Westward expansion in the United States dates back to the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, which doubled the size of the country. 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. Exodusters moved West to escape sharecropping and own land for themselves. 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. ... covered wagons, stage coaches and even boats were used to move people from east to west during the 19th century. Describe people’s experience in their often-fruitless efforts to find gold. The discovery of gold in California attracted speculators who sometimes sold their property to pay for the journey to San Francisco. Cumberland Road. In the early 1800's, however, many Americans began to move west. The first Homestead Act gave up to 160 acres of free land to any adult citizen who had a family, paid a registration fee and agreed to live on the property for five years. Your IP: 91.220.196.45 From 1867 to 1914, the Canadian West opened for mass settlement, and became home to millions of immigrant settlers seeking a new life. Still others wanted to move from their homes in the east because they didn't like the new industries and the developing cities. The Plains Indians listed above were settled on a wide stretch of rolling … They were paid little for their hard work farming and they fell into debt. 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. 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. Others preferred the vast expanses of open space to the tight quarters of urban tenements. Western Settlement. there was lots of land open for people that wanted to claim it. Summarize the role of gold in luring people to the American West. Why Did Americans Move West in the 1800s. People moved west for a number of reasons in the nineteenth century, but by far the most prevalent motive was the availability of land. In the late 1830s and early 1840s, many more Americans started to move to Oregon. • 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. Thirty-four years later, the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed the settlers in new territories the right to decide whether to allow slavery or outlaw it. Others had trouble finding land to farm. 1650-1800: 1800-1820: 1820-1830: 1830-1840: ... to an exodus of 30,000 settlers from Kansas. Trace the development of the cattle industry. Expansion also gave them new economic possibilities, such as farming and gold mining. 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). By the year 1820, Americans had heavily settled land as far west as the Mississippi River, and created numerous new states in the process. Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property. It also prohibited slavery in any land in the new territory that lies north of Missouri's southern border. 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. What was John C. Calhoun's plan for a long-range program of internal improvements at public expenses? New opportunities and homes. When you picture the "westward expansion" of settlers in the United States, a covered wagon may be the first thing to come to mind. This was the era of the famous Oregon Trail. West of Lake Erie, the most important town was the small trading settlement of Detroit, which as late as 1840 was a rather small town with a population of about 9000. With more and more people from Europe moving into the eastern states, crowding was sometimes a problem. The completion of the railroads to the West following the Civil War opened up vast areas of the region to settlement and economic development. Various land acts in Oregon provided free land to pioneers, while the start of the California Gold Rush in 1848 lured thousands more. Why did so many Americans move west during the 19th century? Michigan settlers came primarily from New York and New England, concentrating in the southern third of the state. Pioneer settlers were sometimes pushed west because they couldn't find good jobs that paid enough. Settling the West Pioneers and settlers moved out west for different reasons. 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. 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. Wild West These people realized that the advancement of their civilization was dependent upon a continuous supply of mobile humans who were willing to pack their belongings and their families, to relocate to another part of the continent, to transplant their culture, and to resume life in a new environment. Important events like the Louisiana Purchase, along with a desire for more farmland, prompted westward expansion. The most common boats used during this time were flatboats. 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. Travelers passing through this country in 1815 encountered people who still had not heard of the War of 1812. What road, constructed by the national government, connected Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, Virginia? History Early Settlers : Early Settlers: The 1800s. 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. the only two states west of the Appalachians at the time. Some of them wanted to claim free land for ranching and farming from the government through the Homestead Act. and also, because of free land open. This law gave every citizen, … 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. In order to escape that, settlers moved west and set up the type of cottage industries to … Settling the West: Immigration to the Prairies from 1867 to 1914. by Erica Gagnon, Collections Researcher. By 1870 only portions of the Great Plains could truly be called unsettled. Westward expansion in the United States dates back to the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, which doubled the size of the country. Why did more settlers move west after the War of 1812? Heavy settlement began in the 1760s after Indian claims had been settled. Another group, especially artisans turned west as industrialization in the cities left them without jobs that were still needed in the new territories. Please enable Cookies and reload the page. Native American Lifestyle. These pioneers were generally from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and other northern states and not from Virginia or other areas … 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. Others came to California during the gold rush to strike it rich. 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. Why did many people move to California after 1848? In eighteen sixty-two, Congress had passed the Homestead Act. White settlers from the East poured across the Mississippi to mine, farm, and ranch. 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)- 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. 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. 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. Westward expansion was the greatest method to achieve the grouping of the natural resources found and use them as needed. 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. Americans moved to the West in the 1800s because people wanted to own their own land and get a fresh start. A group of men could construct a flatboat in about 30 days. Why Did Settlers Move Westward In The 1800S which was stepping on other people to get there. Performance & security by Cloudflare, Please complete the security check to access. 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. Many early settlers to Indiana traveled by floating down the Ohio River. Expansion also gave them new economic possibilities, such as farming and gold mining. 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