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Causes Of Westward Expansion

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I mostly agree with this statement because westward expansion caused the most tension politically, economically and territorially between the northern and southern states due to the balance of power. However, it could be argued that the north and south's views on slavery was a more significant cause the civil war. Firstly, westward expansion caused a lot of tension territorially because there was a question whether the new states being created should be free or slave states. Before the US started expanding, the Missouri Compromise in 1820 solved the first problem between the balance of power in the north and south because of the Louisiana Purchase. It stated that anything north of the line would be free states and anything below the line would be slave states. It wasn't until the California gold rush in 1848 when it became a problem. The problem was that California was right in the middle of the line made in the Missouri Compromise. When people from the north and the south started flooding in, it created a lot of tension between the balance of power. Due to this problem, the Wilmot Proviso was created. The Wilmot Proviso was not like by either side because the north did not like the Fugitive Slave Act and the South did not like the restrictions on future slave states. Both sides seen the Proviso as unfair and the tensions rose between the two because of this. One way to prove that people were not happy about the tensions in westward expansion is Bleeding Kansas. In 1856,

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