The growth of industry was the dominant factor of change during the period. The Civil War had spurred industrial development in the North to a degree unimaginable in the rest of the world. While the North was well on its way to becoming an industrial powerhouse before the war, fielding and supplying the armies accelerated the process. Facing superior generalship in the Southern Army, the North relied on a war of attrition. The North was much better suited to this type of warfare as their industrial base was ten times

The Civil War paved the way for western expansion on a scale not imagined before. Movement westward had been slowed by the antebellum question of slavery. Once the war started the Republicans were free of Southern resistance to set up governments and infrastructure in the western territories. The end of hostilities saw a new urgency in the countries move westward.

capable men. As a result, Carnegie made a fortune.

Sports of all type grew in public popularity during the Gilded Age. Bicycling became a national craze in the 1890's and boxing, thanks to the introduction of the Marquis of Queensberry's rules, gained wide acceptance. The sports that grew the most, however, were the team sports of football and baseball. The fields and fresh air of the sports suggested a sorely needed return to nature for the indoor working and dwelling urbanite. Team sports emphasized teamwork and strategy, both important Victorian ethics. A. G. Spalding used his fame as an all-star pitcher to open a sporting good's concern and soon Spalding was the first example of backward vertical integration, actually purchasing the suppliers of his equipment. Spalding used the new business techniques being developed across the nation and was soon the master of a world wide sporting goods empire. Julian Curtiss, an associate of Spalding, alluding to the British Empire, wrote that Spalding's company was "an organization on which the sun never sets (Levine 94)."

The industry domination of the North and West was rooted in new organizational and business concepts that were developed after the War of 1812. Congress funded internal improvements that sparked the growth of industry and the railroads. America's abundance of natural resources and long coastline made the country suitable to commerce and America, as an island continent, was free from the threat of war that always loomed over the European powers. The nation turned its energies to industry on a grand scale.

The emergence of a strong central government would be a hallmark of the organizational age as well. The southern form of government was a major handicap to their war effort as well as their disparity of industry. They had seceded on the basis of state rights, and consequently the Confederate States had a decentralized government that made coordinating the war effort difficult. The states had difficulty deciding who was to pay for the war effort, and the physical question of where to fight created dissension. The northern government, led by the firm hand of Lincoln, in conjunction with a homogeneous Congress of Republicans, effectively managed a concentrated war effort. The northern government managed to enact an income tax to finance the war effort, and the capital wealth held by the North was used as collateral for bond sales.

Workers began to organize so their concerns could be voiced. Early attempts at forming unions met with little success. Early organizations such as the National Labor Union and the Knights of Labor advocated a union composed of skilled and unskilled laborers, women, and African-Americans. Ironically, diversity, which gave the early unions their numerical strength, was to be their downfall. Workers from different areas and in different industries saw little need to support others, and governing the dissimilar groups with their often-divergent political aims was difficult.

The end of the war saw the Southern economy devastated. The emancipation of the slaves had two major effects on the plantation system that was the core of the South's economy. First, the slaves were not anxious to return to the plantation style of work. Share cropping, which gave the cropper a higher degree of freedom than under the plantation system, seemed to be the answer. Freedman would essentially rent land, paying the planter with a share of the yearly harvest. Initially conceived as a temporary solution, sharecropping would lead to prolonged indebtedness of the landless classes and hold the Sou

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3840
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)