The Conquest of the West refers to the process through which American pioneers, aspiring to get a better life and better living conditions, left the eastern coast of the United-States, epidemics and a high cost of living to discover unknown territories.

During this American history period, which took place between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 20th century, thousands of families took the road towards what they thought would be a better life. During a very long period, the Appalachian Mountains, which run from the north east to the south east of the US, constituted a natural frontier to those who wanted to settled to the west. Before the beginning of the Conquest, only 100 000 Americans lived on the western side of the Appalachian. A century later, they were more than 7 millions!

The Conquest of the West was also the triggering factor of a struggle between Indians and Americans. The latter wanted to evangelize Indians and take possessions of their land, therefore, when Indians did not accept these rules, Americans pillaged, killed and destroyed Indian villages. Some of these battles became famous: this is in particular the case of Little Big Horn, when Indians won the battle against Americans. 200 of soldiers were killed, whereas only around 20 Indians died.

But the increasing number of pioneers and the always more threatening cavalry easily weakened the power of the last Indian rebels.
Many movies actually deal with that chapter of the American history, and depending on the period they were made, Indians played very different parts in them. In the first “western movies" they were barbarians. In the later versions, they appeared like innocent victims (from the 60's onwards).

The TV series “Little House in a Prairie” comes from the series of books written by Laura Ingalls. The books tell the story of a family of pioneers (her own family) during the Conquest of the West.