#americanhistory #wildwest #ushistory

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Recommended reading:
Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier - [ Ссылка ]
The Frontier in American History - [ Ссылка ]
Native American History - [ Ссылка ]

The United States today has a population of just over 330 million people, with the majority of these living within settlements that lie within in the Eastern half of the country. This is a longstanding impact of centuries of predominantly European settlers, migrating across the Atlantic Ocean and establishing themselves in new towns and cities along the Eastern seaboard. Comparatively, much fewer settlements exist in the western half of the nation, with the only notable exception being the coastal communities clinging to the Pacific shoreline from California in the South, to Washington state in the North.

However, a little over 2 centuries ago in the year 1800, the population density of the United States looked markedly different. Back then, only 5.3 million Americans lived in 16 states that were bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the East and the Appalachian Mountains to the West. Beyond that, lay a vast unchartered wilderness of grassland plains, snow capped mountains and arid deserts, which were inhabited by thousands of native Americans who had called this land their home for millennia. In a matter of just a handful decades, this entire region would be opened up and explored by prospective settlers coming from the East, yearning for a chance to better themselves in this new land of opportunity.

This is how the United States expanded westwards.

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