The Transformation of a Continent

1.How does the term "the West" mask the different perspectives of people at the start of the nineteenth century? (Keep in mind the discussion at the beginning of class today - "Eastward Expansion")
        The term "the West" masks a lot of different perspectives of the expansion of the west. One example of this would be westward expansion for someone who lived in South America, or New Mexico. For the people that lived there, it would be considered northern expansion because from their region, they are South of the expansion, not East, thus making it northern expansion, rather then westward. Another way "the West" masks the different perspectives of people is the for someone who lived in Russia, it would be eastward expansion because their starting point wouldn't have been from our east coast, it would be from the west, thus they would be going eastward. Lastly, although some considered the "westward expansion" the "advance of civilization and the winning of a continent" to the Native Americans it was a decrease in their land and the loss of what they had established before we decided to expand.


2. Read page 5. Summarize the three major areas of differences and misunderstadings between the Europeans and Native Americans.

Trade: There was much confusion among the trading category. One example of this is the values trade had for the Indians vs. the Europeans. Indians thought trade was about keeping friendships and basically being nice to one another while Europeans believed the only good reason for trade was to make a profit. A negative effect this had on the Indians is that they learned to rely more on European goods such as guns and horses, rather than their own items. Trading basically became a necessity to their new lifestyle.

Land: Another big issue was land. The indians viewed land as something they belonged to, for different reasons, wheather that be cultural, spirtual, or economic reasons. The Europeans however, believed the land belonged to them, and they did not belong to the land. They viewed land as something they could own and/ or sell which was something the Indians were not used to.

Treaties: Treaties became an issue between the Europeans and the Indians as well. When an some Indians would sign a treaty, the Europeans figured the treaty was valid with all the Indians, but that did not hold to be true. Genrally, the treaty would only be for specific Indian communities not all of the different communities as a whole. Lastly, Indians thought they were getting more than what they signed for in their treaties because of what was said orally at meetings. When in reality, they were only getting what was said in the treaties they would sign, and often did not realise what they were losing in their treaties.

3. Read pages 3 - 7 (stop at U.S. Westward Expansion). How did the arrival of Europeans transform life in the West? (Feel free to bullet point your answer. But use lots of key details!)
The arrival of the Europeans had many effects on the way life was in the west prior. As the reading stated that the Europeans had a huge impact on the west in ways such as "European diseases,rreligions, weapons,goods, and livestock" which "all traveled along Indian trade networks and sparked significant changes among western Indian societies " However "the three that caused the most profound changeds were horses, guns, and disease" To start, horses became a necessity to the Indians, they no longer depended on their own feet to get them where they were going and shaped their lives based on their horses. Some Indians became "skilled horse breeders" while some other Indian groups "became nomads, migrating witht eh seasons to hunt buffalo and care for their horses" They completly transformed their lives to revolve around the new animal they had been introduced to. Guns also became something that were necessary for the Indians survival. There was so much conflict going on that they relied on their new weapons to help get them through it rather then their old ways. Last but not least, the Europeans brought disease. Some of these disease were, smallpox, chicken pox, measles and cholera. These diseases spread quickly through Indian nations, and seeing as the Indians had never been faced with such disease their immune systems were not built to defend them against such. These diesease thus brought death upon many, many Indians, wiping out thousands.


4. Read pages 7 - 10. In a paragraph, explain this sentence from the reading (which is the first paragraph under the heading of "US Westward Expansion."): "The new country's treatment of native people would contrast sharply with the ideals it set for itself."


"The new country's treatment of native people would contrast sharply with the ideals it set for itself." is a statement that is true. The ideals they set for themselves went along the lines of having personal liberty and individual rights and they believed that "thier nation was exceptional" but with the way the settlers treated the Indians, they seem like complete hipocrites. As the packet states they would take land from Indians " by trade, treaty, trickery and violence" which seems to contrast being an exceptional nation or personal liberty because it's not very fair to trick the Indians nor is it "exceptional nation"-like to use violence just to expand land. Some leaders actually thought it was unconstitutional to expand into other territories because it was never stated in the constitution that new land was to be added to the union. In addition, "Many early U.S. leaders believed that land ownership was key to preserving liberty" and taking land away from Indians seems to contrast their ideal of persoanl liberty if they don't get to keep their land and are tricked out of giving it up or violence is used until they do. In conclusion, the way the settlers treated Indians made the new country's ideals seem like they couldn't be fulfilled because their treatment of the Indians was contrasting their ideals.