Economic Unity and Rising Tensions

America tried to unite its economy, but it just made everyone fight more. In the early 1800s,

leaders pushed the "American System"—a network of roads and canals to link the country.

The industrial North, cotton South, and farming West were supposed to work together.

Instead, this specialization just made their differences bigger. When the economy

crashed in 1819, they all blamed each other. The ultimate showdown was the Missouri

Compromise. To keep the balance between slave and free states, they let Missouri

in with slaves, but added Maine as a free state, and drew a literal line across the

map for all future states. This "fix" just set a timer on the Civil War.