US Territorial Growth in 1800s
one would think that rapid territorial growth of the United States would have helped the nation avoid conflicts rather than create them. Explain why expansion brought North and South into conflict, and identify the most important events in the developing contest over the west. USING SPECIFIC EXAMPLES, explain how the environment affected the American expansionism and economic development, both positively and negatively.
In the early 1800s, regions of the United States were developing differently. In the North, factories were built and large cities grew. In the South, however, another way of life took hold. It was based on the work of enslaved African Americans. Industrial growth was mostly centered in northern states. There were several reasons why this was so:
1. The southern economy was based on agriculture. Southerners produced cotton and other crops, which they then sold to people in the northern states and foreign countries.
2. The North had a larger population and more factory workers.
3. The North had better transportation systems.
4. The banking system in the North was more developed.
5. Immigrants from Europe came to the North and fueled the labor supply. The large amounts of money to be made in cotton had important effects on the South. By the 1830s, cotton was the major cash crop in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas. By the 1850s, cotton was king in the South. The southern cotton crops were important to the entire nation. This was only possible through slave labor. The textile industry in the New England states developed rapidly because the South could supply it with more cotton. Railroads carried cotton bales to northern mills. By 1860, the South produced almost 4 million bales every year. Cotton became one of the main exports of the United States, especially to Great Britain. Great Britain needed American cotton for its own textile industry. So ships carried American cotton across the Atlantic Ocean. Southerners
In the early 1800s, regions of the United States were developing differently. In the North, factories were built and large cities grew. In the South, however, another way of life took hold. It was based on the work of enslaved African Americans. Industrial growth was mostly centered in northern states. There were several reasons why this was so:
1. The southern economy was based on agriculture. Southerners produced cotton and other crops, which they then sold to people in the northern states and foreign countries.
2. The North had a larger population and more factory workers.
3. The North had better transportation systems.
4. The banking system in the North was more developed.
5. Immigrants from Europe came to the North and fueled the labor supply. The large amounts of money to be made in cotton had important effects on the South. By the 1830s, cotton was the major cash crop in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas. By the 1850s, cotton was king in the South. The southern cotton crops were important to the entire nation. This was only possible through slave labor. The textile industry in the New England states developed rapidly because the South could supply it with more cotton. Railroads carried cotton bales to northern mills. By 1860, the South produced almost 4 million bales every year. Cotton became one of the main exports of the United States, especially to Great Britain. Great Britain needed American cotton for its own textile industry. So ships carried American cotton across the Atlantic Ocean. Southerners