Andrew Carnegie - a Hero Who Made America an Industrial Nation

The United States was not always an industrial nation before the United States was becoming industrialized we did not have many businesses and competitors. Before the Civil War, the United States did not focus on building and there were not many ways to earn money. Many factors played a role in the industrialism of the U.S. The main ones being businesses, innovation, railroads, and a growing population.

Rise of big business and Unions played a huge part in how the U.S. became an industrial nation by 1900, The big businesses dominated the economy, by operating factories. Big business ended up turning into Corporations. Corporations sold stock to raise money to finance the business. Before the Civil War, very few Corporations existed because entrepreneurs had to convince state legislatures to give them charters So Corporations were not as common as before the Civil War. Corporations led to the United States becoming an Industrialized nation because Corporations were able to buy up more businesses and to create integrations such as Vertical integration which is when a company owns all parts of the industrial process. Horizontal Integration was also created which is when a company grows by buying its competitors. Big Corporations had several advantages they could produce more goods at a lower cost and could stay open at bad economic times by cutting prices to increase sales. Corporations also were able to lower their operating costs which led to the creation of laissez-faire. A small business could not compete with large corporations. Laissez-Faire benefited consumers since it led to fall prices. Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish immigrant who started working in a factory at the age of twelve and worked his way to the top. Andrew bought shares of iron mills and factories. Andrew ended up becoming extremely rich. Andrew Carnegie led the United States to Industrialization because he produced most things people wanted for a cheap price. Working for Corporations was the worst. working conditions were horrible.

Without Andrew Carneige those inventions wouldn’t exist at that early age. Carnegie became a superintendent. His salary a year was fifteen hundred dollars a year. Out of all businesses the railroad company was the largest company. Without railroads, transportation would be very harsh. They would not have food or any living products that they needed at the time to be transported would be almost impossible to be delivered. After providing transportation for the food they provided transportation for people. Now you have humans and products getting delivered or transported to their destination. They do charge the companies for delivering their products. Those trains would be able to carry food for animals or humans or even animals to farms. When the railroads were built they were built with wood. Now if you look at a train track you would now see metal. That has changed because wood could only take so much weight but metal could be more reliable because of what metal is made out of. So now they use the metal for railroad tracks for more support for safety.

During the late 1800s, over 25 million immigrants came to the United States from various places such as Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Europeans who made up the majority of the immigrants at the time fled their country due to factors such as high poverty rates, religious oppression, and unemployment. Suffering from similar issues in their countries, Latinos, Asians, and even a small number of Africans would migrate to America. The mass migration to the United States caused a spike in the population and labor force and would signify the beginning of the melting pot, the country is today and welcomes many new cultural aspects and ideas into American society.

In conclusion, the Civil War led to the United States to become an industrialized nation. Due to the fact that the United States became industrialized, it allowed them to expand and open up a lot of opportunities for work and for the United States to advance in technology. This led to the rise of big Businesses and Unions also Andrew Carneige was able to create lots of opportunities because of it. Making the United States industrialized affect it in a positive way.