In There Is No true History in Westward Expansion, the author Robert Morgan writes about historical events that have shaped America into what it is today. Land became a huge resource which lead Westward Expansion into becoming a major historical event. In Morgan’s book, he makes two very accurate claims. The first claim is that history is not made up of just a few heroes and villains; his second claim is that average citizens were responsible for Westward Expansion. To begin with, in the text “Thomas Jefferson’s America, 1801”, the author Stephen Ambrose writes about Thomas Jefferson's plans and influences on America. Jefferson wanted America to be a home where everyone can be treated equally. This text helps support Robert Morgan’s claims. For instance, the only travel that was thought of during Jefferson’s presidency was by horse and by foot. To expand transportation and technology the average citizens had to be involved in the development. The advancement of technology lead towards average people to expand westward. Along with the …show more content…
Unlike the text “Thomas Jefferson’s America, 1801”, “Reporting to the President, September 23- December 31, 1806”, and the painting “American Progress”, “Chief Joseph's Speaks” does not support Morgan’s claims. In the text “Chief Joseph Speaks” Chief Joseph narrates his story about his people and ‘war’ with the white people. Chief Joseph is part of the Nez Perce tribe; his tribe is known for having peace and cattle on their land. One day the white men invaded the Nez Perce’s land. All the Nez Perce wanted was to have peace with the white men. The whites continued to disturb the Nez Perce tribe and started war. This text does not support Morgan’s claims because land was being taken from the Nez Perce tribe. The text makes it seem that the Tribe was forced out of their land and therefore, does not support Morgan’s
Chief Joseph and Helen Hunt Jackson are two very important people who both share strong yet different perspectives toward the treachery of the U.S. Government along with the unfair treatment of Indians around the 1800’s. Chief Joseph was born in 1840 in the Wallowa valley of Oregon, and belonged to the Nez Percé tribe, which was made up of some 400 indians. The Government had made many valid promises among the tribes, just to come back and break these words with more conflict and war. All Chief Joseph was in search for was for the chaos among the whites and indians to be replaced with peace, brotherhood, and equality. Stated in the text, “We ask that the same law shall work alike on all men.” In other words, Chief Joseph believed that people
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...
Many people were in favor of U.S expansion around the world. There are three men though that are in favor of the expansion but had created arguments to back themselves up. Frederick Jackson Turner’s most famous argument was on devoted to the American Revolution, it was about the frontier or “Old West” in America. Turner was not one for war but sometimes he would write about war. He argued a few points in his work, The Frontier in American History. The first point that he argued was that a violent frontier was established from Georgia to New England as a result of the wars with France. He then made a point about the self-sufficient society that had also ben established on the frontier that was much different from the rest of society. Then he
In the 1830’s America was highly influenced by the Manifest Destiny Ideal. Manifest Destiny was the motivating force behind the rapid expansion of America into the West. This ideal was highly sponsored by posters, newspapers, and various other methods of communication. Propaganda was and is still an incredibly common way to spread an idea to the masses. Though Manifest Destiny was not an official government policy, it led to the passing of the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act gave applicants freehold titles of undeveloped land outside of the original thirteen colonies. It encouraged Westward colonization and territorial acquisition. The Homestead Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862. To America, Manifest Destiny was the idea that America was destined to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic, to the Pacific Ocean. Throughout this time Native Americans were seen as obstacles because they occupied land that the United States needed to conquer to continue with their Manifest Destiny Ideal. Many wars were fought between the A...
Westward movement is the populating of lands, by the Europeans, in what is now known as the United States. The chief resolution of the westward expansion is economic betterment. The United States story begins with westward expansion and even before the Revolutionary war, early settlers were migrating westward into what is now known as the states of Kentucky,Tennessee, parts of the Ohio Valley and the South. Westward Expansion was slowed down by the French and the Native Americans, however the Louisiana Purchase significantly improved the expansion efforts. Westward expansion was enabled because of wars, the displacement of Native American Indians, buying land, and treaties. This paper will discuss the effects of westward expansion on domestic politics and on American relations with other nations.
How do you see progress, as a process that is beneficial or in contrast, that it´s a hurtful process that everyone at one point of their lives has to pass through it? At the time, progress was beneficial for the United States, but those benefits came with a cost, such cost that instead of advancements and developments being advantageous factors for humanity, it also became a harmful process in which numerous people were affected in many facets of life. This all means that progress is awsome to achieve, but when achieved, people have to realize the process they had to do to achieve it, which was stepping on other people to get there.
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?
...or wider opportunities. Even the safety valve theory has an element of truth when applied to ambitious young men of the professional class who had a better chance of making it big much quicker in the West than in the East. Without the open frontier, moreover, there would have been a much larger migration of young people from the farms to the cities; thus the frontier helped indirectly to check the exploitation of the working class by preventing it from expanding too rapidly. The Westward Expansion also weakened state and regional loyalties and promoted national unity due to its inherent mobility. Most westerners thought of themselves primarily as Americans, and wanted strong national government with broad powers for developing transportation and promoting the general welfare. The most significant feature of the Westward Expansion was that the pioneers took with them the essential institutions of their civilization. Thus we must look upon the Westward Expansion as one of the factors in the shaping of the American civilization but not the only one. AKSHARA PRADHAN Roll No. 385 Tute. Grp.- Tuesday, 1st Pd.
“By 1840 almost 7 million Americans had migrated westward in hopes of securing land and being prosperous” (Westward Expansion Facts. Westward Expansion Facts. N.p., n.d Web. 16 Sept. 2016). This movement is called Western Expansion. The movement brought new beginnings and hope to many northerners and southerners. Western expansion not only affected the lives of many Americans, but the Natives living on the land. Throughout the 1860s to 1890s, the movement West altered the lives of Native Americans forever. Settlers deconstructed the Native Americans land in the mindset to grow their economy. Americans attacked and killed large amounts of Natives for no reasonable reason. Also, in hopes to Americanize the natives, they taught and imposed their
The United States, as a young nation, had the desire to expand westward and become a true continental United States that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Various factors, strategic and economic, contributed to the desire to expand westward. According to John O’Sullivan, as cited by Hestedt in Manifest Destiny 2004; "the U.S. had manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence to the free development of our yearly multiplying millions" (¶2). As Americans ventured westward to settle the frontier, their inherent superior beliefs, culture and the principles of democracy accompanied them. America’s ruthless ambition to fulfill its manifest destiny had a profound impact on the nation’s economy, social systems and foreign and domestic policies; westward expansion was a tumultuous period in American History that included periods of conflict with the Native Americans and Hispanics and increased in sectionalism that created the backdrop for the Civil War.
In 1801, Thomas Jefferson took his presidency with the hopes of continental expansion and a reformed government, creating a new vision for America. He made many advancements that make America what it is today such as the Louisiana Purchase that doubled the U.S’s size and reducing the government’s responsibilities. Unfortunately, in the midst of these he did not change the place of Native Americans and Africans within the society for the better. His views of their treatment helped shape Indian policy throughout the 1800s.
Permissiveness coupled with a self-righteous entitlement is not considered very flattering on anyone, much less a developing young country. The loose handle the US government had in the 1800s on its land-hungry constituents contributed to the worst (but among the most overlooked) genocide in recorded history. The few preventative actions taken by 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
Manifest Destiny! This simple phrase enraptured the United States during the late 1800’s, and came to symbolize an era of westward expansion through numerous powerful entities. The expansion can be inspected though many different contextual lenses, but if examined among the larger histories of the United States, this movement can be classified as one of the most influential developments of the post-Civil War period. While very influential to the larger part of American history, the seemingly barbaric methods that were used conquer the western lands and their peoples took physical and economical forms that proved to be a plague upon the West.
In order for America to be more independent from England, they needed to learn to become more self reliant. But to do this, the country needed to be more connected, both physically, economically, and nationally. They needed to be physically connected to be able to transport goods and other resources from one part of the country to another. To fulfil this, many long-term developments, such as internal improvements and railroad legislation, began as a result of the frontier. These changes built a community where the country could be economically connected as well: the roads, railroads, canals, etc. allowed resources to be able to transported across the country and begin exporting overseas. This gave America national recognition, since they needed to be united in order to compete with the rest of the world. Turner also argued that this connection between the country, and the process of “cross fertilization of ideas and institutions” that came with uniting the country allowed for nationalism since “Nothing works for nationalism like intercourse within the nation”. The frontier truly forced Americans to develop a more connected and independent country. The frontier pushed for many government actions, such as the acquisition of Louisiana. The disposition of public lands, according to Turner, was a “third important subject of national legislation influenced by the frontier”. Additionally, because the society on which the frontier was developed was so primal, the government was needed to regulate the nature of tariffs, land and internal improvements, politics, slavery, economics, and anything other issue that was needed to be taken care of in order to keep and preserve the independence of the country. The government, therefore, allowed the country to feel a stronger sense of nationalism because of the stability that it brought to the frontier and the rest of
During Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, he envisioned a peaceful, rural country. Thomas Jefferson believed in limiting the power of America’s central government, which was stated in his inaugural address, and also wanted to have friendly relationships with other nations. “Jefferson envisioned American yeomen trading farm surpluses for European manufactured goods- a relationship that would ensure rural posterity, prevent growth of cities and