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Schule > Englisch > Ausarbeitungen, Interpretationen und Zusammenfassungen > Settlement in the West of the USA

SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST OF THE USA

Exercise: Write a summary of the historical development in the West using all the information you’ve got so far!
Between the 15. and the 16. century, Spanish, British and French people came over the Atlantic Ocean and settled on the east coast of the USA. With these people came 50 000 prisoners to find a new life, not even a better one. The first colony was established by Spanish people in Florida in 1565. The colony belonged to Spain. In 1620, puritan refugees and the ‘Mayflower’ arrived in Plymouth. They founded the colony of Massachusetts and signed the ‘Mayflower Compact’. Other British emigrants followed. In 1634, Roman Catholics settled Maryland and Quakers founded Pennsylvania 48 years later. In 1775, there was the War of Independence against Britain. Until this year, 13 colonies exists on the Atlantic seashore. On July 4 in 1776, was the declaration of independence adopted. Now it’s called Independence Day.
After that day people stopped looking back to Europe and began look west. The 13 colonies on the Atlantic seashore were free in 1778. In 1782, the Treaty of Paris between Great Britain and the United States were signed. Six years later, settlers pushed the frontier west and their love of adventure pressured them further and further in wagon trails. They established new townships and settlements and cultivated the land. The pioneers overcame the huge dimensions and geographical diversities. This was the beginning of the colonization of the West. In 1789, the first Constitution became effective. The time between 1800 and 1900 was the age of the Wild West. The age of cowboys, Indians, sheriffs, whisky and saloons. In 1804, it was the beginning of the expedition of Lewis and Clark to open up the land western the Mississippi until the Pacific coast. Fifteen years later, the United States bought Florida from Spain.
From 1830 until 1840-41, the movement to the West became a mass movement. The cities on the east coast were crowded, because of the arriving immigrants from Europe. In the West was room for everybody. Thousands of people, many of them who opened up the West were newly-arrived European immigrants, made long journeys west with covered wagons in the hope of a better life, at least more freedom and if possible a piece of land big enough for a house and a small farm to settle there as a farmer. The journeys were very hard, because of water, the weather and diseases. The pioneers travelled a long time, at least four months, until they found the most beautiful place in the world. Some of them returned to the East and became guides for the next group of pioneers. As the American West opened up, it was like a ‘golden door’ of opportunity to thousands of people craving a fresh start and a chance for a future of their own. Every kind of people took place in the move, ranchers with huge herds, farmers, hunters, young white people and families and countless non-whites and slaves.
In 1848, the first gold was found in California and many European settlers came to the United States, because of the French revolution. The gold rush started in 1849. The people who searched for gold were called forty-niners. There were three routes to come to California: The more comfortable way was the way by sea around South America. It was a long and very very expensive journey. Other people sailed from the east coast to Panama, crossed the land by foot and sailed along the west coast to San Francisco. But only some finished the journey alive, other died in diseases like yellow fever. Most people, mainly families, started with wagon trains from the East, across America, through Death Valley to California. It was a dangerous and hard journey, because of Indians, hunger, thirst and the changing weather.
After settling the West, a railway was build. The West was won!
words: 642

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