The United States as an industrialiser
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Flip to reveal answersWhat four factors best explain why the United States industrialised so successfully (1790–1929)?
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Question
What four factors best explain why the United States industrialised so successfully (1790–1929)?
Answer
Vast natural resources (coal, iron, later oil), mass immigration (30 million, 1815–1915), railroad expansion, and political stability.
Question
Cotton gin
Answer
A machine invented by Eli Whitney in 1793 that quickly separates cotton fibre from its seeds, making cotton growing hugely profitable.
Question
What was the dark side of the cotton gin's success?
Answer
It made cotton so profitable that it entrenched and expanded chattel slavery across the American South.
Question
Interchangeable parts
Answer
Identical, standardised components that can be swapped between machines without hand-fitting; introduced by Eli Whitney from 1798 for musket production.
Question
American System of Manufacturing
Answer
A production method built on standardised, interchangeable parts made with specialised machine tools; grew out of Whitney's work and became the ancestor of the assembly line.
Question
When and where was the First Transcontinental Railroad completed?
Answer
1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah — the Golden Spike ceremony joined the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines.
Question
Describe the process of Fordism on the Model T assembly line.
Answer
From 1913, the chassis moved past stationary workers who each repeated one task, cutting build time from over 12 hours to about 93 minutes and allowing prices to fall while wages rose.
Question
What was Ford's five-dollar day (1914)?
Answer
An unusually high daily wage Ford paid workers, partly so they could afford to buy the cars they built.
Question
Name two major American labour strikes of the late 19th century and what they were about.
Answer
Homestead Strike (1892) — steelworkers vs Carnegie's plant over wage cuts. Pullman Strike (1894) — railroad workers vs wage cuts, broken by federal troops.
Question
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (1911)
Answer
A fire in a locked New York garment factory that killed 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women, sparking demands for workplace safety laws.
Question
Compare the state's role in industrialisation: United States vs Germany.
Answer
Germany used tariffs, cartels and banks under state direction after 1871 unification; the United States grew mainly through private enterprise, immigration, railroads and entrepreneurs like Whitney and Ford.
Question
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Answer
A major American trade union founded in 1886 that organised workers to bargain for better pay and conditions.
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