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America's westward expansion in the 1800s
America's westward expansion in the 1800s
America's westward expansion in the 1800s
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Western expansion in the United States caused many Native Americans to be evacuated from their lands and onto Federal government-owned reserves. The United States expanded when Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase. Another factor was the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act motivated people to move west. This was at a time when Americans would get 160 acres of free land just for moving to the west, which most used for farming. These were the two main factors that drove westward expansion and made Americans excited about the opportunities that they could have. This motivating factor lead to some terrible outcomes. One of which is that the Native Americans were removed from their tribal lands and moved to designated lands called reserves …show more content…
that were managed by the U.S. government. The second outcome started as Texas revolting from Mexico, which ended up causing the Mexican-American War. As a result of U.S. expansion, the Native Americans were forced off their land, and the U.S. went to war with Mexico. The United States expanding caused the Native Americans to be forced off of their land.
According to a Biography on Tecumseh by Benjamin B. Thatcher created in 1832, it stated, “You are continually driving the red people, when at last you will drive them onto the great lake, where they can neither stand nor work.” The point of view/purpose of this document is that the government was unjustly removing the Native Americans from their land that they were settled on before the U.S. came around. This is shown in the quote because Tecumseh is saying, “You are continually driving the red people…” he is saying right there that the whites are removing the Native Americans from their land. He also says, “when at last you will drive them onto the great lake, where they can neither stand nor work.” He is saying that if the whites keep moving them, they will meet more resistance and will keep killing the Native Americans. During the time this document was created, the U.S. was trying to expand westward into the “New World”. This is reflected in this quote because this is a Native American speaking about the United States forcing them off of their land. According to a Document by creek chief William Weatherford which was created in 1814, it stated, “I have done the white people all the harm I could. I have fought …show more content…
them, and fought them bravely. If I had an army, I would yet fight, and contend to the last.” and, “But I have done--my people are all gone--I can do no more than weep over the misfortunes of my nation.” The point of view/purpose of this document is to show how dirty the Americans would get in order to grow their colonies. This shown through the quote because William is saying how the Americans butchered his whole tribe. During the time this document was created, the U.S. was trying to gain political power by expanding the colonies. This is reflected in this quote because the U.S. Army came into the Native Americans tribe and slaughtered most of them, including women and children. These documents are similar because they both were written by Native Americans that opposed the U.S. expanding into their territory. These documents are different because the first one is talking about how the U.S. will kill all of the Native Americans and in the second one, William is talking about how his people were slaughtered. However, they both prove that the Native Americans knew that the U.S. was willing to slaughter them. The US expansion was the cause of the Native Americans being removed from their homeland. In addition to the Native Americans being forcefully removed from their land, Westward Expansion also caused the Mexican-American War.
According to the Texans declaration of independence by the Texas Government created in 1836, it stated, “General Santa Anna, has overturned the constitution of his country, and now offers us the cruel option either to abandon our homes, or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny.” The point of view/purpose of this document is that the Mexican government was a cruel monarchy that restricted the people’s inalienable rights. This shown in the quote because it is saying that the general that represented the Mexicans told the Texans to either leave Texas, or surrender to them. The document is biased because the authors all wanted the slave trade to be preserved when the Mexicans wanted to abolish it. During the time this document was created Texas was revolting against the Mexican Government and wanted to be a separate country apart from Mexico. This is reflected in this quote because it is saying that they didn’t want to give up and “submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny.” According to a document by Benjamin Lundy created in 1836, it stated “The immediate cause and main goal of this war—led by the slaveholders of this country, (with land speculators and slave traders)---has been to grab the large and valuable territory of Texas from the Mexican Republic, in order to re-establish the SYSTEM OF SLAVERY… and, ultimately, to add it to
the United States.” The point of view/purpose of this document is that the Texans were the ones that were doing the wrong thing. That they were trying to spread slavery while the Mexicans already had it abolished it in their country and were making an exception for the Texans. But when the Texans didn’t like the Mexicans laws, they would try to resist. That is the ultimate reason why the Texans revolted, because of slavery. This is shown through this quote because Benjamin says that the Texans wanted to spread slavery more to the United States of America. During the time this document was created, the United States had just made the Louisiana Purchase. This is reflected in this quote because Texas wanted to become a state in the U.S. and they ended up causing the Mexican-American war. These documents are similar because they were written about Texas revolting from Mexico. These documents are different because the first one was claiming that the Mexicans were doing the wrong thing while the second document was claiming that the Texans were doing what was wrong. However, they both prove that the Mexicans and the Texans both thought that they were doing the right thing when Texas was revolting. Ultimately, the westward expansion is what caused the Mexican-American War. Because of Manifest Destiny, the Native Americans were removed from their tribal lands, and the Mexican American War happened. The Mexican-American War was prompted by Westward Expansion. The westward expansion also caused the Native Americans to be kicked off of their original tribal lands that they lived on for centuries before anyone knew America existed. It all started with the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the U.S. and had to be explored. It was unknown land to everyone but the Native Americans that lived there. There were some good things that came out of manifest destiny, but ultimately, it was devastating for everyone involved
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
Expansion of a nation was nothing new in terms of history. The fighting, buying and selling of land in North America was a common event during the 1800s. The United States had started expanding in 1803 with President Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory whose borders where not clearly defined. After the War of 1812 with the British, the northern border of this territory was defined at the 49th parallel. Then in 1819, Spain sold its claim to Florida to the United States. The United States wanted to continue to expand itself westward to the Pacific Ocean, a territory then owned by Mexico. The acquirement of this territory occurred after the Mexican War. How the territory was acquired by the United States is the topic in question.
The availability of inexpensive land in the American West provided opportunity for many Americans to fulfill the American dream of individualism, economic opportunity and personal freedom. Immigrants, former slaves and other settlers moved across the country to become western farmers and ranchers to make a new life. One of the reasons why the west was a land of opportunity for the farmers and ranchers was the large quantity of cheap available land. This allowed for many Americans, both rich and poor, to buy land for farming and raising cattle. The Homestead Act of 1862 aided the process. The Homestead Act gave title to 160 acres of federal land to farmers who staked a claim and lived on the land for five years. Alternatively, a farmer could buy the land after six months for $1.25 an acre. Many blacks and immigrants joined the westward expansion, looking for a better life. Immigrants saw the land as opportunity because many could not own land in the countries where they were born. For example, in Nebraska, a fourth of the population was foreign born. These immigrants transformed...
Now, the Mexican Revolution was just a small beginning for the eventual state of Texas. Back in 1809, Texas was just a provenance in the Spanish Empire and its inhabitants were mostly converted Native Americans and people of Spanish descent, but not native born of Spain. The Spanish born people had more rights and were, according to the law, superior to all others. This and more oppression by the Spanish against the Mexicans (i.e. the Native Americans and non-Spanish born), caused an uprising by the common people that was started by a Catholic priest in 1809. It would take 16 more years before Mexico had won its independence from Spain like the US had from Great Britain.
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.
At the time Andrew Jackson was president, there was a fast growing population and a desire for more land. Because of this, expansion was inevitable. To the west, many native Indian tribes were settled. Andrew Jackson spent a good deal of his presidency dealing with the removal of the Indians in western land. Throughout the 1800’s, westward expansion harmed the natives, was an invasion of their land, which led to war and tension between the natives and America, specifically the Cherokee Nation.
Thesis: The nine years of Texas’s independence were long and seemed to be dragged out. Were those nine years unnecessary and could it have been done in a shorter period of time? 13 October 1834 was the first revolutionary meeting of the American citizens who’d settled in Mexico, in the area soon to be known as Texas. The people attempted a movement that soon was laid to rest by the Mexican Congress. Attempts at independence were silenced for the time being and the elections of 1835 proceeded forward.
The movement for independence in Texas started when Mexican president Anastasio Bustamante, on April 6, 1830, forced new laws upon Texans to increase the population of Mexican citizens and decrease the population of American settlers. Bustamante prohibited further immigration to Texas by Americans. He also revoked the property tax law, which allowed immigrant settlers to avoid paying taxes for a full ten years, and increased the tariffs on goods exported from the United States. If that hadn’t already angered the Texans, Bustamante demanded that the settlers abide with the federal prohibition against slavery. The settlers were told if they were to disobey these orders, military intervention would
According to the article, “Tecumseh sided with the British in the War of 1812 (1812–15) in an attempt to halt the expansion of U.S. settlements into the Old Northwest and the dispersal of the native peoples living there.” This means that Tecumseh was so against the westward expansion that he fought alongside the British in the War of 1812 to stop the westward expansion, and spread the amount of Native Americans living there. Tecumseh did everything he possibly could to stop the westward expansion from
The Homestead Act of 1862 was signed into order by our late president Abraham Lincoln. The Homestead Act transferred over 200 million acres of public land into private land for purchase. Anybody who wanted to move west just had to file for land usually it was like 160 acres and after five years of living there it was theirs for free or after 6 months they could purchase it for a dollar and sixty two cents an acre. Settlers would set out in search of gold and land. The land wash harsh and much more suitable for raising cattle as compared to farming. The ability to easily afford and get land along with the introduction of the Transcontinental Railroad led to a boom in western expansion. The transcontinental Railroad made moving west easier, although
Indians had been moved around much earlier than the nineteenth century, but The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was the first legal account. After this act many of the Indians that were east of the Mississippi river were repositioned to the west of the river. Tribes that refused to relocate ended up losing much of their land to European peoples (Sandefur, p.37). Before the Civil War in the U.S. many farmers and their families stayed away from the west due to a lack of rainfall (Nash et al., 2010). Propaganda in newspapers lured Americans and many other immigrants to the west to farm. The abundance of natural grasses in the west drew cattlemen and their families as well.
Westward expansion began in 1803 when President Thomas Jefferson purchased Louisiana territory from France. This purchase nearly doubled the size of the country. Jefferson believed that expansion was the key to growing America and highly encouraged it. It was through this exploration
It was not very easy for the United States to expand like they had in mind. The division of land had been a rising problem since the Revolutionary war. Two of the main issues during the time of the Articles of Confederation were the pricing and land measurement (Potter and Schamel 1). Throughout the course of over fifty years, the government had tried many different attempts to get people to want to expand to the west. They just didn’t really know the right way of how to go about it. Trying to sell the acres did not go over well, considering the price seemed outrageous for what they were getting. Untouched soil was very hard to start on and be successful from the beginning, which caused some problems with people not wanting to buy the land (Weiser 1). So again, a different political group tried a different approach.
At that time, president Thomas Jefferson expanded twice the size of the nation by compromising a price of $15 million, in order to achieve 828,800 square miles of property from France and some part of 14 current states. citation In 1804, Jefferson sent a team of explorers, and their leaders Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to investigate the area. Over three years, they gained information about the geography and resources of the western part of the continent. In the 1830s and 1840s, “manifest destiny,” is the name of the idea to expand in the West to increase further territorial expansion. While settlers and miners traveled towards the prior to the Civil War, which can be recalled as the fastest migration after the war. The Homestead Act (1862), persuaded white settlers to move west- because it gave permission to claim 160 acres of land for free. Also, the completion of the “first transcontinental railroad in 1869” increased migration and also contributed to economic development. It all began with the Native Americans and ended with them too. Who were they? Do not use questions Well, the were any member of the indigenous people. They all were separated by different groups, which had varied lifestyles. Some lived in nomadic lifestyles, with the access to large amounts of rangeland to support their families, while others settled in