Industrialization and Urbanization were connected and helped build up the economy. Industrialization is the process by which an economy is transformed from primarily agricultural to one based manufacturing of goods, and the development of industries. Urbanization is the process of making an area more urban or relating to a city. It usually begins when a factory or multiple factories are established within a region, thus creating a high demand for factory labor. Industrialization led to Urbanization by creating economic growth and job opportunities that draw people to cities. One of the biggest factors was the fact that you did not have to be educated or qualify as a skilled worker to perform the task that needed to be done in the factories.
During the Industrial Revolution, when there were many job opportunities for workers of all type, many people consider that there were three different advancements or parts to the Revolution. The first "part" started in 1800 in Great Britain where they used water and steam power to mechanize production. The second "part" began in 1850 and was the period of growth for pre-existing industries and expansions of new ones, such as the steel, oil and electricity fields. This period of time used electric power to create mass production. Mass production is the manufacturing of large quantities of standardized products, often using assembly lines. This was an efficient production of a large number of similar products. Mass production resulted in lower prices and anything needed or desired could be made in larger quantities. Eventually, it resulted in the most affordable price of any product. Assembly lines are the most commonly used method in the mass production. An assembly line is a production process that breaks the manufacture of a good into steps that are completed in a pre-defined sequence. Assembly lines drastically changed the way goods were manufactured. The use of interchangeable parts increased efficiency, continuous workflow, and more time on task by workers. Also, this saved companies money due to the fact that they wouldn't have to pay as many workers like before when wok was manual. In the end, productivity increased and the products were higher quality and cheaper. The impacts on the products of mass production and the assembly line were the same and greatly effected the way work was done.
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), a self-made steel tycoon, was considered one of the wealthiest businessmen of the 19th century. Carnegie monopolized steel and owned a company called Carnegie Steel Corporation. His company was the largest of its kind in the world.
John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937), monopolized oil and was the head of the Standard Oil Company. He was known as one of the world's richest men.
Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877), was a famous industrialist who worked in the shipping and railroads industry. His company was called New York Central Hudson River Railroad, also known as NY RR and was a grand central station in New York City. Gaining his wealth in shipping and railroads, he had accumulated the largest fortune in the U.S., and was a self-made multi millionaire. he also became known as one of the wealthiest Americans of the 9th century just like Carnegie.
J.P.Morgan (1837-1913), monopolized in the banking and financial industry. He co-founded the banking firm that was called J.P.Morgan Corporation, but later changed it to J.P.Morgan Chase Corporation. The company name came from the names Morgan, Stanley, and Chase who all contributed to the industry. J.P.Morgan became one of the wealthiest and moist powerful businessman in the world through his founding of private banks and industrial consolidation.
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, business aspired to form monopolies. A monopoly is a market structure characterized by a single seller, selling a unique product in the market. In a monopoly market, the seller is in control, faces no competition, as he is the sole seller of goods with no close substitute. The business would be able to dominate a particular industry and characteristics associated with a monopoly make it so the seller can enjoy the power of setting the price for their products. Factors like government license, ownership of resources, copyright and patent, and high starting costs make an entity a single seller of goods. All these factors restrict the entry of other sellers in the market, and allow monopolies to contain some information that is not known to other sellers. Along with business, there are corporations and companies. A corporation is a legal entity that is separate and distinct from its owners and a business owned by investors who buy portions of it through shares/stock. It is created by individuals, stockholders, also know as shareholders, with the purpose of operating for a profit. Corporations are allowed to enter into contracts, sue and be sued, own assets, remit federal and state taxes, and borrow money from financial institutions. A corporation can be created by a single shareholder or by multiple shareholders who come together to pursue a common goal. A corporate can be formed as a for-profit or a non-for-profit entity. There is a difference between corporations and companies being the fact that a corporation is a big business with the owners being shareholders, whereas a company is a small business with the owner being its members. When a company needs to raise capital for starting or growing their business they can borrow the money or sell shareholders shares or ownership in the company. Stocks are issued by companies to raise capital, paid-up or share, in order to grow the business or undertake new projects. Stocks are an investment in a company and they give stockholders a share of ownership of one or more companies. Companies issue stock to get money for various things such as paying off debt, launching new products, expanding into new markets or regions, and enlarging facilities or building new ones. Shares are a little different and have a more specific meaning. It often refers to the ownership of a particular company o financial asset. When the corporation issues shares, it does so in return for money. Companies issue shares to raise money from investors who tend to invest their money. This money is then used by companies for the development and growth of their business. Companies issue different types of shares approved under the law. These allow the shareholders a stake in the the company's equity as well as a share in its profits, in the form of dividends, and the aptitude to vote at general meeting of shareholders. Investors who hold shares of any company are known as shareholders. A shareholder is a person who holds shares of stock in a corporation or company. Being a shareholder gives you partial ownership of a company and with that comes the potential for rewards, as well as rights and risks. When you buy shares in a company, you become a shareholder, which means you are able to participate in benefit from the company's future growth.
The fundamental question that companies should ask before setting a growth strategy, is whether they should pursue their business through vertical or horizontal integration. Horizontal and vertical integration are two ways businesses can expand. Horizontal integration is when a business grows by acquiring a similar company competing in the same industry at the same point of the supply chain. Larger companies buy out smaller companies when they go out of business. It helps companies expand in size, diversify product offerings, reduce competition, increase efficiency, and expand in new markets. As with any process, there are some drawbacks. These include increased regulatory scrutiny, failure to combine synergies, and destroying value, which would make the entire process worthless and costly. Vertical integration is when a business expands by acquiring another company that operates before or after them in the supply chain. Here you can acquire companies at all levels of production unlike horizontal integration where you only acquire companies in the same industry. Companies used vertical integration to strengthen their supply chain, reduce production costs, guarantee efficiencies in the production process, capture upstream or downstream profits, or accessing new distribution channels. It can help boost profit and allow companies more immediate access to consumers. There are also some drawbacks which include, companies might get too big and mismanage the overall process, outsourcing to suppliers and vendors might be more efficient if their expertise is superior, and costs of vertical integration such as purchasing a supplier can be significant.The decision between horizontal and vertical integration will determine you operating strategy. There are positives and negatives to both sides which makes it a debateful argument, and will eventually come down to what is right for your unique situation and value proposition. If I were the one making the decision of what path my company should go down, I would first consider the pros and cons to both sides and make a decision. Based off my knowledge so far, I would take the risk and choose vertical integration because I think that in the end, your results will come out better. Also with vertical integration, you don't have to rely on anyone, unlike horizontal integration where you must rely on other companies to go out of business so you can build yours. I would choose vertical integration because it can help increase profits by reducing the overall costs. Other benefits include decreased transportation costs, reduced delivery turnaround times, reduced supply disruptions from suppliers that might fall into financial hardships, increase competitiveness by getting products to consumers directly and quickly, and lower costs through economies of scale. By lowering the costs of products is risky because you could either get not enough profit, or you could end up getting an unbelievable amount of profit due to the fact that more people will buy your products if they don't cost as much as your competitors. Personally, I like the process of vertical integration and how there is competition out there that you want to beat. This would keep me motivated and want to keep growing. Vertical integration can possibly go wrong with you unique company create no where to build off of, or all these benefits of vertical integration may help build your business grow and ultimately create a strong powerful company that is well-known just like the Carnegie Steel Company.
Fun Fact: McDonald's is one of the most famous companies using vertical integration.
Other companies that are using vertical integration.
Starbucks
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Disney
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Target
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Walmart
Carnegie Steel
Companies that are using horizontal integration
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Amazon
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Volkswagon
AT&T
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Sweatshop
Tenement
During the Industrial Revolution, many workers worked in a factory or workshop called a sweatshop. Sweatshops were especially used in the clothing industry where workers were employed to do manual work at low wages for long (12+) hours. Not only would you not get paid enough for the time worked, but you would work under very poor conditions leading to many health risks. After a long dreadful day at work, the workers would go home, but since the wages were so low, the workers couldn't afford much and would go home to a rundown poorly maintained apartment. This apartment was referred to as tenements. A tenement is a poor living, densely packed housing structure that was unsanitary because it lacked indoor plumbing and proper ventilation. This was also a place where disease could spread easily. These conditions that many people had to deal with everyday was miserable. Sweatshops and Tenements were very similar in the way that they both had poor conditions and were overcrowded with people. The biggest difference between the two is that a sweatshops is where the workers worked for half the day, and a tenement is where you would live, but would dread it due to the appalling living conditions.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Aftermath
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, March 25,1911. This man-made disaster took place in New York City, leaving 146 people dead due to the lack of adequate safety precautions. As workers in this overcrowded sweatshop are making shirtwaists, a fire breaks out and chaos begins. As the young workers try to escape the story-high factory, every possible event goes wrong. The problems include hose malfunctions because of no sprinklers, fire continuing to spread because of open flames around cloth, workers panicking, fire escape collapses, and only 1 of the 4 elevators were working. The whole incident only lasted 18 minutes and was known as the deadliest workplace disasters in New York City history. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire has greatly impacted us today. The fire opened the nation's eyes to poor working conditions in garment factories and other workplaces. This led to reforms, and many new laws have been enacted since then to better protect the safety and health of workers. It serves as a cautionary tale that helped redefine the American Industrial Revolution Workspace, and a key moment in the growth of Labor Unions.
Labor Unions are very important to society and millions of workers. Unions help set the standards for education, skill levels, wages, woking hours, working conditions, and the quality of life for workers. A union is formed by employees who either choose an existing union through an election or create their own. A union election requires at least 30% of the employees to sign the cards. Creating a new union requires a majority of the workers to sign the cards. Otherwise, a union cannot be formed. Unions formed so that they could have a say over these many problems that arise in the relationship between a workers and an employer. Most union contracts provide far more protections than state and federal laws. Unions also work to establish laws improving job conditions for their members through legislation at the national, state and local level. This ultimately benefits all workers. Unions were so important because they changed the way Americans lived, worked and relaxed. Although members of a union would earn better wages and benefits than workers who aren't union members, some people were afraid to join them. Unions require dues and fees that some workers don't want to pay and being a union member discourages individuality. It is also harder to promote and terminate workers and unions drive up the costs. There are some disadvantages of being part of Labor Unions, but overall unions were extremely important to the workers as they set basic building blocks of a strong working class.
IMMIGRATION
During the late 1800's and early 1900's, the largest number of immigrants came to the US from Europe due to various reasons. These reasons were called the push and pull factors. Push factors are the forces that push, either for encouragement or by force. In your country, things could be so bad that people don't want to stay so they immigrate to another place. Some example of factors that would push people out of their country include wars, famine, and poverty. Other factors include loss of jobs, religious persecution, natural disaster, or even an epidemic. Pull factors are the attractive forces that pull persons to search out a new life in a distant place. Most pull factors are economic and include things like better opportunities. Other factors that led to the increase of immigration to the US include the fact that there were many job opportunities that immigrants could apply for, such as factory work and building the railroad. Another important factor was the opportunities for education and the homestead act. The chance to get education was a great thing as it also helped immigrants with learning to speak English. Push and Pull factors increased immigration in the late 1800's early 1900's and were considered as the north and south poles on a magnet.
During this period of time where immigration to the US increased, there were two main stations where immigrants would come through as they attempted to come to the US. The two stations were called Ellis Island and Angel Island.
Ellis Island
Ellis Island is a historical site that opened in 1892 as an immigration station. It was located at the mouth of the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, closest to New York City. The Ellis Island station was where European immigrants came through including people from Italy, Hungary, Poland, Germany, France, Ireland, Russia, and Sweden. Immigrants were inspected and asked questions about themselves. Medical inspections were very important to ensure that no contagious disease spread. The biggest disease was called trachoma, and it was a dangerous contagious eye disease. The 12 million individuals or so who arrived as immigrants on Ellis Island, were mostly treated courteously and respectfully, and were free to begin their new lives in America after only a few short hours on Ellis Island. Some were detained for medical and legal reasons, but after they were detained for the certain event, officials would decide if they could enter America or be sent back to their country. Despite the island's reputation as an "Island of Tears" for people who failed the health or legal inspections, for most people, Ellis Island was known as "Island of Hope." Only two percent of the arriving immigrants were excluded from entry and today, 40% of all current US citizens can trace at least one of their ancestors to Ellis Island. If you remember one of the push factors listed above on religious persecution, you can see that many immigrants from Europe came to the US because of that. It applies to these immigrants because many of them were Jews, Catholics, Greeks, Slovaks and more who left to escape those attacks on their religious beliefs. After making it through Ellis Island station, there was an area located on the first floor known as "the kissing post." This is where family and friends waited for their loved ones and after months or years apart, they kissed and hugged and shouted with joy and relief.
Angel Island
The US immigration station located in San Francisco Bay, California opened in 1910. This station was where Asian immigrants came through including people who were Chinese, Indian, and Japanese. The Angel Island station earned its reputation as the "Ellis Island of the West" and remains an important place for Asian Americans whose heritage and legacy are deeply rooted. Immigrants attempting to come to the US through Angel Island were not treated the same as the European immigrants who went through the Ellis Island station. Immigrants were detained and interrogated at Angel Island for long period of time that could have lasted years and were stuck living in filthy conditions. U.S. officials hoped to deport as many as possible by asking obscure questions about Chinese villages and family histories that immigrants would have trouble answering correctly.
Immigrants coming to the US from Europe had an easier and more respectful way to enter the US. Immigrants coming to the US from Asia had way more troubles and were miserably stuck or sent back due to more strict and harder US officials. About 27.5 million immigrants came to the US between 1865-1918, a time of rapid industrialization and urbanization.
Extra Info about Immigrants
Old Immigrants
-generally wealthy, educated, skilled
-from northern and western Europe
-came over as families
-were quick to assimilate
-came more by choice
-were English, Irish, German(looked like Americans already here)
-worked on farms
-mostly protestant
-spoke English
New Immigrants
-generally poor, unskilled
-from southern and eastern Europe
-came over as birds of passage
-were clannish and reluctant to assimilate
-were mostly forced to come
-not as many opportunities because forced
-Greek, Italian, Polish, Slovak, Serb, Russian, Croat, Swedish,etc
-Roman Catholic, Jewish, eastern orthodox
-different than Americans(darker skin)
-worked in factories
-did not speak English