Westward Migration Research Paper

In the beginning before America came to be, many things had to come into play but the main idea that helped develop the American Identity was Migration. The migration of people has helped create an American identity. During three periods of history significant changes happened that helped frame who Americans are.

During the Colonial time period, Jamestown Colony was the first successful colony in the America that was formed by the British; it almost failed because of disease and starvation during the first winter; they finally made money with via cash crops;tobacco. Immigrants would come to the Jamestown Colony for a quick profit. This impacted the American Identity because if a person was British, English speaking and Protestant you were American

After “The Corps of Discovery” many people wanted to migrate towards the West, and this then lead to “The Westward Migration”. This impacted the American Identity because it represented new opportunities and a fresh start.

Westward Migration was when people migrated towards CA, OR, and TX and this was commonly seen because people wanted to migrate towards places that had access to more land or how others might of saw this opportunity; financial reasons. This represented the West of the United States as place of new opportunity. Destruction of Native American culture was where the English took things from the Native Americans. They mostly took away their land, but made them push away their culture and traditions more. The Native Americans were forced off their land so they migrated. This created hate between these two

This would lead to immigration because they came to America from other countries all over the world. This helped become part of the American Identity because people to this day still believe to be better than those who were not born in America. Ellis Island was located in New York, this was an immigration station were “new” lower class immigrants would come to be processed, this process would only take up to a few hours. Immigrants would come from Southern and Eastern Europe. This helped create a big part of the American Identity because once the immigrants would arrive at Ellis Island they would see the Statue of Liberty and think ‘Freedom”. Still to this day when people all over the world arrive in New York and see that Statue of Liberty they immediately think “Freedom”. Angel Island was were Asian immigrants were processed, and this process would take up to months. This would be immigration because immigrants were coming from Asia. This impacted the American Identity because once you arrived at Angel Island it was not welcoming, there was barbed wire everywhere, it was also isolated, and now when people see isolation or barbed wire they think “Not Welcomed Here”.

America says that everyone is welcomed and that no matter the race, color, or ethnicity they will not be “judged” or “persecuted”. America has welcomed mostly every race but Islam's because