The Westward Movement: A Promotion Of American Democracy

The Westward Movement in the United States is a great movement of domestic colonization featured by the massive migration of people. Its historical background can be traced back to the colonial era, though as a massive immigrant movement it did not spring up until the Independence War. The legacy of westward expansion is a mix of great accomplishments and grim tragedies, heroic persistence and terrible errors.The contributions the Westward Movement made to the development of America could be seen in many aspects, such as economics, politics, religion, literature and education. This thesis, however, intends to analyze the contribution of the West from the political perspective. It puts forward that the Westward Movement has played an important role in the promotion of American political democracy. To illustrate this point, many democratic political measures initiated in the West are carefully examined, including the granting of suffrage to both white men and white women without property restrictions, forms of direct democracy (including Initiative, Popular Referendum and Recall), direct primary election, and direct election of Senators.Still, the limitations of the Western democracy are not left unnoticed. The expansion and development of the West was largely based on the ruthless expelling, exploitation and bloody slaughtering of the Native Americans. Moreover, although the constitutions made by the newly established states in the West were more democratic than those of the Eastern states, they did not extend any democratic rights to Native Americans and other ethnic groups, such as African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans, who were discriminated in social and economic life and were very often prevented from voting by imposing on them the poll taxes, or literacy tests, etc. As for the white women, although they were granted the right to vote in 1920 through their efforts, they were not treated equally in many fields, such as opportunities for employment, education and housing, etc.