How Did The United States Become One Of The West?

How did the United States become one of the mightiest nations seen today? The U.S. s’ power was due in part to its dark history. While many may think that the expansion West was an age of opportunities, independence, and cultural exchanges; “this is ultimately a story of violence and conquer”. During the expansion, the U.S. government would take advantage of the suffering of the Native Americans and undermine the political, social, and economic ways of Indian life. The nation used any means, including force and deception, to gain dominance. The Jackson administration's decision to remove the Cherokee Indians to lands west of the Mississippi River in the 1830’s was a continuation of previous political, social, and economic policies; however,
For instance, it can be seen in the Map of territory cessions made by Cherokee from their original lands, that in the beginning of the colonial period the Cherokees claimed many of the Southern parts of the United States. As the generations passed, by the time of the 1835 treaty, the U.S. government had plundered the Cherokee land resulting in the initial tribal land declining. The map repeatedly shows that the government was taking Indian land; resorting in the Indians having merely a fraction of their original land. In addition, in President Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Andrew Jackson, he explains that “in order to peaceably counteract this policy of theirs and to provide an extension of territory… they should be led to an agricultural way of life, thus lessening their need for land”. Jefferson continues to say that he believes he is acting for the Indians “greatest good”. The government gives the impressions of having compassion for the Natives; in reality, conspiracy and collaboration were held in secrecy
history many still continued to consider the Natives as savages and an uncultured society. For instance, Shakespeare's play The Tempest illustrates how the Europeans viewed “the native people of America...as the “other”. During the beginning of the first encounters between the Europeans and the Natives, both groups could never coexist because of one thing: skin color. The Europeans believed that the Native Americans weren’t civilized and so they exerted power because of having what they considered better cultural practices and color of skin. Additionally, in the Toward Stoney Mountain excerpt, it reads that the Indians weren’t wanted “...for they were the wrong color, unable to cross the racial border and blend into Benjamin Franklin society of the “lovely White”. The dividing factor from being humane and savage was color of one’s skin. In our society today, individuals still have a hard time accepting people of different race, religion, and backgrounds. Even if someone has the same color of skin, discrimination and dissension can occur. How could the Indians ever be accepted when they look differently while in modern communities, people struggle to accept others that look the same? Through the years, the Indians were never recognized; they weren't ever considered as agricultural equals or as a group with acceptable cultural views. The administration of Jackson regularly maintained the Natives being socially incapable and uncivilized because “an Indian