The Second Industrial Revolution is the set of interrelated socio-economic transformations that occurred approximately between 1850-1870 until 1914. During this period the changes went under a strong acceleration. The process of industrialization changed its nature and economic growth varied from model. Technical changes continued to occupy a central position. Technical innovations concentrated, essentially, on new sources of energy such as gas, oil or electricity; new materials and new transport systems (airplane and automobile) and communication (telephone and radio) induced chain transformations that affected the work factor and the educational and scientific system; to the size and management of the companies, to the form of organization of the work, to the consumption, until ending also in politics.
This process took place within the framework of the so-called "first globalization", which meant a progressive internationalization of the economy, and which was increasingly working on a global scale for the transport revolution. This led to its extension to more territories than the First Industrial Revolution, limited to Great Britain, reaching almost all of Western Europe, the United States and Japan.
The period from 1860 to 1914 was the affirmation stage of the United States as an industrial nation; In this period, the structural transformations that had begun in the previous decades were deepened. The industry increased its participation in the national product, at the expense of agriculture, and the urbanization process accelerated.
The domestic market expanded considerably thanks to the growth of the population, and became a mass market as a result of the extension of the railway network and the spread of the use of telegraph.
At this stage there were notable changes in the structure of the industry, and the leadership shifted from the sectors producing consumer goods to producers of capital goods.
Along with the expansion and transformation of the industry, there were variations in its regional distribution, declining the relative weight of the Northeast in favor of the Great Lakes area, which was the main area producing iron and steel, and, later, the automotive industry.
By the volume of its production, in 1914, the United States was the most industrialized country in the world, and its per capita income was greater than that of any other nation.
