The Issue of Territorial Expansion Sparked Considerable Debate in the Period 1800-1855.

James Santos Mod D AP US History DBQ #7 From 1800-1855, there was a lot of debate on the issue of territorial expansion. in the early 1800’s most of these debates were centered around expansion with the Louisiana Purchase and Indian Removal. As time went on, debates arose with topics like the MexicanAmerican War and Manifest Destiny. Support for expansion was widespread all throughout history, especially in the South and the “West” (Tennessee, Kentucky, etc.). As shown in Document B, all of the Southern and “Western” voters were war hawks and the Northern and Middle states were completely against it. Ultimately, the war was passed, and the War of 1812 occurred. This event set the stage for declaration of war in the future, as well as proving to Britain that America was a legitimate threat for expansion. Once this was established, many pro-Expansionists started to devise ways to move farther West. in 1829, Lewis Cass argued that the Cherokee Nation in Florida was the first case in all of world history where an inferior nation failed to improve whilst being under the jurisdiction of a superior country (Document C). He felt that the failure to adapt should not be considered a misstep by Europeans, but the simple fact that Cherokees were too stubborn and stupid to change. This led the way for the Indian Removal Act in the 1830’s, and the ultimate claims on Florida. They moved all these Indians to modern-day Oklahoma, on a route aptly called “The Trail of Tears” (Document D). Thousands of Indians died, but this just proved that expansionists were going to stop at nothing. It was around this time that the belief in Manifest Destiny began to emerge, as shown in the eagle map in Document E, that covers America from Oregon and a lot of Canada to the eastern seaboard, and as far South as Florida. All of the supported of expansion used this map as a sort of manifestation of their goals for America, and What this map does not take into account is the additions of California and...