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Westward Expansion Thesis

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Americans have always had their eyes set on the west and through many challenges they eventually triumphed with perseverance and violence. Westward expansion was made possible by Rail systems. Without railroads, there would have been no way to move the necessary number of people and materials west to fuel the expanding country. The civil war left a complex system of railroads in the east but none were yet present going west. The Union Pacific railroad company and the Central Pacific Railroad Company’s started two railroads from the existing eastern systems and from the west coast, building them correspondingly to meet in the middle. Finally, in 1863, the two met creating a form of fast reliable transportation connecting the country. When moving west settlers realized that there already was a group of people in the way, Native Americans. Instead of attempting to find a peaceful solution, the existing American people decided that is was better to suppress and kill the Natives than …show more content…

The main target of American oppression was enslaved blacks but Native Americans were also later oppressed along with the working class. Slaves strived to achieve freedom by forming the underground railroad. The underground railroad was a series of stops for escaping slaves set up by slave sympathizers and northerners. One famous leader of the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman, a former slave who went on countless trips into the southern territory to free slaves. Harriet had a 100% success rate which she maintained with her strict discipline and unorthodox tactics. She was known to chloroform babies to keep them quiet and pull guns of people who could possibly compromise the group. If someone didn’t listen to her she never hesitated to remove them from the group. That is one example of how black slaves strived to achieve

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