Question

Discuss how the advances in technology contributed to America's industrialization and modernization. Provide at least two examples. Did your examples have any negative effects, such as exploiting workers, etc.? What significance can we learn from your examples?

Answer 1

An outburst of technological innovation was a main component in the industrialisation process and economic growth of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and therefore fuelled this headlong in the making of the modern world economy.

Mechanization in agriculture lead farming into the realm of huge business thus making U.S. the premier food producer in the world, a position the country has never surrendered. For example: Improved technology increased the output of the farms, and reduced the product price. However the modernization disrupted family farms as it provoked the farmers in U.S. to organize protest movements as never before. Moreover the social issues that accompanied the industrial development in the country fuelled a rise of national labor unions and unprecedented clashes among the labor and capital.

The railroads were a great contributor in America's industrialization. For example: The railroads construction, especially in the South and West, with the increasing demand for steel rails, was a main force for the expansion of the steel industry. However it lead to the exploitation of workers as the expansion of industry was accompanied with a rising tensions between workers and employers

A series of major technological inventions, such as typewriter, linotype, telephone, electric light, refrigerator car, cash register, automobile and air brake, became the bases for new industries, while majority revolutionized the business conduct in United States.

The above examples signify that although the advanced technology offered new opportunities for consumers and business enterprise in America however brought challenges for the workers in terms of immigration and trade unions