1. For nearly 100 years following 1815, there were no major wars between national coalitions. The U. S. Civil War, the nation’s bloodiest war ever, was a violent exception in this long period of global peace.
2. After the Civil War, rapid industrialization in the North and renewed western expansion sustained a high overall growth rate for the nation. The large absolute fall in output in the South due to the war and emancipation and the slow pace of growth in the cotton belt ushered in an era of southern backwardness and regional disparity.
3. Emancipation redistributed wealth and incomes sharply from white slave owners to blacks but created a legacy of slavery that sustained black poverty, especially in the Deep South.
4. By the mid-1890s, the United States had become the world’s leading industrial power, and by 1910, it was outproducing by nearly twice the nearest industrial rival, Germany, while England had slipped into third place.
5. Technological change, economies of scale, and mass production methods became the main engines of modern economic growth, powered by growth enhancing institutions.
6. The path of growth was far from smooth. Periods of deflation, financial crises, and fears of the concentration of wealth led to demands for reform of the economic and financial systems.
7. The U. S. population topped 100 million during World War I; 48 states were in the Union; and federal, state, and local expenditures combined reached a record high of nearly 10 percent of GNP.
World History
