19th Century America Essay

Whether it was the highway system, the railroads, or the canals, easy and effective transportation has played an integral part of the development of the U.S. Transportation has made all parts of America accessible, spurring economic and industrial growth. The groundwork of this transportation, laid between 1820 and 1860, set the stage for the development of all aspects of American life. Making the U.S. a large, interdependent economy, the transportation developments of antebellum America led to an increased industrialization, expansion, and sectionalism.
Once of the first and most important aims of transportation in the 19th century was the fostering of industrial growth. In 1820, Henry Clay’s American system sought to do just that, with plans

After the Mexican War, expansion grew so rapidly that transportation was unable to keep up. As settlers traveled on wagons on the Oregon and Santa Fe trails, politicians such as Stephen Douglas pushed for the extension of railroads into the west. This resulted in the Gadsden Purchase in 1852, which cleared a path for the transcontinental railroad. Most of the effects transportation would have on the west would be felt after the Civil War, whether it be the cattle drives to the railroad junctions of Omaha and Chicago or the Populist’s campaign against railroad price gouging.
Although transportation connected the U.S., it also promoted sectionalism, especially in the South. The South, totally dependent on large cotton plantations, did not need transportation as much as the North and West did. Systems like Henry Clay’s American System ignored much of the South. By the Civil War the North would have the vast majority of railroads. Although presidents such as Andrew Jackson, who vetoed the Maysville Road, were against what they saw as sectionalism in American transportation, the 19th century saw the development of two almost separate and