Imperialist DBQ Essay

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Mariana Guerra
APUSH
Period 2
Capitalism DBQ

A capitalist is described as a wealthy person who uses money to invest in trade and industry for profit in accordance with the principles of capitalism.
Therefore, having the wealthiest people as the center of everything to do with the industry and how it is handled. The industry was owned by the “fat cats”, the fat cats were rich business owners who happened to be of bigger size most of the time. A robber baron is defined as an unscrupulous plutocrat, especially an
American capitalist who acquired a fortune in the late nineteenth century by ruthless means. That perfectly described the capitalist of the industrial age, using children in labor, taking money when they could, and spending the money as they wished. The capitalist were nothing but robber barons that did not care about anything but their money, making money, and keeping their money.
Child labor was one aspect in which the capitalist were being ruthless. Now in days child labor is illegal because of the safety hazards they could be put in.
Children worked for next to nothing because they were in need of the money at home. “..Every man woman and child were actively employed..” (Doc B) children should be having fun and playing with their toys, not working to help

Mariana Guerra
APUSH
Period 2
Capitalism DBQ

support their family just because wages were made lower to keep down expenses of the industry. Little boys would get home dirty and full of dust when working in the coal mines. (Doc J) The effects of mining on health are immense, they could die from the roof collapsing or even a falling object. In addition to they they could also get respiratory diseases including, Black Lung and Progressive
Massive Fibrosis. Putting children into that kind of danger just because they are cheap labor is ruthless. “...as liveried carriages appear, so do barefooted children.” (Doc A) Families felt as if their child had to work to help them pay for their necessities. Children who were made to work were also not allowed to go to school because they would miss work and not be paid for the day. No child should be forced to be working instead of getting their education and playing like any other child should be. Therefore, capitalist were not admirable, they were robber barons who were corrupt.
Capitalist would always spend the money as it came. The capitalist would spend money as they received it, spending money in their cottages the size of one of their factories. (Doc F) Having nothing else to spend their money on but houses they bought with money they made off of the poor. “Some part of their

Mariana Guerra
APUSH
Period 2
Capitalism DBQ

saving they kept as profit…” (Doc H) Robber barons took money from people as they pleased and did whatever they pleased with it. "They reproach the machine with degrading man by transforming him into a machine.." (Doc G) The workers would be forced to work every day and dread going to work for a pay that was next to nothing.
More often than not, America s antebellum capitalists are accused of being the robber barons of industrial America. The misconception is that these men took advantage of a naïve and growing economy and reaped its benefits without giving anything in return. True, the majority of America was poor in comparison to the few elites, but the philanthropist efforts and contributions of these men can not be denied. If not for these men and their efforts, there would have been no one to pave the road to America s industrial domination. Successful capitalists of the late 1800s were referred to as robber barons because of the common belief that they were responsible for the farmers grievances (doc.
D). The weapon of these robber barons was the trusts created to gear economical power and domination toward these men (doc. E). True, these men did utilize

Mariana Guerra
APUSH
Period 2
Capitalism DBQ
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