Shock City Urbanization

Railroads had a major impact on advancing the American economy, transforming America into a modern society, and improving an antiquated transportation system. The building of railroads created rapid economic growth in America. Railroad companies employed more than one million workers to build and maintain railroads. At the same time, coal, timber, and steel industries employed thousands of workers to provide the supplies necessary to build railroads (Chapter 12 Industrialization). In turn, railroad companies spent large sums of money purchasing railroad supplies.

The period from 1865 to 1900 is called the Gilded Age, not only for the monopolist Robber Barons who got very rich by developing major industries -- steel, roads, railroads, electricity, banking, etc -- but because of a fundamental change in American life. Before the Civil War, America was largely agricultural. People lived on farms or small villages & towns. In the 1870s & 1880s cities like Chicago were all the rage. .

During the nineteenth century, Manchester,England was leading in textile manufacturing due to the cotton mill and it being the first industrialized city. The industrial growth increased the population to over 300,000 by a span of 100 years, this new increase was due to working class and immigrants. In document 1, there is a vast growth in the city of Manchester over the span of 100 years. Manchester was given representation in Parliament and the middle-class men received the vote. While the growth of industry was needed in Manchester for better development of modern society, it came with many issues.

Populations had major changes with increased amounts of people in urban areas around cities, and increased amounts of immigrants. Railroads erupted in quantity and popularity around the nation, connecting major areas, and transporting important resources, such as livestock, timber, and metals. During this period, I would have preferred to live in the Midwest. The Midwest had many cities that were centers for industry, which were very profitable in wealth

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, is set in Chicago in the early 1900’s, during the height of social reform known as the Progressive era. The population of Chicago had grown substantially, from 29,000 in 1850 to 1.7million in 1900, due to the influx of immigrants in search of the “American dream”. America was the destination of all in search of freedom, equality and higher wages. The dream promised success in exchange for hard work, determination and morality. The reality was that the “American dream” was just an illusion.

Carnegie started work as a telegrapher and by the 1860s had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges and oil derricks. He accumulated further wealth as a bond salesman raising money for American enterprise in Europe. He built Pittsburgh 's Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million, creating the U.S. Steel Corporation. Carnegie devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale philanthropy, with special emphasis on local libraries, world peace, education and scientific research. With the fortune he made from business, he built Carnegie Hall and he founded the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, Carnegie Hero Fund, Carnegie Mellon University and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, among others

In the 19th century, a major way of transportation was crafted. This was called the Erie Canal. This Canal led to great economic growth throughout the United States. For example, the Canal brought in many people through the seaports in New York which made it more busy than it already was (Doc. 1a).

During the end of nineteenth century and the beginning of twentieth, America developed fast even passed over the Great Britain and France, those classic capitalism countries. What caused America became powerful at that time? The social economy and natural geographic location. These two elements interact each other. Social economy included the social system, political system, industrial development and every economic environment.

There are many big cities is experiencing to urbanization in theirs commercial and residential issues. Cardiff, similarly many large city has seen industrial developing , which impact to the great ways of industrial economics. These changes led to advantages and disadvantages to Cardiff in terms of population history and economic aspects. At present, population dynamic in Wales, which has dramatically increased since it began industrial reformation, is the one of disadvantages to Cardiff’s industrial enterprise. There are a significantly increase in Cardiff’s population, which a resident census is represented estimation to 346,100 persons with 13.3% in an increase by 2001 to 2011 (The Office for National Statistics, 2011)(1).

In Erik Larson’s novel The Devil in the White City takes place during the Gilded Age. During this period of time everything appears good and golden on the outside when in reality everything was full of corruption. In the novel, the author takes the reader to the city of Chicago, where the city is “swelled “in population causing the city to expand in all “available directions” (Larson 44). As Chicago became the “second most populous [city] in the nation after New York” there was an urge that city show off to the world and the nation of how great it was through the Chicago World’s Fair (Larson 44). The Chicago World’s Fair was an opportunity for the city to come together and create event so spectacular to shock the world.