Westward Expansion by Alex Navarro

Westward Expansion

alnavar1 — 2014-09-18 17:22:48 UTC

By the mid to late 18th century, the population had doubled, almost tripled and people wanted new land to farm and hunt and to make their own, so they decided to move west.

Many people thought it was the country's destiny to move westward all the way to the other coast, the Pacific Ocean. This was known as Manifest Destiny.

One of the first areas settled was the Northwest Territory. Today that is Indiana, Michigan, Illinos, Wisconsin, and Ohio.

Once people started settling down in these new foreign areas, they began to explore and some even struck gold, literally. Settlers in California found gold and once the word spread like wildfire, more and more people made their way across the country to the West.

Industrial Revolution

alnavar1 — 2014-09-19 02:29:55 UTC

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain in the late 18th Century. The Industrial Revolution helped change the way goods were made and distributed. The population went from being agriculturally based to industrial based. People left the farms and country side to move into the cities where all the new work was at the factories.

During this time, there were also many new advancements in technology.
The assembly line created by Henry Ford, manufacturing, the steam powered engine, coal, interchangeable parts, petroleum and steamboats.

Westward Expansion and the Industrial Revolution

alnavar1 — 2014-09-19 02:35:29 UTC

Westward Expansion and the Industrial Revolution go hand in hand. If it wasn't for inventions of the steam engine, the railroad would not travel that far west and those people who settled out west would not have prospered as much as they did. The first Transcontinental Railroad allowed people to trace to the west quicker, not in long trips in wagons that took months. These steam engines also allowed to new materials used during the Industrial Revolution to travel to the new western settlements which boosted the economy.

Without the Industrial Revolution, westward expansion would not have been as successful as it was and our country would be a far different place had it not.