The significance was that these allowed goods to be transported much faster than by horse. Canals allowed for things to be imported and exported much more easily.
California outlawed slavery. Southern states didn't want California to be admitted to the union as a free state because it would upset the balance of free states to slave states. This was compromised Later in 1850
It enabled them to increase their power over the trade business creating a complete monopoly which in turn led even to military expansions. Eventually, it led to the complete fall of Mughal empire and establishment of East India Company as the rulers of colonial India.
