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This brought many big changes to America as a whole, ND made it stronger as a country. In the first half of the nineteenth century there was a generation of huge wealth by global trade, cash crops, and slavery (Lech. 1 1) this was known as the commercial revolution. The demands for manufactured goods was on the rise and people were on the lookout for ways to produce these goods at a much faster pace. ‘ ‘The market revolution represented an acceleration of development already under way in the colonial era” (GUM, 320).
As Americans tried to expand themselves across the country they found it harder to move past the Appalachian Mountains. They ere far from the markets and traveling was difficult, not safe, and expensive. Having to trade and make bargain with the neighbors nearby was all that could be done. These difficulties brought the rise of great inventions that were made in which helped America build their era of Transport Revolution (Lech 1 1).
The invention of the Erie canal, being 363 miles long going across upstate NY “allowed goods to flow between the Great Lakes and New York City/’ (GUM 322). This new invention attracted so many farmers to move closer so that they could work the land and make a profit, making NYC the port of hooch for the mid-west (Lech 11). The success of the Erie Canal was so high that other states wanted to match such a grand project. Eventually, “more than 3000 miles of canals had been built, creating a network linking the Atlantic states with the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys” (GUM 322).
This helped the cost of transportation to be reduced drastically to a high 90% (Lech 1 1 None the less, the Erie Canal was not the only new innovation in America. The building of railroads and telegraphs also helped drive the economy forward. The canal could only connect existing waterways, but with the railroad there as now also transportation on land. The railroad opened vast new areas of land to the Americans and it also generated jobs with it. “The mining of coal for fuel and the manufacture of iron for locomotives and rails” (GUM 323).
So much had been the growth of the railroad and telegraph that “By 1860 the railroad network had grown to 30,000 miles” (GUM 324) which was more than the total in the rest of the world combined (Lech 1 1 As more and more people began traveling to the United States and expanding westward, so did their ideas of new innovation “breaking up the identity of the west as a region” (Lech 1), leading up to the great start of the Industrial Revolution. Though all of America Was greatly affected by this revolution Of businesses booming in industry, the north, the south, and now the west were all affected.
The new advances in transportation and trade made many immigrants come from various countries. Cities boomed in size and number. In 1790, 5% lived in cities of 2500 or more, but by 1850 one in every seven lived in cities. There were 800,000 people in New York City, alone (Lech 11). This now meant the idea of new transportations in those cities. Horses pulled buses, light rail, steam ferries, and many other ways (Lech 1 1). In the west, about 4. 5 million people crossed the Appalachian Mountains (GUM 324).
These people were hungry for land, so much was the expansion that 6 new states entered the Union (Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and Maine) (GUM 325). In the North, many Germans and Irish fled from famine and war. All these people in the cities caused a lot of overcrowding. All these people from different countries as well as Americans were talented merchants, bankers ND master crafts men who were in search for economic opportunities created by ‘the expanding market among commercial farmers” (GUM 330). In the southern area, the invention of the Cotton Gin made the production of cotton to earn the title “Cotton King”.
The cotton gin caused a slavery boom as well (Lech 1 1) because the slaves now had a way of producing cotton in a much faster and efficient way. This helped drive the rise of textiles (Lech 1 1). All this new industry changed America. With the inventions of these machines many factories were built, this allowed many new jobs to arise. The parts to the machines were able to be replaced if broke, instead of having to buy a new one. Many guns, rifles, bullets and many other items were created, it could apply to any multi-part good (Lech 11). Also, the rise in population helped America grow and become stronger economically.
Women, just like men had jobs they could have in factories and were not only staying at home like in the colonial era. The labor was more focused to be for women and children, their contribution was of great centrality to the American economy (GUM 332). Also, the strong belief of equality was no longer there. ‘The early colonial period had been marked by social and economic equality because everyone was equally poor” (Lech 1 1 Now with many opportunistic merchants and plantation owners, many of them rose to wealth changing the class structure among them.
They were divided into the Upper class which were one percent of the population, the middle class which were 10% of the population and the working class which was 89% of the population (Lech 1 1 Social status became of utter most importance. The cities were a big mess, he overcrowding of all kinds of people and environments made it a dangerous place to be. A new religious outbreak rose and tried to get people from stopping their bad ways of living, creating the Second Great Awakening, many of these new preachers harshly criticized society for their corrupt ways, condemning them all (GUM 344).
New laws were also created to protect the citizens from evil corporations trying to take control and create monopolies in their business, and also protected the factories and companies that were damaged due to natural cause and had hurt workers (GUM 337). The eagerness, materialist, and constant motion and drive to be successful in this new America brought many changes, though not all were good nor all bad this all began to shape American as a country of its own. After the industrial revolution passed in America, it left a lot of impact on society and how things were to be ran.
Women’s groups, for example, broke out and pushed for reforms and laws that would protect them from abuse and would get them the same recognition that men got for the same jobs, since women no longer were simply staying at home (Lech 1 1). To this day we till have feminist movements for equalization in America. After the Industrial Revolution in America, there also came a lot of rational reform among people based on the idea of human rights, and rational improvements of society, as well as other ideals (Lech 1 1 With the rise of population many school were also opened based on a free education system, which we also have till this day. GUM 353). With the good also comes the bad, many prisons were opened for those who had committed wrong acts, the push for social control was really emphasized to have a good restrain on those who meant harm, as mime went on the system was adjusted (for example: cruel and unusual punishment) As well as rehabilitation such as asylums, workhouses whom all were intended “to “fix” the broken behavior patterns” (Lech 11).
The push to end slavery’ was also on the rise, many abolitionist worked hard to change and end the cruel ways of slavery in all of the states, there was now also a bit higher percentage on free blacks who also joined the fight of liberty (Lech 1 1 All these new reforms and styles Of ideas for the push Of a utopian society did tot all succeed but as the systems advanced some of the new ideas were perfected, like now we don’t have slavery, and have a much better system of laws and reforms that were into place that all impacted American after the sass’s.
The Industrial Revolution helped shaped America into a stronger country full of wealth, diversity, ideas, and took us to a full level passed simple colonies. This affected America for the good and brought out the best in us, allowing us to grow into a much stronger system of production, living, and status.