Westward Expansion And The Dangers For The Pioneers

Hardships of the Westward Expansion and the Dangers for the Pioneers

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson began the westward expansion with the Louisiana Purchase. This action practically doubled the size of the nation. Thomas Jefferson thought that westward expansion was “the key to our nation’s health.” In 1843 a huge westward migration started, the people who made the long journey west were called ‘pioneers.’ The pioneers traveled west on long roads, or trails, such as the Oregon Trail, or California Trail. They traveled in wagons pulled by either horses, mules, or oxen. The wagons were very vulnerable to damage, from rocks or maybe even wood shrinking from the heat. Steamboats were used to transport supplies by rivers, and on May 10, 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, and transportation was greatly improved. The main obstacle for pioneers traveling by wagon, and those building the Transcontinental Railroad, was the Rocky Mountains. The pioneers had find a way through, and the railroad workers had to blast through with dynamite.

The Indians would attack the pioneers because they did not trust them after everything that the “white man” had done to them in the past. There would be no peace, ever, because the Indians did not want to give up anymore of their land. The pioneers had no choice but to invade their territory because the trail went right through it. The buffalo almost became extinct because the military was ordered to kill them to sabotage the Indians primary source of food. Eventually, they thought it was easier to hire buffalo hunters, instead of using the military. The railroad was a large part of the buffalo