Western expansion brought into sharp scrutiny the American concept of democracy. The expanding powers questioned the meaning of democracy for people who were subjected to slavery. The nation was forced to ignore its political stand on democracy and engaged in a civil war to ensure that the slaves were freed (James, 2016). Although slavery was a social issue, the issue led to political challenges with people questioning its legality in the laws and contributing to the democratic space. Some people favored slavery, and others were against the trend, which raised many political tensions, especially when voting, and several laws were introduced to solve the issue. Some of these were the Missouri compromise.

The strengthening of the federal government accompanied the incorporation of new states. A strong national government, however, meant a reduction in the political power of the states, which was challenging and against the principles of independence. The admission of new states led to increased populations and, consequently, a shift in the center of political power. The states that were newly incorporated become powerful, and this challenged the existence of the union. The union saw dangers in having new countries become powerful courtesy of their high populations (Frymer, 2017). The addition of more states made the creation of a united country a challenge. The United States government found it challenging to create a country that was united as envisioned. The reason is that every new state was accompanied by new people who held different views. Incorporating all the people’s opinions was a challenging undertaking, and the country was always at risk of sliding into conflicts. There were disagreements in the geographical boundaries that made political success difficult.

In conclusion, western expansion led to the questioning of the concept of democracy since the powers questioned the institution of slavery in a democratic country. New states increased population comprising of different political views hence challenged the political space. It is thus evident that although the expansion was successful, it had an uphill task. mm