Post Civil War Dbq

The Transcontinental Railroad had a drastic effects on many aspects of life during the 1860s, including society, the economy, and the Native Americans’ way of life. These are just a few of the ways the Transcontinental Railroad changed the world. Native Americans were forced to relocate, society had a new outlook on life, and the economy had been boosted almost incalculably.

In the late 19th century, railroads propelled America into an era of unprecedented growth, prosperity, and convenient transportation. Prior to the building of the railroads, America lacked the proper and rapid transportation to make traveling across the country economical or practical. Lengthy travel was often cumbersome, costly, and dangerous. With the advent of the railroad, many of these issues disappeared. Railroads had a major impact on advancing the American economy, transforming America into a modern society, and improving an antiquated transportation system.

Technology may not seem like it made a huge impact on Western Expansion, but it in fact did. Without the creation and development of railroads, canals and bridges, expansion would have progressed a lot slower and not nearly as efficiently. Railroads allowed farmers to trade crops into the valley and passed the Appalachian’s which were previously off limits due to distance and terrain. Canals are water pathways connecting two bodies of water through a large piece of land. They allowed trade ships to have a shortcut for easier travel on trade voyages. Bridges did the exact opposite of canals, allowing land travel over two bodies of water. This gave traders the opportunity to cross over lakes and large bodies of water, instead of taking the extra

The Transcontinental Railroad played a significant role in the settlement of the American West. As of May 10th, 1869, this railroad became the area’s newest and fastest mode of transportation. Its first obligation was to bring settlers in at very low

When the Civil War was finishing, the South was at a place where everything was a social disorder, and a horrible economic place. The Union had a war destroyed the southern crops, plantations, the cities, and many slaves were going to the Union while their chiefs to be in the Union army. The inflation became so horrible that when the war was finishing, just by buying a piece of bread cost so much money for the South. Thousands of Southern people suffered so much because they would either starve to death, lose their clothes, homes, lands, and even slaves. That is why, by 1865, Washington had a really difficult task of the Southern Reconstruction.

Thesis : After the Civil War, America was in a post-war boom. During the 1870-1890, big business moguls, such as Rockefeller and Carnegie, create huge corporations which not only affected the economy, but also affected the political realm of America. While many may assume that during the rise of these big business helped to change the economy and politics,  the real focus was on the responses formed by society, such as labor unions, increase public outcry, and political opposition groups that helped to change society.

As industry exponentially grew after the Civil War, the need for labor and materials to power newly-created manufacturing giants caused new social classes to form: the rich corporation owners and the poor laborers. Unfathomably rich Robber Barons, or plutocratic American Capitalists, dominated the economy and industry and profited from the slave-like work of millions of poor laborers during this time period. Moreover, the poor working class and the rich further divided by distribution of wealth. Therefore, exploitation of capitalism widened the gap between the rich and poor classes of America, and both newly-formed classes developed reasons for the change.

The great Civil War that engulfed the United States in 1861 resulted from a fundamental cleavage between its two most powerful sections, North and South. (Reid: 88)

The appearance of the railroad in the early 19th century created a revolution in the transportation for the development of the economy and the society. This invention, eventually, also brought a lot of outcomes as well as disadvantages for the people living near the routes and the stations.

The South had many reasons to want to secede from the North. From the social point of view the South had many regional conflicts such as disputes between New Mexico and Texas, and war within Kansas. Within the political point of view there is the fact that the Whig party was formed in opposition to Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party, as well as presidential turmoil such as the “corrupt bargain between John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Andrew Jackson. Economic problems were also an issue with the South wanting to secede from the Union. Problems such as finance and banking, as well as expansion to the west. There was also the use of tariffs on imported goods.

America endured blood-stained fields and constant death during its bloodiest four years in the Civil War. Brother fighting against brother, the North and the South participated in a gruesome war. Despite that the war was largely based around the controversial issue of slavery, African Americans were unable to participate; the fighting was left in the hands of white men. For the first half of the war, only white men were granted permission to enlist. The Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln in January of 1863 allowed African Americans to be able to participate in the Civil War and fight for the United States Army. Now with the opportunity for African Americans to volunteer to participate in the fighting, the course of

During the period of 1870 to 1900 large corporations, such as the railway company, grew significantly in size, number, and influence. The cause of this was the need for a new way of transportation, the demand was great so the railways expanded all over the United States so that they could meet these demands. These large corporations affected the economy by making it easier to pay for everyday chores, politics in the way that it gave politicians too much power but in doing so gave normal limited power. The corporations had great power and influence which made them a huge impact to society.

During the late 1850’s and early 1860’s, people would gather for a family day at the local battlefield, after all, it was a spectacle. Unfortunately, those people didn’t know of the advancements that were being made in the field of warfare, and they paid a deadly price. The Civil War is best summed up by Christian Wolmar:

The Market Revolution had to deal with that of commercializing agriculture and not with industrialization, which was presented in three different parts (1) being that of a transportation and communications revolution (2) transitioning to commercializing farming and (3) industrialization. Transportation and communication within the revolutionary era were major, due to the importance of speedy transportation by use of the construction of toll roads, huge ruts and trees stumps in the middle of the roads made it so that the only speed that was acceptable was that of slow. After the creation of the turnpike and the lessons that it taught in the efficiency with transporting goods and products, the canal was invented, which brought with it a financial

I believe that the industrial revolution was beginning of what we now consider modern society; however, this came with a significant impact on the economic, social, and cultural aspects of the time.