Westward Expansion Dbq

The Westward expansion began for the United States with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. For $15 million dollars, President Thomas Jefferson purchased from France 828,000 square miles, including most of 14 current states, thus doubling the size of America. Jefferson now had the land, but how to populate it was another story. On a three year expedition, Lewis and Clark were sent by Jefferson to explore the lands to get a better understanding of the geography and resources of the West. During the 1830s to 1840s, to promote further territory expansion, the “manifest destiny” came into play – which was the idea that America was destined to expand across the entire country westward. Quickly, the nation expanded.

The British had sent more than 10,000 troops to North America by the end of the French and Indian War. The British felt like they had spent a great deal of money in protecting the American colonists. They were in debt around 140 million pounds. To pay off all of their debt the British decided to increase the enforcement of existing taxes on the Colonists and impose additional taxes. The British issued The Proclamation of 1763 which meant the colonists couldn’t cheat the Indians out of land. They also establish a border in where they could not buy land. This made the colonist mad because it made them feel like the British were interfering and trying to limit their economic growth.

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.

There were many events that led up to the American Revolution. After the British defeated France and the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763, Parliament began enforcing colonists to help pay for debts that were accrued during the war. George Grenville, Britain’s chief minister, constructed laws such as the Stamp Act, Sugar Act and Quartering Act. These new policies that set in place tariffs on imports, exports, and regulations on trade, infuriated colonists (Tindall & Shi, pg. 121). Colonist did not want to allow such imposed taxes because the people themselves were not represented as equal British subjects. “The issue of taxation became a question of the colonist’ place in the imperial system” (Calloway, pg. 14). Also, after the British victory in the Seven Year war settlers were eager to expand west. British government wanted the colonist to stay east where trade was a major profit, and to navigate to the north or south. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 establishes the Appalachian Mountains as the boundary line between British and Indian lands. This was in part to keep Indian alliances and to keep control on the settler’s expansion. Henry Ellis, Governor of Georgia, spoke of

During the American Revolution, the colonists revolted against the British and eventually gained independence. The American Revolution instigated the change of American policies and expanded the entire nation. Westward expansion of the American colonies was a developmental time period for the United States. From the American Revolution, Americans established their own laws instead of following British rule, and the women’s movement arose due to the expansion of slavery. Many of these new policies were purely made to expand westward and take over Indian land, which was necessary for the expansion of the growing colonial and slave populations. The era of westward expansion finally came to an end with the United States overcoming Mexico and justifying their actions by claiming they were superior to the Mexicans in every way.

Westward expansions of the united states molded and affected the nations advancement socially, politically and economically holding quick to its connections to agriculture, its relations with and through slavery with the westward expansion therefore there would not be an abolishment movement and the women would not have been there to find against it. Although the Indian removal has helped shape the westward expansion politically and economically because it has given America more land and cotton. The Mexican war shaped the western expansion culturally and politically because the Mexican were racially religiously superior.

Upon the end of the Civil war, the United States found itself picking up the pieces of a devastated nation. Many viewed Westward expansion as a unifying mechanism for the North and the South, establishing a new hope for prosperity. In a post war semi unstable democracy, new political conflicts arose, including the future of the Native American people, the cultivation of new lands, how to assimilate those who stood in the way of the impending construction of railroads. Despite the war over the abolition of slavery ending, new racial politics and different ideas in regards to the Native American communities initiated two clashing agendas. A nation who sought unification could not have been more divided than it was during the civil war in regards to what to do with newly freed slaves. A combination of the Homestead Act and various Indian Policies, created a lose-lose situations amongst the Natives. In a heartfelt plea of understanding

Before becoming the Unite States of America, one of a massive country in the world. There were many stories behind its successful. Controversies, violences, tragedies, rebellions, and wars were the combination of expansion of the United States. In U.S. history, a story began from the east coast where the game players from. The competition between the north and the south was intense, and to occupy a piece of land was a prize that worth to fight for.

The American Expansion West was a huge, uniting shift in American history. It was a time with Improved Agricultural Land and States and Territories opened. Major Cities like Omaha, Denver, and San Francisco were allowed to connect with the East Coast, grow and flourish . Railroad Networks were so awesome that they inspired new settlers to the United States. The most important developments during the western expansion was the intercontinental railway system. This system opened up the west and helped America to expand and grow into one nation. The opportunity and symbolism of the intercontinental railroad reached across the nation and even overseas.

The British knew that they had to control the colonists so they decided to make sort of tax/law to where the colonists could not move west. This law/tax was called the Proclamation of 1763. This made the colonists very angry because had they not just fought a war so they could move west? That was the beginning of the new laws and taxes that Britain would make for the colonists in an attempt to control them.

French and Indian War. After the war the British imposed control over North America in order to prosper from the land and goods. Comparing questions 2 and 4, the colonists lost respect for the imperial power with the imposing of the Navigation Act that was for monopolizing the imports and exports. Views of the colonists shifted from notion that Britain was superior to knowing that America was superior after visiting England and seeing the decline in the democracy.

From 1763 to 1789 the American Colonies underwent a radical transformation becoming an independent self-governing nation. The British debt accumulated from the French and Indian War brought colonists into conflict with the mother country over a variety of social, political and economic issues. This turmoil pushed the colonials to fight for their independence and develop a government that would counter these problems. With the introduction of the constitution, the American Revolution initiated a radical departure from the America prior to 1763 when it developed unto a revolutionary society.

When the British lost in the French and Indian war, they turned their attention to America and placed a huge tax burden and tightening their regulations over the colony. The Americans were not allowed to circulate their local currencies, made to abide by the restrictive shipping policies, forced to house British troops and to pay taxes. This led to developing of an urge to liberate themselves and they could do so by waging a rebellion. This led to the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775 with the colonists demonstrating and fighting out rightly against the British Crown (Morton, 2003).

As more Americans began traveling west in the mid 1800s, it soon became not a matter of if but when we would effectively connect the two coasts. Current methods of traveling were extremely slow and costly, and many were pushing to advance into the west. Fortunately, on July 1, 1862, President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act, which authorized the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad companies to build a railroad that started from Omaha, Nebraska and ended in Sacremento, California. The government offered money and land, about 6400 acres, for every mile of track laid. The two companies raced to build as much track as possible and eventually met at Promontory Point, Utah on May 10, 1869. They had built 1775 miles of track through the Sierra Nevada mountains, across the Great Plains, and endured a great number of difficulties along the way. It was a joyous event when the final spike was driven into the ground, finally completing the transcontinental railroad that connected the east and the west.

The westward expansion can be marked by a tremendous expansion of industry and agriculture as well as the spread of settlements across the continent. The population of the United states was said that it doubled during this period. Most of the growth was concentrated in the plain states across the continent as well as the Northeast and Midwest. The Northeast became the front runner in the industrial aspect of the land while the south remained mostly agricultural.