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Gone West - The Growth of a Nation

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the store America's Westward Movement  the tread of civilized man into a virgin Wilderness has captivated generations of Americans since the final Taming of the West over a century ago  it is a story that not only recounts the adventures of the pie rolling westward in search of a Promised Land  but also tells of the Lamb they came to occupy by the end of the Century their numbers have filled the land to the Pacific for drawn by boundless opportunity The American Nation had the beginning the West lay in the East almost at the edge of the sea for the original English colonies scorpion hard against the Atlantic Ocean and West refer to the entire American continent  by 60 M50 the American settlements were prospering and beginning to grow and as more colonists arrived from England they began to settle are the from the ocean and over the next 100 years they spread their civilization as far west at the Appalachian Mountains send it again to spill over the mountains through a narrow Rocky passage called the Cumberland Gap to settle in Kentucky the Valley of the Ohio River by 1750 all of the land between the Atlantic coast and the Mississippi River was claimed by the English Collins yet France claimed land to the north as well as the entire Mississippi Watershed called Louise while Spain claimed fast track from the south and west  in addition numerous Indian tribes claim turn in fact control most of the same land but in 1763 after the French and Indian war France was who is to relinquish all her North American possessions she gave her land west of the Mississippi to Spain while everything east of the river winter break the British also received Florida from Spain in exchange for Havana Cuba which had been captured during the war the British have little time to savor their American Empire before the colonies declared their independence in 1776 in 1783 most of the land south of the Great Lakes came under the control of the newly born United States of America 10 and 1800 the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was able to reacquire for Franz the vast Turn part of Louisiana  but Napoleon was short of cash to finance his Wars and Europe so an 1803 he's so New Orleans and Louisiana to the United States for a trifling 15 million dollars at the price of about $0.03 an acre easy Anna purchase doubled the size of the United States and open the Far West to American settlement what's the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 the land west of the Mississippi comprise the vast Wilderness virtually unknown to Americans though some of it was known to contain traffic from its northern Rivers by the international from Train  can 1804 President Jefferson sent weather Lewis and William Clark to explore the Missouri and Columbia Rivers learn what they could of this unknown region  what the South and West beyond the Louisiana was even more a mystery  the principal Outpost of civilization than existing we're some Spanish settlements in New Mexico and a few others in Upper California where the Spanish had founded a series of Catholic missions in 1774 Spanish Maritime explorers had sailed up the coast as far as Alaska and play alarm Tire Northwest region for Spain's had an interest in the northern coast as well for these Waters or taming with otters prize around the world for their ferv so wow the Spanish were building missions in California Russian fur Traders or settling shelves along the coast of Alaska and Canada in 1812 they established this Outpost for Russia on the foggy coast of Opera California but the Northwest was also claimed by the British based on the explorations of Captain James in 1778 and it was claimed by the United States based on the exploration of Captain Robert Gray the rivers of this vast territory more important to these countries because of the demand for beaver fur Whimsy of fashion the beaver hat both American and British fur Traders were eager to control the Richford train and no agreement could be reached between the country's about whose territory it was  so an 1818 United States and Great Britain agreed to jointly administered in Northwest an area that came to be called the Oregon Country they also agreed to establish a boy Grant the 49th parallel from the Great Lakes to the continental divide the following year in 1819 negotiations with led to the Adams Onis Treaty which established the border between Spanish and American territories and the West the line follow the saving turn north from the Gulf of Mexico it jogged West along the Red River to the 100th Meridian and North to the Arkansas River all of the Arkansas West to the mountains then ran North to the 42nd Parallel and finally straight west of the Pacific  this and Spanish claims to the Oregon Country and set the 42nd Parallel as the northern boundary of upper California by 1820 the Spanish missions in California have grown into prosperous ranches producing such, Jesus olives wine and how high by the Spanish government Steven New Mexico which could be reached over land from the American frontier was not allowed to trade with the Americans  but an 18 anyone the Mexicans were able to win their independence from Spain New Mexico and California became provinces of the Republic the Mexican Government open the door to trade and the result was the birth of an Overland trade route a trail which ran from Franklin Missouri and later from Westport Landing 900 month overbearing grassland the trail was simply a wagon track sometimes deeply running but in other places just a broadcore archers brats  over the trail Bound for Mexico manufactured goods such as cotton crop while trailer is might return Missouri mules and Mexican silver in 1833 a 45 Trading Post called Vince Ford was built on the trail  it was built on a portion of the trail that ran along the Arkansas River and Spas you could gaze across the river at Mexico the fort was perfectly located for Connors with the Indians who is bring their buffalo robes to the Fort to train he's white and it was a Haven for trappers who traded their beaver pelts for supplies from the well-stocked reading sacred get buttons coffee or gunpowder they could get a pistol or a cooking pot  or they could replace traps they had bent's Fort also cater to the wagons passing over the Santa Fe Trail it has shops where Wheels could be mended if a trailer needed the work of a blacksmith before it had one there was even a saloon where men could socialize catch up on news from the state or relax over a friendly game of checkers during the era of the Santa Fe Trail the American frontier was moving across the Mississippi River in 1821 the same hear that Mexico games are Independence Missouri became a state it had been preceded in 1812 by Louisiana west of Louisiana the Texas which was apart Mexico but in 1836 American settlers in Texas declare their independence and established look up Texas it remains an independent country until 1845 when it was admitted to the us as a state Arkansas became a state in 1836 and Iowa in 1846 Farms push back as more people moved across the Mississippi forests were cut down to build Village churches wagon roads replaced game trails land was made safe for civilized people  some of the immigrants welcome his transformation and settled down to a routine of domestic Bliss but others long for the excitement they had felt on the old Frontier is undoubtedly look down the last Road leading to the new thank you once again the urge to go west the movie before about 1842 American citizens have ever seen the Far West apart from a few Trappers handful of Traders and a small number of emigrants we had migrated to Oregon California and Texas almost no one had ever been with settlements bordering the Mississippi River but if you did go west and wrote about what they saw they described the unsurpassed beauty of the land they told of Wide Open Spaces under endless Skies  easterners came to see the West is it kind of Promised Land brimming with opportunity and free for the taking oddly the right of Americans to occupy that land for scarcely question even though of course it was already out numerous tribes of Native Americans had lived in the western Eastern regions times but whatever rights these first Americans might have had by reason of first occupation largely ignored  still the systematic suppression of Indian rights did require a rationale a principle on which to be public policy that principle was to be found in the concept of manifest destiny it was the belief Americans with your Democratic institutions their religion and their industrial civilization had an obvious god-given right an obligation to spread their culture over the continent as early 1820 experiment had designated the Pacific coast as the natural western boundary of the United States even though Mexico possessed much of the intervening territory and the Oregon country was jointly claimed by Great Britain by then Americans were beginning to settle in Oregon to get there they walked 2000 miles over deserts mountains and Kane without the benefit of single row Bridge following Trails laid down by early Trappers they marched across the open Prairie the Rocky Mountains South pass and struggled on were from months to Oregon City this long Wilderness track became the Overland off to the Oregon Country or simply the Oregon Trail it was the route of thousands of it's migrating into Oregon or by branches into Utah and California attracted by free land about $10,000 performance between 1841 and 1846 Jordan United States and away from Great Britain  in 1846 a treaty was signed extending the existing 49th parallel to the Pacific but last u.s. territory reach to the Western Ocean but there was still the matter Mexico of course Texas had just joined the United States but that was not enough with little pretext the United invaded Mexico US troops move down the Santa Fe Trail to attack from the north while another Force Under the command of Zachary Taylor rooms across the Rio Grande and Into the Heart of the country before it was over American troops captured Mexico City Mexicans have little choice but to sign a treaty seating upper California and the entire Southwest to the United States to finish it Saints made the Gadsden purchase in 1853 find 45,000 square miles from Mexico or 10 million dollars and 6 was enough can 1848 the same where California was ceded to the Americans gold was discovered on the American River 50 miles north of present-day Sacramento this dry and others across the West a decade later propelled countless thousands of Fortune Hunters to rush West and stake their claim for the promise on the long journey to the promised land there was no Gateway no River no mountain past people who have the Wild and fables West just be imperceptible passage from a landscape of trees and Tall Grass to one of Short Grass Cactus stretching monogamously to the rising this was an alien world to the Eastern an empty featureless and unknown filled with unfamiliar plants and strange animals  some immigrant Diaries mention that peculiar ground squirrels that lived everywhere on the prayer they bark like little dogs so they call them prairie dogs but it was more exciting to catch a glimpse of an antelope an animal completely unknown in the East or to see the Magnificent Buffalo which covered the land in the Millions the route to cross the plains generally follow the courses of rivers the Oregon Trail Follow the Platte which provided a natural East-West Porter from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains  some sections of the river for bounded by trees and crafts to stop and rest  afternoon Halls the horses and oxen could graze and turn the river while the emigrants ate their lunch  everyone would need a rest before beginning of the Long Haul through the heat of the afternoon some of the rode horses but many more simply walk beside the wagons  often the wagons were so filled with provisions and personal belongings it only the driver had room to wrap  wagon trains travel every day but Sunday from early morning until about 5 be covered about 10 to 15 miles each day  when they finally stopped for the night the wagons were often arranged in Circle so that the Anna might be brought inside for protection from wool or from theft by Indians tents were hardly hitched give families of a privacy as well as protection from mosquitoes biting flies and rain  vampires had to be built to cook the eve meal  typical food on the trail was beans with bacon biscuits and coffee the next morning as early as possible the wagons would roll out of Camp to start the whole cycle over day after day for months the way moved up the trail by the 1860s many rebounds for the snowy Rocky Mountains at the Far Western fringes of the Kansas and Nebraska territories where gold has been discovered in 1858  settling on the plains at the foot of the mountains the gold Seekers laid out paper rival Town sites such as Montana city or area Boulder City and Denver city in honor of James Denver the territorial Turner of Kansas  at first the settlements were little more than clusters of wagons and Tents with almost every aspect of civilized life taking place under canvas  tents that it's been use each night on the journey West we're simply setup is temporary houses Star Wars and public buildings the school could be held in a tent which on Sunday became a church first to rush West with land speculators who arrived early but up cheap government land and resold the parcels to people who came later a mini settlers obtain land directly from the government under the provisions of the Homestead Act of 1862 this law any head of a family or any adult male would not borne arms against the government could obtain legal title to 100 acres of land by building a house on it for at least five years gradually the West Was transformed as unplowed Wilderness gave way to prosperous Farms but one of them perhaps lower than any other foretold the conversion of the West from unspoiled Wilderness to a Precinct of civilized man that event a May 10th 1869 was the grand opening of the first complete railroad line across the continent that day forward anyone with money for a ticket could review from the comfort of a train car the land explored by the scouts Mormon an early gold suits they could for that matter travel from Omaha to business meeting in San Francisco of course the intervening landscape still was largely Wilderness but all that would change in a few short seconds  the land since then filed the Buffalo nearly exterminated and the native Indian population move neatly out of sight time between the coming of the railroad and the dawn of the 20th century the frontier without notice dissolve and cease to exist for The American Nation drawn irresistibly toward its Destiny and gone west true or false the United States bought Louisiana from France in 1803 two  in 1803 much of the West Was Wilderness unknown to Americans 3  in 1769 the French began to stab Catholic missions along the California coast more in 1763 after the French and Indian war France ceded her claims west of the Mississippi to Great Britain 5 Wagon Train covered about 10 to 15 miles per day 6  until 1846 the Oregon country was jointly administered by the United States and Spain in 1650 Mexico won independence from Spain 8  the Republic of Texas was for a time in summation 9 the Santa Fe Trail ran from the United States to Mexico 10 many settlers headed for Colorado after gold was discovered there a 1858

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Gone West - The Growth of a Nation

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