After studying the timeline of US History from the 1600s to the Civil War, I have learned that one way  the US grew during this time was by acquiring chunks of land. These territories were the Louisiana Purchase, Northwest Ordinance (Ohio), Missouri Compromise, The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming and Kansas), and The Gadsden Purchase. The biggest problem the US face leading up to the Civil War was the battle slavery and non slavery states. These non slavery states believed that no man should own a slave, and slavery states felt they had the right to own blacks. This whole pre-Civil War period was conflicted by differences between different parties. The compromises made between social parties kept the nation united before the Civil War.