Many things were involved when it came to territorial expansion in the United States of America. With one of the big ideas that it was their God-given right to move west and expand across the land, nothing was going to stop early Americans from claiming what they thought was destined to be theirs. Along with the idea of moving and expanding west, slavery was of concern as well. Would the new states be slave states or free states? How would Congress come to an agreement if they were to keep the fragile balance between the North and the South? Many other questions came from this as well ultimately pushing to a bloody conflict. The idea that it was their “Natural Right” comes from Manifest Destiny a term that describes the attitude the Americans …show more content…
had during the expansion of America in the 19th century. It meant not only could they expand, but they were destined too. Manifest destiny was responsible for nearly 7 million people, 40 percent of the nation’s population, to leave their homes in the trans-Appalachian West and move to find economic opportunities. But before Manifest Destiny was a way of life to the American people, we must go back to what started the colonies in the first place. In fact, the first colonies founded by the English such as Jamestown, Virginia were some of the first expansion moves that came about the U.S before it was even an idea. This is because one of the reasons for the British moving across the ocean was people in search of new opportunities and to somewhat gain more land. More land for Great Britain meant more control. By the early 1600’s, the second colony founded by the Puritans was settled. Again, here we can see that the ideology of Manifest Destiny was beginning to take root in the people moving here. The Puritans already being somewhat of an invasive population believed that the land was theirs for the taking. A quote from the textbook states, “The earth is the Lord’s . . . the earth is given to the saints” (Locks, 52). This idea was both justified and inevitable in their eyes. They believed that they were rightfully destined to conquer this land and that the natives had no right to own it because they were not treating the land as property. Around the span of 10 years, the Massachusetts Bay Company would settle more land resulting in a new and third colony expansion to be settled by John Wheelwright, New Hampshire. Four years after this, Lord Baltimore founded Maryland and a year after that in 1635, Connecticut was founded by Thomas Hooker. As we can see, as more and more people began to move across the ocean, the land being taken grow exponentially. Roger Williams founded Rhode Island in 1636 while 2 years later Peter Minuit and the New Sweden Company settled in Delaware. However, this was short-lived as the next colony was not founded until 15 years later when North Carolina was established in 1653. Besides Manifest Destiny to help Americans move west, the Louisiana Purchase was a 15-million-dollar purchase made by Thomas Jefferson to help America grow.
The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rockies as well from Canada to New Orleans. Jefferson believed that westward expansion was vital to the nation’s health. Not only that, he also brought the power of Manifest Destiny into play by stating “Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God”. Coinciding independence and virtue with land ownership, Jefferson believed that this was what a republic depended on and most importantly, America. The purchase brought with it a huge influx of new states that were established over the years that followed. Indiana was taken in on December 11, 1816. That following year, Mississippi was also established. Soon after, Illinois, Maine, and Missouri would become states totaling up to 46 states officially established due to the westward expansion of the United …show more content…
States. As America expanded west and grew even grander, it took along with it, slavery. There was much controversy whether to ban or allow slavery in the western frontier. However, in 1820, the Missouri Compromise had tried to answer the question. This Compromise admitted Missouri as a slave state, however, Maine would then be considered a free state. This would help to preserve the delicate balance in Congress about the issue. However later, it would be ruled that slavery is prohibited north of the southern border of Missouri and the rest of the Louisiana Purchase. This, however, did not apply to other territories that were claimed beyond the Louisiana Purchase which caused more concern for the issue at hand with slavery: The Democrats tended to favor territorial expansion, especially in terms of acquiring territory from Mexico (such as Texas, New Mexico, and California).
The Whigs believed before the nation acquired more territory, the government should focus on the economic development of the existing states and territories. Complicating the question of territorial expansion was the expansion of slavery in new territories. The Missouri Compromise seemingly settled the issue of slavery in the existing territories, but not what might happen in any new territories. (Locke 562) As the southern economy grew larger and larger, they relied heavily on “King Cotton”, which was the economic importance of cotton pre-Civil War. It would only work with a certain system and that system was forced labor. Northerners were becoming irritated with Congress as they did not seem to object slavery, but they did hate how it interfered with
expansion. As one would think, slavery in the new states did end up causing a chain of unfortunate events. In 1854 the government decided that two new states, Kansas and Nebraska would be established in the Louisiana Purchase. However, since they were north of the 36o30’ parallel, they were considered free states. Of course, no southern legislature would let this plan happen because it would give more power to free states. To come up with a middle ground, Senator Stephen A. Douglas proposed something called “Popular Sovereignty” which let the settlers of the land decide for themselves if the states would be slave states or free states. With the south content on the idea, this left the Northerners angry because, in their view, Douglas had caved into their ideology. As people from the north and south fought over what the states should be, rivaling governments were formed and spiraled the mess into a civil war. Hundreds of people fought and died in the conflict known as Bleeding Kansas.
The economies of the North and South were vastly different leading up to the Civil War. Money was equivalent to power in both regions. For the North, the economy was based on industry as they were more modern and self-aware. They realized that industrialization was progress and it could help rid the country of slave labor as it was wrong. The North’s population had a class system but citizens could move within the system, provided they made the money that would allow them to move up in class. The class system was not as rigid as it was in the South. By comparison, the South wanted to hold on to its economic policy. In doing so, the practice of slavery kept the social order firmly in place. The economic factors, social issues and a growing animosity between the two regions helped to induce the Civil War.
The Northerners were extremely aggravated with the Southerners’ position on slavery. Not only did they disagree that the Southerners did not have to pay the people who worked for them, but they also violated the African Americans’ human rights. People in the North didn’t rely on slavery. They were independent and their work force did not require outside labor. Two main occupations in the North included working in factories and mills. The Northerners were able to do these jobs themselves. If there had been more agricultural jobs...
Expansion of a nation was nothing new in terms of history. The fighting, buying and selling of land in North America was a common event during the 1800s. The United States had started expanding in 1803 with President Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory whose borders where not clearly defined. After the War of 1812 with the British, the northern border of this territory was defined at the 49th parallel. Then in 1819, Spain sold its claim to Florida to the United States. The United States wanted to continue to expand itself westward to the Pacific Ocean, a territory then owned by Mexico. The acquirement of this territory occurred after the Mexican War. How the territory was acquired by the United States is the topic in question.
During the early to mid eighteen hundreds, there was great unrest across the country over territorial expansion. Half of the nation believed that it would be beneficial to the country if we expanded, while the other half were firmly opposed to expansion. Within the century, the United States managed to claim Texas, California, and the majority of Indian-owned lands. Opinions on this expansion were mixed around the country. Polls taken during the time period show that the majority of the south and west supported expansion, while northerns were opposed to it. (Document B) This was because the northerners had different values and beliefs than the southerners of westerners. Both the opponents and supporters of territorial expansion during the time period between 1800 and 1855, had a tremendous influence on shaping federal government policy. However, it can be argued that the supporters of territorial expansion had the largest impact. They were able to sway the federal government to create policies and new laws that were in favor of supporter’s beliefs.
The years 1840 to 1890 were a period of great growth for the United States. It was during this time period that the United states came to the conclusion that it had a manifest destiny, that is, it was commanded by god to someday occupy the entire North American continent. One of the most ardent followers of this belief was President James K. Polk. He felt that the United States had the right to whatever amount of territory it chose to, and in doing this the United States was actually doing a favor for the land it seized, by introducing it to the highly advanced culture and way of life of Americans. Shortly after his election he annexed Texas. This added a great amount of land to the United States, but more was to follow. The Oregon Territory became a part of the United States is 1846, followed by the Mexican Cession in 1848 and the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. At this point the United States had accomplished its manifest destiny, it reached from east to west, from sea to shining sea. Now that the lands it so desired were finally there, the United States faced a new problem- how to get its people to settle these lands so they would actually be worth having. Realistically, it is great to have a lot of land, but if the land is unpopulated and undeveloped, it really isn't worth much. And the government of the United States knew this. One of the reasons that many did not choose to settle there immediately was that the lands were quite simply in the middle of nowhere. They were surrounded by mountains, inhabited by hostile Indians, and poor for farming. Because of these geographical conditions, the government was forced to intervene to coax its citizens into settling the new lands. Basically the lands were not settled because they were available, they were settled because of various schemes the government concocted to make them seem desirable.
In the south, cotton was becoming a huge success for the southern farmer. Cotton, being a very laborious crop, required the ownership of many slaves per plantation. Unlike the immigrants of the north, slaves were property. Slaves were also much less of a profit. When a slave became ill he could not simply be replaced, he needed to be cared for, after all, this was the plantation owners property. On the other hand in the north if a worker became to ill to work, there were several immigrants waiting for the job.
In the years paving the way to the Civil War, both north and south were disagreeable with one another, creating the three “triggering” reasons for the war: the fanaticism on the slavery issue, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the separation of the Democratic Party. North being against the bondage of individuals and the South being for it, there was no real way to evade the clash. For the south slavery was a form of obtaining a living, without subjugation the economy might drop majorly if not disappear. In the North there were significant ethical issues with the issue of subjugation. Amazing measures to keep and dispose of subjugation were taken and there was never a genuine adjusted center for bargain. Despite the fact that there were a lot of seemingly insignificant issues, the fundamental thing that divided these two states was bondage and the flexibilities for it or against. With these significant extremes, for example, John Brown and Uncle Tom's Cabin, the south felt disdain towards the danger the Northerners were holding against their alleged flexibilities. The more hatred the South advanced, the more combative they were to anything the Northerners did. Northerners were irritated and it parted Democrats over the issue of bondage and made another Republican gathering, which included: Whigs, Free Soilers, Know Nothings and previous Democrats and brought about a split of segments and abbreviated the street to common war. Southerners loathed the insubordination of the north and started to address how they could stay with the Union.
There were lots of possible causes for the civil war, the westward expansions being one of them. 1 Some of the problems with the westward expansion were that the settlers found life hard. The Government promised all those who could pay a $10 registration fee, 160 acres of land would be theirs in the West. The aim of the Homestead Act in 1862 was to encourage people to take up farming and help sustain the settler communities. The problem was that many settlers didn’t know how to farm and they found that the conditions and climate was too harsh to work in. It was also hard to farm with the lack of vegetation and the hot weather. There were also problems with where the boundaries should be drawn for the expansion. They also didn’t know how large the population of a territory should be before Statehood could be granted. These were the questions that the Government had to ask themselves about the expansion. Therefore thi...
The Civil War, a devastating conflict amongst the American North and South in the mid to late 1800s, was caused by growing tension between the opposing sides for many reasons but also because of territorial expansion of America. In determining the impact of territorial expansion in the mid 1800’s on the sectionalism that led to the civil war, one would first have to look at the tactics for territorial expansion in America. Americans began to entertain the idea of heading west in the early 1800’s, which then brought forth the acts and events of the United States spreading its boundaries from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Historical events involving the expansion of America such as Manifest Destiny, the War with Mexico, and popular sovereignty in the west, all contributed to the growing tension between the North and the South, ultimately starting the Civil War. In the early nineteenth century, most Northerners and Southerners agreed entirely that Americans should settle Western territories, and that it was God’s plan, or their “manifest destiny.”
John L. O’Sullivan, an editor, coined the term “Manifest Destiny” and gave the expansionist movement its name in 1845. The “Manifest Destiny” was the belief that Americans had the divine right to occupy North America. The Americans believed they were culturally and racially superior over other nations and other races such as the Native American Indians and Mexicans. The notion of the ‘Manifest Destiny’ was that the Americans were morally superior and therefore morally obligated to try to spread enlighten and civilization to the less civilized societies. According to World History Group, “The closest America came to making ‘Manifest Destiny’ an official policy was The Monroe Doctrine, adopted in 1823, it put European nations on notice that the U.S. would defend other nations of the Western Hemisphere from further colonization” (World History, 2015). This divine American mission caused Anglo-Saxon Americans to believe they had the natural right to move west and bring blessings of self-government and religion, more specifically-
Secondly, the demand for cotton grew tremendously as cotton became an important raw material for the then developing cotton industries in the North and Britain. The growing of cotton revived the Southern economy and the plantations spread across the south, and by 1850 the southern U.S produced more than 80% of cotton all over the world. As this cotton based economy of the south grew so did the slave labor to work in these large scale plantations since they were more labor-intensive...
The Louisiana Purchase was the largest land transaction for the United States, and the most important event of President Jefferson's presidency. Jefferson arranged to purchase the land for $11,250,000 from Napoleon in 1803. This land area lay between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. The purchase of this land greatly increased the economic resources of the United States, and proved Jefferson had expansionist dreams by doubling the size of the United States. Jefferson believed that the republic must be controlled by ambitious, independent, property-holding farmers, who would form the incorruptible bedrock of democracy (LaFeber 179). In order to complete his vision the country needed more land.
The Louisiana Purchase was the purchase of the Louisiana Territory by the United States from France in 1803. This purchase encompassed present day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska as well as large portions of Texas, New Mexico,
The west was also a lot different from the rest of the United states. “There was little law enforcement and government in the ‘wild west’.It was during this time that many gunslingers made a name for themselves”(Softschools) .This is also why it was nicknamed the “Wild West” at the time. Thomas Jefferson, the president at the time, believed that the nations future depended on settling in the west. This belief was referred to as manifest destiny. The cost of the Louisiana purchase was $15M, giving the US the land west if the Mississippi river. The purchase also put some boundaries into place that still are the same as of today. With all this new land people were able to leave home and become independent which was Jefferson’s goal with the purchase of the new land.The expansion itself was also an essential part to the republican project. “Some of the people trying to stake land claims would sneak ahead and hide until the land rush began. Then they would stake their land. These people were called “sooners’’(Soft School). “The debate over whether the U.S. would continue slavery and expand the area in which it existed or abolish it altogether became increasingly contentious throughout the first half of the 19th century”(Huntington). Because of all the different jobs and the climate in the west, a whole different culture was developed focused more on farming and ranching, rather than working in the factories
It was not very easy for the United States to expand like they had in mind. The division of land had been a rising problem since the Revolutionary war. Two of the main issues during the time of the Articles of Confederation were the pricing and land measurement (Potter and Schamel 1). Throughout the course of over fifty years, the government had tried many different attempts to get people to want to expand to the west. They just didn’t really know the right way of how to go about it. Trying to sell the acres did not go over well, considering the price seemed outrageous for what they were getting. Untouched soil was very hard to start on and be successful from the beginning, which caused some problems with people not wanting to buy the land (Weiser 1). So again, a different political group tried a different approach.