Demonstrate understanding of the events, circumstances, causes, and Essay

Demonstrate understanding of the events, circumstances, causes, and effects of the significant events of U.S. History Since 1877 - Essay Example One of the events that shaped America history is the 15th amendment that prohibited discrimination or denying the right to vote by American on the excuse of race or colour. This event happened after the whites had passed a legislation that disallowed people of black origin not to vote in elections. Black human rights activists, who put pressure on the government to amend the legislation opposed this move. As a follow up to the 15th amendment, a 19th one was made on the constitution that allowed women to vote in national and local elections. These amendments were made under the congressional reconstruction, which saw the southern states divided into military districts. Under this period, Andrew Johnson was impeached for violating the tenure of office act by removing Staton but the main reason was his defiance for reconstruction of the congress; 18th amendment was also enacted in 1930’s , and it banned production and sale of alcohol in United States of America. Although this ame ndment received huge support from the masses, there were not enough police officers to enact it, and therefore the leaker takers found a way to brew their own beer. With time, the authorities found out that prohibition of production and sale of alcohol contributed a lot to law breaking, this led to the abolishment of the regulation. During the period from 1877 to 1913, United States grew in terms of industrialization to become the leading industrial nation with well-organised railroads, labour and industries. The income of non-farm workers grew by about 75 per cent by 1900 and grew further by 33 per cent by 1918. The first industrial revolution that occurred in America saw production move from artisan to factories, while the second revolution saw the expansion of the factories to in terms of size, coordination and organisation to industry level, which was facilitated by advancements in technology and improvements in transport networks1. New technologies in iron and steel manufacturi ng such as Bessemer process and open-hearth furnace combined with other new technologies in other areas led to increase in productivity. In order to finance these large-scale businesses corporations, mergers, joint ventures of competing firms which created monopolies were a common practice. This period of industrialisation also led to emergence of powerful industrialists such as john Rockefeller, Jay Gould and Andrew Carnegie among other industrialists. The period after 1877 is also referred to as the Gilead age, which was enjoyed by a large number of American elites after the recovery from the 1873 panic, which threatened the industrial revolution in the country. This period was characterised by a massive transfer of wealth, which led to changes in the social organisation in the society as it created a class of super-rich individuals, who controlled the industry and whose networks of business, family and friends ruled the Anglo-Saxon white protestants2. Some reformers started to ar gue that the Gilead age had created corrupt and powerful parties and encouraged voters to participate in the elections. This was evident in voter enthusiasm in elections of 1882 where almost all persons allowed to vote participated in the elections where the main issues were modernization, money, corruption and railroads. Immigration of people from other areas of the world characterised this period up to 1918. It is estimated that about 27.4 million people moved to United States of America in this period with 89 per