Essay Sample on Westward Expansion

Westward expansion began with the Louisiana Purchase, and due to the gold rush the population exploded. There was also a large amount of acres in the west, and that is where the Indians inhabited; they would often hunt for food there, gather clothing, and acquire shelter. People saw the west as a possibility to achieve a better life, and noticed that the west had an abundance of supplies; so in order to open land settlements they got rid of the Indians. The land was redistributed between the railway company and the miners. There are multitude of consequences due to the growth of population in the west, and these consequences led to the value of farming goods going down, destruction of livelihoods, impacts of railroads, growth of Indian reservations, and the subjugation of Indian people.

The population grew exponentially fast, and due to the growth of the population, most people in America worked on farms. Businesses small and big worked together to gain more people to do work labor. The prices for farm goods were high, and this led to a lot of people moving to the west to try to earn more money. The farmers saw an opportunity to occupy these lands, and new farming techniques were being applied. These new farming techniques help produce more crops, and this led to overproduction causing prices in crops and land to fall. The farmers were now so far into debt they couldn’t pay it off, and the investors could not collect their payment after the land was sold, and this caused the value in land to decrease even further.

The railroad helped with transporting the goods and people from one side to another a lot easier, but the problems with the railroads were the destruction of land, habitat loss, animal species depletion, and they also had a negative impact on Plains Indian. The railroads connecting the two American coasts proved to be a disaster. The Indians were mostly dependent on the bison for food, clothing, and shelter, and people found out that bison hides could be turned into leather. Hunter immediately set out to hunt the bison for their hide. There were millions of bison, and after hunting them they were now close to extinction, and the bison wouldn’t be on the verge of extinction if it weren’t for the railroads making a way to transport the hides. The massive amount of hides were shipped off to the factories, and the herds of bison were now gone, and this led the Indians with no other option but to turn to Indian reservations. The Indian livelihoods were the bison and since now they were basically gone, India turned to Indian reservations to try and maintain their culture and social tradition. The westward expansion affected the Indians because  foreigners were now intruding on their land, and these Native Americans were forced to migrate to the plains. A civil war later broke out between the Indians and American military, and the Indians were forced to give up their land to the government.

The Americans expanded westward in order to gain more territories, and to gain more resources, but it also led to a lot of devastation. The Americans destroyed a lot of people's homes and almost killed off an entire species, and by expanding westward it created a lot of consequences. The consequences were farming goods decreasing in prices;  railroad effects, and  animal species were close to extinction. Indian reservations grew, and the subjugation of Indians. The destruction of homes, land, and animals just to gain even a little bit of land and money is not worth it.