The Role Of The Industrial Revolution In The United States

A revolution is an overthrow of social order to favor a new system and the Industrial Revolution altered the entire framework of the country. Before the Industrial Revolution, the United States had been a mostly rural population. With the changes in manufacturing and transportation, the population shifted from being agriculturally oriented to industrial oriented. The Industrial Revolution was an extraordinary revolution that allowed the country to break away from old methods to accept the new.

Before the industrial revolution, the economy was based on agriculture and the wealth was restricted to an elite few. However, the industrial revolution brought a shift to the economy by making it more industrialized. In the agriculture based economy,

people were dependent on their crops while the wealth was distributed between only the rich landlords. Industrialization ensured that wealth began to spread and people were not dependent on the rich for the necessities. Also, industrialization established that people could survive in a job by just learning the skills that they needed. This allowed more people with lesser knowledge to receive the jobs they needed. The industry based economy brought a new economy that was strong while still growing.
The growth of the Industrial Revolution depended on the ability to transport raw materials and the finished goods over longer distances. During the Industrial Revolution, waterways, roads, and railroads were the main sources of transportation. Of the three, transportation on water was the cheapest way to move products because Robert Fulton made the first steam engine to power a boat. This allowed for boats to defy the downstream current and travel to markets upstream. Also, the roads had improved greatly during this time period and turnpikes were created for easier traveling. Another innovation was the fast and reliable railroads that were built all over the country. The railroads ultimately helped with the rapid industrialization of the United States. The United States was in need of new methods of transportation to keep the Industrial Revolution moving along. These improvements on waterways, roads, and railroads all made traveling quicker, and allowed goods to be moved more efficiently which sped up the process of the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution allowed for the United States to prosper as a whole. The country grew together and society changed. This period of industrial growth could undeniably be referred as a revolution, as it had changed the American economy from being entirely based off of agriculture to industry. It had also dramatically changed transportation, which had been primitive before industrial expansion stimulated its growth. The Industrial Revolution was an overthrow of the old social order and allowed for the new to take hold.