Tennessee State Standards

US.1 Explain patterns of agricultural and industrial development as they relate to climate, use of natural resources, markets and trade, the growth of major urban areas, and describe the geographic considerations that led to the location of specialized industries such as textiles, automobiles, and steel. (E, G)

US.7 Analyze the movement of people from rural to urban areas as a result of industrialization. (E, G)

01A. The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution, which began approximately 200 years earlier in Europe, developed into technological and socioeconomic changes in the 19th century. Invention of new machines and processes increased production and stimulated developments in transportation, communication technologies, farming, ranching, and mining.

After the Civil War, the United States was still largely an agricultural nation, but by the 1920's, a mere 60 years later, it had become the leading industrial power in the world. This immense industrial boom was due to several factors, including a wealth of natural resources, government support for business, and a growing urban population that provided both cheap labor and markets for new products.

01B. Agricultural & Industrial Development

Before the Industrial Revolution, the U.S. was predominantly rural farm areas. The nation was agrarian, or a society based on agriculture. However, once the factory system developed in the cities, rural farm workers moved to urban areas. By the end of the Industrial Revolution, many people had migrated to cities and worked mostly in factories.

The Industrial Revolution also popularized mass production and, ultimately, the assembly line in the early 1900s. On an assembly line, each worker repeated the same task and production increased.

In the South, there were no longer slaves to work on the plantations, and the cost of hiring people cut deeply into profits. Also, many fields had been decimated by war, making traditional farming a difficult endeavor. In response, technological innovations led to improvements such as the mechanization of plows, threshers, drills, mowers, and harrows. More farmers began using these machines, thus increasing their output and profit, while using a smaller workforce.

01C. Growth of Major Urban Areas

Rapid improvements in farming technology during the second half of the 1800's was good news for some farmers but bad news for others. Inventions made farming more efficient, but it also meant less laborers were needed to work the land. People who owned big farms continued to work the land, but most people were forced to find work elsewhere. In the last few decades of the 1800's, rural people moved to cities to find whatever work they could.

This abundant shift in population contributed to the growing industrial strength of the United States. The result was rapid urbanization, or growth of cities, mostly in the regions of the Northeast and Midwest.

The urban population skyrocketed, city governments faced the problems of how to provide residents with the services and safe living conditions they needed.

01D. Specialized Industries

Another reason that the industrial revolution was able to occur in America was because of the natural resources that were plentiful in the United States. There were abundant deposits of iron in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Alabama, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and along the Appalachian Mountains. Coal deposits were found in Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

By capitalizing on natural resources and their own ingenuity, inventors changed more than the landscape. These inventions affected the very way people lived and worked. We learn more about early American inventors and their inventions in future lessons.