12. The New West and the Free North, 1840

Quiz for Beyond America’s Borders: Global Prosperity in the 1850s

Select the best answer for each question. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question 12.1

1. How did American transportation change between the presidencies of Thomas Jefferson (which began in 1801) and Abraham Lincoln (1861)?

The majority of new roadways were built on a north–south orientation by the 1860s instead of an east–west orientation.

Americans transitioned from primarily water-based travel to land-based travel.

U.S. roadways were comprised of bumpy dirt roads in the early 1800s and they were later built into smooth, paved roads by the 1860s.

American travelers relied less on traveling by horse and more on traveling via a network of railroads by the 1860s.

Question 12.2

2. The reason that Great Britain, the United States, France, and Germany were far more prosperous than most of the rest of the world in the 1850s was because all four countries

controlled immense coal resources.

had industrialized.

were in the Northern Hemisphere.

had primarily urban populations.

Question 12.3

3. How did Great Britain’s high wages make its industries more efficient, therefore helping to make Great Britain the world’s most prosperous nation in the 1850s?

High wages incentivized companies to replace human workers with machines, which were more efficient.

Highly paid British workers tended to work more efficiently than less-well-paid laborers in other countries.

British workers used their high wages to purchase many goods and services, which spurred production.

High wages were used as an incentive to workers, who only received raises if they met their efficiency quotas.

Question 12.4

4. Although Britain and the United States had very similar sized populations in the 1850s, in what way were the demographics of the two countries significantly different?

The percentage of impoverished people in the general population

The number of workers in the service industry

The percentage of the population that lived in towns and cities

The number of people who owned their own home

Question 12.5

5. Although the United States had the second highest per capita production of goods and services in the 1850s, which of the following groups likely did not experience the benefits of that prosperity?

Merchants in New York City

Poor farm families

Gold miners in California