Land Expansion in Early U.S. Essay. History Assignment.
Explain why land expansion during the late 18th and early 19th centuries was such a significant goal for American citizens and government. Identify and discuss how this ambition of expansionists impacted Native Americans. Compare and contrast the differences between Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act and Thomas Jefferson’s Indian Policy.
TERMS TO KNOW:
1. Trail of Tears
2. Nicholas Biddle
3. Ordinance of Nullification
4. John C. Calhoun
5. Whigs and Democrats
No additional materials (outside sources, internet sites, etc.) will be needed to answer the questions.
Prompt should be answered in essay-format and contain a minimum of 5-6 paragraphs. In answering the question, you are required to support your claims with historical evidence and analysis. Overall, your objective, in answering the question, is to “respond/ think like a historian,” meaning your arguments and claims should be supported with evidence from primary and secondary sources.
Tutor
Course
Date
Land Expansion in Early U.S.
When President Thomas Jefferson purchased Louisiana from the French, he remarked that westward expansion was vital to the republic's well-being. President Jefferson believed that a nation was dependent on an independent and virtuous citizenry. However, to ensure survival, a nation needed land where people would labor and produce food. Therefore, to provide enough land for the United States people, the nation had to expand. Hence, westward expansion became the defining theme of nineteenth-century America.
By the early 1800s, more than seven million Americans occupied the trans-Appalachian West. Most of the people occupying this territory were Europeans. The west provided the prospect of economic opportunity as it was greatly inhabited. For citizens and the American government, land ownership and expansion were associated with freedom. In Europe, a large number of factory workers formed a permanent working class. However, in the United States (U.S.), the western frontier signified independence and upward mobility for all.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the press put a name to the idea that helped pull pioneers towards expanding on the western frontier. According to the press, westward migration was essential to the republican objective. They argued that it was the destiny of Americans to conduct the liberty experiment. To possess all the land, which providence had given them because the American people's survival and freedom depended on it.
The effects of the American people's obsession with land were felt by the native American tribes that occupied what would become the U.S. The first white settlers landed on the eastern seaboard. Once they started expanding westward, they did so through treaties with native American groups or forcibly taking land. By the end of the Revolution, Native Americans were being displaced across the Appalachians and the Midwest. For these displaced groups, land options were becoming limited. Military conflict with Native American groups preceded the war of 1812. In many ways, the war of 1812 represented a continuation of the American Revolution since many Indian nations chose to ally with the British to fight the invading Americans.
The American invasion of the west disrupted native American groups causing a major division among Indians. Two groups emerged, namely the accommodationists and the traditionalists. The accommodationists chose to adopt Euro-American ways while the traditionalists rejected any contact with the whites by calling for native purity.
After independence, the Louisiana purchase accelerated American expansion to the west. Plantation schemes became an even more attractive ven...