European Americans extension is shown by the movement of Euro-Americans via the continent heading to the pacific west and shaping the jungle for their needs. Their mingling with the tribes inhabiting the land brought many cultural changes. The West was presented as a land with no people ready for anyone. Western expansion brought about individualism, resourcefulness, independence and personal freedom. Euro-American migration to humanized regions rendered surprising cultural ecological deviations.
Natives were affected by the disease outbreaks brought by newcomers and had no immunity against them. Some of the diseases were typhoid, cholera and small pox. The diseases led to death of many natives. Thus, the native population was reduced significantly. Intermarriages between the natives and the visitors also led to a rapid decline in their population.
The intermarriages between traders and the native population led to a bleach in the culture of the native population, hence giving rise to new cultures which became common to both. The intercultural marriages helped to increase the level of cultural diversity in the West. In fact, the new cultures have been preserved up to date.
Jones stresses ties regarding national analyzation and extension (Jones 23). The new occupants of the land utilized the land to increase the level of productivity through commercialized agriculture and industrial uses. Euro-Americans were quick to know the importance of owning property privately. In fact, they executed legal strategies of ensuring that legal property owners could not lose their property.
They imposed new cultural ordering to the landscape by changing natural resources to commodities that could be sold or bought in the expanding global market. Indians were the first settlers. They hunted large roaming herds of buffaloes for their basic needs. On arrival, buffaloes were a trouble to Euro-Americans, but later they were a source of food and cash due to expensive skin. They hunted them to extinction, which meant a negative impact on the Indians as it was their source of food.
The government tried to force the Indians to leave their hunting lifestyles and drift to government reservations, but they could not adopt to new ways of obtaining food. For example, the Cheyenne who used hunt on the Sand Creek reservation were massacred by white soldiers. However, they revenged later through killing some white people (Jones 30). This was a clear indication of social conflicts between the natives and the visitors.
This conflict is obvious due to the Little Big Horn war, which occurred in 1876 (Kain 12). The war led to the loss of lives of about 264 white troops. The native population underwent a pathetic state while trying to till the soil for a living compared to their ancient way of livelihood (use of bow and arrows). Decreasing population and battle for supremacy made the natives form new groups such as the Seminole and the Mission Indians.
Local self-appointed groups maintained law and order due to lack of a well organized government. The groups imposed tough rules and ensured that lawbreakers were punished. However, the leaders denied the natives the freedom to manage their private businesses. The Caribbean people were the first to adapt to the new political and economic ways of the Europeans and endured the ecological and demographic consequences from the Euro-American expansion.
They embraced a system of government that was characterized by elected leaders who could represent the people (Kain 19). In summary, it is quite clear that migration and assimilation affected the American West landscape politically, socially and culturally in many ways.
It is evident that the Euro-Americans altered the livelihoods of the natives by the introduction of new political, social and cultural ways of life rather than adapting to the ones they found being followed by the natives. New forms of governments and cultures were adopted from the European Americans.
Works Cited
Jones, Landon. The Essential Lewis and Clark. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2002. Print.
Kain, Robert C. In the valley of the Little Big Horn: The 7th and the Sioux, June 25-26, 1876. California, CA: Beinfeld Pub., 1978. Print.