Industrial America

Industrial America

How America went from a rural to an industrial country in sixty years

The turn of the century: A time of change (1870 - 1930)

• Before 1870, America was a mostly agricultural, commercial, and rural nation.

• After 1930, America was a more industrial and urban nation.




• AGRICULTURAL: farming




• COMMERCIAL: trading




• RURAL: living in the country




• INDUSTRIAL: factories, heavy machinery




• URBAN: living in the city

Background:The First Industrial Revolution

• The First Industrial Revolution started in England in the 1700s. Previously, people had farmed and made things by hand. During the Industrial Revolution, people started using machines to do a lot of the work for them. This let them make products more quickly and cheaply.


• The First Industrial Revolution happened partly because of iron, coal and steam:– People started building tools, machines, engines,

and factories with iron– The steam engine was invented, and people

started burning coal to power the steam engine– Factories built from iron and powered by the coal-

burning steam engine could make products more quickly and cheaply


• The First Industrial Revolution happened partly because of improved trade networks:– Canals were improved and built so that ships

could reach more ports more quickly– More railroad lines were built so that trains could

reach more cities more quickly– Eventually, ships powered by steam were built so

that ships could travel even farther and faster


• We call the Industrial Revolution a revolution because it really changed people’s way of life. How?– Instead of working at home or in small

workplaces, people now worked in larger factories


• We call the Industrial Revolution a revolution because it really changed people’s way of life. How?– Instead of going to work and making an entire

product (for example, a shirt, a shoe, a boat, or a gun), workers now went to work and made just the sleeve of a shirt… many many times a day


• We call the Industrial Revolution a revolution because it really changed people’s way of life. How?– The new machinery sometimes made workplaces

more dangerous


• We call the Industrial Revolution a revolution because it really changed people’s way of life. How?– Because products could be made more quickly

and more cheaply, the owners of the factories often got very rich


• We call the Industrial Revolution a revolution because it really changed people’s way of life. How?– As factories needed more workers, people started

moving from farms in the country to the cities, where the factories were. As more and more people moved to the cities, the cities grew larger and more crowded. We call this process– moving from the country to the city– urbanization.


• All of this is most likely a review from U.S. History in middle school and from World History last year. So why are we talking about it now?– Because the First Industrial Revolution spread,

from England to the rest of Europe to the United States.


• All of this is most likely a review from U.S. History in middle school and from World History last year. So why are we talking about it now?– After the Civil War, advances in technology began

to change the nation. There were three causes of these advances: 1) natural resources, 2) new inventions, and 3) demand for the new products from people who lived in American cities.

Major Urban Cities

• Cities become linked by industry and trade. • The cities are growing rapidly, and creating

more goods for trade. • Why are cities where they are?– They are located by waterways.– They are located where large quantities of natural

resources are.

Natural Resources• A natural resource is something in nature that

you can use. Basically, if the land you own has natural resources, you can make money by selling those resources. You could sell your trees for wood, for example, or mine the minerals in the ground: silver, or copper, or diamonds, or coal, for example. Or you could drill oil and sell that.

Natural Resources• Part of the reason that the United States has

become such a rich country is that we are a country rich in natural resources. Not only do we have many types of natural resources– trees, minerals, water, oil, farmland– but our country is big, so we have a large quantity of resources.

Natural Resources• Some of the resources that helped America

industrialize were oil, coal, and iron.

New Inventions

• Increased communication: the telegraph, typewriter, telephone.

• Some inventions allowed for more efficient production (example: the electric motor) and for labor to work longer hours (example: the light bulb). But they also created a more dangerous work place (example: dynamite).

Demand

• Population increased, therefore there were more consumers to demand more product.– (More people use more stuff!)

• The standard of living changed, demanding more products, and new products.– (Ms. Gill grew up without a cell phone. So she and her

friends never demanded cell phones. Now that the standard of living has changed to include cell phones, she and her friends need them to communicate with each other, so they demand them)

Environmental Change

• Industrialized cities are no longer producing crops, but producing everyday goods. Where do they produce these goods? In factories. This creates pollution, and decreases fertile land.

• No regulations on how to dump waste.

Environmental Change

• This increases the demand for crops from farmland– so the city gets its food from the country (from the more rural parts of the U.S.)– (This is also true today, although we now get a lot

of food from rural parts of many other countries too)

• Farmers were able to produce more due to technology advancements in farming tools

How to get crops to the cities

• Railroads jumped from 30,000 miles of track in 1861 to 180,000 miles of track in 1890.

• Transcontinental Railroad is finished in 1869.

Transcontinental Railroad

• Means that it went across the entire continent– across the entire U.S.

• Unified the nation

Industrial America

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