How did westward expansion divide Democrats and Whigs? A) Democrats favored expansion in order to make an alliance with Mexico; Whigs opposed expansion and a Mexican alliance because they believed they were too different culturally. B) Whigs favored expansion in order to reach California and trade in the Pacific; Democrats opposed expansion because they only wanted to sell cotton on the Atlantic. C) Democrats favored expansion in order to increase their power in Congress and expand slavery; Whigs opposed expansion because they feared losing power in Congress. D) Whigs favored expansion because they wanted to build a railroad from the East to the West; Democrats opposed expansion because they believed sea trade was most beneficial.

The correct answer is C. Democrats favored expansion in order to increase their power in Congress and expand slavery; Whigs opposed expansion because they feared losing power in Congress.

Explanation:

The expansionist process that began in the United States from the 1800s, with the Louisiana Purchase and the acquisition of Florida, acquired political connotation from the 1830s with the independence of Texas from Mexico.

Texas, from 1820, began to be populated by Anglo-American colonists, with Stephen Austin at the helm. In 1836 and after a series of political conflicts and a war of independence, Texas finally freed itself from Mexico until it joined the United States in 1845, initiating the Mexican American War.

In this regard, there was a great divergence in American politics on the subject. Thus, the Whigs, of liberal thought and located in the north of the country, believed that this conflict with Mexico was not necessary, and that its occurrence would only serve to annex territories to the nation, which could enter the union as slave states. Instead, the Democrats supported this expansion, in order to expand their controlled territories in the south of the country, with the consequent over-representation in Congress and the expansion of slavery.