Question

How did capitalism play a role in western expansion?

Answer 1

Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Characteristics central to capitalism include private property, capital accumulation, wage labor, voluntary exchange, a price system, and competitive markets. In a capitalist market economy, decision-making and investment are determined by every owner of wealth, property or production ability in financial and capital markets, whereas prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by competition in goods and services markets.

Answer 2

Some academic scholars have shown how westward expansion in North America was organized around capitalism.

For example, James Parisot states that the territory we know today as the United States had capitalist characteristics but it was not a totally capitalist society. This author presents a new narrative that describes the history of the United States in a critical and particular way.

According to this author, much of the westward expansion with the destruction of native populations was driven by a specific mode of social reproduction that was different from capitalist production. Patriarchal households aimed not to depend on capitalist relations, but on freedom. However, interactions with the capitalist relations of the east, coupled with the connections that were established with the global capitalist markets, made the westward expansion a process subject to the law of value.