The Westward Expansion In The 19th Century

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The years after the Civil War, proved to be crucial to our history. The Westward Expansion was a major and historical change. There were four keys contributions that lead to the movement of the westward expansion. Those four are: population growth, transportation improvements, money and the slave state/free state. This was the time frame that railroads took boom. The Transcontinental Railway was the biggest railway project. The congress authorized the Pacific Railway Act which funded a railroad from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. Now the railroad attracted some of the more sleazy financial geniuses. Thomas Durant was one of the more sleazier investors. He got the US government to build a bridge over the Mississippi River then it allowed …show more content…
There was Andrew Carnegie who became insanely rich. He invested in in steel manufacturing facilities which then lead it to expanding to the railroad system. Inevitably increasing his wealth. As well as gaining his bad reputation as a robber baron. He played a role in the Johnstown Flood of 1889. This tragedy killed over 2,000 innocent people. The flood was due to the fact that there was a porrly maintained dam which broke under pressure spilling gains of water onto Johnstown.

There were many motivations for the Imperialism of America. The desire to grad important raw material eventually lead to the industrialization. The first imperial efforts was in Samoa, where the US built their coaling station in 1878. The U.S. received par of the islands. In 1875 the US government negotiated a try with Hawaii. Hawaii became a state and part of the United States but not until 1959.

There were other improvements that were made to increase transportation. Henry Ford had made hand-made cars but was seeking to to create more affordable cars for the people. Ford designed the Model T and started the production ins 1908. With cars constantly improving, they are useless on roads that are sub par. Funding for highways soon began and they changed the face of

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