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Westward Expansion Research Paper

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Grasso 1 Michael Grasso Ms. Vargas 20TH US HI. 21 September 2014 Westward Expansion in the 1800s After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which was the United States buying the huge territory known as Louisiana from the French, the country doubled in size. This gave the country great opportunity due to the abundance of land and natural resources. Some citizens believed in manifest destiny which is the belief that the American settlers were destined to expand as a country throughout the continent. In the 1860s when the Civil War was coming to an end the west was still greatly undeveloped and rural. This war caused expansion to become crippled due to the funds, efforts, and lives tolled. The west was mainly able to expand and develop …show more content…

One example of this is when many Americans went to settle in Pikes Peak Colorado due to the gold found there. This resulted in the Americans taking over Indian settlements which lead to the Indians retaliating and raiding their settlements from 1861 to 1864. Due to this on November 29, 1864 the Americans massacred approximately 400 Cheyenne Indians even after the Indians offered peace. (George …show more content…

By 1886 most railroad tracks were the same length apart. This enabled the tracks to connect in ways they never have. This resulted in there being more options for travel. On top of this it also allowed certain areas to become cities and towns because of its easy access to supplies. What was also developed as a result of this is the time zone system. This was needed so people would be able to know when their train was coming and going and so trains could stop crashing (Daniel K. Boorstin). The transcontinental railroad began developing in 1862 which was a connection of railroads that connected the union pacific to the central pacific and met up in Utah. These were the results of the Pacific Railway Act of 1862 (Pacific Railway Act). The third way the west was able to develop was through its new opportunities that resulted from it. One of the opportunities was an abundance of land which was habitable and farmable. This meant much room for cities and towns to develop (Barrett, J.P). What was so beneficial was that people could go out west to get away from the south which was being reconstructed from the Civil War. Some men even left their families in the east for certain amounts of time just for job opportunities in the west (Letter to Wife and Baby). A mail

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