The North And The South: Resorces

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The American antebellum South, though raised in military tradition, was no match for the flourishing superiority of the rapidly developing North in the coming Civil War. The Southern desire to preserve their traditional agrarian society meant poor manufacturing and commercial interest, and made it unable for them to function by itself. The North’s ability to take raw materials and make them into usable items made the difference in the war.
From the onset of war, the Union had obvious advantages. Quite simply, the North had large amounts of just about everything that the South did not, resources that the Confederacy had no way of getting (Brinkley et al. 415). The South was also out-manned, with only nine of the nation's 31 million inhabitants belonging to the seceding states (Angle 7). The Union also had large amounts of land available for growing food crops, which not only provided food for its hungry soldiers but also money for the economy. The South, on the other hand used most land its main cash crop: cotton (Catton, The Coming Fury 38). Raw materials were almost entirely concentrated in Northern mines and refining industries. Railroads and telegraph lines, the lifelines of any army, were all over the North, while the South was isolated. Little did they know, "King Cotton" could buy them time, but not the war. The South had bartered something that perhaps it had not intended; its independence (Catton, Reflections 143).
The North's ever-growing industry was an important supplement to its economical dominance of the South. Between the years of 1840 and 1860, American industry saw sharp and steady growth. From 1840 to1860 the value of goods manufactured increased over fourfold (Brinkley et al. 312). The reason behind this expansion is a direct result of the American Industrial Revolution.
Beginning in the early 1800s, with development of the textile industry, the United States started to change. The birth of James Hargre...