The American Industrial Revolution (1 gen 1876 anni – 1 gen 1900 anni)

Descrizione:

Agrarian society
America started off as an agrarian society, meaning a country based solely or mainly on income from agriculture. Working on land, a lack of huge amounts of exports and little to no innovation. Crops they were focused on were cotton, tobacco and corn, the largest portion of the workforce were immigrants. Less large scale of operations was focused on what the American population needs instead of producing for export.

The U.S. industrial revolution primarily began through textile mills in New England. ... Improved technology increased farm output as well, dropping farm product prices and allowing workers to move into other industries. Railroads, steamships, and the telegraph increased communication and transportation speeds as well.

Factors in success of American Industrial Revolution
Geographical
• Variety of land/climates/resources: Huge country therefore had a large scale of resources that they could benefit off of. Furthermore, they were a resource rich country. Due to the range of possibilities, they were able to focus on other things if one didn’t function well.
• WATER: transport=It went a lot faster to transport material via water than over land (there were no roads, and it was still with horses)., power source for mills (lots of rivers on the Northeastern seaboard- caused a bigger disparity between north and south)

Social
• No landed aristocracy, look at above explanation
• Largely literate, skilled population. The population that existed largely from immigrants were often very skilled and smart
Economic
• Labor shortage + higher wages than Europe = major attraction
• European immigrants had previous knowledge about the industrial and scientific revolutions that happened beforehand in Europe
• Higher wages for the workers encouraged companies to find mechanical solutions to circumvent the high wages.
• Europe demanded more American resources therefore better technology was needed to get it there and to mass produce efficiently
• War of 1812, look at above explanation

Samuel Slater
Considered the father of the American industrialization, or also Slater the traitor (in Britain) Was a British citizen that worked in a cotton mill. He memorized everything he could, and as he wasn’t allowed to “export” the designs of the cotton mills from Britain, when he illegally came to America (1789), he was able to reproduce the factory processes from memory and created the first successful cotton mill (British design). The missing key of why Americans before Slater weren’t able to make a successful mill was: Slater harnessed the hydraulic power from a river next to the mill to power it.

Textile mills
These were mills that created textiles, those would include for example cotton mills. These mills kick-started the industrial revolution in a way, as they were the first big businesses to begin modernizing and using hydraulic power from rivers to speed up and make their productions lines more efficient. This meant that areas with major rivers were able to support these textile mills (new England).

Erie Canal
Erie Canal was made in 1825 and it reduced transport costs by 95%. There was a canal made between Chicago and NYC/Atlantic ocean, it meant that ships didn’t have to travel around the tip anymore (made NYC the biggest port).

Steamships
A huge steam engine would power the boats and helped transport time. The Mighty Mississippi, Ohio, Hudson Rivers were the big rivers that these boats would travel on. They could only travel on deep enough water, so they would use pools to do this (2 meters).

American steel
It was the reason for the second American industrial revolution. America had extra rich iron ore and could make a boost in steel production due to the quality and quantity of their steel. Additionally, America became the top country producing steel. Carnegie created Bessemer Steel, which was a great steel to make rails. They found iron ore => produced steel from this ore => created railroads from that steel to transport more steel.

Captains of Industry vs. Robber Barons
John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Meyer Guggenheim, Cornelius Vanderbilt, considered themselves the Captains of Industry, as they led America through the industrial age, but others saw them as robber barons => corrupt people that benefitted from others.

Cross-country railroad
It was a massive change for the country. Shortened time massively, from San Francisco to NYC in 6 days instead of 6 months. Railroads were built everywhere through the eastern America. Steam powered trains were able to transport things way quicker, thus making it very efficient


Power driven transport
The growth of the Industrial Revolution depended on the ability to transport raw materials and finished goods over long distances. There were three main types of transportation that increased during the Industrial Revolution: waterways, roads, and railroads. ... The roads also improved immensely during this time period.
James Watt produced the first efficient steam engine. It was only a matter of time until his invention was put to use as a power source for transporting goods.

Carpetbaggers
Carpetbagger, in the United States, a derogatory term for an individual from the North who relocated to the South during the Reconstruction period (1865–77), following the American Civil War.
Literally describing an unwelcome stranger with no more property than could be carried in a satchel (carpetbag), the epithet later came to refer to anyone perceived as an interloper who came to a region to exploit it against the wishes of the inhabitants.

Aggiunto al nastro di tempo:

Data:

YouTube: