Westward Expansion Dbq Essay

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Lilly Fuller-Delmont 1/17/18 S.S8 DBQ Essay Per.3 In the mid 18th century settlers moved to the west. Their move brought them more opportunities and a better lifestyle on the frontier. Such as the transcontinental Railroad. The railroad was spread out all over the U.S. in order to build this railroad they had to clear all of the buffalo out of the way of the path, so the white people started to kill the buffalo. Without the buffalo the indians would die. In the 1800’s , the Plains Indians moved westward to allow them to make a better living and have a good life on the frontier because of the Homestead Act. The homestead Acts were several U.S. laws that gave the citizens ownership of land. It gave men and women 160 acres of land free of charge if you paid $10 to claim the land. If you cultivated for at least five years the settler could gain ownership of the land. The government encouraged citizens to move westward and live on the reservation of the Great Plains. The government did this to reduce the amount of land the …show more content…

It impacted the Indians the most. The Indians were being controlled by the government. The Indians had their land taken from them and were forced to move to the Great Plains Reservation.The Indians lost their way of life. They tried very hard to keep their culture alive. They still were tanning a buffalo hide on the reservation. Although they were not allowed to kill or have any weapons so they had to go against the law and find a way to kill and get the buffalo. They were tanning it to make coats, shoes, clothes, The westward expansion helped people in many ways from keeping their culture going or starting a new one. This was a big step up from when they had to do everything on their own now they could build cities and own farms and cattle.The people would also start to

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