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Industrialization
Main articles: Economic History of the United States and Technological and industrial history of the United States

Ellis Island in New York City was a major gateway for Europeanimmigration.
In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe supplied a surplus of labor for the country's industrialization and transformed its culture.^[106] National infrastructure including telegraph andtranscontinental railroads spurred economic growth and greater settlement and development of the American Old West. The later invention of electric light and the telephone would also impact communication and urban life.^[107]
The end of the Indian Wars further expanded acreage under mechanical cultivation, increasing surpluses for international markets.^[108] Mainland expansion was completed by the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.^[109] In 1893, pro-American elements in Hawaii overthrew the monarchy and formed the Republic of Hawaii, which the U.S. annexed in 1898. Puerto Rico,Guam, and the Philippines were ceded by Spain in the same year, following the Spanish–American War.^[110]
Rapid economic development at the end of the 19th century produced many prominent industrialists, and the U.S. economy became the world's largest.^[111] Dramatic changes were accompanied by social unrest and the rise of populist, socialist, andanarchist movements.^[112] This period eventually ended with the advent of the Progressive Era, which saw significant reforms in many societal areas, including women's suffrage, alcohol prohibition, regulation of consumer goods, greater antitrust measures to ensure competition and attention to worker conditions.