Americans believed it was who God gave America the right to go into the wilderness and civilize the land and its inhabitants with Christianity and capitalistic ideas, for God had made America an exceptional nation and by claiming these lands and spreading Christianity they would be obeying Gods will. This belief system was known as Manifest Destiny and was used to justify the Mexican American War and the treatment and wars with the Native American people . America’s land mass doubled in size with the Louisiana Purchase in 1808, the Oregon territory from Europe in 1846 and the purchase of Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico in 1853. Astonishing, with the vast amount of open wilderness to explore, why was only 7% of America’s population living
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The southern states wanted to expand their agricultural business in the west, but argued they needed the slaves to work the farms; it would be too expensive to expand without the cheap labor of slaves. In 1860 when Abraham Lincoln was elected President, the southern states seceded from the Union, fearing Lincoln would abolish slavery. In order to solve the problem and keep the Union intact, on April 15, 1861 Lincoln declares war on the southern states and the Civil War begins. The war lasted 4 years and during that time 2 major pieces of legislation was passed in congress. One was the Homestead Act that had previously been rejected by southern congressmen, however, when the southern states seceded from the union, all but one congressman from the south went home, so the Homestead Act was easily passed through congress. The Homestead Act allowed settlers to have 160 acres of land in the west, providing they lived on the farm for 5 years and made improvements to the land, including a home structure . The other piece of legislation was land grants for the transcontinental railroad project to build a railroad all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The Union won the war and in 1865 passed the 13th amendment which abolished
The southern states wanted to expand their agricultural business in the west, but argued they needed the slaves to work the farms; it would be too expensive to expand without the cheap labor of slaves. In 1860 when Abraham Lincoln was elected President, the southern states seceded from the Union, fearing Lincoln would abolish slavery. In order to solve the problem and keep the Union intact, on April 15, 1861 Lincoln declares war on the southern states and the Civil War begins. The war lasted 4 years and during that time 2 major pieces of legislation was passed in congress. One was the Homestead Act that had previously been rejected by southern congressmen, however, when the southern states seceded from the union, all but one congressman from the south went home, so the Homestead Act was easily passed through congress. The Homestead Act allowed settlers to have 160 acres of land in the west, providing they lived on the farm for 5 years and made improvements to the land, including a home structure . The other piece of legislation was land grants for the transcontinental railroad project to build a railroad all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The Union won the war and in 1865 passed the 13th amendment which abolished