Westward Expansion Document-Based Question Essay
During the mid-1800s there was a large movement for Americans who lived on the East coast to move westward. This caused hardships to the movers to the west, as well as the Native Americans and the Land. The settlers thrived from Westward Expansion, but they unfairly took everything away from the people and the animals who were there before. The movement was mainly started by large deposits of gold found in western areas which made many people want to try and find gold for themselves. An example of this is in document 3 where after a large deposit of gold was found at Rich Bar, 500 more people settled there. Many people moved west and created boomtowns which lasted until the gold ran
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With the help of the government, two train companies, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific,, capitalized on the rush for westward movement. Together, they created the transcontinental railroad, which connected the East coast with the West which made a month long trip only take a week, therefore making it easier for people to move west. To get people to move, many companies put up advertisements saying that there were many acres for sale at cheap prices. This is shown in Document 7 in which the Burlington & Missouri River R.R. Co. advertises Millions of Acres for sale in Iowa and Nebraska going for 6 per ct. interest and low prices. They also called the West a beautiful place where you could make a living for yourself. In reality, that was true, but to make a living …show more content…
However, when the settlers to move on to their land they pushed the Native Americans off their land and put them into reservations, starting the 1830’s with the largest one being in Oklahoma. From the data on document 6, the reservations were very small compared to the Native Americans having all the land before the settlers came. Eventually, some of the Native Americans were tired of living on the reservations, so they had battles with the settlers, such as the Fetterman Massacre where Crazy Horse, a Sioux leader, killed many soldiers from the United States by luring them into a trap. However, most of the time the settlers won the battles because they had better weapons like guns and proper military training unlike the Native Americans who had bows and arrows and informal battle training. The fighting ended when Geronimo, the leader of the Apache surrendered in Skeleton Canyon, Arizona in 1886 making him the last Native American to surrender. After the battles in 1887, the Dawes Act was passed which broke up the reservations and instead gave the each Native American their own plot of land and ended the recognition of Native American tribes. The plots of land were given to them because the United States congress wanted them to become farmers, and losing their recognition as a tribe eliminated
The Dawes Act of 1887 destroyed the reservation system by subdividing tribal land into individual plots. Unsurprisingly, the whites had not reflected on their previous actions and chose to continue to interfere with the Natives and their land. The point of the Dawes Act was to try to assimilate the Native Americans into their white society. The believed that by enforcing individual plots, the Natives would soon adapt to, what the Americans would call, responsible farmers. The problem was that this adaptation proved extremely difficult for the Native Americans.
Manifest Destiny: The Effects of Westward Expansion 3.797 million miles. That is the area of the United States of America. Within two years, from 1846 too 1848, more than one million square miles of territory was gained by the US. This time of immense growth was called Manifest Destiny. This term was first used by John L. Sullivan and was the idea that Americans had the God given right to govern the USA.
The Americans believed that it was their divine and inevitable right to claim the westward land. However, this expansion had a large problem. The Native Americans had already been settled in that land for thousands of years. And the Americans wanted to simply take it away from them. The Native Americans were forced out of their land as more and more Americans began to settle down in the west.
America today would not be the same without westward expansion, the railroad and the American dream. Westward Expansion is the all American story “Cowboys and Indians “is the first thing that comes to mind when people say America and without westward expansions that would have never happened. Without Railroads transporting items and people took thousands of dollars and a weeks upon weeks. “The railroads were the arteries of America” Tom
Post Civil War and the Gilded Age Chonda Simon Columbia Southern University American History II Professor Anthony Gole June 28, 2017 The Dawes Act was the law passed by the Congress in 1887 aimed at dividing reservations and allotted pieces of land owned by individual Indians to foreign settlers. The government would confiscate private land and sell it to another person forcing the original owner of the land to look for alternative settlement area. Large groups of white settlers and US cavalry migrate towards the West in the 1800s. The groups fought Indian tribes forcing them to vacate their lands where they had lived for many years.
During the late nineteenth century, people were continuously expanding westward. White pioneers were continuously expanding and since the Native Americans were in the way, they had to be moved. Not only was there an economic aspect for moving the Native Americans, there was also a racial aspect. Native Americans were forced to give up their culture for the one of whites. This was all justified because whites wanted to expand westward to create more railroads, create farms, and mine for precious minerals.
Forts existed but were few and far between. With this in mind it seemed greed pushed the population forward. The arrival of the of minors out searching for fortune isn’t as expected as according to Hyde’s the pacific trade was founded to help European business men mine by organizing through Hawaii many indentured servants from Hawaii, the Philippians and Asia to come and be laborers for three years in California for gold mining in return for their passage costs to the West Coast of the United States territories. Mining in the west did produced wealth but those who actually profited in the west was the merchants. In Hyde’s description of Sutter’s business deals “his own niche in buying stolen horses from Miwoks and selling them back to their original owners for a “recovery fee””(Hyde’s 188), this proves that societies tend to be based on the existence of business.
From 1860 to 1890 the United States was changed forever by western expansion. Prior to the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869 there were only three major cities in the west; St. Louis, MO, New Orleans, LA, and Chicago, IL (Westward Expansion 1) This limited the American economy to a finite number of distribution and shipping options. This all changed though with the east and west coasts being connected by rail. While Chicago, IL gets most of the historical credit for being a critical city in the growth westward, the true underdog is Denver, CO.
Was it Destiny to Move West? Manifest Destiny was the belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American Continents was justified and inevitable. Although it was not justified or inevitable. There was violence that did not need to happen. And the expansion of the US did not happen through inevitability it happened through government action.
The westward expansion took a long time. The First Transcontinental Railroad, the Gold Rush, and the Oregon Trail were all big parts of the westward expansion. The Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad built by Chinese and Irish workers which took six years. The Chinese workers worked for the Central Pacific railroad.
The westward expansion was impacted by three main things and that is social, political, and economic. The westward expansion was impacted on a social scales with the tension between the Native Americans and the U.S., also during the journey to the west many people died. On a political scale the westward expansion was affected by the many wars and treaties that has to happen in order for the U.S. to gain the land, which then allows us to expand to the west. The westward expansion was effected by the economy because of the many technology that was created like trains, also because of the westward expansion there was an increase in business and industry's triumphed and since businesses grew there were many job opportunities which inclined people
Westward Expansion Flash Draft Have you ever wondered about what would 've happened if the westward expansion never occurred? We wouldn 't have many things you know today and America would be a lot smaller. The westward expansion happened during the 1800s and helped shape the modern America. The westward expansion started with the Louisiana Purchase and was made even stronger by the Gold Rush. Many people came to strike it rich or just to start a new life out west.
The Westward Expansion began in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase. President Thomas Jefferson wanted to make the United States a better place and to do so he believed that if people moved to the west that the nation would improve. ‘By 1840 almost 7 million Americans had migrated westward in hopes of securing land and being prosperous.’ This was the beginning of the westward expansion with the Louisiana Purchase.
With the 1848 Gold Rush, traveling miners wanted temporary settlements while the settlers wanted permanent living. These mining camps were full of promiscuous behaviors and the miners moved out of the towns when the mines were emptied. The homes that were once occupied suddenly became vacant. These houses were sold for next to nothing and families moving west often find them as a safe haven.
That is just one of many reasons there was Westward Expansion. Overpopulation, new inventions of transportation methods, and new opportunities. These are three of many reasons why Americans in the 1800’s felt urged to move west. Some may claim that Westward expansion was not right for America to do because of the conflicts that were aroused afterward.