The Colonialization Of American Exceptionalism And American Expansionism

The Native American and the modern Anglo Saxon people have a long history together; when President Jefferson began to move the Natives onto the reservation land west of Mississippi, Anglos were content with the decision. As Anglos began to spread west into reservation territory, Natives got pushed farther off their land. When America entered the industrial era, Natives had been forced onto small reservation lands with other tribes. Anglos believed that it was possible to ‘fix’ the Natives by sending them to boarding schools off the reservation. The schools were off the reservation so that the children would be immersed in American culture and industry. The Industrial era led to a deep oppression of the Native American people by forcing them onto reservations, but also opened up an opportunity for America to reform Native American life and culture.

Throughout the 19th century Native Americans were treated far less then respectful by the United States’ government. This was the time when the United States wanted to expand and grow rapidly as a land, and to achieve this goal, the Native Americans were “pushed” westward. It was a memorable and tricky time in the Natives’ history. The US government made many treatments with the Native Americans, making big changes on the Indian nation. Native Americans wanted to live peacefully with the white men, but the result of treatments and agreements was not quite peaceful. In this essay I will explain why and how the Native Americans were treated by the United States’ government, in

Native American’s greeted the new colonists in a friendly, welcoming manner from the start. The new colonists considered this a sign of weakness, stating how easy it would be to dominate the native people. When Columbus arrived, there were 12-15 million Native Americans in the Americas, in 1890 there was under 250,000, with 98% of the population gone. With the belief in Manifest Destiny, the colonists forced the Native American’s off their own land, farther and farther from where they originated from, and eventually onto reservations, removing them from their way of life and their culture. During the transition from their homeland to reservations, many of the Native American’s died due to disease, cold, hunger, and the hardships of travel. Along with the annexation, the colonists demanded assimilation.

During westward expansion, the Native Americans got kicked to the side. The settlers coming west often saw the Indians as a threat to them and their families. However, this was not the main reason the Indians were pushed aside. The settlers saw the Indians had fertile land and wanted it for themselves. The Indians were the opposite of what the settlers thought they were. The Indians often helped the people moving west across the plains; giving them food, supplies, and acting as guides. However, the U.S. Government did not see this side of the Indians, instead they forced the Indians onto reservations. During the time of the expansion of the United States to the present, the Native Americans went through many things so that the United States could expand; they were pushed onto reservations, and forced to give up their culture through the Ideas of Manifest Destiny and Social Darwinism.

The Lakota, an Indian group of the Great Plains, established their community in the Black Hills in the late eighteenth century (9). This group is an example of an Indian community that got severely oppressed through imperialistic American actions and policy, as the Americans failed to recognize the Lakota’s sovereignty and ownership of the Black Hills. Jeffrey Ostler, author of The Lakotas and the Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground, shows that the Lakota exemplified the trends and subsequent challenges that Indians faced in America. These challenges included the plurality of groups, a shared colonial experience, dynamic change, external structural forces, and historical agency.

American Imperialism has been a part of United States history ever since the American Revolution. Imperialism is the practice by which large, powerful nations seek to expand and maintain control or influence on a weaker country. Throughout the years, America has had a tendency to take over other people 's land. Authors like Frederick Jackson Turner, Alfred Thayer Mahan, Albert J. Beveridge, Mark Twain, and William James all distinctive perspectives on U.S expansion and imperialism at the turn of the 20th century.

During the early 1900s, America’s reputation as a world power prospered by possessing the third largest navy in the world and a significant domain over smaller countries. It was able to acquire superiority internationally due to its intervention in the intense colonialism of the time, including fast extension, colonization, and rivalry. However, America’s colonial power did not suddenly develop. Though the United States expansionism of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century was an explicit continuation of cultural and social factors that had powered the country’s past expansionism, it was more of a departure from the strategies for the past in which financial and political motives were sought.

Ever since the very first colonies were formed, the Native Americans have been forced out of their beloved inveterate lands in order for the Americans to be able to expand their new found territory. Yet, nothing ever changed and the same economic policies continued, bringing nothing but destruction to the Native people. Meanwhile, the political and social policies were dramatically distorted, deceiving the tribes into losing land and cultural values. Jackson’s efforts to remove any and all Cherokee Indians to territory west of the Mississippi in the 1830’s maintained the same economical attitudes as before but changed the social and political policies set by the previous colonies and the United States government towards the Native Americans.

Decades of discrimination against the Native American people including the Indian Removal Act, the Trail of Tears, and the Massacre at Wounded Knee has led to a so called “compromise” and the much needed formation of the American Indian Movement to try and keep Native American culture and customs alive. This unfair treatment and discrimination has been fueled by many different people and reasons, but ultimately boils down to the greed and intolerance of the white man. Numerous indian tribes were already living in the United States when the european people settled here. The act of living and existing in nearly complete peace for a great deal of years started its swift decline in the years leading up to 1830, again fueled by greed for land and materials along with intolerance of the indians obliterated any chance of fair treatment, or the two groups living in complete peace again.

In this chapter Howard Zinn explores the reasons why and how the Native populations in existence in America, during this time, were pushed onto reservations located on lands undesirable to white settlers. In the beginning Zinn reveals most Natives fought alongside the British in the Revolutionary War, which gives reason for the two groups to harbor harsh feelings towards each other. However, he then goes on to present the overall message of the George Washington administration, which was to leave the Natives alone as they were entitled to their lands. Yet, this idea was obviously shattered as soon as the country wanted to further advance its territory and its bank accounts, according the Zinn. In fact, the lands were being used up by so many white settlers the Natives, specifically the Creeks, had to continually move to give the plantations room to settle. As a result, this constant manipulation and movement caused uproar within the Native communities and inspired revolutions and revolts, such as the rebellion organized by Tecumseh. Eventually, as the US government was able to defend itself and recruit other Native peoples, it was able to defeat and usurp essentially all of the uprisings, especially under Andrew Jackson’s command. In fact, after Jackson’s reelection, his anti-Indian raids and wars increased in frequency and ruthlessness. Eventually, in December of 1838, almost all of the Natives, specifically the Cherokee Nation of Indians, had been forced out of the

Once the Europeans arrived they sought to take over land. However, much of the land was “owned” by Native Americans. The Native Americans lacked the power to fight for their land. The Native Americans were not as advanced as the European; this allowed the Europeans to easily conquer. The things that were important to the Europeans were not of importance to the Native Americans. Despite the Indians having no desire to be wealthy or live as

Once Europeans began coming to our native land, we natives knew it was not going to be an easy welcome or transition. I, myself, have always kept an open mind to whatever news comes our tribe’s way, but I also stay true to my values which include not being taken advantage of. Around 1800 it is said that nearly 400,000 American settlers lived west of the Appalachian Mountains. (Voices of Freedom, Pg. 157) This only took more of our lands away. Not all Native Americans went along with the European integrated culture. It was said that the most belligerent tribe happened to be the shawnee tribe with the two brothers refusing to sign the treaty of Greenville since they wanted to keep our our Indian culture and not conform.

The start of a country we know today as America was started with a few different ideologies. One of them is a new start away from Britain and the other was the continued encroachment against the native population. It started off with the need of survival and it continued until the destruction of an entire people and culture was nearly complete. Soon, after the civil war Americans began pushing west in the name of “manifest destiny, the belief that the United States had a ‘God-given’ right to aggressively spread the values of white civilization and expand the nation from ocean to ocean” (Roark 14). This is the start of American imperialism that lasted over a century, during the time; genocides and countless death are milestones in America’s quest for dominance. I am defining American imperialism is the policy expand one’s influence through economic, democratic or military force with the belief of the benefit to the country. American imperialism plays in important role through history as the cause of not only the genocides of the Native Americans, but the ultimate cause of the holocaust and even racism.

The chapter "Indian Removal, 1820-1845" from The People: A History of Native America by R. David Edmunds inspects the tribes' endeavors to hold their self-sufficiency and countries amid a time of American extension after the War of 1812. Amid the initial 40 years of the nineteenth century both the young United States and a hefty portion of the tribal people groups inside its limits created a developing feeling of patriotism. The national government was enthusiastic to practice its administration over Indian people; meanwhile, huge numbers of the tribes started to allude to themselves as "countries" and concurred that they held sway over their countries and people. The chapter concentrates on a few tribes whose encounters represent the more

What is American Imperialism? It is the influences that the United States makes on other countries. Some of the influences are economics, military, and culture. Expansionism is conquering those countries and taking over the land. Without imperialism and expansionism, our county would not be as big and productive as it is in today 's society.