The Railroad, the Telegraph, and Other Technologies

The Railroad, the Telegraph, and Other Technologies — page 3
THE RAILROAD THE TELEGRAPH AND OTHER TECHNOLOGIES By acquiring these territories Manifest Destiny was achieved But though the United States now stretched from sea to shining sea the problem became what to do with all of that land The solution in part was to encourage settlement of the land During the nineteenth century many thousands of people eager for a fresh start and the chance to have land of their own made the journey west The United States treated the land’s original inhabitants the Native Americans with little regard however Treaties with tribes were regularly made broken and renegotiated and the tribes were forced onto reservations While the Native Americans often resisted new settlers in their lands the government's government’s strength proved too great for them to endure One factor more than any other led to the successful successful expansion of settlers across the land the railroad Completing tracks that connected the heavily populated East with the sparsely settled West allowed resources food products and people to be transported from one end of the country to the other quickly safely and more efficiently than ever before The struggles and endurance endurance needed to accomplish this are covered here as are the effects the railroad industry had on life and business in today’s world The effort to master the West was aided greatly by improvements in communication This was especially 6