Westward Expansion Unit
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the territory of Louisiana from the French government for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans, and it doubled the size of the United States. To Jefferson, westward expansion was the key to the nation’s health: He believed that a republic depended on an independent, virtuous citizenry for its survival, and that independence and virtue went hand in hand with land ownership, especially the ownership of small farms. (“Those who labor in the earth,” he wrote, “are the chosen people of God.”) In order to provide enough land to sustain this ideal population of virtuous yeomen, the United States would have to continue to expand.
The westward expansion of the United States is one of the defining themes of 19th-century American history, but it is not just the story of Jefferson’s expanding “empire of liberty.” On the contrary, as one historian writes, in the six decades after the Louisiana Purchase, westward expansion “very nearly destroy[ed] the republic.”
http://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion
The westward expansion of the United States is one of the defining themes of 19th-century American history, but it is not just the story of Jefferson’s expanding “empire of liberty.” On the contrary, as one historian writes, in the six decades after the Louisiana Purchase, westward expansion “very nearly destroy[ed] the republic.”
http://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion
Westward Expansion Timeline
WESTWARD EXPANSION
MASTER TIMELINE
1783—The Revolutionary War ends (with the Treaty of Paris)
1803—Louisiana Purchase
1803—Lewis and Clark explore the Louisiana Territory
1825—Erie Canal is completed
1845—Texas becomes 28th state in U.S.
1846— Great Britain and U.S. sign Oregon Treaty—makes Oregon
Territory part of the U.S. (not a British possession any longer)
1846— Settlers began moving west in covered wagons to Oregon
and California on the Oregon and California trails
1848— U.S. and Mexico sign Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo—adds
1.2 million square miles to U.S.—southwestern U.S.—
U.S. paid $15 million
1849—California Gold Rush begins
1861–1865—American Civil War
1862— Homestead Act—settlers are able to make a claim on land
in western territories; if they stay for a year, the land is
theirs (for free)
1869— Transcontinental Railroad—railroad connects Atlantic and
Pacific oceans
MASTER TIMELINE
1783—The Revolutionary War ends (with the Treaty of Paris)
1803—Louisiana Purchase
1803—Lewis and Clark explore the Louisiana Territory
1825—Erie Canal is completed
1845—Texas becomes 28th state in U.S.
1846— Great Britain and U.S. sign Oregon Treaty—makes Oregon
Territory part of the U.S. (not a British possession any longer)
1846— Settlers began moving west in covered wagons to Oregon
and California on the Oregon and California trails
1848— U.S. and Mexico sign Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo—adds
1.2 million square miles to U.S.—southwestern U.S.—
U.S. paid $15 million
1849—California Gold Rush begins
1861–1865—American Civil War
1862— Homestead Act—settlers are able to make a claim on land
in western territories; if they stay for a year, the land is
theirs (for free)
1869— Transcontinental Railroad—railroad connects Atlantic and
Pacific oceans