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Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion, however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial
expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future. These forces, reinforced
by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support social reforms. These
reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems, improving the
treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining equal
rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and
South over the slavery question. |
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Last updated 09/26/2002 |