Post Civil War Industrial Growth
The years before the American Civil War were the golden age of small industry, with most businesses owned by a single entrepreneur, family, or small group of stockholders.
The Civil War accelerated the effects of the industrial revolution in America. Wartime economic booms provided the needed capital. The pressing necessities of battle gave birth to rapid advances in manufacturing and machinery. Lastly, the policies of reconstruction brought more industry into the south after the war.
In consequence, the war left America a much more industrialized nation. The industrial revolution in turn made larger industrial concerns possible and profitable.
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