Conflicts During Western Expansion, Essay Example

Upon the settlement of whites in the continental United States, the Native American Indian tribes began to relocate west.  The territories that were ultimately purchased from the French in the Louisiana Purchase were a major source of conflict between the Americans, French and Spanish over a large part of the 1800s.  Western settlement was stonewalled because of this conflict, especially since the French had ownership rights to the land until July 1803 when Napoleon offered the western lands to the American government for $15 million (AmericanWest.com, n.d.).  Native Americans had settled in the west long before American settlers ventured outward.  Many settlers met tribal anger and violence from the prairie Indians.  At first, much of these conflicts were intended to become simple business transactions where Indians and American settlers would trade or barter for food, supplies and horses (“Native Americans on the Oregon Trail”, n.d.).

Eventually, these transactions were not enough.  The Indian tribes became furious as settlers trampled over the plains, burnt all of the available firewood, and almost completely depleted the buffalo population in the plains that was used as the primary source of food and clothing for the tribal colonies (“Native Americans on the Oregon Trail”, n.d.).  Ultimately, these conflicts became extremely vicious and caused the deaths of hundreds of men, women and children throughout the west.  The Indians performed three critical acts of violence upon western settlement camps known as the Grattan Massacre, the Massacre Rocks incident, and the Bear River Massacre (“Native Americans on the Oregon Trail”, n.d.).  In response, the American government worked to force the Native American tribes into “reservations” that were made of the worst barren land throughout the west.  While the conflicts eventually subsided over time, several battles between western settlement militia and Native Americans broke out and caused an even greater rift between two segments of the United States population that seemed destined to continue to dispute.

Another tremendous problem for American settlers moving west was the growing conflicts with Mexican gangs throughout greater parts of Texas and throughout the west.  “Mexico to the south harbored small gangs of Bandidos who, regardless of the 1848 treaty, still coveted parts of Texas and California and saw the areas as morally belonging to the Mexican government…” and “…these gangs would likely come and go as they pleased, stopping to loot and plunder remote western outposts” (AmericanWest.com, n.d.).  As the American settlers continued to increase in population, the effectiveness of the Bandidos decreased and the conflicts eventually subsided.

Perhaps the greatest conflict that existed for western settlement and expansion by the United States was that of the numerous environmental problems associated with the act of traveling.  For instance, the Oregon Trail became infamous for its act in killing thousands of men, women and children moving west.  Many of the settlers outrageously overloaded their wagons and were forced to walk alongside the wagons for thousands of miles, much of which was done barefoot (“Hardships”, n.d.).  Furthermore, the conflicts that settlers experienced in crossing the great rivers throughout the west caused great concern.  “Hundreds drowned trying to cross the Kansas, North Platte and Columbia Rivers—among others” (“Hardships”, n.d.).  While accidents, robberies and terrible weather were responsible for the loss of supplies as well as the deaths of thousands of settlers, there was another greater conflict that emerged.  Throughout the 1800s, the western settlers were faced with the additional conflict of a great cholera epidemic that caused more deaths for settlers than any other source of conflict, even causing healthy persons to suddenly drop dead within several hours (“Hardships”, n.d.).  Each of these conflicts was dangerous and difficult to surpass, which is why the western expansion in the United States will remain etched in the country’s history for all time.

References

AmericanWest.com . (n.d.). Westward expansion. Retrieved from http://www.americanwest.com/pages/wexpansi.htm

Hardships. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/Hardships.html

Native Americans on the oregon trail. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/Native.html