How Did The Erie Canal Affect America

Words: 450
Pages: 2

Once America gained their independence, it became a worldwide trade force. Most of the trading was done across the Atlantic Ocean, and as America grew westward, so did its trade. The Erie Canal helped connect the innards of early America to the rest of the world by making a clear route from the Atlantic Ocean to the great lake system. The Erie Canal was one of the biggest of many internal improvements, which mostly spanned the first half of the 19th century. Those improvements focused on infrastructure and transportation, which helped commerce. The most important improvements were turnpikes, canals, steamships, routes, and railroads. They helped knit the country closer together, and sped up the economy. Although most of the improvements were in the north, it impacted the whole country.

ID 3: Industrial Revolution & cotton
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The biggest change for the North was the industrial revolution. This was the transformation of economies, societies, due to the rapid improvements in machinery, energy sources, and the changes in labor organization. This, coupled with their internal improvements, grew the North into a superpower, at least in an economical sense. The South also experienced the industrial revolution, but in more of a second-hand sense. While the North was experiencing their revolution, the south focused on more, cotton. To say cotton was a cash crop of the south, is an understatement. Cotton was virtually the south’s entire economy. Their economy grew at an astronomical pace, especially since they relied on so much unpaid slave labor. The combination of the south’s cotton based economy, and the north’s technological improvements transformed the U.S. into a global trading force, and exposed the crucial differences between the two