Westward Expansion
What it means to be an American
What it means to be an American .
To be a American Pioneer you need to be a filthy and dirty and brave person but with a lot of courage because being a pioneer meant making a large and difficult journey that was roughly 1,908 miles from one point to another. Also, being a pioneer also meant having the guts to finish the journey and not turn back .
Preparing for the journey.
American Pioneers wanted their journey to be a safe and easy journey but they knew it would not be very easy so they prepared a lot of important equipment in order to cross safely. Some of the important tools pioneers needed and you have mostly seen in books or pictures was the wagon which helped carry a lot of equipment and members of the journey and provided as a shelter during harsh weather conditions such as snow, rain, heat and wind. Also, pioneers would make their own clothes by shearing wool and spinning it to make a brand new set of clothes in order to replace old clothes. Second, was a rifle or gun that could be used to hunt for food or protecting the family from wild animals including bears, mountain lions and even other humans including indians and other pioneers trying to get a hold of other pioneers belongings. Finally, one of the most important tools that pioneers would not get very far without were horses or mules. These animals were such a valuable tool because they would pull the wagon faster and you could use them to get from one point from another really fast . Of course it was equally as hard as to keep them because you had to feed and keep them healthy from diseases. These are just some of many tools used that I thought were very helpful.
The Journey
The journey itself was the hardest part of the journey because of the tiring and long walks and the lack of food , disease , death , wild animals and Native American tribes along the road. The pioneers on the road encountered many food shortages and food going bad and rotting which left them with nothing to eat or drink which followed with hunger and dehydration which lead to death. In order to resolve from this situation they had to look for food and hunt wild animals and be very skilled in order to get food . Hunting was not very easy, in order to catch a wild animal the person hunting had to be skilled with a gun or weapon they were using to hunt and has to be quiet in order to get a kill. If you did manage to catch some food you would be very lucky but not to lucky considering some animals were infected with diseases that could affect the eater and lead to death. Also, some pioneers would pick berries along the trail not knowing of their toxic genes inside of them and would eat them an get very sick thus making the journey hard to go on with a injured member. Also , pioneers were not the only ones hunting they were also hunted by wild animals and hostile native americans that were trying to protect themselves and their land from outsiders. In the story
Schoolhouse Rock Video
The following video below by Schoolhouse Rock made in 1975 is a demonstration of the beginning and end of the Westward Expansion . It features the buy between and the americans and the french that was know as the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 that gave the United States Of America 827,000 square miles of land. The video also features lewis and clark and their journey to the Pacific on May 14.
Schoolhouse Rock - Elbow Room
Settling into the west.
Many brave american pioneers did not survive the journey to the west but out of the ones who did make it how did they cooperate and establish a new society? The pioneers had a goal to reach oregon and they did and they established some new towns and some others just made their homes in the middle of the forest where a wide variety of recources was layed out for their desire. Also, starting a new life was not as hard as you think it would be because they had to make a house before winter came and if not they could become homeless or even could freeze to death.