Why did people move west?
Different people moved west for lots of different reasons. People moved West
because it gave them opportunities to change their lives.
Mountain Men moved west to have freedom and have excitement in their lives and
to look at real beauty in the Rocky Mountains.
Oregon pioneers moved west because it offered them cheaper farming land and to
give them more freedom to roam about.
Gold rush helped people go west because they all wanted to get rich quick.
Mostly young men other saw it as a job opportunity to sell food, drink and
equipment to the gold diggers.
The Mormons moved west because they we discriminated and persecuted because of
their beliefs, the tried to find a new place so that Brigham young could control
them better. They arrived at Salt Lake City and are still there today.
Railway workers moved west to work on the railway that would join the east and
west coast together, many followed the rail workers afterwards to start
businesses on the railroad lines, most of these were cow towns because a large
number of cows were sent to the main cities to exchange for money.
Cowboys
travelled west because many were freed black slaves, or Mexicans looking for a
better life and escaping poverty. Criminals looking for a way of escaping the
law, and people just looking for adventure.
Homesteaders moved west because the government was trying to encourage more
people to move west because of the lack of land in the east. They advertised
this by putting articles and advertisements in local papers and letters of
travellers already settled in the west. They gave them lots of land for a cheap
price and less tax than in the east. This was known s the Homestead Act. They
left the east for adventure and freedom in the west.
The main or most important reason was because the US Government believed in the
manifest destiny, which was that the land of America belonged to the white
Americans and it was theirs to settle on. They believed god wanted the land in
the west to have the Americans laws and their way of farming on it and rule it
that way.
Bethany Garnett