America's Industrial Revolution: 1700-1900

3 Pages 648 Words

When America was still a young country, it’s technology and scientific discoveries where being made every day! The Industrial Revolution was a period from 1700-1850 in which new technology was being discovered at an alarming rate. The average American person born in 1760 saw more changes in his or her lifetime than ten generations of ancestors had seen in theirs.
There were many factors that aided the Industrial Revolution and the expansion of America. One for instance was the change in farming, many wealthy landowners started to buy out small plots of land. This process was called enclosure. In the 1700’s many wealthy landowners began to look for new ways to increase the size of their harvests. Many inventions helped farming such as the seed drill, the invention of crop rotation, as well as others. These improvements in agricultural had great effects on the population, making it more possible to expand on the country.
The next fuel for the Industrial Revolution was that America had many advantages. First was the abundant natural resource which the U.S. had, and all three that were needed. Coal, waterpower, and iron. Second was a circumstance of immigration. Many people fled to America from their monarchy ruled countries in search of freedom.
The cotton industry was the first struck by the Industrial Revolution. By 1800 six major inventions had totally transformed the cotton industry. Many of the inventions which helped this trade was the creation of the spinning jenny which aided weavers to work twice as fast. Another valuable development was the Water-frame; it used the water from fast-flowing streams to drive the spinning wheels. By combining features from the Spinning jenny and the water-frame more products were now able to be produced. However, the water-frame and Spinning jenny were too large and expensive for people to have in their homes so wealthy merchants setup machines in factories.
Having factories in Am...