Essay On American Industrialization

People have always regarded industrialization as a controversial topic; yet, despite its controversy, without it, humans in societies would be far less advanced. However, the effects of industrializing a country can have adverse effects on neighboring countries, which, in the case of the United States and Mexico, went vastly ignored for many years. After hearing of the technological advancements and increase in the standards of living, that began in eighteenth century Great Britain, the United States began the transition from an agrarian to an urban society. The start of the American Revolution is most often attributed to Samuel Slater’s industrial mill which opened in 1790. From there, American industrialization quickly spread throughout the

Anthracite coal, an important source of fuel, had extremely damaging and destructive effects. The EPA reports, in AP-42 volume one, “Emissions from anthracite coal firing primarily include high concentrations of particulate matter (PM), sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and carbon monoxide (CO); and trace amounts of organic compounds and trace elements” (EPA). This unprecedented air pollution initially only affected the major production and manufacturing cities the United States, but later spread to even the remotes areas of the United States and then our neighboring countries of Mexico and Canada. Pierre-Yves Comtois, a writer for the Quebec Vert, a magazine specializing in horticulture, reports, “Plants that are exposed to air pollu­tion over an extended period grow at a slower rate, produce fewer blossoms and are more susceptible to disease and insect damage” (Comtois). American air pollution from coal during the 1880s caused extremely detrimental effects to the Mexican economy due to their vested interest in farming and producing food. Because Mexico at the time had a society and economy centered around agriculture and farming, the air pollution American industrialization created, not only ruined the economy, but also the environment. Although many factories