Westward expansion brought inspiration to start a new beginning, but immigration created an even greater beginning. Manifest destiny would not have been able to prove expansion justifiable if it were not for immigrants, as a Harvard University article elucidated, “Immigrants were not only integral to the construction of the transcontinental railroads that facilitated western expansion, but they also used the railroad to migrate west and to form new immigrant settlements in western states and territories.” (“Open Collections Program: Immigration to the US, Immigration, Railroads, and the West”). Immigrants built the railroads the not only connected the country, but made westward expansion inevitable, as described in the manifest destiny. In fact, the first transcontinental railroad would not have been completed without the work of Chinese and Irish laborers who compromised a great amount of the workforce. Turner believed that the native-born Americans were pushing for businesses to migrate west to attract more native-born Americans, but in reality, railroad companies created plans that “…increased population in the west meant more business for railroads.” These hard-working railroads would not have been completed without the diligent immigrants. The “American character” exemplified in Turner’s thesis is caused by the…
Native Americans were pushed from their lands and forced to change their culture by the…
During the 1800s, the federal government promoted westward expansion in a variety of ways. This expansions changed the shape and character of the country. The United states first started with very small property back then they were call the 13 colonies which to begin with was not as strong as it is today, if anything it was a lot weaker and had little to rely on. Through time it was able to make it ways into gaining more territory. You may ask how they did they do this? since the president can’t actually buy land because it’s not for sale. To be honest and precise it wasn’t all easy for the United States to expand from its original 13 colonies to todays 50 states…
America’s acquisition of the West took huge strides during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A major move in American history towards this innuendo was the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, under Thomas Jefferson. It was a land deal between the United States and France, in which the United States acquired more than 800,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River. Another major factor was the result of the Mexican-American War in 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe. It was a peace treaty that granted the United States with the territories of present day Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and most importantly California. These large acquisitions, combined with the ideas of Manifest Destiny and a growing population led to desire of Westward Expansion.…
The long history of the United States is one of continual expansion as shows in the late nineteenth and twentieth-century. Certain factors can be found that are responsible for early American expansion and late nineteenth century imperialism. The motives for expansionism both in America and out were relatively the same. Religious reasons such as in early expansion was spreading Christianity and in late imperialism spreading Christianity to our little brown brothers in the Philippines. Economic factors were contributed by building railroads in expansion and using the sugar and cheap labor in Cuba during imperialism years. Social motives like those in the early years were that of railroads across the plains and keeping up with the European powers in the imperialistic years. Humanitarian, we thought, reasons in the early expansion years was assimilating the Indians and then years later, assimilating the Filipinos. Finally, geographic motives such as the Louisiana Purchase to double the size of America and annexing Hawaii and imperializing Cuba and the Philippines in the later years. The only major difference between these times was the expansion beyond America’s borders.…
There were many major issues that divided our nation in the early days of the 19th Century. One of the major issues was the expansion of America. America was conquering more and more land which lead to disagreements about what to do with the land. This led to Americans building roadways and waterways. American’s were fighting over land and wanting more slaves to work on their lands.…
Around the 1840s, the US aspired to annex Texas and incorporate it as a state within the Union. However, gaining Texas had its consequences as it lead a war with Mexico. William Ellery Channing, an abolitionist and pacifist, saw that the policy regarding obtaining Texas would led the “nation into war” as it severed as “encroachment,” and a way “to propagate the curse of slavery.” (Doc 2) The annexation of Texas was seen invading Texas’ link to Mexico as in document one, the American Review stated the annexation “shall dissolve the slight bounds that now link the province to Mexico” (Doc 1) This served as a situation for Mexico, who had refused to recognize Texas’ independence and its takeover by the United States, although President James Polk, a strong supporter of the annexation of Texas as seen in his Inaugural Address- where he stated “none can fail to see the danger to our safety and future peace if Texas remains an independent states,” attempted to aid Mexico in coming to an understanding. Therefore, the Mexican War broke out, out of the effort for Texas to break free its bond to Mexico. Eventually, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war, and came to an agreement that included setting boundaries for Texas and the acquisition of new territory- California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona,…
The annexation of Texas in 1845 was also a massive controversy. The North wildly opposed it because admitting Texas as a slave state would give the South more power in Congress due to the size of the state. As representative Joshua Giddings said, “They, with the Southern states, will control the policy and the destiny of this nation… Are our friends of the North prepared to deliver over this great national policy to the people of Texas?” The North was scared because they were beginning to lose control.…
Texas had an increase in slavery when it was annexed to the United States. According to Document C the text states, “The immediate cause and main goal of this war, led by the slaveholders of this…
The glorious “American dream” is arguably the number one cause of settlers expanding westward. As immigrants began flooding the streets of America, the ability to house and feed the mass population became problematic. Jobs were becoming heavily occupied, and new opportunities arose with the word of heaps of Californian gold. In order to assemble a simpler transportation method, railroads overall replaced horseback and wagon traveling.…
The Westward Expansion Impact As the 19th century progresses, more and more settlers arrived in the US and the yearn for open space and freedom had grown tremendously. The US had decided to push westwards due to this. Thousands of settlers began to pour into the new land. Through the exciting and promising land acquisitions, there was a dark history behind the westward expansion that was never fully acknowledged.…
The south wanted texas to be a slave state, however the north wished for the territory to choose what they wanted to be. Many immigrants flooded to the area of the Rio Grande and began to settle in the territory. Texas fought for their independence from Mexico, and wanted to be apart of the united states of america. But with the acceptance of Texas into the united states it grew as a controversial, as the North and South argued on if it would be slave or free, this would eventually lead to the civil war.…
Before America was discovered, many people didn’t even know it existed. American as we know as one of the most powerful nation in the world today. But that didn’t come overnight, I am going to talk about their expansion from 1607-1819. This development began with the First Settlement at Jamestown, then migrated to the Appalachian Mountains, and finally The Great Migration to the Mississippi territory. These events would soon make America a feared nation among the world.…
Throughout the history of the United States, America had a burning desire to expand its boundaries. The United States acquired most its land during the nineteenth and early twentieth century with a brief hiatus during the Civil War and Reconstruction. However, the means by which America grained new lands drastically changed from anon-aggressive fashion in the beginning to an extremely aggressive one towards the end.…
The expansion of the United States from its thirteen original colonies to the nation it is today was a very extensive process, involving numerous wars and treaties. The greatest one of these expansion periods occurred from the 1830s to the 1860s, largely due to the idea of Manifest Destiny, the belief that American settlers were destined to expand across the continent to the Pacific coast. This development played a major role in dividing the North and the South by contributing to contrasting ideologies of the two regions towards social and economic foundations of the new territory, and would eventually lead up to the Civil War, literally dividing the nation into two. Territorial expansion fashioned racial and social divisions in the American society due to slavery, created new enemies for the States as a result of the annexation of Texas against the will of Mexico, and endangered the harmony between the North and the South by cause of the Dred vs. Scott decision.…