Process industrialization and its effects on American transportation development

Industrialization Benefits and Negatives

Feudalism was the primary economic base during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. This was more of a patron system in which the means of production (land, any equipment, etc.) was owned by the Church or royalty. Workers then "leased" the right to work on the land, paying their tax in the form of product or service. However, with increased urbanization and tradecraft, ties to a feudal lord or castle were becoming rarer, thus necessitating a different form of monetary exchange. Steam as power for machines changed everything -- mining, farming, manufacturing, and transportation. With this change came changes in the social and cultural system as well. Every aspect of daily life in Europe, Canada, and the United States- and later other countries, changed because of industrialization. (More, 2000).

Once machinery deadly technologies with which to make war, and the move towards a larger middle and artisan class required a number of political and sociological changes as well. Once human and animal power gave way to technology and machinery, more invention and scientific advances occurred. Social chances, too, happened -- border control (to control disease), decrease in mortality for children (increasing the workforce), and a move from rural to urban (more transportation and food needs) and greater strains on the social system (Weightman, 2009).

Two of the more positive changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution to the United States included the buildup of the railroads and other forms of transportation (e.g. The Erie Canal). The success of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads caused other ventures to be launched when the Federal Government offered huge subsidies and land grants. This was a radical change in philosophy, and several scandals ensued, as well as the economic Panic of 1873. However, by them the momentum had already started, and dozens of companies moved forward to increase rail travel throughout the nation. Once track had been laid, additional settlement and industrialization followed, since supply lines to and from were far easier. As with any economic development, getting workers and settlers to areas where raw materials were abundant influenced urbanization, as well as territory populations that would eventual become States (Railroads Following the Panic 2001; McNeese 2006). The Eerie Canal runs about 363 miles from Albany, NY to Buffalo -- allowing for a complete water route from the Atlantic Ocean to Chicago and the Great Lakes. It cost $7 million and was considered to be an engineering marvel -- allowing New York City to become the financial capital of the United States (Sadowski, 2012).

Of course, there were also negatives to industrialization. For instance, there was a population explosion and high demand for workers in the larger cities, which tended to limit the hand-made tradition and increase the factory-made. This resulted in lower-quality products that may have been less expensive, but did not last as long. Second, rapid industrialization had a negative effect upon the environment in both the urban areas and near factories. Crowded slums bred disease; American industry had little respect and polluted waterways and the air, particularly near the streams where factory workers lived. Burning coal became so bad that people living near factories died early of lung disease, and there was little sewage control from industrial run off (Nardo, 2009).

The Industrial Revolution was a direct result of the Age of Discovery and new impetus on science and technology, and especially the idea of capitalism replacing feudalism during the Enlightenment Era. John Locke, for instance, was one of the more influential thinkers of the Enlightenment and proposed that not only were there discoverable laws in science, but that individuals had rights and a social contract to actualize them -- the very basis of the U.S. Constitution. Instead of only knowing what was known in the past, Locke's ideas spurred discovery, which when interpreted by people like Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, allowed for humans to actualize their natural rights through economic development (O'Rouke, 2006).