The Transcontinental Railroad and Westward Expansion

Since the beginning of recorded history, mankind has been caught in the middle of being

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.

In the eyes of the government, the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 was 2,000 miles of opportunity ready to be seized. Westward expansion started with the idea of Manifest Destiny coined by John L. O’Sullivan in 1845. This was the encouragement of citizens to start a new life in the west, with the hope of acquiring land. Despite this encouragement by the government, the land was occupied by Native Americans who were not willing to give up their land without a fight. The government knew of their existence from the previous expedition of Lewis and Clark, but still encouraged western expansion. This decision resulted in conflicts between the United States and Indians which lasted decades. The difficulties included the environment, developing industries, and conflicts with Native Americans.The environment and the Native Americans had minimal effects on the west, but the industries such as mining and cattle had significant impacts on the settlement west of the Mississippi.

The westward expansion saw the emergence of major cities, railway networks, more interactions and improved agriculture which kept on improving in the 1800s. In the interactive map helped me realized a few important things. For instance. there are several ways through which the United States experienced a huge growth during the 1860–1890 westward expansion. Increased population, development of railroads, as well as large-scale agriculture are amongst the decades' major achievements as indicated on the decade base maps. Furthermore, the map showed as some of the natural barriers that prevented growth as well as the indigenous populations which existed prior the expansion (Billington, Allen, and Martin 2001, 201).

The Early American Industrial Revolution and Westward Expansion, two interconnected yet independent occurrences, were significant events in the Antebellum Era. The Early Industrial Revolution utilized new inventions to improve the United State’s economy and change lifestyles (Hakim NN 105; Hakim NN 107). It had offered new opportunities and transformed America 's farm economy into a market economy, which is, arguably, more efficient (Hakim NN 109). While Westward Expansion extended America’s borders, fueled by a popular ideal known as “manifest destiny, it caused many disputes amongst the American citizens, creating complications in Congress (Hakim 62-63). As shown, the Industrial Revolution and Westward Expansion were both major changes for America 's economy, each with its own benefits and disadvantages (Hakim NN 103-109; Hakim 58-59). The Early Industrial Revolution and Westward Expansion promoted and enhanced the effects of each other; the increased production of textiles urged Southern farmers to expand their plantations, which in turn, produced more raw materials for the Northern industrial workers to process (Hakim NN 103-109; Hakim 58-59). While both, as shown above, had improved the economy and allowed some freedom for the workers in free states which would otherwise not have, they also promoted slavery, which, at the time, was an ongoing issue

The transcontinental railroad appeared like a golden route to a prosperous future, but the struggles of many peoples, cultures, and the downturn of the economy, show that the negative effects of the transcontinental railroad outweighed the benefits. Theodore Judah, and the Big Four, comprised of the Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker, decided to build the railroad by laying down the tracks. The founders did not realize the consequences of constructing this massive iron horse: the inhumane treatment of workers, the destruction of a culture, and the collapse of the economy in 1873. The people on the railroad faced the prejudices, inclement weather, and cruel actions because of the harshness shown by the Superintendent of Construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. Cruelty did not stop with the construction workers, but rather it spread to the innocent Native Americans. Armed forces killed Native Americans and food supplies off of ancestral land to build the transcontinental railroad. Although acts, such as the Pacific

for it (Cooke 254). If it had been left to the government, it would have taken

I learned many events of history and my most favorite one was the building of transcontinental railroad. A transcontinental railroad is a railroad that spanned the entire continent. For the transcontinental railroad to be built congress passed a bill that called two companies to built a transcontinental railroad across the center of the United States. The two companies was the Central Pacific and Union Pacific. The Central Pacific hired Chinese. The Union Pacific hired former soldiers from the north and south, freed slaves, and Irish immigrants. Both companies hired native americans. The two companies building the railroad were given given 20 square miles of land for every track that laid. With land they got they got money because they sold

How do you see progress, as a process that is beneficial or in contrast, that it´s a hurtful process that everyone at one point of their lives has to pass through it? At the time, progress was beneficial for the United States, but those benefits came with a cost, such cost that instead of advancements and developments being advantageous factors for humanity, it also became a harmful process in which numerous people were affected in many facets of life. This all means that progress is awsome to achieve, but when achieved, people have to realize the process they had to do to achieve it, which was stepping on other people to get there.

Through the four decades between 1860 and 1890 the land scape of the United States changed dramatically. One of the more important factors evident while observing the interactive map, is the expansion of the railroad system. The combination of railroad system and the increasing population of America created the grand expansion west. Through the decades’ rail systems increase, states were established, densely populated city began to appear, and improved land grow. The west expanded at a gradual rate except for the great railway expansions towards San Francisco. What didn’t happen was a resemblance of change in the south. The rail system increase, but the south lacked an increase in highly populated cities and improved agricultural land. Through the change of America, the states around New Orleans remained the same. Important factors accord between 1860 and 1870 that completely changed the migration of Americans through the next four decades.

Made in the 1860s ,the railroads were used to move supplies from place to place. They also used trains to move men to places with less men. The North

On May 10, 1869 Americans celebrated the first rail road crossing north America. The Union Pacific reached westward from Omaha, Nebraska and central pacific. This real road helped to transport horses and men west in the battle with Native Americans where they were weak to fight. It also helped hunters to gain a quick access to bison and they were able to harvest animals in easy way. After the civil war there was there was more, than twenty thousand bison but after the railroad the natural environment was destroyed and by the end of 1885, only one thousand bison remained. In 1893 congress gave the railroads 4,840 square yards, which worth more than 500 million dollars the railroad changed American economy, society and politics in gilded age. The railroad had a big impact by bringing millions of migrants to America. Between 1870 and 1900, the railroad helped bring more than two million American migrants to the Mississippi west. By 1905, sixty thousand Russian Mennonites come to fertile Kansas plains by using the Santa Fe

This text is a sampling of times, places, and people of the Westward Expansion. A teacher teaching the Westward Expansion will find historical images and stories behind the historical times and the sheet music that correlates to the topics. This cross-curricular resource allows for the stories to be read and the pictures to study, and ultimately the music to be incorporated into the classroom learning. Ultimately this book can be utilized to bring adventure, danger, dreams, and the realities of American life during the Westward Expansion to come alive for students. This will make history fun for all students, allowing students to build more of a connection to the past. This is another great resource but because I don’t teach Western Expansion

THESIS: Three men in the mid-1800s had an idea to open up a mail delivery system that reached from the Midwest all the way to California.

Before the United States blew up to what it is now today, it started out as a lonely 13 colonies that turned into states. “Even before the American colonies won their independence from Britain in the Revolutionary War, settlers were migrating westward into what are now the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as parts of the Ohio Valley and the Deep South” (Huntington, 1998). Expansion of the new country was paramount to the building of the empire that stands today and at the time shunning out the European countries that once squatted in the areas of the “New World” by changing the way of life, thinking, and institutions that once governed the land that is known as the United States of America. There are many factors that helped the expansion of the United States of America during the late 1800’s but, the most factors that helped was Manifest Dynasty, the Louisiana Purchase, the Mexican-American War, California Gold Rush, and the Transcontinental Railroad.