Examples of expansion in the following topics:
-
- The United States began continental expansion immediately after the Constitution of 1789 through war, treaty, land deals, and settlement.
- In particular, these powers fought over western expansion, running from the Mississippi River to the Pacific.
- However, with the success of the American Revolution, westward expansion and territorial acquisition of the North American continent became a U.S.
- The continental expansion of the United States was mostly accomplished through treaty, purchase, or war with southern neighbors over the span of the nineteenth century.
- Identify key dates in the history of the United States' territorial expansion
-
- Westward expansion was motivated by the Jeffersonian ideal of the yeoman farmer and enabled by technological improvements.
- Westward expansion was sped by improvements in transportation infrastructure, which carried settlers westward.
- Westward expansion was given further incentives by improved agricultural technology and better market access.
- As American expansion continued, Native Americans resisted settlers' encroachment in several regions of the new nation.
- Tecumseh led a Native American coalition that attempted to stop westward expansion of the United States.
-
- Americans asserted the right to colonize vast expanses of North America beyond their country's borders, especially into Oregon, California, and Texas.
- One problem created with westward expansion was the admission of new states--whether they should be slave or free.
- The concept of Manifest Destiny, the belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent, was primarily used by Democrats to support the expansion plans of the Polk Administration, and the idea of expansion was also supported by the Whigs like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Abraham Lincoln who wanted to deepen the economy.
- American westward expansion is idealized in Emanuel Leutze's famous painting Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way (1861).
- Examine the issues that redefined political parties and shaped the discussion around American expansion
-
- Although the Jackson presidency witnessed an expansion of liberty for some, it also saw the continued suppression of freedom for others.
- These supporters favored geographical expansion in order to create more farms for others like them, and distrusted the upper classes who envisioned an industrial nation built upon finance and manufacturing.
- Additionally, Jacksonian policies involving geographical expansion conflicted directly with the many Native American tribal nations who occupied lands desired by Jacksonian supporters.
-
- The United States' militant westward expansion of the 19th century had profound effects on American Indians and contributed to tensions over slavery.
- Polk’s administration (1845-1849) was a period of intensive expansion for the United States.
- However, this expansion led to debates about the fate of slavery in the West.
- Summarize how westward expansion changed the United States geographically, demographically, militarilly, and politically
-
- Southerners argued that the federal government had no
constitutional grounds to legislate against the expansion of slavery, whereas Northerners
claimed the ban on the expansion of slavery was necessary in order to
protect the interests of yeoman farmers and prevent Southern agriculture from
dominating the U.S. agrarian economy.
- Frémont,
who publicly criticized the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the expansion of slavery
into U.S. territories.
- The main theme of all seven
Lincoln-Douglas debates was slavery and its expansion into the territories.
- The
Republicans became the party of the North, promoting industry and business
while also attracting antislavery factions by opposing the expansion of slavery
into new territories.
- In 1860, sectional conflicts over the expansion of slavery
into the territories exploded when the Democratic Party officially splintered
into Northern and Southern factions.
-
- In 1840, territorial expansion became a priority for President James Polk, as Texas was annexed shortly before his inauguration.Believing in the "Manifest Destiny" of the United States to expand to the Pacific, Polk supported "Texans in their efforts to seize all land to the Rio Grande and claim the river as their southern and western border, in spite of the fact that Mexico claimed the Nueces River as the Texan border.With the annexation of Texas and the growing conflict between Mexicans and Texans, the Mexican government broke diplomatic relations with the United States.
- -British boundary in Oregon.However, rather than go to war with both Mexico and Britain, Polk opted for a diplomatic compromise to divide the Oregon territory at the 49th parallel.The compromise was made official by the Oregon Treaty in 1846.This allowed Polk to concentrate on the conflict with Mexico and gave the U.S. present-day Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming.However, the Oregon Treaty also angered war-hungry northern Democrats who criticized Polk for prioritizing southern expansion over northern expansion.
- However, the Mexican War was the source of much political conflict in the 1840s and compounded the sectional divides that already split national political coalitions.Most Whigs in the North and South opposed the war, while most Democrats supported it.In particular, Southern Democrats who were animated by the belief in Manifest Destiny enthusiastically supported the war in hope of adding slave-owning territory to the South (and thereby maintaining a political-balance of power with the faster-growing North).For most Whigs, the Mexican War represented little more than a weak justification by southern politicians for the aggressive expansion of slavery.However, Polk and southern Democrats continued to justify the war using arguments of Manifest Destiny and claiming that territory ceded from Mexico would repay the United States for several hefty loans given to the Mexican government during its war of independence.
- The war also inflamed the slavery issue and sectional splits in the United States.The new territories in the west (particularly California) meant that the westward expansion of slavery became an increasingly central and heated theme in national debates preceding the American Civil War.Furthermore, in extending the nation farther toward the Pacific Ocean, the Mexican–American War contributed to the massive migrations of Americans to the West, which culminated in transcontinental railroads and the Indian wars later in the same century.
-
- All seven debates primarily discussed the slavery issue,
and for Lincoln, the debates provided an opportunity to articulate his position
against the expansion of slavery into the territories, which bolstered his
popularity with the Republicans and helped him secure the party's nomination in
the 1860 presidential election.
- As the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Douglas' aim in the debates
was to defend his position that popular sovereignty was the best method to
legislate on the expansion of slavery, regardless of the Dred Scott decision.
- Douglas argued that, while the Dred Scott case prohibited Congress from
legislating on the expansion of slavery, citizens in the territories could
effectively legislate against it by refusing to create the structures and
enforcements to protect slaveowners' interests within the territory (this
position later became known as the Freeport Doctrine).
- Lincoln's
vehement opposition to the expansion of slavery in the territories did not mean
that he supported emancipation or social equality amongst races.
- Indeed many
historians argue that while Lincoln was opposed to the expansion of slavery, he
occupied a moderate position on the subject, primarily concerned about how the
institution interfered with the republican principles of the Founding Fathers
rather than taking a moral stance against it.
-
- As the parties developed distinctive positions on issues such as the modernization of the economy and westward expansion, voters found themselves attracted to one side or the other.
- The Whigs always opposed expansion, as did the Republicans until 1898.
- The Democrats, meanwhile, talked of agrarian virtues of the yeoman farmer, westward expansion, and how well rural life comported with Jeffersonian values.
-
- The French colonial interest in the Americas was chiefly economic, and relied on expansive but sparsely populated trading routes.
- French colonial expansion began in the early 16th century, with the voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano and Jacques Cartier.