Political, Social And Economic Impact Of Westward Expansion

America, home of the brave and land of the free. America became the superpower it is today because of the Westward expansion. Through Westward expansion the United States was able to gain more land, start new businesses, and create new jobs. This expansion brought drastic changes to the country. Political, social and economic impact were all brought upon the country during the westward expansion. Of those three major impacts, the political impact had the greatest footprint on the westward expansion.
Before the topic of westward expansion is further touched upon the time period must be recognized. During the mid 1840’s settlers from the U.S began travelling west after the Louisiana purchase in 1803. Americans continued to travel westward

into areas such as Texas, Oregon, and California. In the late 1840’s gold was discovered in California and it sparked several events leading into a huge migration to the western portion of North America. Population was being dispersed and was spread all across North America. With new land comes several farmers willing to farm and grow crops on western land. Farmers do not always do their own work, as slavery was a popular option for people who did not want to get their hands dirty or simply did not have enough time. In the 1840’s slavery was being controlled by an equal amount of slave and free states, and an odd number could result into a problem in the representation in congress. Once Texas seceded from Mexico they requested to annex to the United States. And preventing the creation of another slave state and a disruption in the balance, the U.S declined the annexation. The creation of other territories wanting to join the U.S and conflict between slave states and free states set the stage for the American Civil War in 1861-1865.
The American civil war is arguably one of the most important events in American history. The division between slave and free states were evident even before the civil war. The land gain from the Treaty of Paris in 1783 (Mcdougal-Littel) also contributed to Westward expansion because most people wanted to get across the Appalachians mountains to gain wealth from animal fur. And finally from the Mexican Cession, Texas Annexation, and Louisana Purchase the United States had expanded from “sea to shining sea”. Several people wanted to expand even president James.K Polk was a major player in westward expansion and had a huge following of Americans with the same mindset of manifest destiny. The idea of manifest destiny that god gave the Americans a right to expand to the whole continent. As John L. O’Sullivan explains “which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and self-government.”.
The civil war was not the only political impact that westward expansion may have pushed.

The expansion of technology and the creation of new territories resulting into new governments in the west was also an important impact. In the painting “American Progress”by John Gast shows what appears to be lady liberty hovering over land moving west and marking land with telegraph wires while Native Americans are being pushed out into the darkness. This painting was made 7 years after the civil war and was a good image of the progress Americans made in only a little bit of time. The huge shift in population was a major social change but not as big as the land and territorial disputes, wars of cession, unbalance of slave states and free states that may of caused the Civil War. The economic impact was not as big as the social or political impact as it only was a small period of inflation after merchants charged unreasonable prices during the gold rush of 49. The Native Americans were practically ignored during the expansion and were basically pushed off and ignored. The treaties that were made before were completely broken and the only thing Americans wanted to do were convert them into Christians or straight up kill the Native

Americans.
The Westward expansion was one of the main reasons why America is the America of today. America has expanded and became the big giant it is today. America has expanded from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and covers most of North America. The political impact of the expansion had the greatest impact on the expansion of the country we call home.