America was expanding at such a rapid pace that those who were in America before us had no time to anticipate what was happening. This change in lifestyle affected not only Americans but everyone who lived in the land. Changing traditions, the get rich quick idea and other things were the leading causes of westward expansion. But whatever happened to those who were caught in the middle, those who were here before us? One of those many whom roamed the land before Americans decided that they owned were the Native Americans. Many tribes had reigning governments and tribal counsels also a way of life. With westward expansion brought changes. Many Americans were killing their live stock, the food which they ate, also Americans were settling more and more on the Indians lands. In time Indians began to fight back and take what had been theirs. Once this happened the Americans decided to make the Indians like Americans, so we took their land and tried to make them Americans. But this was only one group that we affected, another was the Mexicans. Mexicans were happy with their lives and the amount of territory they occupied. They were not trying to take over the world nor conquer America. But when American life came to the west all that changed. Americans wanted more land so we stole it form he Mexicans. By taking the Mexicans land we fought many battles that we unneeded. Mexicans adapted very quickly to the American lifestyle and began to populate many farms and towns in the US. But some were not as pleasant to change with the times. Most Mexicans were thought of as dirty and below Americans, so in that way were treated. But overcoming that Mexicans were hard workers and took many jobs at that time for lower wages, the same is true to this day. Both the Mexicans and Indians fought many battles for rights, land and social issues but in the end they lost.
When the U.S. took over the land, they offered citizenship to the residents as part of the treaty ending the Mexican-American War. Things weren’t good for them; they didn’t have equal treatment. Many lost their lands due to unfamiliar American laws and when they lost their land, they lost their status as well. They were not treated as equals of Anglo citizens. They had separate restaurants and even separate schools.
During this years America experience a lot of major transformations with culture because a lot of people were migrating here from all parts of the world. Some believe that people who migrated should look up to Americans because Americans believe they were superior to anyone else, and they thought it would only be fair if they follow their customs and beliefs. There was debates weather the Mexican-American culture could draw from two rich culture traditions in the United States. Acculturation was being sued at this time and many people supported because there was a lot of changes that was happening in both cultures but there was also assimilation that was occurring. Assimilation let people adapt to new changes and change their own culture to the new culture they were learning. For many Mexican Americans assimilation was hard for them because of dominant Anglo society and their exclusionary rules. Some were rejected and but they didn’t care to put them in any of the middle class white societies. Many came to a agreement that they could practice there own beliefs without interfering with the other cultures beliefs. This helped created less conflict even if there was still people who had many differences. Assimilation and acculturation is a very hard thing to distinguish where each person should go based on there culture because not a lot people want to adapt to the new life but
Mexican Americans have been in this country longer than many groups of people. Although, they have been here longer, whites took thier land from them. Along with taking their land from them, they took all the pride that the Mexicans Americans had. It seemed that way until they started fighting for their rights in the early nineteen hundreds. Treaties were made that gave land rights to them and speeches were made by political leaders deeming this countries actions unjust. However, the treaties were ignored and the speeches were ploys to gain votes. Many Mexican American leaders noticed that their people were mistreated and walked all over by the anglo government.
One can list the boons of western expansion — more opportunities for innovation; trains; more land for the colonists; increased trade opportunities, in both products and transportation, but none of these benefitted natives. In fact, they harmed Amerinds, pushing them to the brink of total extinction, and seemed to soil everything in nature that they had nurtured. "My heart feels like bursting; I feel sorry," Santana, the Chief of the Kiowa, said of the changes wrought by the foreigners (document G). They had every right and more to feel hurt, as Westward Expansion and the outstandingly poor treatment of natives contributed the largest, but most under-discussed, genocides in the Common Era, if not history. At least 100 million North or South American natives were killed by white or European settlers, according to the Smithsonian, whether from battle, pestilence, dislodging, or some other tribulation. There was really no way for the natives to win. This persecution lasted several decades. "In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed into effect the Homestead Act, which gave 160 acres west of the Mississippi, to any man who was willing to farm it," Northern Arizona University reported. Even the beloved sixteenth president contributed to the auctioning off of land that was not the US's to give away. Through increments of 160 acres, the natives' possession of land was chipped away,
The land of the Native Indians had been encroached upon by American settlers. By the
Also, the transcontinental railroad went through the land that the Plains Indians lived on. They were forced to move into smaller areas that were designated by the government. A lot of wars happened over this issue, and over the issue of gold being on their land.
Throughout history, the United States had come off as a stubborn nation that would take what they wanted at any cost. This was prevalent in both cases of expansion as the Americans risked war and national safety for the sake of gaining land, or even merely for proving a point. During the early years of expansion, the Americans had pushed aside the Native Americans and whoever else inhabited the land they wanted. They believed that the land was rightfully theirs and that everyone else was merely squatting on their territory. This idea continued into the early twentieth century as the Americans looked to the oceans for new territories to their kingdom.
As more Americans moved west and into Texas it became evident. that there was going to be a continued clash between Mexico and the white frontiersmen who quickly flooded. certain areas of the world. The American government wanted to purchase this valuable land but eventually it was taken by Americans. frontiersmen where it was declared its own realm.
Throughout most of the nineteenth century, the United States expanded its territory westward through purchase and annexation. At the end of the century, however, expansion became imperialism, as America acquired several territories overseas. This policy shift from expansionism to imperialism came about as a result of American's experience in the Spanish American War and the Congressional debates that followed the American victory.
How do you see progress, as a process that is beneficial or in contrast, that it´s a hurtful process that everyone at one point of their lives has to pass through it? At the time, progress was beneficial for the United States, but those benefits came with a cost, such cost that instead of advancements and developments being advantageous factors for humanity, it also became a harmful process in which numerous people were affected in many facets of life. This all means that progress is awsome to achieve, but when achieved, people have to realize the process they had to do to achieve it, which was stepping on other people to get there.
There were many obstacles that the Americans faced when expanding westward. The first and foremost among those was the fact that they had to somehow obtain the land from the people already living there. This involved dealing, or fighting, with several different groups of people. We had to fight against Spanish Mexico in the Mexican-American War, which involved the deaths of 13,000 American...
The early 1800’s was a very important time for America. The small country was quickly expanding. With the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition, America almost tripled in size by 1853. However, even with the amount of land growing, not everyone was welcomed with open arms. With the expansion of the country, the white Americans decided that they needed the Natives out.
The westward expansion, the pivotal period where the United States tracked down a policy of extension based off the “manifest destiny”; an ideology that Americans were destined to expand their nation across the lands. Those who were convinced that slavery was the main cause towards the events like the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War were not as correct; they were simply other issues besides that which concerned the expansion. Though the problems shown seem to reveal that slavery was an important value, but it could never be a valid reason for expansion no matter how the issues occur. Reverend William Ellery Channing mentioned in his letter to Henry Clay that annexing Texas to the United States would perpetuate slavery, he would continue
Native Americans had inherited the land now called America and eventually their lives were destroyed due to European Colonization. When the Europeans arrived and settled, they changed the Native American way of life for the worst. These changes were caused by a number of factors including disease, loss of land, attempts to export religion, and laws, which violated Native American culture.
Many people today know the story of the Indians that were native to this land, before “white men” came to live on this continent. Few people may know that white men pushed them to the west while many immigrants took over the east and moved westward. White men made “reservations” that were basically land that Indians were promised they could live on and run. What many Americans don’t know is what the Indians struggled though and continue to struggle through on the reservations.