Industrial Growth Dbq

The major reasons for the United States to develop an empire in the 1800s were the closing of the American frontier, economics, religious and moral reasons, and geopolitics(Schultz,2014). The closing of the American frontier included acquiring new frontier from other countries. Americans believed that the “Wild West” frontier was so integral in shaping America, that we might require a new frontier in order to ensure the survival of its democracy. Economic reasons for the 1800s growth was for business leaders to access overseas markets and materials. They knew they would receive federal assistance and protection from the government.

After the American Civil War, 35,000 miles of new railroad tracks were placed across the United States between the years of 1866 and 1873. The railroad industry had become the nation’s largest employer, excluding agriculture, the industry included large investments and high risks. James Ford Rhodes, a historian who lived during the 19th century said the following, “Prosperity was written all over the face of things. Manufacturers were busy workmen in demand. Streets and shops were crowded and everywhere new buildings going up.

Immigrants wanted to find wealth and desired a better life. Furthermore, immigration was at an all time high because of the fertile soil and the promising economic opportunity. According to pbs.org,"….agriculture provided the primary economic structure, large families to walk the farms were an asset. The US population grew

While America was still in the Gilded Age, the industrial boom of America happened right alongside. The years between 1865 and 1900 saw many monumental changes, including the exponential expansion of America’s railroad system. With government incentives of land and money, railroad companies worked hard and laid miles and miles of new track down on America’s land. Most notable of these track was the Transcontinental Railroad. With the government giving the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad land and money grants, construction was finished with record speeds.

The Transcontinental Railroad not only made travel and shipping faster and cheaper, but it also contributed greatly to the Westward expansion of the United Stated (Haycox, 2001). In 1830 America introduced the

Trains and railroads established a new wave of economic growth that hadn’t been seen before in the United States. Wages were now higher, goods were and still are produced better and more efficiently, and new markets are now open. Now in the modern day, there is a variety of job opportunities and career choices to choose from that have sprouted from the use of railroads. Especially with the transportation of goods now, businesses can now be quicker without a time restraint limit like there was before. Trains and railroads also pioneered the economy which is now seen as one of America’s successes.

The United States experienced great changes of immigration from the 1880s to 1920. More immigrants were coming into America during this period. There were many reasons motivating immigrants to journey to America.   There were different reasons that led immigrants to come into the United States. For example some came running away from religious persecution, other for oppression, and economic difficulties.

The United States saw an amazing amount of growth following the civil war. The railroads were absolutely vital to the growth and urbanization of the nation. The American population was growing at breakneck speed to an estimated 76,000,000 by 1900 and still growing. The industry also quadrupled in size, from having a mere 30,000 miles of track to more than 250,000 miles of track also by 1900. The railroad industry was the thread that knitted the country back together and carried people west to urbanize the heartland and the western frontier.

With over one-hundred thousand miles of track by 1920, productivity of the railways were able to double roughly every 20-30 years since their momentum in the 1840’s. This meant that consumers were delivered a wider variety of goods more price and time effectively with the advent of the railroads. Some rail cars even possessed mail sorting and refrigeration for these purposes. Potentially damaging to domestic agriculture, trans-continental railways could also provide grains and other products to consumers from foreign nations. Urban areas could ship manufactured products by train to rural areas and vice versa.

Throughout American History, revolutions in transportation have affected the American society politically, socially and economically. Soon after the war of 1812, American nationalism increased which leads to a greater emphasis on national issues, the increase in power and prevalence of the national government and a growing sense of the American Identity. Railways, canals, and Turnpikes began to increase making many people employed. The era of 1830-1860 represents a shift from agrarianism to industrialism. Overall, during the transportation revolution, construction of turnpikes, roads, canals, and railroads led to the market economy expansion, an increased population in America and alternations of the physical landscape of America.

With the advent of the railroad, many of these issues disappeared. Railroads had a major impact on advancing the American economy, transforming America into a modern society, and improving an antiquated transportation system. The building of railroads created rapid economic growth in America. Railroad companies employed more than one million workers to build and maintain railroads. At the same time, coal, timber, and steel industries employed thousands of workers to provide the supplies necessary to build railroads (Chapter 12 Industrialization).

When the Baltimore and Ohio railroad opened as the first American railroad, a national revolution began. The opportunities that train travel gave to America allowed large growth from city to city. These railroads were built thanks to the determination of people who believed that they could make America better. The railroads advanced so greatly, they surpassed all of Europe’s systems of transportation. These railroads created ease in everything from transporting merchandise to travel to working out wars.

The first way that the economy was impacted was that with the ease and efficiency of the railroads, they created a large demand for goods and labor because they needed a lot of people to help build the railroads and also needed a large quantity of steel for the rails and wood for the railroad ties. Secondly the railroads created a huge national market because of the simplicity of delivering goods from place to place. The railroads helped the people in even the most rural place prosper with the cost efficient transportation of the trains. From 1830 to 1861, the United States laid aproximately 30,000 miles of railroad track, which led to an increase in demand for coal which was used to produce iron for the

In the early twentieth century the United States went through a emense growth due to the amount of jobs that were avalibale for people through industralization like railroads, coal mining, and steel. Industralization pushed farming aside and independent agriculture and instead focused on factory production as the new way for the economy and draw more people towards a new working class. Industralization influenced many Americans because they were “ Drawn to factories by the promise of employement, a new working class emerged in these years, between 1870 and 1920, almost 11 million Americans moved from farm to city, and another 25 million immgrants arrived from overseas”(Foner, 2017). Industralization was a huge part of peoples everyday lives and was essential that people work so that products can be made and be carried out by city to city. Americans were influenced by the new series of technological innovations that were

Also, railroads made it possible to transport people and freight farther, faster, and cheaper than ever before. Additionally, the ability of railroads to operate year-round in most types