Why did tensions exist between settlers and the Native Americans? The settlers wanted to take the land from the Native Americans. Treaties were made between them and the US government, but they were broken or not enforced. Crops that were grown to sell for profit?

Working on behalf of white settlers who wanted to grow cotton on the Indians’ land, the federal government forced them to leave their homelands and walk hundreds of miles to a specially designated “Indian territory” across the Mississippi River.

Pioneers and settlers moved out west for different reasons. Some of them wanted to claim free land for ranching and farming from the government through the Homestead Act. Others came to California during the gold rush to strike it rich. Even others, such as the Mormons, moved west to avoid persecution.

Overview. The Indian reservation system was created to keep Native Americans off of lands that European Americans wished to settle.

As American settlers pushed westward, they inevitably came into conflict with Indian tribes that had long been living on the land. Ultimately, the settlers, with the support of local militias and, later, with the federal government behind them, sought to eliminate the tribes from the lands they desired.

Unable to perform ceremonies and traditions in native tongues, a slow loss of tradition and identity became inevitable. Losing Indian lands resulted in a loss of cultural identity, as tribes relied on their homelands as the place of ancestral burial locations and sacred sites where religious ceremonies were performed.

Inventions helped determine the very shape of the West. The telegraph instantly connected Americans across thousands of miles; railroads killed some towns and gave birth to others; the gun quickly established the settlers’ dominance over the country; and barbed wire created vast ranching empires.

This expansion led to debates about the fate of slavery in the West, increasing tensions between the North and South that ultimately led to the collapse of American democracy and a brutal civil war.

Overview. Land, mining, and improved transportation by rail brought settlers to the American West during the Gilded Age. New agricultural machinery allowed farmers to increase crop yields with less labor, but falling prices and rising expenses left them in debt.

In the minds of white Americans, the Indians were not using the land to its full potential as they reserved large tracts of unspoiled land for hunting, leaving the land uncultivated. Americans declared that it was their duty, their manifest destiny, which compelled them to seize, settle, and cultivate the land.

The philosophy drove 19th-century U.S. territorial expansion and was used to justify the forced removal of Native Americans and other groups from their homes. The rapid expansion of the United States intensified the issue of slavery as new states were added to the Union, leading to the outbreak of the Civil War.

The Mexican-American War, waged between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848, helped to fulfill America’s “manifest destiny” to expand its territory across the entire North American continent.

There are three basic themes to manifest destiny: The special virtues of the American people and their institutions. The mission of the United States to redeem and remake the west in the image of the agrarian East. An irresistible destiny to accomplish this essential duty.

Causes and Effects of Manifest Destiny Spreading settlements along the country’s borders caused friction with others. The intervention of the U.S. government often resulted in the annexation of more territory. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Many Americans felt it was the will of God to expand the country.

Manifest Destiny was the idea that white Americans were divinely ordained to settle the entire continent of North America. US President James K. Polk (1845-1849) is the leader most associated with Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny inflamed sectional tensions over slavery, which ultimately led to the Civil War.