Industries

Industries There was always the hope that there was gold in North America. In the 1840s, traces of gold were found in the USA, in California. This led to the ‘Gold Rush’, when thousands of eager Europeans hurried to America in the hope of making a quick fortune. This led to the building of railway lines across the continent, for which thousands of Chinese workers were recruited. The USA’s railway was completed by , that of Anthropology It is significant that it was at this time (from the 1840s) that the subject of ‘anthropology’ (which had been developed in France) was introduced in North America, out of a curiosity to study the differences between native ‘primitive’ communities and the ‘civilised’ communities of Europe. Some anthropologists argued that just as there were no ‘primitive’ people to be found in Europe, the American natives too would ‘die out’. A native lodge, . Archaeologists moved this from the mountains and placed it in a museum in Wyoming. D ISPLACING I NDIGENOUS P EOPLES T HEMES IN W ORLD H ISTORY Canada by . ‘The old nations creep on at a snail’s pace’ said Andrew Carnegie, a poor immigrant from Scotland who became one of the first millionaire industrialists in the USA, ‘the Republic thunders on at the speed of an express’. One reason why the Industrial Revolution happened in England when it did was because small peasants were losing their land to big farmers, and moving to jobs in factories (see Theme ). In North America, industries developed for very different reasons – to manufacture railway equipment so that rapid transport could link distant places, and to produce machinery which would make large-scale farming easier. Industrial towns grew and factories multiplied, both in the USA and Canada. In , the USA had been an undeveloped economy. In , it was the leading industrial power in the world. Large-scale agriculture also expanded. Vast areas were cleared and divided up into farms. By , the bison had almost been exterminated, thus ending the life of hunting the natives had followed for centuries. In , the USA’s continental expansion was complete. The area between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans was divided up into states. There no longer remained the ‘frontier’ that had pulled European settlers west for many decades. Within a few years the USA was setting up its own colonies – in Hawaii and the Philippines. It had become an imperial power. Below: The ranch on the prairie that was the dream of poor European immigrants, photograph. Moving to California as part of the ‘Gold Rush’, photograph. Above: Immigrants welcomed by the USA, colour print, .