Download Westward Expansion 1776 - 1867

Westward Expansion
1776 -1867
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Examples of American Expansion
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Revolutionary War (1776) Proclamation of 1763
Louisiana Purchase (1803) from France – $15 million
War of 1812 designs on Canada and Florida
Monroe Doctrine (1823) Europe out of the Western Hemisphere
Indian Removal Act (1830) Trail of Tears, 1838
Texas Revolution (1836) Annexation of Texas, 1847
Mexican War (1846) a border dispute justified expansion
Mexican Session (1848) California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico,
Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah
• Gadsden Purchase (1853) from Mexico – $10 million
• Purchase of Alaska (1867) from Russia – $7 million
CICERO © 2010
CICERO © 2010
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was a term used in the 1840s to
justify America’s Westward expansion into such
areas as Texas, Oregon, and California. There was
a widely held belief that Americans, the chosen
people, had a divinely inspired mission to spread
democracy to the less fortunate (usually meaning
American Indians and other non-Europeans).
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How does this painting explain the attitude of
Americans about territorial expansion in the mid-1800s?
Spirit of the Frontier/American Progress 1872 by John Gast
(Westward Angel)
“Go West Young Man!”
Horace Greeley-1845
Why did early settlers flood across the country
during the mid-1800s?
The California Gold Rush began in
1848 with the discovery of gold at
Sutter’s Mill on the California River.
Settlers flocked to Oregon
searching for fertile farmland.
Ranchers moved into areas that
buffalo previously inhabited and
began raising cattle descended
from Spanish herds.
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Trails West
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Conestoga Wagon
“Prairie Schooner”
• The wagons were named
for the Pennsylvania town
where many were
produced.
• Oxen or mules usually
pulled these wagons, and
they traveled in groups as
wagon trains.
• They were known as
“prairie schooners”
because of their
appearance moving across
the grassy plains.
CICERO © 2010
CICERO © 2010
The Stagecoach
• Passenger coaches were a
popular form of public
transportation in the early
1800s.
• They received their name
because the driver changed
horses every fifteen miles, or
stage.
• The person who rode next to
the driver, “riding shotgun,”
usually carried a shotgun to
guard against hostile Indians
or bandits.
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Steam Locomotive
“Iron Horse”
• The first locomotive built in
the United States was The
Best Friend of Charleston. It
began service in 1830.
• On July 1, 1862, President
Lincoln signed the Pacific
Railroad Act, which
authorized building the
Transcontinental Railroad.
• The Transcontinental
Railroad was completed on
May 10, 1869, in Promontory
Point, Utah.
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CICERO © 2010
Steamboat
• Robert Fulton built the first
successful steamboat, the
Clermont, in 1807.
• Settlers traveling to the
West by boat faced an
arduous journey of 18,000
miles around South
America or sailing to the
Isthmus of Panama,
crossing overland, and
sailing to California.
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