Description
Write a 1200-1500 word essay on one of the three topics listed below. Your response may draw on material from throughout our course (lectures, assigned readings, and in-class readings/web sources). Be sure to cite any sources that you use. Your essay must be submitted by friday, June 30 at 11:59pm.
- The first 100 years of US history witnessed a dramatic expansion of democratic rights, although not everyone in the United States enjoyed the fruits of these changes. What forces (economic, political, social, and/or ideological) contributed to shifting conceptions and practices of citizenship and democracy, and what did those changes look like?
- Describe the development of the Northern and Southern economies from colonization to the US Civil War. In what ways were they connected? How did their differences shape political conflicts between the two regions?
- What motivated individual settlers and state and national governments to promote and participate in Westward expansion across the American continent? How did expansion benefit the United States, and what conflicts did it provoke?
Explanation & Answer
Attached.
Outline
Introduction
Body
Conclusion
References
Running head: WESTWARD EXPANSION BY UNITED STATES
Westward Expansion by United States
Student’s Name
Course Number- Name of Course
Instructor’s Name
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WESTWARD EXPANSION BY UNITED STATES
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Motivations for the Westward Expansion
The early nineteenth century is marked as a period when the United States
experienced drastic growth both in terms of power and geographical size. The purchase of
Louisiana during the period of President Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of the country
and opened up a new region for exploration and settlement of the people. The Louisiana
Purchase covered a huge region that stretched from the Mississippi River all the way to the
Rocky Mountains and from Canada further to New Orleans (Vandenbroucke, 2008). The
westward expansion was a strategy of providing enough land for the people which would
sustain the huge and growing American population. It was believed that land ownership and
more specifically the ownership of small farms was a great contributor to a nation’s
independence and virtue.
The western expansion of the 19th century was driven by the manifest destiny notion
which describes the fact that Americans and its institutions are morally superior. Based on the
superiority fact, the Americans felt the obligation to spread their institutions with an objective
of freeing the people from European monarchies which resulted in the famously known
westward expansion. The Louisiana Purchase undertaken by President Thomas removed
France from North America entirely which saw an increment in the land owned by United
State (Mountjoy, 2009). Constitutional questions were arising concerning the purchase of the
land, but the security and economic benefits resulting from the purchase were huge a factor
that made many people realize that the purchase was basically beneficial.
The movem...
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