The Rise Of Andrew Jackson - 1696 Words

The Westward Movement The rise of Andrew Jackson, the first president form beyond the Appalachian Mountains, exemplified the inexorable westward march of the American people; the West, with its raw frontier, was the most typically American part of America The Republic and the people were so young —as late as 1850, half of Americans were under the age of thirty; By 1840 the â€Å"demographic center† of the American population map had crossed the Alleghenies; by the Civil War it had crossed the Ohio River Legend portraying men carving civilization out of the western woods were false as in reality, life was downright grim for most pioneer families in the West Poorly fed, ill-clad, housed in hastily erected shanties, they were perpetual victims of†¦show more content†¦Louis to the Rocky Mountain valley and waited for the trappers and Indians to arrive with beaver pelts to swap for manufactured goods from the East The trade thrived for two decades before the hats went out of style and fewer beavers Trade in buffalo robbers also flourished, leading eventually to the virtually total annihilation of the massive bison herds and still farther west, on the California coast, other traders bought up sea-otter pelts, driving otters to the point of near-extinction Aggressive, heedless exploitation of West natural bounty—â€Å"ecological imperialism† Yet Americans in this period also revered nature and admired its beauty; the spirit of nationalism fed the growing appreciation of the uniqueness of the American wilderness Searching for the United States’