansion. Carnegie was now challenged to build a bridge over the Mississippi river. (Source 3) At the time one in four bridges built would fail and no one had ever attempted to build a bridge this large before, but Carnegie took on the challenge. Carnegie knew that there could be no rewards without risks and he put together a team of men to design the bridge. It would be called the Eads Bridge. (Source 8) Many concepts were scrapped and the design team soon realised that Iron was not strong enough to withstand the currents of the river. (Source 3) Carnegie knew that he would have to find something stronger than iron. He looked into steel as at the time it was the strongest material ever made but he came across a problem, as it was very expensive and difficult to produce, and it was also only used for small items around that time like cutlery and jewelry. Carnegie had a vision for the future and his vision was mass produced steel. (Source 8) He invested in a new invention that had the ability to produce large steel structures, like the beams needed to build the bridge. (Source 3) The Eads Bridge was behind schedule and Carnegie was not able to pay back investors. He was forced to bring construction to a haul. The relationship between Carnegie and Eads was breaking up, as

Morgan then funded the erection of a central power station in New York City. Soon after this Morgan’s father died in a horse and carriage crash, JP Morgan inherited all his father’s money and he now had nothing holding him back from investing in electricity. (Source 7) 30 years of unparalleled growth has made America one of the most powerful countries in the world. (Source 5) America was now the most technologically advanced country in the world, trains, oil, steel and electric light was making the USA a step ahead of all other countries. JP Morgan joined Rockefeller and Carnegie as the most powerful and influential men in America. Morgan began to get power hungry, as he did not want to be confined to just one company; he wanted to own them all. Morgan was head of the largest investment bank in the world and this gave him unrivaled power and influence with everything that had to do with money. (Source 4) Morgan at one stage used his personal funds to bail out the federal government, saving the American economy from a complete collapse. (Source 5) Morgan created a concept called ‘morganisation’, (Source 7) the idea behind it was to bring together competitive industries to maximise profits, and he began to reconstruct companies and eliminating expenses and maximising profits over everything else. This created a trend in big business and