The United States experienced many changes in the latter half of the nineteenth century, such as:
a civil war;
millions of freed slaves;
industrial revolution;
millions of new immigrants;
changes in education;
women's suffrage movements;
Indian wars;
burgeoning city populations; and
technological advances.
During the Progressive Era, there were four primary kinds of reform movements:
political ones, dealing with more efficient government;
economic ones, dealing with trusts, monopolies, and working conditions;
social ones, dealing with suffrage, equality, and education;
moral ones, keying on purity and religion.
The goals of reform movements included:
improving the welfare of individual people;
changing big business, with the individual worker in mind;
improving the moral fiber of society; and
voting for change in government.
Some of the long-lasting reforms in government include:
the popular election of U.S. senators;
direct primaries;
the adoption of recalls and referendums; and
the creation of the Federal Reserve System and the income tax.
The Progressive Era did have a downside in that there was increased government control on the lives of American citizens.
The rapid growth of large cities brought the need for reform.
The Progressive Era saw changes in how the Federal government operated. Four of these shifts in policy included:
intervention in strikes affecting public welfare;
the use of arbitration to settle disputes;
putting an end to trusts and monopolies; and
protecting and preserving millions of acres of land to create parks and reserves.
The states underwent their own changes as the need for reform appeared in different arenas.