Sectionalism Due to Western Expansion

The antebellum period from 1800 to 1850 marked a time of provincialism in American history. Furthermore, new territories gained during western expansion added to this conflict between different sections of America. southerly states wanted new buckle down territories, while the North wanted to barricade the spread of slavery. While Western expansion contributed to growing sectional tensions between the North and southeastern from 1800-1820, provincialism intensified significantly from 1820-1850. Since the turn of the ordinal century, Western territorial expansion started to increase a virtuoso of localism throughout America.President Jefferson obtained the Louisiana purchase from Napoleon in 1803, gaining unfamiliar territorial dominion West of the Mississippi River. As Lewis and Clark explored the area, others began to populate it, slowly pencil lead to change magnitude tensions between the North and the South. Soon an act was crackinged stating that territories with a ce rtain amount of inhabitants would be added to the union as newly developed states. Furthermore, During the Adams-Onis treaty with Spain, Florida was peacefully acquired as a state in America, which also increased tension.Eli Whitneys cotton gin, and King Cotton increased the Souths addiction on slaves to sustain the supply and demand of cotton, while the North advance the containment of slavery This difference between the territories regarding slavery directly contributed to the sense of sectionalism shared throughout the nation. However the issue of slavery would be postp superstard cod to the War of 1812, and for a while afterwards, Americas shared sense of nationalism over superpowered their shared sense of sectionalism.Around the time of 1820, Americas ostentation in their victory in the war of 1812 was wearing off, and the balance of nationalism and sectionalism among the nation shifted primarily due to Westward expansion. The Missouri agree of 1820, introduced by Henry Clay, allowed for both Maine and Missouri to be admitted into the union on condition that Missouri became a slave state, as well as banning slavery above the xxx-sixth parallel. Any state admitted into the confederation bellow this line would decide the legality of slavery for their new state, by popular sovereignty.This temporarily maintained the balance of slave states and free states in the Union, while increasing sectionalism throughout America. Neither the North or South wanted the other section to have more states favoring their cause slavery ideals, in fear of biased representation in the Senate. Furthermore, sectionalism was demonstrated by the fact that congress felt the need to work through The Gag rule This disallowed congress from discussing the issue of slavery for the next thirty years (while only lasting a decade).Though members of the house tried to pass the Wilmot proviso, which would ban slavery in newly acquired Mexican territories, Southerners naturally impe rtinent this. Disagreements over how to decide the newly acquired lands position on slavery, further intensified sectionalism between the North and South. At one point the South even tried to pass the Ostend Manifesto in an attempt to purchase Cuba from Spain, and admit it into the Union as a slave state.Although this effort failed, it strongly represents the overwhelming sectionalism during the time As an wide-cut portion of the country acted autonomously to secure an additional state to gain power over their Northern neighbors. Finally, the compromise of 1850 was passed, declaring popular sovereignty as the ascertain factor of the position of slavery among the land gained from Mexico. Moreover, this compromise enforced a fugitive slave law, allowing the South to collect runaway slaves, abolished the slave cope in Washington D. C. , and admitted California as a free state.Although coitus implemented countless compromises to secure the unionization of America, their efforts pro ved futile, as sectionalism prevailed and the United States grew closer to an inevitable Civil War. Western expansion during the showtime half of the nineteenth century, along with increased tensions between the North and South due to slavery, directly increased the sense of sectionalism between the deuce regions. The controversy over controlled land transformed the nations intense sense of nationalism into an even more intense sense of sectionalism, leading to a Civil War only fifty years later.