In what way did the mining, ranching, and farming frontiers respond to the industrial revolution in the same was as entrepreneurs and laborers?
The Industrial Revolution of the late 1800s brought economic and social change to the cities as well as the frontier. During this transformation, entrepreneurs and laborers could not rise up as individuals against big businesses and were offered little chance for unions so they were compelled to assimilate themselves into America’s largely capitalist industries. Likewise, farmers, miners, and long drive cowboys were affected and influenced by larger, more profitable “corporations” including large-scale cash crop farms, ore-breaking machines, and the railroad. Thus, the mining, ranching, and farming frontiers responded to the industrial revolution in the same way as entrepreneurs and laborers, as each group was ultimately intercepted and changed by larger businesses and elite corporations.
Dusty-whiskered “Pike’s Peakers” poured into the ore-filled Rockies to mine their fortunes. Dishpans in hand, these groups of rough young men soon gathered all of the loose pay dirt. Consequently, the age of big business was ushered into the mining industry. Large, heavy ore-breaking machinery was imported. As an individual miner was unable to undertake such an expensive operation, these smaller gold-washers were simultaneously replaced with bustling, impersonal corporations. The mining frontier, mirroring the adventurous Wild West, attracted more population and wealth, further pushing small miners by the wayside.
The iron fingers of the transcontinental railroad conveniently solved the problem of marketing the tough, long-horned cattle of the grassy plains of Texas. Now, the prosperous business of the “Long Drive” depended on herding the cattle to the nearest railroad terminal. Texas cowboys drove their herds over endless, fenceless, and unpopulated plains, and accordingly reaped large profits. Soon, however, the ever-reaching railroads brought in homesteaders and sheepherders who built barbed-wire fences. These fences became too numerous for the cowboys to cut down.
Dusty-whiskered “Pike’s Peakers” poured into the ore-filled Rockies to mine their fortunes. Dishpans in hand, these groups of rough young men soon gathered all of the loose pay dirt. Consequently, the age of big business was ushered into the mining industry. Large, heavy ore-breaking machinery was imported. As an individual miner was unable to undertake such an expensive operation, these smaller gold-washers were simultaneously replaced with bustling, impersonal corporations. The mining frontier, mirroring the adventurous Wild West, attracted more population and wealth, further pushing small miners by the wayside.
The iron fingers of the transcontinental railroad conveniently solved the problem of marketing the tough, long-horned cattle of the grassy plains of Texas. Now, the prosperous business of the “Long Drive” depended on herding the cattle to the nearest railroad terminal. Texas cowboys drove their herds over endless, fenceless, and unpopulated plains, and accordingly reaped large profits. Soon, however, the ever-reaching railroads brought in homesteaders and sheepherders who built barbed-wire fences. These fences became too numerous for the cowboys to cut down.