The Wild West & Western Growth (original) (raw)
After the American Civil War ended people began to move to the West. The "Wild West" began around 1865 and lasted for 30 years. It was called the Wild West because of the general lawlessness that existed. All of the land west of the Mississippi River to the Pacific ocean was considered the Wild West. The American West featured all sorts of people from pioneers to outlaws, cowboys, gangs and gunfighters. Settling the West was encouraged by President Thomas Jefferson after the Louisiana Purchase. The expansionist attitude was known as manifest destiny. The legends and historical events of the American fronttier are part of the United States culture and became one of the defining features of American national identity. Popular movies and novels romanticized the idea of the West, but the reality was far more brutal and unforgiving.
Westward expansion began with the Louisiana purchase, the gold rush, the Oregon Trail and a belief in manifest destiny. Pioneers and immigrants built the Overland trails to the American Old West throughout the 19th century beginning around 1829 until 1870 as an alternative to railroad transportation. Immigrants colonized much of North America west of the Great Plains in mass migrations in the mid-19th century. There are many motives for this treacherous journey including religious persecution, inexpensive land and the gold rush. The history of these trails and colonizers who traveled them have become embedded in American culture and folklore. The Oregon Trail, the California Trail, Old Spanish Trail, Santa Fe Trail, Southern Emigrant Trail and the Mormon Trail still have signs along the highways that today's modern travelers can follow. The most common vehicle for Oregon and California colonizers were covered wagons pulled by oxes or mules.10% of the migrants who attempted to cross the United States died during the trip.
The Oregon Trail was the name of the 2,170 mile East-West route westward across the United States taken by about 400,000 pioneers, settlers, farmers, ranchers, business owners and their families during Western expansion from 1835 through 1869. the route runs from the state of Kansas and nearly all of what is now Nebraska and Wyoming stretching past Idaho and Oregon. The use of the trail declined as the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 making the trip West considerably faster and safer.
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