-
Manifest Destiny
Americans believed that it was their duty to God to travel west and spread their ideas and religion from coast to coast. With this idea in their heads nothing could stop them from wanting to fulfill this so called destiny. This was perhaps the biggest contributor to westward expansion. -
The Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana purchase allowed the then U.S. president Thomas Jefferson to buy land that doubled the size of the United States. France had been fighting a war and needed money desperately so they made this deal with America. Expansion west was en evitable because acquiring land was not always difficult, and was very prosperous. -
Missouri Compromise
The government was constantly trying to keep the balance of slave states and free states, such as the Missouri compromise. When slave states added another state the free states would too, and they continued doing this until expansion had taken them to the west coast. -
The American Industrial Revolution
New modes of transportation where being created, factories, and machinery were becoming prominent on big cities. These cities became packed and jobs were dangerous and people were underplayed. The prospect of riches and land, combined with easier travel, made people want to travel west. -
Invention of the Locomotive
The first successful locomotive in America was named Tom Thumb, and could take people places multiple times faster than a wagon could. With transportation becoming easier and easier, people had less excuses for not going west. -
The Mexican-American War
America won in war and in doing so gained a lot of land. This contributed to westward expansion because these lands were plentiful, and the states could balance slave and free states. -
California Gold Rush
The lands acquired from all the many purchases turned out to be very prosperous such as California. Once gold was found there people were eager to travel west to mine for gold and possibly become rich.