The Reconstruction Era

The Reconstruction Era

Name

Institution

The Reconstruction Era

Introduction

The civil war experienced by America from 1860 to 1865 was not just the worst in America’s history, but the worst civil war ever seen anywhere on the surface of the earth (Zuczek & Foner, 2006). Numerous lives were lost to the war a lot of destruction became a common phenomenon. The civil war dealt an industrial blow to the America.

The period that followed the civil war involved reconstruction and redevelopment of the American economy. The restoration of the America’s development back to its helm was a carefully drawn and executed plan whose procedurals could not be tracked impulsively, but rather with time. This was the period that has been known as the reconstruction era (Richardson, 1961).

This paper serves to examine the key factors that affected the reconstruction era and the influence of the era on diversified American citizens on the following thesis.

Thesis Statement:

Industrialization after the Civil War brought about poverty, weak communities, discrimination, bad health and destruction.

The Major Aspects of the Industrial Era

The reconstruction era revolutionized development in America rolling every stone over and affecting almost every aspect of growth and development in the U.S (Ziff, 2010).

Development is not inevitable and during its realization, there are obstacles and factors that affect its goal. Such was the development as was witnessed during the reconstruction era with political, societal and economical factors being the underlining aspects. Detailed in the paragraphs below, these factors played roles either to counter or to water proposals meant to realize a new nation after a bloody war.

Economy

Little economic activities had taken place during the civil war battering the American. Two labor systems were implemented after the war to over-whole the American economy.

To revolutionize the economy, the out work system was implemented that oversaw an overwhelming level in the increase in productivity (Stroud & Schomp, 2007). The increased productivity restructured the American economy. In this system, laborers completed their works at their homes. Factory system is the other system that was employed by the nation to allow mass production at centralized locations. Whilst the system of out work polished and created quality and perfection, the factory system served to meet demands and rally creativity.

The two systems led to the expansion both in scale and size of business organizations and unmatched mechanization and factory production that led to domination by giant corporations the major economic sectors. Consequently, the steady ascension of business saw to the creation of a bigger class of billionaires and general improved living standards of the average American (Franklin & Foner, 2014).

However, it was not all bliss as the rise of corporations also saw to the rise of other vices like corruption and monopoly. Monopsony also became a common factor as corporation lay on their workers, expecting the most from them in terms of output but paying them wages and salaries not worthy of their services.

Political

Politics rarely escapes human issues as most people are inclined towards politicking with everything and the Industrial era was not an exception. Just as it had been factored into causing the civil war, so was it factored into growing or erring during the challenging industrialization process.

Patriots who had drawn fine lines of distinction between statesmen and the run of mill politics served the citizenry whole heartedly and introduced bill and reforms. Such were chartered into law to streamline the activities that took place during the industrialization process and saw to the rise of state-owned corporations (Ziff, 2010). Other politicians play rolls to express the grievances of their people and to set up measures that protect workers and trade unions. The era witnessed several changes to the American constitution as clauses were either scrapped off by politicians or created and introduced. The thirteenth amendment for instance, saw to the abolition of slavery as all men were declared equal before the law. The fourteenth amendment, on the other hand, saw to the inclusion of American citizen immunities and privileges in the constitution. The changes factored more freedom and voice in the Industrialization process.

However, politics had more cons than pros in the American reconstruction. To achieve political reprisal, elected representatives developed a habit of awarding lucrative deals and contracts to their supporters (Richardson, 1961). They became negligent of their core duties as they became submerged into satisfying their greed and self-interests by making private investments at the expense of the American. Politicians expressed a high rate of corruption as they took bribes from parties that had interests in projects or tenders, a factor that saw to .............