Essay On American Expansion

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American Expansion “From sea to shining sea” is how we know and take pride in our country today. But, America was not always this vast mass of land, and it used to be just a tiny nation that hugged one coast. The expansion of this country was a fast and rigorous process, and much harm was done on the way. American expansion did more harm than good because it resulted in sectionalism, the virtual annihilation of Indians, and economic panics. The expansion of America to the wide open west fostered sectional tensions between the North and the Old South. As territories in the West began to become admitted as states into the Union, the South and North fought over whether the new states should be free or slave states. The slaveholding South…show more content…
The Indians had been persecuted, harmed, and removed from their land by whites ever since the very first years of colonization in America, and Western movement caused the final blow to these people. The Cherokees of Georgia made efforts to learn the ways of the whites by opening schools, adopting a written constitution, and even turning to slaveholding. For these efforts the Cherokees, along with the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles, they were named the “Five Civilized Tribes.” But, these efforts were not good enough for the whites. In 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, providing for the transplanting of all Indian tribes then resident east of the Mississippi. In 1838, the US army forced the Cherokees from their homelands in the Trail of Tears into Indian Territory. As people moved west and Western Movement pushed on, more and more Indians were removed and eventually they were nearly annihilated from America. Western Movement is often given the stereotype by Americans as a glorious expansion of our brilliant country into the lands of the setting sun. But, this vision is not true. American expansion caused more harm than good. This extension of land caused sectionalism and tensions between the North and South, economic depression, and the removal of Indians. Although America gained another coast and a magnificent mass of land, the events that took place to achieve these
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