Westward Expansion

Nichole Galindez AMH 2010 Ameri laughingstock autobiography 31 October 2012 Nichole Galindez AMH 2010 American History 31 October 2012 West contendd Expansion of the United States To what extent is it accurate to exact that the ideal of manifest destiny was a make factor in the western en declamatoryments of the United States? The 1840s was a time of great territorial expansion during which the United States fought to annex Texas, acquire the Oregon territory, and conquer atomic number 20 and New Mexico from Mexico.As the people sought reasoning behind their territorial ambitions, a belief known as Manifest Destiny sprouted from their feeling of nationality as they came to believe that America was destined to expand aside the current borders. Manifest Destiny was besides a term apply by Democrats to promote and deflect people to support the territorial expansions that the United States was undergoing at the time.Although manifest destiny was a huge motivating factor in the w estern expansion of the United States, other factors such as the rising universe of discourse, expansion of thrall and freedom-seeking slaves, the amber rush of calcium, and new opportunities sought by strikers. The rising population helped push Americans towards expanding westward. The earliest 1800s was a time when the United States was experiencing a rapid growth in population. The U. S. population grew from much than quin one million million million in 1800 to more than 23 million by mid-century. During that time, there the U. S had been experiencing a day-by-day high birth rate.The growth on the sizes of families only added pressure to expand their land and gather more resources to survive. Immigration also added to the explosive population growth in the United States. Over 7. 5 million immigrants migrated to the United States. M any immigrants fled their countries in order to escape from p overty and famine. The capital rush also caused a great influx of immigrants a s they hoped to acquire some of the wealth entrap in the United States. Since floriculture entrustd the primary economic structure, many incoming immigrants would scout for farmable land.However most of the racy land east of the Appalachian Mts. had already been taken. This pushed immigrants to scout west to look for better land. Nearly 4,000,000 Americans movementd to western territories between 1820 and 1850. The Gold Rush of California attracted all kinds of attention from money-hungry miners to hopeful farmers. The first discovery of gold in California in 1849 influenced many settlers and immigrants to flock westward in the hope of gaining wealth. As news spread of the discovery, thousands of gold miners traveled by sea or over land to San Francisco and the surrounding playing field.The Gold Rush attracted more than just the American people only it also helped the influx of immigrants. Thousands of Chinese migrated to the U. S after consultation about the opportunity to mine for wealth. This caused the non-native population of the California territory to reach 100,000. Many of the thousands of settlers never found gold but helped to promote west expansion. New opportunities were another factor that helped to motivate westward expansion. As the increasing population put pressure on settlers, many of them headed west in hopes of acquiring cheap, fertile land to grow more food to feed their families.Since the government offered most of the land cheap, or in some cases free, many didnt hesitate to move. Government passed things like the Homestead Act to encourage settlers to settle west. Others sought the chance at a new life. They precious to increase their political power or standing by owning more land. In their eyes, land ownership was tied to wealth, political power, self-sufficiency, and independent self rule. New technologies also had an impact on westward expansion. New technological innovations helped to influence the economy by enhancing h and and commerce.This proved wrong the belief that, like previous empires, the United States would get weaker with expansion. By the 1840s, steamboats make use of Americas waterways and turned them into busy commercial thoroughfares. Their popularity grew as they continued to increase trade between towns and cities. Railroads were another innovation that helped to fuel trade. They integrated eastern markets with the towns on the western slope of the Appalachians. Robert Fultons invention of the canal and the invention of the telegraph were two other great pillow slips of the technologies that helped to enhance westward expansion.The persist factor that also affected westward expansion was the entrust to expand slavery and slaves desire Politicians, editors, soldiers, and citizens, wanted new terrirory for various reasons. In the case of Texas, the Tyler administration sought to prevent the abolition of slavery there, domination a potential rival in cotton production, provide a haven for masters and their slaves, fluff Great Britain from keeping Texas independent, and comply with the wishes of most Texians to join the United States.In the Oregon dispute, Democrats hoped to dominate Asian commerce, provide land for future pioneers, and safeguard citizens already settled there. The war with Mexico and the strategy of conquest revealed a desire to secure a border at the Rio Grande, satisfy claims against Mexico, and acquire California to monopolize trade with Asia. Democrats wanted to supply abundant land to the nations poor and to future immigrants. To attain this laudable goal, however, they relied on bribery, bullying, and warfare to seize land from Native Americans and Mexicans.Often idealistic, they were also racist and materialistic. Yet anti-slavery activists and Democrats, whose belief in federal power was imperil by the South, were opposed to any expansionist move that would add new slave-holding states to the Union and thereby crushed the fragil e balance of power between North and South. After the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, disagreements over the expansion of slavery make further territorial annexation too divisive to be decreed government policy. Many Northerners were increasingly opposed to hat they believed to be efforts by Southern slave ownersand their friends in the Northto expand slavery at any cost. The proposal during the war of the Wilmot Proviso (a statement declaring that slavery would not be permitted in any new territory acquired by the U. S. ), and the emergence of various hard worker Power conspiracy theories thereafter, indicated the degree to which Manifest Destiny had become controversial. The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as dissipate of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers.This was one of the most controversial acts of the 1850 compromise and heightened Northern fe ars of a slave power conspiracy. It declared that all runaway slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters. Abolitionists nicknamed it the Bloodhound Law for the dogs that were used to track down runaway slaves. 1 http//www. pbs. org/kera/usmexicanwar/prelude/md_expansionism. html http//solpass. org/6ss/games/westwardcloze. htm http//www. newworldencyclopedia. org/entry/Manifest_DestinyWestward ExpansionThe westward expansion, which started in the 1820s, was one of the biggest steps forward our country has ever taken. It nearly tripled the size of our country and increased the population by monstrous amounts. It also improved the economy greatly though agricultural means, prompted political leaders to sent people to explore (Lewis and Clark), started a civil war, motivated huge amounts of people to move west, and roughly destroyed our country.The expansion was magnified greatly by the Louisiana Purchase, when President Jefferson bought a large area of land west of the multiple sclerosis river from Spain, the purchase added large amounts of futile, unsettled land to the United States. This purchase was made possible by the exuberant democratic belief in the Manifest Destiny. The Manifest Destiny was a belief that Americans were meant to explore the western territories and settle the entire continent this, was strongly believed by most democrats and was a large political controversy.This, as well as making the Louisiana Purchase possible, made it so that President Polk could start the Mexican War. The Mexican War was a war between America and Mexico during which the U. S. acquired large amounts of land formerly owned by Mexico. The war started in 1846 and ended in 1848. The war was prompted by the Mexicans invading the U. S. annex of Texas which even after the Texas Revolution in 1836 Mexico claimed as theirs. The war ended informally in the fall of 1847 when an American army captured Mexico City and formally in 1848 with the signing of the Treat y of Guadalupe Hidalgo.Lewis and Clark also made a significant impact on the westward expansion by exploring enormous amounts of land, from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. They were sent out by President Jefferson to find a water route across North America and, with the help of an Indian named Sacajawea, they tried to do exactly that and although they couldnt find any all water routes they did make many significant discoveries. A few of the discoveries Lewis and Clark made were pricelessly valuable to civilization.For example they discovered at least 70 different Native American tribes and discovered and documented two hundred new plant/animal species that were completely unknown to science. The list of different kinds of people who went west is enormous. thither were slaves and other low-class people expression for a fresh start, upper/ middle-class plantation owners and farmers looking to expand, explorers and adventurers looking for excitement in wild/unexplored lands, and many, many others. Even though these people were different in many ways they all wanted a fresh start.Now not all of them got what they were hoping for but a great deal did in the end although this brought up the issue of slavery. The westward expansion brought up the issue of slavery. The previous laws allowed for slavery below the 3630 parallel but now it had to be decided whether or not slavery was going to be allowed in the new states/colonies/settlements. This as you can imagine caused major political differences. It was finally decided that the colonies would decide for themselves by voting.This caused many people to move so that they could vote in favor of their opinion. But this than caused South Carolina to secede from the union and prompted the civil war but Ill get into that in another paper. http//www. nationalgeographic. com/lewisandclark 1996- National Geographic Society. http//www. history. com/topics/westward-expansion 1996-2013, A&E idiot box Networks, LLC. C arroll, Anne W. Christ and the Americas. New York TAN Books and Publishers, Inc. , 1997 Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2011. http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Main_Page