Industrialization of the United States NOTES (Part I)

Essential Question: Have the changes the United States experienced as a result of industrialization been good or bad overall?

I. The United States broke away from Great Britain as industrialization was just beginning. A. As the country grew, it also began to industrialize at a more rapid pace.

B. American inventors helped spur this economic change and helped make the world smaller.

1. Eli Whitney—in addition to inventing the cotton gin—also developed the system using interchangeable parts—the fabrication of identical parts to built something. The use of interchangeable parts allowed for faster production, among other benefits.

2. Samuel Morse patented the telegraph, developing Morse code to transmit messages over long distances.

3. Robert Fulton built the first commercially successful steamboat, making transportation of goods faster and cheaper.

4. Thomas Edison invented many things, such as the phonograph (record player), movie camera and, of course, the lightbulb. Edison and his research team developed these items with the idea of mass production in mind.

5. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, a piece of technology that would change the way people live in a dramatic way.

C. The United States developed transportation systems as it expanded westward. 1. Even before the Civil War—in part thanks the Lewis and Clark’s expedition to explore the Louisiana territory and their reaching the Pacific—the United States was moving west.

a. The idea of Manifest Destiny—the belief that it was the country’s fate expand all the way to the Pacific Ocean— helped motivate this drive west.

b. The discovery of gold in California in the 1840’s and the ensuing Gold Rush only further fueled westward expansion.

2. Transportation systems followed this movement. a. Canals—such as New York’s Erie Canal—are an example of this. The Erie Canal—which opened in 1825, linking the Hudson River to Lake Erie—made trade easier and cheaper as goods could be transported across the country and to the Atlantic Ocean.

b. Railroads were immensely important in the development of the United States. (1) In the mid-1850’s, the nation’s railroads first reached across the Mississippi.

(2) Realizing the importance of the railroad to economic development, the government gave railroad companies huge land grants and loans.

(3) The trans-continental railroad was completed in 1869, linking the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads.

(4) While railroads brought the promise of cheap transportation (not just of goods and raw materials, but of people too), railroad companies began to take advantage of the fact that people—especially farmers— were dependant on them.

(5) Railroad companies, because they had a virtual monopoly— when a company has an unfair control over a market and can, therefore, overcharge its customers—entered into formal agreements to fix prices to keep the farmers poor.

(6) The farmers, in response attempted to unionize—to work together as a group to get better treatment—by forming the Grangers and similar organizations. These groups tried to make change by sponsoring political candidates to fight for the farmers.

(7) The Grangers started a debate over the government’s ability to be involved in the economy.

(8) At the birth of the nation, Laissez Faire—the idea that government should not interfere with the economy—was the prevailing belief. But the Grangers helped cause laws to be passed that allowed the government to regulate trade, such as setting maximum rates railroads were allowed to charge.

(9) In 1877, the Supreme Court ruled in Munn v. Illinois that states could regulate trade to benefit farmers and consumers.

(10) Congress also passed the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which reestablished the right of the federal government to supervise the railroads. The act set up the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to do this. The ICC had difficulty in its task and remained weak until the Presidency of Teddy Roosevelt in 1906.