Transcontinental Railroad Dbq

6. What specific actions did Hammurabi take in his attempt to provide for the good order of society and the basic welfare of his subjects?

The railways became an important system that guided settlement and delivered economic opportunity for much of the United States. Railroads allowed access to places that people had no means of getting to and provided an opportunity to develop cities and towns

Sergey Brin noted, “Some say Google is God. Others say Google is Satan. But if they think Google is too powerful, remember that with search engines, unlike other companies, all it takes is a single click to go to another search engine.” Nicholas Carr’s essay challenges this assertion. Nicholas Carr believes even though there are multiple search engines, “the faster we surf across the Web-the more links we click and pages we view-the more opportunities Google and other companies gain to collect information about us and to feed us advertisements.” This topic elicits such strong responses because technology is a part of our everyday lives. Technology is only becoming more advanced and will continue to be a source of debate for all who use it.

First, the building of railroads out west played a huge part in the successful expansion of our country and the fulfillment of American dreams. Priot to the development of a more efficient railroad system, the movement of people and freight were

The Canadian Pacific Railway required a great amount of effort to construct. As a solution to this, the Canadian government brought Chinese men to work for them in British Columbia

Socially these railroads would make the large country of America seem smaller because you could now get across the country in much less time by just taking a train from point A to point B.

Inventions like the iPhone have paved the road for social, economical, and political improvements. It allowed many opportunities for people to capitalize on whether it be economically like amazon, or socially like youtube as did the railroad that connected the states together. The transcontinental railroad most impacted America economically through encouraging imports and exports amongst the states, making transportation cheaper, and opening up cities along the railroad itself.

“Before the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, it cost nearly $1,000 dollars to travel across the country. After the railroad was completed, the price dropped to $150 dollars.”(History.com Staff). Prior to the railroad the average citizen of America could not afford to travel across the country cheaply. America waited for a means of transportation which would connect them from the Western to Eastern states. The responsibility of creating the railroads were left up to construction companies. Once this invention was created, traveling became quick, easy and affordable. The Transcontinental Railroad could be defined as the most significant change in America, during the 19th Century.

On May 10, 1869 as the “Last Spike” struck by Leland Stanford now connected the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads across the United States at Promontory Summit in the Utah Territory. The transcontinental railroads now complete and America is now destined to move to the forefront of the world’s stage. This new railroad system encouraged the growth of American businesses and promoted the development of the nation’s public discourse and intellectual life.1 At the same time, this new railroad affected many people positively

The transcontinental railroad was the most influential innovation of the United States, that brought a revolution of how people traveled. One year after the Civil War ended the people of the United States were looking for a way to unite their country back together. This helped mold the United States as to what it has become today. It helped people cross the country and improved how goods were transported. The man that was forming the transcontinental railroad was a merchant named Asa Whitney. He had asked the government for funding to construct one of the greatest innovation of the United States. “Two railroads, the Central Pacific starting in San Francisco and a new railroad, the Union Pacific, starting in Omaha, Nebraska, would build the rail-line.” (ushistory.org). One fear of building the railroad was the danger of the “Great American Desert” because of the lack of resources. The Central Pacific was primarily made by Chinese immigrants. The Union Pacific was primarily made up of Irish immigrants. By spring of 1866 the Central Pacific had only build 68 miles of track from Sacramento, while the Union Pacific going west from Omaha built 200 miles of track in less than a year. Therefore the Union Pacific made millions more. The next three years the railroads would continue to try and make history.

And it was there that railroads began to have a significant impact on the development and expansion of American society.

Soon other lines followed throughout the country. Railroads affected almost every aspect of American life. The rapid spread of the railroads provided the basis for a tremendous westward movement of population. It also carried raw material to, and finish product from factories to consumers in a more efficient way (The USA online, n.d.). The railways became highly profitable business for their owners.

There was also hostile reaction of the Native Americans towards the immigrants. The Native Americans believed the railroad posed threat to their existence, since it would displace them from their lands against the treaties they sighed with the government. They constantly attacked the laborers who were constructing the railroad. For example, The Chinese immigrants experienced worse racial discrimination during the work. For instance, the California law from getting full citizenship prohibited them, yet they were forced to pay tax. The Irish immigrants also faced hostile reception by the native race.

The transcontinental railroad was built by two major companies, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific. The Central Pacific company worked eastbound. They faced the treacherous terrain of the Rocky Mountains, landslides, and winter snowdrifts. Central Pacific would hire Chinese immigrants. These Chinese immigrants, “... made up 85 percent of the Central Pacific workforce.” (Holt McDougal,

In the 1860s numerous Chinese went to work fabricating the cross-country railroad, while others started to hold skilled and semi skilled employments. Overall the ethnic gathering appeared to enter the U.S. standard. However, the 1870s saw a drop in the economy. Little producers again pointed the finger at Chinese laborers for being the partners of large organizations, and the Chinese turned into the objective of more brutality and biased enactment. Despite the fact that the Chinese took their case under the steady gaze of the government courts, they neglected to insert the mounting tide of partiality against