Development Of The West Beyond The Mississippi

Essay submitted by Unknown

The years 1840 to 1890 were a period of great growth for the United States. It was

during this time period that the United states came to the conclusion that it had a

manifest destiny, that is, it was commanded by god to someday occupy the entire

North American continent. One of the most ardent followers of this belief was President

James K. Polk. He felt that the United States had the right to whatever amount of

territory it chose to, and in doing this the United States was actually doing a favor for

the land it seized, by introducing it to the highly advanced culture and way of life of

Americans. Shortly after his election he annexed Texas. This added a great amount of

land to the United States, but more was to follow. The Oregon Territory became a part

of the United States is 1846, followed by the Mexican Cession in 1848 and the Gadsden

Purchase in 1853. At this point the United States had accomplished its manifest

destiny, it reached from east to west, from sea to shining sea. Now that the lands it so

desired were finally there, the United States faced a new problem- how to get its

people to settle these lands so they would actually be worth having. Realistically, it is

great to have a lot of land, but if the land is unpopulated and undeveloped, it really

isn't worth much. And the government of the United States knew this. One of the

reasons that many did not choose to settle there immediately was that the lands were

quite simply in the middle of nowhere. They were surrounded by mountains, inhabited

by hostile Indians, and poor for farming. Because of these geographical conditions, the

government was forced to intervene to coax its citizens into settling the new lands.

Basically the lands were not settled because they were available, they were settled

because of various schemes the government concocted to make them seem desirable.

The government participated in a great "push" to get its citizens to move to west. At

first few people moved to the west, but this changed when gold was discovered in

California in 1848. This caused a "gold rush" to the west coast which consisted of many

prospectors seeking to find their fortunes in the gold mines of California. Many traveled

to the west coast, however few actually found their fortunes. The problem remained

that the midwest was still relatively unpopulated. There were people on the west coast

of the United States, there were people on the east coast of the United States, but

relatively few in the center of the country. In order to convince people to move to the

central midwest, the United States started a massive propaganda drive that Hitler

would have been proud of. Everywhere one would look they would find brochures telling

of how wonderful the central midwest was, and how it would be an ideal setting for

someone to settle down and raise a family, and how it was great for farmland. In the

tradition of propaganda, however, this was often far from the truth. In reality the land

that looked so beautiful in the brochures and posters was actually the Great American

Desert. To work in conjunction with the propaganda posters and brochures, the United

States passed the Homestead Act, which offered extremely cheap land to anyone who

was willing to live on it and farm it. The Homestead Act actually went as far as offering

tracks of land as large as 160 acres for as little as ten dollars. The Wyoming Territory

actually went as far as passing laws allowing women's suffrage and property rights to

encourage settlers. This would seem like a step forward in human rights. In actuality,

this was a terrible periods for civil rights for a certain ethnic group: the Indians.

President Hayes was one of the most ardent supporters of the Homestead Act.

However there was another act passed under Hayes called the Dawes Act that was a

travesty as far as the Indians were concerned. Under this act, the Indians were able to

become citizens of the United States and participate in the Homestead Act, but at a

terrible price. In order to become a citizen, an Indian would have to move away from

his reservation, renounce his tribal ways, and "accept" American ways. Needless to

say, this made the Indians furious. Originally designed to remove the Indian problem so

more settlers could move to their lands, it only served to make the Indians madder.

Now settlers were claiming they could not settle in the west because of fear of being

carved up by blood-thirsty Indians. To try to remedy the problem, the government sent

men like General Custer to dispel the Indian problem. Although Custer was slightly

successful at first, he was eventually killed by a group of Indians at the Battle of Little

Big Horn. Needless to say, white man-Indian relationships were at a low point in this

period.

In conclusion, the west was settled slowly because, geographically it was in the middle

of nowhere. It was isolated from the rest of the country, although the transcontinental

railroad would soon solve this problem. Another problem of the west was the hostility of

the Indians, which was not the unjustified considering what they had gone through.

Although today the central midwest is populated, it is not to the degree that the

coastal areas are, and it will likely remain that way until the population of the United

States becomes so large it actually forces people to move there.