Consider the following statement: "In preparing for the Cherokee removal, state and federal officials were motivated solely by desire to seize the natives' land." In your post, consider the following: Does this statement present the full picture? Revise this statement to present a more complex explanation of the motivations that drove state and federal officials (and the white citizens of Georgia) during the years immediately preceding the Cherokee removal. Explain the choices you made in your revision. Next, consider how you can take a similar approach to your own topic in order to more fully understand the historical complexity. What other viewpoints would you want to further explore in order to more fully understand your topic?

According to what we have learned, we can conclude that the main motivation for the removal of the Cherokee was the desire for their land, but that was not the only reason. As we know there was a lot of racial and religious prejudice among the Cherokee and white citizens. Both did not want to divide the territory between themselves, but the white people believed that the Cherokee did not have the capacity and intelligence to take care of that land, besides believing that the land would be much more blessed if it were explored by Christians. Accordingly, many state and federal authorities have justified the removal of natives from their lands on the grounds that they were doing both the natives and that environment a favor, when in fact there was an ambition on productive and profitable land, in addition to a strong prejudice.

However, this is a complex topic since it involves several social factors, which are often contradictory and often dated with concepts that do not fit in our current society. Today we understand the issue of racism between these groups and the question of white supremacy in that territory, however these terms were not so well known and debated at that time, proving that to discuss this issue we should have a deeper understanding of the societies involved in this event.