The Gilded Age
The foundations of industrialism (the social system that results from an economy based on large-scale industries) were established in the United States during the first wave of industrialization, or the development of industry, which occurred between the American Revolution (1775–83; the American colonists' fight for independence from England) and the American Civil War (1861–65). Even by the time of the Civil War, however, these advances were limited to only a few sections of the country. Eighty percent of the nation's factories and 70 percent of its railroad mileage were in the northern states, while the South, with its economy built around slave labor and exporting farm products, had maintained a far more rural culture, that is, a culture based on farming and country life. Even in the northeastern United States most industries were family owned and catered to a local market rather than operating nationally. The nation remained primarily rural; in fact five out of every six Americans lived in rural areas and the vast majority of Americans were farmers. Only a few U.S. cities had populations over one hundred thousand. Nonetheless, in 1860 the United States stood poised and ready to begin an era of remarkably rapid industrialization, that would transform the country into an urban society that relied heavily on industry.
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