U.S WESTWARD EXPANSION

U.S Westward Expansion

Introduction

United States is a federal constitutional republic comprising 50 states and one federal district. The country is mostly found in central North America, where its forty-eight states and Washington, DC, the district capital, are among the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and south Mexico. The nation also owns various districts, or insular areas. (Slotkin)

Old west, wild west, wild west or the border (in English old west, wild west, far west or the frontier) are the terms that are popularly known historical events (with their main characters) that took place in nineteenth century during the expansion of the frontier of the United States of America to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Although the colonization of the territory began in the sixteenth century with the arrival of Europeans, in order to reach the coast West was mainly due to the government initiative of President Thomas Jefferson after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 The expansion of the border was seen as a search of opportunity and progress. (Etulain, 1999, 123-140)

This incessant and prolonged migration of people moved westward ancient cultures and oppressed ethnic minorities of Native Americans In contrast, the period gave rise to important advances in the industry , the communications and agriculture , to coast in many cases of intense exploitation of natural and human resources.

These historical events, the origin of a myth in the U.S. national (known as the "Myth of the Frontier") have been recreated by various forms of art, grouped under the genus western. This genre tells stories cowboys , pioneers, "noble" American Indians , miners , businessmen, etc., stories of people of varying status who undertook the adventure of the west in hopes of achieving personal success but ended up not infrequently faced with the fairness or inevitability of fate Current studies consider that behind this myth lies a more complex reality, so they tend to rethink the role of all actors involved in this social situation, economic and cultural development was the American frontier in the nineteenth century.

The government was shrewd enough to realize that by mandating the land could not lay idle they could easily avoid one problem and immediately solve another. The problem they avoided was one of land speculation, a concern that had long been apparent with the advent of the railroads and cattle ranching. Smaller acreage such as the 320 mentioned was fairer to the common man and his young family, for a short while requiring equal distribution of land resources. The problem solved was one of political and territorial unrest.

Discussion

The westward expansion of the U.S connected to the overseas activities. The opportunities in the western territories were an American ideal even before the founding of the republic. With the Transfer of Land Act (Homestead Act) of 1862 is 160 acres of land promised to anyone who will sit on the land for five years Westerners Only in the period from 1867 to 1874, some 27 million acres of arable land ...