Moving West: Expansion and Displacement

In the 1840s, a journalist named John O'Sullivan coined the term Manifest Destiny. This was the belief that the United States was divinely ordained (chosen by God) to expand its democratic and Protestant values across the entire North American continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It wasn't just a political goal; it was seen as a moral duty. This ideology provided a powerful justification for taking land that was already inhabited by others, framing expansion as 'progress' and 'civilization' while labeling the existing inhabitants as obstacles to that progress.

Completed in 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was the engine of Manifest Destiny. Before the railroad, traveling from New York to San Francisco took up to six months by wagon or ship. The railroad slashed that time to just six days. This 'Iron Horse' revolutionized trade by allowing Western resources (like cattle and minerals) to reach Eastern markets quickly. However, the environmental impact was devastating. To clear the way and feed workers, millions of Bison (buffalo) were slaughtered, nearly driving the species to extinction and destroying the primary food source for Plains Indians.

As settlers moved west, the U.S. government shifted its policy from treating Indigenous tribes as sovereign nations to forcing them onto reservations—small, often poor-quality plots of land. This led to the Indian Wars, a series of violent conflicts. While some tribes resisted, like the Lakota Sioux at the Battle of Little Bighorn, the U.S. military eventually used 'total war' tactics. By destroying the bison and burning villages, the government forced tribes into submission. The Dawes Act of 1887 further attempted to 'assimilate' Indigenous people by breaking up communal tribal lands into individual private plots.