During the 19th century, the greatest contributing factor to the United States' economic development was the

Question

A. Lack of diseases

B. Abundance of land

C. Abundance of waterways

D. Lack of harsh weather

Answer 1

None of the above - it was the high cost of labor, which gave everyone an incentive to invent and make use of better tools, machinery, etc.

Cotton was a small scale crop until the cotton gin was invented; etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_hi...

The question probably wants answer B, but lots of other countries have had an abundance of land and didn't do much with it. In the U.S. the land did two things:

1. It raised the cost of labor because anyone who was too unhappy could just head West.

2. It stimulated the government into building railroads and canals so that the mid-West would become both a source of and a market for goods from the East coast.

Waterways helped - both the big rivers and the Great Lakes were essential in the development of the Midwest. But again, the early economic development was on the coast and major investment was needed to connect the Great lakes and the big rivers with the coast.

Overall, the biggest factor in economic development was industrialization, which was mostly in the cities. Even as early as 1860, about 1/3 of the GDP was produced by manufacturing, and by 1890, the U.S. was producing more than England and had become the world's leading economy.

Answer 2

E. The 14th amendment.... granting equal human rights to slaves (essentially allowing for more and more minds to invent and create) until it was used and abused by corporations in 1886 in the Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad non-legal decision which has allowed a boon in industry, to be sure, but has been the down fall of we humans as commodity instead of being seen as humans by said corporations ..... and to a certain extent.... B.