Westward expansion in American began in small groups and the first places in the west to become states were Tennessee and Ohio. They were considered western states at that time. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the amount of land owned by the United States and an era of exploration and settlement ensued. After the War of 1812 the United States began to develop western areas more intensely. Six more states achieved statehood from 1816 to 1821: Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, and Missouri (Claunch, A. and Tripp, L. 2009).
Pioneers moved through the west with the trade routes and settled along rivers. They tended to settle in a preplanned movement; living near their friends and relatives, or others from their original towns. For example, settlers from the south moved into Indiana in force. This dissuaded New Englanders from moving to the Indiana area, they chose to migrate to the Great Lakes region. These settlers did not move west hoping for excitement. They moved west to improve their lives and achieve some sort of financial stability. Most hoped to establish small farms. Settling along rivers and streams was common before the transportation advancements of the 1820s. During the early 1800s United States military men went westward to claim land that was payment due for their service in the War of 1812. Six million acres in the west had been designated as military bounties. So United States military men began moving west after the war ended in 1814. They hoped to find farm land and settle down (Claunch, A. and Tripp, L. 2009). To these men the west meant the area between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. Because of this migration trend in settled farm life, investors farther west began a newspaper campaigns to depict the Middle West as stable and safe with abundant natural resources. In 1816 in Missouri Territory, for example, advertisements and pamphlets claim there was no such thing as poverty in Missouri. Songs and verse depicted the west as a peaceful area in which to settle (Barrett, J., n.d.). This description demonstrates the desire on the part of the federal government and the evolving western governments to encourage settlement and development in the west.
The East and West became rivals because Eastern newspapers depicted westerners as foul-mouthed, ill-mannered rustics while western newspapers showed easterners as soft weaklings living in the lap of luxury. Westerners embraced traits such as straightforwardness and truthfulness. They prided themselves on not being sophisticated. This inspired more ridicule from eastern newspapers who depicted westerners as coarse and ignorant (Clement, Richard W). The competition between East and West was because they aspired to completely opposite lifestyles . The west liked being rough and rugged, and it was in fact made up of large numbers of males worked with their hands and lived in rustic conditions. The condescension of the East toward the West resulted in an even sharper western characteristics. Westerners promoted theory lifestyles as simple and virtuous. Western caricatures in newspapers showed easterners as self-indulgent and pretentious.
Easterners who visited the west were often reduced. The politicians sent west by the government were despised for their airs and responded in kind by sending lengthy letters to their eastern counterparts depicting the west as savage. But the open lands of the west still attracted absentee investors from the eat, further aggravating the relation ship between East and West. Easterners invested in mining, silver, gold, copper and lumber and the fur trade early on in the 19th century. Wealthy easterners pushed westward expansion by buying land, opening businesses, and mining in the west. For example, in 1811, John Astor of New York built the Astoria Fur Trade center in Oregon in 1811 (Claunch, A. and Tripp, L. 2009).
Land speculators bought enormous tracts of land and then subdivide those lands into parcels which they sold to would-be farmers at high prices and with exorbitant interest rates. Farmers in the west ended up working as cash croppers, selling their crops in eastern markets taking out more loans, disregarding their original intent of being farmers who supported themselves and sold their crops at small country markets. Farmers in the west sent cash crops via the developing transportation system, canals during the 1820s and 1830s, and later railroads. When the eastern banking recession hit and crop prices fell western settlers were left with grains and other cash crops instead of a balanced farm. By 1819 the economic panic was in full force, and many lost all including the land they had settled .
After settlements in the west became more stable and the land was sold and resold, the United States government and other looked father west. Texas Territory was under Spanish ownership. The area itself was settled by both American and Mexican settlers who decided that independence from Spain was the best thing for their future. The Texas Rebellion of 1834 (Wright, R., n.d.). The United States announced that Texas Territory was part of the United States and a proper State in 1845. This caused the Mexican-American War that lasted from 1846 to 1848. The United States won the war, took control of the Texas Territory as well as New Mexico, and California.
Works Cited
Claunch, Ann, and Linda L. Tripp. Gateways to Westward Expansion: Using Literature and Primary Sources to Enhance Reading Instruction and Historical Understanding. Westport, Conn: Teacher Ideas Press, 2009. Print.
Clement, Richard W. Books on the Frontier: Print Culture in the American West, 1763-1875. Washington, D.C: Library of Congress, 2003. Print.
Online Sources
Wright, R. Santa Anna and the Texas Revolution. http://www.andrews.edu/~rwright/Oldwww/Alamo/revolution.html
Primary Sources
Crofutt, George A., artist. American Progress. 1873. From Library of Congress: American Women: A Gateway to Library of Congress Resources for the Study of Women’s History and Culture in the United States. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97507547/
Barrett, J.P., composer. “I Will Go West!” Sheet music. Boston: J.A. Butler, 1875. From Library of Congress: Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music. http://www.loc.gov/item/sm1875.10352
