America in the late 19th century was a place of rapid change and economic progress. The dilemma Americans faced was that they lived in an incredibly resource-rich country, but they lacked the means of production (machines and workers) to exploit these resources. However, developments in the Second Industrial Revolution have made production easier than ever, moving from small quantities of handmade products to standardized products mass-produced by mechanized means. These products could now travel across the country on the new transcontinental rail system. This in turn led to a change in the demographic shape of the country; Rapid urbanization, immigrants, and big business were encouraged by a system of laissez-faire capitalism in governance. The ideology of Manifest Destiny supported this growth: the belief among these pioneers of capitalism that, as Americans, they had every right and indeed responsibility to expand and exploit the resources of North America in pursuit of the ideals of capitalism. Overall, the major factors that contributed to America's economic power at the turn of the century were the concept of manifest destiny, the resource-rich land, and those who exploited those resources along with those they employed. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Manifest Destiny was a key component of American economic growth because of the territorial expansionism it supported. It was a widespread belief in the United States throughout the mid-to-late 19th century that its settlers were destined to expand throughout North America. It usually had 3 key themes: the virtue of the American people and their institutions; the mission to spread these institutions, thereby redeeming and remaking the world in the image of the United States and; the destiny entrusted to God to carry out this work. Centers of settlement in first-half 19th-century America were predominantly along the East Coast due to its proximity to Europe, but increasing rates of immigration required more land for incoming arrivals. As a result, many Americans advocated for new immigrants to settle in the western and central areas (the Great Plains) of the continent. The phrase “Manifest Destiny” was coined for this reason by newspaper editor John O'Sullivan in an 1845 editorial advocating the annexation of Texas because it was “our manifest destiny to extend the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our millions that multiply every year”. ”. The best mechanism for this territorial expansion was the railroad. Having inherited the technology of the first industrial revolution from Europe, Americans hastened to develop steam power technology and economical methods of iron production in new directions. In 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act, which authorized the construction of transcontinental railroads, while also awarding private railroad investors massive land grants on which to build (note the commercial nature of the project). In May 1869, the first transcontinental link joined the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads at Promontory Point, Utah. By 1884, four transcontinental lines were in operation. New settlements began to develop around railway stations across the country, and by the 1890s railways connected the west and east coasts and their ports. The benefits of this were revolutionary: the goods produced could be transported to homes and businesses across the nation andAbroad, telegraph lines followed railroads, resulting in more efficient communication and interstate travel was increasingly accessible, all of this promoting westward settlement. Between 1870 and 1900, 430 million acres of land were settled; more than had been occupied in all of previous American history. This was also due to the Homestead Act of 1862. Congress used this act to initiate a public land grant program to encourage small farmers. 160 acres of public land (mostly located on the Great Plains) were offered to settlers for a small registration fee on the condition that they live on the land continuously for five years and improve the land while doing so. In the first four years of the program, 15,000 real estate applications were approved. Some immigrants have faced challenges in this program; many were not accustomed to modern agricultural techniques and some were not given arable land to work on. However, these homesteads created communities across North America on lands that had previously been settled by people other than Native Americans. Over time, the increasing mechanization of American agriculture replaced the aforementioned farms with fewer, larger farms, but many small towns established around the farms survived. It should be noted that this expansionist philosophy, beneficial to many new immigrants, also resulted in the displacement of thousands of Native Americans. During this period the Native American population rapidly declined, the tribes lost much of their remaining land, and the nation's Natives became the poorest group in American society. However, the hardship they were causing Native Americans gave the new Americans little pause for thought in their relentless pursuit of economic progress. The results of territorial expansion driven by belief in manifest destiny gave America critical economic opportunities in both the mobility of goods and the amount of land available to them. Even the vast tracts of land now in the hands of the American people were resource rich and they were quick to use new technologies to take advantage of these resources. Large amounts of arable land provided the first set of resources: agricultural products. The distribution of fertile, accessible land meant that Americans cultivated more land between 1870 and 1900 (225 million acres) than they had since 1607 (189 million acres). Farmers abandoned their small, worn-out farms in the east and developed new, larger, more fertile farms in the mid-west and west. They also took advantage of the innovations of the second industrial revolution: a single family with a harvester could increase the cultivated area and therefore production without large quantities of paid labor. Between 1860 and 1900, the number of Americans employed in agriculture dropped by more than half to 40 percent, but agricultural productivity continued to increase, allowing the surplus to be exported. What farmers sold abroad translated into domestic savings and consumption that fueled domestic industry. The face of American industry was largely characterized by the natural resources found throughout the nation, the two most important of which were oil and coal. Commercial coal mining in the United States was being done as early as the 1740s, but remained a small industry until the 1800s, as early settlers preferred to use the abundant supplies of lumber. However, by the early 1800s, Pennsylvania miners had begun mining a high-carbon form of coal (known as anthracite) onindustrial scale. It quickly became a popular heating source in various Northeastern cities, and by the 1840s, anthracite became the standard form of coal used throughout the East Coast. Throughout the middle of the century the coal industry spread; by 1861, the coal mining industry had expanded to 20 states. The civil war then massively increased demand for coal (increasing prices by nearly 50%). The new coalfields that opened as a result of this were now joined by the railroads, and eventually the railroads began purchasing the coalfields directly to lease to mining companies. After the Second Industrial Revolution, new technology drove industrial change and progress, as coal mining went underground and purification methods became standard. These cleaning methods produced coke, a fuel with few impurities and a high carbon content, crucial for the production of iron and steel. Increases in coal mining caused national production to reach 80 million tons by 1880. Oil was a similar story, with the national oil industry starting in 1859 with a 69-foot-deep well in western Pennsylvania. The oil found in such wells was refined into kerosene, which was cheaper than whale oil and much safer than the popular but explosive fuel, camphene. John D. Rockefeller also founded his Standard Oil company in 1859 in Cleveland, Ohio. Drilling spread to other states, finally reaching California in 1892. However, pipelines (owned primarily by Standard Oil) were the most important mechanism for transporting oil. By 1885, Rockefeller had brought the cost of oil from 58 cents to 8 cents a gallon, allowing ordinary people to light their homes and businesses to light their workplaces, allowing work into the late evening and early hours of the day. night, contributing to greater productivity. Some saw Edison's 1879 incandescent light as the end of the oil industry, but with the advent of automobiles, surplus was no longer an issue. By 1909, oil production in the United States more than equaled that of the rest of the world combined, and it was the largest supplier of oil to other countries while still supporting its own needs. American productivity in the use of its resources has allowed America to be the largest agricultural economy in the world and at the same time to become the largest industrial producer in the world. Despite the land, natural resources, and new technologies available, there is no denying that it was the people who ultimately created America. The economy is a force to be reckoned with. As previously mentioned, Americans faced the unique dilemma of owning land, resources, and machinery, but a shortage of available labor. However, the attractive young nation seemed full of opportunity for many, prompting a wave of immigrants to the country. Along with farmers' children moving to larger cities (urbanization), net immigration between 1877 and 1900 totaled 7,248,000 people. Before 1800, immigrants largely came from Western Europe and China, but by the end of the century Southern and Eastern Europeans became the major sources of immigration. Most immigrants came to America for economic opportunity; Cheap land and relatively high wages (compared to their home countries) were available regardless of citizenship, especially through the Homestead Act. Early arrivals wrote home to bring relatives and friends to the United States, forming chains and.