Growth and Transformation

The United States changed after the Civil War. The frontier became less wild. Cities grew in size and number. More factories, steel mills, and railroads were built. Immigrants arrived in the United States with dreams of better lives.
This was the age of inventions. Alexander Graham Bell developed the telephone. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. George Eastman made the moving picture, later called a movie. Before 1860, the government issued 36,000 patents. From 1860 to 1890, the government issued 440,000. Separate companies merged to become larger companies, sometimes called trusts.

Farming was still America’s main occupation. Scientists improved seeds. New machines did some of the work that men had done. American farmers produced enough grain, meat, cotton, and wool to ship the surplus overseas.

When Europeans first arrived on the East Coast, they pushed the native people west. Each time, the government promised new land for the native people so they would have a home. Many tribes would live on reservations, which are federal lands administered by Indian tribes. Today there are more than 300 reservations.
Toward the end of the 1800s, European powers colonized Africa and fought for rights to trade in Asia. Many Americans believed that the United States should do the same.

United States encouraged them to become selfgoverning. In reality, the United States kept control. Idealism in foreign policy co-existed with the desire to prevent European powers from acquiring territories that might enable them to project military power toward the United States.