Changes

==Prelude to war==

==Prelude to war==

===Description of the North prior to 1860===

===Description of the North prior to 1860===

The chief characteristic of the North was its industrialization, which was rapid.  Plants to manufacture metal goods sprang up almost as fast as they were invented, and after manufacture they spread quickly.  One example was [[John Deere]], who in 1840 was manufacturing a new stainless-steel plow that he had invented barely three years before; by 1848 the plows were selling at the rate of a thousand a year.  By 1857, Deere and his partner had expanded with the manufacture of so much farm equipment that the Middle West was made the country's greatest wheat-producing area. Farm equipment also included the first examples of steam-powered plows, and in 1859 there were contests as to who could build and deploy the best plow.  One such plow at a contest at Freeport, [[Illinois]] caused an official committee to declare the machine could "plow 25 acres a day at 62.5 cents an acre" versus a normal manual charge of $2.50 an acre. (Nevins, pg 166-168)

The chief characteristic of the North was its industrialization, which was rapid.  Plants to manufacture metal goods sprang up almost as fast as they were invented, and after manufacture they spread quickly.  One example was [[John Deere]], who in 1840 was manufacturing a new stainless-steel plow that he had invented barely three years before; by 1848 the plows were selling at the rate of a thousand a year.  By 1857, Deere and his partner had expanded with the manufacture of so much farm equipment that the Middle West was made the country's greatest wheat-producing area. Farm equipment also included the first examples of [[Steam power|steam-powered]] plows, and in 1859 there were contests as to who could build and deploy the best plow.  One such plow at a contest at Freeport, [[Illinois]] caused an official committee to declare the machine could "plow 25 acres a day at 62.5 cents an acre" versus a normal manual charge of $2.50 an acre. (Nevins, pg 166-168)

Inventions were not limited to farming.  [[Locomotive]]s, [[sewing machine]]s, [[shoe pegger]]s, [[reaper]]s, [[auger machine|auger]]s, [[turbine]]s, [[hydraulics]], [[power loom]]s, [[rotary press]]es, and more seemingly raced out of factories.  [[Standardization]] was also an American invention, meaning replacement parts could be made and ordered to replace something broken within the machine instead of replacing the machine itself, as Connecticut's [[Samuel Colt]] first demonstrated with his new [[revolver]].  And to keep up with the exporting demand, Northern shipyards produced so many ships that they threatened to eclipse their chief rival, Great Britain. (TL 1, pg 18)  

Inventions were not limited to farming.  [[Locomotive]]s, [[sewing machine]]s, [[shoe pegger]]s, [[reaper]]s, [[auger machine|auger]]s, [[turbine]]s, [[hydraulics]], [[power loom]]s, [[rotary press]]es, and more seemingly raced out of factories.  [[Standardization]] was also an American invention, meaning replacement parts could be made and ordered to replace something broken within the machine instead of replacing the machine itself, as Connecticut's [[Samuel Colt]] first demonstrated with his new [[revolver]].  And to keep up with the exporting demand, Northern shipyards produced so many ships that they threatened to eclipse their chief rival, Great Britain. (TL 1, pg 18)