Nationalism: What convinced Americans that their nation was destined to be Great and how this conviction affected the governments domestic policies.

Nationalism

The time period 1800 to 1840 was a time of great nationalism and expansionism in the United States. The national feelings were caused by political, economic, and intellectual domestic developments in the US. Strong national feelings convinced Americans that their nation was destined to be great. This in turn affected the governments' domestic policies and allowed Manifest Destiny to take place.

When America entered the war of 1812, its economy was mainly based on local trade and agriculture. However, the overseas trade of goods from America was increasing. Also, there was increasing manufacturing, mainly in the Northeast America. The war of 1812 encouraged these increases because there was a ban on British manufactures, which aided New England factory owners. Because they no longer had to compete with cheap British goods, American industry, especially in the North, increased during the war.

The American victory at the Battle of New Orleans, and in the entire war of 1812 brought great joy to America and greatly increased nationalism because many Americans felt as though they had just won the war for independence again.

At the end of the War of 1812, Henry Clay proposed an "American System," which was adopted by the Republican Party in 1816. The American System included a protective tariff, which would cause American manufacturers to develop and prosper, the establishment of a national bank, which would stabilize America's currency and bring America's economy together, and the use of revenues from the tariff for internal improvements.

The South supported the suggestion of tariffs because they believed that they would benefit from industrialism and also they felt the nation should be economically and politically independent of Europe, rather then relying on them for trade. Eventually, the tariff of 1816 was created, which raised the tax on goods produced abroad. Politicians...