A steamboat is a boat propelled by <em>steam</em>. In the 19th century, steamboat was widely used on rivers, especially on the Mississipi and its tributaries. Inicially they worked only on lakes and rivers, but later the <em>steam</em> was also applied to larger vessels that crossed oceans. The building of canals was very important for the economy in the United States, by reducing the prices of transportation of products from or to distant places.
Answer B. People began to build canals in the USA and Europe.
The answer is to prevent a British invasion from the north because it would have been very easy for Britan to destroy them because they were weak in the north.
