Westward Expansion History

The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West, traditionally refers to the region comprising of the westernmost states of the United States. European settlement in the United States expanded westward after its founding, meaning that the meanings of the West has evolved over time. The history of the American West in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has acquired a cultural mythos in the literature of the United States, The image of the cowboy, the homesteader and westward expansion took real events and transmuted them into a tale of the west which has shaped much of American popular culture. There is a great overarching theme that emerges from the American West experiences of Lewis and Clark (1803-1806) as depicted …show more content…
The California Gold Rush was a considerable factor in growth west of the Mississippi River. That growth was tremendously aided by the finishing of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, and the legislation of the Homestead Act in 1862. That act supplied free 160-acre lots in the unclaimed West. From the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 to the migration that developed from the Transcontinental Railroad and the Homestead Act, Americans took a great leap westward. Westward expansion extended the United States from a handful of states along the Eastern Seaboard all the way to the Pacific. The considerable underdogs in this westward surge were the Native Americans. Uprooted as new colonizers came in, they were deprived of their conventional way of life and were transferred to reservations. The name ‘Geronimo’ can stand alone and elicit an emblematic, Western American representation of the disregardful Apache chief. By Geronimo's own reflections, he was born in 1829 in Arizona. During adulthood, he cultivated persistent hostility for the Mexican people after Mexican troops attacked an Apache village, murder his wife and children. Geronimo wanted and got vengeance on the Mexican soldiers. He fearlessly went headfirst into war, ignorant to gunfire, and killed as many Mexican soldiers as he …show more content…
Geronimo was a breathing, contemporary legend in his day. The late timing of his life was partly responsible for a lot to his legacy. In many ways, his story is not different from other Native American warriors who opposed white infringement on their land. If he been brought into the world during an earlier period, he most likely would not have been commemorated as much as he is today. He lived into old age and into the twentieth century where he was able to benefit on his reputation, although one could oppose that statement because he lost everything he truly ever cared