Question

How were natural resources used in the North as compared to the South?

Resources were used mainly for manufacturing in the North and farming in the South.

Renewable resources were needed more in the North and non-renewable resources were needed in the South.

The North required resources for agricultural industries, while the South needed resources for industrial production.

Fewer resources were needed in the North as machines replaced human labor, but the South still needed resources for agricultural industries

Answer 1

You need to define "natural resource" for me to help you with this. It's a bit of a strange question, because most natural resources have a specific use, and both the North and the South would use them for the same purposes. For example, iron ore can only be used to make iron. So that's what both the North and the South would do with it. The South could certainly not use iron ore to farm the land and grow cotton, right?

There are a few natural resources which are multi-purpose. Running water, for example. You could use that to either power a water-driven mill or loom, which is kind of an industrial use, or you could use it to irrigate a big field where natural rainfall won't do the job, which is an agricultural use. Here you might argue the North prefered industrial uses and the South agricultural uses. But I think that isn't quite right, because if the North *could* have grown cotton with the water -- if the weather didn't rule that out -- they might well have, and if the South *could* have built a mill and a loom -- if they had the raw materials handy to feed into the mill or loom -- they might well have.

The problem with this question is that it assumes that social and political choices dictate resource use, for example that the North *chose* to be industrial, and therefore attempted to use its resources in industrial ways, and likewise the South *chose* to be agricultural, and then attempted to use its resources in agricultural ways.

But that is surely the cart before the horse. Reality is the other way around. The actual natural resources available dictate the social and political choices: the North could only prosper, using the resources it had available, by industrialization. The South, on the other hand, using its resources, could prosper most easily by agriculture. Each made the most sensible choice of economy based on the resources available.

I think the least wrong choice is probably the first, and I would guess that's the choice the person who wrote this (awful) question meant you to choose.

Answer 2

A

Answer 3

yea the right answer is a