Global Inequality: The Divide Between North and South

The North and South both offered many new opportunities to immigrants and all people. In global north and south essay will be revealed topic of world division, the two sides: north and south. Time before a war, and in this case the civil war, was known as the antebellum period . The industrial revolution is one of the major events that happened during the antebellum period. It brought many new innovations and ideas that would lead to further economic developments and technology. One of the many results of the industrial revolution in modern day life is the use of machines and the increasing popularity of factories. Now machines have almost fully replaced the work we do and the explosion of the use of machines has lead many immigrants to come to america to start a new life. Three ways the North and the South were different were their geography, innovations and how they traveled.

First, The North and the South were different because of their geographies. The North and the South had very different climates and landscape, which affected how they worked. The South’s weather made better for crops to grow. It’s summers were long, hot and humid, While its winters were mild and short. Its landscape consisted of a wide coast which provided rich soil, it had marshes and it was swampy which were ideal places to grow sugarcane and rice. The only obstacle was its many mountains, Farmers had adapted to carve farms and plantations out of steep hill and mountain sides. The South's town and cities were built on waterways and canals, which allowed a seafood diet. People gathered fish, oysters and crabs from the chesapeake bay.

The North was much different than the warm weather of the South. The North had cold winters and short summers, which meant that crops would not be able to grew. Another reason why crops could not be grown because it had rocky soil which is not suitable for crops and had narrow pieces of land. The only places where crops could be grown was by the Hudson River and the Delaware River, where rich soil was produced. The one thing that they could benefit from was the bays and oceans. Many harbors were built not only for fishing but as well as shipbuilding and commerce. One of the only things that could grow was timber with its v shaped valleys. The North had thick forests, filled with timber trees, these trees could be sold to build homes and other things. Even if the North and the South’s geography was different they both benefited them.

Second, The North and South were different because its innovations. An example of one of the great innovation of the time in the South was the cotton gin. The cotton gin meant that cotton could be produced at larger rates since before it was done by hand and only a pound of it could be produced a day. Because of this it made cotton expensive and no one really wanted to buy it. With the cotton gin, a single worker could clean as much cotton as 50 people working by hand. This made the use of cotton explod, cotton would be exported and ended up earning more than all the exports at the time combined. With more and more and more factories popping up around the states, more slaves were demanded. As much as 600,000 slaves soon rose to over 3 million slaves between 1790 and 1850.

In the North on the other hand. New innovations in the South made it so the rate which things were produced by hand could be done in larger amounts and at a faster rate. This benefited many laborers since they would be replaced by machines and made products cheaper and more plentiful but factories still needed to be monitored by people. The steam engine was introduced in 1668 and allowed business people to build factories anywhere ,and Not only would the steam engine would be used in factories but also in ships. With steam engines boats could travel uphill and downhill easy. With new innovations in the North and the South, it would lead for machines to replace the the work people did.

Third, The North and South were different since they had different forms of transportation. The North traveled in three ways, railroad, road and boat. Boats and ships would not be commonly used through the North since had many mountains which meant that it would be hard to travel uphill and downhill. Another reason boats were as popular, since rivers weren't always located where people needed them. A solution to this problem was, in 1817 New york hired engineers and workers to build a 363 mile canal from the Hudson river to lake erie. The canal provided the first canal between central plain farms and cities on the east coast. In 1840, clipper ships were introduced. Sail boats were to slow and the new boats cut ocean travel time and even increased trade Northern trade with other foreign ports around the world. Another way the North traveled was by road. In effort to get people to travel by road, congress funded the construction of the National road the went across the the Appalachian Mountains. This new road connected the western states with the east. People liked the roads and lead to further expansion of the use of roads. The last way to travel in the North, was railroad. Trains could travel a lot faster than boats and could even travel across mountains. As the use of railroads were expanding more and more railroads were being built. By 1860 more than 20,000 miles of rails were linked to northern cities and factories. By the 1840s railroads were North's biggest business.

The South's transportation way a lot different than the North's. The South continued to travel along waterways and canals since it was easy and cheap. Even most railroad were located in the North, some railroad were still used in the South. Railroads helped farmers ship their products to the North. Though they had much less railroads than the North, they were still proud to have them, The south only had 10,000, while the South had 20,000. Since cotton production was growing, it would be exported by ships, around the world by water. Steam powered boats were used to go both uphill and downhill. These boats would travel to citie ports such as, Savannah, Georgia, Mobile and Alabama. Most cotton moved down the Mississippi river which was the largest of the southern waterways on the west of the Appalachians. The newest canals, made cotton even more popular and was exported to many places around the world.

In conclusion to North and South global divide essay, though the North and the South had many differences such as their geography, innovations and transportation. They benefited from what they had and used it the best. By forming plantations, finding ways to abolish slavery and laborious work and even spread ideas and traditions with different forms of transportation. This would lead to further contrast within the country and lead to one of the bloodiest wars. The North and the South had a diverse ways of living and were slowly separating from each other, acting as seperate countrys, wanting independance.