After the Civil War, a wave of industrialization introduced new economic trends to America; the growth of railroads allowed for expanding markets and easy transportation, and the use of steel, electricity, and other resources created a foundation that was able to foster a Second Industrial Revolution. The different regions of America were affected in various ways: specifically, this new industrial period and trend of market expansion impacted the Northeast/Midwest and the South both differently and similarly. Between 1865 and 1900, the Northeast/Midwest regions became purely industrial, establishing a hub for great wealth and industry in America, whereas the South, which undoubtedly also had moments of industrial prosperity, experienced a more …show more content…
Tennessee became one of the major sources of the South’s lumber, and Alabama was a strong competitor in the nation’s steel industry. Southern companies swiftly switched to new railroad technologies as they were being introduced. The economy, however, did not deter from its prewar style; the Southern economic forefront was still heavily tied to agriculture, but trends shifted to fit the new industrial society. Southern farming was centered around single cash crops that were sold to national and global markets. Cotton production, for instance, skyrocketed because of Northen need for resources, but also drove crop prices down due to overproduction. Furthermore, agriculture was mechanized; farmers relied on combines and different machines to help them sow seeds. This established a strong dependency on Northern manufactured products. However, because these machines were expensive, farmers were unable to stay competitive in an economy of rapidly diminishing prices due to the aforementioned overproduction of crops. A cycle of poverty therefore existed, where the South was forced into tenant farming and sharecropping. It is evident that industrialization created a forced assimilation into large-scale business and a reliance on the North that was harmful on society as a whole. The North was involved in Southern economy outside of agriculture as well. Northern investors essentially dominated South steel companies, and major portions of Southern profit went to Northern bankers. Thus, Southerners turned to political platforms to advocate for the amelioration of their position; a National Grange Movement was born and the Ocala Platform was strongly supported which would eventually become the basis for the Populist Party. Thus, even though the South seemed to be developing into a prosperous area, industrialization distanced investors and monopolists from farmers and