Westward Expansion Essay

The Westward Expansion was an important and essential part of the United States growth during the nineteen centuries. The main contributor to this phenomenon was the settlers, agriculture and the construction of the railroad networks. Using this perspective, and through research the author of this paper will analyze the expansion during different decades in the 1800’s.
All America benefited from the massive agri-business that has its roots in the West as well as the settling and the construction of the railroad during the 19th century. When we think of the western expansion of the United States, we are conditioned to imagine the loner. The self-reliant, unattached roaming the prairie in search of lost calves, or the half-addled

prospector who was broken from reality thanks to the solitude of his single-minded quest for gold dust. Many of the pioneers who settled the west were family groups, immigrants and major corporations. The big losers in the westward expansion were Native Americans, who were killed or moved onto reservations. Hunter (1950) states “The internal migrations associated with the growth of cities, with the rise of a complex industrial economy and the attendant seasonal and secular fluctuations in employment, and with regional shifts of population have much in common with the Westward Movement” (p.665).
The Westward Expansion could be compared to the immigration to the United States as a whole. The way international immigrants came to the States was replicated when settlers started expanding to the West. During the 1860’s the West was mostly unorganized territories inhabited by Native Americans. A railroad system did not exist at the time making horse riding the only means of transportation during that decade. Agriculture was only a potential thought since land improvement could not be achieved due to the lack of crops, materials, and people to work it.
According to Vandenbroucke (2008) “The territorial expansion of the United States during the 19th century was mostly a political and military process” (p.84). The Louisiana purchase, as an example, was a great transaction that doubled the size of the country.
As the years progressed, the majority of the western land was still desolated and it had never been used for agricultural or any kind of productive purposes. It was not until settlers began moving to the West that this changed. One of the disadvantages was that they had to start from zero. They had to prepare and sometimes fence the land before it could be used to produce goods (Vandenbroucke, 2008). Before 1860 railroads were only available in the Midwest and the East, this meant that towns in the West had to move their crops using different means of transportation and if they did not have that capacity they would simply not be able to contribute to the economy or provide for their families.
Between 1860 and 1870 the Railroad Network between major cities and the West increased, making it easier to deliver everything necessary for the settlers to improve the land for agricultural purposes as well as moving the produce along the country.

The addition of the railroad was tremendously important for the introduction of a stronger economy to Americans due to the faster trade in the West as well as the increase of agriculture. The author believes the railroad to be the direct responsible for the existence of a major city in the West since the railroad extended as far as San Francisco making trade easier with the rest of the country. As the decades kept moving on so did the trade, allowing for the creation of new jobs and new technology increasing major cities growth. In 1880 some of the territories became states and now the railroad extended to Texas improving more land and increasing agriculture in said state. The East also experimented and increase in railroads and agriculture. At that point in history the Westward Expansion was nothing short of a domino effect. The more the railroad extended the more the cities and economy grew. Settlers kept moving into territories subsequently making them states. Cities such as Denver, Omaha, and Kansas began to appear shaping not only the economy but the country as a whole. The railroad revolution had two effects on the Westward Expansion. First, settlers moving cost decreased. Second, the monetary cost of shipping goods to and

from the West decreased (Vandenbroucke, 2008).
When 1890 rolled around, the railroad network already extended to every major city in the country, the vast majority of territories were now states and the economy kept effervescently rising up.