Overview | National Expansion and Reform, 1815 - 1880 | U.S. History Primary Source Timeline | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress (2024)

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What were the national expansion and reforms of 1815 to 1880? ›

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.

February 17 – War of 1812 ends. September 23 – The Great September Gale of 1815 is the first hurricane to strike New England in 180 years. December 25 – The Handel and Haydn Society, the oldest continuously performing arts organization in the U.S., gives its first performance, at the King's Chapel in Boston.

Some historians have even labeled the period from 1830 to 1850 as the “Age of Reform.” Women, in particular, played a major role in these changes. Key movements of the time fought for women's suffrage, limits on child labor, abolition, temperance, and prison reform.

Westward expansion began in earnest in 1803. Thomas Jefferson negotiated a treaty with France in which the United States paid France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory – 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River – effectively doubling the size of the young nation.

The three main nineteenth century social reform movements – abolition, temperance, and women's rights – were linked together and shared many of the same leaders. Its members, many of whom were evangelical Protestants, saw themselves as advocating for social change in a universal way.

These movements were caused in part by the Second Great Awakening, a renewal of religious faith in the early 1800s. Groups tried to reform many parts of American society, but the two most important were the abolitionist movement and the women's rights movement.

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on 18 June 1815 between Napoleon's French Army and a coalition led by the Duke of Wellington and Marshal Blücher. The decisive battle of its age, it concluded a war that had raged for 23 years, ended French attempts to dominate Europe, and destroyed Napoleon's imperial power forever.

The Progressive movement was a turn-of-the-century political movement interested in furthering social and political reform, curbing political corruption caused by political machines, and limiting the political influence of large corporations.

The causes of reform activities in the United States from 1800 to 1848 were varied. The most important causes were the second great awakening and differing social opinions. The period saw a surge in reform movements, and these greatly affected the development of the United States as a country.

The reform movements that arose during the antebellum period in America focused on specific issues: temperance, abolishing imprisonment for debt, pacifism, antislavery, abolishing capital punishment, amelioration of prison conditions (with prison's purpose reconceived as rehabilitation rather than punishment), the ...

What was the westward expansion summary? ›

A significant push toward the west coast of North America began in the 1810s. It was intensified by the belief in manifest destiny, federally issued Indian removal acts, and economic promise. Pioneers traveled to Oregon and California using a network of trails leading west.

Completing the Transcontinental Railroad was one of the most important events in connecting the West to other parts of United States.

Expansionistic fervor propelled the United States to war against Mexico in 1846. The United States had long argued that the Rio Grande was the border between Mexico and the United States, and at the end of the Texas war for independence Santa Anna had been pressured to agree.

Reforms on many issues — temperance, abolition, prison reform, women's rights, missionary work in the West — fomented groups dedicated to social improvements. Often these efforts had their roots in Protestant churches.

The expansion of the United States into the territory west of the Mississippi River began with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. President Thomas Jefferson nearly doubled the size of the nation by negotiating a price of $15 million to purchase 828,800 square miles from France, including all or part of 14 current states.

A series of states were set up on the boundaries of France to prevent French expansion in future. The Netherlands which included Belgium was set up in the north. Genoa was added to Piedmont in the south. Prussia was given important new territories on its western frontiers.