Apush technology

Unit 1:

Guns, gunpowder, cannons
- Allowed the Spanish conquistadors to defeat the indigenous peoples in Mexico and the Caribbean islands
- Military dominance
Caravel, astrolabe, compass
- Navigation tools and improved ship designs allowed the Spanish to explore further away from the mainland and expand their sphere of influence
- Shifted power in Europe to maritime empires (Spain, Portugal, England)
- Spread Christian ideals

Unit 2:

Water-powered mills
- Facilitated the growth of industry in New England colonies
Deep-hulled ships
- Expanded transatlantic trade capacity
- More goods could be carried per voyage
Printing press
- Spread ideas through newspapers and books
- Political ideals became widespread
- Christianity
- Communication
- Literacy rates increase

Unit 3:

Roads, canal locks, steam engines
- Improved transportation infrastructure
- People and goods could move quicker and more easily
Postal system
- Increased communication (spread of ideas)
- More organized military due to better communication
Advances in printing technology
- Spread of revolutionary ideas
- Helped create political unity among the colonies

Unit 4:

Cotton gin (!), steel plow, mechanical reaper
- Mass processing of agricultural goods
- Increased efficiency in agricultural industries
- Boosted market revolution, American economy boomed
- (cotton gin) expanded slavery and cotton dependence in the South
Railroad infrastructure
- Allowed people and goods to move further, faster
Eerie canal
- Connected the midwest to the atlantic
- Improved trade infrastructure
Telegraph
- Communication

Unit 5:

Railroads (transcontinental railroad)
- People goods move faster
- Gave the union a boost to win the war with logistical superiority
Telegraph networks
- Important in Civil war communications, much quicker than previous forms of long-distance communication
- Gave the union a boost to win the war with logistical superiority
Mechanical reapers and threshers
- Agricultural mechanization continues
Repeating rifles, Ironclads, and the Minnie ball
- New weaponry used in the civil war
- The union was richer and had more weapons

Unit 6:

Bessemer process
- Expedited the steel manufacturing process
- Made mass producing steel cheaper and more efficient
- Monopolies formed and made billions (Rockefeller, Carnegie)
- More jobs became available, filled by immigrants
- Allowed the economy to flourish, America became a global superpower
Telephone
- Transformed communication forever
Electric light bulb
- Factories could stay open later because they didn’t have to rely on natural light to see by
- Street lights (urbanization)
Typewriter
- Opened more jobs in offices (led to urbanization)

Urbanisation
- Urbanisation was a direct result of the technological advancements in the Gilded Age, both because cities became more livable and because more jobs opened in commerce hubs (cities)

Unit 7:

Assembly line
- Goods could be mass-produced in a more organized, cheaper, and more efficient manner
- Deskilled labour (people learned to repeat the same task instead of building the product)
- Led to the growth of industrial hubs in cities like Detroit
Cars, automobiles
- Transportation became quicker and easier
- A new market which was highly profitable emerged (Henry Ford monopolized)
Tanks, poison gas, machine guns
- WW1 tech
- America became one of the most feared militaries in the world
Radar, sonar, the atomic bomb
- WW2 tech
- America became the most feared military in the world
Radios
- Interconnectedness, communication
- Political messaging
- Spread of mass culture
Electric washers, vacuums
- Home appliances revolutionzed domestic life
- Emergence of the modern nuclear family (housewife duties)
- Led to consumer culture

Unit 8: