The late 1800’s into the early 1900’s was driven by a massive wave of industrialism. Behind this wave was a few great men known as industrialists. There was one characteristic that marked these men, their single-minded need for wealth. These men, often referred to as “Robber Barons”, accentuating the negative side to these men. This description portrays men such as Rockefeller, Stanford, and Vanderbilt as cruel and ruthless businessmen who would stop at nothing to gain massive amounts of wealth. These men, who liked to refer to themselves as “Captains of Industry," were accused of all sorts of atrocities like exploiting their workers, forcing horrible working conditions, and forcing smaller companies out of business. On the other hand, these industrialist “Robber Barons” really did do a lot of great things for the country, although they accumulated mass wealth through corrupt and illegal practices. These men were also viewed as ingenious and industrious leaders who were able to transform the United States economy with their business skills. These skills helped build and shape America with its increase in competition between industries, it helped the industries to grow faster and to develop inventions and new methods and techniques of becoming more efficient and effective within the country. These industrial advances is really what led the United States to be a world industrial power in its own right, having united again as one union, America was an industrial power to fear. These industrialists, as mentioned before, only had one goal in life, and that was to accumulate great amounts of wealth. This resulted in them being so greedy and ruthless, they would force companies out of business in order to gain their territory or just simply increase their market share. If they couldn’t force them to sell, they would put other pressures on them to make them yield to the stronger force. These men had a very long and str