(Teacher)
In the years 1807 -1912 people settled in the western areas of the United States, and all points in between the east coast and the Pacific Ocean. This period is known as the Westward Expansion. The expansion began on the east coast and continued to the Pacific Ocean, where the pioneers settled and began to colonize the areas in between. It seemed that the land was available to be claimed and thousands of natives were pushed off their ancestral lands to make way for the white settlers. Although white civilization had been established in the Eastern United States for almost a century, the west was untamed, wild, and free of the European influence. These factors were part of the challenge that adventurers faced as they moved to a new location in hopes of building a new life. (Robert J. Miller, 2006).
John O’Sullivan, a journalist in 1845, coined the term “Manifest Destiny” which is a term used to validate the belief that Americans and the institutions they own. It says that Americans are morally superior to all others and should be obligated to spread their beliefs. The intent of this is supposedly a freeing of other people in the Western Hemisphere. These hypothetical freedoms were mostly geared toward Natives of North America and Mexico, who were treated with anything other than freedom, as they were rounded up and sent to reserved lands like herds of cattle to slaughter. (O'Sullivan, John L., July–August 1845).
The main motivations for the Westward Expansion were the prospecting of gold, the Homestead Act of 1862, and the U,S, Continental Railroad. Gold was discovered in 1848 and a treaty with Mexico was acquired, which meant that people willing to do the work that it took to extract the gold, were allowed to settle in what is now California. The Gold Rush was possibly one of the most expansive factors in settlers west of the Mississippi river. The homestead act of 1862 gave settlers free 160 acre lots that could be owned after five years, if the person improved on the land, which included building a house. Next the railroad expansion occurred in 1869, which brought even more people to the west, as well as supplied the means to ship goods from one part of the country to the other. (O'Sullivan, John L., July–August 1845).
What factors “pushed” Americans westward and which factors “pulled” them there? Perhaps the gold rush was the largest motivating factor that pulled a wave of exploration, expansion, and entrepreneurs to the west. The towns seemed to grow around gold, which brought merchants, farmers, and all types of business folk into the California and Southern Oregon mountain areas. Where there was gold, there were people. The Transcontinental Railroad also brought hardworking men to the west. These men brought women with them or sent for them to join them out west. The people who moved out west, seemed to enjoy the mountains and found a thirst for the forest industry. Trees grew large and tall in the west. It is said that one tree could provide enough lumber to build a house. Trees were harvested as quickly as they could be and the lumber could be harvested and shipped back to the East Coast on the brand new railroad. Free land was a large motivating factor pushing people to settle west of the Mississippi. The expansive west provided pioneers with the opportunities that were no longer available in the Eastern United States, such as expansive lands to farm, raise families, and raise cattle or other farm animals. (O'Sullivan, John L., July–August 1845).
Works Cited
Robert J. Miller (2006). Native America, Discovered And Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, And Manifest Destiny. Greenwood. p. 120
O'Sullivan, John L. (July–August 1845). "Annexation". United States Magazine and Democratic Review 17 (1): 5–11. Retrieved April 4, 2016
