The Westward Expansion

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There were many people responsible for the westward expansion of the US. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were one of the first Americans to precisely explore and map the western Territories. During their expeditions they were aided by a Shoshone woman named Sacagawea and her French-Canadian husband Toussaint Charbonneau, during which they served as translators. Their expedition helped path a way for thousands of settlers to move west. Jorge Donor was a settler who was emigrating to the west with a group of settlers (Known as the Donor Party) to settle there. During the expedition Jorge Donor decided to take a shortcut called the Hastings Cutoff to eliminate the time of the voyage (Ironically this elongated their journey and caused a lot of tragedies). In order to survive they began eating their animals and then progressed to cannibalism to survive until they were rescued. The California gold rush brought many settlers to the west in search of fortune. The first person to discover gold in California was James Marshall, it was because of his finding if gold that thousands flocked to California. Although in the east many promises where being made about riches not everybody would strike golf. An example of this was Jean Nicholas Furlough who came to California from Belgium to become rich although he never did. Settings The expansion of the west happened in a lot of places west of the Mississippi. One of the most important setting was the Louisiana Purchase which was bought in 1803, the 828,000 square miles of land nearly doubled the size of the U... ... middle of paper ... ...nize and settle the west in the end, some of them where because of new lands, minerals, and finally to expand the US territory. There were many things done to colonize and settle the west such as wars, treaties, and good old exploring the land to colonize the land. There were many costs to the westward expansion of the US, including 20,000 settles dying due to difficulties during the settlements, 13,283 soldiers killed during the US-Mexican War, and hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on wars, treaties, and sales of lands. There were many benefits of the US expansion on the optimistic side. The US doubled its size, GDP , and population during this time. The US also won respect among other countries and gained more trading partners. There were many effects that westward expansion had on US culture.

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