The USA had become the world’s leading industrial nation by 1913 because they were able to take advantage of the land and raw materials within their country. They also had an extremely large workforce. Communication technology advances also helped, such as the telegraph, as they allowed businesses to expand. The railways that were built in the nineteenth century also opened up the route into the American West.
A corporation is a company authorised to act as a single entity. They were able to expand into trusts and ultimately monopolies. They were protected from foreign competition because of the USAs high tariff policy.
The USA government had a ‘laissez-faire’ attitude meaning that they believed that they did not have the right to interfere with the life of an individual.
This was considered hypocritical because while the government did not regulate business in any way, it had no problem with intervene to prevent workers from forming trade unions.
Men with huge fortunes and a massive amount of power became collectively known as ‘robber barons’ (eg. Andrew Carnegle and John D. Rockfeller). This was because they took advantage of the immigrant workers who were prepared to take low wages.
It was more difficult for women and child workers who received considerably smaller wages than men.
Because of the monopolies, most competition was erased and American workers were forced into certain companies who demanded long hours and low pay.
Technical innovation resulted in less of