Westward expansion lead to the Missouri compromise because as people were traveling and settling in the west the problem at the core was slavery. Slave states didn’t want free slave states to have more power and more territory with no slaves and free slave states also didn’t want more slave states due to a power balance. With Missouri becoming apart of the United States it would unbalance free and slave states so due to the expansion Missouri was admitted to the United States as a slave state while Maine was admitted as a free slave state.
westward expansion also lead to the compromise of 1850 over slavery in states. With America gaining new territories there had to be laws put into place to keep the states from going into war with one another. The law made California a free state but Utah and New Mexico would be allowed to choose slavery or no slavery.
