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Territorial expansion in the 1800s
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Expansionist Tension
From 1800 to 1850 territorial expansion tore the United States apart. Territorial expansion itself was not a debated issue. Spurred by the concept of Manifest Destiny, almost everyone believed that America should extend from sea to shining sea and maybe even farther. But it was the issue of the expansion of slavery into the new territories that pitted the North against the South and split our nation apart.
The first real crisis over territorial expansion took place in 1819-1821 over the admission of the state of Missouri. The proposed state of Missouri was the first (beside Louisiana itself) to be carved out of the Louisiana Purchase. It lay out of the jurisdiction of the Northwest Ordinance, which prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territories, and had a long tradition of slavery. Therefore, in 1817 Missouri applied to the Union as a slave state. The extension of slavery so far north and the threat of further expansion of slavery into all new territories of the U.S. created havoc in Congress. In February 1819, Congressman James Tallmadge, from New York, proposed an amendment that would prohibit any new slaves to enter the state and provided that all slave children born after the date of admission would be set free at the age of twenty-five. Tallmadge's gradual emancipation proviso received almost unanimous opposition from Southern Congressmen. The amendment twice passed the North dominated House of Representatives, only to be turned down by the balanced Senate. In December 1819, Maine applied for statehood as a free state. In the end a compromise was reached where Maine would enter the Union as a free state, Missouri would enter the Union as a slave state without restrictions, but in the remaining Louisiana territory slavery would be prohibited north of 36o30' (the Mason-Dixon Line). This is now known as the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise is commonly thought of the beginning of American Sectionalism, although signs were visible long before 1819. The Missouri controversy alerted the South to the need for political unity in order to maintain the "peculiar institution" of slavery and alerted the whole country to the political problems inherent to westward expansion.
The next jolt to national unity was over the admission of Texas into the Union. Texas had petitioned for admission as early as 1836, and the ensuing arguments in Congress over upsetting the balance between free and slave states delayed its admission into the Union.
The The bill clearly stated that no state above the proposed line shall have slavery. with exception to those already in existence. This meant that all new states being brought into the country from the west had a choice to have slavery if and only if they lay below the line. Obviously, the south did not really like the sand. idea, as it allowed the northern non-slave states to outnumber the southern.
From the years 1800-1850 the nation was full of battles and prosperity. Territorial expansion was a cause in most of the battles, but also gained prosperity for the nation. There were many impacts on national unity between those time periods, but the main impact was territorial expansion. This is true because of the Louisiana Purchase, the purchase of Oregon territory, and the Mexican War.
Who was King Arthur? Most people would tell of a great King; a devoted circle of heroic knights; mighty castles and mightier deeds; a time of chivalry and courtly love; of Lancelot and Guinevere; of triumph and death. Historians and archaeologists, especially Leslie Alcock, point to shadowy evidence of a man who is not a king, but a commander of an army, who lived during the late fifth to early sixth century who may perhaps be the basis for Arthur. By looking at the context in which the stories of King Arthur survived, and the evidence pertaining to his castle Camelot and the Battle of Badon Hill, we can begin to see that Arthur is probably not a king as the legend holds.
The figure of Gawain throughout Arthurian literature is an interesting one; he appears in more texts as a secondary character than any other knight named, and often gains glory even at the expense of the main hero (Busby 1980, 5). The first characteristic which separates him from the other knights is his relationship to Arthur: it is usually stated that he is Arthur's sister's son, a kinship that is found from William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum Anglorum (c. 1125) and Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136) onward (Busby 1980, 31). However, it is notable that Gawain often seems more like a type than an individual; in Old French literature he is never the subject of a biographical romance, as are most of the other knights, he never has one particular lady's name associated with him, and he is frequently used as a constant against which other knights are judged, the perfect embodiment of good qualities, more a symbol of perfection than an actual person (Busby 1980, 7).
Malory, Thomas. King Arthur and His Knights: Selected Tales by Sir Thomas Malory, ed. Eugene Vinaver (London: Oxford UP, 1975) 124-25.
Correspondly, the senate passed the Missouri Compromise in February 1820, which allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine to enter as a free state, making the free and slave states balanced once again. Another amendment was passed to prohibit slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of the southern border of Missouri. This event envisioned a possible threat to the relationship between the North and South. Moreover, the United States began to believe in a manifest destiny, a god-given right to expand its territory until it had absorbed all of North America, including Canada and Mexico.... ...
King Arthur is a great mystery debated throughout the centuries. There have been several films and texts that attempt to reveal the truth about King Arthur. Arthur Pendragon, son of Uther Pendragon, was once the king of Britain and the founder of the Knights of the Round Table. Coghlan outlines that Arthur is present in many different traditions throughout centuries (Coghlan, 1995). In the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth told of Arthur as a great king who defeated barbarians by the dozens. Coghlan also mentions Malory as “the standard ‘history’ of Arthur” (Coghlan, 1995). As there are various texts that tell Arthur’s origin and his legend, this essay will focus on one of the more prominent texts, The Death of King Arthur by Peter Ackroyd.
Expansionism in the late 19th/ Early 20th century Expansionism in America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century shared many similarities and differences to that of previous American expansionist ideals. In both cases of American expansionism, the Americans believed that we must expand our borders in order to keep the country running upright. Also, the Americans believed that the United States was the strongest of nations, and that they could take any land they pleased. This is shown in the "manifest destiny" of the 1840's and the "Darwinism" of the late 1800's and early 1900's. Apart from the similarities, there were also several differences that included the American attempt to stretch their empire across the seas and into other parts of the world.
The two most important events during American expansion were manifest destiny and the availability of land. Lewis and Clark had opened the nation’s eye to a vast continent that begged to be explored. Stories of beautiful land and riches were being spread much like during the of early days of European exploration and Americans felt it was their destiny to take possession of these territories. People were pouring in from around the world to become Americans and the population was ready to spread over the Great Plains to the the Pacific coast like to a wave of humanity seeking the American promise for the pursuit of happiness.
When looking back at the medieval ages, one may realize that the knights had many extraordinary abilities- they were like superheroes. In different Arthurian Legends, like The Crowning of Arthur, Arthur Becomes King, and Sir Launcelot du Lake, many people admire the person who has these inhumane abilities. Arthur and Sir Launcelot are both characters that initially seem like ordinary people, but show their superior strength and power by the end of the story. Arthur releases a sword from a stone that not even the strongest man can pull out, while Sir Launcelot murders a knight who is known to be an undefeated fighter. Because of these actions, both characters grew to fame. Sir Thomas Malory and T. H. White use unique abilities to exhibit the theme that one should never underestimate who they are and their capabilities in doing something.
Tempers raged and arguments started because of the Missouri Compromise. The simple act caused many fatal events because of what was changed within the United States. It may not seem like a big thing now, but before slavery had been abolished, the topic of slavery was an idea that could set off fights. The Missouri Compromise all started in late in 1819 when the Missouri Territory applied to the Union to become a slave state. The problem Congress had with accepting Missouri as a slave state was the new uneven count of free states and slave states. With proslavery states and antislavery states already getting into arguments, having a dominant number of either slave or free states would just ignite the flame even more. Many representatives from the north, such as James Tallmadge of New York, had already tried to pass another amendment that would abolish slavery everywhere. Along with other tries to eliminate slavery, his effort was soon shot down. The fact that people couldn’t agree on whether or not slavery should be legalized made trying to compose and pass a law nearly impossible.
...tudy with both an understanding of contemporary beliefs and practices as well as historic norms and doctrines among these two religious communities will adequately portray how religion impacts the assigning of gender roles and the extent to which they might have changed or grown over time. With an understanding of this relationship between religion, society, and culture, I will be able to answer questions I have had about the role of women in religion and the extent to which these female gender roles might be evolving.
The Monroe Doctrine put forward a strategy of Manifest Destiny that the United States ought to stretch out from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast. This extension made various political emergencies that spun around the growth of conquest, dispossession of Native Americans and government landholdings in the West. The spread of servitude in the West turned into the principal political issue of the better part of the nineteenth century. To keep up a harmony amongst free and slave expresses, a trade off was come to in 1820 in which Maine was conceded as a Free State and Missouri as a slave state. The southern limit of Missouri framed the 1820 Missouri Compromise line in which slavery would not be permitted north of this line, except for
As the country began to grow and expand we continued to see disagreements between the North and South; the Missouri Territory applied for statehood the South wanted them admitted as a slave state and the North as a free state. Henry Clay eventually came up with the Missouri Compromise, making Missouri a slave state and making Maine it’s own state entering the union as a free state. After this compromise any state admitted to the union south of the 36° 30’ latitude would be a slave state and a state north of it would be free. The country was very much sectionalized during this time. Thomas Jefferson felt this was a threat to the Union. In 1821, he wrote, ”All, I fear, do not see the speck on our horizon which is to burst on us as a tornado, sooner or later. The line of division lately marked out between the different portions of our confederacy is such...
Although King Arthur is one of the most well-known figures in the world, his true identity remains a mystery. Attempts to identify the historical Arthur have been unsuccessful, since he is largely a product of fiction. Most historians, though, agree that the real Arthur was probably a battle leader of the Britons against the Anglo-Saxons in the sixthth century. In literature, King Arthur's character is unique and ever changing, taking on a different face in every work. There is never a clearly definitive picture that identifies Arthur's character. It is therefore necessary to look at a few different sources to get better insight into the character of Arthur, the once and future king.