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Westward expansion in 2 words
Westward expansion 1800
Westward expansion 1800
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Westward Expansion The Range Wars In 1880 the Range wars put themselves against really wealthy cattleman. People such as ranchers, cowboys, sheep herders, and farmers participated. Then, the homesteaders decided that they should buy the land that the ranchers had used for grazing their cattle. After they bought the land, they fenced it so they were not taking over or interacting with the cattlemens herds. The Great Plains People called the homesteaders made their homes on the Great Plains, in the middle of North America. Other living creatures such as, Buffalo, Grizzly Bears, Wolves, Antelope, and Bobcats. There were also some groups of the tribes that lived on the Great Plains. Not all of them did but some. They were, the Indians, …show more content…
It was more work than most people thought. The cowboy’s had to be able to rope a horse, or a cow while on foot, or on horseback. They had to know and learn lots of techniques for what they were doing. The birth of a Cowboy The earliest cowboys were born “half horse and half alligator”. They were not born in Texas at first. In those days Texas still was part of Mexico. In 1835 citizens of Texas won their own war. They fought against mexico. The war was named “The Independence War”. Texas fought against Mexico because they wanted to have their own State and not have to share with Mexico. So Texas won their war and then became their own State. So that is the story behind how Texas became their own State. The Cattle Drive In Kansas at the time of 1867 the great cattle drives railroad continued for about the next 20 years. That was one of the Cowboy’s busiest years. Americans headed west because that was when California was having a Gold Rush around 1849. The Texas cowboy’s drove their cattle to on the California trail to San Francisco. The cowboy’s could buy longhorns in Texas for about 10 dollars. After they bought the longhorns, they would go sell them in California for a 100 dollars each. But they sometimes lost some longhorns on the way to
To many families the prospect of owning land was the central driving force that brought them to the land known today as the wild Wild West. Much propaganda wa...
Although the English and Native Americans were both every different in how they viewed the land, there were some similarities between the two cultures. First of all, both agreed to the terms of a monarchy- the idea that a monarch that ruled over the land was more a symbolic figure of a whole people rather than a rich and wealthy land owner. Even though the English called their monarch a King, and the Indians’ a Sachem, the ideas behind the two were virtually the same. Secondly, if hunters were in pursuit of game, both cultures agreed to the fact that they could cross otherwise strict borders in attainment of the game. This shows that even though both were fairly precise in drawing village borders, food superseded otherwise legal boundaries. Lastly, the English and the Native Americans both were little different in their sense of how land could be bought or sold. Now, this does not mean that they thought viewed property the same or that they us...
There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough knowledge of what came before the white settlers; “I came to believe that the dramatic, amusing, appalling, wondrous, despicable and heroic years of the mid-nineteenth century have to be seen to some degree in the context of the 120 centuries before them” .
Not only did the Indians and Europeans use the land differently but also defined ownership of the land differently. The Indian woman defined and claimed the land as theirs by the crops planted and the rest of the land could be free for improvement. The Europeans viewed that, ‘“To define property is thus to represent boundaries between people; equally, it is to articulate at least one set of conscious boundaries between ...
Gathering men from Southwest states like Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas was
In the 1830's the Plains Indians were sent to the Great American Deserts in the west because the white men did not think they deserved the land. Afterwards, they were able to live peacefully, and to follow their traditions and customs, but when the white men found out the land they were on was still good for agricultural, or even for railroad land they took it back. Thus, the white man movement westward quickly began. This prospect to expand westward caused the government to become thoroughly involved in the lives of the Plains Indians. These intrusions by the white men had caused spoilage of the Plains Indians buffalo hunting styles, damaged their social and cultural lives, and hurt their overall lives.
The Indians thought of land very differently to the white man. The land was sacred, there was no ownership, and it was created by the great spirit. They could not sell their land to others, whereas the white people could fence off the land which belonged to them, and sell it freely to whoever they wanted. The Europeans didn't think that the Indians were using the land properly, so in their eyes, they were doing a good favour to the earth. To the Indians, the land was more valuable than the money that the white man had brought with him, even though it didn't belong to them.
“Little Bighorn, Battle Of The.” Encyclopedia Of The Great Plains. Pg 1. Web. 12 March. 2014.
It originally took about 6 months to get from the west of the US to the east, but now it only took 7 days. With railroads expanding all across the country, agriculture was affected in a mostly positive
Many other farming machines were also developed during this time period, they all made farming in the west much more popular, easier, and profitable. The Trans-continental railroad was started in 1862, even though other trains were already running in different parts of the U.S. The telegraph also went up along with the railroads, although the first time it was used was in 1844. All four of these major technological advancements have helped the United States really get going on their Manifest Destiny. The economy would also blossom during this expansion.
For many Americans, the image of the cowboy evokes pleasant nostalgia of a time gone by, when cowboys roamed free. The Cowboy is, to many Americans, the ideal American, who was quick to the draw, well skilled in his profession, and yet minded his own business. Regardless of whether the mental picture that the word cowboy evokes is a correct or incorrect view of the vocation, one seldom views cowboys as being black. The first cowboy I met was from Texas and was black. After he told me that he was a cowboy, I told him that he had to be kidding. Unfortunately, I was not totally to blame for my inability to recognize that color has nothing to do with the cowboy profession; most if not all popular famous images of cowboys are white. In general, even today, blacks are excluded from the popular depiction of famous Westerners. Black cowboys were unheard of for almost a century after they made their mark on the cattle herding trade, not because they were insignificant, but because history fell victim to prejudice, and forgot peoples of color in popular depictions of the West and Western history.
The Native Americans of the southeast live in a variety of environments. The environments range from the southern Appalachian Mountains, to the Mississippi River valley, to the Louisiana and Alabama swamps, and the Florida wetlands. These environments were bountiful with various species of plant and animal life, enabling the Native American peoples to flourish. “Most of the Native Americans adopted large-scale agriculture after 900 A.D, and some also developed large towns and highly centralized social and political structures.” In the first half of the 1600s Europeans encountered these native peoples. Both cultures encountered new plants, animals, and diseases. However, the Indians received more diseases compared to the few new diseases to the Europeans. The new diseases resulted in a massive loss of Native Americans, including the Southeast Indians which had never encountered the new diseases. Three of the main tribes in the southeast were the Cherokee and the Creek. They were part of a group of southeast tribes that were removed from their lands. These tribes later became known as “The Five Civilized Tribes because of their progress and achievements.”
Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.
The Plains Indians were the tribes of Native Americans who lived on the Great Plains of America. They knew how to keep their tribes alive and working to their full potential. There were many different tribes that made up the Plains Indians. Some hunted buffalo to feed their families and were nomadic. This was one of the largest and most common animals in the Great Plains this made them easier to hunt then most and made food for a large group of people. Some knew how to grow crops to feed their families so they were sedentary and did not have to keep moving to live. (“Native Americans and the West”) They had their own organized religion and the key to this religion was to worship the Great Spirit. Along with religion, to keep this tribe going everyone had a job to fulfill. The men traveled in groups to kill as many buffalo as possible and, the women stayed home to watch the kids and make sure things were provided for such as clothes, blankets, food, and medicine. They had everything they needed and were perfectly happy with their lives. (“Plains Indians”)
The West has always held the promise of opportunity for countless Americans. While many African Americans struggled to find the equality promised to them after the Civil War, in the West black cowboys appeared to have created some small measure of it on the range. Despite this, their absence from early historical volumes has shown that tolerance on the range did not translate into just treatment in society for them or their families.