CALIFORNIA CONTENT STANDARD 11.1.4

Effects of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Industrial

Revolution

Specific Objective

• Examine the effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction and the of the Industrial Revolution, including demographics shifts and emergence in the late nineteenth century of the United States as a world power.

EventCivil War and Reconstruction

Effects

• The need for war supplies during the Civil War led to rapid growth of industry and cities in the North.

•The Civil War destroyed the South’s economy. Because the war was fought mostly in the South, it’s bridges, roads, and farmlands were destroyed. Property values declined, personal and government debts increased, and the population suffered devastating losses.

•New labor systems such as the contract system and sharecropping kept many former slaves locked in a cycle of debt and poverty.

• Constitutional amendments and other laws abolished slavery and guaranteed basic rights of former slaves. African Americans became educated and took part in state and federal government

Event• Civil War and

Reconstruction Continued

Effect• Southern states restricted African-Americans voting rights through literacy tests and poll taxes. Grandfather clauses allowed many poor illiterate whites to vote but discriminated against African-Americans. The Supreme Court ruled that these laws did not refer to specifically to race and so did not violate the 15th Amendment

• Jim Crow laws established segregation. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court said that “separate but equal” facilities did not violate the 14th Amendment.

Demographic Shift• Both sides lost thousands of young men.

• African Americans moved from rural to urban South; in some cities, African Americans became the majority. African Americans also moved to Northern cities and to the West.

Event

• Industrial Revolution

Effect

• The United States shifted from a mostly rural to an industrial society after the Civil War.

• Railroad lines expanded. People, raw materials, farm produce, and finished products could be moved quickly throughout the country.

Demographic Shift• Mechanization of farming displaced many farm workers, especially African Americans.

U.S. Emergence as a World Power• In the late 19th century, U.S. industry made more products than American citizens could consume. The United States looked abroad for raw materials for manufacturing and new markets for selling U.S. goods. The need for foreign trade was a factor in the growth of American imperialism.