Inequalities and Interdependence
According to my small nephew, milk does not come from cows, it comes from stores. He's never seen a cow being milked, but he has been to the store with his mother to buy milk, so in his world, milk comes from stores.
Purchasing is a major activity in our daily lives. In fact, if there were to be a national crisis of some sort that would prevent us from being able to purchase the barest of daily necessities such as milk, bread, cereal, toothpaste, deodorant, toilet paper, or soap, it would be a very unsettling experience.
In fact, as Dr. Nassar is so fond of saying, "I know almost everyone in here is too young to remember"...everyone except me. I do remember a time in 1974 when within four hours of the onset of a national trucking strike, the shelves in the stores were empty. Not just slim pickin's...but empty. We take a lot for granted in this country. We're very lucky that we have been able to do so.
As students, we are not producers of goods, we are consumers. We live in state of economic dependence on the goods of the entire world.
So, what is interdependence? Interdependence means that two or more parties rely on what they can do for each other to succeed. Mutual contribution is necessary for the well-being of the parties involved. As a nation-state, the economy of the United States of America is interdependent on other nation-states for its well-being.
Because of the relative isolation of this continent, the U.S. was able to remain free of foreign intervention and develop a strong national identity for nearly 150 years. We were free to develop a strong sense of nationalism: an inclination toward self-reliance and rugged individualism in which we took fierce pride. It was sort of the John Wayne approach to national and international relations.
We were able to amass great wealth from our natural resources of gold, silver, furs, timber, steel, cotton, coal, and oil, to name a few. The entrepreneurial experiments of individuals were allowed to develop unhindered. Personal industry and imagination eventually developed major industries of steel, intercontinental railroads, textiles, and shipping. Innovation led to the development of the internal combustion engine and its subsequent uses in industry. Agriculture became an industry, and with the aid of intercontinental railroads and shipping, contributed to the general economy and personal wealth of many.
At the turn of the century, and after gaining our independence, the United States land mass more than doubled through the use of purchasing, annexing, and war. However, the foreign policy of our government took a predominately isolationist stand. This was a national policy of abstaining from political or economic relations with other countries. General Washington shaped these values by upholding and encouraging the use of these principles by warning to avoid alliances in his farewell speech. The reasoning behind these actions was that the Republic was a new nation. We did not have the resources or the means to worry about other countries and foreign affairs; our immediate efforts were internal. Our goals that were of primary importance were setting up a democratic government and jump-starting a nation. The United States foreign policy up to and directly preceding the Civil War was mainly Isolationist. After the war, the government helped bring together a nation torn apart by war, helped improved our industrialization, and helped further populate our continent. We were isolationist in foreign affairs, while expanding domestically into the west and into the north through the purchase of Alaska. However, around 1890 the expansionism that had taken place was a far cry from what was about to happen. Expansionism is the nations practice or policy ...
Certain things led Americans to become more involved in world affairs. For example, from 1803 to 1916, there was plenty of territorial growth of the United States. Economic, military, and political powers in the U.S. became higher, and more important. The United States wanted more territory for trade, income, jobs, and more. We wanted more influence on other countries. For example, when the U.S. built canals, we wanted more impact and trade such as the Panama canal, and Cuba.
the early American economy was described by littler, nearby markets, revolved around huge urban communities. The boundless extension of the railways in the late 1800s changed this, entwining the nation into one national business sector, in which merchandise could be transported available to be purchased the nation over. The railways likewise gave a gigantic force to financial development since they themselves gave such an enormous business sector to products steel and timber, for instance. In the late nineteenth century the railways spoke to the primary "enormous business." The railroad business was the biggest single boss of work in the U.S., and institutionalized America financially, socially, and socially.
Although not a natural resource, railroads were considered one of the key factors in almost every widespread industry. It allowed companies to quickly send products across the entire nation without using expensive and time-consuming caravans or wagons. Cornelius Vanderbilt was a prominent leader in the railroad industry at this time. He was already in his later years by the time the Gilded Age rolled around and didn't even get to see the uprising of some of the greatest leaders of the time. The railroad companies took advantage of their necessity by constantly overcharging customers, especially farmers. This led to one of the first labor unio...
The population of the North consisted of forward thinking individuals. They realized that a change had to be made from agriculture to industry if they were to prosper and for them to use free labor to accomplish prosperity would be to take a step backwards. This ushered in an small and early Industrial Revolution. Factories and mills that produced finished goods sprung up all over the Northern United States along major waterways. These factories produced fabric, iron, machinery, weapons. Raw materials such as cotton was bought from the South and then sold back to them in the form of clothes. Iron workers made iron railroad ties for the growing railroads across the country. More machinery was being built than ever before. These machines were able to multiply the work that could be accomplished. These industries drew in people from rural areas because they were paying for work. As more people came, they settled around the factori...
Nationalism was expressed throughout the 1800s. These people came together through different ideas. Through these different ideas America came to be known as a stronger nation. The Second Great Awakening, the Industrial Revolution, and the Educational Reform, are all proof that effected nationalism in America.
Advancements in new technology clearly promoted the industrial growth of the United States. The new technologies allowed business owners to reduce labor in the movement of materials from one point to the other. This occurred by using the new technology of railroads and machinery. Business owners used the railroads to transport their finished product and raw materials around the country more efficiently, which enabled businesses to expand. The business owners were now able to use machines for lifting materials from one floor to another and to use conveyer belts to move materials around on an assembly line. The use of machines is evident because the graph in document 5 clearly shows that American industrial and agricultural power sources between 1850 and 1900 changed. This is evident because in 1850, only 13% human power and 35% water and coal power was used, but in 1900 a mere 5% human power and a whopping 73% water and coal power was used. The use of machines more than doubled over the course from 1850-1900, and the human output de...
American had an economy based on manual labour which was replaced by one dominated by industry and the manufacture of machinery. It began with the expansion of the textile industries and the development of iron-making techniques, and trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways.
The Era of Imperialism during the late ninetieth-century and the early twentieth-century was fed by the belief that America was destined by God to be a dominate power in the world. To accomplish this, the nation had to evolve new economic, social and military policies, thus departing from the earlier expansionism idea that believed in only expanding the American way of life across the continent, from the Atlantic to Pacific oceans. Different concepts of expanding the nation, led to new justification, powers and territories. Now that the U.S. had become one of the world powers, it would be a major player in deciding how to resolve regional conflicts and lose the ability to be an isolationist country.
With distant but profitable markets now attainable, farmers and manufactures now produced for the market rather than for their own personal consumption. Farmers, craftsmen, and entrepreneurs were brought considerable opportunities because of the Market Revolution. The construction of new roads and canals allowed people to exchange goods in distant markets with complete strangers. Railroads allowed people and goods to move faster and cheaper. The steamboat, which was invented by Robert Fulton in 1807, made it possible for two-way traffic to move swiftly on the nations new waterways. With the steamboat, this made it easier for farmers in the South to easily transport cotton, rice and sugar...
Throughout the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, the United States grew and flourished as a country. It went from being a nation focused only on expanding within their own country, and comprised of basically only one heritage, to becoming one of the world's greatest military, economical, and political superpowers, as well as being the earth's preeminent "melting pot" of thousands of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
4. America’s foreign policy followed and promoted the idea of nationalism between 1825 and 1825 by making a treaty with Great Britain to trim down the number of military fleets at the Great Lakes. Also the Rush-Bagot Treaty made America and Canada remove all their troops from their shared border. John Adams also held the convention of 1818, which made a compromise with Britain to share the Oregon territory.
Global Inequalities and Interdependence Outline, and discuss the value of some of the indices which geographers have used in attempting to define 'a developing country' Measures of development are defined using a multitude of theories. Some focus on economic indicators, others on the quality of life. The economic indicator uses figures from GDP and GNP, which stand for Gross Domestic Product and Gross National Product respectively. GNP is the total value, or output of goods and services which become available during a period of time for consumption or saving within a country, plus income from foreign investors. This is then measured per head of the population, which gives GNP per Capita.
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, transport, and technology had a profound effect in North America. The industrial revolution marked a major turning point in history because it changed every aspect of life in America and the country as a whole. People started replacing ploughs and other tools for machines that could do twice the work. While others moved to large cities and started working in factories and other businesses. Huge industries such as the textile, steel, and coal industry came out and had a profound effect on the industrial revolution but, they would not have been extremely successful if it was not for railroads. The railroads played a vital role in the development and success of other industries. The railroads triggered the biggest leap in transportation in history. Through technological and entrepreneurial innovations and the creation of steam-powered locomotives, the development of trains as public carriers of passengers and freight, brought forth the railroad. The railroad industry changed the nature of production because it became an important energy source that replaced human and animal power. Due to the important role of the railroads, workers became more productive, items were being shipped more quickly, and resources were becoming available to everyone including the working and middle class and not only the wealthy. The railroads became to be known as one of the biggest leaps of transportation in history. This is because it set up the next fifty years of America’s prosperity. The railroads became extremely popular and useful during the 1800’s to millions of people and other large companies. Although there were many indu...
The industrial revolution began in Europe in the 18th century. The revolution prompted significant changes, such as technological improvements in global trade, which led to a sustained increase in development between the 18th and 19th century. These improvements included mastering the art of harnessing energy from abundant carbon-based natural resources such as coal. The revolution was economically motivated and gave rise to innovations in the manufacturing industry that permanently transformed human life. It altered perceptions of productivity and understandings of mass production which allowed specialization and provided industries with economies of scale. The iron industry in particular became a major source of economic growth for the United States during this period, providing much needed employment, which allowed an abundant population of white people as well as minorities to contribute and benefit from the flourishing economy. Steel production boomed in the U.S. in the mid 1900s. The U.S. became a global economic giant due to the size of its steel industry, taking advantage of earlier innovations such as the steam engine and the locomotive railroad. The U.S. was responsible for 65 percent of steel production worldwide by the end of the 2nd World War (Reutter 1). In Sparrows Point: Making Steel: the Rise and Ruin of American Industrial Might, Mark Reutter reports that “Four out of every five manufacturing items contained steel and 40 percent of all wage earners owed their livelihood directly or indirectly to the industry.” This steel industry was the central employer during this era.