Discuss American Expansionism and its effects on Native Americans.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The ideal answer should include:
- American Expansionism began in earnest when Jefferson negotiated the Louisiana Purchase. This massive expanse of land extending from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains cost Jefferson a mere $15 million, or about four cents an acre.
- Jefferson was only dimly aware of the hundreds of Native American tribes that would be obliterated or forever changed as European-American settlers moved westward, staking their claim on the "empty" land.
- The purchase set the stage for the ensuing century of expansion culminating in 1898 with the Spanish-American War and Spain's ceding to the United States all her colonies outside of Africa-including Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines-except for Cuba, which became a U.S. protectorate.
- The slogan of the times became "Go West, young man, and grow up with the country."
- Unfortunately, Native American culture and tribal identities were almost entirely ignored and disparaged in the process of "going West."
- The US military pursued an unofficial policy of Native American extermination, encouraging the slaughter of the buffalo as a shortcut to this end. The end of the buffalo signaled the end of Native American culture.