The origins of the American West

Recently, I joined a tour group to Yellowstone. Starting from Silicon Valley, I took the elderly and children with me and traveled 3,740 miles by car. It took me 7 days to visit 6 states in the western United States.

The whole trip can be regarded as a long journey, getting up early and staying late, and just watching the scenery.

Under the tour guide’s explanation in three languages, the place you passed seemed to be restored to the ancient western development.

The six states passed through are: California, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah.

When the United States was first established, in 1776, there were only 13 states (yellow area) in the United States, located east of the Appalachian Mountains. Includes any of the 6 states mentioned above.

At that time, California was still a Spanish colony, Wyoming and South Dakota were still French territories, and the remaining three states were inaccessible.

In the peace settlement agreed between Britain and the United States in 1783, Britain opened a large area of ??Indian-owned land from the Appalachian Mountains west to the Mississippi River to the United States. Many immigrants from the Eastern Seaboard and Europe flocked west across the Appalachian Mountains.

In 1803, when Emperor Napoleon was busy dealing with wars in Europe, the United States purchased more than 529,911,680 acres (2,144,476 square kilometers) of land from France at about three cents per acre. The total transaction price is US$15 million or equivalent to 80 million francs (calculated as a relative proportion of GDP, this amount was equivalent to US$417.8 billion in 2004). The land area involved in the land purchase is 22.3 times the size of the United States today, which is roughly the same as the original land area of ??the United States at that time.

Historically known as the famous "Louisiana Purchase" (English: Louisiana Purchase). (The pink area in Figure 1)

The name "Louisiana" comes from the 17th century explorer René-Robert Cavelier named it in memory of French King Louis XIV, which means "Land of King Louis". It was once occupied by the French and Spanish.

Both the French and Spanish thought Louisiana was a land of little value.

A French official wrote on September 20, 1762: “This colony (Louisiana) can spend 800,000 livres a year on France, but it has never produced even one sou. Profits." The Spanish Foreign Secretary also said that the Louisiana colony was "not worth it."

Napoleon's sale of French possessions in the Americas had strategic considerations: on the one hand, it showed goodwill to the United States; on the other hand, it was a move against the British ministry.

Although Napoleon had the strongest army in Europe at the time, Britain still posed a considerable military threat to France. When war breaks out between Britain and France, a powerful United States can contain Britain. At the very least, Napoleon wanted the United States to remain neutral during the war between Britain and France.

President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the Northwest Territory (the Lewis and Clark Expedition) in 1803 to observe the transcontinental route and natural resources.

The expedition (led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark) set out from the Missouri River, crossed the Rocky Mountains, walked from the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, and returned to St. Louis (St. Louis, brought back important information about the native people, plants and animals, and geography of the Northwest. The blue line in Figure 2 is the route of the expedition team.

President Jefferson considered the expedition a great success.

Although the explorers did not find the waterways of the Pacific, they drew accurate and detailed maps. Peaceful contacts were made with Native American tribes to discuss trade. The knowledge added to the scientific community was invaluable, and vast areas of North America were explored.

Later, the state sold hundreds of acres of land to individuals for one dollar an acre, encouraging people to move westward and improve the land.

According to statistics, the population west of Appalachia accounted for only 1/7 of the total U.S. population in 1810, growing to 1/4 10 years later. Among these immigrants, there were both slave owners from the south and land speculators from the north; but the largest number were generally poor pioneers-hunters, miners, herders and farmers, who came to the west to make a living, and they became The main body of early immigrants in the west.

In 1845, the United States annexed Texas.

In 1846, the Treaty of Oregon ended British claims to Oregon territory.

In 1848, following the war between Mexico and the United States, Mexico gave much of the West and Southwest to the United States. This included the states that would become California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

In 1853, the United States purchased another piece of land from Mexico.

Then people started moving to Texas, California and Oregon. The California Gold Rush, the construction of railroads, the long-term Mormon pilgrimage to Utah, and the building of the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails were all examples of the "Wild West" expansion contributed.

I hope this article is helpful to you. Likes are the best likes and following are the greatest encouragement. Thank you!