Hard Life in the Cities as a Motive for Westward Expansion

Life in the cities at the time was becoming over crowded as newcomers arrived in the country on a daily basis which caused slums to start developing. The eastern cities were mainly shipping centers and manufacturing was not that important. The industries that did exist were ship building and some barrel making of some type, which of course were tied into trade and commerce. Garbage littered many city streets and even goats and hogs, chickens and sheep were permitted to roam free.

Since many of the streets were still undeveloped (not paved yet) it made for a very haphazard way to travel. The lack of sanitation so often led to epidemics of contagious diseases, which the most dangerous of was “cholera”. The cause of this disease was bacteria in polluted water which was unheard of at the time.

All this added to a national desire to expand their territories west which created the slogan “Manifest Destiny” which meant that the people of the country felt that there boundaries should be all the way to the pacific.

Expansion would alleviate most of the overcrowding in the cities and lead to more jobs and better prices for products and trading and buying.

With the advancement of the steam engine rail road and steamboats became the new mode of transportation which provided a faster more efficient way to move people and goods west and east. Since wagon trains are now moving large amounts of people and goods west what happens when encounters with the western plains Indians are not ready to except all of these new people who now occupy the lands they were always able to move from one place to another on and are not willing to allow them to plant there new lives? There was lots of fighting killing on both sides when encounters take place and continued blood shed only made matters worse.

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Many treaties were made only to be trashed or broken continually with the Indian nations through out history.

With the movement many new treaties are being made with other countries such as France and the “Louisiana Purchase” for 15 million dollars, which more then doubles the size of the United States at the time. With Napoleon in such dire need of money is his quest to conqueror, England he told his advisor Talleyrand to sell the territory to the US, all of it as soon as possible. With the purchase of Louisiana the US no longer worried about a French foothold in the western hemisphere.

In the early part of the of the 1800’s settlers were moving into Texas by the thousands in hopes of settling down and even becoming Mexican citizens. Cultural differences and the struggle for independence from Mexico itself lead to war between the Texans and Mexico which eventual lead to independence form Mexico after the Alamo. With the final annexation to the US came the war between Mexico and the US and which eventually lead to western expansion all the way to the Pacific.

With the added territories came a cry for state hood but what all the clamor was about was how they would come into the union free or slave. This started a process that would eventually lead this great nation down the road to damnation and strife. “The Civil War.” Unfortunately it was a road that had to be crossed to exorcise our demons from ourselves, a changing of the guard that continues to be fought and even waged today.