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American Culture - The growth of a nation (19th Century)
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During the first half of the rise to power of the United States in the 19th century.
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Culture des Pays AnglophonesTHE GROWTH OF A NATION – THE BIRTH OF MODERN AMERICA
After the war, the US experienced an industrial revolution and a rapid growth. Industrialization had started
before the Civil War but it accelerated after the war. At the end of the 19th century, the US was the biggest
industrial power in the world.
I. Industrialization and Urbanization
The Industrial Revolution in the 19th century was possible thanks to rail roads that allowed products made
in the North and the East to be transported to the South and the West. On May 10th 1869, the 1st
transcontinental line was completed at Promontory Point (Utah), linking the East Coast and the West Coast.
To build rail roads, steel was needed. The steel and iron industry experienced its Golden Age in the 2nd half
of the 19th century, both because of rail road construction and architecture in cities (especially because of
skyscrapers). The oil (= petrol) industry was also an important element of the industrial revolution.
Because industrial jobs were in cities, 100.000 of American left the countryside to move to cities in order to
find a job and have a better life by making more money. American cities started to grow but life in city was
no bed of roses; many people had bad living and working conditions living in slums with no hygiene. They
had low skilled, low paid, dangerous jobs in factories. A working class developed and the Labor government
started defending workers with the creation of Labor unions in all industries.
II. Monopolies and “Robber Barons” (= barons pilleurs)
One of the characteristics of the Industrial Revolution in the US was the creation and development of
monopolies. Those huge companies destroyed smaller ones and controlled the market from production to
selling. At the end of the 19th century, the US government tried to regulate monopolies with “the Sherman
Anti-Trust Act” of 1890. Industrialization allowed a few men to make huge fortunes, for example:
industrialists as Andrew Carnegie (steel), John Piermont Morgan (banking), John D. Rockefeller (oil) and
Cornelius Vanderbilt (railroad).
Those industrialists were either worshipped (= loved, admired) or hated by Americans; those who admired
them, considered them as models, self-made men who succeeded because of their hard work, their talent
and their determination. Those entrepreneurs epitomized the American Dream. On the contrary some
American considered those industrialists as “Robber Barons”: people who exploited workers and used
aggressive methods to get rid of their rivals and to make huge fortune. But those Robber Barons gave a lot
of money to organization to help the poor, to create schools, universities and libraries. It was the beginning
of philanthropy which is still a major characteristic of American society today.
III. Cowboys and ranching in the West
The West was a huge territory that was less industrialized and less organized than the East. In the West,
there were huge farms called ranches in which farmers raised cattle and these cattle were then sold in the
North and in the East where millions of people lived and needed food. The cattle that were raised in the
West were transported to the East by train; cowboys drove the cattle from the ranches to the rail road. At
the end of the 19th century the cowboys became a mythic character in the US. He was supposed to live an
adventurous life and he was celebrated as courageous and fearless, he was supposed to perform exploits
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