Westward Expansion Dbq Essay Example
Alex Hall
Mr. Wallace
A.P. U.S. History
9 February 2011
Westward Expansion Through various popular movies and television shows many people have developed ideas and beliefs about the American West that are not necessarily historically accurate. The American West, in the period between 1865 and 1900, is often thought to be a time, and place, of dry barren landscapes, wild unruly Native Americans, and fearless heroic cowboys; however, this romanticized fantasy is only true to some extent. The vast little-explored American territory west of the Mississippi river all the way to the Pacific Ocean was often referred by to people in the late 1800’s as the Frontier or the Wild West. The Frontier was a place where people sometimes traveled to start a new life or just merely seek new opportunities. Over time the History of these people living in the West and the Frontier itself has become skewed from actuality by the romanticized version of The West. The West in the late 1800’s is often thought of as a place of vast, dry, dusty, deserts, due to the way it is depicted in popular Western movies; although, this depiction of the West is not entirely accurate to what it was actually like. While some of the territory in the West was dry and desert-like, especially beyond the 100th meridian, the majority of it was extremely lush and fertile, covered in forests and even rivers (Document A). Many settlers moved west in order to start a new life and either farmed and raised animals, or mined for precious metals to make a living. Hundreds of farmers flocked west when the government offered as much as 160 acres for $30 through the to anyone willing to move west and live there, while improving the land, for five years. Areas in the Mississippi basin proved easily farmable with its well watered soil from the Mississippi River, but that was not the only area good for farming in the West. The Great Plains, while they didn’t appear farmable at first due to their tough prairie
Mr. Wallace
A.P. U.S. History
9 February 2011
Westward Expansion Through various popular movies and television shows many people have developed ideas and beliefs about the American West that are not necessarily historically accurate. The American West, in the period between 1865 and 1900, is often thought to be a time, and place, of dry barren landscapes, wild unruly Native Americans, and fearless heroic cowboys; however, this romanticized fantasy is only true to some extent. The vast little-explored American territory west of the Mississippi river all the way to the Pacific Ocean was often referred by to people in the late 1800’s as the Frontier or the Wild West. The Frontier was a place where people sometimes traveled to start a new life or just merely seek new opportunities. Over time the History of these people living in the West and the Frontier itself has become skewed from actuality by the romanticized version of The West. The West in the late 1800’s is often thought of as a place of vast, dry, dusty, deserts, due to the way it is depicted in popular Western movies; although, this depiction of the West is not entirely accurate to what it was actually like. While some of the territory in the West was dry and desert-like, especially beyond the 100th meridian, the majority of it was extremely lush and fertile, covered in forests and even rivers (Document A). Many settlers moved west in order to start a new life and either farmed and raised animals, or mined for precious metals to make a living. Hundreds of farmers flocked west when the government offered as much as 160 acres for $30 through the to anyone willing to move west and live there, while improving the land, for five years. Areas in the Mississippi basin proved easily farmable with its well watered soil from the Mississippi River, but that was not the only area good for farming in the West. The Great Plains, while they didn’t appear farmable at first due to their tough prairie