A Resource Rich Nation

1
A Resource Rich Nation
2

• 4th largest country in area
• 3rd most populous
• GNP is the highest in the world
• projected to be over 13 trillion by end of 2006

3
How did this happen?

• Four Factors
• 1. abundance of natural resources
• 2. development of transportation and
  communication technology
• 3. hard work of its residents
• 4. political system

4
Natural Resources

• Land- one of the most abundant natural resources
• Midwest and Great Plains contain some of the most
  fertile soil in the world
• Early in Americas history pieces of land were
  given out in exchange for the promise of
  developing it( i.e. agriculture/livestock)
• First census in 1790 showed ¾ of population farmed

5

• 1862 Homestead Act
• Granted 160 acres to settlers who agreed to farm
  the land
• Native Americans
• - first to cultivate land
• - lived in permanent and semi-permanent villages

6

• Grew maize, squash, beans, cotton, and tobacco.
• Native American dominance in North America came
  to an end due to the Indian Wars
• European settlers waged war with natives
• Lasted over 300 years
• Resulted in the theft of Native American land

7

• Forests
• - provide lumber for building supplies, paper,
  artificial sponges, maple sugar
• - lumber industry began in colonial New England
• - used for barrels and ships

8

• - after the Revolutionary War the logging
  industry shifted to the South
• - because of the mild climate rivers could be
  used to transport logs year-round
• - Midwestern forests were quickly logged over by
  the late 1800s/ Eastern forests by the 1930 both
  were converted to farmland

9

• The lumber industry moved West and today most of
  our lumber comes from Idaho, California, Oregon,
  and Washington
• Conservation
• grazing laws, harvesting regulations, better
  logging techniques, and reforestation programs
  have all been implemented in order to conserve
  our forests
• 5 of our forests have never been developed

10
Underground Minerals

• Coal, oil, and natural gas are the fossil fuels
  found in the U.S.
• The U.S. produces 1/5 of the worlds coal supply
• Oil and natural gas are located beneath the
  central and western Plains as well as in Alaska

11

• We produce large amounts of copper, gold, lead,
  titanium, uranium, zinc
• A nations supply of minerals is important not
  only for trade, but for development of its
  industries

12
Moving resources, goods, and people

• The U.S. could not have turned its resources into
  wealth without innovations in transportation
• Travel Over Water
• in the 1800s travel over water was faster than
  on land
• it took 6 weeks to travel down the Mississippi
  River and up to another 4 months to travel back up

13

• The development of the steam engine revolutionize
  water transportation
• Steamboats turned the Great Lakes into important
  transportation routes
• Early 1800s canals began to be utilized the
  combination of steamboats and canals made water
  transportation fast and cheap

14
Movement Over Land

• Steam powered railroads replaced steamboats due
  to efficiency
• A transcontinental railroad linking the east and
  west coasts was completed in 1869.
• In 1890 the automobile was invented
• Mass production, made possible by Henry Ford,
  allowed the general public to afford automobiles

15
Improving Communication

• 1837 Samuel Morse demonstrated the 1st successful
  telegraph
• - a telegraph is a pattern of long and short
  sounds or printed dots and dashes that are later
  received and translated into corresponding
  letters and numbers
• - by the 1860s every major city in the country
  had telegraphs

16

• In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the
  telephone
• By 1915 telephone wires reached from coast to
  coast
• Today we use fiber optics which convert
  electronic signals into light waves

17
Respecting the Individual

• Our government was established by the people in
  1789
• - built on the shared ideals of individual
  equality, opportunity, and freedom
• Free enterprise- allows indiv. To own, operate,
  and profit from their own businesses in an open
  marketplace
• Rugged Individualism- the willingness of
  individuals to work hard on their own in order to
  prosper