Civil War: Westward And Manifest Destiny

While Manifest Destiny and territorial expansion created conflict with foreign nations, including the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), and within the United States, it worked to unify the United States from 1830 to 1860 by strengthening the nation as a whole, creating economic opportunities for people from all different walks of life, and expanding the United States through the annexation of Texas and the acquisition of California from Mexico.

Manifest destiny and westward expansion was a tremendous key component to the growth of the nation economically because of the impact it had on native americans, women empowerment, and expanding the population of the country.

A positive political effect of Westward Expansion included the Homestead. This piece of legislation attempted to compromise between government and citizen needs. One major and well known political issue that became larger because of westward expansion was slavery. The south claimed they were under attack by radical northern abolitionists. The Northerners attempted to dominate US politics for the purpose of protecting slaveholders human property.

The United States began its life as a small nation consisting of only thirteen states. Over time the leaders of this county recognized that in order to prosper the nation would need to expand beyond the current set borders. Westward Expansion was the only solution, to adopt such a large endeavor meant that the population had to have a reason to migrate west. Expansion had appeal to the Southern land owners for the fact that the Missouri Compromise did not affect territories that were not part of the Louisiana Purchase, while those who did not have land moved west with the promises of land of their own to farm and own, yet congress continued to battle over “slave states” and “free states” to keep the balance. Westward expansion had many contributions to make to the Unites States.

During the early 1800’s in the United States of America, both the Early Industrial Revolution and the Westward Expansion contributed to the sectional tension between the North and the South. While the North had factories popping up everywhere, the South had more and more land dedicated to plantations. To stay at the pace of the North, the South decided it would be beneficial if they were to become their cotton suppliers. With the invention of the cotton gin, cotton was being mass-produced and sent to the North to be made into items such as clothing. Whilst this was going on, the point of slavery became a big issue and the debate over it began, dividing the North and South more and more over time. The North didn't support slavery and instead, hired workers to work in the factories (specifically low-wage woman), while the South supported slavery and used African slaves to work on plantations. This caused many problems as both sides wanted more land to promote their opinion on slavery for either plantations or factories. Due to each of the sides having contradictory points of view on slavery, the Missouri Compromise and the addition of other territories such as during the Louisiana Purchase, the Oregon Treaty, and the Annexation of Texas, much strife occurred in the Senate. The Westward Expansion led to the desire for more land, therefore the United States expanded their land from the East coast to the West coast. The Westward Expansion promoted the addition of new land and

Manifest Destiny is our god given right to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. During Manifest Destiny there were many different cases that helped out country like expanding to Texas through the Mexican American War, and finding gold in California which will be later called the gold rush.

James K. Polk was elected as president of the United States in 1848 and with him he brought a determination to expand territory more than any other president had before. In his one term administration he expanded the country by two-thirds. Polks hunger for more land resulted in a war with Mexico over Texas which evoked lots of opposition from the Whig party. The idea of Manifest Destiny was germinating throughout Democrats everywhere, countering the Whig ideology of “true republicanism”. They believed “A nation cannot simultaneously devote its energies to the absorption of others’ territories and the improvement of its own,” (pg, 49). Polk ignored this belief and soon John C. Fremont was declaring California independent and Stephen Watts Kearny was leading his army to several victories south of the Rio Grande. Nicholas Trist was able to get Mexico to sign the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, recognizing the Rio Grande boundary of Texas and ceding New Mexico and upper Californian to the US.

Finally, the social issues in the United States brought about by westward expansion really contributed to start of the Civil War. Proposed in 1846 by David Wilmot, The Wilmot Proviso was a proposition by abolitionists that proposed that there should be no slavery in any of the land included in the Mexican Secession. This was a bold move by the northern abolitionists, and though this wasn’t passed, it showed that the slavery issue was at the forefront of social issues on the western frontier. It was a

American culture has changed over time as the country has grown. It is important to know our history so we can avoid the same mistakes that our ancestors made before us. With knowledge of our history and our prior mistakes, we can learn from them and make better decisions in the future.

Industrialization of the United States was in full swing by the 1840s. Which evidenced that the continued expansion of the states was an issue and the idea of a Manifest Destiny was of major importance. John L. O’Sullivan once stated, “Our Manifest Destiny is to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions” (America: A Narrative History). The idea of a Manifest Destiny originated in the 1840s by the Anglo-Saxon Colonists to expand their ideal civilization and institutions across North America to become a super nation. There were conflicts during this expansion, but they only led to major successes that molded the states into the superior country it is today. The Manifest

The Manifest Destiny was the attitude prevalent during the 19th century period of American expansion that the United States not only could, but was destined to, stretch from coast to coast. Manifest Destiny was mainly accomplished by the Monroe Doctrine, the annexation of Texas, and the Mexican-American War, but we were not a true continental power yet. After 1850, the Civil War, westward expansion, and the rise of big business made the United States a true continental power.

In the early to mid 1800s, Americans began to want to expand the country again. Some Americans did not agree with the idea of expansion, and wanted to remain complacent with the amount of territory that they currently owned. The nation was torn. There were supporters and opponents of the idea of expansion. Each side presented their points but we eventually ended up expanding.

During the 19th century, so known “peculiar institution” of slavery dominated labor systems of the American South, also dominated most production in the US and led to a boost of the economy of the New Republic. By the 1850 's, US had become a country segregated into two regional identities, known as the Slave South and the Free North. While the South maintained a pro-slavery identity that supported and protected the expansion of slavery westward, the North largely held abolitionist views and opposed the slavery’s westward expansion. Until the 1850 's the nation uncertainly balanced the slavery subject between the two opponents. However, the acquisition of the Louisiana territories in 1803 by the Jefferson administration doubled the size of the US and the victory in the Mexican-American War extended the territory to the Pacific which quadrupled the area of the US. Ultimately, the territorial expansion led to the spread of slavery. In this essay, I will describe some of the reasons for the expansion of slavery including its influence in national politics, and consequences such as political debates and crises of 1850’s.

Rapid population growth and overuse of the land east of the Mississippi River, coupled with the knowledge that there was an abundance of land for new settlement west of the river, led to the ideology of expansionism; the ideology became simply known as Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion, written by Amy S. Greenburg, deeply explains the motivation of the individuals looking to expand their settlements westward. Since the time of publication, we have realized that we could have handled the situation, in which we removed the inhabitants of the west from their homeland, in a better way. Americans believed that it was their God-given right to expand westward by destroying anything in their path. “…courageous pioneers believed that America had a divine obligation to stretch the boundaries of their noble republic to the Pacific Ocean.” (“29. Manifest Destiny.”)

Along with influencing presidential elections, Manifest Destiny played a role in the slavery issue. Entering the mid eighteen hundreds slavery was a very sensitive subject, and some of the bad feelings that caused this sensitivity were caused by territorial expansion. With more lands being acquired the number of slave state and free state representatives in Congress became unbalanced. This caused great distress among the senators and representatives. For instance, free state members of Congress began accusing the slave state members of conspiracies. One such accusation was made by Charles Sumner. He proposed the idea that southerners wanted to acquire more land so they could implant slavery in the territories. With more slave oriented territories that would eventually became slave states, the South would have control of Congress. This is