POLITICAL POLA- 2100APUSH DBQ-Evaluate the extent to which reform movements changed United States society in the period from 1877 to 1914.

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Evaluate the extent to which reform movements changed United States society in the period from 1877 to 1914. The Civil War radically transformed the economy and set in motion the GIlded Age. Americ... a in the 1890s was in a deep economic depression. This clash between traditional and modernity peaked political activism by farmers, and violent conflicts between industrial workers and employers that transformed into a clash between rival visions of America’s future. But by 1900, the United States emerged as one of the worlds greatest industrial powers. The Gilded Age was a period of transformation for America into an industrial powerhouse, with the most important creation being new transportation systems. The rise of Big Business created a monopoly of railroads. During the Civil War Republicans had complete control and passed the Pacific Railroad Act. Turner’s “frontier thesis” encouraged Americans to move East to West, which needed railroads. Document 1 proves that this competition created a race to build more railroads, Union or Central Railroads. The federal government gave free land to railroad companies so the area around railroads became more expensive and desirable. Railroads would use taxes to pay but taxpayers are undermined because now the same land costs more. With evidence from Document 2, Congress and the federal government would continuously step in to tip the balance of power away from workers and towards Big Business. New strikes were the arrival of a dangerous revolutionary movement and in violent [Show More]

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