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Industrialization and Immigration

Option A

  • Lexile: 1090
  • Word Count: 583
  • Vocabulary: industrialization, textile, metalworks, internal improvements, federalism, plantations, tariffs, famine, immigrants, metalwork, northerner, instantaneously, patent, immigrate, purchaser

Industrialization in the United States

After the War of 1812, a large increase in industrialization occurred in the United States. The country significantly increased its textile manufacturing and metalworks. While most Americans still lived in rural areas, this increase in factories led to bigger populations in cities. New technology helped create more and more industry in the country. Samuel Morse patented the telegraph in 1840. Americans could now communicate instantaneously, rather than waiting for a rider on a horse to deliver a message. Big improvements were made to the steam engine that made it useful for transporting products up rivers and across railroads.

Internal Improvements

The ability to communicate and transport goods helped unify the country more as it became easier to cross state lines with products. Some Americans believed that the federal government should help this process along through what was called “internal improvements.” This meant funding for roads and canals to help trade and economic growth. Some disagreed, however, and believed state governments should be responsible for the issue.

There was much more manufacturing in the North than the South, and therefore Northerners were more likely to support these internal improvements to help make trading manufactured goods with Europe easier. Slavery and plantations dominated the South, and the people there were also major purchasers of Northern goods that they did not have the industry to make themselves. This debate centered around the principle of federalism and what powers the national government should have versus the state governments. This divide led to another big debate during this time: tariffs.

Tariffs

Tariffs are a tax on imported goods and were by far the biggest way the U.S. government raised revenue during the time. Tariffs were also a tool to “protect” American industry. European countries like Britain and France could produce goods for cheaper at the time, in general, and American consumers were more likely to want to buy their more affordable products. The U.S. put tariffs on these items to make them more expensive, and in turn consumers would then instead buy American-made items.

Supporters of tariffs argued that U.S. industry was young and needed time to catch up to the levels seen in Europe. They believed that a strong manufacturing sector would help the country grow more powerful as a whole and would not just benefit one class of people. Northerners tended to support higher tariffs. Southerners, on the other hand, tended to be against them. They argued that they drove up costs for consumers and that it was not the responsibility of the federal government to assist private manufacturers to be successful. They believed tariffs helped the North and hurt the South. Like the question of internal improvements, this debate also raised questions about the principle of federalism and the role of the national government.

Immigration

The rise of industry created many job opportunities that offered a better life for many people from Europe who immigrated to the country. In the 1840s, a horrible famine caused starvation in Ireland. Many Irish came to the United States to escape it and find work in Northern cities. Many German immigrants also arrived during this time, spreading west to farm new land. These immigrants showed a lot of courage in traveling across the ocean to come to the U.S. to a strange new country. The chance to get a fresh start with economic opportunities, religious liberty, and a government that was dedicated to protecting rights all made immigrants believe the risks were worth it.

Industrialization and Immigration

Option B

  • Lexile: 930
  • Word Count: 443
  • Vocabulary: products, telegraph, inventor, tariff, countryside, manufacture, canal, freely, cloth

Changes in U.S. Industry

After a big war in 1812, the United States started to produce many more things in factories. The country began making more cloth and metal products. While most people still lived in the countryside, more and more people moved to cities to work in factories. New machines also helped factories make more products. In 1840, Samuel Morse created a special machine called the telegraph that could send messages almost immediately across long distances. Before that, people had to wait for someone on a horse to bring messages. Inventors also made steam engines better, which helped move products on boats and trains.

Better Roads and Rivers

Being able to send messages and move products helped bring the country together. Some people thought the government in Washington, DC should help build more roads and canals. These were called “internal improvements.” But other people thought each state should build its own roads and canals. People argued about whether the federal government or state governments should be in charge of this.

Taxes on Products

The northern part of the United States had more factories than the southern part. People in the North wanted better roads and canals to help them move their products to sell to other states and other countries. The South had many farms with slaves and had to buy many things from the North because their region didn’t make many manufactured items themselves. This led to another big argument about taxes on products from other countries, called tariffs. These taxes were the main way the U.S. government got money. The tariffs also helped American factories because they made products from other countries more expensive. This made people more likely to buy American-made things.

People in the North liked these taxes. They said American factories were new and needed help to become as good as factories in other countries. People in the South didn’t like the taxes. They said the taxes made things cost more money and that the government shouldn’t help private factories. Like the argument about roads and canals, this also made people think about what the federal government should be allowed to do.

New People Coming to America

As more factories opened, many people from Europe called immigrants came to America to work. In the 1840s, there wasn’t enough food in Ireland, and many Irish people came to American cities to find work. Many German people also came and moved west to become farmers. These people were brave to travel across the ocean to a new country. They came because they could get jobs, follow their religion freely, and have their rights protected.

Images:

Figuier, Louis. Le premier télégraphe électrique de Samuel Morse. In Les Merveilles de la science, vol. 2, 1867-1891.

Illustration of Samuel Morse’s first electric telegraph.

 

Citynoise. Map of the Historic National Road at Its Greatest Completion in 1839. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5. Link to Original Source.

This map shows the route of the historic National Road as it stood in 1839. The National Road was one of the major “internal improvements” undertaken in the early decades of the 1800s following the War of 1812, designed to connect the eastern states with the expanding western frontier.