Horace Greeley sole reason for his quote” Go west, young man go west, was to get more young people to not only travel to the west but stay and make a better life for themselves. It says that the western part of the United States had a lot more opportunities for employment and a lot more opportunities to change your social status. The reasons why I believe Horace wanted more young people to travel west were to be given the opportunity to find employment and take better care of their families. The farmland in the west was more fertile and could create more opportunities for farmers to grow and sale their produce, which could contribute to the economy. Also in 1851 the railroads were beginning to expand which made way for more trade and more organizations to trade their supplies all over the country instead of just within one state. Another reason Horace Greeley wanted more young people to travel west was because sometimes young people stay in one place for the rest of their life, and many times their hometowns may not have a lot of opportunities to offer them, so that leaves those young people poor and with no jobs. If these young people were able to travel west then …show more content…
This leaves those young people poor and with no jobs and no way to take care of their families. If these young people were able to travel west then that could create a better situation for not only themselves but for the economy. If there are more people working then that could create more jobs in the future. The Homestead Act played a major part in white Americans migrating to the west also because it promised individuals that stayed public land. The Homestead Act gave those people in poverty in the bigger cities the opportunity to change their social class by farming if they migrated
The idea of moving West started in the mid-nineteenth century. Editor Horace Greely said “Go west, young man” which encouraged many people to move west. The Journey Westward was hard on many families. They were being uprooted and leaving their homes. They sold their farms and homes in the east and packed wagons with enough supplies to travel for about 6 months. In 1869 alone, an estimated 50,000 people migrated to the new territory. Many women felt that their husbands were on “a wild goose chase” and could not understand why they were being moved to this land.
The change in transportation led to social changes as well. Due to the construction of railroads in the urban areas there was more settlement in places where transportation was available such as New York. Due to the increase in transportation, white plantation owners increased their need for slave labor on the cotton farms as well as stricter slave code policies were increased in the South. Due to the advanced railroad system Americans are able to move westward very easily. All the migrants were in search for a new life and quick riches. In 1848-1855 Americans moved west because of the California Gold Rush. The gold rush attracted Chinese migrants to the western United States. Some migrants planned to take advantage of the public lands that the federal government was selling in order to
In the mid-1800s, many Americans began to move westward, with a variety of motivations. Farmers were drawn west by all of the fertile, open land in the west, offered to them cheap by the Homestead Act. The California Gold Rush was another reason many moved west. Gold was discovered in California, and miners flocked there, hoping to strike it rich. Additionally, cattle ranchers were attracted to the west because their beef cattle thrived on the abundant grasses and open range of the Great Plains. Later on, newly built railroads, including the first transcontinental railroad, made transportation of people and goods west much more feasible, and opened the West to rapid settlement (History Alive). Although Westward Expansion was a time of full
shipped east to feed the growing number of workers in factories in cities like Philadelphia,
Westward expansion was a time of successes and failures, a time celebrations and grief, a time full of life and death but in the end it shaped how America is the way is today. Westward expansion was put in action because of the belief of Manifest Destiny, the belief that it is America fate to expand from the Atlantic to Pacific ocean. The economical, political and humanitarians impacts were necessary to achieve the goal of manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion.
Through the development of a transcontinental railroad system, the west was settled and many American dreams were in reach.
However, there were many positive economic aspects for American citizens who were moving westward. The Homestead Act of 1862 was an incentive for people to move
In the late 19th century, the American people began to go west. Americans began to pour into the West because of rapid population growth and affordable land (Importance of the West). They were also promised wide open land and to be free of Indians (Importance of the West). The West was in fact not free of Indians, and there were several wars that ensued in Arkansas, Montana, Washington, and California (Youngs).
The Westward Expansion was the nation's future as depended on by Thomas Jefferson. In 1803 the Louisiana purchase took place, doubling the size of the country. The Westward Expansion allowed the emigrants of the Oregon trail to expand out west, making the people a new start to a better future. The emigrant’s on the Oregon trail faced the most difficulty trying to survive and thrive in the west due to life threatening diseases, harsh weather patterns, and supply deprivation.
The west was rich in natural minerals such as gold, silver, and coal. These natural resources and the prospect of making a quick profit brought many young men to the west. These emigrants were not looking to settle, but to make a quick profit and return home. Cities like Portland, San Antonio, and Denver practically grew overnight as people flocked to get their share of the gold, as seen in Document D and G. News of
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the idea of the far west captivated many. The chance to begin life anew attracted thousands of individuals and families alike to move out west and escape their current life, which was usually full of poverty and for some, full of discrimination. As the west expanded and grew into an important part of the United States, westerners found it somewhat difficult to survive with important resources going scarce. Although the
Westward expansion was a new thing and time in our country and had many impacts on the American people and ways of life. The government made it available to buy a lot more of land in the West. Our government gave opportunities for people to move west for a better life or more land in the west. The government gave opportunities like the homestead act where the government would give families 160 acres of land if they moved west at the time this deal was going on. This act was signed into law by President Lincoln in 1862. People moved west for any opportunity they could. People moved for a new life, more land, and more opportunities in
for it (Cooke 254). If it had been left to the government, it would have taken
The Westward Expansion has often been regarded as the central theme of American history, down to the end of the19th century and as the main factor in the shaping of American history. As Frederick Jackson Turner says, the greatest force or influence in shaping American democracy and society had been that there was so much free land in America and this profoundly affected American society. Motives After the revolution, the winning of independence opened up the Western country and was hence followed by a steady flow of settlers to the Mississippi valley. By 1840, 10 new western states had been added to the Federal union. The frontier line ran through Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas on the western side
Some historians may construe westward expansion as beneficial to the United States, arguing that it reduced tensions within the nascent nation. Westward migration was glorified in the early 19th century as the way in which to achieve true freedom. The West was associated with economic opportunity and basic Republican ideals. Streams of individuals seeking prosperity and liberty flooded into the west after the Louisiana Purchase. With the rapid peopling of the west, new transportation systems arose in an effort to connect the new western territories to the southern and northern regions. Roads, steamboats, and canals such as the Cumberland Road and Erie canal were created to transport people and goods from one end of the United States to the other. The railroad was another invention that promoted unity.