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Americanization of the Western Frontier The settlement of the West was one of the most dramatic times of the 19th century. In modern times the movement West is romanticized as a time of modernization and a time for great personal growth. In reality the move westward was a move towards Americanization, that crushed a way of life for the Native American Indian and eliminated one of the greatest resources of the Great Plains, the Buffalo. Western expansion was do impart to industrial advances and the influx of immigrants. From 1820 to the end of the century almost 20 million immigrants poured into the United States. At this time immigration was encouraged by the government to fill the holds of the newly formed steamship companies, to take up homesteads and to supply the man power that American industry needed for the progressive era (Hall, G., lecture). However, their introduction into the country in such large numbers quickly overpopulated the industrial east injuring the job market and forcing people to look west for land and opportunity. Railroads opened up trails to the West making the way for pioneers to drive into Indian and Buffalo lands. The end of the civil war saw nearly 15 million bison west of the Mississippi