An Analysis Of The Commercial Capital In The United States' Westward Movement And The Influence Of The Commercial Capital On The Westward Movement

The Westward Movement is the key stage for the formation of the national sprits and the territorial boundaries of the United States. It was through this movement that the United States grew from a faltering new nation struggling in the remote corner of the world's civilization to a towering giant of the capitalist world and also laid the foundation for the United States to become the Number One superpower in the world. The Westward Movement, as a large-scale migration and economic development movement, was driven by many different factors and commercial capital was undoubtedly the fundamental reason. Since the very beginning, the business groups was the most active and powerful organizer of the movement who had an important influence on the civil westward movement and the design and evolution of government policies and pushed the movement to gain further momentum, in the meantime, the business groups developed itself in a unprecedented way. However, the commercial capital's power hinged upon a series of federal government's favourable policies towards west development, land policy in particular. The combination of the two factors had a huge impact on the whole development of the movement and shaped some of the key features of the movement. This article, titled "An analysis of the commercial capital in the United States'Westward Movement and the influence of the commercial capital on the Westward Movement", will explore the Westward Movement in five parts:The first chapter is an introduction of the beginning of the American commercial capital, i.e., the accumulation of commercial capital and the early exploration of the west territory led and pushed by the business groups during the colonial periods.The second, third and forth chapter form the main part of this article which analyzes the influence the business groups had on the Movement, including the early exploration of territorial boundary by the fur traders; the land profiteering activities and the push for land cultivation by the land profiteers and the promoting of the transportation development by the business groups.The fifth chapter is the conclusion:the commercial capital had a huge influence on the Westward Movement; meanwhile the influence was made possible by the rich land and natural resources in the west and the federal government policy support, especially government's land policy.