Three specific ways that American expansion shaped the Jacksonian period were through the advancement of technology, through slavery, and the Indian Removal Act. Jackson used all political means and economic benefits needed to see America's frontier regions expand across the nation. Jackson's policy of Indian removal had some of the most important consequences and paved the way for American expansion. At the start of the Jacksonian era, American colonial settlements had not yet extended far beyond the Atlantic coast, in part because poor roads and primitive technology limited their ability to expand, and because both hostile Indians and political Imperial Britain discouraged migration beyond the Appalachian Mountains. However, all this changed after Jackson was in office and American expansion was well underway. One of the ways American expansion shaped the Jacksonian period was through technology. Economic and political growth as well as American settlement can only be described in detail as a side effect of technological progress. First, the growing dominance of trade, commerce and growth would not have been possible without the development of first canals and then railways. (C-108) For example, western New York had not yet been settled by white Americans. It wasn't until the impact of the Erie Canal that things began to change. The Erie Canal was one of the most significant and largest transportation projects of the time. Even before the project was completed, grain production began to take off and was shipped to eastern customers. Toll revenues on the canal grew so much that the project became self-financed. The westward expansion of trade transformed New York into an urban powerhouse. ...... half of the document ...... The Indian Removal Act was all part of Jackson's expansion process, and he would stop at nothing until America made the most of its territory. American expansion shaped the Jacksonian period in a number of ways that included the advancement of technology, through slavery, and most importantly, through the Indian Removal Act. While very different, these three aspects are similar in that they all left the sign during the Jacksonian period. Technology and new developments had linked this vast expansion of acquired land. Slavery had contributed to the acquisition of these lands because of the labor needed for production. And, most importantly, the Indian Removal Act clearly stated that Americans were taking what was rightfully theirs. American expansion would not have been possible if it were not for these three ideas that greatly influenced the Jacksonian period.