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How Did The Expansion Of The Railroad Affect Native Americans

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In the late 1800’s manifest destiny had taken over and many were moved to the west. With this movement came new inventions designed to make life easier and more productive, but it had a negative effect on the nation contrary to popular belief. The expansion of the railroads during the late 1800’s had a negative effect on many, including the natives Americans and other businesses. The Native Americans were the most affected by the expansion of the railroad. The first thing the iron roadway affected was the native American food source, the buffalo. In class, we learned that when the whites came to the west many ex-soldiers changed from killing people to protect their country to killing buffalo for a profit. They were killed for their hides, …show more content…

To get these lands the whites used every means necessary. To list a few ways they persuaded the Indians to give up their land include bribery, alcohol, threats, and getting a member of the tribe that did not speak for the tribe to agree to a treaty. This kind of treachery caused many Indians to have to leave their homes or suffer the consequences. With force and the threat of death, the Indians were moved to designated reservations (Doc 4). Many Indians, however, did not give their land willingly, so they rebelled and fought. There were many wars fought between the Indians and the whites. Many Indians gave up their lives to keep their way of life, but their effort was for nothing (Doc 4 and Doc 6). The whites took their land and then sold it at low prices to those moving to the west, and the Indians that were left had to think about their children and decided to leave (Doc 1). A well-known example of this process was the “Trail of Tears” which was the trail the Cherokee Indians took to their reservation and the trail was many died of illness, starvation or were shot for not keeping up with the group. The final thing …show more content…

Due to the railroad, the shipping industry has less work since they had a competition to be the main transportation to the west. Usually, when it would take months and thousands of dollars would take days and less than one hundred dollars (Doc 7). Since the trains could get both people and goods to the west coast from the east coast the use for shipping companies became obsolete (Doc 3) Equally affected by this expansion was the farmers. There was a land disturbed's of farmers and railroad companies were the farmers would lose their land so that the railroad to could build through. The final effect came to the railroad workers. These workers had to work under poor working conditions for very low pay. Many had to work under dangerous and bad working conditions. For example, in a class, it was mentioned that the Chinese had to use an explosive more dangerous than dynamite to make the tunnels of the railroad system. These men did the most dangerous work and were underpaid for it. Overall the railroad had a negative effect on

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