What Are The Short And Long Term Effects Of The Westward Expansion

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P1 Did you know the westward expansion impacted the US greatly in many positive and negative ways? The Louisiana Purchase, Lewis, and Clark, Trail of Tears, Commercial Agriculture, Mexican American war, And relationships between North and South all made it possible for the US to grow 4x its original size. This paper will teach you all about manifest destiny and how it happened. P2 The Louisiana Purchase had a huge impact on the U.S because it double the size of the U.S. It started out with Napoleon needing quick money so he decided to sell Louisiana at a big discount around 15 million dollars. The U.S saw this amazing opportunity and decided to act fast and buy the land from France. After they had purchased the land they could travel …show more content…

He wanted the Indians to live life like the Americans did. The Indians agreed to the free land and started to travel over around 1831 and 1833. Then, however, the government tried to cut its costs on the way over so many Native Americans died. Once the arrived and settled in the Indians were forced to leave by the American government. Some Indians agreed to do so others did not. The Indians who did not leave were forced by the U.S army to travel down to Oklahoma. People started calling the travel the trail of tears because they were forced to leave and they were not happy about …show more content…

But in the 1820s, they came up with a new way to farm where they would grow cash crops. Most of these big farms were in the South. What made farming take off was the invention of the cotton gin. The cotton gin was big because it worked much faster than using your hands. Most people Wanted to start farming because of all the money and food that they would get. However, since the cotton gin worked so fast the people in the fields were getting behind on their work so they farmers needed to hire slaves to pick the cotton. Factories in the Nouth grew from this and started to gain lots of money. Because of all the big shipments going through they created railroads so they would be sent faster. However, after a while people stopped buying cotton so the prices went down and people were no longer making as much money. P6 The Mexican American War started in the late 1840s when Mexico thought the U.S was going on their territory. However, the Americans thought the complete opposite. They thought that the Mexicans were intruding on their land. America was sick of all the fighting and complaining so war was declared. They were to fight for New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, and Western Colorado. The U.S ended up winning the war, but the war officially ended when a treaty was signed in February of 1848. Many Americans did not like it but couldn't complain because of all the land