How the Westward Expansion Progressed the Ideal of Opportunity. A vast, open land for the free taking. What would you do with that? How would you explore this? This was the challenge many American Pioneers faced when going westward in the early to mid-1800’s. Americans decided to move westward because of the Mexican-American War. From this they won the territory of Texas from Mexico. Americans migrated to this part of the country for the perfect climate for cotton, a cash crop of its time. Finally, Americans moved west because they wanted new opportunities for their families and themselves. Americans would end an era for many Natives living in the West. The westward expansion significantly heightened the ceiling of opportunity in America. This expansion …show more content…
To start off, our founding father Thomas Jefferson incorporates opportunity as one of the natural rights by writing “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence. The quality of life was greatly increased by the westward expansion for many reasons. One of the most important documents to prove this is “Diary and letters of Julia Archibald Holmes, Pioneer Woman, on her journey West.” In this document Julia Archibald Holmes writes, “Believing, as I do, in the right of woman to equal privileges as a man, I think that when it is in our power, we should, in order to promote our own independence, at least be willing to share the hardships which communally fall to the lot of man.” This excerpt shows how Julia found more freedom and independence when moving westward. She thinks that women should be able to do the same hard jobs the men are doing when guarding camps. Later in that same document she expresses her desire to expand the culture and erase the stereotype of women in America. She thinks that moving west would help her get to this point, thus showing the progression of the ideal of
the federation to slow the quickening roll of excessive expansion were overruled or overlooked by the citizens. Deciding that the east coast was no longer enough to satiate their appetite for possession, they looked to the west. Imagining themselves to be Moses, claiming their promised land, the settlers surged westward, citing Manifest Destiny, a concept that suggested providence had intended the
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