Gilded Age
Gilded Age is the name for the economic heyday in the USA that followed the Civil War . The expression Gilded Age ("Gilded Age", not about the Golden Age ) was coined by Mark Twain . He refers to the fact that this time was outwardly a time of economic boom and technological progress, but at the same time it was also associated with great poverty, especially in the cities, and political corruption at all levels.
The beginning and end of the Gilded Age are blurred. The 1870s are considered the beginning of the period; the end of the reconstruction after the Civil War, which was marked by the withdrawal of the northern occupation troops from the southern states in 1877, is often taken as the starting point. The turn of the 20th century, when new political and social issues came to the fore, is considered the end of the period. This period until the USA entered the First World War in 1917 is known as the Progressive Era ("Progressive Era").
The Gilded Age was marked by a great number of inventions. Between 1860 and 1890 over 500,000 new patents , for example for the telephone , were registered. This was ten times as many as in the previous 70 years.
The railroad replaced river navigation as the most important means of transport, and the first transcontinental railroad opened in 1869.
The Gilded Age also saw the rise of Andrew Carnegie ( steel industry ), John D. Rockefeller ( oil industry ), Cornelius Vanderbilt ( railroad company ) and John Pierpont Morgan ( investment banking ) as the wealthiest and most influential entrepreneurs (" tycoons ") in the United States.
Millions of immigrants immigrated to the United States during the Gilded Age . Between 1865 and 1890 there were over 10 million immigrants, mainly from Northern and Western Europe, and between 1890 and 1920 around 16 million mainly from Eastern Europe. Immigration and internal migration (not least from the impoverished south) created poor areas like the Five Points in New York City .
Political corruption was enormous at all levels, and political parties were seen primarily as the machinery of distributing benefices. This began with Grant's presidency , which was overshadowed by corruption scandals, and continued in the decades that followed. A flagrant example of political corruption at the local level that is still known today is the circle around Tammany Hall in New York.
Starting with the election victory of Rutherford B. Hayes based on a political horse-trade ( compromise of 1877 ) in 1877, the presidents were insignificant figures who could not provide political impetus and were in office for no more than one period (the only exception, Grover Cleveland , had his two terms in office as the only president to date not in immediate succession). The presidencies of McKinley and especially T. Roosevelt brought a new style .
In Central Europe, this period corresponds to the Wilhelminian era , although it should be set a little earlier.
literature
- Sean Dennis Cashman: America in the Gilded Age. From the Death of Lincoln to the Rise of Theodore Roosevelt . 3rd ed. New York University Press, New York 1993, ISBN 0-8147-1494-3 .