HIST 405N Week 5 Discussion Industrialization, Imperialism, and America’s Entry Into WWI

HIST 405N Week 5 Discussion Industrialization, Imperialism, and America’s Entry Into WWI

Paper Instructions

Initial Post Instructions

For the initial post, pick two (2) of the following categories representing minority groups during 1880-1914;

  • Women’s rights activists
  • African Americans
  • Immigrants from southern and eastern Europe
  • Child workers
  • Great Plain Indians

Then, address the following for your selections;

  • Explain the socio-economic status and challenges of your minority groups at the turn of the century.
  • How did the Industrial Revolution affect your chosen minority groups?
  • Analyze how the Progressives brought reform to your selected minority groups. Do you find that the Progressives were successful in making government responsive and improve the conditions of your chosen minority group?

Follow-Up Posts

Compare your selections and analysis of selections with those of your peers. If they chose different groups, examine how yours are similar and/or different. If they chose the same groups, build on their posts by providing additional information about the groups that you have not already noted in your own post.

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During the time of Industrialization, I chose to focus on this new economy affected Child workers and the Great Plain Indians. While great strides were seen in urban industrial growth it led to several problems, not enough workers on the land and not enough workers, led to the exploitation of the American Indians and Children.

Children were abundant and inexpensive labor for the growing factories. They were used in textiles where they had to help keep the thread from breaking in a hot and humid environment working up to 12-hour days. At 12, it was legal form them to work in the coal mines, but they were three times more likely to die than an adult. Five-year-olds were forced to help peel shrimp and shuck oysters in the Seafood industry.

The Progressive reformers wanted to save the children from the evils of big industry and were successful at enacting some state child protective laws. Their laws were inconsistent in their application. On one side was the family who needed the income from their children to survive. They argued these children would learn valuable skills so they would not need an education.

Manufacturers felt that it would hamper their ability to be price competitive.
Several Federal laws were proposed and defeated over the course of the next few years and child labor was never abolished. Children workers become less in demand as manufacturing became automated and the sates begin to strengthen their child labor laws. (ActHartman, 2017)

The American Indians did not benefit from the Industrial Revolution either. As families began to move away from the farm and into the cities to work in factories, it left a lot of land unattended and crops not being grown. The Progressives came up with what they believed was a generous solution that would help the natives integrate into the U.S. and the land would continue to produce. The land was sectioned out in small parcels, with not enough crops or animals to sustain a family. (Sendrow, 2017).

The Progressives continued to push integration and started boarding schools for the children so they could be taken away from the savage customs and become more like the whites. The adult Indians were enticed to give up their tribal ways though teaching Christianity. (U.S. History, 2014)

  • Sendrow, S. (2017). Dawes severalty act. In The Development of the United States, Third Edition. New York Facts On File. Retrieved September 28, 2020, from online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=239824&itemid=WE52&articleId=207966.
  • Dawes ActHartman, M. (2017). Child labor, 19001929. In The Emergence of Modern America, Third Edition. New York Facts On File. Retrieved September 28, 2020, from online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=239824&itemid=WE52&articleId=200255. Child labor

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