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Learn
About Westward
Expansion
In the span of
five years, the United States increased its size by a third. It annexed Texas
in 1845; negotiated with Britain for half of the Oregon country; and acquired
California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming
as a result of a war with Mexico.
America’s dramatic
territorial expansion intensified the sectional conflict between North and South
and raised the fateful and ultimately divisive issue of whether slavery would
be allowed in the western territories.
It took American
colonists a century and a half to expand as far west as the Appalachian Mounts,
a few hundred miles from the Atlantic coast. It took another fifty years to
push the frontier to the Mississippi River. Seeking cheap land and inspired
by the notion that Americans had a “manifest destiny” to stretch across the
continent, pioneers by 1850 pushed the edge of settlement to Texas, the Southwest,
and the Pacific Northwest.
"This people
have been conceived in sin &...have been degraded by oppression"
The Mexican War, 1847, by Persifor Smith
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p2.cfm?doc=113
A firsthand account of the American capture of Mexico City.
To
learn more
Maps:
Animated
map of westward expansion
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/48states.html
Exploration
and Settlement 1800-1820 (775K)
Westward Expansion and Exploration 1803-1807
From
American Military History, United States Army Center of Military History,
1989 (194K)
Westward Expansion 1815-1845
From
American Military History, United States Army Center of Military History,
1989 (258K)
Exploration and Settlement 1820-1835 (890K)
Sources of the Mississippi River 1834 (414K)
From
The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Volume 4, 1834 to accompany
"Narrative of an Expedition through the Upper Mississippi to
Itasca Lake, the actual Source of this River; embracing an Exploratory
Trip through the St. Croix and Burntwood (or Broule) Rivers; in 1832.
Under the direction of Henry R. Schoolcraft. New York. 1834."
Oregon Trail (199K)
"Line
of Original Emigration to the Pacific Northwest Commonly Known as
the Old Oregon Trail" from The Ox Team or the Old Oregon Trail
1852-1906 by Ezra Meeker. Fourth Edition 1907.
Exploration and Settlement 1835-1850 (833K)
Exploration and Settlement 1850-1890 (888K)
Captain Marcy's route though Texas 1854 (612K)
From
Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1895.
Images:
To
learn more
Timelines:
Click
here for timeline.
Fact sheets and lesson plans:
Fact sheetmaybe
an s2:
Manifest Destiny
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/us17.cfm
Recommended
lesson plan:
Manifest
Destiny and Westward Expansion
http://ohioteach.history.ohio-state.edu/Lessons/
Manifest%20Destiny%20and%20Westward%20Expansion.htm
Fact checks:
Test
your knowledge about Westward Expansion
Recommended readings:
Richard
White, It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own
A comprehensive
history of the American West incorporating the most recent historical scholarship.
 Recommended
film{maybe an s} :
 The
Alamo
John
Wayne plays David Crockett in this highly romanticized 1960 recreation
of the battle of the Alamo
View the movie trailer (requires Windows Media Player):
http://us.imdb.com/Trailers?0053580&893&28
Learn more:
Marshall
De Bruhl, “The Alamo” in Mark C. Carnes, ed., Past Imperfect:
History According to the Movies
 Recommended
Web site:
The
West
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/index.htm
Primary
source material on the American West, including many memoirs, journals, diaries,
letters, and autobiographies.
To
learn more
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