Introduction
The history of every nation is a rather interesting and controversial matter. It is interesting because people must know their past in order to learn its lessons and not repeat the past mistakes in the future. It is controversial because different sources present different information, with some of them reflecting a certain process as positive and others as a negative phenomenon. The history of the United States of America is rather interesting and important to know for all people living in this country and it was also filled with a lot of controversial episodes that demand consideration. This paper will focus on the period of American history between 1865 and 1900 as one of the crucially important periods for the formation of the American nation.
In this paper, I will consider the social and political state in the USA so that either to prove or deny the attractiveness that the United States had for the foreign immigrants who saw the USA as the place where democracy and unlimited financial opportunities dominated (Roark et al., 2008).
Main body
To begin with, let us take a brief look at the events that preceded the epoch under consideration. The Civil War of 1861 – 1865 destroyed great parts of the country, the industry and agriculture were seriously affected and demanded to restructure. In this context, the industrial revolution that took place in Europe influenced American society greatly. The period of 1865 – 1900 is rightfully considered to be the time of flowering of industries in America, especially in its Northern and Western parts. Farmers dissatisfied with the low incomes from farming and its great costs decided to move westward looking for a better life (Roark et al., 2008).
Furthermore, numerous immigrants from all over the world attacked the United States led by the overall belief in America’s being the paradise for those who want to find a better life. In this perspective, the atmosphere in the USA in 1865 – 1900 can actually be called positive. People could find the job they looked for due to the industrial rise, development of the railroad allowed traveling to the remotest parts of the country and provided for its integration (Roark et al., 2008).
However, there is another side of the issue. This site concerns the level of life the foreign immigrants and Southern migrants could find in the USA. The great flow of labor force allowed employers to reduce wages and dispose of the huge amounts of the cheap labor force. It was predetermined by the greater number of job seekers than there were working places, even despite the fact that industrial development created numerous working places. Thus, the gap between the rich, employers, and the poor, employees, kept increasing and worsening the living standards of ordinary Americans (Roark et al., 2008).
Moreover, the status of immigrants was not the most respectable one. America as a multicultural society displayed little respect to the representatives of non-white races or any other immigrants even of the white race. Thus, the issue of racism was one of the dominant factors that made the life of immigrants in the USA far from the levels they expected it to be when they came to America (Roark et al., 2008). Drawing from this, I can not call the atmosphere in America in 1865 – 1900 a positive and democratic one.
Conclusion
To conclude, the state of the American economy and politics in the last three decades of the 19th century was rather controversial and provided for the increase of the social gap between the rich and the poor rather than finding the resort with unlimited opportunities as the thought of by the immigrants. The real state of things in the period under consideration was rather problematic because the supply of labor force was larger than demand for it, racism was not yet eliminated in the country and the economic consequences of the Civil War could still be perceived.
References
Roark, J. L. et al. The American Promise: The History of the United States, Vol. II. Bedford/St. Martin’s; Fourth Edition edition, 2008.