Go West: First Contact with Native Nations

Go West: First Contact with Native Nations — page 1
A Century of Change Native peoples lived throughout North America for thousands of years before European settlers arrived Westward expansion by new settlers in the 1800s changed the lives of the Native nations forever µ US buys French territory µ Jefferson aims to develop the West In the early 1800s France and Spain owned much of the land west of the Mississippi In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson bought the vast Louisiana Territory from France for 15 million The purchase almost doubled the size of the United States Jefferson hoped to profit from resources in the West such as land minerals and fur US expansion however was a threat to Native peoples in the West They faced the prospect of losing their traditional lands did you know In 1845 the newspaper editor John O’Sullivan used the phrase manifest destiny to describe a belief that it was the right of the United States to take ownership of land in the West Supporters of manifest destiny believed that the white government would benefit Native peoples But it did them terrible harm Go West µ Shaping the nation µ Across the continent In 1812 Americans went to war with Britain their former colonial ruler The United States wanted to remove any foreign influence from their country The war made Americans think about what sort of country they wanted to live in Many began to believe they should impose their government across North America and over the Native nations who already lived in the West 4 Right Although there was no clear winner in the War of 1812 Native nations fought for both sides Despite their help they were left out of land negotiations after the war