JU
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN USA
The profile of industrialisation in America is quite similar to that of western Europe, but for very different
SLOW INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT DURING THE 18TH CENTURY:
R
PHASES OF INDUSTRIALIZATION IN USA
A
reasons. Most of the causes for the change in the pace were external.
Victims of British Colonialism & Mercantilism - only existed to serve Britain.
•
Exported food & raw materials (rice, fish, sugar, cotton, timber, metals) & served as markets.
•
Prosperity because of the access to British market - Salutary Neglect.
•
After independence in 1783, things went south without British support.
R
A
N
•
A MARKED SPEEDING UP IN LATE 18TH & EARLY 19TH CENTURIES
Blessing in Disguise:
The French Revolutionary & Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815) proved to be opportunities.
•
Capital was invested into Atlantic shipping, Plantations (cotton & tobacco) - commercial
TH
IM
prosperity.
A
•
•
Economic warfare between France (Continental System) & Britain (Orders in Council) hurt
American trade.
•
Embargo Act (1807) by USA closed American ports to ports export shipping & restricted placed
imports from Great Britain. This created the first real opportunity for the development of largescale domestic industry.
•
Explosive developments in textiles & metal manufacturing industries of US. Blackstone river
between Massachusetts and Rhode island became the birthplace of American industrial
revolution. Contributions of Samuel Slater, inventions like Cotton Gin (Eli Whitney), Wood
M
A
Carding machine (Daniel Day), Lowell-Waltham System (integrated cotton textile production)
played a significant role. Invention of Steamboats (Robert Fulton) improved water transport.
Post war dislocation and de-industrialisation:
•
After the wars, intense competition from Britain (superior technology and deliberate prices
cuts) dealt a lethal blow to the momentum of industrialisation.
•
The Tariff Act of 1816 placed a high import tax on British cloth to protect local industries, but
this lasted only a few years.
1
•
Industrial North supplied manufactured goods and the Cotton Kingdom of the South provided raw
cotton to domestic and foreign industries resulting in rapid economic growth.
•
The protective tariff arrested the economic decline, initiated recovery, and sponsored sustained
A
industrial progress.
•
JU
RECOVERY AND STRONG INDUSTRIALIZATION IN THE MID-19TH CENTURY
New methods of mass production, improvement in transport facilities (Macadamized roads, New
R
canals - Erie (1825), Pennsylvania (1840) & Pacific Railroad/ Transcontinental railroad (1869))
led to the expansion of market.
•
With constant westward expansion, increase in population (natural & immigrant) US
witnessed sustained industrial growth.
Mechanisation of cotton textile industries in the northeast by 1860's, increased use of coal in
N
•
smelting, promotion of entrepreneurial class, innovations & inventions (Sewing Machine)
R
A
ensured a phenomenal success for US despite distortions brought by the Civil War and internal
conflicts.
FULLY INDUSTRIALIZED ECONOMY FROM 1870s
•
Increased mechanization & production capacity, modern production methods & efficient division
•
A
of labour increased industrial output by 10 times.
Use of electricity, electric motors, dynamos & IC engines completely modernized the industrial
TH
IM
sector.
•
New inventions & mass production of new products demanded by the public resulted in immense
prosperity. Typewriter (1867), Barbed wire (1874), Telephone (1876), Phonograph (1877),
Electric Light (1878), Petrol Cars (1885).
•
Natural resources (coal, iron, water, timber) of USA, Human Resources (Natural growth in
population (40 to 100 million) & 25 million European immigrants), rapid increase in wages (by
more than 60%), urbanisation (25% to 50%) fuelled the industrial growth. The same period also
witnessed increasing corruption, materialistic lifestyle and serious social problems (income
inequalities, exploitation of labor, women, children, emergence of slums). American author Mark
M
A
Twain called the era of industrialization ‘The Gilded Age’, an era of serious social problems
masked by a thin gold gilding.
From the early 20th century and especially after the two world wars, USA became an Industrial
Superpower of the world.
2