The Growth of the USA

 

In 1804 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out to explore what is now the northwest United States. In 1805 they followed the Missouri River to its headwaters then cross the Rocky Mountains and reached the pacific.They return in 1806.

By 1810, the population of the USA was over 7.2 million and it continued to grow rapidly. By 1820, it was over 9.6 million and by 1840 over 17 million. More and  more states were added to union. Indiana was admitted in 1816. Mississippi followed in 1817. Illinois became a state in 1818 and Alabama in 1819. Missouri became a state in 1821. It was followed by Arkansas in 1836 and Michigan became a state in 1837.

The American economy also grew rapidly. In the south cotton expanded rapidly after Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793. It also grew because Britain was industrializing. There was a huge cotton industry in Britain in the early 19th century, which devoured cotton from America. In the North trade and commerce grew rapidly. By 1860 more than 60% of the world's cotton was grown in the USA.

In the decades after the War of 1812 the Northern states began to industrialize. Coal mining and manufacturing industries boomed.

In 1817, the New York legislature authorized a canal from the Hudson river to Lake Erie. The canal was completed in 1825 and it cut the cost of transporting freight. Furthermore, the first railroad was built in the USA and was built in 1828.

After 1814 there was fighting between Seminole Indians from Florida and settlers from Georgia. The Seminoles also allowed runaway slaves to live among them, which annoyed the Americans. Eventually, in 1818 Andrew Jackson led a force into Florida (although it was Spanish territory). This was first Seminole war. Spain ceded Florida to the USA in 1821 and Florida became a US state in 1845.

The civil war was not just caused over the issue of slavery. North and South were also divided over tariffs. The Northern states began to industrialize in the early 19th century. By the middle of the century the north was becoming an industrial, urban society. Northerners wanted tariffs to protect their industries. However, the south remained an agricultural society. Its economy was based on plantations worked by the slaves. Southerners objected to tariffs because they bought goods from the north or from Europe and tariffs made them more expensive. North and South were quite different economically and culturally.