The United States of America was colonized, in the 18th century, initially by English immigrants. This colonization took place along the Atlantic East Coast, which resulted in the so-called thirteen colonies, that is, the “embryo” of what the country would become. when did it come to Independence, on July 4, 1776, these colonies became States, united in a federation, with political autonomy and its own characteristics. However, over the decades, there were regional differences between these states. From these divergences, two events were unleashed: a secession warand the west march.
The Civil War, or American Civil War, started in 1861 and continued until 1865. This war was motivated by the economic and political problems that arose between the North and South states of the United States. The North sought to expand its conception of small property, industrial development and free labor and wage-earner, which was in opposition to the interests of the South, which defended the expansion of the landownership and labor model. slaver. The war broke out due to the intensification of these perspectives.
One of the maneuvers carried out by then-President Abraham Lincoln, leader of the North, was the approval of the so-called “Land Law”, or homestead law. This law provided for the occupation of the American West from the perspective of small land ownership, defended by northerners, as historian Claude Fohlen explains:
“The Homestead Act” of 1862 marks a change in the federal government's land policy. Until then, it had been dominated by fiscal imperatives, with the sale of land at the best price. From that date onwards, the preoccupation with colonization and the desire to satisfy the pioneers' hunger for land prevailed. 'Every man,' proclaimed Van Buren, Free Soil candidate in the 1848 election, 'is entitled to a natural portion of the soil... The right to own land is as sacred as life.'” [1]
With this law, the expansion process to the West took place in an accelerated and progressive way. For three decades, the contingent of settlers who set out to explore the American Wild West became increasingly voluminous. And not just people in the US have invested in this endeavor, but individuals from other regions of the world as well.
GRADES
[1] FOHLEN, Claude. the western. (trans.) Paulo Neves) São Paulo: Companhia das Letras: Círculo do Livro, 1989. for. 18.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historia-da-america/marcha-para-oeste-nos-eua.htm