Reading Democracy in America, de Tocqueville seems to think the Mississippi watershed was going to become the center of American power and population. Was this a common view or prediction for America's future?

by Seswatha

de Tocqueville gives the impression the Mississippi watershed was bound to become something like the Indo-Gangetic plain, extremely densely populated.

But the Midwestern states are all less densely populated than the coasts.

And, I was wondering - was this the initial trend? Did Americans begin to heavily populate the Midwest and then migrate back to the coast (or onward to the western coast) for some reason?

AlviseFalier

Tocqueville reasoned that most major civilizations developed along great rivers, and consequentially the Mississippi river would become the center of the new American Civilization. He could not have known that the impending industrial revolution would reduce the value of agriculture and instead favor inter-connectivity, thus favoring the development of the northeastern ports like New York, Boston, and Baltimore, turning them into large centers of manufacturing, drawing in millions of European migrants and shipping their finished goods the world over.

This is the mean center of population in the US over time, as you can see it moved westwards very slowly. Toqueville also seems to have overestimated the speed at which the "west was won".