FREE ESSAY ON WHAT MADE THE AMERICANS EXPAND WESTWARD?

WHAT MADE THE AMERICANS EXPAND WESTWARD?

WHAT MADE THE AMERICANS EXPAND WESTWARD?
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.
Bibliography
WORKS CITED
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.