Frontier To Frontier: Unstoppable Expansion Of The United States

Today, the United States is the world's most powerful state, with an area of more than 9 million square kilometers. In the early 19th century, however, the young American state was five times smaller, had a weak industry, and feared attempts at reconquest by the powerful British Empire. How did the United States manage to expand its territory several times and become an influential player in the international political arena? Between the 16th and 17th centuries, Great Britain was actively colonizing North America. Relations between white settlers and Native Americans were initially peaceful. The Native Americans even fed the colonists when there was a bad harvest. However, the influx of settlers accelerated rapidly, owing to the influx of emigrants from Europe. The colonists pushed the Native Americans inland. The confrontation escalated. Whites attacked Native Americans mainly to protect themselves from constant raids while they took over new land areas and expanded their space. The colonists were victorious because of the technological superiority and isolation of the indigenous population. Many Native American tribes were destroyed by military force, and many more died due to epidemics. Later conflict between Native Americans and the descendants of the white colonists led to the complete suppression of the Native Americans and their isolation on reservations. After the end of the seven-year war for the colonial rule between Great Britain and France in the mid-18th century, relations between colonists in North America and the British government deteriorated significantly. The catalyst of the conflict was metropolitan tax policy. On July 4, 1776, the American colonial war against the British monarchy led to the proclamation of the United States Declaration of Independence. Thirteen states became part of the federation. The young American state defeated Britain and gained independence. Under the Treaty of Paris, the United States also annexed lands east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes. The U.S. was further enlarged due to the struggle between Spain, France, and Great Britain. Those states wanted to expand their influence in America during the Napoleonic Wars. The Spanish were allies of Napoleon at that time, so they granted the territory of Louisiana to France under the Third Secret Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800. However, it was difficult for France to ensure the security of the colonial province, given the total dominance of the British Navy at sea. At the same time, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson sought to expand his state's borders by buying Louisiana, so Napoleon agreed to sell the land. The sale took place in 1803, and the United States received the strategically important Mississippi River and acquired an area of about 2.1 million kilometers. This almost doubled the size of the young American state. France received 15 million dollars, which was converted to 23 million dollars on credit payments. Thus, every acre of Louisiana cost Americans three cents, so every square kilometer of Louisiana land paid 1.6 more than the equivalent in Alaska in 1867. The acquired land needed to be explored. This task was assigned by President Jefferson to U.S. Army Captain Meriwether Lewis. As a result of the journey, expedition members explored Missouri Territory, described the local flora and fauna, issued more than 140 maps of the area, and established contacts with dozens of Native American tribes living in the territory of modern Northwestern states. This expedition also fueled the desire of the U.S. military and trade communities to take possession of lands west of historic Louisiana. Soon, Central and South America saw the outbreak of war for the independence of the future Latin American states against the metropolis. Under the Onis-Adams Treaty of 1819, the United States obtained Florida. The Spanish-American border was drawn in the west along 42 parallel lines and along the southwestern borders of historical Louisiana. In return, the United States was supposed to give up its claim to Texas. In the early 19th century, the territory of the modern Northwest of the United States was a land rich in fur animals and timber. Fur hunters and trappers from British Canada and the United States quickly flooded the region. Trappers annually destroyed tens of thousands of bison, beaver, elk, and other animals, leading to an ecological disaster in the region. At the same time, their actions deprived the local Native American tribes, who were mostly hunters, of their food source. Bloody conflicts erupted between the trappers and the Native Americans. The settlement of this area by the Americans provoked another crisis in relations with the UK, which also claimed the territory of modern Oregon. The two treaties placed the border between Britain and the United States at 49 parallel points. The weakening of the Mexican state contributed to the possibility of an expansion of U.S. territory on the other side of the country in the southwest. In the 1830s and 1840s, Mexico was in the grip of a struggle between conservatives and liberals. The abolition of slavery angered the Mexican Texas landowners, who were originally from the United States. Additionally, the conflict was fueled by linguistic and religious differences and corruption within Mexican government institutions. One of the attempts of the Mexican government to liberate the slaves and a ban on migration from the United States triggered the Texas Americans' uprising. In 1835, American separatists proclaimed separation from Mexico and the formation of the Republic of Texas. Mexican authorities attempted to suppress the rebels with a small army of 6,000 under the command of General Antonio López de Santa Anna. The Texas rebels, although their mobilization units were three times smaller, inflicted a number of defeats on the Mexicans. Volunteers from the United States were actively joining the Texas rebels. The Mexican army was losing quite often, although it was able to reverse the campaign and defeat numerous Texas forces at the Alamo and Colecto battles. However, on April 22, 1836, the Texians, led by General Sam Houston, defeated Santa Anna's Mexican forces. The Mexican commander had been captured and forced to sign a peace treaty that required the Mexican army to leave Texas. In 1845, after much discussion and negotiation, the United States annexed Texas as the 28th state. Units of the American army marched to Texas, where they were joined by local mobilization forces. To finally annex Texas, the U.S. government decided to launch an armed conflict. The regular army of the United States numbered about 8,000 soldiers and the Mexican army about 19,000. To level the forces, the Americans have recruited up to 50,000 volunteers. In the beginning, the United States army took advantage of its arms and the passivity of the enemy and defeated the Mexicans in a clash near the Rio Grande. At the same time, American colonists rebelled in California. The forces of the American General Stephen Kearney helped the rebels. The Americans managed to occupy California despite strong resistance from local Mexican peasants. At the same time, the eastern United States army took advantage of the disorganized actions of the Mexicans and defeated them at the battles of Monterrey and Buena Vista. This opened the way to the center of Mexico. The American army stormed In 1848, Mexico was forced to agree to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, under which the territories of California and New Mexico were transferred to the United States, and the transfer of Texas was formalized. The area was 1.36 million square kilometers, which was almost half of the former territory of the Mexican state. In addition, five years later, the United States purchased the Rio Grande territory from Mexico for $10 million. The conquest of sunny California spurred a new wave of colonization. An event that changed the history of this region also occurred in 1848, when settlers found the first gold nuggets. So began the California Gold Rush. About 350,000 diggers who came to California in search of enrichment became its victims. Cities grew very fast. For example, San Francisco's population grew 25-fold in three years. California's infrastructure was not designed for such a mad influx of people, so most poor seekers settled in huts and barracks, where sanitation and banditry flourished. About 124 tons of gold were mined at the peak of the fever in California. That number accounted for half of the world's prey at the time. Fortune didn't smile on everyone. Only one out of every 30 gold diggers became rich from the treasures they found. Most gold hunters remained poor for the rest of their lives. Problems with provisions made consumer goods incredibly expensive. And the companies that made the most profit were not those which were engaged in gold mining, but those which provided gold seekers with household goods. For example, the American company Levi's blossomed precisely due to the release of genes for diggers. Gold fever had many consequences, among them significant population growth, rising social tensions, and the destruction of 75% of the Native Americans who were herded into reservations and dispossessed of most of the land. The annexation of California to the United States and the outbreak of the American Civil War forced the Lincoln government to seek ways to bring weapons, ammunition, food, and troops from the northern states to California as quickly as possible. That is why, in 1862, the president announced the construction of the Transcontinental Railway. The new railway branch passed through the territory of Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. These areas were sparsely populated, and the government sought to encourage movement westward in various ways. For example, a program of allocating land to settlers had been established, with 60 hectares for each. A lack of manpower led to the employment of the Chinese and Irish people for railway construction. Those workers had disastrously low wages. The railway was financed by the state budget and the private sector. The total cost of the railway was $111 million. The largest amount of funds was raised through the sale of government-backed bonds, about $74 million. The construction of the Transcontinental Railway was completed in 1869. The fare was $16, which was just below the average monthly salary. The construction was accompanied by widespread corruption and fraudulent schemes, estimated to have absorbed almost half of the project's budget. However, after a few decades, the railway paid off the money invested in it and contributed significantly to the industrialization of the U.S. West. The gold rush and railroad construction have changed the demographics and economy of the American West. From the east, English-speaking migrants moved to the new territories, displacing Native Americans and Hispanic creoles in California. Migration also led to a change in the religious composition of the new U.S. territories in favor of Protestantism. The period of active territorial expansion contributed to the development of the economy and the growth of internal contradictions.