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Erie Canal
The Erie Canal opens allowing goods to be shipped from New York City to Cleveland and eventually to Chicago. -
John Deere
John Deere introduces the first steel plow to the United States. Successive new technologies make each acre more productive but smaller farms less competitive. -
Irish Potato Famine
Start of the Irish Potato Famine, this results in many Irish immigrants coming to the United states and filling the factories with low paid workers. -
Railroads
Leading railroads emerge as the nation's first big businesses with modern managerial hierarchies. -
Cheap Steel
Henry Bessemer invents process for making cheap steel from pig iron, in response to call for guns for Crimean War. -
Cars Slowed Down
Road Locomotives Act restricts speed of road vehicles to 5mph. HMS Warrior, first ironclad battleship, launched. Start of construction of London Underground. -
Transcontinental Railroad
The first transcontinental railroad is completed linking the United States into a huge single market. -
John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller and partners establish Standard Oil Company of Ohio, establishing a vertically integrated company and later a trust which limited competition and controlled the industry. -
Lightbulb
Invention of electric lightbulb. This leads to an even more industrialized system with factories able to stay open later due to the easy lighting. -
Corporations take control
The U.S. Supreme Court decides Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, awarding civil rights to corporations, making it more difficult for state legislatures to regulate them.