The first thrust of westward expansion began with the French traders who came from Canada. They were seeking animal pelts- beaver, otter, and fox- their motivation was money, and they were seeking wealth in an unfamiliar land. In those days, Americans were eager to spread out, accumulate individual wealth, and start being independent instead of units working towards building a country. Rugged individualism was a leading hallmark of their overall character as they began their march toward the west. American history is the history of westward expansion. The founding of America by explorers fulfilled their desire to go west between the years of 1802 and 1846; this influenced the settlement and economic growth of America.
The United States was in an era of growth and expansion beginning in 1802. Thomas Jefferson- elected as president in 1800- made a bold move with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Jefferson commissioned an expedition of the new land to be conducted by Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend, Second Lieutenant William Clark; it was to follow the Missouri River in search of a water passage to the Pacific. Lewis and Clark searched for the mythical Northwest Passage believed to provide a water route across North America, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The common motive of Jefferson, Lewis, and Clark was to open the whole world to trade with North America. Before Lewis and Clark returned from their trip, Zebulon M. Pike set out from St. Louis on July 15th, 1806, leading 23 white men and 51 Indians. On August 26th, Pike abandoned boats on the Kansas River and took to horses. “Pike is now first fairly en route” (Coues page 83). Pike was now officially exploring the West, but was captured and con...
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...pi, then at about the extreme point of the emigrants’ voyage in that direction- is turned into a starting-place” (Lavender page 118). Instead of the Mississippi River being a stopping place, it became the gateway to wealth. The population increased by more than one million west of the Rocky Mountains during 1810 to 1820.
The third official expedition across the Plains was the Stephen H. Long Expedition, also known as the Yellowstone Expedition, which began in 1819 and lasted until 1820. The Yellowstone Expedition was designed to ascend the Missouri River for the purpose of establishing military posts to protect the fur trade and to counteract the influence of the British in the northern region. Major Stephen H. Long reported in 1820 on his exploration over the Great Plains, categorizing the region as useless and it became known as ‘The Great American Desert’.
This time it was to explore, map out, and find the main headwaters of Arkansas and Red rivers that ran through the region. But that wasn’t all that Pike had to do. Zebulon also had to complete the journey to establish a friendly and strong relationship with the Native Americans and also to evaluate and report back on natural resources that the expanding colonies could use to their advantage.
This transaction would come to be known as the Louisiana Purchase and nearly doubled the size of the new nation. While George Washington and John Adams made efforts at westward expansion, Thomas Jefferson secured the Louisiana Purchase and initiated the Lewis and Clark expedition. According to Wulf, “maybe Lewis would find the huge mastodon roaming across the plains; discover profitable crops, flowers in exotic shapes and sizes, and trees that would soar even higher than those already encountered. Jefferson planned this expedition in the name of science, but it would also be the beginning of a distinctly American glorification of the wilderness” (Wulf, 157). The Lewis and Clark expedition and the Louisiana Purchase had such a significant impact on America’s identity.
After the Civil War, Americans abandoned the sectional emphasis caused by slavery and developed a national focus. During the period from 1865-1890, Americans completed the settlement of the West. For the farmers and ranchers, the American West was a land of opportunity because land was cheap and the Homestead Act provided land to farmers, including immigrants and blacks, in order to grow crops, raise cattle and make a profit. The American West was also seen as a land of opportunity for miners due to the gold and silver rush in the far west which they believed would make them rich. However, both groups faced many challenges and few achieved great wealth.
When Thomas Jefferson was elected as the third President of the United States in 1801, the majority of the population lived within a fifty-mile radius of the Atlantic Ocean, very little was known about the west. Though what was known was grossly outdated information from the French traders as well as British and Spanish explores in the earlier centuries. Jefferson was a vast believer and suppor...
The year of 1803 significantly changed our nation eternally. It stunned many people. In no way, shape or form, did we ever believe that our nation would expand so rapidly. What started with the small purchase of New Orleans led into the substantial purchase of the Louisiana Territory. This was a purchase that will make Thomas Jefferson a man to be remembered. Although, he wasn’t the only man who impacted the United States during this time period. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark are the two men that are greatly known for their expedition across the Louisiana Territory. These two subjects, the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, altered our nation immeasurably.
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 who roamed the land before Americans decided that they owned it were the Native Americans.
Many believed in Manifest Destiny. That is was a God given right to spread Christianity and American ideals such as democracy all over the continent from coast to coast. This idea triggered over a million Americans to get up and sell their homes in the east and set out on Oregon, Mormon, Santa Fe, and California trails. Not everyone agreed with this expansion in the West. The slavery debate, once again, fueled many problems with Westward expansion.
The development of canal, steam boats and railroads provided a transportation network that linked different regions of the nation together. When farmers began migrating westward and acquiring land for crops, cheaper forms of transportation provided the means to transfer their goods to other regions for s...
In the late nineteenth century the expansion to the west increased the American culture. Since population was growing they needed to satisfy demands equally for every person. The idea of Manifest Destiny was used as a justification for the expansion and westward movement. Natives Americans were against the thought Americans had about the West. As a result Americans put a number of policies that helped remove the Natives Americans of the West. Americans were trying to destroy the culture Natives had.
In 1865 the frontier line generally followed the western limits of the states bordering the Mississippi River, bulging outward to include the eastern sections of Kansas and Nebraska. Beyond this thin edge of pioneer farms, lay the prairie and sagebrush lands that stretched to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Then, for nearly 1,600 kilometers, loomed the huge bulk of mountain ranges, many rich in silver, gold and other metals. On the far side, plains and deserts were part of this region; here laid the "Last Frontier"--- the "Great Plains". "For a long time, the region had been called the Great American Dessert, a barrier to cross on the way to the Pacific, unfit for human habitation and therefore, to white Americans, the perfect refuge for Indians." (Tindall 857) Apart from the settled districts in California and scattered outposts, the vast inland region was populated by Native Americans: among them the Great Plains tribes -- Sioux and Blackfoot, Pawnee and Cheyenne -- and the Indian cultures of the Southwest, including Apache, Navajo, and Hopi. Soon these Indians were pushed away from their "safe haven". "They lost an estimated 86 million acres of their 130 million acres."(Tindall 873) The reason to this is because the white man went westward to expand.
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.
As the United States grew in power, so did her ideas of expansion. The foreign powers were beginning to move out of their continents and seek land in other countries. The United States soon followed. They followed in their founder’s footsteps and tried to occupy lands in the far seas. However, in the beginning, this need for more land was called Manifest Destiny. This idea claimed that God was forcing them to occupy the new western lands. The expansionism that occurred in the late 1800’s was not a result of Manifest Destiny, and thus this "new" idea of expansionism was different from the expansionism ideas of early America. For the most part, the United States’ need for more land was primarily to keep other nations (mainly European powers) out of the western hemisphere. However the United States began to see reason behind change towards the "new" expansionistic ideas.
For many year, the American boundaries expanded as people moved, at the governments urging, westward for new economic opportunities and later imperialist expansion was no different. While many factors contributed, economic possibility was a driving factor in the expansionist aspirations. The U.S., along with countries like Britain
In the early days of America’s expansion westward, travel from the coast of North America into the heartland of the continent, was certainly a reoccurring problem. DeWitt Clinton, who served as the mayor of New York City and later Governor of New York State, had the vision and drive to build the first 363-mile long Erie Canal. In doing this DeWitt felt that America would control the expansion westward. It was feared that if the United States did not have a good connection to the west, that Canada could connect to the west and further more en...
To begin with, the idea of West World Expansion were started by a group of people called "Mountain Men", by people who live in the East. These people jobs were to hunt down beaver.Why? Beavers were really demanding during 1800's. Their furs were used as clothing (or hat, blankets, etc.) , which was "fashionable" during that period of time. Mountain Men have to push into the West, since beaver were extinct in Europe and they're also wiped out in the East, due to their popular demand kept rising. Rocky Mountain's beavers were their target. Going on this journey have it own pros and cons for the Mountain Men. First off, they traveled to make money for themselves and their family, and they also tell stories about their journey, which a lot of them were sold in books, making the idea of West World Expansion more popular, inspiring families and people to move to the West for themselves. But during this journey, these men faced many hardships, they requ...