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Native Americans Start Change
In the 1600s, the Native Americans traded and bartered, and they linked trade routes using the Mississippi River. This started very big economic growth, which started off America's economy. -
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Slavery
Slavery impacted the American economy in good ways, mostly for farmers and landowners. Free labor had made the slave owners very rich, and if the Confederacy was a separate nation, it would have ranked the fourth richest nation in the world at the start of the Civil War. -
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American Revolutionary War
With America being in conflict with Britain, a lot of countries didn't want to get in the middle of it so they slowed trade with America, which took a toll on the Economy. America was in deep debt after this war. -
Industrial Revolution
The industrial revolution impacted the American economy with an increase in population and the phenomenon of urbanization, as a growing number of people moved to urban areas in search of employment. -
Railroad Services
Railroad services started at this time, and they created a tremendous amount of demand for goods and labor on. This demand, particularly for steel, helped the US economy to bloom and become bigger and better. -
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Civil War
There initially was great wealth in the South, because of the slave economy. Then the economic value of slaves in the United States exceeded the economic value of many other of America's biggest money makers. -
The Invention of Automobiles
The production of automobiles encouraged and promoted growth of other industries. -
Assembly Lines
Assembly lines were started by Henry Ford and it was a series of workers and machines in a factory working together to make something, everything/everyone with a specific job. This changed the U.S. housing, transportation, and tourism industries. There was a lot of money coming in from the business. -
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World War 1
America made tons and tons of loans to the UK to help them in their war times. World War 1 was a big factor in contributing to the Roaring 20s when the economy boomed. Though, the long-term effect was the Great Depression and World War 2. -
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The Great Depression
Personal income, tax revenue, profits, and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. All of this happened because of a major drop in stocks prices. -
Stock Market Crash/Wall Market Crash
This was a big stock market crash, where share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed for four days. This caused a loss of about equivalent to 396 billion dollars today. -
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World War 2
This had an impact on the workforce as well as the economy. During the war, American factories were retooled to produce goods to support the war effort and almost overnight the unemployment rate dropped to around 10%.
