Does the good of Westward Expansion outweigh the bad? The good outcomes outweighed the bad. Americans were able to obtain more resources such as land and gold which created more income. It allowed the population to spread out so cities weren’t over populated and opened up more opportunities for jobs.
Why was westward expansion a good thing?
The opportunity to work in the cattle industry; to be a “cowboy” Faster travel to the West by railroad; availability of supplies due to the railroad. The opportunity to own land cheaply under the Homestead Act. The discovery of wheat strains adapted to grow in the climate of the Plains.
This expansion led to debates about the fate of slavery in the West, increasing tensions between the North and South that ultimately led to the collapse of American democracy and a brutal civil war.
What were the pros and cons of Westward Expansion?
Westward Expansion generally had negative effects on the Native Americans. Native Americans were forced to live on reservations. The buffalo, an important resource, experienced rapid population decline. Military conflict between Whites and Native Americans resulted in many deaths.
Was westward expansion justified?
Expansion abroad was justified because the United States was able spread its democratic values overseas. The United States expansion abroad was bad because it was based on the economic exploitation of people and resources from other countries.
Was westward expansion a good or bad thing?
The Westward expansion gave America a chance to expand its territory, while having a chance double the land area of the United States also increased goods, services and wealth but more importantly it gave Americans …show more content…
What were some bad things about Manifest Destiny?
Manifest destiny had serious consequences for Native Americans, since continental expansion implicitly meant the occupation and annexation of Native American land, sometimes to expand slavery. This ultimately led to confrontations and wars with several groups of native peoples via Indian removal.
What were the pros and cons of Manifest Destiny?
Did the benefits of Manifest Destiny outweigh the consequences?
Polk worked diligently to fulfill these ideals. This resulted in America gaining most of western North America, including the half of the Oregon territory from Britain and Texas and California from Mexico. Although Manifest Destiny had a few benefits, the negative consequences far outweigh these gains.
What were the most significant changes in American westward expansion after the Civil War?
After the Civil War and period of Reconstruction faded, expansion began again in the late 1800s. Now western settlers were spurred onward by the development of the transcontinental railroad, a major byproduct of the period of industrialization that had begun in earnest.
In what ways did westward expansion depend on the technologies of the time?
Inventions helped determine the very shape of the West. The telegraph instantly connected Americans across thousands of miles; railroads killed some towns and gave birth to others; the gun quickly established the settlers’ dominance over the country; and barbed wire created vast ranching empires.
Did westward expansion positively or negatively impact the formation of the American identity?
The effect of westward expansion on Native Americans was very negative. It was negative because the American cavalry and military killed a great amount of Natives. Their land was also taken up.
How did westward expansion help the economy?
Because slavery was the backbone of America it helped the expansion a lot. Moving westward helped expand the amount of agriculture that was being produced there for it was helping boost the economy because they were able to make more money because they had more land.
How did westward expansion impact slavery?
The westward expansion carried slavery down into the Southwest, into Mississippi, Alabama, crossing the Mississippi River into Louisiana. Finally, by the 1840’s, it was pouring into Texas. So the expansion of slavery, which became the major political question of the 1850’s, was not just a political issue.
How did expansion affect the economy?
expansion, in economics, an upward trend in the business cycle, characterized by an increase in production and employment, which in turn causes an increase in the incomes and spending of households and businesses.
How did westward expansion affect Native Americans?
Ultimately, the settlers, with the support of local militias and, later, with the federal government behind them, sought to eliminate the tribes from the lands they desired. The result was devastating for the Indian tribes, which lacked the weapons and group cohesion to fight back against such well-armed forces.
What invention had the greatest impact on westward expansion?
1. It made the Western U.S. more important. “What the transcontinental railroad did was bring the West into the world, and the world into the West,” explains James P.
How did US westward expansion breathe new life into slavery?
Sometimes, husbands went first to secure a place, and then sent for wives and children. Other families traveled together to the West. Many brought their enslaved laborers, pushing slavery into new regions and breathing new life into an institution that had been increasingly under legislative and moral attack.
Who should decide the issue of slavery in the western territories?
First promoted in the 1840s in response to debates over western expansion, popular sovereignty argued that in a democracy, residents of a territory, and not the federal government, should be allowed to decide on slavery within their borders.
How did westward expansion affect Chinese immigrants?
Prohibited by law since 1790 from obtaining U.S. citizenship through naturalization, Chinese immigrants faced harsh discrimination and violence from American settlers in the West.
How did westward expansion affect the buffalo population?
By the 1800s, Native Americans learned to use horses to chase bison, dramatically expanding their hunting range. But then white trappers and traders introduced guns in the West, killing millions more buffalo for their hides.
How did westward expansion affect Native American life quizlet?
How did Western settlement affect Native American lives? Native Americans fought battled with settlers. Eventually they were forced to live on reservations. The nomadic lifestyle of many Plains Indian tribes was eliminated.
How many Native Americans died as a result of westward expansion?
In the ensuing email exchange, Thornton indicated that his own rough estimate is that about 12 million Indigenous people died in what is today the coterminous United States between 1492 and 1900. 60 This number of deaths is almost 2.5 times the estimated decline in the Indigenous population during this time.
What factors contributed to the westward expansion of the US?
Factors that contributed to America’s westward expansion in the later half of the 19th century included the quelling of Native American resistance and relocation of tribes to reservations, gold rushes (in Colorado, California, and the Black Hills of South Dakota) and the building of the Intercontinental Railroad.
Was popular sovereignty a good idea?
Theoretically, popular sovereignty provided politicians with a convenient way to circumvent the slavery debate, maintain party unity, and promote sectional harmony. In practice, however, the doctrine became ensnared in the politics of slavery.
Why was slavery in the western territories so important to Southerners and Southern society?
Why was slavery in the western territories so important to southerners and southern society? It was important for southerners to maintain the delicate balance between free and slave states in Congress to protect their slave-centered economy. Banning slavery in the West would have decreased southern political power.
Why did Southerners want to expand slavery westward?
The South was convinced that the survival of their economic system, which intersected with almost every aspect of Southern life, lay exclusively in the ability to create new plantations in the western territories, which meant that slavery had to be kept safe in those same territories, especially as Southerners …
Which group did westward expansion affect most negatively?
Chinese immigrants and Mexican Americans in the age of westward expansion. Like Native Americans, Mexican Americans and Chinese immigrants suffered harsh consequences due to relentless westward expansion by whites in the nineteenth century.
Why did Chinese immigrants face violence on the West Coast?
Chinese immigrants became the targets of abuse almost as soon as they set foot on American soil, beginning in 1850 with the California Gold Rush. White prospectors routinely drove Chinese miners from their claims, while state lawmakers slapped them with an onerous foreign miners’ tax.
What problems did Chinese immigrants face?
Even as they struggled to find work, Chinese immigrants were also fighting for their lives. During their first few decades in the United States, they endured an epidemic of violent racist attacks, a campaign of persecution and murder that today seems shocking.