The Gilded Age Essays

The Gilded Age Essays The Gilded Age Essay The Gilded Age Essay The changes that occurred in the Gilded Age led to shaping American into the superpower and well respected international country that it is recognized as today.The most important changes were the discovery of uses of copper, the assembly line production technique and the completion of thefirst transcontinental railroad. The uses of copper that were introduced during the Gilded Age allowed the development of necessities of life as we know it in the United States today.Because of its ability to transmit electricity and sound, it is used in telephone and telegraph systems and electric lighting technologies that were developed and introduced during the Gilded Age.It is almost impossible to imagine what our present day lives would be like without telephones, computers and other electronic devices that evolved from the inventions that developed from the discovery of uses of copper during this great period. Henry Fords use of the assembly line in manufacturing thefirst cars in large numbers would survive and evolve to being one of the most efficient techniques of manufacturing otherwise complex and time-consuming products.The assembly line, which is still in use in many factories today, would cut the time of production and would also cut down the skills necessary to build and manufacture products.Before the assembly line, for example, a product would be crafted by a skilled person who possessed the knowledge of making the product.It would take a long time to manufacture because the manufacturing would be done alone or by a few workers.The assembly line would have a line of workers who would do just one function of the manufacturing process.For example, one worker would only put on a tire and thats what that one worker would do all day long.The assembly line would, in turn, require only laborers, instead of skilled workers, to be used. The Gilded Age Essays The Gilded Age Essay The Gilded Age Essay The Gilded Age – Immigration Urbanization Immigration and Urbanization during the Gilded Age were without a doubt a major issue. Many of the political leaders were Immigrants themselves when they started from the bottom. The controversy with them is whether or not they held on to their roots. Urbanization during the Gilded age had a horrible impact for the lower class. Their living environments were beyond unpleasant. Having open sewers also created diseases and contamination. The amount of poverty during this time was very high. The Urbanization of cities separated the classes causing an even bigger mess. The rich and poor no longer lived in the same areas. Instead they each had their own suburbs. (B) Mass amounts off people were homeless, crime rates grew at a fast pace, and children were left starving. All these problems happened because of the urbanization. While the poor were living miserable lives, the rich had all they could ask for living the good life. (D) The Streets were also a very filthy place in any weather condition. When it rained it turned into slimy conditions. When it didn’t rain, the streets were full of dust. The sprinkling in the summer made the dust into mud and then that mud was turned into dust by the winds. No matter what time it was always an unpleasant setting. Sewers were clogged by the grease that came from the wagon axles, pavements couldn’t even be viewed because of the mass amounts of dust. The open sewers filled the air with an unpleasant smell on every land. Once the citizens were tired of it all the voters soon influenced their political leaders to do something about it. O) We’ve seen these types of influences by the voters in the present day as well. The pros of living in a democracy is that with the will power of the people things can be changed for the better. Religion was also a big craze during this time. Reverends during this time focused on converting citizens to Christ’s Religion. They came up with a belief in religious remedies. These remedies were said to purify a man’s whole be ing. They swore they had converted many foul men and women by sanctifying them. They claimed that by doing this, it would free them from committing any social sins. Desires for drinking, anger, pride, and love were also â€Å"removed† and healed by the blood of Christ. (K) These different types of religions were also a reason as to why different groups were separated. Immigration during this time was good for those who employed. Not so good for those who were employed by them. When big amounts immigrants arrived at one time, those in the industry lowered the wages knowing that the new immigrants would work for any salary. Long hours and very little pay most likely exhausted the workers. Conditions were not the best even though the companies claimed they were. Q) These problems are still slightly seen today. Immigrants are still being paid whatever the employers want and it’s obviously not fair at all. It is such a shame that there is still no solution to this problem. Cultural differences also separated many couples. They might have started loving each other while in one of their countries and eventually gotten engaged. The opinion s of others could also have caused these separations. The fact that couples from two different places could have been the cause of the very judging opinions of others. Those opinions from others could also have created the same thoughts about their partners. (V) The knowledge that some of the people who were joined could have benefited the governments but because of the judgment it became otherwise. All of these factors contributed the bad times during the gilded age. We still see many of those problems in the present day. It makes us think about the different options that we have in order to change these repeated troubles. It is up to the young generation to think these things through. With many contributing great thinking minds anything can be solved