Westward Expansion 19th century

Huge areas of land to expand into
tripled size of USA

Only one empire left to potentially support Nat Ams (Britain) -> could remove more easily

expansion could be beyond mississippi

Talk of amazing lands, ready for settlement

"the federal government was anxious to raise money, so vast tracts of land were sold off to men who had it"

"the new West also started to assert itself in national politics"
"supremely through the protean figure of Andrew Jackson"

"Ad-men also made the West"-DR
"Newspapers across America were full of notices singing the praises of this or that matchless city of the future"

some did take off -> DR points to Chicago
when incorporated only 350 people
"but many were just promotional hype"

"this became something of a sick joke"
-> evidenced by a spoof ad of "Skunksburgh"

"so the West was opened up by the con man and the laon shark as much as by the sturdy settler,but in the end technology proved even more decisive"

squatter who had worked som land could buy it at the minimum price

But still had to get the money -> loan sharks

"many pioneers, like Thomas Lincoln, worked an acreage for a while, sold at a profit and then mved on"
"land was always as much a speculative investment as a place to settle"-DR

with Westward expansion

borders agreed with Britain in Oregon country (war avoided)
-> but Richard White says shows that fed gov was reactionary bc there were lots of Americans there subverting British authority and the gov did v little

intended to promote homestead settlements in the Oregon Territory in the Pacific Northwest

forerunner of the homestead act

Gov sanctions expansion into Kansas + Nebraska
=> Nats displaced to Louisiana Purchase territory further west

facilitated by Jackson's trail of tears 1838-9

"One of the central reasons for a federal presence in the West had been to divide and distribute public lands into private hands. "

only 4 achieve statehood during this period
=> "in theory, federal control in these territories was absolute" -> and fed gov wanted territories quiet (no repeat of Kansas 1851-4
territories were heavily subsidised by fed gov, especially early years
-> military posts maintained by fed, money to fulfil treaty obligations to Natives, built roads, provided + staffed land offices, extended mail routes to settled areas

"Such federal cost of defending the territory was £3mil/year

Dakota, Colorado, Nevada

=> sectional issues cured with civil war (Republicans don't have to worry as much about sectionalism, says white)

Homestead Acts were several United States federal laws that gave an applicant ownership of land, typically called a "homestead", at no cost. In all, more than 270 million acres of public land, or nearly 10% of the total area of the U.S., was given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders; most of the homesteads were west of the Mississippi River.

Morrill act - agricultural colleges set up

individuals may apply for a desert-land entry to reclaim, irrigate, and cultivate arid and semiarid public lands. This act amended the Homestead Act (1862). Originally the act offered 640 acres (2.6 km2), although currently only 320 acres may be claimed

Although the Desert Land Act was partly based on the Homestead Act and the Preemption Act (1841), it did not contain a key provision of those acts, namely the residence requirement. While the claimant did need to improve the land, the claimant did not need to live on the land while making the improvements.

sold Western timberland for $2.50 per acre in 160 acre blocks.

Land that was deemed "unfit for farming" was sold to those who might want to "timber and stone" (logging and mining) upon the land.

"one of America's first improved highways"-DR

DR says after this "nationally minded congressmen demanded a massive programme of domestic improvements to strengthen the expanding country's internal ties"
-> roads
politicians were worried bc in Europe "distance reinforced divisions" -> might happen in USA

Calhoun said that without more discourse there would be more disunity in such a large place
-> urged Congress to 'bind the Republic together with a perfect system of roads and canals. Let us conquer space"

on his last day in office
-> Calhoun wanted for the US gov. to finance the programme of roads (see war of 1812)

"six weeks later the New York state legislatrue agreed to constuct a canal across the whole state, linking the Hudson river with Lake Erie" (talking about Calhoun's bill being vetoed)

"thus far, the canal mania that convulsed Britain in the late eighteenth century had passed America by"
-> at that pint only ~100 miles of canals - none longer than 27 miles
"Clinton was proposing a canal double the length of anything in Europe"

-> it was a huge gamble w. federal gov "washing hands" with the idea, American economy in "infancy" so no big venture capitalists rushing

middle section of it opened only two years later "and the toll revenue came rushing in"
=> big investors e.g. John Jacob Astor + European Banks such as Barings in London came rushing in, seeing the success

363 miles long (London to Edinburgh)
climbed 600 feet
generated new tons e.g. Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse + "revolutionised trade"

Before, had cost 15-25 cent/mile to transport a ton of grain by wagon
=> now price was <2cents by boat

"pennsylvania, Ohio and other states rushed to catch up with New York"

"ground was broken in America"
-> big day, last surviving signor of constitution Charles Carroll there, on 4th July
considered it to be "among the most important acts of my life, second only to my signing the Declaration of Independence, if even it be second to that"

"here was Baltimore's answer to New York - a railroad projected right across the Appalachians"-DR

During this decade "the Baltimore and OHio spread its tentacles south to Washington, DC and west to the National Road"

"Massachusetts, another state that had avoided canal mania, also decided to gamble on the iron horse"
it "helped rejuvinate the region's economy"

Canals moved people as well as freight
=> "much quicker than by stage coach"

"the Erie Canal was a unique success story: no other project really made money and canal mania left Pennsylvania and Indiana almost bankrupt"
-> new York had a special adv. bc it had the Mohawk Valley with a "natural notch" through the Appalachian mountains -> other canals had to cut through/climb over "either impossible or ruinously expensive"

(same figure as canals) -> but faster and more flexible "with branch lines easily built"

"this track mileage was nearly double the figure for the whole of Europe"

But these were not perfect:
different gauges used so "there was no such thing as a national network"
"nor did the railroads suddenly supplant canals", especially for heavy freight

for the Illinois railroad -> DR says for years Douglas had been lobbying congress
"this was an immense government subsidy"-DR

1850s
to criss-cross states of Ohio, Indiana + Illinois

"the 1850s equivalent of the Erie Canal"-DR

ran 700 miles north from the southern tip of the state at Cairo, on the junction of Mississippi and Ohio rivers, and included a branch line into Chicago

built w. cost of nearly $27 million
dubbed "the longest railway in the world"

it "made Chicago into the great transport hub of the midwest" -> just E Canal w. New York
-> ambitious politician stephen Douglas behind it all (just like DeWitt Clinon in NY)

"the economic multiplier was enormous"
-> with security of land Illinois could borrow -> then sold off land later to settlers + speculators, spawning new towns along the track -> whose business created further money for railroad

Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin become dominant wheat growign states bc of railroad -> can transport the wheat

roughly 4k miles of canals

"once again small investors and state subsidies played a huge part in their development but now Uncle Sam, who had refused to get his feet wet during the canal-boom, was also stepping in"

further more easy transport

brought settlers west
encouraged other companies to do same with similar results

Made the trip far easier + safer than the different trails (their use declined)

"along the back of this ridge (the rockies), a Western limit of the republic should be drawn"

but DR says "that was before the railroad and the telegraph"
"now a single polity spanning the whole continent from the Atlantic to the PAcific seemed conceivable - indeed, to many, almost inevitable"-DR
-> MD emerged bc of ^ technology

refused, but those who want it to be part of e.g. John Quincy Adams justify on Manifest Destiny

Richard White says this shows fed gov reactionary to westward expansion
-> unwilling + unable to take in
despite lots of missionaries + settlers there who were acc asking to be accepted into USA

calling for the "re-occupation of Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas"
-> Reynolds point out "re" suggesting they had previously given away the right wrongly
-> Polk was elected on MD platform

A newspaper editor

1. The special virtues of the American people and their institutions
2. The mission of the United States to redeem and remake the west in the image of agrarian America
3. An irresistible destiny to accomplish this essential duty[3] Historian Frederick Merk says this concept was born out of "a sense of mission to redeem the Old World by high example ... generated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven"

But White is sceptical that "manifest destiny" was a driving force for WE for most American people
bc:
1. manifest destiny was a nationalist doctrine but there was deep sectionalism in USA - north + south division detracted from a nationalistic view such as this
2. racism
Manifest destiny also assumed that Americans wanted the continent no matter who was already living on it. Yet most of the people living in territory the expansionists coveted did not have white skins. In a country that was loudly and proudly racist, the absorption of large numbers of nonwhites was a proposal unlikely to draw wide support.
=> didn't want Mexico w. lots of Mexicans

And Sullivan himself believed that the transcontinental railroad was what would draw in republics like California + Texas

they had repeatedly asked to be annexed but USA had declined
=> took so long proves White's point that manifest destiny wasn't a dominant doctrine

White says Polk's biggest victory for expansionism (Tyler was a big expansionist president too)

White's argument:
In expanding West, the US government acted more from fear and anxiety than from confidence
-> kept Jefferson's idal for "empire of liberty" - white men agriculture - but added to it that expansion would ensure prosperity (USA only recently recovered from deep economic depression) while cooling sectional conflict + dispute over slavery
=> expansionism partially succeeded in 1840s bc of illusion that it could solve sectional problems

justified by manifest destiny (Polk)

White says the aftermath of this which led to the Civil War shows that manifest destiny was not a dominant doctrine

"ultimately the West was won by war and the principal victim was the other United States on the American continent, the United States of Mexico"-DR

"The USA had a booming economy, knitted together by canals and railroads, whereas Mexico was still largely agrarian"-DR

It gave the United States the Rio Grande as a boundary for Texas, and gave the U.S. ownership of California and a large area comprising roughly half of New Mexico, most of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado.

cause mass immigration by boat + land
caused formation of cities such as San Francisco
=> able to migrate so quickly bc of transport links

Did not contribute to LONG TERM expansive progress bc it was BLACK SWAN

Dissapointed miners returned home when no gold found
=> mainly men so not likely to remain (unlike family)

lured 25k asian immigrants to come to USA

Settlement following the region continued for many reasons other than its gold

they also have an act from government which allows them to be incredibly brutal to natives

similar effects of California gold rush

More easily to get to now than the '49ers bc they have transport improvements (e.g. railroad)

But just like in California, moved back east when dried up
"mining settlements were often lawles and discouraged all but the very hardy"

Already founded - if more significant, would have caused expansion earlier

continued a small amount of expansion throughout next century

led to colonsiation of Utah

=> away from low key oppression, under Brigham Young

(Joseph Smith already killed, and already chased out of 3 states - Ohio, Illinois, Missouri)
religious freedom in relatively uninhavited west

Cayuse Indians, believing missionaries had started a devastating measles epidemic, massacred missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Prentiss Whitman and eleven others at an Oregon mission.

=> general theme of missionaries being quite dependent on tribe's situation
whether or not they accepted the "white man's medicine"

quite a lot considering the time, but not a huge expansion like California (90k)

rather than the Natives
-> but still going west
bc it was a society based on accumulating wealth -> needed religion

trade between fur traders and Natives in places like Great Plains + Oregon

Used by travellers from 1843

about 3,000 miles (4,800 km) across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California.

from mid 1830s the trails were used by ~400k settlers

296,300 total
=> just a decade

Mormon trail one of the lesser ones - only 43k

The peak decade - before trans-continental railroad

connecting the gold rush territory of Montana to the Oregon Trail. (acc mining silver + copper