Examples Of Westward Expansion

Westward Expansion Document-Based Question Essay

During the mid-1800s there was a large movement for Americans who lived on the East coast to move westward. This caused hardships to the movers to the west, as well as the Native Americans and the Land. The settlers thrived from Westward Expansion, but they unfairly took everything away from the people and the animals who were there before. The movement was mainly started by large deposits of gold found in western areas which made many people want to try and find gold for themselves. An example of this is in document 3 where after a large deposit of gold was found at Rich Bar, 500 more people settled there. Many people moved west and created boomtowns which lasted until the gold ran

With the help of the government, two train companies, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific,, capitalized on the rush for westward movement. Together, they created the transcontinental railroad, which connected the East coast with the West which made a month long trip only take a week, therefore making it easier for people to move west. To get people to move, many companies put up advertisements saying that there were many acres for sale at cheap prices. This is shown in Document 7 in which the Burlington & Missouri River R.R. Co. advertises Millions of Acres for sale in Iowa and Nebraska going for 6 per ct. interest and low prices. They also called the West a beautiful place where you could make a living for yourself. In reality, that was true, but to make a living

However, when the settlers to move on to their land they pushed the Native Americans off their land and put them into reservations, starting the 1830’s with the largest one being in Oklahoma. From the data on document 6, the reservations were very small compared to the Native Americans having all the land before the settlers came. Eventually, some of the Native Americans were tired of living on the reservations, so they had battles with the settlers, such as the Fetterman Massacre where Crazy Horse, a Sioux leader, killed many soldiers from the United States by luring them into a trap. However, most of the time the settlers won the battles because they had better weapons like guns and proper military training unlike the Native Americans who had bows and arrows and informal battle training. The fighting ended when Geronimo, the leader of the Apache surrendered in Skeleton Canyon, Arizona in 1886 making him the last Native American to surrender. After the battles in 1887, the Dawes Act was passed which broke up the reservations and instead gave the each Native American their own plot of land and ended the recognition of Native American tribes. The plots of land were given to them because the United States congress wanted them to become farmers, and losing their recognition as a tribe eliminated