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The Gilded Age During The Gilded Age

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When Mark Twain coined the term “Gilded Age” for the years 165-1900 he was doing more than giving a sarcastic name to this time period. Twain ingeniously combined both the era’s widespread corruption with its tremendous growth. It was a time of political upheaval, western expansion, transitioning roles of women, increased education, new forms of media, and urbanization, although while all of those factors were significant parts of the the time, one industry and technology saw a startling and almost unbelievable shift to its industry. During the Gilded Age the United States went through one of its biggest, most influential periods of growth and discovery in its history, although along with the tremendous expansion came huge companies arose unmatched in their size and corruption.
Following the tumultuous Civil War the atmosphere was ribe in America for unbelievable expansion and growth. The war had practically devastated the agricultural based South, with the South’s finances being reduced to almost nothing. Confederate bonds had become worthless and because of this the South couldn’t industrialize and nearly the same pace as the North. All these factors, coupled with slaves recently being freed from bondage led to a immigration into the North’s urban economy. Further there was huge immigration from abroad at this time to America major cities like Chicago and New York from all over Eurasia including China, Russia, and Italy. With them came an important supply of cheap

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