Westward Expansion Dbq Essay

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Renee Paret 3/7/12 In the beginning of the united states, there has been many action and impacts during the westward expansion. The U.S went to war over slavery. The United States expands in size. The westward expansion was the United States moving the continent to the Pacific Ocean. There were many actions taken by the government. One was manifest destiny. Manifest destiny is the desire to possess the entire continent to the Pacific Ocean. Thomas Jefferson also helped with westward expansion by buying the Louisiana territory for $15 million dollars’. Thomas Jefferson believed the purchasing the Louisiana territory was unconstitutional {Doc1}. Napoleon brought it because he was desperate for money…show more content…
The last action was Indian removal act. This act sought to peacefully negotiate the exchange of American Indian land in the south for new lands in Indian Territory {Doc2}. Andrew Jackson removed Native American’s to the west of the Mississippi river to the reservation. Reservations are an area of land reserved for the Native Americans. This led to the trail of tears. U.S. soldiers forced 16,000 Cherokees to walk from their lands in the southeast to Oklahoma. One of the impacts of westward expansion on the United States was the Kansas-Nebraska act. The Kansas-Nebraska act attempted to resolve the issues by exclude slavery from their limits prior to the formation of a state constitution {Doc5}. Fugitive slave act is another impact, required people to return escaped slaves to their owners. New Mexico and Utah had popular sovereignty –the people can choose whether the state would have slavery or not. This led to Bleeding Kansas. After the Kansas-Nebraska act, Kansas started fighting each other over slavery. Another action was the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act was created to bring a wide variety of people to live in horrible land condition. With proper application, U.S. citizens get 160 acres of land, but there must be a business running on that land so the

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