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The importance of the industrial revolution
Industrial revolution and its impact
Industrial revolution and its impact
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The Industrial Revolution “transformed the daily lives of Americans as much as—and arguably more than—any single event in U.S. history”. It was marked by significant advances in technology and industry that had broad and enduring impacts. Even though the start of the industrial revolution is said to have begun in the first half of the 19th century, the real industrialization of America did not begin until after the Civil War. The American economy accelerated its growth after the Civil War as it entered “The Second Industrial Revolution,” generally recognized as the period between 1870 and 1914. This secondary movement created long lasting effects in many areas for America. The most significant consequences of the industrialization of America …show more content…
The growth of factories and all other associated businesses created numerous opportunities for those seeking to increase their wealth. It wasn’t just the Rockefellers and the Carnegies that benefitted from this period in American history. Many small businesses were also created as a result of the tremendous development of the cities. Income growth for all Americans saw significant increases. Prior to this period, most income was gained from farming and most farmers earned enough to sustain their homestead from year to year. Machinery soon replaced the hand tools and animal-powered farm implements which allowed the farmers to increase their crop yields per season as they were able to farm more land effectively. Higher yields equalled higher profits for farmers. Before the Civil War it took 61 hours of labor to produce an acre of wheat. By 1900, it took 3 hours, 19 minutes. Those who left the farms for the cities were greeted by factories and businesses in dire need of a work force. This also created many opportunities for jobs ‘in the middle’, those jobs between the elite monopolists who owned the businesses and the lower paid laborers who worked the assembly lines at the factories. The American middle class has its roots in the Industrial Revolution. The industrialization of America created a shift in wealth …show more content…
It was also accountable for numerous other consequences that had long lasting effects on not just America, but the world as a whole. It had a huge influence on the shift of people from rural areas into the cities and an even larger impact on immigration. This industrialization also led to a significant shift in wealth and helped to create the middle class. However, the most significant effect of the industrialization of America is that it shifted the balance of power and eventually led to America becoming one of the world’s superpowers. Stephen Gardiner, a British architect and writer summed it up nicely when he said; “The Industrial Revolution was another one of those extraordinary jumps forward in the story of
The mid-19th century is one of the major turnarounds in the history of the United States. That is the time when America became an industrial giant and emerged as one of the most powerful countries in the world. The Industrial Revolution changed the people’s way of living in the whole world, especially the United States, from hand and home productivity to machine and factory. America rose from a rural and agricultural country to an urban-industrial that introduced new technologies. The United States has been through a lot of ups and downs in spite of its emergence and three books tell the story of the Industrial America from three different perspectives.
America’s large abundance of natural and human resources is what enabled the nation to develop so greatly in such a short amount of time. During the nations metamorphosis into the worlds industrial leader, the gross national product became eight times greater than after the civil war. New inventions also played a vital role in the country's industrial revolution. The technologies helped improve productivity, transportation, and communication. With the transcontinental railroad, refrigerated railroad cars, and the new air-brake system, larger amounts of various products could be shipped internationally at a much faster rate. A telegraph line was laid across the Atlantic Ocean, allowing the states to speak instantly with people in Europe. Railroads emerged rapidly and so did the scandals. Cruel, manipulative people dominated the country with their big businesses. Corporations came about, along with stock to raise money for them. The more money the corporation could raise through stock the closer they were to achieve economies of scale. Big businesses would sometimes come close to becoming monopolies that controlled the whole market. They were a rare...
By observing the recurring trends throughout history, an individual can conclude that the modern world has evolved through a series of revolutionary eras. Revolutions have occurred since the beginning of mankind and continue to progress into the future. Ranging from a sharp change in political organization or structure, to social divisions within society, all the way to forward-thinking innovations, revolutions have impacted the course of history in numerous ways. Although many revolutions are titled with a specific name to identify the precise location or particular group of people involved, such as the American Revolution or the French Revolution, there are many occurrences in which a revolution is simply identified with a categorization term. However, among all the revolutions that have occurred in known history, there is a specific revolutionary period that has aided in the progress of humanity in addition to establishing the early concepts that shape our modern world. Originating in Great Britain, the Industrial Revolution has transformed the lifestyles of people around the world. However, the progressive transformation introduced a series of outcomes contrary to the prior regime. The Industrial Revolution triggered the growth of Great Britain’s economy, reset the social class divisions, and led to the formation of political reformation.
The mid 19th century was an age of growth like no other. The term “Industrial Revolution” refers to the time period where production changed from homemade goods, to those produced by machines and factories. As industrial growth developed and cities grew, the work done by men and women diverged from the old agricultural life. People tended to leave home to work in the new factories being built. They worked in dangerous conditions, were paid low wages, and lacked job security (Kellogg). It is difficult to argue, however, that the economic development of the United States was not greatly dependent on the industrial revolution.
America had a huge industrial revolution in the late 1800”s. Many changes happened to our great nation, which factored into this. The evidence clearly shows that advancements in new technology, a large wave of immigrants into our country and new views of our government, helped to promote America’s huge industrial growth from the period of 1860-1900.
During the late 1700’s, the United States was no longer a possession of Britain, instead it was a market for industrial goods and the world’s major source for tobacco, cotton, and other agricultural products. A labor revolution started to occur in the United States throughout the early 1800’s. There was a shift from an agricultural economy to an industrial market system. After the War of 1812, the domestic marketplace changed due to the strong pressure of social and economic forces. Major innovations in transportation allowed the movement of information, people, and merchandise. Textile mills and factories became an important base for jobs, especially for women. There was also widespread economic growth during this time period (Roark, 260). The market revolution brought about economic growth through new modes of transportation, an abundance of natural resources, factory production, and banking and legal practices.
The rising of the market economy occurred between the end of the War of 1812 and the Civil War. It was a time of uprising for Americans of the United States. There were changes in the vast improvement in transportation, the growth of factories, and there were important developments of new technology that increased agricultural production. Americans advanced into new areas and produced an agricultural surplus that went to market farming. In the nineteenth century, manufacturing was the most important factor because it brought about industrialization. The expansion of both economic and technological advances also brought about the changes in American society. The growth and eventual dominance of market capitalism in the United States changed the lives of all Americans fundamentally. The Market Revolution and the rise of market capitalism influenced the working class because of new inventions, like the cotton gin, and it encouraged farmers to raise more cotton in the South, and brought people in the North greater opportunities in the work field.
The Industrial Revolution was the major advancement of technology in the late 18th and early 19th century that began in Britain and spread to America. The national and federal government helped the United States grow into a self reliant nation with improvements in transportation, technology, manufacturing and the growth of the population. Americans had an economy based on manual labour, which was replaced by one dominated by industry and the manufacture of machinery. It began with the expansion of the textile industries and the development of iron-making techniques, and trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways. One of the first to kick off, was the textile industry.
America's economy had been at a steady pace but things began to change once technological contributions began to become part of the picture. This technological boom would become known as the Industrial Revolution. Once transportation had been invented the rest of America’s commerce would increase, leading to more ideas and inventions to help its economy grow. This revolution created a demand for goods making America’s production have to increase. With that said America would create more and more inventions that would take the place of a worker, opening up more jobs in order to create these machines. Pushing its production in trade America will soon grow wealthier and bigger due to these technological contributions. From 1818-1850 America was
After the Civil war, the industrial revolution began in the United States. This time period was somewhat chance for everyone living in the U.S. because the agricultural lifestyle that the people were used to changed into industrialization. Although there are a few points in which the position of workers in the periods from 1875-1900 improved, the organized labor was not successful. The average work day did decrease, but the number of jobs lowered and were not that advanced due to the new technology.
After World War I, economy shot up causing historians to call the 1920s the second industrial revolution.' The economy of the 1920's was a key change as it brought about new mass production, mass consumption, and set the stage for the ever-looming Great Depression. The 1920's saw a great boom in mass production which allowed for cheaper prices of technology products. This decade was marked by an enormous expansion of consumer credit, where Americans were used to finance purchases of new products such as the growing popularity of cars and radios, which were created by the mass production. The automobile, movie, radio, and chemical industries skyrocketed during this decade-one of the most important was the automobile industry. As mass-produced automobiles were churned in by Henry Ford, about 1.9 million cars had been sold by the end of 1929. The economy of the automobile society had a great impact on not only business, but also society. Henry Ford, who had revolutionized the new workers day and the concept of mass-production, had indirectly affected how Americans lived and behaved. Cars promoted other markets to grow, such as steel, rubber, glass, and petroleum. It also promoted urban and suburban growth, where a new class of Americans was rising. Now, citizens could drive to new places, meet new people, act differently etc The speed with which the products of mass production diffused through America was astonishing: not just automobiles but also washing machines, refrigerators, electric irons, electric and gas stoves--a whole host of inventions and technologies that greatly transformed that part of economic life that takes place within the household. However, this changing and rising American economy cause called one major consequence. For one of the major consequences of mass production was the building-up of the stock of capital goods for within-the-home production. And this of course, was the biggest key change because it seemed like the rising stock market and industry of the 1920s would stay forever. This rising stock market led to the Great Depression a downward spiral of economic depression.
America was a time of rapid growth for people all across the country. The Industrial Revolution began a few years after the Civil War with the invention of steam powered machines. From there, America faced a time of massive expansion and modern industrialized cities popped up across the United States. While there was much success across the nation, such as manual labor becoming easier and a huge population growth, the negative effects of industrialization outweigh the positives. A few of the issues that made industrialization an atrocious time for many was the racism and segregation towards immigrants and unsafe and unfair working conditions/the deprivation of a regular childhood for kids across the nation.
The effects on society due to the industrial revolution varied on the person. Working during this area varied on what you liked to do versus what you had to do. People who liked their work didn’t usually have to do that job, but people forced to work didn’t really like their job or just had a bad job overall. While some might argue that industrialization had primarily positive consequences for society because of how America shaped and changed all of it to improve the way people work today, it was actually a negative thing for society. Industrializations negative effects were bad working conditions, long and strenuous hours, injury and even death took it role on the society during this time.
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, transport, and technology had a profound effect in North America. The industrial revolution marked a major turning point in history because it changed every aspect of life in America and the country as a whole. People started replacing ploughs and other tools for machines that could do twice the work. While others moved to large cities and started working in factories and other businesses. Huge industries such as the textile, steel, and coal industry came out and had a profound effect on the industrial revolution but, they would not have been extremely successful if it was not for railroads. The railroads played a vital role in the development and success of other industries. The railroads triggered the biggest leap in transportation in history. Through technological and entrepreneurial innovations and the creation of steam-powered locomotives, the development of trains as public carriers of passengers and freight, brought forth the railroad. The railroad industry changed the nature of production because it became an important energy source that replaced human and animal power. Due to the important role of the railroads, workers became more productive, items were being shipped more quickly, and resources were becoming available to everyone including the working and middle class and not only the wealthy. The railroads became to be known as one of the biggest leaps of transportation in history. This is because it set up the next fifty years of America’s prosperity. The railroads became extremely popular and useful during the 1800’s to millions of people and other large companies. Although there were many indu...
The industrial revolution began in Europe in the 18th century. The revolution prompted significant changes, such as technological improvements in global trade, which led to a sustained increase in development between the 18th and 19th century. These improvements included mastering the art of harnessing energy from abundant carbon-based natural resources such as coal. The revolution was economically motivated and gave rise to innovations in the manufacturing industry that permanently transformed human life. It altered perceptions of productivity and understandings of mass production which allowed specialization and provided industries with economies of scale. The iron industry in particular became a major source of economic growth for the United States during this period, providing much needed employment, which allowed an abundant population of white people as well as minorities to contribute and benefit from the flourishing economy. Steel production boomed in the U.S. in the mid 1900s. The U.S. became a global economic giant due to the size of its steel industry, taking advantage of earlier innovations such as the steam engine and the locomotive railroad. The U.S. was responsible for 65 percent of steel production worldwide by the end of the 2nd World War (Reutter 1). In Sparrows Point: Making Steel: the Rise and Ruin of American Industrial Might, Mark Reutter reports that “Four out of every five manufacturing items contained steel and 40 percent of all wage earners owed their livelihood directly or indirectly to the industry.” This steel industry was the central employer during this era.