Westward Expansion

бзExamine the reasons of the territorial expansion in the first half of the 19th Centuryби

бз Almost all people have, at one stage or another in their history felt and expressed the need to extend their territory and also to explain and justify their need both to the world and to themselves.би

When North America was first being colonised in the early 17th century, the settlers made their home along the coasts of the ocean and the shores of the nearby rivers. Nevertheless, as the population kept growing, adventurers, trappers and many mores, started to move west, farther from waterways and from the Atlantic coast. Early westward expansion beganбK

However, it is in the first half of the 19th century that the United Sates gained most of its lands, sometimes buying them to their original owners, sometimes simply stealing them (There were actually 13 cases of land annexation during this century). We can thus wonder why the USA needed to enlarge its country so dramatically and will therefore analyse the reasons of this territorial expansion.

Though it is clear that a large number of political reasons actually led to the annexation of a few western territories, we will rather concentrate on other main points. First of all

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But throughout the East, the growing conviction that it was a land of potential riches and of opportunities start to emerge. Finally, we have to bear in mind that the American territorial expansion was the physical response to the doctrine of бзManifest Destinyби. 2 % of which had settled in the American West. Most of the times, these migrations were fostered by a desire for adventure, the image a New World and by the prospect of becoming rich (or at least richer than they were before). We have to bear in mind that by serving in the war of Mexico, US soldiers believed that they were defending the rights of the free people, that is the citizens of the Republic of Texas, to determine their own destiny (that is to say becoming part of the USA). According to Jefferson, it would also insure the West against any future closing of the Mississippi and open new trading routes along Alabama and Tombigbe rivers. Polk, elected on a pro-expansionist platform, moved quickly to annex Texas as the twenty-eighth state of the Union. At that time, an evident feeling of land-hunger arose, even if people travelled to lands the US did not yet own. би

Finally, we should bear in mind that the motives for settlement in the new western territories were diametrically different, being a slave-owner or not. Farmers then believed that it was their right to settle and take over the fertile lands of Florida, and to a larger extent that it was their right to claim any land they wanted. But, unfortunately, they already had owners and the American government started to press Spain and France in search of the surrender of property.

Approximate Word count = 2082
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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