РефератыИностранный языкWHWHAT MADE THE AMERICANS EXPAND WESTWARD Essay

WHAT MADE THE AMERICANS EXPAND WESTWARD Essay

WHAT MADE THE AMERICANS EXPAND WESTWARD? Essay, Research Paper


After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, a large amount of land west of the


original 13 states and the Northwest Territory was acquired. The open land,


additional benefits and other existing problems encouraged Americans to


expand westward. The American people began to realize that the future of


the country lay in the development of its own western resources. There were


many reasons that made the people face the grueling and dangerous movement


west, but the primary reason was economy.


"Like the Spanish conquistadors before them, the Americans looked beyond


the Mississippi, they saw an open beckoning. Despite the presence of


hundreds of Indian nations with rich and distinct cultures, who had populated


the land for thousands of years-from the desert of the Southwest and the


grassy prairies of the Great Plains to the high valleys of the Rocky


Mountains and the salty beaches of the Pacific Coast-Americans considered the


west to be an empty wilderness. And in less than fifty years, from the 1803


purchase of Louisiana Territory to the California gold rush of 1849, the


nation would expand and conquer the West" (Herb 3).


The ocean had always controlled New England’s interests and connected it


with the real world. Puritanism was still very strong in the north so the


moral unity of New England was exceptional. Having a very unmixed population


of English origin, New England contrasted very much with the other sections.


All this and the fact that they needed to cross populated states in order to


expand west set this section part from the others (Leuetenburg and Wishy 37).


New England’s population compared to other regions was poor, and the


population growth was even poorer. The trans-Alleghany States by 1820 had a


population of about 2.25 million, while New England had over 1.5 million.


Ten years later, western states had over 3.5 million with the people


northwest of the Ohio River alone numbering 1.5 million.


"In 1820 the total population of New England was about to equal to the


combined population of New York and New Jersey; but its increase between 1820


and 1830 was hardly three hundred thousand, not much over half that of New


York, and less that of gain of Ohio. If Maine, the growing state of the


group, be excluded, the increase of the whole section was less that of the


frontier state of Indiana"(Turner 41)


Fortunately, new manufactures help save New England from becoming an


entirely stationary section (Turner 12). New England’s shipping industry


became very strong because it had control of neutral trade during the


European wars. "Of the exports of the United States in 1820, the statistics


gave to New England about twenty percent, nine-tenths of which were from


Massachusetts"(Turner 11).


Then in a short period of time, the section witnessed a transfer of the


industrial center of gravity from the harbors to the waterfalls, from the


commerce and navigation to manufacturers (Turner 13). "Water power became


the sites of factory towns, and the industrial revolution which, in the time


of the embargo, began to transfer industries from the household to the


factory, was rapidly carried on"(Turner 14). A new class began to develop.


Farmers moved into towns, and their daughters began to work in mills.


Agriculture, though still very important to many New England people,


became a declining interest. "By 1830 New England was importing corn and


flour in large quantities from other sections. The raising of cattle and


sheep increased as grain cultivation declined"(Turner 46). With the cattle


and sheep raising becoming more popular, it encouraged emigration from New


England because it decreased the number of small farms. "By the sale of


their lands to wealthier neighbors, the New England farmers were able to go


west with money to invest"(Turner 15).


The Middle Region, which included New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey,


was a transition zone. It connected the north along with the south and the


east with the west. "Geographically, they (the states) lay on the line of


natural routes between the Atlantic on the one side, and the Ohio and the


Great Lakes on the other"(Turner 10). Compared to New England, this section


was rapidly growing region. By 1830, New York had already equaled the total


population of entire New England combined. Eventually, New York and


Pennsylvania would become the most populous states in the union.


About a decade before 1820, Western New York had showed frontier like


conditions. "The settlers (from New England) felled and burned the forest,


built little towns, and erected mills, and now, with a surplus of


agricultural products, they were suffering from the lack of a market and were


demanding transportation facilities"(Leuehtenburg and Wishy 40). With the


already existing routes being unreliable and expensive, "there was a growing


demand for canals?"(Turner 32). The Erie and Champlain canals were the


result of these demands.


De Witt Clinton saw the economic revolution, which the Erie Canal would


bring. He presented to the legislature the reason that made it practical and


the financial plan that made it possible. He showed them the vision of the


Hudson River, "not only reaching to the western confines of the state, but


even, by its connection with Lake Erie, stretching through two thousand miles


of navigable lakes and rivers to the very heart of the interior of the United


States"(Turner 32). To him, the Erie Canal was a political as well as an


economic undertaking:


"As a bond of union between the Atlantic and western states, it may prevent


the dismemberment of the American Empire. As an organ of communication


between the Hudson, the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, the great lakes of the


north and west, and their tributary rivers, it will create the greatest


inland trade ever witnessed"(Turner 32-33).


By 1825, the great canal system opened. With the decrease in


transportation charges, it brought, "prosperity and a tide of population into


western New York"(Turner 34). This led to movement west. "?villages sprang


up along the whole like of canal; the water-power was utilized for


manufactures?"(Turner 35). "The Great Lakes navigation grew steadily, the


Western Reserve increased its population, and the harbor of Cleveland became


a center of trade"(Turner 35).


With all the increased population, real estate value rose. New York


became the metropolis of the north. Values of imports rose. They eventually


became leaders of exports. "The state

of New York had by a stroke achieved


economic unity, and its metropolis at once became the leading city of the


country"(Leuehtenburg and Wishy 49).


The southern states, consisting of Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, the


Carolinas, and Georgia. The invention of the cotton gin ultimately led to


the expansion of the people from the coast to go inland. The southern states


also eventually grew to be inferior to the other states, another reason for


the expansion westward.


The invention of the cotton-gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 made the


cultivation of cotton profitable. "The opening of new land in the west after


1812 extend the area available for cotton cultivation"(Westward Expansion and


Regional Differences). Now that cotton cultivation was profitable "?it was


only a question of time when the cotton area, no longer limited to the tide


water region, would extend to the interior, carrying slavery with it"(Turner


45).


The invention of the cotton gin came at a very fitting time for the


cotton industry:


"Already the inventions of Arkwright, Hargreaves, and Cartwright had worked a


revolution in the textile industries of England, by means of the


spinning-jenny, the power-loom, and the factory system, furnishing machinery


for the manufacture of cotton beyond the world’s supply"(Turner 45).


This demand for cotton pushed all the owners of the cotton plantations west


along with all the slaves (Westward Expansion and Regional Differences). "By


1821 the old South produced one hundred and seventeen million pounds, and


five years later, one hundred and eighty million pounds (cotton)"(Turner 46).


But in the next five years, recently settled southwest was overtaking the


older section. "By 1834 the southwest had distanced the older


section"(Turner 147). "What had occurred was a repeated westward movement:


the cotton-plant first spread from the sea-coast to the uplands, and then, by


the beginning of our period, advanced to the Gulf plains, until the region


achieved supremacy in its production"(Turner 47).


But as much of the people moved west, the southern states began to grow


inferior to the other sections. "The westward migration of its people


checked the growth of the south. It had colonized the new west at the same


time that the middle region had been rapidly growing in the population and


the result was that the proud states of the southern seaboard was to


numerical inferiority"(Turner 57).


"As the movement of capital and population to the interior went on,


wealth was drained from the coast"(Turner 57). As the value of their lands


declined, the people of the south coast naturally sought for an explanation


and remedy to the problem (Turner 61):


"Instead of applying a system of scientific farming and replenishment of the


soil, there was a tendency for the planters who remained to get into debt in


order to add to their possessions the farms which offered for sale by the


movers. Thus there was a flow of wealth towards the west of pay for these


new purchases"(Turner 61).


It was because of the sudden shift of labor from farms to towns that


started the westward movement up north. The herding of cattle and sheep took


place of agriculture. So the owners of small farms sold their farms and


moved west. In the middle region, it was a lack of transportation and market


that brought along the Erie Canal. After its completion, NY and the rest of


the middle region would be connected with the rest of the interior of the


country. The people began to move inland along the canal. The invention of


the cotton gin at a very fitting time made people of the south push west.


With textile being a booming industry, people went west to fin available land


to plant cotton.


So how were these moves based on economics? Why did the farmers of the


north decide to move west? Was farming profitable anymore? Farming out west


could be even more profitable. "When wild lands sold for two dollars an


acre, and indeed, could be occupied by squatters almost without molestation,


it was certain that settlers would seek them instead of paying twenty to


fifty dollars and acre for farms that lay not much farther to the


east-particularly when the western lands were more fertile"(Turner 73). If


they could find someone to buy their land, farmers would be happier to go


west to start a bigger and better farm on more fertile soil.


The middle region moved inward along with the canal. With cities like


Cleveland developing inland, and with help of the canal making everything


more accessible, settlers moved inward. "The struggle of Baltimore, New York


City and Philadelphia for the rising commerce of the interior was potent


factor in the development of the middle region"(Turner 69). With the lands


being practically free in this vast area, not only did it attract the


settler, but it also furnished the opportunity for all men to hew out their


own careers (Turner 68). The open land gave people a chance to start over.


"The wilderness opened a gate to escape the poor, the discontented and the


oppressed"(Turner 68).


What was the reason behind the movement west of the South? The expansion


of the south was based on the strong demand for cotton. "?the Industrial


Revolution, which made textile manufacturing a large-scale operation, castly


increased the demand for raw cotton"(Westward Expansion and Regional


Differences). Since the invention of the cotton gin made the cultivation of


cotton profitable, it was only a question of finding the land to cultivate


the cotton. All the people had to do was look westward.


What made the people move west? Economics, land, and opportunity to


profit were primary factors. With three thousand miles of free and available


land, and the opportunity to start a new and better life, and make more money


doing it, people packed their bags and moved in.


Herb, Angela M. Beyond the Mississippi: Early Westward Expansion of the


United States. New York: Lodestar Books, 1996.


Leuehtenburg, William E., and Bernard Wishy, eds Fronteir and Section.


Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1961.


Turner, Fredrick Jackson. The Frontier in American History. New York: Holt,


Tinehart, and Winston Inc., 1962


Turner, Fredrick Jackson. Rise of the New West. New york: Harper and


Brothers Publishers, 1966.


Turner, Fredrick Jackson. The United States 1830-1850. New York: W.W.


Norton & Company Inc., 1965.


"Westward Expansion and Regional Differences." An Outline of American


History. Downloaded from AOL. March 27, 1999.

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