Westward movement refers to the populating of land that is within the continental boundaries of the mainland U.S is a process that started shortly after the establishment of the first colonial settlement. The early settlers stayed close to the Atlantic. However, by 1630's, Massachusetts Bay colonists were finding their way into the Connecticut River Valley (Johnson, 1997). Their movement westwards was slowed by the resistance from the French and Indians. Most of the New England was occupied by northern American colonists by the 1750’s. Settlers who arrived too late in the West moved into the Piedmont. The Virginia frontier had moved westward up to fall line by 1700.
Settlers moved towards the west over the Appalachian Mountains to new territories the 1800’s. Most of the pioneers settled beyond the western boundary of the country and flocked land belonging to Mexico. Americans also settled in the Oregon Country, which was claimed by Britain and the United States. Later America attained control of the Mexican lands and the southern part of Oregon Country. It extended from coast to coast. This transformed American politics and it happened as areas in the West attained large populations and were therefore admitted to the Union as states (Turner, 2015). However, the Easterners remained in control of governmental and economic policy. Farmers from the west, city workers, and artisans came together politically to make their interests known. In 1828, they elected Andrew Jackson as president. Jackson worked towards reducing the rich Easterners' power and help the "common man." Americans were aimed at working for social changes such as women’s rights, slavery abolition and schooling improvement at the same time.
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In 1820, frontier settlements by the Pioneers in America had been established as far to the west of the River Mississippi. By the 1830’s, the Westwards Movement had pushed the frontier across the Mississippi, into Missouri Iowa and Eastern Texas (Turner & Faragher, 1999). Between 1840 and 1850, there were large numbers of American living in the western land that was claimed by Mexico and in the Oregon Country. At this time, a significant number of Americans now believed in manifest destiny doctrine. This means that they thought that all of North America could be controlled by the U.S. This belief made them demand for control of the Oregon and Mexican territory. In 1836, Texas was proclaimed to attain independence by settlers. However, it also requested United States’ statehood. Nine years later, the U.S made Texas a state (Turner, 1894).
As the pioneers in America moved towards the west, they took ownership of most land occupied by Indians for many years. The United States government sent its soldiers to fight the Indians, and they ended up winning most of these wars. The U.S government had relocated almost all the eastern Indians to the west part of the Mississippi river by the mid-1800's (Turner, 2015). The development into the wealthy inner part of the continent gave the United States the ability to become the world's number one agricultural nation. The availability of new practices and machine heightened The United States’ farm output. Minerals were discovered in the West and this aided America's economy.
In the early years of the 1800’s industries brought up an industrial unit containing modern machinery which increased the efficiency of goods production (Turner, 1894).This marked the beginning of large-scale manufacturing period in the U.S. Previously craft workers did manufacturing either at home or in shops. In 1820’s the wilderness became less hostile to the people of America. The society adored nature and the frontier. The Indian trade had its significance as it ended up opening up river courses all along from Maine coast to the coast of Georgia.
The symbolic closing of the frontier was noted historically by the 1890 census pronunciation. It symbolized that the U.S continent had been ultimately settled and the frontier was now a thing of the past. This marked the end of the most dynamic westward migration phase in America's history (Turner, 1894) .
References
Johnson, P. (1997). A history of the American people . London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Turner, F, J. (1894). The Significance of the Frontier in American History. Retrieved from https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/historical-archives/the-significance-of-the-frontier-in-american-history
Turner, F. J. (2015). The frontier in American history . New York, NY: Open Road Integrated Media.
Turner, F. J., & Faragher, J. M. (1999). Rereading Frederick Jackson Turner: "The significance of the Frontier in American history" and other essays . New Haven: Yale University Press.
