The years discussed in this paper are called formative because the fundamentals of the American nation were made during this period. One of the steps to create the nation was the removal of Native Americans from their possessions and lands to the East of the Mississippi River. This policy, as well as an economic blockade and physical destruction of the Natives, was implemented by Thomas Jefferson who earlier claimed his admiration of the nobility of the Native Americans as people unspoiled by the civilization (Jewett, 2002).
However, when the political issues came into play, Jefferson changed his position deciding to populate the lands of Native Americans with the white USA citizens. This was necessary for the territories mentioned not to be captured by either the French or British army. In public, these measures were called the “civilization” of Native Americans: “Thus, the Native Americans must change, become Europeanized, or become extinct.” (Jewett, 2002) The fear of political opponents and reluctance to involve the young country in the war with Spain or France led Jefferson to reject the Louisiana Purchase at first. Only the issues which Napoleonic France faced, i. e. several wars in Africa and Europe, made Jefferson change his mind.
The two most important processes that impacted Native Americans greatly were the Louisiana Purchase and Jackson’s removal policy. The former was carried out under Jefferson and meant the complete removal of Indian tribes from the lands purchased (Wilson, 2003). The latter was a rather aggressive policy enforced by the Indians Removal Act of 1830. According to Jackson, Indians had the choice to either move to other lands and be free or stay on US lands and obey the country’s laws. However, the will of the Natives was never asked as far as 45, 000 Native Americans were removed from their lands to the Western territories lying behind the US border (Wilson, 2003).
Moreover, one of the examples of the violent removal of the Natives was the Worcester v. Georgia case was considered by the US Supreme Court in 1832. As a result of this case, the Cherokee Indians were removed from their lands in Georgia with the help of 7, 000 armed soldiers who killed over 4, 000 Indians (Berkin et al., 2007). The long-term impact of this case on the Natives was their failure to defend their lands and the possibility for the Government to continue the removal policies and reservations creation. As for the checks and balances system, the Worcester v. Georgia case manifested the appearance of the independent and powerful judicial system together with the already influential executive power of the President.
John Marshall was the most influential Chief Justice in the history of the US Supreme Court. He was also the founder of the Federalist Party, and always supported the interests of federalism. His main achievements as Chief Justice include the establishment of the supreme role of the Constitution, the advantage of the federal law over the law of every state, and giving the Court the right to interpret laws and Congressional acts as for their constitutionality (Berkin et al., 2007). Drawing from this, John Marshall can be called the defender of commerce and capital as the Federalist Party consisted mainly of rich entrepreneurs and businessmen. The case of Marbury v Madison granted the Court the right to interpret laws, Fletcher v. Peck proved the superiority of law over the corrupted schemes, while McCulloch v. Maryland case established the impossibility for the states to tax a federal institution as the federal legislation is supreme over the state one. Thus, the three cases mentioned added to the creation of the independent judicial system of the USA.
The economic situation in the world between 1815 and 1820 was rather controversial. The European countries tried to revive after the Napoleonic Wars, but the industrial revolution gave impacts for the fast economic growth in many countries. In the USA, these trends were reflected by the unexpected and rather fast industrialization (Wilson, 2003). Cotton textiles, the shoe-making industry, and transportation modernization all developed rather intensively during these 5 years. For example, the New England cotton textile industry benefited greatly from the Waltham system introduction and transition to large-scale production with reduced manufacturing costs. The workers from many other regions were attracted to the East by the employment opportunities for children and women. This economic growth caused panic among slave owners as they were mainly agricultural entrepreneurs. Slaves used to run away from their owners to find legal jobs and freedom in the slavery-free states. Thus, sectional conflict and political contention were born between the supporters and rivals of slavery (Jewett, 2002).
The Seneca Falls Convention was held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. Its major aim was for women to gain equal rights with men in American society. Accordingly, the main goals of this convention included the equality of rights for both sexes as stipulated in the Declaration of Independence, women’s rights to vote, and participation in the political life of the country. Moreover, the convention participants condemned the institution of slavery and included fighting with it to their goals (Berkin et al., 2007).
The forces that led to the women’s rights movement’s appearance ranged from political to religious ones including the Second Great Awakening and Transcendentalists groups. They appeared as a result of the transition from the agricultural to the industrial society as public forms of protests against the archaic phenomena like inequality of rights, lack of educational opportunities, slavery, etc. Accordingly, the Convention’s positive impact was the granting of equal rights to all members of the society including women’s suffrage and slavery abolition. At the same time, the negative impact was the Civil War that started because of the inability of states to settle the slavery issue (Wilson, 2003).
Manifest Destiny was the idea formulated in 1845 by John O’Sullivan. The essence of this idea is that the American nation was destined to expand its territory over the whole continent and outside its boundaries. Accordingly, expansionist forces and slavery opponents in the society used this idea to annex Texas, California, and other Western territories. After the start of the Manifest Destiny realization, numerous people went to the West to explore the discovered gold deposits and new life opportunities. However, they had to face illnesses, starvation, and conflicts with the Indians removed to the West from Louisiana, Mississippi, and other areas. At the same time, the slavery question was controversial as Southern slave owners protested against slavery abolition and their slaves ran to the West to work as free people. Thus, the western expansion of the USA added to the controversy of the question and brought the Civil War closer (Berkin et al., 2007).
Works Cited
Jewett, Tom. “Thomas Jefferson’s Views Concerning Native Americans.” Archiving Early America. 2002. Early America. 2009. Web.
Wilson, Gaye. “The Louisiana Purchase.” Jefferson’s West. 2003. Monticello Research. 2009. Web.
Berkin, Carole, Chrisropher L. Miller, Robert W. Cherny and James L. Gormly. Making America – A History of the United States. Volume One: to 1877. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007.