The United States since winning its independence thirteen federated states along
the Atlantic seaboard has banned the continent.
It has spread westward three thousand miles from the Atlantic to the Pacific
and from the forty ninth parallel on the north to the Rio Grande on the south the
peeping of this region was the greatest migration of mankind in all history
by the year seventeen ninety the people on the Atlantic coast had begun turning
their thoughts to the west the coastal plain had been occupied the pioneers had
passed the first race to settle the fertile valleys beyond to the west the
Allegheny range formed a more difficult barrier to the non productive lands in the
basin of the Ohio here west of the mountains conditions were familiar
to men from the Atlantic coast fertile soils and adequate rainfall
but assured abundant crops forests could provide fuel and a supply of logs
and lumber for building homes
and rails for fences the first important gateway of westward
migration was through the Cumberland Gap.
Next the Braddock
and Forbes routes which converged on the Ohio at Pittsburgh the pass
but the Mohawk Valley was blocked by the Iroquois Indians until about eighteen
hundred travel westward was
but Philip aided by the completion of the Cumberland road with its masonry bridges
in eighteen eighteen
and the Erie Canal in eighteen twenty five from Pittsburgh said.
Lawyers floated down the Ohio in flatboats to find new homes along the Ohio as many
tributaries the Muskingum the silo to Miami
and the Wabash the Mississippi River was the natural outlet for their flower bacon
and tobacco
and I was were built to extend cheap transportation by connecting the many inland
waterways.
But these improved waterways were soon followed by railroads which by eighteen
fifty connected many of the principal cities through the mountain gaps
three hundred thousand people had streamed about eighteen hundred to settle in the
regions south of the Ohio River Each dot represents one hundred thousand people.
Then migration through Pittsburgh
and down the Ohio settled the land north of the Ohio.
As far west Byrd as the Mississippi River then a tremendous surge along the Mohawk
route and up the great lakes filled in the northern
and western portions of this section this great migration had carried the settlers
well into the west of the Mississippi River by eighteen fifty
when one of the New Territories attained a certain degree of settlement the
territorial assembly would petition Congress for admission as a state congress
after adjusting many conflicting interests.
What defined its boundaries and granted mission.
Always on the basis of equality with the original states seventeen new states had
been added to the original thirteen by eighteen forty eight.
Further beyond there remained the western portion of the United States which
exhibited extreme contrast in topography and climate.
First there were broad flat plains which rose to dry plateaus
and the majestic Rocky Mountains Beyond the high Basin another range of mountains.
Then a low fertile. Valley and finally a coastal range descending to the Pacific.
Cargoes from the east to the Pacific coast had to be carried by boat.
Either by portage across the Isthmus of Panama are around Cape Horn.
Explorers in the West soon discovered the South Pass through the Rocky Mountains in
eighteen forty three farmers started through this pass bound for the fertile
Willamette Valley in the Oregon country then the Mormon track on the way to Utah
by eighteen forty nine the south past swarmed with covered wagons bound for the
California Gold Fields.
Of California Gold Rush led to the discovery of gold
or silver in one place after another veteran prospectors joined by New seekers of
Fortune rushed out with news or rumors of every new strike.
Cities sprang up and grew to have thousands of inhabitants in a few weeks
but abandoned as quickly as they were built.
While others indicated here by stars remaining
that the nuclei for more permanent settlements as we have seen
the great plains were first passed over.
It seemed an inhospitable land to people familiar with the wooded hills
and moist climate of the Eastern States
and of Europe on the Great Plains rainfall was uncertain no
forests for lawns firewood or railroads.
Well water for man and beast pumped by wind mills.
Wire now instead of rail fences a new way of life was necessary
for a generation the cattle men took possession of the Great Plains the cattle
originating in Texas were driven on long trails to shipping points along the
railroads in the norm. The range country shifted and centered in the brass.
And Wyoming later in Dakota and Montana.
So expensive towns became shipping centers as the range cattle industry was pressed
westward certain cities nearer to markets became packing centers.
Shortlived stagecoach routes were chartered to carry mail
and the Western Union Telegraph line was erected
and then finally real road construction was stimulated with grants of land to the
railroads by the federal government.
These railroads in the liberal land policy under the Homestead Act were influential
in opening the Great Plains to settlers new methods of Agriculture made farming
profitable on the Great Plains people flocked in land hungry peasants from Europe
sons of earlier pioneers in the Middle West unemployed factory workers in the east
millions every decade by covered wagon by railroad into Minnesota Nebraska
and Kansas quickly across the fertile Prairie's then more slowly into the Great
Plains
and over into the valleys of the mountain regions the good free land was virtually
can by the end of the century many prospered some failed
but to return from whence they came
that Michael was ever westward into the mountains
and on to the Pacific coast a continent had been spanned
after eighteen fifty states were being admitted into the union in rapid succession
on the Pacific coast on the Great Plains in the mountain areas
and finally the southwest.
There were forty eight states embracing every bit of territory in the continental
United States by nineteen twelve.
In seventeen ninety the United States was large.
Only a band of settlements along the Atlantic coast
and extending up the fertile river valley expansion during the next three decades
was due mainly to increase of native population then immigrants began arriving in
ever increasing numbers one hundred thousand a year by eight hundred forty two a
quarter of a million by eight hundred forty seven the country was gradually filling
up in all parts but with much greater concentration in the middle Atlantic region.
The Midwest
and the Pacific coast a million immigrants a year by one thousand nine hundred five
followed by a sharp drop due in part to restricted immigration the great surge of
immigration
and migration of people was over in
a century and a half affronted or people had remade a continent.
Virtually all productive land had been put to the plow a free
and independent way of life prevailed
and individual enterprise was rewarded the trees of the forests were cut
and sawed into lumber for millions of homes the riches underground were kept for
metals to equip a nation
and for fuels to turn its wheels the energy of water was early harnessed for power
and vastly expanded after man gained control of electricity.
Factories were built to supply machines for America
and for the world to carry the products of a nation canals were dug
and railroads were built to the extent of two hundred fifty thousand miles.
Pioneers built cities in great numbers where wilderness prevailed only a few years
before the westward movement was like a great title wave first sweeping westward
past the Mississippi River after this.
There were many secondary waves flowing out into isolated centers the odd corners
were rapidly engulfed
and all the more productive areas had been occupied this land after a little more
than a century
and a half had become a great nation the United States of America.