U.S. Development 1865-1913

U.S. Development

1865-1913

It was by far, the happiest day of their lives. They danced and paraded through the streets as the news was announced. Some even shouted, "I's free! I's free! "It was a feeling beyond explanation for them. It was 1865, Civil War was over, and African American slaves were finally free. The Confederates were overwhelmed by the loss and shot or hung the "so called" free slaves. However, a nation that was seemingly split at the time found some way to pull itself together to create the most powerful culture this world has ever seen. Economically, politically and Socially, America's pace was set during this time period for achieving great things and breeding great leaders of tomorrow. How we live today is a direct reflection of some of the hard work that was put into this nation.

Native Americans first inhabited America and roamed the Great Plains along with 60 million Buffalo. However, this life for them would not last much longer for there were eager Europeans settling the Eastern of America seaboard from1607 to1650. It would take them another 100 years to reach to migrate to the Appalachian Mountains.

The Indians were primarily hunter-gatherers in which they lived off the land and used natural elements live. The Europeans on the other hand, saw the land as pottery, to mold and subdue it to get what they wanted. The Indians respected the land and the buffalo that roamed it. When they killed a buffalo, they often had ceremonies to apologize for killing it and to thank the animal for giving its life so that they may live. They also used everything from the hide to its bones of the bison.

They quickly realized that the Europeans they ran into were not like them. They did not get along with the "white man" and the French and Indian war broke out in 1754. It takes seven years for Europeans to defeat the Indians. In 1783, victory is proclaimed and they continue to move towards the Mississippi River. It pretty much went downhill for the Indians at that time. They do not only lose a war, but in the time to come they will lose all their land and their culture will be stripped from them.

Europeans continued to push further west pushing the Indians or just killing them off. Indians did not want to fight; they wanted peace. Finally in 1851, ten thousand plains Indians convene to negotiate territory and boundaries in Wyoming. Then in 1861, six Indian chiefs congregate to sign away all Cheyenne land. This was their biggest mistake ever. The U.S. Senate then changes the treaty from 50 years to15 years. This enraged the chiefs however; there was nothing they could do. The Americans were achieving their goal, to commit cultural genocide. From there, they placed the Indians on reservations with little rations. Their weapons and horses were seized and their precious buffalo were hunted down with none of the respect that they had for the beast. Sixty million buffalo dwindled down to a few thousand after the Americans hunted them. Then in 1883, their language was outlawed and forbidden. Christianity was the only religion they could practice, driving the nail in their cultural coffin. However, the Americans did not care for they were onto something big. By this time, America was amidst an economy that was being radically transformed.

Agriculture was a trade in which more than half of all Americans labored. After the Civil War, farmers had tilled 407 million acres into productive farmland. Over the next thirty-five years, this number increased to 841 million acres! The government also assisted with the settlement of Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota and the Dakotas by passed what was called the Homestead Act of 1862. The law stated that anyone could acquire as much as 160 acres of land by building a house and farming it for five years. Forty-eight million acres of land was given to anxious settlers between 1862 and 1890.

Commercial crops grew at an even faster rate than the overall farming industry. When farmland doubled, acres of corn, wheat and cotton tripled. Corn increased by 264 percent, wheat by 252 percent and cotton by 383 percent. New equipment and revised methods such as the McCormick reaper, built in 1849, turned a day's work into an hour. Better tools enabled a farmer to work two three times faster than a farmer fifty years before him. Farmers could now harvest more in a day, producing more crops. However, as major crops grew, prices for them fell just as fast. The supply just way became more than the demand. In an effort to keep profits consistent, farmers produced even more crops. When they realized they were spending more money in fertilizers and equipment than they profited, it was too late. Most of the farmers dug themselves right into debt, literally. Nevertheless, the growth of the farm industry eventually motivated the iron and steel industry with its demand for machinery. This is what brings us to the growth of another great venue in history, railroads.

During and after the Civil War the nation had no means of a nation transportation network. Most our traveling was done on streams and waterways. Until 1869, there was nothing to connect the east and west coast of America to transport goods. Many of the major rivers were not bridged at the time, causing travelers to endure a month long boat trip around the tip of South America or to Central America and trek across disease infested jungles and then proceed by boat up to the west coast.

In 1962 however, the Pacific Railway Act gave loans and land to railroad companies to construct a railroad between Omaha and the west coast putting the first transcontinental railroad was in place. Congress also gave them 10 square miles of public domain for every track laid. By 1871, more than seventy railroad grants were authorized involving 128 million acres. That is the size of Colorado and Wyoming put together!

Railroads became the new vehicle for the growth of the nationwide market. Iron and steel became very popular. There was one businessman that dominated the industry in his time. One entrepreneur stood at the pinnacle of this developing trade. His name was Andrew Carnegie.

Carnegie opened what was the nation's largest steel plant in 1875 bringing jobs to over 1,500 people. Stationed just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it came too employ more than 8,000 workers by 1903. He was only mediocre in the steel industry before then. Carnegie put full attention in his business shortly after the war, and with previous learned skills, built his companies from the ground up. He took every chance he could to reduce costs so he could profit with lower prices than his contenders could.

In 1864, steel rails sold for $126