Westward Expansion Research Paper

“Heretofore there has always been in the history of the world a comparatively unoccupied land westward, into which the crowded countries of the East have poured their surplus populations”. Josiah Strong was the man who said this. And even though he was talking about other countries expanding westward, this quote can be applied to the United States during its expansion to the west. In the early 1800s much of the United States had yet to be discovered. Many people, including Mountain Men, Miners and farmers, traveled west to find a new place to call home. These three groups of people traveled west for many different reasons and had many different experiences; which were both positive and negative. I will discuss these three groups in detail, and also describe the life I would have chosen, had I been alive in the early 1800s. Farmers were looking for the best fertile soil that they could get their hands on. Some writers were telling stories of large flowers and the best soil. This generated the “Oregon Fever”. Thousands of people left to go to Oregon because of this “fever”. People had good lives because they could start fresh. Another reason farmers chose to move west was because of the Homestead Act. The …show more content…
The Mountain Men explored the United States. And the Miners found some gold and other things. But, I feel my place fits in with the Mountain Men. I feel this because I like nature and having no rules to stop me from exploring. I would love to live off the land and away from the troubles of society, because nowadays there is so much violence and sorrow, that I would want to be free of that. I think it would be a little hard at first, but as I lived on the land and off the land, I feel I would be very happy and able to survive with little trouble. I would have loved to have been a Mountain Man because they survived by living completely off the land and not depending on any towns to help them