Westward Expansion Research Paper

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The 1800s was the time of most American expansion and at the same time, most conflicts with Indians. This time period was called the Westward Expansion because of all the land gained by the American Government. Many Indians lived in these lands though, and Americans greedily and ruthlessly stole their lands because of a want for new land. They were also impulsed by the idea of Manifest Destiny which was that the United States was destined by God to spread from sea to sea, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Most of these lands belonged to the Indians because that was where their ancestors had lived and it had been inherited to them. This brought many conflicts between between the Indians and and the Americans which had a great enmity with each other. Americans viewed the Natives …show more content…

The Native Americans stood almost no chance of recuperating their land because they were at first, outpowered the Americans weapons and then outnumbered by the American population. From the time Christopher Columbus first set foot on America, Native Americans were viewed as savages. To the Spanish, they were like slaves that they could tame and force to work for them. The British colonist though, saw them as harmful pest that they needed to remove from their god-given lands. Thus, the first successful British colony, Jamestown, never held good relations with the Indians and was barely able to survive whereas other European colonies immediately thrived due to their friendship with them with them. During the course of British colonization, relationships with the Indians worsened as they were pushed from their lands through treaties and the Indians tried to resist. Then came the French and Indian War, where most Indians decided to join France’s side against the British. If the French were to win, they were promised that the British would be removed

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