Early American Settlers

This is the first time the white America begin to settle west of the Mississippi in the early 1800s. There three reasons for them to settle in that particular area, the first was religious reasons, the second is they wanted social freedom and last they wanted wealth. This would be the beginning of westward migration of Americans. There were two phases, in the first phase the Americans moved without any kind of government’s consent they just packed and move out for personal reasons. The second reason was President James Polk was for American expansion. He believed in the power of Manifest Destiny which meant the American civilization was spread far and wide and that they were destined by God to take over North America's land. Between 1820 and

The Oregon fur trade started to increase in the early 1800s. Only a few Americans drifted into the distant Oregon and these were usually the protestant missionaries. The reason for this was that Oregon was actually controlled by some Native American Tribes and British fur companies. The British withdrew from Oregon when the beaver population started to decline. Around the 1830s and 1840s the Americans started to move in the Oregon Willamette River Valley and as time moved on the Americans increased in numbers from about 500 to 5000. As the American Settlers moved their settlement throughout the valley the Indians became closed in and felt that it was getting crowed and many of the Indians were dying from disease that was brought there by the American settlers. The actual trouble began when a group of Indians killed 14 settlers, and one of them killed was a white doctor who was treating the whites but refused to help the Indians. The violence with the Indians continued and there was increased government

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded by John Smith. This Mormon religion really emphasized a direct connection with God. The people who believed were attracted to John Smith. They had thousands of followers and many Christians viewed this as curious practices and peculiar ways and particularly polygamy which means plural marriages. The Mormons were growing in number and prospering until 1844 is where the trouble begin when a local newspaper who was frightened of smith who was growing in power wanted to exposed the polygamy practice which started and uproar. Other religions wanted to drive the Mormons out of town. The Mormon war of 1845 began so they torched about two hundred buildings that the Mormons owned in Nauvoo. Arrested for treason Smith and his brother Hyrum entered the jailed with others and they both were shot