Big_Buigness

The construction of railroads in the 1800s changed the United States by combining the nation. This had both negative and positive effects between the east and the west. During the building of the railroads there where many accidents which caused death and injury to many immigrants. This was the result of unsafe working conditions and short dead lines. It also helped the big business owners to get a lot of money. For the east and the west, the construction of railroads had many positive effects. The settlers of Kansas found the greatest uses of the Great Plains. The great uses of the Great Plains were mainly as the growing of cash crops ( tobacco, cotton, and grain). . Another positive effect is that railroads helped with cultural diffusion, making trade easier. They also made it easier for travel, making another way of transportation. The owner of the railroads (John D Rockefeller) had so much money from the railroads that he used to hand out dimes when the country was in the depression. Although many positive effects were brought to the attention of John D. Rockefeller ( owner of many railroads ways) many there were negative effects such as the death of Chinese immigrants many were killed, by being ran over by the trains. They had to deal with loss of limbs and being crushed between cars. The Chinese were upset because they had low wages and really bad working conditions. They made six dollars and three of it was taken away for food, clothing and shelter as a place to sleep, so they made three dollars a week. While all this was happening, the Natives became worried about the loss of their food because the trains had plows on the front of them so they could go through the buffalo with out derailing or damaging the train.. The Native Americans were also scared that they were going to lose their land to railroad companies . Therefore they did not allow people to come on their land. Even though the founding of the Great Plains due to the construction of the railroads had been the cause of many successes the biggest negative effect had been the many injuries and deaths of the immigrants as a result of the building of the railroads. The greatest positive effect was it settled all the land in the west and we became one nation.