The United States Industrial Boom

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After the Civil War had ended the United States had many challenges to face. There are a variety of factors that aided the country through the tough years that followed the war. The rapid growth of the United States helped to accommodate a large flow of immigration, and build an extremely powerful industrial infrastructure, as well as temper the hostility still present throughout the country. Trains, and eventually automobiles, opened the West to the rest of the country. People now had an escape from there lives in the East, and eagerly began to populate the farthest corners of the country. America was on its way to making an enormous impact on the world’s industrial market. Raw materials, new techniques in the workplace, a massive increase in the labor force, and numerous technological inventions all played integral parts in the United State’s economic and industrial boom. Large quantities of coal, iron ore, silver, and gold were discovered in various regions in the West. Lead, quartz, zinc, copper, and other precious metals were also found as new areas were uncovered. Around the mines and quarries gathered the workers of the sites along with their families. These people created towns known as “boomtowns”, which required transportation in the form of trains for their supplies. The same process happened with numerous other raw materials found in the country as well (Brinkley, 449). The agriculture, cattle, and sheep markets made many people large profits and, as with the stones and metals, relied on the railroad to bring the goods to the consumers. With the aid of the railroads there was an abundance of agricultural goods in the United States, “American commercial farmers, constantly opening new lands, produced much mor... ... middle of paper ... ...in the United State’s economic growth. America used its massive reserves of raw materials to produce its way into the world industrial market. Railroads brought American settlers and adventurers across the United States to discover more raw materials as well as spread out the country's population from the crowded East. New technologies and innovations allowed for the manipulating of resources until they produced as much profit as possible. The concentration of power and monopolies required, and received, massive numbers of cheap labor. It was that very wealth the monopolies created that attracted millions of immigrants to this country to find work. A cycle of factors where every one played a part, some more crucial than others, yet equally dependent upon one another. This cycle fueled America’s industrial boom, and propelled it into the world’s industrial market.

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