Identify some of the reasons Easterners were heading west in increasing numbers during the 1840s. Why did the vast majority head for the Southwest or the Pacific Coast rather than the less-distant lands of the Great Plains?

During the 1850s, as the sectional crisis deepened, which states were considered Southern and which were considered Northern? Why? Which states do you consider Northern and Southern today? What characteristics do you feel define a state or region as Southern or Northern?

I need a 2-4 scentence answer to the following questions:

Many historians have portrayed the growing rift between the North and South that led to the Civil War as an “irrepressible conflict,” while others have argued that it was entirely avoidable. What do you think? Why you think the sectional conflict was unavoidable, or what do you think could have been done to peacefully resolve these differences?

Was U.S. policy toward Mexico over Texas and the Southwest during the 1840s based on a nationalist goal of expanding our boundaries and fulfilling our “Manifest Destiny,” or a sectionalist goal of extending the plantation system and expanding Southern power in Congress? How do you think President Polk felt about this issue?