1.The contrasts among urban life, and rural life did not form the foundations of an industrial society, which contributed to economic growth in all areas, as the United States expanded to the new territories (westward expansion).

Question 1 . The contrasts among urban life , and rural life did not form the foundations of an industrial society , which contributed to economic growth in all areas , as the United States expanded to the new territories (westward expansion . False

In 1812 , the promulgation of the Embargo Act and War of 1812 cut off competition from England . This led to the quick expansion of the factory system particularly in the Northeast . Factories were being built as there came a new and unprecedented demand for standardized commodities such cotton and woolen goods , clocks and

firearms , chairs and tin ware which once before were found in small shops , homes , and isolated foundries . Power machineries were fully developed and in use such as the mechanized flour mill , the cotton gin for the removal of seeds from fiber and many other inventions and business techniques upon which modern America was to build . Transportation by steam was also common in the East . Moreover , the agricultural conditions were poor (Ware , 1935

As new industries were started , more people were needed to work in the factories . There was a swelling movement of population to the West Urbanization was a direct result of the Industrial Revolution in the United States . Burgeoning factories were centralized in cities which offered a central location for resources and workers to fuel their production . Immigrants and displaced rural workers flooded cities in the hopes of finding employment

Farm life in rural America was terribly lonely . Each family would be more than half a mile , and many settlers must go a mile or two to reach a neighbor 's house even in fairly well-peopled agricultural districts There are few social events in the life of these prairie farmers to enliven the monotony of the long winter evenings . There was also a lack of homogeneity of the people as the settlers are of different national origins . An alarming amount of insanity occurs in the new prairie States among farmers and their wives . In proportion to their numbers , the Scandinavian settlers furnish the largest contingent to the asylums given that they have usually come from cheery little farm villages There is but one remedy for the dreariness of farm life on the prairies the isolated farmhouse must be abandoned , and the people must draw together in villages such as in western Minnesota , eastern Nebraska and Kansas , and the eastern parts of North and South Dakota (Diamond , 1963 In fact , employees of the U .S . Department of Agricultural launched the Granger Movement to focus initially on social activities to counter the isolation most farm families encountered

By the 19th century , the amount of land under cultivation had remarkably increased partly due to mechanical improvements . Most of this growth was attributable to the natural increase in a new land due to expansionism where large tracts of land were made available as they became U .S territories . Large families were economically profitable as long as this country remained preeminently an agrarian nation (Faulkner , 1924

However , despite this progress , American farmers...