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During the 19th century, American settlers wanted to expand westward for new territories. This expansion was known as manifest destiny. Many Americans wanted to enlarge the size of their country, so they could compete with other larger countries. Others wanted to expand America for economic reasons such as more land for farming, or for industrial purposes. While some viewed the expansion of the U.S. as a good thing, many others opposed the idea for various reasons. In the 1800s, the expansion of the United States gained many supporters and opposers. The expansion of the United States began in the 1800s. In 1803, while Thomas Jefferson was president, France had owned a large area of land between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River …show more content…
Many people were against the idea of manifest destiny, and thought that if America kept expanding west, more slaves were going to be needed to help farm the land. People who lived in the North were not in favor with slavery and abolished it in all of the northern states. With all this new territory being added to the United States, new problems arose. Were these new states going to be pro slavery or anti slavery? When Missouri wanted to join the south, the north was mad because they wanted to keep everything politically equal. To keep things fair, the Missouri Compromise was put into effect. After Missouri joined the south, the north added the state of Maine to the union (O.I). Few people feared that they could not advance without danger to institution, peace, union, virtue, and prosperity (Doc 2). People began to see sectionalism play out in the states. They feared even though expansion could benefit one part of the country, it could also negatively affect another. The people against it argued that if the U.S. continued to expand, they would be no better than greedy criminals (Doc 2). Northerners felt that expanding west would hurt America more than it would benefit

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