Expanding Nation

Expanding Nation

How much can a nation's expansion affect that nation? Well, a nation's expansion affects many different parts of the nation in many different ways. Expansion can affect a country's population and land ownership. Expansion can also affect the culture of the population. However, expansion mostly affects a nation's economy and social structure. America was affected similarly during its period of expansion. Primarily America experienced the significance that westward expansion had on economic growth, the impact immigration had on demographic/economic/political climates, the development of different economic and social systems in each region, sectionalism, and the effect on domestic and foreign policy.

The Significance of Westward Expansion on Economic Growth

Westward expansion had a significant impact on the growing US economy. As settlers moved west, more land was acquired for agricultural purposes. More land meant more products, and more products meant more that could be sold in the economy. Likewise, this expansion westward also produced a few by products. Some of these by products include a more advanced means of transportation as well as improved communication.

Transportation advancements

Transportation was a key factor to the growth of the economy. While farmers were moving westward and gaining more land for crops, they needed to have a way to transport their products back east for sale and distribution. This came in the fashion of canals, then steamboats, then railroads. Canals allowed shipment of goods into the great lakes providing mass amounts of goods to be shipped. Later, steamboats allowed transportation times to decrease. For example, the trip from New Orleans to Louisville took only 8 days by steamboat. While railroads primarily began appearing as connecters to canals, they soon became a preferred method of travel because they were twice as fast as steamboats, had direct routes to destination locations, and could operate all year. These advances in transportation helped pave the way for advances in communication too.

Improved Communication

As people continued to move west, and as products began to increase, the need for effective communication from one end of the country to the other was vital. These needs were facilitated by both the postal system and the invention of the telegraph. The postal system allowed correspondence, mass communication, and other commercial information to be distributed accurately throughout the country. Postage was fairly inexpensive allowing communication to be relatively cheap.