History

The Native Americans (aboriginals) are the indigenous peoples from the Northern America who existed in the pre-Columbian period. These people comprise a large number of various tribes and ethnic groups, some of which still exist. Since the beginning of colonization of America by the Europeans, cultures and lives of the aboriginals have been influenced and changed. Subsequently, the numbers of the natives were then reduced greatly, the fact attributed to infectious diseases, displacement and warfare. Conflicts and misunderstandings between the different cultures of the Native Americans, Europeans and other cultures were then eminent due to cultural differences (Fisher, 1985).
However, the colonization did not last since different colonies formed alliances and revolted against Great Britain in the late 18th century. This revolution, though, was the beginning of a great strife for the natives. The leaders of the colonies George Washington and Henry Knox came up with an idea of preparing the aboriginals for American-hood by civilization. The assimilation of these natives then became paramount throughout the American administration (Fisher, 1985). This assimilation was provided in order to create space for the American expansion under the Manifest destiny ideology that had become a national philosophy in the American movement. Consequently, OSullivans Manifest destiny was used as a justification for the westward expansion of the United States which had serious consequences for the indigenous Americans, who were forced to relocate further to the west.
In 1830 president Andrew Jackson and the Congress passed the Indian Removal Act that led the relocation of thousands of Native Americans from the east to the west despite the decrees passed previously by the Marshall Court in Georgia. This policy was however opposed by Daniel Webster, Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen. The act nevertheless came into frorce and gave the government power that led to a series of negotiated treaties for relocation of the natives. However, many natives remained in the east and formed tribal groups, though pressure was mounted on their leaders to sign the removal treaties. The removal of the Cherokee from the Northern Mississippi in 1838 was one of the great relocations that led to the Trail of Tears after the signing of the dubious second treaty after the Cherokee Treaty of New Echota. This relocation left thousands of natives dead due to diseases, exhaustion and starvation along the way (Williams, 2008). Other tribes like the Sauk and Fox, who had resettled to the west of Mississippi, also went back under the leadership of Black Hawk in 1831, to reclaim their rights for homes to the east of the river. Their efforts, however, were not fruitful and they relocated back to Iowa. However they made another attempt in the winter of 1831-32 that resulted in war, which caused  great losses to the Sauk people and forced them to retreat to the north.
The transportation revolution during the period 1815-1840
The period 1815-1840 in American was also known as the era of welfare and a period of great transformations and industrialization for America. However, the financial crisis of 1819, Panic of 1819, changed the perspective of Americas economy. The Transportation Revolution at this time was in the wake of the American industrialization and the western expansion and urbanization. This period was marked by the establishment of factories, industries and new inventions, focused on improving communication, time saving and efficiency in transportation (Sydney, 2006). The transport revolution in the beginning of 1830s saw the emergence of new forms of transportation like canals, roads, bridges, clipper ships, steam power and railroads. According to Sydney (2001)
Some of the developments include the building of the Erie Canal near New York, opened in 1825, the construction of a highway across America, the National Road in 1811 till the early 1800s, the introduction of a steamship, the Clermont, on the Hudson River by Livingston, which monopolized the ferry service there until 1824 and led to construction of more canals, the chartering in 1828 of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the launching of the clipper ship in 1845 by John W. Griffiths, which further became instrumental during the gold rush period. (p.76)
This revolution was a great contribution to the American economy and saw the economy burst from the previous financial crisis. It led to the rapid growth of cities and towns that had just been absorbed, with population increasing from 6 of people in 1820 to 20 in 1860. The creation of railroads aided the relocation of new settlers to the west and movement of western farm produce to markets. The growth of new markets, the expansion into new farms and the creation of new factories became rampant in the peripherals of America (Sydney, 2006). This therefore, created a good foundation for the development of an integrated American economy before the beginning of World War 1. Due to this, the great scale of capital investment at that time that led to the economic growth and even establishment of banks. Different tribes intermingled at this point due to the cross-country migration of settlers and workers to industries and farms. Politically the revolution enabled America to acquire new territories and also develop them. This became the period of great political changes with the opposition to the methods that used for acquisition.
The MexicanAmerican War
      The MexicanAmerican War led between 1846 and 1848 was an armed conflict between Mexico and the United States. The war was led in the dawn of the US  seizure of Texas claimed to be owned by Mexico in 1845. However, the genesis of the Mexican-American War can be backtracked to the 1836 when Texas claimed its independence from Mexico. After the 1836 duel and independence of Texas, the United States, Great Britain, and France offered Texas diplomatic recognition and thus prevented Mexico form engaging Texas. This victory, however, did not ring well with the Mexicans, who vehemently refused to recognize Texas as a republic on its own (Haberle, 2003).
After Texas declared its independence, it tried to forge a way to joining the United States but could not, due to the American diplomatic ties with Mexico. However, after the election of James K. Polk a pro-annexation candidate in 1845, Texas was declared a member state of the United States. Immediately after Texas had joined the United State, a dispute began over the Texas southern boarder (Haberle, 2003). This was caused by the fact that the claim concerning the Rio Grande boundary by the Texans had not been included in the annexation resolution due to the failure of the Treaty in the Senate, which, however, did not stop president Polk from vehemently claiming it. Due to this, troops were sent to the area by both countries with an intention to protect their interest, which sparked a war. After the occupation of the boarder by  the troops both from America and Mexico, a declaration of war was set into motion in 1846 by the American Congress after Captain Seth Thornton was attacked by the Mexican troops (Winders, 1997).
The declaration of war was however opposed greatly by some members of the Congress, such as John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Henry David Thoreau under the amendment of slavery key. However, the southern democrats on the other hand supported the war in hope that it might help justify the American expansion under the Manifest destiny. Subsequently, the American Congress issued the declaration of war on Mexico on May 13, 1846. This eventually led to a war that saw the signing of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to end the war in 1848 (Winders, 1997).
The Demise of the Second Party System
The term Second Party System was a term that was used to refer to the 1828 to 1854 political party system existing in the United States. The last president to hold office under the second party system was Franklin Pierce and it carried out the popular electoral vote in both the North and South before Franklin D. Roosevelt came into office (Paul, Boyer, Clifford, Sandra, Joseph, Andrew, 2009). However, after Pierce was in office for only four years, the Whigs party dissolved and was replaced by the American Republican party.
This second party system had worked as a pro-antislavery advocate and kept the government occupied with other issues in order to take their focus away from it. However, by the 1850s the debate over slavery took another turn after it become top of the governments agenda. The divisions within the Whigs made them more vulnerable to the issue and the signing of the Douglas proposal to organize the greater Nebraska territory by late 1854 with no restrictions on slavery led to the demise of their party. This bill was originally intended by Douglas to show the American interest to facilitate national expansion to the west but it gave base to the expansion of slavery (Paul et al., 2009).
This led to the nullification of the Missouri compromise and divided the territory into northern Nebraska and southern parts Kansas. The southern part Kansas then was opened to slavery and led to uproars through out the country by the free-soil activists. Slavery was given power and the industrialists at the time took advantage of the situation to acquire as much slaves for their industries (Altschuler, Glenn, Stuart, 1997). This also gave way to the expansion into the new territories a fact that led to the displacement of the native occupants. Natives were forced to migrate to the west in the call of national expansion while some of them were taken as slaves by the slave breeders and slave traders.