(EQ1) To what extent were gains from westward expansion at the expense of people of color, the poor and

the environment? The relentless push westward after the Civil War was truly magnificent. Great wealth, technological innovation, the settling of rugged wilderness and more was accomplished. It was however, like any major change implemented in the real world, not without some forms of backlash. People of color and the poor were exploited, as always, for the simple reason that they were exploitable. The environment, especially new found natural resources, highly demanded and a lucrative business opportunity, fared even worse. Before the push westward the poor and minorities were treated poorly and were taken advantage of by society and capitalism. During the push westward, much remained the same, with new ways created to make room for the burgeoning ship of immigrants. As factories filled up, those lucky enough to have any money at all moved to the West to become farmers, but those not situated in prime areas, such as California, soon found that the lack of water made farming almost impossible. Many left more destitute than they arrived, especially those in the Dust Bowl region, where innovative farming led to environmental and agricultural disaster. For those that managed to scrape a living from the dirt, other challenges abounded. Railroads consistently price gouged them, a practice learned in the East and quickly applied to all parts of the line. However, not all of the poor were farmers, gold strikes in California and the discovery of the Comstock Lode in Nevada drew many fortune seekers out. So many people, in fact, that a single man panning for gold rarely made a good life for himself, and only in the tall tales could he support a family. Exploiting the poor was nothing new, however, and like it, exploitation of colored people quickly made the trip westward as well. Like the Irish who laid the track in the East, the Chinese were the dominant labor for railroads in the West. Harshly treated, persecuted by mobs and generally scorned at every opportunity, America was hardly a land of dreams for them. Eventually, the Chinese Exclusion Act barred their entrance, but not before many had the chance to suffer under the machine of capitalism. Blacks, however, fared better than the Chinese, probably because they left the East willingly, and found the West to be a more hospitable place. Anti-black sentiment was overtaken by capitalism, and many African-Americans found that they had achieved a much higher level of equality. This equality, though, was only as good as everyone elses, which was still fairly bad. Not were the people subjugated to oppressive horrors, the environment itself began to break under the beating of industrial might. The great bison herds quickly evaporated, the Dust Bowl created an area where people could literally watch their land fly away and mining, especially erosion based, devastated hillsides. The push westward was similar to any other capitalistic venture embarked upon; it relies on finding something to exploit. Carried on the backs of colored people and profits reaped from the scars on Mother Earth, money was abundant and highly lucrative.