Development of the Industrial United States
1870-1900

This era is defined largely by unprecedented immigration and urbanization, both of which fed the industrial system. Immigrants, for the first time, were less and less likely to come from Western Europe, now coming from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia, Mexico, and Central America. Along with the need for expanding educational systems, which were often structured to push assimilation, the rise in immigration also led to religious tensions as Protestantism was no longer the dominating faith of immigrants. At the same time as immigrants were flooding the ports of the United States, the government launched wars against the Plains Indians, forcing the “second great removal” and defining a federal Indian policy that would last for decades.
Learn more in the National U.S. History Content Standards.
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Diploma from Tobacco Exposition, 1889
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Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Electric Railway, Photograph, n.d.
Trolleys were a very popular way for people to travel across cities or towns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Earlier versions of the trolley, or tram, were drawn by horses. However, by the late 1800s people began riding in trolleys that…
Woman and Child Reading, Photograph, n.d.
In earlier eras, books were expensive luxury items only owned by those who could afford to purchase books. The advent of the printing press made it easier to produce books; however, it was far easier to mass produce newspapers, pamphlets, and other…
A Corn Field on a Farm, Photograph, n.d.
From the time the earliest English settlers arrived in 1607 to today, corn has remained a staple crop in Virginia. Farmers across Virginia grew vegetables like corn to eat and to feed their farm animals. This photograph depicts a corn field on a…