USI.8 The student will demonstrate knowledge
of westward expansion and reform in America from 1801 to 1861 by
- describing territorial expansion and how
it affected the political map of the United States, with
emphasis on the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark
expedition, and the acquisitions of Florida, Texas, Oregon, and
California;
- identifying the geographic and economic
factors that influenced the westward movement of settlers;
- describing the impact of inventions,
including the cotton gin, the reaper, the steamboat, and the
steam locomotive, on life in America;
- identifying the main ideas of the
abolitionist and suffrage movements.
From 1800 to 1900, the United States
tripled in
size, from less than one million square miles to more than three million
square miles. The geographic distribution of population also shifted, from
about seven percent living in the West to roughly 60 percent. Think about
this, it took American colonists a 150 years to
expand as far west as the Appalachian Mountains, 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.
The New Territories added to the United
States after 1801:
|
Louisiana Purchase
|
Florida
|
Texas
|
Oregon
|
California
|
| * Jefferson bought land from France, which doubled the size of
the United States * In the Lewis and Clark expedition, Meriwether
Lewis and William Clark explored from the Mississippi River to the
Pacific Ocean |
* Spain gave Florida to the United States through a treaty
|
* Texas was added after it became an independent republic
|
* The Oregon Territory was divided by the United States and
Great Britain
|
* War with Mexico resulted in California and the southwest
territory becoming part of the United States |
The Louisiana Purchase
When Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd US President he
knew the United States needed access to a big port for shipping
and trade. And Napoleon (from France) needed money. England and
France were at war. Napoleon needed a big chunk of money fast to
fight the war to beat England.
President Jefferson sent James Monroe and Robert R.
Livingston traveled to Paris to negotiate the purchase in 1804.
The United States government was able to buy much more land than
they had expected, and for very little money per acre. In 1803,
the United States bought 500,000,000 acres of land at
approximately 3 cents an acre! That piece of land was known as
the Louisiana Purchase.
With this one purchase, Napoleon gained the money he needed to
fight a war with England, and the United States gained enough
land to double in size. Even today, the Louisiana Purchase still
ranks as one of the best real estate deals in history.
|
Moving to the Oregon
Territory
The Oregon Trail was much
more than a pathway to the state of Oregon; it was the only
practical passageway
to the entire western United States. The places we now know as
Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho and Utah would
probably not be a part of the United States today were it not
for the Oregon Trail. That's because the Trail was the only
practical way for settlers to get across the mountains. The
journey west on the Oregon Trail was very difficult. One
out of every 10 died along the way; many walked the entire
two-thousand miles barefoot!
Many people believe that the
Native Americans were the biggest problem these travelers
experienced along the way, but let's set the record straight.
Most native tribes were very helpful to the emigrants. The real
enemies of the pioneers were diseases like cholera, poor
sanitation and--surprisingly--accidental gunshots! The first
emigrants to go to Oregon in a covered wagon were Marcus and
Narcissa Whitman who made the trip in 1836. But the big wave of
western migration did not start until 1843, when about a
thousand pioneers made the journey. That 1843 wagon train,
nick-named, "the great migration" kicked off a
massive
move west on the Oregon Trail. Over the next 25 years more than
a half million people went west on the Trail. Now you know!
|
|
Lewis, Clark and Seaman
SEAMAN, THE DOG THAT CROSSED OUR
CONTINENT
In February 1803, President Thomas
Jefferson ask Congress to approve spending $2,500 (Final
cost was $38,727) for a small U.S. Army expedition.
Their assignment was to go up the Missouri River to its
source, cross the continental divide, and follow the
Columbia River to its mouth at the Pacific Ocean.
Jefferson selected 28-year-old Meriwether Lewis as
leader for the group he called the Corps of Discovery.
Lewis selected a former army comrade, 32-year-old
William Clark to be his co-leader and
for $20.00 purchased Seaman, his “dogg of
the Newfoundland breed” to accompany him to the Pacific.
The expedition began May 14, 1804, as the group left
Camp Wood River (Illinois). The expedition returned to
St. Louis on September 23, 1806. |
|
Eli Whitney - Cotton Gin |
Peter Cooper - Steam Locomotive |
Robert Fulton |
Cyrus McCormick |
|
The
Industrial Revolution changed America from an
agricultural to an industrial nation.
After the
Revolutionary War, British inventors developed a machine
that could make cloth quickly and cheaply. The first of
these machines came to America in 1789. A factory went
up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. After this many textile
mills, which made cloth, were built in New England.
After the textile
mills began to grow more cotton was needed to make the
cloth. In 1793 Eli Whitney invented the cotton. This
machine took the seeds out of cotton.
By 1840 more than
one thousand textile mills were making cloth in New
England. This changed the way people lived. New
inventions had to be made to transport the cloth, so the
steam engine was made. In August of 1807 Robert
Fulton built a steamboat. In 1830 Peter Cooper
put a steam engine into a train. Before this trains
were pulled by horses.
In 1844 Samuel
Morse invented the telegraph. The telegraph is a
machine that could sent messages through wires over long
distances. By 1860 the telegraph wire was stretch all
the way from Washington, D. C. to San Francisco,
California.
Cyrus
McCormick developed the reaper. This machine helped
farmers to harvest larger amounts of grain.
The Civil War
became a test for many of the new inventions. The armies
need the railroads to move men and supplies. They used
the telegraph to send orders. Even ironclad ships were
used. |
Abolitionist movement
Frederick Douglas |
Suffrage movement
Susan
B. Anthony |
• Most
abolitionists demanded
immediate freeing of the slaves.
• Abolitionists believed that slavery
was wrong.
– Morally wrong
– Cruel and inhumane
– A violation of the principles of
democracy
• Abolitionist leaders included both
men and women.– Harriet Tubman
– William Lloyd Garrison
– Frederick Douglass
|
• Supporters declared
that “All men and women are created equal.”
• Supporters believed that women
were deprived of basic rights.
– Denied the right to vote
– Denied educational
opportunities, especially higher education
– Denied equal opportunities in
business
– Limited in rights to own
propertyThe movement was led by
strong
women who began their campaign
before the Civil War and continued
after the war had ended.
– Isabel Sojourner Truth
– Susan B. Anthony
– Elizabeth Cady Stanton |
The Bottom Line!
Western movement
became very popular for several reasons, mostly for geographic and economic
ones:
1) the population in the eastern states kept growing and growing,
making it crowded in some areas
2) there was plenty of cheap, fertile land out west
3) it was a great economic opportunity (California Gold Rush,
logging, farming, freedom for runaway slaves)
4) transportation was cheaper and faster (they had rivers and
canals-- Erie Canal-- and used steamboats)
5) to gain knowledge about the overland trails (Oregon and Santa
Fe)
6) people believed in "Manifest Destiny"-- the idea that expansion was for
the good of the country and was the right of the country |
