The Effect of Railroads Corporations in the 19th-Century American West
The 19th-century American West experienced a period of major Westward expansion and Westward development, including significant changes in the economic development process. American businesspeople and prospectors flocked to the frontier, intending to make a fortune in a region that has remained unexplored until the 19th century. However, railroads’ development gained intense growth and expansion in the area because people could travel easily to explore the high-potential lands. The new type of transportation created independence because there was no more prolonged need for each settlement to be self-sufficient. The interconnectedness became increasingly attractive to business people, who realized the opportunity to explore the untapped resources to increase their wealth. While the development of railroads created an opportunity for business people and corporations, the industry became the most hated because of the negative impact on 19th-century American Western society, such as destroying their agricultural lands.
The development of railroads shaped America considerably, its society, culture, and destiny. The developmental process that would improve transportation led to the emergence of a new stratum of management, which would cause the success of significant railroads corporations. American entrepreneurs made many attempts to promote the development of transportation channels that would lead to growth. Americans embraced the new type of transportation as the channels through which they would achieve the Manifest Destiny. The notion that settlers in America were pre-destined to continue expanding across the North American continent (Balliet 8). The development process might have come as an advantage for the settlers who focused on eradicating barriers to expand across the continent, but it has negative repercussions on Americans, who grew to hate railroad corporations for their role in the building of the transportation channels. The railroads became a symbol of challenges for Native Americans, who felt the loss of their resources and culture in the expansion process.
The construction of railroads required considerable resources in the areas they crossed, which created conflicts between the corporations and the natives who occupied the American West. American settlers poured in and started the development process, pushing out the natives to give room for the expansion and the construction process. The new western economy, based on railroads, development influenced the lives of the Native Americans. They continually lost their lands and livelihood in the new developmental model to give way to settlers. The West became purely a railroad enterprise, which became a symbol of loss for the West’s earlier occupants before the expansion process. The economic enterprise was vast in scope, scale, and sheer impact, which was a threat to natives. The effect of the railroads in the American West was one reason why it became the most hated corporations in the American West during the 19th century.
Railroad Corporations and the development process led to the brutal displacement of indigenous peoples from their native lands. Although the railroads were marketed as a developmental aid, people who occupied lands that were used for the process lost their homes and cultures because they could no longer live together. Therefore, it was unsurprising that Native Americans would hate the process and corporations that completely changed their lives. The displacement of indigenous peoples from their lands was a blight upon the American past (Balliet 11). Lands used for their cattle to graze were also taken over by the corporations to lay tracks and operate their business operations. To a great extent, Native Americans in the West never recovered from the displacement’s detrimental effect, explaining why they viewed the corporations with disdain. They could be excused for hating the forces that changed their society and culture and destroyed their homes and livelihood.
The American government supported the construction of the railroads disregarding their effect on Native Americans in the West. During the 19th century, the corporations received more generous government support than any other country’s developmental system. For example, the construction of four of the five transcontinental railroads received federal government support, including land grants, which explained the reason for the lack of support from the Native Americans. Congress awarded the corporations millions of acres of public lands, which led to the dispossession and displacement of many occupants of those lands. The enterprises had the assurance of lands to lay their tracks and some to sell and get finances to construct their railroads. Although some of the railroads’ construction did not receive any government assistance, they still required landowners to sell the spaces to lay their tracks. Many landowners refused to sell their lands or to grant rights of way because of the hatred they had towards the corporations for their impact on society.
The development of the railroads in the American West had significant ramifications for farming and agriculture. From the 1850s to the 1880s, the growth of the transportation channels created an opportunity for agriculture. Still, most farm owners lost their farms and livelihood sources as corporations paved the way to laying tracks. Farmers lost many acres of land in the areas where the railroads passed. Rural Americans lost their livelihood as they watched the region become a big market for farm and industrial products. The railroad’s development caused critical disparity and unequal distribution of wealth in the American West. For example, between 1860 and 1900, the wealthiest households in America (2 percent) controlled over one-third of the wealth in the region, while the top 10 percent controlled about three quarters (**********). The disparity created hatred towards the railroad construction companies because they held vast wealth in the American West, disregarding locals who owned lands before the settlers emerged.
The railroad construction companies ignored the interests of the Americans in the West during the 19th century. The American West hated the enterprises’ management because they made decisions that were detrimental to their societies and well-being, such as unfair use of natural resources and labor. The management of the corporations also dominated the American West’s economy and politics because of their power to manipulate Americans to their advantage. The managers, such as Collis P. Huntington, the Southern Pacific Railroad’s president, were symbols of greed and corruption in the 19th-century business world. People hated the corporations when it was clear that they were concerned about selfish enrichment and ignored the Americans’ interests in the West. Regardless of the perceived and apparent development that the railroad enterprises brought into the American West, they were hated for Americans’ economic and political impact, such as exploitation.
The hatred towards the railroad corporations emerged from their negative impact on the politics of the 19th century America west. People accused the enterprises of the development of the contemporary political lobby. As a result, the political process resulted in major corruption and intense competition between railroad corporations, which affected the American West’s politics during the 19th century and onwards (Balliet 12). The enterprises operated unfairly, creating detrimental effects on the 19th-century society, such as unfair rivalry, which affected many products’ market. For example, unfair competition would cause significant changes in the market of products in the American West. Generally, railroads failed to cause positive social change in the 19th century American west for the natives and settlers. The railroad corporations became the target of hatred and vilification by a large segment of the American west population.
Railroad construction in the American West was a symbol of considerable development in the United States in the 19th century. The American government and settlers had high hopes about the development’s developmental advantages, but many in the West hated the railroad enterprises because of their detrimental effects. Many Native Americans lost their lands, not only to the creation of the railroads, but also to settlers who arrived at the West through the new modes of transportation. The corporations further changed the American West’s social and political in the 19th century through corruption and unfair competition. The adverse effects of the railroad corporations led to considerable hatred and disdain towards their management. After all, they had changed indigenous communities’ social and political lives in the American West forever. They also changed the history of the region and the entire American completely.