The term "the west" shows how all the people that had settled in parts of the America's had different perspectives on what was going on in "westward expansion". The white settlers on the East Coast were the ones who coined the term "the west" because, obviously, it was west of their settlements. But this term didn't work for all groups of people, such as people in Mexico or Alaska, who were not east of the lands called "the west". The term especially didn't work for the abundant groups of Native Americans because they didn't label the directions as east, west, north, and south; they didn't grasp that concept.
2. Read page 5. Summarize the three major areas of differences and misunderstandings between the Europeans and Native Americans.
Trade: Native Americans and Europeans originally had a different view on the principles of trade, but when Native Americans learned of the profits of trade, they hunted for more valuable trade items and became more dependent on European goods.
Land: Native Americans also didn't understand the concept of owning land, when it came to buying and selling it, like the Europeans did. Native Americans claimed territories for reasons such as religion and good hunting areas, but they didn't quite grasp the idea of literally owning a piece of land.
Treaties: When a treaty was signed, both Native Americans and Europeans had different thoughts as to who the treaty applied to; Europeans thought it meant entire Native American nations, while Native Americans thought it applied to only certain smaller Native American communities that they signed for. Also, Native Americans believed the final agreement of a treaty would be decided orally, while Europeans believed it was finalized when written down on paper. Thus, because of this misunderstanding, Europeans manipulated the Native Americans and tricked them into giving more land away than they intended.
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!)
- Trade of goods, such as guns, and horses caused more power among different tribes and more efficient hunting techniques.
- Horrific diseases, such as smallpox, that were brought to the West by Europeans caused huge epidemics that depleted the populations of many Native American tribes.
- New Spain forced religion of some of the Native Americans, causing them to revolt and have conflict with the Europeans.
- Some Native Americans integrated with the European settlers, and some of the European settlers married Native Americans and integrated with the tribes.
- In some cases, Native American daily life was improved because of the use of European technology.
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."
This statement is basically saying that the United States was being extremely hypocritical when they claimed that their ideals were liberty, freedom, and individual rights, considering the amount of Native Americans that had none of these things due to the U.S. expansion. Native Americans were forced through much violence to go into reservations instead of being able to access the vast land of America like they had done for many years. They had no freedom after the U.S. made manifest destiny their goal: they constantly were having their land taken away, as well as their liberty. Native Americans especially had no individual rights, their wants and needs were barely, if at all, taken into consideration by the U.S. Government. The United States should have specified who exactly was permitted to have the liberty, freedom, and individual rights, because the Native Americans certainly didn't.
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