How did westward migration after the Civil War affect the U.S.?

Westward expansion affected the United States in many important ways.  Let us look at some of the most important of these effects.

• Westward expansion/migration helped to industrialize the US.  A major part of this expansion was the creation of transcontinental railroads.  These railroads helped industrialize America by creating more demand for steel to make rails and rolling stock.  Expansion also helped cause industrialization by opening up new sources of raw materials that the country could use.


• Westward expansion helped enrich America.  This is partly because it helped cause industrialization.  It is also because it opened up vast new areas of land that became America’s “breadbasket.” 


• Westward expansion brought tremendous harm to Native Americans.  As white settlers expanded to the west, they pushed Native Americans off their lands.  The Indians were pushed onto reservations on very marginal lands.  Their way of life was completely destroyed.  By pushing them onto reservations, the US government helped bring about problems for the Native Americans that continue to be felt today.


• Westward expansion helped to create America’s self-image.  Americans see their country as a country of rugged individuals who can face life without any help from the government or, usually, from anyone else.  This is at least partly because of the way we view the pioneers who came west and the cowboys who tended cattle in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and other such places.  We see them as heroes of individualism and we think that they typify what our country is all about.


• Westward expansion helped to bring about the populist movement towards the end of the 19th century.  Many of the people who migrated west were small farmers.  They soon came to feel that large companies, particularly banks and railroads, were taking away their ability to make a living.  This led to the creation of the populist movement among farmers in the South and the West.

In all of these ways and more, westward migration influenced the United States.