Expansion With Honor Policy Essay

How did the American government shift from an “expansion with honor” policy to a policy of the expulsion of the Cherokee people? The Cherokee people were once a great nation whose population spanned all across the South Eastern corners of the North American continent. The Cherokee people once called states such as North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, and Virginia home. The Cherokee people once governed their own nation, a nation where men hunted and women farmed. A nation where both men and women worked together in harmony as a balance for each other, an equilibrium. However, that equilibrium was shattered with the emergence of European colonists in North America who brought over a plague of diseases from Europe, such as smallpox, typhus, measles, and among other disease. Unfortunately, …show more content…
A major reason for disputes between Native Americans and whites was over land, in which Natives such as the Cherokee were forced to give up miles upon miles of land. Not to mentions, white people’s presumption of being the superior race over the “inferior” Cherokee. However, it was only after the American Revolution and during the early 1800’s that the Cherokee Removal truly began. A key feature of the “expansion with honor policy” was the “civilization” program, first proposed by George Washington’s secretary of war Henry Knox. The “civilization” program sought to change a fundamental foundation of Cherokee life by redefining gender roles of men and women, in which Cherokee men were no longer needed to hunt but to be farmers. However, traditionally among Cherokee community’s women were the farmers and men would hunt for game to eat. Not to mention, the “civilization” program sought to change the Cherokee’s view on land by teaching them about private property and profitability of selling land. United States