How Did Economic And Social Changes Affect The Westward Expansion

780 Words4 Pages

The westward expansion took place from 1783 and ended 1853. During the westward expansion, everyone knows the basic thing that happened. Expanding the country, taking over land, and just having it grow throughout the years. But what exactly happened? And this type of change impacted the expansion the most? The political change impacted the expansion the most. Why? The westward expansion was all about expanding the land and territory of the United States, right? Well, since political change has to deal with land and territory it would mostly have to deal with political change since that was going on. But, of course two other changes impacted the expansion. Economic and social changes. Economic change had to deal with money and resources. That …show more content…

The Louisiana Purchase was in 1803, and the land was previously owned by the French. The United States bought this land for $15 Million ($342 million today) and claimed it as American land. This purchase was important because the Louisiana territory was a “passageway” of trade. So anything that was shipped from other countries was going in and out of this land. There was a huge amount of trading and marketing so the United States was smart and took the Louisiana territory so there would be more “success” with trade. This also was linked slavery and eventually expanded throughout more states. The Florida purchase was a long ride. Thomas Jefferson went to the Florida territory which was owned by the Spanish. The Florida cession took place in 1819. Florida was bought for $5 million (about $117,783,464 today) by John Q. Adams. Leaving all the details out, the United States bought more land and now is how everyone knows it today, with 50 states. America has expanded and has grown, obviously. But the political side is over. Now, it’s time for economic change. Since the United States has spent a lot of money to expand the country. According to National Geographic, the U.S has used over $8.5 billion dollars on the westward expansion. Since economic change has to deal with the economy, (money, resources) this is also a huge impact. No social impact was included other than Thomas Jefferson going to

Open Document