Many early settlers to Indiana traveled by floating down the Ohio River. • haha i did this unit a little while ago (: settlers moved west because they wanted to see if they could find any gold with the yukon gold rush. Why Did Americans Move West in the 1800s. Young led the Mormons on their great trek westward through the wilderness some 1,300 miles to the Rocky Mountains—a rite of passage they saw as necessary in order to find their promised land. • Others came to California during the gold rush to strike it rich. The years following the War of 1812 saw a massive migration of white settlers into the Old Northwest, the Old Southwest and the Far West. Expansion also gave them new economic possibilities, such as farming and gold mining. Please enable Cookies and reload the page. To gain access to the western part of the country the white settlers had to pass through the Native Americans. There was much land for sale from the federal government, but at $1.25 an acre, no one could afford it. In eighteen sixty-two, Congress had passed the Homestead Act. By 1870 only portions of the Great Plains could truly be called unsettled. 10 Must-Watch TED Talks That Have the Power to Change Your Life. The completion of the railroads to the West following the Civil War opened up vast areas of the region to settlement and economic development. The most common boats used during this time were flatboats. White settlers from the East poured across the Mississippi to mine, farm, and ranch. Western Settlement. Some of them wanted to claim free land for ranching and farming from the government through the Homestead Act. For most of the next two decades, that land functioned as the fabled open range, home to cowboys and their grazing cattle from ranches in Texas. Each time the country acquired new territory, the debate centered on whether or not it would lead to the addition of a new free or slave state. Others preferred the vast expanses of open space to the tight quarters of urban tenements. Native American Lifestyle. Summarize the role of gold in luring people to the American West. Westward expansion in the United States dates back to the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, which doubled the size of the country. Others had trouble finding land to farm. You may need to download version 2.0 now from the Chrome Web Store. They were Russian Protestant groups. ... covered wagons, stage coaches and even boats were used to move people from east to west during the 19th century. Early in the century, as the states of Ohio, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi and Alabama opened up, they too became magnets for those hoping to find their fortunes and better lands to cultivate. This law gave every citizen, … Another group, especially artisans turned west as industrialization in the cities left them without jobs that were still needed in the new territories. What road, constructed by the national government, connected Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, Virginia? With more and more people from Europe moving into the eastern states, crowding was sometimes a problem. Your IP: 91.220.196.45 In 1800, significant numbers of settlers were moving to Kentucky and Tennessee ? For example, the American government began investing in infrastructure out west including government-funded national roads and waterways, such as the Cumberland Pike (1818) and the Erie Canal (1825). 1650-1800: 1800-1820: 1820-1830: 1830-1840: ... to an exodus of 30,000 settlers from Kansas. History Early Settlers : Early Settlers: The 1800s. This led to an influx of people in the Kansas and Nebraska territories, as people moved there just so they could vote on the slavery issue. Manifest Destiny One principle that guided the country's westward expansion was Manifest Destiny, or the belief that the United States had a divinely given responsibility to settle and spread democracy across North America. Why did many people move to California after 1848? In order to escape that, settlers moved west and set up the type of cottage industries to … Another way to prevent getting this page in the future is to use Privacy Pass. Thomas Jefferson, the president in office at the time of Louisiana Purchase believed that expanding the territory of the nation would provide land for citizens to live and work on their small farms. Settling the West: Immigration to the Prairies from 1867 to 1914. by Erica Gagnon, Collections Researcher. For as long as possible, the federal government worked to maintain a balance between the representation of pro-slavery and anti-slavery states in the union. Contrast the cultures of Native Americans and white settlers and explain why white settlers moved west. The Homestead Act and the Morrill Act were the two important land-grant acts that were passed in the Great Plains during the mid-1800s to help open the West to settlers. For some of them, it gave them an opportunity to own their land, especially after Congress started passing the Homestead Acts in 1862. All the settlers found it easy to get land in the West. The settlement of present-day West Virginia began in the mid-1700s when Scotch-Irish and German settlers from Pennsylvania came to the area that is now Berkeley and Greenbriar counties. Various land acts in Oregon provided free land to pioneers, while the start of the California Gold Rush in 1848 lured thousands more. If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware. When you picture the "westward expansion" of settlers in the United States, a covered wagon may be the first thing to come to mind. Americans moved to the West in the 1800s because people wanted to own their own land and get a fresh start. Pioneer settlers were sometimes pushed west because they couldn't find good jobs that paid enough. Cumberland Road. there was lots of land open for people that wanted to claim it. Transportation in Indiana during the late 1700s and early 1800s was mainly done by river. People moved west for a number of reasons in the nineteenth century, but by far the most prevalent motive was the availability of land. Supporters used this belief in defense of the decision to claim the Oregon Territory, annex Texas as well as the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which Mexico gave up its rights to what is now Arizona, New Mexico, California, Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. Westward expansion in the United States dates back to the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, which doubled the size of the country. they had views that offended some people in the 1800s, and they were driven from their homes in the East ... helped many settlers on their journey west, and established a large Mormon community in the West. This Gold Rush of 1849 spiked California's population and encouraged the development of infrastructure in the gold mining towns. What was John C. Calhoun's plan for a long-range program of internal improvements at public expenses? Still others wanted to move from their homes in the east because they didn't like the new industries and the developing cities. Westward expansion was the greatest method to achieve the grouping of the natural resources found and use them as needed. The Question of Slavery The issue of slavery also played a role in the United States' expansion. While settlers traveled west along the Oregon Trail for a variety of reasons, most were motivated either by land or gold. Products and crops were sent by flatboat to be sold at market. In the early 1800's, however, many Americans began to move west. Mennonites were some of the first to move West and to begin farming on the Great Plains. Travelers passing through this country in 1815 encountered people who still had not heard of the War of 1812. A group of men could construct a flatboat in about 30 days. It also prohibited slavery in any land in the new territory that lies north of Missouri's southern border. They were paid little for their hard work farming and they fell into debt. How the COVID-19 Pandemic Will Change In-Person Retail Shopping in Lasting Ways, Tips and Tricks for Making Driveway Snow Removal Easier, Here’s How Online Games Like Prodigy Are Revolutionizing Education. Important events like the Louisiana Purchase, along with a desire for more farmland, prompted westward expansion. Exodusters moved West to escape sharecropping and own land for themselves. Summary -The Mining Frontier -The Farming Frontier -The Manifest Destiny - Technolgical advancements - Migration of the Mormons -Conditions in the East Social Reasons Territorial Reasons - The Indian Removal Act (1830)- This was the era of the famous Oregon Trail. Trace the development of the cattle industry. Reasons for westward expansion A range of push and pull factors led to the settlement of the American West. Expansion also gave them new economic possibilities, such as farming and gold mining. What Are the Steps of Presidential Impeachment? If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. During the war, gold and silver discoveries drew prospectors—and later settlers—into Oregon, Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, and Montana. Strange Americana: Does Video Footage of Bigfoot Really Exist? Americans moved to the West in the 1800s because people wanted to own their own land and get a fresh start. These pioneers were generally from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and other northern states and not from Virginia or other areas … Performance & security by Cloudflare, Please complete the security check to access. Not only did this provide more room for the growing population to settle, but also it encouraged the idea of acquiring Spanish Florida and later Texas. New opportunities and homes. People also headed westward because the East was changing too rapidly for some – industrialization was replacing the traditional handicrafts with which generations had found economic security. Did many people move to California during the War of 1812 by Gagnon. 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