Industrial Revolution & Age of Expansion Quiz

The ongoing attacks on American shipping were a major cause of the war. Madison and others also thought that with Britain engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, America could easily capture Canada. Adding to the pressure for war was a powerful group of Congressmen known as the War Hawks.

Native Americans were utilized by the British to help defend the British territorial holdings in Canada. The tribes had been regularly harassed and disrespected by the young American nation, so supporting the British efforts in North America gave them their best chance to unify and fight back.

Both sides grew weary of the war, and peace negotiations began in August 1814. The Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24th. Late victories by US forces were viewed by the American public as having restored national honor, and despite the stalemate, Madison proclaimed that the war was an American victory. A period of national unity followed, known as the Era of Good Feelings.

New England (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island) saw a huge increase in the number of factories and manufacturing centers during the early 1800s. The abundance of key raw materials like iron and coal helped fuel the industrial boom. Furthermore, access to navigable waterways made trade and transportation of manufactured goods convenient.

The United States from its earliest days relied upon a capitalistic economy where the free market and free enterprise were allowed to flourish. While the United States economy is subject to some government regulation, for the most part, producers and consumers have the ability to produce products, compete in the market, and make purchasing decisions as they see fit.

The cotton engine (‘gin’ for short) was a steam-powered machine that was able to remove seeds from the raw material harvested from the cotton plant. This was a tedious process to complete by hand, but Whitney’s invention completed the task faster and more effectively than could be done by hand. The invention would lead to a boom in productivity for Southern cotton plantations.

Many of the key machines that made American mills and factories run were based off of stolen ideas and technologies brought by British workers who secretly emigrated to the United States.

Interchangeable parts meant that industrial equipment was less expensive to build, purchase, and repair. The falling cost of industrial machinery opened up new opportunities for industrial growth and lowered prices for consumers.

While cities had their own problems (noise, disease, fire, and crowding to name a few), the Industrial Revolution and its economic boom enticed thousands of Americans to relocate to urban centers. Simply put, there were more job opportunities available in the cities than in the small farming communities in the South and the American frontier. Increased access to luxuries like boutique shops, libraries, and other cultural centers also helped lure Americans to towns and cities.

Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston worked together to develop the Clermont, a steamboat the carried passengers from New York City to Albany. This was the beginning of the steamboat era in the US, and by 1830 there were over 200 steamboats on American rivers. Prior to the steamboat, water travel was largely a one-way endeavor. The steamboat allowed travel and commerce both upstream and down, and encouraged trade by lowering costs and saving time.

Although the National Road was a massive undertaking, Congress felt that the benefits of such a route would be beneficial enough to invest the resources and nearly 12 years it would take to build and open the road for use. In the decades that followed, America would continue to invest in infrastructure projects to help bolster trade, defense, and settlement.

The Erie Canal took two years to dig and spanned an impressive 363 miles across central New York State. The waterway connected the trade centers of New York City to new markets connected to the Great Lakes region and beyond. Combined with other canal projects and the National Road, the early decades of the nineteenth century saw a boom in migrations to the American West.

The Federalist Party had all but disappeared by the time James Monroe was elected president in 1816. The Republicans controlled the federal government and had the popular support of the American public. The lack of large-scale political conflict led to the Monroe presidency’s moniker, “The Era of Good Feelings.”

The national balance of free-states to slave-states was seen as crucial to southerners who feared the federal government, if given the opportunity, would vote to ban slavery nationwide. Banning slavery would, in essence, strip the southern plantations of their labor force and cripple the economies of the southern states.

The Missouri Compromise was a truce in the growing debate over slavery debate in America. By adding one slave state and one free state the political equilibrium in the US Senate was preserved.

While conditions could vary from factory to factory, conditions for workers in the early 1800s were typically awful by today’s standards.

The "Mill Girls" were typically between the ages of 15 and 30. Wages were low and the work day was long, but these jobs opened up new opportunities for women, and many were able to attain economic independence for the first time in their lives.

The disarmaments were part of President Monroe’s plan to end the hostilities and poor relations between America and Great Britain. Following the War of 1812, both sides stood to benefit from scaling down military costs and international tensions.

Following conflicts with Britain and Spain, America was not eager to have to continue fending off European colonial neighbors. The Monroe Doctrine drew a metaphorical line in the sand to discourage European nations from creating new colonies in North and South America. Monroe’s 1823 statement would remain the foundation for American foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere for nearly two centuries.

By 1830, Mexico, Columbia, Panama, Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Ecuador had all been liberated from Spanish control. The Florida territory had also come under US control.